Heart – Beautiful Broken (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Heart – Beautiful Broken (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 40:24 minutes | 941 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Concord Records

On Beautiful Broken, the Wilson sisters return with all new, heart-wrenching, original material, as well as some hidden gems from their legendary past. The project is so powerful that it has drawn in other superstar friends of the band from across the music world, including Metallica’s James Hetfield and Ne-Yo, each lending their incredible talents to the record. The album is made up of 10 magnificent tracks, featuring new original music as well as updates on some treasures from their catalog.

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Harry Styles – Harry Styles (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Harry Styles – Harry Styles (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 40:23 minutes | 457 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Columbia

Harry Styles, (known as a member of the pop boy band One Direction) the highly anticipated self-titled debut album from the global superstar. The ten track album features the lead single “Sign of the Times”, which topped the charts in over 80 countries upon its release day. The album debuted atop the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of almost 57,000 copies, with Styles becoming the second One Direction member to achieve a number one solo album, following Zayn’s Mind of Mine in April 2016. It also debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 230,000 album-equivalent units, of which 193,000 were pure album sales. It is the highest first sales week for a British male artist’s debut full-length album since Nielsen SoundScan began in 1991.

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Hailey Tuck – Junk (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Hailey Tuck – Junk (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 43:22 minutes | 479 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Masterworks

She loves Madeleine Peyroux and Melody Gardot and she doesn’t care who knows it. But Hailey Tuck does have a little something of her own up her sleeve. It’s a personal touch that makes this young Texan, who has made landfall in Paris, an attractive voice in its own right, and not a pale imitation of anyone else. Larry Klein, who produced her two idols, even agreed to put together the first album of this starlet who shares a hairdresser with Louise Brooks, and a wardrobe with Josephine Baker. Klein even put together a perfect and never over-produced backdrop, with the help of some five-star studio musicians like drummer Jay Bellerose (Elton John, Robert Plant) and guitarist Dean Parks (Joe Cocker, Steely Dan)… In terms of their repertoire, the eclecticism and quality of these covers also displays thoroughgoing good taste. And the fact that she revisits That Don’t Make It Junk by Leonard Cohen, Cry To Me, made famous Solomon Burke, Cactus Tree by Joni Mitchell, Some Other Time by Leonard Bernstein, Underwear by Pulp, Alcohol by the Kinks, Junk by Paul McCartney, I Don’t Care Much from the soundtrack to Cabaret and indeed the wonderful Say You Don’t Mind by Colin Blunstone, Hailey Tuck deploys her voice intelligently and with a dash of retro in every word and every phrase. Let this beautiful and timeless Qobuzissime carry you away…  –  Max Dembo

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Gregoire Maret, Romain Collin & Bill Frisell – Americana (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Gregoire Maret, Romain Collin & Bill Frisell – Americana (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 54:30 minutes | 1,07 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ACT Music

‘Americana’ represents an exciting collaboration between two prodigious musicians: harmonica great Gregoire Maret and acclaimed pianist Romain Collin. Grégoire Maret is a phenomenon and a master musician. He is a virtuoso with a vivid imagination and a sublime way of giving shape to a melody. Collin, meanwhile, has been described by NPR as “a visionary composer, an extraordinary jazz pianist” and by the Boston Globe as being “among the leading lights of a new breed of players.” Upon meeting each other in New York, the two musicians bonded over a shared love of jazz, song and pure melody. Together they embarked on a project which would explore the musical depths of the American soul. They turned to the uniquely great Bill Frisell to help forge a connection between American songwriting and the high art of instrumental playing. In this musical world, vast soundscapes co-exist with epic stories.

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Gleaming Spires – Welcoming a New Ice Age (Expanded Edition) (1985/2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Gleaming Spires – Welcoming a New Ice Age (Expanded Edition) (1985/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:26 minutes | 1,41 GB | Genre: New Wave
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Omnivore Recordings

Original album produced by Greg Penny (k.d. lang, Elton John), plus 8 previously unissued bonus tracks.

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Gleaming Spires – Walk on Well Lighted Streets (Expanded Edition) (1983/2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Gleaming Spires – Walk on Well Lighted Streets (Expanded Edition) (1983/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:16:46 minutes | 1,51 GB | Genre: New Wave
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Omnivore Recordings

Sophomore album from Leslie Bohem and David Kendrick (Sparks/Devo) featuring the hit “Christian Girl’s Problems.”

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George Michael – Symphonica (2014) [High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-Ray Disc]

Duration : 1h 19mn 12s 900ms
Quality : 1080p
Video Codec : MPEG-4 AVC
Audio Codec : LPCM / Dts-HD Master Audio / Dolby TrueHD
Video :1920×1080 / 16:9 / 24 fps / 17.09 Mbps
Audio :
LPCM Audio English 4608 kbps /2.0 / 96 kHz / 4608 kbps
DTS-HD Master Audio English 3111 kbps /2.0 / 96 kHz / 3111 kbps
Dolby TrueHD Audio English 2631 kbps /2.0 / 96 kHz / 2631 kbps
Size: 9.78 GB

Live album by the English singer-songwriter. Debuting at #1 in the UK Albums Chart, the album features the single ‘Let Her Down Easy’ as well as popular hits ‘Brother Can You Spare a Dime’ and ‘John and Elvis Are Dead’.

Gestating for a long time — at least two years, although George Michael hasn’t released an album for a decade — Symphonica is a curious way for the pop singer to return to action. A live album recorded on his 2011-2012 tour, Symphonica showcases a singer on the supper club circuit, trading in a few of his big hits, all middle-brow favorites (“Praying for Time,” “One More Try,” “A Different Corner”) and spending a lot of time on songs the audience knows and love, whether it’s Ewan MacColl’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” Anthony Newley’s “Feeling Good,” or the American Popular Songbook standard “My Baby Just Cares for Me.” Michael does indulge in some personal favorites — —he tackles Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Let Her Down Easy” and the deep Elton John track “Idol” — but the context is something familiar: a popular singer luxuriating in a symphonic setting. He doesn’t push the limits of this template, choosing to enjoy the lush surroundings, so this winds up slightly anti-climactic: Michael is in good form but he’s coasting, doing no more than he needs to, satisfying fans without surprising.

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Gene Page – Love Starts After Dark (1980/2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Gene Page – Love Starts After Dark (1980/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 37:56 minutes | 784 MB | Genre: R&B, Soul, Disco
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Arista Records/Sony Music

Love Starts After Dark is the fourth and final album by Gene Page. It was produced by Billy Page and Gene Page.

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Gene Page – Close Encounters (1978/2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Gene Page – Close Encounters (1978/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 38:06 minutes | 859 MB | Genre: Funk, Soul, Disco, R&B
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Legacy Recordings

Arranger Gene Page’s appealing orchestrations were a hallmark of million-selling hits by Barry White, various Motown acts, Johnny Mathis & Deniece Williams, Whitney Houston, Peaches & Herb, Kenny Rogers, the Righteous Brothers, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, the Whispers, Gladys Knight, and a slew of others. Page arranged the bulk of Mathis’ LPs of the ’70s and ’80s, with “Feelings” being among the best. Page also scored TV shows and movies. Now listen here album “Close Encounters” original date 1978 by RCA Records.

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Gorillaz – Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez (Deluxe) (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Gorillaz – Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez (Deluxe) (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:07 minutes | 615 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock, Electronic
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone UK

Gorillaz started the year with Episode 1 – ‘Momentary Bliss ft. slowthai and Slaves’ – of Song Machine, a whole new concept from one of the most innovative bands around. Now, six episodes in, Noodle, 2D, Murdoc and Russel have visited Morocco and Paris, London and Lake Como, as well as travelling all the way to the moon, and Gorillaz is ready to bring you the full collection titled Song Machine: Season One – Strange Timez, out on 23rd October 2020.

Song Machine is the ongoing and ever-evolving process which has seen Gorillaz joined by an expanding roster of collaborators captured live in Kong Studios and beyond. The result is an expansive collection of tracks embracing a myriad of sounds, styles, genres and attitudes from a breath-taking line-up of guest artists including Beck, Elton John, Fatoumata Diawara, Georgia, Kano, Leee John, Octavian, Peter Hook, Robert Smith, Roxani Arias, ScHoolboy Q, Slaves, Slowthai, St Vincent and 6LACK, as well as CHAI, EARTHGANG, Goldlink, Joan As Police Woman, JPEGMAFIA, Moonchild Sanelly, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Skepta and of course Tony Allen.

Virtual band Gorillaz is singer 2D, bassist Murdoc Niccals, guitarist Noodle and drummer Russel Hobbs. Created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett.

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Gorillaz – Meanwhile EP (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Gorillaz – Meanwhile EP (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 09:53 minutes | 157 MB | Genre: Alternative Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Parlophone UK

Gorillaz has released a brand new EP out of the blue entitled Meanwhile.

The short three-track project features all new songs, namely “D’ej`a Vu” with Alica`i Harley, “Jimmy Jimmy” with AJ Tracey and “Meanwhile” with Jelani Blackman and Barrington Levy. All of the songs were debuted live during their show at London’s O2 Arena earlier this August, with the EP serving as a celebration of Carnival and West London.

Meanwhile arrives almost a year after the group’s latest studio effort Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez, which included appearances from Robert Smith, Beck, ScHoolboy Q, Elton John, 6LACK, Octavian, slowthai, Skepta, EarthGang and JPEGMAFIA.

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Foy Vance – The Wild Swan (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Foy Vance – The Wild Swan (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 43:49 minutes | 489 MB | Genre: Folk, Singer-Songwriter
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Gingerbread Man Records – Elektra

Though he spent most of his formative years in the grim surroundings of 1980s Belfast, singer/songwriter Foy Vance’s musical vision is the product of an entirely different sort of nervous tension – the cross-racial friction, harmony, and disharmony that gave rise to jazz, blues, and soul in the American South, where Vance, the son of a traveling church minister, spent the pivotal first five years of his life. Drawn particularly to the spiritual aspect of those music forms, Vance took his cues from the likes of Otis Redding and Nina Simone, adjusting his own guttural singing style accordingly, and his distinctive Northern Irish lilt finds an obvious point of comparison in similarly styled compatriot Van Morrison. Musically, Vance draws as much from the British folk tradition as he does American music; this influence manifests itself in the rhythmic, invariably alternately tuned, acoustic guitar style that is almost as prominent a melodic voice in much of his work as piano or vocals. Vance was born in Bangor, Northern Ireland, in 1974, but his preacher father packed the family up and moved to Oklahoma, deep in the U.S. Bible Belt, shortly after the birth of the family’s youngest son. Traveling around the poor churches of the South, Vance developed a keen interest in music from a very early age; he observed soul, gospel, and blues up close, and this interest was facilitated by his musical father, who taught his son to play some basic acoustic guitar patterns. By age five, the family had returned to Northern Ireland, settling in Belfast, but Vance retained his interest in American music, and expanded his scope to include folk, rock, and pop styles. During the ’90s, he spent time as lead singer with Belfast soul troupe Soul Truth, but eventually returned to the acoustic guitar and fell into the role of a singer/songwriter. In 1998, shortly after marrying his fiancée Joanne (a noted visual artist), Foy was offered a residency in a bar on the Canary Island of Lanzarote. Barely two months later, he had an on-stage epiphany during one of his regular lyrical improv sessions, resulting in the line: “Jesus is coming like a thief in the night.” The following morning, he found out that his father had suffered a sudden, fatal heart attack the previous night. From that point on, the songs flowed a lot more freely; within eight months he had assembled enough material for four albums. It would be another five years before he issued his debut commercial recording, by which point he had become a celebrated live performer all over the U.K. Released in August 2005, the six-track EP Live Sessions & the Birth of the Toilet Tour was recorded in various lavatory stalls across the U.K. and Ireland; Foy found the studio too sterile an environment in which to record, preferring instead the unique acoustics of the cubicle. In 2006, two of his demo recordings were picked up for use in the hit U.S. medical drama Grey’s Anatomy: “Gabriel and the Vagabond” and “Homebird,” the latter forming the foundation for his second EP release, also titled Homebird, in June of that year. In July of 2007, Vance issued his debut album, Hope, in Northern Ireland via Wurdamouth Records. It was recorded in a cottage deep in the Mourne Mountains in his native County Down, and was co-mixed by producer Tchad Blake (Tom Waits, American Music Club). Shortly afterwards, Vance inked a deal with Rubyworks Records, the Dublin, Ireland-based label that launched Rodrigo y Gabriela onto the world stage, and a release of Hope in the Republic of Ireland followed in September of 2007. Vance’s sophomore long player, the Glassnote-issued Joy of Nothing, followed in 2013. In 2016, Vance was approached by singer/songwriter and longtime friend Ed Sheeran, who wanted to release Vance’s third full-length album, Wild Swan, via his independent label Gingerbread Man Records. Elton John also stepped in as executive producer for the album.

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Foy Vance – Hope in The Highlands: Recorded Live From Dunvarlich (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Foy Vance – Hope in The Highlands: Recorded Live From Dunvarlich (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:18:36 minutes | 817 MB | Genre: Pop, Folk
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Atlantic Records UK

Award-winning musician Foy Vance has announced a new streaming event coming December 12: ‘Hope in The Highlands – a Concert Film from Dunvarlich’. Directed by Vance’s creative partner Gregg Houston of Babysweet Productions, the film will be captured in Foy’s current hometown of Aberfeldy in Highland Perthshire and shot at Dunvarlich House, a beautiful Arts & Crafts house near the River Tay. The concert will be shown at 9pm GMT on December 12, tickets £15. After the performance, the film will be made available on VOD from December 14 – 28.

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Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusion II (Remastered) (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusion II (Remastered) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:49 minutes | 1,68 GB | Genre: Hard Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Guns N Roses P&D

Use Your Illusion II is more serious and ambitious than I, but it’s also considerably more pretentious. Featuring no less than four songs that run over six minutes, II is heavy on epics, whether it’s the charging funk metal of “Locomotive,” the antiwar “Civil War,” or the multipart “Estranged.” As if an attempt to balance the grandiose epics, the record is loaded with an extraordinary amount of filler. “14 Years” may have a lean, Stonesy rhythm, and Duff McKagan’s Johnny Thunders homage, “So Fine,” may be entertaining, but there’s no forgiving the ridiculous “Get in the Ring,” where Axl Rose threatens rock journalists by name because they gave him bad reviews; the misinterpretation of Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”; another version of “Don’t Cry”; and the bizarre closer, “My World,” which probably captures Rose’s instability as effectively as the tortured poetry of his epics. That said, there are numerous strengths to Use Your Illusion II; a couple of songs have a nervy energy, and for all their pretensions, the overblown epics are effective, though strangely enough, they reveal notorious homophobe Rose’s aspirations of being a cross between Elton John and Freddie Mercury. But the pompous production and poor pacing make the album tiring for anyone who isn’t a dedicated listener.

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Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusion I (Remastered) (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Guns N’ Roses – Use Your Illusion I (Remastered) (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:15:58 minutes | 1,68 GB | Genre: Hard Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Guns N Roses P&D

The “difficult second album” is one of the perennial rock & roll clichés, but few second albums ever were as difficult as Use Your Illusion. Not really conceived as a double album but impossible to separate as individual works, Use Your Illusion is a shining example of a suddenly successful band getting it all wrong and letting its ambitions run wild. Taking nearly three years to complete, the recording of the album was clearly difficult, and tensions between Slash, Izzy Stradlin, and Axl Rose are evident from the start. The two guitarists, particularly Stradlin, are trying to keep the group closer to its hard rock roots, but Rose has pretensions of being Queen and Elton John, which is particularly odd for a notoriously homophobic Midwestern boy. Conceivably, the two aspirations could have been divided between the two records, but instead they are just thrown into the blender – it’s just a coincidence that Use Your Illusion I is a harder-rocking record than II. Stradlin has a stronger presence on I, contributing three of the best songs – “Dust n’ Bones,” “You Ain’t the First,” and “Double Talkin’ Jive” – which help keep the album in Stonesy Aerosmith territory. On the whole, the album is stronger than II, even though there’s a fair amount of filler, including a dippy psychedelic collaboration with Alice Cooper and a song that takes its title from the Osmonds’ biggest hit. But it also has two ambitious set pieces, “November Rain” and “Coma,” which find Rose fulfilling his ambitions, as well as the ferocious, metallic “Perfect Crime” and the original version of the power ballad “Don’t Cry.” Still, it can be a chore to find the highlights on the record amid the overblown production and endless amounts of filler.

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