2011, as you'll doubtless have heard from many a quarter, is pencilled in as the year when guitars resume their twang chart-wards and small children start picking up tennis rackets again when they're playing at being pop stars. All well and good, but, given that the pop bar's been raised sufficiently high in recent times courtesy of tracks like Telephone, Pass Out and Katy on a Mission, where on earth is this resurgence going to come from? Frankly, the odds on it emanating from the Beady Eyes of the world are unspectacular.

Bryan Adams negotiated the shifting tides of the '80s so well that it never seemed like he was changing his music to fit the times. A veteran of the '70s studio arena rock game, Adams struck out on his own in the early '80s, turning into a star in his native Canada and making headway with his 1983 album, Cuts Like a Knife. All of this was a prelude to Reckless, the 1984 album that turned him into an international superstar, selling by the truckloads in North America, Europe, and Asia thanks to the hits "Run to You," "Heaven," and "Summer of '69." From that point on, Adams was the most unassuming of rock stars, riding high on the charts and selling out arenas, even breaking Billboard records with his power ballad "Everything I Do (I Do It for You)," but never quite dominating the public imagination (or earning the critical respect) as such peers as Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp. Nevertheless, Adams remained a formidable presence on the American charts into the mid-'90s, and while the popularity of his new records started to slip after that, he retained his audience in Canada and the U.K. and his '80s hits remained radio staples as he began a career as a photographer.

Digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of the UK band's 1984 album includes a bonus disc of remixes, some of which are previously unreleased. Lament was the band's seventh full album and the fourth from the band's most-recognizable Midge Ure-fronted incarnation. It was also the last album featuring original drummer Warren Cann. The album peaked at #8 on the UK album chart and was certified Gold. The album's sound saw the band continuing to move away from the Synthpop style associated with their previous albums, heading into a more mainstream Pop/Rock direction, similar to contemporaries such Echo and the Bunnymen, Simple Minds and U2, featuring greater use of guitar and 'stadium' reverb. Features 'Dancing With Tears In My Eyes', 'One Small Day', 'White China' and more.

This two-disc set delivers exactly what is promised in its parenthetical subtitle. The collection updates XTC's previous singles set, WAXWORKS, with an additional ten year's worth of selections blasted out towards the hit parade. That all of these didn't make a climb to anywhere near the top of the charts is no reflection on their quality--on the contrary, few bands have ever offered this breadth of sterling songs.

Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. She is the prototype for the female pop singer of today. At the height of her chart popularity in the late '50s and early '60s, Francis was unique as a female recording artist, amassing record sales equal to or surpassing those of many of her male contemporaries. Ultimately, she branched into other styles of music -- big band, country, ethnic, and more. She still challenges Madonna as the biggest-selling female recording artist of all time.

Formed in its namesake city in 1967, Chicago is the first American band ever to chart albums in Billboardr's Pop Top 40 in five consecutive decades. In 2002, Rhino entered into a long-term partnership with this extraordinary group to restore their extensive, genre-defying catalogue as well as develop new projects (such as 2006's XXX, their first new studio album in a decade). Now Rhino adds to Chicago's legacy and salutes their 40th anniversary with a newly compiled 2-CD collection that spans their entire recording history, from the stellar 1969 debut LP Chicago Transit Authority to Chicago XXX. With a career encompassing five consecutive #1 albums, 13 platinum albums, 21 Top 10 singles, and many other laurels, Chicago is among the most successfully charting American groups of all time.

It may be a budget-line, ten-track collection, but Sony's Super Hits is pretty much the definitive retrospective on the pop-metal quartet Firehouse's career. The disc wisely concentrates on the group's first two records, 1991's Firehouse and 1992's Hold Your Fire, which was when the band was at the peak of their popularity. All their hits from these two records are here -- "Don't Treat Me Bad," "Love of a Lifetime," "All She Wrote," "Reach for the Sky," and "When I Look Into Your Eyes" -- except for "Sleeping With You," which just barely scraped the charts at the height of grunge-mania. The other half of the record is devoted to album tracks, including selections from the little-heard Firehouse 3 and Good Acoustics. They might not be as memorable as the hits, but they're pleasant hair metal in the same vein. Truth be told, this music works best as nostalgia for anyone who came of age during the early '90s -- those who remember slow dancing to "Love of a Lifetime" or waving their lighters to power ballads from Slaughter and White Lion -- and anyone who is of that mindset will likely enjoy this concise and rather thorough compilation.

Billy Idol's first hits collection, Idol Songs: 11 of the Best, was released in Europe in 1988, while he was still a commanding presence on the charts. The U.S. didn't see a compilation on Idol until 2001. That collection includes other hits (and misses) which are not on this one, most notably his 1990 smash "Cradle of Love" and its followup, "L.A. Woman." This collection, however, includes rare single edits and remixes not available on the 2001 release. First of all, Billy Idol's biggest hit, 1987's "Mony Mony," was released as a live single. That live single was the version that topped the U.S. charts, and is included on this disc. On the 2001 release, however, the original studio version is included, and that version lacks the muscle (and Steve Stevens' relentless guitar licks) found on the live version. Second, this disc includes the single remix of "Catch My Fall," which was the final single released from Rebel Yell. The 2001 set includes the original album version. This disc also includes shorter, more edited versions of "Eyes Without a Face," "Don't Need a Gun," "Flesh for Fantasy," "White Wedding," and "Dancing With Myself." Until 2001, then, this was the only Idol hits collection on the market. If one doesn't mind not having the single remix of "Catch My Fall" and the live version of "Mony Mony," go with the 2001 release.

Billy Idol's first hits collection, Idol Songs: 11 of the Best, was released in Europe in 1988, while he was still a commanding presence on the charts. The U.S. didn't see a compilation on Idol until 2001. That collection includes other hits (and misses) which are not on this one, most notably his 1990 smash "Cradle of Love" and its followup, "L.A. Woman." This collection, however, includes rare single edits and remixes not available on the 2001 release. First of all, Billy Idol's biggest hit, 1987's "Mony Mony," was released as a live single. That live single was the version that topped the U.S. charts, and is included on this disc. On the 2001 release, however, the original studio version is included, and that version lacks the muscle (and Steve Stevens' relentless guitar licks) found on the live version. Second, this disc includes the single remix of "Catch My Fall," which was the final single released from Rebel Yell. The 2001 set includes the original album version. This disc also includes shorter, more edited versions of "Eyes Without a Face," "Don't Need a Gun," "Flesh for Fantasy," "White Wedding," and "Dancing With Myself." Until 2001, then, this was the only Idol hits collection on the market. If one doesn't mind not having the single remix of "Catch My Fall" and the live version of "Mony Mony," go with the 2001 release.

This is a seven-CD box set that repackages all 11 LPs that Lightnin' Hopkins recorded for Bluesville and Prestige during the first half of the 1960s: Last Night Blues, Lightnin', Blues in My Bottle, Walkin' This Road By Myself, Lightnin' and Co., Smokes Like Lightning, Hootin' the Blues, Goin' Away, Down Home Blues, Soul Blues and My Life in the Blues. The very prolific Hopkins (who was never loyal to any one label) also recorded for Candid, Arhoolie, Fire and Vee Jay during the period! The bulk of My Life in the Blues is actually a lengthy and rather historic interview that Samuel Charters conducted with Hopkins. A special bonus of the set is 13 often exciting tracks from a previously unissued concert at the Swarthmore College Folk Festival. The music throughout the box covers quite a variety of moods and subject matter (with Hopkins being unaccompanied on 34 of the tracks) and definitively sums up the veteran bluesman's later period.