Cheap Trick - The Essential

Essentially a power-pop outfit that got sidelined into hair metal? I should say that the hair metal sounds terrible but it isn't really... There are nice harmonic touches to the songs, and Zander and Nielsen are quite adept songwriters. The best songs here are the simpler songs - "Surrender" (which I first heard as a remix on the "Small Soldiers" soundtrack) and "I Want You to Want me". Heck, I even like "The Flame", paltry hair metal power ballad that it is. Nice powerhouse instrumentation from all the guys involved. Top of the pops.

Maxwell - Embrya

A replacement for a fucked-up cassette. Upon first heaaring of the album last time, I garnered that this is a kinda Curtis Mayfield clone set to electronics thingie and I still think so. The velvety falsetto is so reminiscent of Mayfield, though the lack of wah-wah guitar is quite substantial even if some songs do display it. It's mostly slick R n'B with a view of the past. Though the song titles are quite misleading, sounding like a prog album, even with its own conccept to boot. I like this well enough and can be deemed a fan of the dreadlocked one (shorn these days).