Following the surprising commercial success of "Compared to What" in 1969, pianist Les McCann never managed to get another hit as hard as he tried. These two sessions originally released for Atlantic found McCann struggling with that goal instead of concentrating on his talent as a jazz musician. Unfortunately, the lackluster material found McCann merely falling back on the most predictable aspects of mid-'70s soul and R&B. McCann sings on a majority of the tracks, while the synthesizer noodling and string arrangements have not dated well. Only the Peter Allen/Carole Bayer Sager-penned "Will We Ever Find Our Fathers," featuring Herbie Hancock on piano, is of note.

Mouth were formed in Cologne in 2000 as a trio, comprised of Christian Koller (vocals, guitars, occasional keyboards), Gerald Kirsch (bass) and Nick Mavridis (drums, backing vocals, keyboards). Their style is often cited as a mixture of 'retro prog', Krautrock, hard rock, psyche and glam rock - all together it fuses into a unique spleen often underlined with dystopian themes…

Sammal's third album Suuliekki, continues where the critically acclaimed Myrskyvaroitus left off, not following in its footsteps, but rather taking a turn into uncharted territory. This was the first time the Finnish band really had to start writing from scratch, after taking a little break, from playing shows and composing. The material never comes too easy, and many ideas are thrown into the "some other project" or "this simply isn't good enough" bin. Song sketches have to sort of boil in a pot, different ingredients mix and flavors merge over time, before they can really be called songs, or compositions if you will. On this record maybe more than ever, each individual band member's musical taste takes center stage at times, without stealing the spotlight from the one thing that's always been most important to Sammal - the song…

BOARDING HOUSE REACH is the new solo album from Jack White, and is a testament to the breadth of the artist's creative power and his bold artistic ambition. This new material finds Jack White expanding his musical palate with perhaps his most ambitious work thus far, a collection of songs that are simultaneously timeless and modern. Written and conceived while holed up in a spartan apartment with literally no outside world distractions, White exclusively used the same kind of gear he had when he was 15 years old (a quarter-inch four-track tape recorder, a simple mixer, and the most basic of instrumentation). The album explores a remarkable range of sonic terrain – crunching rock 'n' roll, electro and hard funk, proto punk, hip hop, gospel blues, and even country – all remapped and born anew to fit White's matchless vision and sense of restless experimentation.

The Rough Guide series of compilations is generally excellent, but every once a while a dud does pop out. While not bad, this is far from everything it could be, given the range and history of gospel music. It captures some, but not all, the big names. And so listeners have vintage Five Blind Boys of Alabama with "Stand By Me," a song they later revisited, but no Five Blind Boys of Mississippi. And while the Soul Stirrers are here, it's not a cut from their heyday with Sam Cooke, and where are the Highway Q.C.'s? Gospel's real golden age, in the '50s, is woefully under-represented, and while the Golden Gate Quartet, whose influence was paramount to so many, is mentioned in the notes, there's nothing by them. Mahalia Jackson justifiably gets two tracks, but no Clara Ward, and you have to wonder about the inclusion of the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir. The new generation of gospel seems to be lacking, with nothing from the critically acclaimed Sacred Steel school.