Doomed to second-league status thanks to events out of their control, in reality, the Small Faces were an immensely important group in their short lifetime, with everyone (except for orginal Face Jimmy Winston) moving onto bigger and better gigs. An innumerable amount of lead singers owe a huge debt to Steve Marriott, while the band's upbeat garage rock crossed-with R&B style has had countless imitators, and very few that matched up with the original item. Their debut album is often pooh-poohed by snooty critics as a second-rate Mod copy-cat document, but that misses the point. The key selling point is unadulterated energy, as typified by their rowdy interpretation of Muddy Waters' "You Need Loving". If this sounds familiar to you, it's because Led Zeppelin directly nicked it for their huge hit "Whole Lotta Love". There's nothing second-rate about this album, or subsequent releases.

This is a curious solo release from West, post-Mountain, a mix of hard rockers and soulful belters where he is found often practically in duet mode with Italian soul singer Dana Valery. I'm not extremely fond of this, but hardcore fans of West's career might appreciate the different look he throws out here.

This was something that seemed to be a much bigger deal at the time than it is now, but when David Lee Roth split from Van Halen to his own solo career, at least in the mainstream-MTV-music world, shock waves were definitely made. The year before, Dave had released his EP Crazy from the Heat, which featured the glossy videos for "California Girls" and "Just A Gigolo" - plus, there was a rumored movie deal in the works (which eventually fell through) - which meant the competitive stakes between him and his old bandmates were sky high. Dave's response was to get together a crack lineup (Stevie Vai, Billy Sheehan, and Gregg Bissonette) and record Eat 'Em and Smile, a high-octane mix of cutting rockers and torch standards - in other words, not too far removed from his Van Halen days. The interplay between Roth and Vai is different than the relationship between him and Eddie Van Halen; Vai feeds more easily into Roth's slapstick impulses, and overall, he comes off as part of Dave's vast variety show - something you could never accuse Eddie of falling into. But the approach works, especially on the opening "Yankee Rose", which may very well be the funniest song Van Halen never wrote (I especially dig the talking guitar intro), and on big, gusto-filled numbers like the cover of "Tobacco Road" and "Goin' Crazy!".

If I remember my Greek mythology, Comus was the God of Anarchy and Festivity. And so, the band which took their name decided it was only right to record an album which reflected those values, although, in my opinion, I think it strays a bit too far to the anti-social side of the fence. The band's general aggro-folk sound could be seen as trail-blazing to today's genre-delimited crowds, but for my taste, many of these tracks just mess around for too long - going here and there through assorted passageways - and whenever they resolve themselves, it's unnecessarily tortured. If you are into this kind of weird folk gig, try the Incredible String Band, who were similar technically, but far more varied with many more albums to explore - and a really interesting career arc to boot - but yet have seemingly received a tenth of the notice Comus has for this one kooky, out-of-left-field record.

Payola$ were successful in Canada, but never broke through in the U.S., possibly because of the past connotations the band name carried. Joining lead singer Paul Hyde was guitarist Bob Rock - yes, the very same Bob Rock who would go on to produce Motley Crue and Metallica - and former glam-rock guitar God Mick Ronson produced No Stranger to Danger as well. The record contained a curious cross between jangly power pop, U2-like New Wave exercises, and atmospheric reggae-lite jams like "Eyes of a Stranger", which relied on Hyde's screeching vocals as the hook. Rock may have been cut out of stardom here, but would get his revenge many times over starting as early as the late 1980's.