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Best Indian & Pakistani Music

The Concert For Bangladesh
Features performances from George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar, Leon Russell, and Billy Preston. The publicity-shy former Beatle could've easily written a check and forgotten all about the matter--impoverished East Pakistani refugees stranded in India--but instead recruited some of his most talented and compassionate friends and created an event remembered as much for the quality of its music as the purity of its intent. Highlights include Billy Preston's rousing "That's the Way God Planned It" and Dylan's heartfelt five-song set, starting with "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall."
Reviews
"I have this LP, but wanted it electronically for my smart phone."
"The CD was just great."
"great concert and good sound!"
"takes me back to the time."
"Amazing concert!"
"Harrison was on top of his game, great sound recording."
"So happy to have this."
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The Prayer Cycle
Woven together like knotty wool, silk, and fine strands of silvery water, the disparate yet complementary voices of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan , Alanis Morissette , Yungchen Lhamo , Ofra Haza , the American Boychoir , Salif Keita , and others intertwine in multiple languages with the superb English Chamber Orchestra and Chorus.
Reviews
"After a day or so, I couldn't listen to more news and I decided to play this CD over and over again with the thought that it was going straight to heaven as a benediction to the members of the AME Church. The actual titles of the selections are (in order): Mercy, Strength, Hope, Compassion, Grace, Innocence, Forgiveness, Benediction and Faith."
"Listening to it now as I write this review, the track "hope" begins and I am moved to tears by the angelic voice and feel of this, flowing through my soul. Do someone else a favor.... Share it with them."
"The experience for me is made even more poignant by not knowing the literal sense of the words (except for the few sections in English and Hebrew). I hear struggling, questioning, demanding voices, passionate with love and with pain, with defiance, with acceptance, with serenity, victory and failure."
"The American Boychoir and its featured soloist are terrific, the English chamber group are perfection, the main singers exquisite and each the right voice for their part."
"I have had the joyous opportunity to listen to this amazing composition about ten years ago and it is on something of a continuous loop in my head, forever, gleefully."
"I think this recording would lend itself well to background music for meditation as the voices are not distracting enough to pull you from deep thought; in fact, I found that the recording produced cleansing thoughts and a feeling of invigoration."
"Second time I bought this."
"This is tremendous, soulshqping music."
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Pilgrim Heart
This is the reissue of Krishna Das's 1998 album PILGRIM HEART.
Reviews
"I listen to it in the car, during my yoga practice, to calm or energize depending on my mood."
"I have not been successful locating a different cd of KD that is mostly him singing or singing with one other person- that is singing with devotion."
"Really wonderful background music for my art."
"I love this guys voice.."
"Too many of my encounters were with people in saffron robes trying to sell me incense and wanting me to come to some feast. is an expression of what is called "Living Daylight" in some traditions. The last cut, "The Ring Song" is cute and playful, but doesn't stand up to repeated playing the way the other cuts do."
"I love the female chorus. The last song on the CD, the Hunuman song, does not sound like the other songs on the CD."
"Half of the songs I could listen to over and over and the other half I would not care if I never heard again."
"I love the chants and find myself singing them to myself all the time!!!"
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Best Islamic Music

The Rain
The musicans, who have named themselves after an ancient form of romantic poetry, perform on sitar (a multi-stringed Indian plucked instrument with a tall fretboard attached to a resonating gourd) and kamancheh (a sonorous but gutty-sounding spike fiddle) and voice, accompanied by a tabla virtuoso (a tuned skin drum commonly played in India and Pakistan).
Reviews
"This is a shimmering, scintillating, plangent CD."
"I owned this for years on CD, but someone borrowed it and never returned it to me, subsequently it was lost."
"Inspite my personal preference, I suggest to friends, this is a must have CD!"
"Ghazal Live - wish I was there."
"Lovely gentile music with a soft Middle Eastern or Indian sitar flair."
"The interplay of the musicians is nothing less than astounding, and the sound quality is lovely (typical for an ECM disk.). In this, I was a little disappointed; I had hoped for new material from Ghazal (I preordered the CD as soon as I heard about it.)."
"Very soothing."
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Best Far East & Asia

The Music of Vietnam
It is a distinctive mix of folk instruments and courtly formality--a highly disciplined and richly ornamented music originally conceived for moments of importance and ceremony. Several unusual instruments are employed, including the dan bau , a one-string guitar with a bamboo stem that bends notes like a whammy bar , and the k'ni , a rifle-shaped fiddle with a mouth attachment that can create a voice-box effect similar to that used by rock guitarists such as Peter Frampton and Joe Walsh in the '70s. The music is so expertly performed and so beautifully sequenced--the focus shifting from ensemble to solo pieces, from stringed instruments to flutes--that attention never wanders. The most exciting pieces feature a clarinet playing long lines over pounding percussion, a combination common to the music of many Southeast Asian nations.
Reviews
"Item as described."
"Truly a nice selection of music from the North and South, played on instruments foreign to the ear in America."
"Not sure who put this together or where it comes from, but it is an excellent set of traditional vietnamese music which is very hard to find good examples of."
"That book(s) for the traditional discs share the same background material and then have notes on the individual selections. I've had this cranked up on my large car stereo and the sound is clean with good separation. I don't have a large collection of east Asian discs but this is easily my favorite."
"Viet Nam is most often identified with communism and with war, which is a pity, because the music of Viet Nam is as expressive and as complex as pieces written by Bach or Beethoven."
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Best Far East & Asian Music

LOVE YOURSELF: Her
1 CD (Random) + 100P Photobook + 20p The Note of 'The Most Beautiful Moment In Life' + 1 Photocard (Random 1 out of 28 Photocard + 1 Special photocard in limited quantity) + Special Stickers // This is the official release and will be counted towards Billboard / Hanteo / Gaon Charts.
Reviews
"I'm listening to the album for the 3rd time in a row."
"The only thing I'm upset about is that I didn't get the poster... which I for sure thought I would get since this was the link that Bighit posted on their twitter."
"Just finished listening to it for the first time through!"
"I'm listening right now and to hear such great vocals and unexpected beat drops makes me happy."
"I pre-ordered the album for my sister's birthday gift."
"Comes with everything as promised and a special song plus commentary from the members in the book though it is all in Korean so be aware of that."
"I love the album so much I bought 3 - one for myself, one for a white elephant gift exchange and one for a fellow BTS stan!"
"I have a 15 year old niece that's obsessed with BTS and this was their newest album."
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Best Caribbean & Cuban Music

Legend
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Legend Vinyl LP.
Reviews
"If you have a home theater with 5.1 Surround sound and an appreciation for the art of music and quality audio, you will LOVE this set."
"Bought it as a surprise for my mother to go along with a Bluetooth suitcase record player from Amazon as well."
"THE MOST GORGEOUS VINYL IN MY COLLECTION!!!"
"Great song."
"How can you go wrong with Bob Marley?!?"
"I love Bob Marley and this CD has lots of the old favorites."
"What can I say, It's one of my all time favorite artist and albums. Wore the last disk out."
"There is just something about Bob Marley's music and sound."
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Best African Music

Zombie
The fury stirred up among the Nigerian police and military by Fela’s confrontational Alagbon Close (1974) and Kalakuta Show (1976), and the beatings and harassments Fela and Africa 70 suffered as a consequence, were as nothing compared to the reprisals following 1976’s Zombie. Within months of its release, a brutal army attack left Fela’s Kalakuta Republic compound burnt to the ground and many of its residents, including Fela, assaulted and seriously injured. On the title track, over an urgent, quick-march accompaniment from Afrika 70, Fela and the backup singers ridicule the mindset of men in uniform. Go and quench!” Each phrase is followed by the women singers’ taunting response, “Zombie!” Fela continues: “No brains, no job, no sense joro jara jo; tell am to go kill joro jara jo; tell am to go quench joro jara jo (meaning, “no brains, no job, no sense left right left; tell him to go kill left right left; tell him to go die left right left.”) The army’s response was terrible... On 18 February, 1977, around 1,000 soldiers, most of them armed, swooped on Kalakuta.
Reviews
"Black music without concessions."
"Fellastico as always."
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Best Middle Eastern Music

Ya Nass
Debut solo album by Yasmine Hamdan, written and produced in collaboration with Marc Collin (Nouvelle Vague).
Reviews
"I'm selective about music of any kind, but this music was like finding that mysterious sweet spot on the radio dial between middle eastern world music and popular music. I don't have any music quite like this in my collection, but it reminds me slightly of instruments and/or vocals from these bands and artists: Bjork, Irfan (Bulgarian group), Cocteau Twins, Tanita Tikaram, Camera Obscura... but... the vocals on Ya Nass are what set this apart from a lot of music."
"She has little recorded work, young, talented, concerned enough with building her kind of music in her native Lebanon she tends to turn down recordings, contracts which would have her appearing on the Continent and singing in French and English in addition to Arabic."
"This solo debut by Yasmine Hamdan is a delight."
"The sound is compelling, and it adds to the ambiance in a way to not understand any of the lyrics... well, except for habibi, but I have no idea how it fits into the theme of the song."
"her voice is hauntingly beautiful."
"I am enjoying this CD and listen to it often!!"
"Her voice is so alluring and she sings with such emotion that you can feel what the songs are about even without understanding Arabic."
"The Arab answer to the late Amy Winehouse."
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Best North American Music

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
2009 remaster of the groundbreaking 1969 album, his first with Crazy Horse, from the original analogue master tapes.
Reviews
"The album included a number of extraordinary songs, among them being: "Cinnamon Girl", "Cowgirl In The Sand", and "Down By The River." Neil Young made a distinct mark for himself earlier in the California folk-rock scene as a member of the popular, but short-lived group, Buffalo Springfield, with his outstanding songwriting and guitar playing. Neil Young even went to the extreme and left the band entirely for a brief period of time to pursue his work in the studio in a different manner, and on his own terms, with Nitzsche's assistance. At about the same time, Stephen Stills, Neil Young's former colleague from the Buffalo Springfield, joined David Crosby, a close friend from The Byrds and Graham Nash, another friend from the British band, The Hollies, to form a vocal band named, "Crosby, Stills, and Nash." At the suggestion of the president of the record company, Neil Young joined the trio in the studio in a collaboration of sorts."
"A highly underrated guitar player who has produced music so unique and powerful it will never be matched."
"Neil Young's Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere...Timeless Classic Rock on heavy weight 180 gram vinyl...Vinyl is the ultimate audio source."
"I have purchased this album many times, and many times I have loaned, lost or worn it out, it always gets replaced."
"This is Neil Young rocking out big time, his guitar riff duels with Danny Whitten are especially crunchy on Down By The River. When this album was released all the college late night AOR FM stations were playing cuts, then it became too popular to be "cool" and then a few years later people looked back and said that maybe, just maybe, this is as good as it got with Neil Young?"
"Makes me want to head out to the country and sit on a sandy shore of a river with my cowgirl girlfriend!"
"The late night FM staples are there, of course, with Cowgirl in the Sand and Down by the River, but other gems are there, too, like Running Dry (Requiem for The Rockets) and that ethereal, haunting violin by Bobby Notkoff (thanks, Google)."
"This has always been one of my favorite Neil Young albums and I think Neil has always been at his best with Crazy Horse."
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Best European Music

The White Album
The classic original Beatles studio albums have been re-mastered by a dedicated team of engineers at Abbey Road Studios in London over a four year period utilising state of the art recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings.
Reviews
"In fact, much of the album was written in India."
"I wrote this review in order to assist the general consumer make an informative decision when purchasing a product that they can't touch prior***."
"It's the Beatles' White Album - what else is there to say?"
"It has Bungalow Bill, Back in the USSR, Rocky Racoon, and Blackbird plus a lot more."
"A 2 CD "mini-box" with a picture book, and a small version of a collage poster that may have been part of the original album all those years ago."
"Awesome tunes written/performed by 4 awesome talented me."
"Album cover was slightly warped, but other than that it was sure nice to hear these old songs again."
"I could go in depth about this album in my review, but don't need to: This mono issue has different versions of many tracks that cannot be heard anywhere else, including the Anthology series."
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Best South & Central American Music

Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection Explicit Lyrics
Deluxe expanded version of the Pop diva's massively successful album features seven bonus tracks including three new songs, a megamix and versions of "E.T" featuring Kanye West, "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)".
Reviews
"I purchased this album for my little Sun Goddess who has a high taste of music and is not really in to lollypop music! I rather kids listen to this type of music which is at least meaningful and musically valuable, than listen to lollypop music and baseless mindless techno and rap."
"its a fun album."
"Pop music history, the singles are iconic."
"Very uplifting album."
"Love Katy Perry's songs on this complete collection, still listen to teenage dream, we all had them."
"what a great album."
"One of the best cd's ever."
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Best Music of the Pacific Islands

Facing Future
Most touching are the string-backed laments that open and close the album, "Hawai'i '78 Introduction" and "Hawai'i '78," initially a reflection on his father's death, later on the passing of Hawaii's native culture. Best known is his medley "Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World," which played over the closing credits of the film Meet Joe Black .
Reviews
"I stumbled across Israel while I was looking for a copy of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and when I sampled it I said to myself "yes, this voice is from somewhere over the rainbow" The combination of his voice with his ukulele is simple in content yet profoundly deep and resonant in it's spirit."
"Terrific music."
"No problems or complaints."
"Excellent product as advertised."
"Purchased as gift."
"Love this CD it's beautiful music."
"Izzi combines traditional with modern songs on this album."
"I only like one song on it."
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Best Music of Australia & New Zealand

Didgeridoo Spirit
Didgeridoo Spirit by David Hudson.
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