Finch-Beyond Expression (1976)

A year after their debut album, the impressive "Glory Of the Inner Force", the Dutch progressive rock band Finch continued their adventure with the more experimental "Beyond Expression", a less frenetic and more challenging album than its predecessor. Finch have always been characterized by their unpredictable style, fusing energetic rock with more serene and spacious interludes, utilizing an arsenal of analog keyboards such as mini-Moogs and the Mellotron. However, on this album, Joop Van Nimwegen's guitar takes center stage, delivering many passages with great technique and impressive feeling. The suite "A Passion Condensed" stands out as their masterpiece, featuring superb instrumental layers, while the epic "Scars On The Ego" is their most metallic and hypnotic moment, with searing guitars. To finish this second album comes the dynamic "Beyond The Bizarre", the only one of the three tracks that make up the album where they approach the band's more usual sound.

The Tremeloes-Greatest Hits (1970)

The Tremeloes were a British band that began their career in the early 1960s and had several hits that made them world-famous. The band consisted of singer Brian Poole, guitarist and vocalist Alan Blakley, guitarist Graham Scott, bassist and saxophonist Alan Howard, and drummer and vocalist Dave Munden. The addition of Rick West to the group, replacing Scott, was crucial, as the newcomer had connections with producer Jimmy Grant, who chose The Tremeloes over The Beatles to sign them a disastrous decision that will go down in history as one of the biggest mistakes in pop music. They started with the Decca record label, but initially, the label began to question the group's artistic ability after releasing several singles with little success. After releasing "Twist and Shout", originally by the Isley Brothers and also popularized by The Beatles, the band began to emerge from obscurity in the UK, achieving stardom with "Do You Love Me". In 1964, further successes followed, and in 1965, and again a year later, they left Decca to join CBS. In 1967, The Tremeloes began to shine without Poole, who had left the band, reaching number 1 on the charts worldwide with "Silence Is Golden". Commercial successes continued in the following years, but always with covers of other artists' songs. At the height of the psychedelic era, The Tremeloes tried to remedy this lack of original material with "Helule, Helule", which put them back at the top of the charts. Later, Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" became another hit. However, in 1968, they continued recording with little commercial success. In 1969 they achieved resounding success with "Once a Sunday Morning", and the songs "(Call Me) Number One" (69) and "Me and My Life" (70) also reached high positions in the British and European charts. In the 1970s they had some hits in Europe and over the years they continued recording but without the success of their earlier years.

Béla Fleck And The Flecktones-Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (1991)

Béla Fleck & The Flecktones are an American band that emerged in the late 1980s, led by the talented Béla Fleck, a banjo virtuoso and enthusiast of American roots music such as bluegrass, country, and rural blues. Fleck was supported by funk bassist Victor Wooten, his brother, keyboardist Roy Wooten, and jazz pianist Howard Levy. The band's musical approach was deeply rooted in the sounds of the American South, with many nuances of jazz fusion and post-bop. They created a unique and distinctive style by integrating the banjo into jazz, forging an alternative sound at a time when the jazz-rock genre was experiencing a decline. Their style, independent of pop and rock trends, soon found a massive and receptive audience around the world, who became their loyal fans. Their early albums showcase a total eclecticism, superbly blending different musical styles that stylistically seem completely disparate. While the band stands out for its instrumental mastery, it is the warmth of the melodies, the relaxing tones, and the creative use of tempos, along with the musical dynamics, that propelled this group to the peak of creativity in its early years.

Poco-Ghost Town (1982)

Well into the 1980s, the American band Poco was far from their glory days of the early 1970s, yet they continued to produce commendable work that kept them at the forefront of country rock. In 1982, they released their fifteenth album, "Ghost Town", featuring only two of their original members, guitarists Paul Cotton and Rusty Young, while the rest of the lineup consisted of Charlie Harrison (bass), Steve Chapman (drums), and Kim Ballard (keyboards). At this point, the band continued to offer that melancholic country rock style, bathed in brilliant vocal melodies and adorned with influences of catchy, harmonious, and melodic rock. The rich vocal harmonies of "How Will You Feel Tonight", the nods to the past with the country rock "When Hearts Collide", "The Midnight Rodeo (In The Lead Tonight)" or "Love's So Cruel", the addictive mid-tempo "Ghost Town" and the irresistible country "Cry No More" and "Break Of Hearts", reflected a remarkable work, despite being very far creatively from their legendary early albums.

Billy Squier-Don´t Say No (1981)

Billy Squier is a guitarist and vocalist from Boston who had notable success in the 1980s, some of which reached number one on the Billboard charts and chart high in numerous countries. As early as 1977, he had opened for Kiss with his band Piper, and a year earlier his self-titled debut album, "Piper", was a record of exceptional quality, as was his second and final album, "Can't Wait", released a year later. Squier's immense talent on the guitar, combined with his distinctive voice, did not go unnoticed by the talent scouts at Capitol Records, with whom he signed in 1979 to record his first solo album, "The Tale of the Tape". Released in 1980, it launched his meteoric rise thanks to tracks like "You Should Be High Love". In 1981, Billy Squier released "Don't Say No", his second and arguably best album. To achieve this, he got rid of the entire band with whom he had recorded "The Tale of the Tape", with the exception of the excellent drummer Bobby Chouinard. Interestingly, one of those dismissed was guitarist Bruce Kulick, who some time later would become a member of the legendary Kiss. "Don't Say No" soared to the top, opening the doors to a genre of rock whose presence on mainstream radio stations was not very common. With this album, Squier proved that melodic hard rock was not incompatible with commercial success. It was a record that also paved the way for the bands that, in the mid-80s, exploded onto the world rock scene. The imposing and memorable melodies that slipped in between the rock of early 80s American FM radio and the new hair metal that emerged in the mid-80s, thanks to the enormous work of numerous musicians like Billy Squier, with their many powerful yet accessible riffs and solos, caused a sensation around the world during those years. The following years would bring other hits such as "Everybody Wants You" (82) "Rock Me Tonight" (84) "Don't Say You Love Me" (89) or "She Goes Down" (91), his last great success before falling into oblivion with inconsistent and more predictable works.

The Chieftains-A Chieftains Celebration (1989)

The Chieftains are undoubtedly Ireland's walking ambassadors, having managed over nearly five decades to become a mainstream Irish folk music group while maintaining the versatility, roots, coherence, and spontaneous, natural personality of their native culture. Formed by piper Paddy Moloney in 1964, he brought together renowned Celtic instrumentalists such as Michael Tubridy, Sean Potts, Martin Fay, David Fallon, Peader Mercier, Sean Keane, Kevin Conneff, and Matt Molloy, some of whom are still part of the band today. Their music, through traditional and popular, has evolved into more contemporary and diverse sounds, even subtly and occasionally fusing Celtic music with other genres like jazz and rock. Their numerous collaborations over the years include some fifty artists of the caliber of Ry Cooder, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Mark Knopfler, Gary Moore, Bela Fleck, Roger Daltrey, Jackson Browne, Art Garfunkel, The Rolling Stones, Sting, Diana Krall, and Emmylou Harris. Six-time Grammy Award winners, the BBC Lifetime Achievement Award, and the honorary title of Irish musical ambassadors by the Irish government are just some of their many artistic achievements. With over fifty albums released, it would be impossible to single out one above the others, but it is undoubtedly "A Chieftains Celebration", a compilation released by RCA Victor in the late 1980s. Besides offering an exceptional retrospective of their first 30 years of dominance within Irish folk music, it was released to commemorate the millennium of Dublin.