Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Recorded at home in Ringo Starr's Roccobella West studio, the former Beatles drummer has drafted a number of long-term partners in crime for his latest release. Those names include Steve Lukather, Linda Perry, Fave Coz, Jose Antonio Rodriguez, and Bruce Sugar, among others. But, ingredients aside, what's the end result actually like?

Well, for one thing, it feels like a record made with camaraderie. The appropriately-titled 'Everyone & Everything' has a definite Fab Four vibe to its outro, requesting that all in earshot get involved in a chorus designed to get everyone and everything singing along. 'Let's Be Friends' takes that atmosphere to the after party, "Ya, ya, ya, ya" vocal hook making the whole thing sound slightly madcap. Meanwhile, closer 'Free Your Soul' invites us into smoother and sexier surrounds via sax and tropical beats.

Review: Too-Rye-Ay is one of those albums etched into the popular consciousness of the UK - the sound of a million pints being quaffed and bawdy singalongs from city centres to provincial locales. It's fascinating to learn that Dexys Midnight Runners' most popular album was a blight on their catalogue for bandleader Kevin Rowland, but 40 years on he's putting things right with a remixed version of the album. The idea of hearing 'Come On Eileen' in a whole new form is hard to imagine, but here's your chance, and who should we trust other than the artist themselves to say, this is Too-Rye-Ay as it should have sounded.

Review: Rather than endlessly reinterpreting what the best of Roxy Music's catalogue truly is, why not just reissue this classic best-of collection from Virgin? Made available on wax for the first time ever, 'The Best Of Roxy Music' contains every hit from 'Love Is The Drug' to 'Angel Eyes', alongside lesser known bits such as 'Over You'. And of course, the band's aristocratic version of John Lennon's 'Jealous Guy' is on there too. Just in time for an anniversary tour, too.

Review: Roxy Music's fourth and most phase-heavy album 'Country Life' now gets a half-speed reissue by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, as part of a brand new effort to have every one of their albums repressed in their utmost quality, and repackaged in glossy new covers. Career highlight songs like 'Out Of The Blue', 'Prairie Rose' and 'All I Want Is You' sound better than ever here, doing justice to its comparatively pessimistic sound. It's still got that Bryan Ferry-ish, romantic aristocratic vibe, though!

Review: Remastered at Abbey Road studios, 'Flesh & Blood' saw the first studio album made after the departure of drummer Paul Thompson. With his absence, the British rock group moved to a more accessible and palatable sound that paid off, earning the group their first No.1 Album since 1973 with 'Stranded'. The tone of Brian Ferry's vocal is of melancholy and depression, of unrequited love with a woman who ultimately can't stand the sight of him. The album was a huge hit in the UK but has been lost in the greater discussion of Roxy Music records either due to living in the shadow of the immensely popular 'Avalon' (a la 'Good Kid m.a.a.d City' to 'To Pimp a Butterfly') or thanks to the slamming negative review from Rolling Stone sealing its poor rating with American audiences. 42 years on, the album is finally being given the treatment it deserved on release - 'Oh Yeah!' and 'Rain, Rain, Rain' were arguably a few years ahead of their time and are just a sample of the great instrumental and vocals on this album.

Review: The 1982 glam-rock swan song for British rock group Roxy Music sees another limited reissue, a departure from the more edgy and abrasive sounds the group went for prior. The word that people constantly use to describe 'Avalon' is mature, in multiple senses of the word. At its core, the record is sensual and seductive make-out material, a 10 track package pining on romance named after the fantastical romantic gesture of King Arthur's body being sent to the titular island. It's plain to see why 'Avalon' is the band's most acclaimed and influential project, spawning off other New Wave acts like Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran and Tears for Fears. 'More Than This', the title track, has stood the test of time and is still playlisted and cited as one of the greatest British New Wave tracks of all time. 'Avalon' is accessible, seductive and, without doubt, a classic.