... CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

... LP, Vinyl record album

The great Jimmy Webb is one of our favorite songwriters of the 60s – a young man at the start, but one who could come across with a maturity that few of his contemporaries could match – arguably setting the scene for a key step into adult pop that would really explode in the 70s! Yet by that, we don't mean that Webb is any sort of "adult contemporary" figure from the softer side of the spectrum – as his tunes are open, honest, and filled with an understanding of the heart and its ability to break, delivered in ways that are still as powerful today as they were back when first written. The package features some of Jimmy's greatest songs, some in their famous recordings, but many more in lesser-known takes that only stand as further testament to Webb's words on the page – which really work some magic, no matter what the setting! In the best Ace tradition, the whole thing comes with a superb set of notes and details on the material – mostly late 60s tracks from Jimmy's key years, but a few gems from later too. Titles include "If This Was The Last Song" by Dee Dee Warwick, "I Keep It Hid" by The Supremes, "Carpet Man" by The Nocturnes, "I Need You" by Shane Martin, "Midnight Mail" by Joey Scarbury, "MacArthur Park" by Waylon Jennings, "Do What You Gotta Do" by Nina Simone, "The Worst That Could Happen" by BJ Thomas, "Requiem 820 Latham" by Mel Torme, "Magic Garden" by Dusty Springfield, "Rosecrans Blvd" by 5th Dimension, "Honey Come Back" by Chuck Jackson, "Wichita Lineman" by Tony Joe White, "Didn't We" by James Darren, "Which Way To Nowhere" by Brooklyn Bridge, and "Clowns Exit Laughing" by The Fortunes. CD

Includes music from the Carpenters, Perry Como, BJ Thomas, Aretha Franklin, the Shirelles, the Drifters, Tom Jones, Gene McDaniels, Tommy Hunt, the Searchers, Bobby Vinton, Chuck Jackson, Dusty Springfield, Jack DeShannon, Cilla Black & more. CD

A really beautiful book, and one that's very different than most other hip hop books we've ever stocked – as this well-done volume is a companion piece to a show at the Baltimore Museum of Art – one that looks at the way that hip hop has influenced different strands of art and culture in the 21st Century – presented here in a variety of ways that are sometimes very subtle, sometimes a lot more direct! The book is full color, and has a really unique design – and presents 70 different art objects, by artists who include Devin Allen, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hank Willis Thomas, Vivienne Westwood, Pharrell Williams, Stan Douglas, Shabez Jamal, Gordon Parks, Kahlil Joseph, and many others – next to essays by Greg Tate, Lester Spence, Devin Allen, Simon Reynolds, Seph Rodney, Noriko Manabe, Ebony Haynes, and many others too! Book

A surprisingly beautiful book on the famous 60s radical Jerry Rubin – one that's not only the first-ever look at the man's life, politics, and influence – but one that's also presented in a lavishly visual style that really conveys the crossroads of art and ideas of which Rubin was a key part! The book is even better than Pat Thomas' previous book, Listen Whitey – and has the same heavily visual feel as that one – as words from Rubin and his contemporaries are mixed with larger historical information, an incredible amount of cultural sidebars – and hundreds of fantastic images from the 60s onwards. Rubin's known as one of the founding fathers of the yippies – the Youth International Party, which gave political focus to the freedoms of hippies, and was a key part of the protests in Chicago in 1968. But the man's also had a much larger, even more colorful life – and this book really gets at all of that, and then some – one of those rare cases where you pick up a book on someone, and actually find yourself far more illuminated than before – both in terms of the subject, and their larger cultural role. 253 very vivid pages, hardcover, and done in the best Fantagraphics style. Book