music

Toots and the Maytals' Funky Kingston is a brilliant reggae album and suitable for both beginners as for experienced listeners. The album was released twice and with so much success that it charted in the Billboard 200 and eventually made it to the Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The album consists of both original songs written by Frederick "Toots" Hibbert as covers of songs by Ike Turner, Shep and the Limelites, and Richard Berry. It's an uplifting album with some sparkling reggae, soulful moments and rhythm, and blues.

The Jamaican musical group Toots & the Maytals can be considered as one of the best known and most important ska and rocksteady groups of all time. The last album from their successful series of ‘70s records was Pass the Pipe. The groove is deep and it includes standout tracks like “Feel Free”, “No Difference Here”, “Rhythm Down Low”, and “Get Up, Stand Up”. Soulful melodies and fine rhythms are all over the record. It needs close attention, but then the beauty of it will open up to you.

This classic album from 1973 saw its creator, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry exploring synths and starting to develop his Black Ark sound - the enigmatic producer was at the time in the process of building his famous studio and honing his ideas about dub as a musical form. The backing tracks illustrate the producer at his best; the audio spectrum is fully differentiated while spatial placement an important component - something it would take years for him to achieve at the Black Ark.

Return of the Boom Bap is KRS-One's first official solo album, released in 1993 on the Jive Records label. It peaked on the Billboard 200 chart at number 37 on October 16, 1993. In 1998, the album was selected as one of The Source's 100 Best Rap Albums.

This One's for You is the sixth album by R&B crooner Teddy Pendergrass. It was released just after a bad car accident Pendergrass was involved in, which left him paralyzed from the waist down due to a spinal cord injury. The album reached #6 inn the R&B album chart. - photograph of the actual used record in the store -

Get Lifted is an album that not only lived up to the hype, but rose squarely above it. Yes, at times it is a patchwork of the past filtered through Legend’s ever-present influences, but the quality of his writing and performance, and his collaborators’ contributions, make it worthy of the awards and plaudits it rightly received. - Daryl Easlea, BBC Review, 2009

What else could brighten the day of a San Quentin inmate more than a visit of living legend B.B. King? Recorded in the same correctional facility that spawned Johnny Cash's Live At San Quentin, B.B. King's recording oozes the same kind of energy that put Cash's album in the books. But with a twist: as he makes the audience applaud for the guards, this seems kind of strange on first sight. But B.B. King is no Johnny Cash: the audience knows that they are in jail for a reason, and the blues master isn't unnecessarily sympathetic of their deeds. Which is what B.B. King's brand of blues is all about: being true to yourself no matter what, and having fun while at it. Now let the good times roll!

Yes is the eponymous debut studio album by English rock band Yes, released on 25 July 1969 by Atlantic Records. After forming in mid-1968, the band toured extensively across the United Kingdom with sets formed of original material and rearranged cover versions. They signed with Atlantic in early 1969, and entered Advision and Trident Studios in London to record their first album. Yes includes covers of "Every Little Thing" by the Beatles and "I See You" by the Byrds.

The Ladder is the eighteenth studio album by the English progressive rock band Yes. It was released in September 1999 on Eagle Records and is their only studio album recorded with six full-time members, following the addition of guitarist Billy Sherwood and keyboardist Igor Khoroshev.