A slick, carefully crafted follow-up to his debut, Rebel Yell was Billy Idol's catchiest, most consistent fusion of synth-driven new wave pop and hard rock guitar pyrotechnics (courtesy of Steve Stevens)…

Rock operas seem to be quite fashionable these days, but this one is just too good and interesting to dismiss it as "just another one". Just a look at the participants shows that this is an almost safe play, with musicians from VANDEN PLAS, PINK CREAM 69 and SILENT FORCE, while the characters are sung by D.C. Cooper (SILENT FORCE; also responsible for all the lyrics), Sabine Edelsbacher (EDENBRIDGE), Andy Kuntz (VANDEN PLAS), David Readman (PINK CREAM 69), plus a professional soul and an opera soprano (both, of course, female), so highest quality ensured in this department, too.

Lengthier variations on this album were released overseas a couple of months before the American version; the Swedish edition, Love Peas: Ballad Hits, contained 19 tracks to this one's 15. But Roxette is a much bigger act in Sweden, and in Europe generally, than in America, where most of those who remember the duo will wonder how they could fill an album of only their ballad hits…

The arrangement of Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, for string trio by Russian violinist and composer Dmitry Sitkovetsky has taken on a life of its town, with multiple performances and even a sort of electronic remix by Karlheinz Essl. The appeal for string chamber groups longing to share in Bach's riches is obvious, and for audiences it appears to be another case of Bach's music standing up to whatever you do to it. Like most other annotators, Hyperion's Nigel Simeone tries to claim that the arrangement is on a par with the numerous transcriptions Bach made of his own works. It is no such thing; the string chamber texture by its nature adds expressive devices that were not of Bach's world, and he would have found Sitkovetsky's version bizarre.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra and its enterprising leader, violinist Richard Tognetti, wade with these popular Mozart works into a field with plenty of competition, and the results, as usual with this popular group, range from good to superb. The performances are generally oriented toward historical practice; the string players use gut strings, tuned slightly below modern concert pitch, and the oboes and horns are historically appropriate instruments. In general matters of attack and phrasing, the players do not diverge too far from modern practice, and Tognetti, in his own notes (in English, German, and French), points out that even if treatises of the period laid down certain procedures in regard to these matters, the notoriously capricious Mozart might well have done something completely different.

Recorded for Mercury in 1976, the Nightflight sessions saw Szabo travelling to Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios to make an album indebted to the funky, soulful music of the legendary Philadelphia International Records home to such artists as Teddy Pendergrass, Lou Rawls, Billy Paul, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, The Three Degrees and The O'Jays. Deepening Nightflight's links to The Philadelphia Sound were the musicians accompanying Szabo. The rhythm section comprised members of Instant Funk a group who appeared on many Philadelphia International recordings alongside various studio players, among them keyboardist-composer Dexter Wansel and guitarist-pianist-singer Bunny Sigler who also produced the sessions. The result is a colourful fusion of lush soul music with Szabo's distinctive brand of jazz guitar.

Yo-Yo Ma Plays Cello Masterworks is an eight-CD box set of previously released material recorded in the 1980s and 1990s, and presumably so familiar to his fans that the package doesn't even come with a booklet. It really is a no-frills affair, right down to the thin cardboard sleeves that repeat the same photograph on the box, instead of offering original cover art. But the greatest disappointment is that only three of J.S. Bach's Six Cello Suites were included, so listeners seeking them should forego this budget package and find the complete suites, which Ma recorded twice.

Sweden's Amaranthe is a metalcore band known for its mix of melodic pop and death metal. Formed in 2008, Amaranthe features several vocalists, with Elize Ryd and Jake E handling most of the soaring, clean vocals and Andreas Solveström taking care of the harsher, throatier vocal parts. Amaranthe released their debut self-titled album in 2011. In 2013, the band returned with The Nexus. Further reinforcing their modern approach to metal, they released two further albums, Massive Addictive and Maximalism, in 2015 and 2016, respectively; with every release their sound broadened to incorporate more elements of metal, pop, and dance music.

This disc contains the best version of Digging In The Dirt…

Ultimately comprising members from Sweden, the U.S., and France, this retro-flavored blues-rock quartet were originally founded as a trio in 2011 when the former rhythm section of Iowa act Radio Moscow – Zack Anderson and Cory Berry – recorded a demo with vocalist Elin Larsson in her Swedish hometown of Orebro…