Amanda MacKinnon Gaiman Palmer, sometimes known as Amanda Fucking Palmer. Amanda calls the album a "sonic gift to her antipodean family". A collection of piano and ukulele songs written in, inspired by and recorded in Australia and New Zealand.

The way Furor Gallico from Italy present themselves is fine, the artwork on this self-released album is by Kris Verwimp and everything else looks good too.

Quincy Jones has had such strong success in pop music since the mid-1960s that it is easy to forget just how inventive and distinctive a jazz arranger he was during his prime years. This CD reissue features the Quincy Jones Big Band shortly before they sailed to Europe as part of a Harold Arlen show. Surprisingly, none of the selections are Jones originals, and the arrangements were provided by Ernie Wilkins, Bill Potts, Al Cohn and Ralph Burns. Despite Jones' absence musically (he did conduct the group), the music sounds very much like his work.

I Am Empire blends a passionate Rock vibe with a balance of hooks that will be ringing through your head for years to come.

Modern audiences remain as enthusiastic about Haydn's Creation as his first audiences–who went wild in both London and Vienna–but we've lost our taste for his other masterpiece, The Seasons. For one thing, nobody considers James Thompson's famous poem great anymore; to modern tastes all this ecstatic nature paimting verges on the insipid, so it's fine to have it rendered in German (the words in English don't help a listener's appreciation).

John Rutter, a contemporary composer best known for his choral music, shows off his talent for orchestral music in "Distant Land," conducting the Royal Philharmonic. Rutter freely admits that most of the pieces on this CD had their roots in songs and choral music, and indeed the works here are distinguished mainly by their songlike melodies.

The album is simply "pure" and " inspirational" with harmonious and individuality mixed in with Hakim using a special ingredient called "originality". Each selection is like no other, featuring jazz, soul,funk and new age mixed with complete sensitivity, as illustrated by the music and lyrics of Hakim, James Golden, Jerry Brooks, Reggie Segars and Robert Madiou.

"A Christmas Celebration of Hope" finds King overcoming both the heat and Yuletide music clichés, turning out an inspired and rollicking album that is lit from within by King's generous spirit and gracious heart. Like others before him, King dipped into the blues and R&B holiday canon, but instead of just recycling well-worn classics, he plucked gems like "Blues Decorations" and "Backdoor Santa" out of obscurity and polished them to a high gloss. King also includes two originals in this surprise package: "Celebration," which he first released in 1960, and the new instrumental, "Christmas Love." King has donated the proceeds to the City of Hope, the world-renowned biomedical research and treatment center.

"The idea of sitting down at a table and making a composition on paper is totally foreign to me. To come up with a piece of music, I have to make the sound myself, have the instruments in my hands."