The Stones, or more accurately the relationship between Mick and Keith, imploded shortly after Dirty Work, resulting in Mick delivering a nearly unbearably mannered, ambitious solo effort that stiffed and Keith knocking out the greatest Stones album since Tattoo You, something that satisfied the cult but wasn't a hit. Clearly, they were worth more together than they were apart, so it was time for the reunion, and that's what Steel Wheels is -- a self-styled reunion album. It often feels as if they sat down and decided exactly what their audience wanted from a Stones album, and they deliver a record that gives the people what they want, whether it's Tattoo You-styled rockers, ballads in the vein of "Fool to Cry," even a touch of old-fashioned experimentalism with "Continental Drift." Being professionals, in the business for over two and a half decades, and being a band that always favored calculation, they wear all this well, even if this lacks the vigor and menace that fuels the best singles; after all, the rocking singles ("Sad Sad Sad," "Rock and a Hard Place," "Mixed Emotions") wind up being smoked by such throwaways as "Hold on to Your Hat." Even though it's just 12 songs, the record feels a little long, largely due to its lack of surprises and unabashed calculation (the jams are slicked up so much they don't have the visceral power of the jam record, Black and Blue). Still, the Stones sound good, and Mick and Keith both get off a killer ballad apiece with "Almost Hear You Sigh" and "Slipping Away," respectively. It doesn't make for a great Stones album, but it's not bad, and it feels like a comeback -- which it was supposed to, after all.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

While Def Leppard had obviously wanted to write big-sounding anthems on their previous records, Pyromania was where the band's vision coalesced and gelled into something more. More than ever before, the band's songs on Pyromania are driven by catchy, shiny melodic hooks instead of heavy guitar riffs, although the latter do pop up once in a while. But it wasn't just this newly intensified focus on melody and consistent songwriting (and heavy MTV exposure) that made Pyromania a massive success -- and the catalyst for the '80s pop-metal movement. Robert John "Mutt" Lange's buffed-to-a-sheen production -- polished drum and guitar sounds, multi-tracked layers of vocal harmonies, a general sanding of any and all musical rough edges, and a perfectionistic attention to detail -- set the style for much of the melodic hard rock that followed. It wasn't a raw or spontaneous sound, but the performances were still energetic and committed. Leppard's quest for huge, transcendent hard rock perfection on Pyromania was surprisingly successful; their reach never exceeded their grasp, which makes the album an enduring (and massively influential) classic.© Steve Huey /TiVo

With the massive success of their previous album, the experimental Bob Ezrin-produced Destroyer (which contained the surprise ballad hit "Beth"), Kiss could have taken the safe route and continued in that direction -- or return to the raw hard rock of their first four albums. They chose the latter. Hooking back up with Eddie Kramer, the producer of their 1975 breakthrough release Alive! and their very first demo, Kiss rented out the Nanuet Star Theater in upstate New York to record their next album, Rock and Roll Over. With a more direct, in-your-face production, Rock and Roll Over is one of Kiss' most consistent records. Two of the album's best tracks became hit singles -- the sleazy hard rocker "Calling Dr. Love" and an acoustic ballad that was originally intended for Rod Stewart, "Hard Luck Woman" (later covered by country star Garth Brooks). But like all other classic rock albums, the lesser-known material is often just as strong -- "I Want You" and "Makin' Love" became concert staples over the years, while "Mr. Speed" is one of the most underrated songs in Kiss' catalogue. Also included are the fan favorites "Take Me," "Ladies Room," "Love 'Em and Leave 'Em," and the original version of "See You in Your Dreams," which was later re-recorded for Gene Simmons' 1978 solo album.© Greg Prato /TiVo

Recorded live on the 1989 Steel Wheels tour, this compilation documents the Rolling Stones' explosive show in Atlantic City, New Jersey. With guest appearances including Axl Rose and Eric Clapton, the project highlights the excitement of the band's return to touring.© David Crone /TiVo

Maceo Parker doesn't play funk, he IS funk! Inseparable from the Godfather James Brown who he accompanied for years but also having worked as George Clinton’s accomplice in Parliament and P-Funk, it seems like Maceo Parker will be blowing down his saxophone right up to his very last breath! At the age of 77, the legend from North Carolina is still making music, revealing here his first album in eight years. An album recorded with signature sticky sound of the “Big Easy”. It was there, in New Orleans, that Maceo took his funk to create Soul Food: Cooking with Maceo produced by Eli Wolf. With the help of Ivan Neville, Nikki Glaspie and Tony Hall, he revisits local standards signed by Dr. John (Right Place, Wrong Time), The Meters (Just Kissed My Baby) and Allen Toussaint (Yes, We Can Can). Other covers of songs by Aretha Franklin (Rock Steady), Prince ( The Other Side of the Pillow) and David “Fathead” Newman (Hard Times) complete a rather conventional yet incredibly sincere and warm album. A true fusion of his style with the funk of the bayou. © Max Dembo/Qobuz

For Kiss' breakthrough 1975 release Alive!, the band had a total of three studio albums from which to select their in-concert repertoire. By mid-1977, Kiss had released another three studio recordings (Destroyer, Rock and Roll Over, and Love Gun), and with a new Kiss album needed for the holiday season, a second live album, Alive II, was assembled. Three sides were recorded live in concert at the Los Angeles Forum (with a few tracks recorded in Japan), while the fourth side featured five new studio recordings. Like its predecessor, there's been quite a lot of speculation concerning extensive overdubbing (the proof being that you can often hear several Paul Stanley voices singing backup simultaneously!), but Alive II shows that Kiss was still an exciting live band despite all the hype. Adrenaline-charged versions of "Detroit Rock City," "Love Gun," "Calling Dr. Love," "Shock Me," "God of Thunder," "I Want You," and "Shout It Out Loud" are all highlights. On the fourth side, Ace Frehley only plays on a single song (his self-penned classic "Rocket Ride") for reasons unknown, while session guitarist Bob Kulick filled in for the AWOL Frehley. Among the studio tracks is the made-for-the-stage anthem "Larger Than Life," which the band surprisingly never performed live.© Greg Prato /TiVo

The electric blues guitar boss -- only in his early twenties at the time of this release -- Christone "Kingfish" Ingram brought his tight quartet to London's Garage on June 6, 2023, for a standing-room-only crowd. Live in London, the guitar slinger's third album for Alligator, appeared just three months later. It's a beautifully recorded, incendiary gig captured in the moment. The 17-track program is equally split between selections from his first two albums: 2019's Kingfish and 2021's 662, plus new tunes and a cover.Kingfish leaves plenty of room for spontaneity live. Set opener "She Calls Me Kingfish" is introduced by DeShawn Alexander's reverbed, floating Rhodes piano that's replaced by a Hammond B-3 organ before Paul Rogers' bumping bassline and Chris Black's drum kit establish a funky shuffle. Ingram's playing crisscrosses jazz, prog rock, soul, and blues before it's time to solo. In contrast, his biting Stratocaster delivers a strolling break that melds the phrasing of B.B. King and Jimmy Johnson with an innate, deeply personal lyricism. Over seven minutes, its dynamic and intensity shift several times, drawing the enthusiastic crowd in. "Fresh Out" is even longer, a slow, wrangling, Chicago blues, it offers locked-on group interplay even during the solos by Ingram and Alexander. The tempo remains relatively laid-back through the poignant soul blues of "Another Life Goes By." (Interestingly, one can hear the influence of Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson in the melody and lyric.) Michael "Iron Man" Burks' "Empty Promises" is Hendrixian in invention, drama, and tension. Its loss-laden lyric is underscored by the B-3 and sets a perfect frame for Ingram's arrestingly soulful singing on top. The nasty, gritty "Hard Times" is a keyboard and rhythm collision that Ingram elevates with his hip vocals and distorted wah-wah soloing. "Mississippi Night" is a previously unissued scorching ten-minute instrumental that puts all of Ingram's considerable improvising skills on display. The middle section offers two solo acoustic Delta jams. "Been Here Before" is an autobiography and tribute to his grandmother with canny fingerpickinging and percussive strumming. The other -- "Something in the Dirt" -- is also a testifying autobiography of person and place set to a celebratory I-IV-V shuffle with killer turnarounds. The second half commences with the swaying blue soul of "You're Already Gone," driven by B-3 as Ingram testifies with conviction in his vocal. His solo adds depth, dimension, and power. While "Rock 'n' Roll" remains a deeply moving tribute to his late mother complete with gospel overtones, "Not Gonna Lie" combines blues, funk, and rootsy rock in a personal manifesto. "Midnight Heat," another new song, is snarling and potent, as Ingram's lyric offers intimacy to a lover with a loose groove that crisscrosses electric Southern blues and Meters-esque R&B. Closer "662" is bursting with the uptempo dancehall Texas groove of Albert King, the Vaughan Brothers, and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Live in London provides more evidence that Ingram is a force to be reckoned with: Not only can he play like the legends, but he's an original vocalist, a solid songwriter, and a disciplined bandleader.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

After a string of mediocre albums throughout most of the 1970s, Muddy Waters hooked up with Johnny Winter for 1977's Hard Again, a startling comeback and a gritty demonstration of the master's powers. Fronting a band that includes such luminaries as James Cotton and "Pine Top" Perkins, Waters is not only at the top of his game, but is having the time of his life while he's at it. The bits of studio chatter that close "Mannish Boy" and open "Bus Driver" show him to be relaxed and obviously excited about the proceedings. Part of this has to be because the record sounds so good. Winter has gone for an extremely bare production style, clearly aiming to capture Waters in conversation with a band in what sounds like a single studio room. This means that sometimes the songs threaten to explode in chaos as two or three musicians begin soloing simultaneously. Such messiness is actually perfect in keeping with the raw nature of this music; you simply couldn't have it any other way. There is something so incredibly gratifying about hearing Waters shout out for different soloists, about the band missing hits or messing with the tempos. Hey this isn't pop music, it's the blues, and a little dirt never hurt anybody. The unsung star of this session is drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith, whose deep grooves make this record come alive. The five-minute, one-chord "Mannish Boy" wouldn't be nearly as compelling as it is if it weren't for Smith's colossal pocket. Great blues from one of the dominant voices of the genre.© Daniel Gioffre /TiVo

By late 1965, most members of the folk community were feeling the pressure of a changing music world -- between the presence of folk-rock bands like the Byrds and newer outfits like the Beau Brummels and the Leaves coming up, not to mention Bob Dylan himself going electric, they were now competing against some high-wattage (in the most literal sense) rivals for the attention of audiences. Most wilted in that environment, but Baez rose to the occasion, partly because she was able to; her voice was one of the most hauntingly beautiful in the world, and she was no slouch when it came to finding (and later writing) good songs. To be sure, her sixth album is top-heavy with Bob Dylan songs, including the title track, which he never officially recorded -- on that basis alone, it attracted a lot of attention from his fans -- and her epic rendition of "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall," which can stand up next to Dylan's own for sheer, sustained power, and her falsetto-driven performance of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" didn't hurt in that department. But rather than relying on the Dylan repertory to sell the album, she made Farewell, Angelina worthwhile all the way through. Of the two traditional songs here, "The River in the Pines" is a throwback to Baez's simple, unadorned early sound; but "Wild Mountain Thyme" is something new and special, her understated yet jaunty-tempo rendition almost minimalist in its scoring, yet it sticks with the listener as long (or longer) than, say, the Byrds' recording. Her version of Woody Guthrie's "Ranger's Command" should be heard for its sheer lyricism and loveliness, and her recording of Donovan's "Colours" might even have been a hit single if it had been handled right -- Bruce Langhorne's amplifier turned up one notch, from 3 to 4, might've done it. "A Satisfied Mind" was not only a stunning recording (especially on the final verse), but took her one step closer to the country music sound and repertory that would enrich Baez's music in the second half of the '60s. And she even managed to give a special nod to Pete Seeger's universal notions of pacifism by including a German version of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone." Beyond Baez's singing, the album is also worth hearing for Langhorne's guitar work and the performance of Richard Romoff on string bass on "Wild Mountain Thyme" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall." This would be the last time that Baez would work with so small, spare, or deceptively simple an accompaniment -- the next time out, she'd have a full orchestra and then a complement of Nashville musicians backing her.© Bruce Eder /TiVo

The last quality album from Judas Priest's commercial period, Defenders of the Faith doesn't quite reach the heights of British Steel or Screaming for Vengeance, in part because it lacks a standout single on the level of those two records' best material. That said, even if there's a low percentage of signature songs here, there's a remarkably high percentage of hidden gems waiting to be unearthed, making Defenders possibly the most underrated record in Priest's catalog. Musically, it follows the basic blueprint of Screaming for Vengeance, alternating intricate speed rockers with fist-pumping midtempo grooves and balancing moderate musical sophistication with commercial accessibility. It's a craftsmanlike record from a band that had been in the game for a full decade already, but was still vital and exciting, and decidedly not on autopilot (yet). The record opens high-energy with the terrific "Freewheel Burning" and "Jawbreaker" before moving into lost anthem "Rock Hard Ride Free," the more complex "The Sentinel," the cold, oddly mechanized single "Love Bites," and the slightly darker "Some Heads Are Gonna Roll." Coincidentally (both were released the same year), there's a bit of Spinal Tap creeping into the band's approach on side two -- not just in calling a song "Heavy Duty," but also in the ridiculous rough-sex ode "Eat Me Alive," which comes off like an S&M-themed "Sex Farm" (albeit without the tasteful subtlety). It wound up getting the band in trouble with Tipper Gore's PMRC, though one wonders if it would have helped or hindered their cause that the song's sexual aggression was, in hindsight, not directed at women. At any rate, Defenders of the Faith charted only one spot lower than its predecessor, and was certified platinum. Hereafter, Priest would have significant difficulties adapting to the fast-changing landscape of heavy metal in the latter half of the '80s.© Steve Huey /TiVo

Years after the release of Run-D.M.C.'s eponymous 1984 debut, the group generally was acknowledged to be hip-hop's Beatles -- a sentiment that makes a lot of sense, even if Run-D.M.C. isn't quite the equivalent of a rap Please Please Me. Run-D.M.C. were the Beatles of rap because they signaled a cultural and musical change for the music, ushering it into its accepted form; neither group originated the music, but they gave it the shape known today. But, no matter how true and useful the comparison is, it is also a little misleading, because it implies that Run-D.M.C. also were a melodic, accessible group, bringing in elements from all different strands of popular music. No, Run-D.M.C.'s expanded their music by making it tough and spare, primarily by adapting the sound and attitude of hard rock to hip-hop. Prior to this, rap felt like a block party -- the beats were funky and elastic, all about the groove. Run-D.M.C. hit hard. The production is tough and minimal, built on relentless drum machines and Jam Master Jay's furious scratching, mixing in a guitar riff or a keyboard hit on occasion. It is brutal urban music, and Run and D.M.C.'s forceful, muscular rhymes match the music. Where other MCs sounded cheerful, Run and D.M.C. prowl and taunt the listener, sounding as if they were a street gang. And while much of the record is devoted to braggadocio, boasting, and block parties, Run-D.M.C. also addressed grittier realities of urban life, giving this record both context and thematic weight. All of this -- the music, the attitude, the words, the themes -- marked a turning point for rap, and it's impossible to calculate Run-D.M.C.'s influence on all that came afterward. Years later, some of the production may sound a bit of its time, but the music itself does not because music this powerful and original always retains its impact and force as music.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Carmen achieved far greater success with his debut solo album than he ever had with his old group, The Raspberries. In part this was because, freed from the restrictions of leading a rock band, he could indulge his taste in big, lush ballads. That's what he did here, especially on the album's three Top 40 hits, one of which, "All by Myself," was a gold-selling #2 hit.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Released in 1985, Astra is Asia's third studio album and first without guitarist Steve Howe. While somewhat unfairly regarded in comparison to Asia's first two albums, Astra is nonetheless a solid prog rock outing that finds bassist/vocalist John Wetton, keyboardist Geoff Downes, drummer Carl Palmer, and replacement guitarist, Krokus' Mandy Meyer, delivering a set of melodic and driving rock anthems. Admittedly, Astra came on the heels of a tumultuous period for the band that found Wetton unceremoniously booted and replaced by ELP singer Greg Lake right before the highly publicized 1983 live televised concert event Asia in Asia. By 1984, Wetton had been reinstated, but tensions remained and Howe eventually left the band early in the recording process for Astra. Featuring a slightly more arena rock and pop-metal sound, Astra featured two Top Ten singles in the epic "Go" and the dramatic "Too Late." Elsewhere, there was a handful of similarly radio-ready cuts, including the sparkling George Harrison-sounding "Hard On Me," the '50s-influenced synth balladry of "Wishing," and the grand and symphonic rock theatrics of the very Queen-esque "Rock and Roll Dream." Certainly, while Asia is at its best with the original lineup, Astra is a truly underrated '80s rock album and a must-hear for fans. © Matt Collar /TiVo