We're going into the weekend with plenty of listenable music for you that we'll link for you to enjoy. Just check below for several to choose from. Or hell, listen to them all.

We had a dismal showing of our Worst Poll with only five emails entries:

• It's hard to malign an item in a favorite bands catalog, but sometimes a stinker turns up. In the case of Loggins & Messina, the album is So Fine, their 50's cover album. This was their 6th release, and although some bands can successfully cover outside material, this was not L&M's strong suit.  It's not that they ruined the tunes, it's that there's no real punch to their arrangements. Surprising, as their unique instrumentation and arrangements were their strong suits on the original material their other albums featured. They did have a partial return to form with the hit or miss tunes on the next studio album, Native Sons and the underrated 2nd live album, Finale, after which they called it a day.
  That nothing from So Fine showed up on their hits album is a pretty good indicator that its a forgettable slab of vinyl.

• My selection would be the album by the group Steam responsible for the classic song "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye." I found the album many years after the song was a hit and figured it could be interesting to hear what this band was capable of. To my dismay, I discovered that the singer for the hit song was only a guest performer and was not on the rest of the album. Steam’s real singer was atrocious. The rest of the album was totally bland and, beside the hit single, there was 2 alternate versions of the song played at slower tempos. I guess if you know you only have one good song for the album, milk it for all its worth.

• I'm sure there are tons of bad records I've never heard but for me the worst album I know of was actually a huge hit and for a while I could not avoid hearing it because it was everywhere.  That record is, for me, Alanis Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill.  I know lots of folks will think I've lost my mind but I find more merit in the works of Miley Cyrus than in Alanis Morrisette's album. I can't quite put my finger on an exact reason why Jagged Little Pill was so distasteful to me.  Maybe it was the fake-rock feel of "You Oughta Know."  Or maybe it was the clever placement of swear words meant to make the singles get "beeped" on the radio so it would sound "edgey". Or maybe it was the fact that the album had a song called "Ironic," which contained no examples of irony.

• I have lots of albums that I was sorry I bought after the fact. I'm just not able to say that it's "reviled" (that's a pretty strong word). Now if we change "reviled" to "very disappointed" I only need to go back two weeks to find one. I was very disappointed with  Chris Cornell's latest solo album. He has abandoned  Rock and Roll. He needs to ditch  Timbaland
  and get a real producer.

• I saw this request for a "Worst Of" list earlier last week and really had to rack my brain for an album of a favourite artist or group of mine. I finally settled on CCR's [Creedence Clearwater Revival]last effort - Mardi Gras. I am a big (re: huge) CCR fan, and can really lose myself in any of their music.  That is, except for Mardi Gras.  Depending on what story you want to believe, John Fogarty's complete control over the band had finally pushed too far.  It created the leaving and animosity of his brother, Tom.  This was a rift that supposedly never healed even up to Tom's death.

  As John did ALL the Creedence songs, both Stu Cook and Doug Clifford finally revolted and wanted their own input.  The result was Mardi Gras.  To me, the album is simply unlistenable.  Sure, it has "Sweet Hitch-Hiker" and "Someday Never Comes"; both John's inputs and vocals which were the big hits of the album.  However, temper that against Doug Clifford's contributions, "Take It Like a Friend" or "Tearin' Up The Country".  These are terrible.  The only other track that I can listen to is Stu Cook's throwback tune,  "Door To Door". Even John's other turn at the mike with "Hello, Mary Lou", a staple of Ricky Nelson, comes off as a rockabilly-type nonsense that frustrates Creedence's earlier "San Francisco/Bayou" sound.

  This album was their death knell, and it really shows that there was little to no heart in the recording sessions, which carried over to the music. As for a live CCR album, it has to be CCR:  Live in Europe.  An live album following the release of Mardi Gras with the remaining three members of the band.  Absolute garbage recordings and sloppy playing of a band that knew better.  And I'm one of their biggest supporters.

  Sad.

And that was it. Sorry for that one, folks. I really thought it would light up the switchboards.

We have two new reviews up that include a Skafish rarities set called What's This? 1976-1979, and a Various Artists collection of music from the film, Watchmen.

I'm encouraging everyone to sign up for Twitter because our feeds that we send out through a day, almost every day, are "of the moment" news. Plus we give you a shot at catching up on some very interesting cool extras. We even have a Twitter only contest of some awesome CDs. Here's our first: Sign up for Twitter, follow us, and be eligible for a chance to win the new upcoming album by Queensrÿche, American Soldier. For those of you who have already signed up for our feeds, you're already half-there; just send email at the link below. We have one copy and so will choose one from our followers on Wednesday. Sign up, folks. Also, I'm hearing that not everyone WANTS to do Twitter. Understood and respected. For that reason, we'll be putting back up a widget of sorts so that you can come to TAP at anytime to check up on fresh extra news bits that don't post to MusicTAP, or won't post for a day or two, at least.

For the contest, here's what we'll do. Send me email with your Twitter name (mine is musictap). I'll go on, verify, and then pick one that has sent me an email with their Twitter name. I'll announce winner on Wednesday of next week. For those that cannot do Twitter, we'll have a conventional contest for you in a bit.

-- Listening Party--

Quicktime
Windows Media

--Bonus Video--

If I Were King

We'll leave you with two more listening parties. Plenty to enjoy over the weekend.

The Limited Edition of this set is currently SOLD OUT on pre-sales but there will be standard CD/DVD sets available. Bear in mind, that Sold Out does not mean unattainable. This just means that all available units have been picked up by retailers. Still, don't delay if you want one of these. For this listening party, we have six tracks found on the set. We hope that you'll enjoy them.

-- Listening Party --
Jane's Addiction
A Cabinet of Curiosities

Quicktime
Windows Media

These Grateful Dead packages are almost released. Rhino has provided us with listening party links to let you enjoy. We're happy to present them to you. The two packages coming are the 3CD To Terrapin: Hartford '77, and the 9CD Winterland '73: The Complete Recordings. Click the album covers for Listening party links to that respective album. Enjoy them!!

Last month, we retired our Albums You MUST Hear Before You Die! I had lost two emails and could not locate them for the life of me. Last week, several of our lost emails came back to us via the authors and so we're posting their selections now. This is #43! It comes from Galley, who always delivers a fine assessment. We have one more list after this one.

Tal Bachman - Tal Bachman
The only album I have ever purchased from a new artist without ever having heard a single note.  I had read that Tal's idol was ELO's Jeff Lynne.  Most folks may remember the hit She's So High, but the rest of the album is very good, and the first five tracks are nothing short of incredible. 

Blue Öyster Cult - Imaginos
Originally developed as an Albert Bouchard solo album over the course of 16 years, it was released as a Blue Öyster Cult album in 1988.  While incomplete, it is probably their greatest album. 

The Corrs - Forgiven, Not Forgotten
I first saw The Corrs on Fox After Breakfast in 1995 and was blown away.  Never had I heard Irish music mixed so perfectly with pop/rock.  This, their debut album, was produced by David Foster.  Unfortunately, further albums suffered from over-production, and strayed from their Irish roots, but they eventually returned with 2005's Home.

Dire Straits - Making Movies
Brothers In Arms, may be Dire Straits' most well-known, but it's not their best (it's not even their second-best, that would be Love Over Gold).  Making Movies features their best work with songs like Tunnel Of Love, Romeo And Juliet and Skateaway. 

Electric Light Orchestra - Time
A story of time travel, and longing for home, it contains some of my most favorite lyrics:
"Remember the good old 1980s
when thing were so uncomplicated?
I wish I could go back there again,
and everything could be the same."

GTR - GTR
With Steve Howe and Steve Hackett, how could it possibly not have epic guitar-playing?  It's got some killer songs, too. 

Roger Hodgson - In The Eye Of The Storm
The Supertramp vocalist delivers a masterpiece on his first solo album. 

Aldo Nova - Subject... Aldo Nova
Considered a disappointment as it only went gold, Aldo's sophomore album features all of the killer hooks and guitar heroics he was known for.

Heather Nova - Oyster
The best album of 1998, and the very definition of "All Killer, No Filler!".  While not a big seller, every track could've been released as a single.

Orion The Hunter - Orion The Hunter
In the mid-'80s, anything from any member of Boston was like manna from heaven.  Boston guitarist Barry Goudreau followed up his only solo album with this 1984 release.  Featuring future Boston vocalist Fran Cosmo, and background vocals by Brad Delp, it did not disappoint.  My favorite track on the album is Dreaming.  It's an "eviction song" meaning you have no choice but to play it so loud that you'll get evicted!

Poco - Legacy
This classic 1989 album was their first to feature the original line-up of Jim Messina, Richie Furay, Rusty Young, Randy Meisner and George Grantham.  Meisner had left the band before their 1969 debut was released.  The album went gold and featured two Top-40 singles, Call It Love and Nothin' To Hide.
   
Queensrÿche - Rage For Order
Queensrÿche's 2nd full-length release is perhaps the greatest progressive metal albums ever released.  Sure, Operation: Mindcrime may be more ambitious, but Rage For Order is better, far better. 

REO Speedwagon - Good Trouble
Sure, Hi-Infidelity is one of the best rock albums ever, but you know what?  Good Trouble is just as good. 

Toy Matinee - Toy Matinee
The only release from Patrick Leonard and the late Kevin Gilbert that often ranks as one of the best albums of the '90s. 

Triumph - Thunder Seven
Triumph's seventh album is highlighted by the "Time Suite" (Time Goes By, Midsummer's Daydream, Time Canon, Killing Time), some of the most powerful, yet passionate hard rock you will ever hear. 

Fisher - True North
Fisher are known as the first band to be signed from exposure they gained on the Internet.  I Will Love You was one of the most-downloaded tracks ever on MP3.com. 

Marry Me Jane - Marry Me Jane
Along with John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band, perhaps the only artists whose debut albums also happened to be soundtracks. If Lucy Fell was a charming film released in 1996.  Director Eric Shaeffer used music from Marry Me Jane's debut.  Without it, the film wouldn't have been as effective.

The Monkees - Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. - The Monkees' second album after they wrestled control of their career from Don Kirshner.  Unlike "Headquarters", they round out their sound with a little help from studio musicians. It features the first recording of a Moog synthesizer on a pop or rock record on the track "Daily Nightly, recorded in the summer of '67.

Boston - Third Stage - It took six years to record this album, and it shows.  The launch of the guitar-powered spaceship is just a build-up to a track than every man should know, "To Be A Man".  That one song has had more impact on my life than any other

If you have missed the last As The Disc Spins (updated), check it out here.

To access the previous site and catch up, click here.

OK, here’s the REAL scoop on the Rolling Stones reissues.  These are expected to be re-mastered titles (YEAH!!!!) and will encompass the entire post-1971 period all the way up to A Bigger Bang.  The reissues will come in three waves.  There are no bonus tracks, or anything else, just re-mastered reissues with the original sleeve designs retained.  I’m STILL interested.  Keep an eye on these pages for the right dates as they seem to change.  In addition – and I HAVEN’T heard this – I expect vinyl LP to be in the mix at some point.

Rhino Records will reissue A Nod is as Good as a Wink…To a Blind Horse, a Faces title, on vinyl LP.  It is scheduled for June 6.

Nettwerk Records will release Blood From a Stone by Hanne Hukkelberg, planning for a release date of May 12.

Astralwerks will release a new Iggy Pop album that is considered a departure for him.  Called Preliminaires, it is scheduled for June 2.

Legacy along with Columbia and Epic Records will release several more X2 series sets form the following artists: Cyndi Lauper (She’s So Unusual/True Colours); Peter Tosh (Legalize It/Equal Rights); Simon & Garfunkel (Bookends/Sounds of Silence);Savage Garden (Savage Garden/Affirmation); and Tyrese (I Wanna Go There/Tyrese).  All of these are scheduled for May 12.

Sony Classical will release the Original Motion Picture Score of Angels & Demons, orchestrated by Hans Zimmer.  It is scheduled for May 12.

I want to bring your attention to a recording side project that was undertaken by 14 musicians from well-known bands such as Maroon 5, Gomez, Phantom Planet, and others. They all flew to Hawaii to spend time in a Tree-house compound with the intention to compose an album that captures everything that Hawaii represents with its laid back style. The music is a hybrid of Hawaiian Folk and Blues, which is an interesting combination. The results of that collaboration, Operation Aloha, will be made available on May 12.

Was anyone one aware that Columbia is reissuing several Bob Dylan titles on CD?  I wasn’t…til now.  They will be re-releasing Before the Flood, Dylan & The Dead; New Morning; The Basement Tapes; and a DD release only of Beyond Here Lies Nothin’.  These are on the slate for March 31.

Nonesuch Records will release a Kronos Quartet title on May 5.  It is named Floodplain.  In addition, Nonesuch will reissue One Quiet Night by Pat Metheny, also on May 5.

The vinyl LP of Fork in the Road, a new Neil Young title, is scheduled to be issued on May 5 by Reprise Records.  Reprise will also release the vinyl LP version of Crack the Skye by Mastodon on the same date.

A little note on these upcoming re-mastered LPs from Rhino Records of the first two Chicago albums, Chicago Transit Authority, and Chicago II.  Both of them will be pressed on 180g heavy vinyl and will be presented in Deluxe Gatefold.  Each will be 2LP sets scheduled for April 21.  Personally, I can’t wait for Chicago V, my favourite.  It’s as good as mine when Rhino revisits the catalogue in its LP campaign for the band.

Another note, this one a cautious one, for the upcoming Jane’s Addiction collection (A Cabinet of Curiosities).  It is being manufactured as a Limited Edition 3CD/1DVD Boxed set with ONLY 7500 units being produced.  Set for release on April 21, this wonderful collection may not last long at all. [Update: Well folks, if you had your mind set on the Limited Edition of the Boxed set from Jane’s Addiction, it is now officially too late.  The entire 7500 unit run of A Cabinet of Curiosities is sold out even before it found shelf space.  However, all is NOT lost as the standard 3CD/DVD release will still be available.  Classic!  This will be digipaks in a slipcase along with a 60-page booklet.  Available on May 5.]

Many fans are awaiting the release of Heaven & Hell (a collaboration of Ronnie James Dio/Tony Iommi/Geezer Butler/Vinny Appice, inspired to reform after recording new tracks for the 2007 Box, Black Sabbath: The Dio Years).  Their new album, the first since 1992, is called The Devil You Know, and will be available on April 21. There will be an LP version as well.

The expected release of second effort, Attics to Eden by Madina Lake, has been bumped back a few weeks to May 5.  It was originally planned for April 21 by Roadrunner Records.

Time/Life Records will release Never Going  Back by Collin Raye on April 21.

The upcoming Wilco DVD, Ashes of American Flags, planed for April 21 by Nonesuch Records, will contain not only 13 performance tracks, but also seven extra songs as DVD extras.  In addition, you will be able to download audio tracks of all of these concert performances found on the DVD via a link in the DVD.

Swedish trio, A Camp, will release their followup to the 2001 S/T album.  The new album is called Colonia and is scheduled for April 28.  You can get a sample of the sounds at their MySpace page.

In Chicago during the changing musical climate, one band stood out as the new beacon of change. Skafish was a uniquely original breath of fresh air with his independently distributed single of "Disgracing the Family Name." Soon after, he broke on his first big label debut with a re-recording of some of his earlier, rawer tunes. They were different. But now, Skafish has released an important compilation of all of those original recordings. This makes What's This? 1976-1979 a 'must have' for aficionados of that emerging sound.

The music of America has been a sweet spot in the musical tastes of many including Top40 aficionados, and hard core album fans. With their flair for a sound that crossed over so many musical borders, it is well documented in this Live album, Wildwood Springs.