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Once listeners accept that Chumbawamba got lucky and will never, ever have another "Tubthumping" in them, the better off they'll all be. And the sooner they recognize this, the sooner they can begin to enjoy the subtle charms of this anarchist combo. Because beneath the snarky, self-imposed label, Chumbawamba is a pretty smart pop band, heavy on hooks and even heavier on ideological grandstanding. Readymades basically follows the pattern laid out on their previous two albums. The pop is a little more forward, as is the political theorizing, but it's a consistent listen (more so than the Tubthumper album). Best moment: the wispy folk and anti-capitalist sentiment of "Don't Try This at Home." Michael Gallucci, All Music Guide

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After recording one of their darkest albums, 1983's The Top, the Cure regrouped and shuffled their lineup in 1984 and ended up changing their musical direction rather radically. While the band always had a pop element in their sound and even recorded one of the lightest songs of the '80s, "The Lovecats," The Head on the Door is where they become a hitmaking machine. The shiny, sleek production and laser-sharp melodies of "Inbetween Days" and "Close to Me" helped them become modern rock radio staples and the inspired videos had them in heavy rotation on MTV. The rest of the record didn't suffer for hooks and inventive arrangements either, making even the gloomiest songs like "Screw" and "Kyoto Song" sound radio-ready, and the inventive arrangements (the flamenco guitars and castanets of "The Blood," the lengthy and majestic intro to "Push," the swirling vocals on "The Baby Screams") give the album a musical depth previous efforts lacked. All without sacrificing an ounce of the emotion of the past, which songs as quietly desperate as "A Night Like This" and "Sinking" illustrate. With The Head on the Door, Robert Smith figured out how to make gloom and doom danceable and popular to both alternative and mainstream rock audiences. It was a feat the band managed to pull off for many years afterward, but never as concisely or as impressively as they did here. Tim Sendra, All Music Guide

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Gabriela Kulka (Gaba Kulka, born 1979 in Warsaw, Poland) is an independent artist, a songwriter and performer. Gabriela Kulka was born to a family of musicians, her father Konstanty Kulka is well known Polish violinist and a professor at Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw. Over seven years of writing and recording, Gabriela Kulka developed the singular style of dark musical theatre mixed with a jazzy attitude, and a focus on poetic and quirky lyrics - influenced by Danny Elfman and Kate Bush on equal part. Drawing from classical music, jazz and pop, accompanying herself on the piano, she has been performing in the oddest of places (including luxury liner ships along the coasts of Latin America and South Africa, the National Philharmonic House in Warsaw and beer gardens around the shady side of town... not necessarily in that exact order). Following in her father's, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka's footsteps, she endured 8 years of classical schooling in violin, but still ended up embracing the piano as a weapon of choice in her songwriting and performing activities. en.wikipedia.org

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Nearly everyone that was seduced by Chumbawamba's irresistible "Tubthumping" wasn't aware that the band had not only kicked around for over decade, but that they were politically active, social satirists with a penchant for anarchy, both in their politics and music. Of course, nobody would be able to discern that from "Tubthumping," since its sendup of lads shouting "lager, lager, lager" was so accurate that it appealed to the very audience it was spoofing. Still, it was a terrific pop single, and it broke down the doors for the group in America, where Alice Nutter made headlines when she encouraged fans to shoplift their record. If America was amused by Chumbawamba and their antics, the band was even more amused, even befuddled, by the U.S. -- so much so that they decided to make What You See Is What You Get, their sequel to Tubthumping, a snapshot of their view of the land of excess. Consisting of 22 songs in under 48 minutes, WYSIWYG is as fast and furious and saturated with pop culture -- just like life at the end of the 20th century. Every song moves so fast that the album initially seems a bit like a blur, albeit a tuneful, clever blur. The very brevity of the tracks guarantees that there isn't a track here as chart-friendly as Chumbawamba's fluke hit, but there are plenty of melodies and catchy hooks -- they just happen to be pieced together like a collage with a bunch of sound samples, found sounds, snippets of television, spoken words, drum loops, and the like, with all of it folding back onto itself in the second half of the record. As social satirists, the group is a little obvious this time around -- "Hey Hey We're the Junkies" is set to the tune of "Hey Hey We're the Monkees," "Pass It Along" sends up Microsoft's slogan "Where Do You Want to Go Today," the 1999 Woodstock riots are justified by "I'm Not Sorry, I Was Having Fun," there are shout-outs to "any Branch Davidians in the house" on "Jesus in Vegas," and they name-drop Jerry Springer -- but maybe the point is that America is a little obvious and superficial. Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

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This album is one of the best Lanz's cd, and contains beautifully written solo piano pieces, that are more neo-classical and less new age. The pieces reflect the talent of Lanz that he displays again so well in Heartsounds and Cristifori's Dream, before recently and disappointingly going more commercial. Stick with Lanz's earlier output,and Nightfall is one of the best, and you will be rewarded with rich music that expresses lots of emotions, from saddness, pain, hope and joy..and hope that Lanz would return to his roots,and forget the John Tesh/Richard Clyderman hole he, in my opinion has dug himself into recently. Amazon.com

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Pianoscapes was technically the first album on Narada, one of the top new age contemporary instrumental labels in the U.S., of Jones's solo piano improvisations. Jones's playing has a carefree quality grounded in classical impressionistic form and technique. His pieces breathe and pulse as if they were a part of you, pause for introspection (the somber passage of "Daybreak"), then resolve with glistening clarity. The overall tone is gentle, tender at times, but without being surface or trite. The music is very easy to let go into the background, yet it will pull you to notice soul-stirring passes of exquisite beauty and introspection. Carol Wright, All Music Guide

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This is a compilation of the best music of Mr. Aldrich in the classical field. The sound, as in all Phase 4 Stereo, is spectacular. And the master of the twin pianos is magnificent. Thanks Mr. Aldrich for that gift to our hearts and ears. He died in 1993, but his music will be with us forever.