Europe: Come This Madness (Hell & Back Records, CD, 41:23). It is not the final countdown yet for this Swedish band as they issue this smashing studio album, their 12th, nine years after the previous one. The rock band from Upplands Vasby originally formed in 1979 with lead vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson and drummer Tony Reno. The band broke through internationally with its third album, 1986's “The Final Countdown,” fueled by its hit single title song. Both “The Final Countdown” and “Out of This World” (1988) were top 20 albums on the Billboard 200 chart, with two top 10 U.S. hits in “The Final Countdown” (No. 8) and “Carrie” (No. 3). Another song, “Rock the Night” from the “On the Loose” soundtrack, reached No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Europe broke up in 1992, calling it “an indefinite hiatus,” but then reunited for a New Year’s Eve 1999 performance in Stockholm. In 2003, Europe announced an official reunion and has released seven albums since then.

The current band includes founding members Tempest and Norum – both exceptional on the new album – and bassist John Levén (1981-1992), keyboardist Mic Michaeli (1984-1992) and drummer Ian Haugland (1984-1992). This lineup was the same as on “The Final Countdown” and has been together since 2003. Michaeli was an important key to the band’s success with his prominent synthesizers.

“Come This Madness” is a strong blend of their old style and modern music, with Michaeli given an expanded role as he brings back some of the spacey synthesizer elements to complement the Hammond organ and symphonic elements that he has contributed to the past several albums.

Strings open “One on One,” the first track, before the bass ushers in a hard rocking groove that the drums join. Norum’s guitar has a bluesy approach on this, the first of a trio of strong opening tracks. After the up-tempo rocker “The Cult of Ignorance” is the anthemic title track that has softer parts backed by synthesizer, before a chugging instrumental section with wailing guitar.

Other highlights are the reflective “This Time of the Year,” which is about trying to reconnect with a lover as “snow keeps falling”; “In a Different World,” which goes from rocker to softer and features excellent guitar; the epic, hard-rocking “Scandinavian Eyes,” with more nice keyboards; and the storming “Takin’ It Back.” The latter’s lyrics include: “I’ve been on top of the world/And I have lost it all.” Norum’s guitar playing is again excellent on “Takin’ It Back.” The brief (1:28) “In the Absence of Grace” is only Tempest’s vocal, piano and strings.

The disc comes with a 28-page lyric booklet. Grade: A

War: Greatest Hits (Avenue/Far Out/Rhino, CD, 57:53). This is the 50th anniversary for this must-have collection, but the original 10 tracks have been upgraded with four more for the new release, including the band’s first hit, “Spill the Wine,” when Eric Burdon (The Animals) was lead singer. The other three additions are the fine “Don’t Let No One Get You Down,” the slower “So” and the funky, superhero-laden “Galaxy.”

This can’t-miss collection also has the mellow “All Day Music,” with its horns; the at-times slinky “Slippin’ into Darkness”; the socially-conscious “The World Is a Ghetto”; the bouncy “Cisco Kid”; the anthem “Why Can’t We Be Friends”; and the funky “Low Rider.” All would be perfect for any party. Grade: A+

Tommy Dorsey Orchestra: Sentimental Over You (Hindsight Records, CD, 45:58). Listening to this record is like attending a big band swing concert. This is the orchestra’s first new recording since 1981.

The orchestra, directed by Jeff Bush, breathes new life into some of Dorsey’s most popular recordings, including “Opus One,” “Yes, Indeed” and “Marie,” while also embracing the evolution of big band music with a fresh take on “Mr. Sandman,” originally made famous by The Chordettes in the 1950s.

Four of the 15 tracks feature vocals. Hayden Grove sings “Yes, Indeed” and “Marie,” while Bush sings “Mr. Sandman” and the fine “Birmingham Bound,” which features a slide trombone. All four are fine tracks. Also excellent are a cover of Rimsky Korsakov’s “Song of India” and the classic “I’ll Never Smile Again.” The drums are highlighted on the ironically-named “Quiet Please.”

Recording engineer David Shaw captures the orchestra with a crisp, modern sound, while preserving the energy and character of the original recordings. The album closes with a new swinging arrangement of “When the Saints Go Marching In,” featuring The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra’s Clambake Seven, as the album celebrates Dorsey’s lasting influence while keeping the spirit of big band music alive for longtime fans and a new generation of listeners.

Dorsey (1905-1956) was a jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombone playing. His theme song was “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You.” He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey, but the two split in the mid-1930s. Tommy led an extremely successful band from the late 1930s into the 1950s. Grade: B+

Cat Stevens: Buddha and the Chocolate Box (Cat-O-Log/Island, CD, 32:25). This is a remastered version of Yusuf/Cat Stevens’ 1974 album. It was his sixth album for A&M Records and was one of four consecutive albums to reach the Top 3 on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

The album marked the return of both producer Paul Samwell-Smith and guitarist Alun Davies, following their absence on the preceding album, “Foreigner.” Sonically, the record was a homecoming to the style of the “Tea for the Tillerman” and “Teaser and the Firecat” era, but with busier arrangements and production. Some would say the album has an excess of backing singers.

The main problem I find is, unlike those previous albums, there only is one very good song here, that being “Oh Very Young.” It is softer, with a simple melody.

The opening “Music” is very intense, with a quirky arrangement. Lyrically, it states: “Take a look at the world/Think about how it will end/There’d be no more wars in the world/If everybody joined in the band.”

Stevens is “back on the road again” in the over-five-minute “Sun/C79,” while “Ready” – “to love again” – is funky, with an energetic vocal. “King of Trees” opens with an organ that gives a churchy feel.

While there are bits of the Stevens’ sounds and approaches that I really liked, they usually get overwhelmed here. Bits of “Home in the Sky” are nice and he sings, “Music is a lady that I still love/’Cause she gives me the air that I breathe.”

A Stevens’ quote in the press release about the album goes: “The message of ‘Buddha and the Chocolate Box’ was very obvious: stuck in the middle between the material and spiritual worlds, I was still undecided and treading a rice-paper-thin line. The idea for the title came while sitting on an airport transit bus on my way to a plane. I was carrying my favorite little encased statuette of Buddha along with a box of chocolates. It struck me that what I had in my hands represented the perfect epitome of my wavering soul.”

The cover features a photo of a gold Buddha statue sitting cross-legged on a dark blue background. On the back cover, there are a series of panels hand-drawn by Stevens himself. They depict a young and bald Buddha going on a journey, during which he encounters a flute-playing spider and has dreams of a chocolate box. After willing a box into existence, he walks toward the setting sun, chocolate-less. The CD comes with a 16-page lyric booklet. Grade: B-

ABBA: In Performance (2007, Shoreline Entertainment, DVD, NR, 58 min.). This and the following two DVDs are part of the Vintage Classic Rock Docu-Series, which originally aired in 2007. This disc contains rare footage of ABBA performing live on television and in film archives. Many of the performances are from the 1981 Swedish TV special, “Dick Cavett Meets ABBA.” Discussing the band and performances, often over the music, are associated figures, such as John Tobler, ABBA’s first press officer; author Karl French; and Rod Leissle, the founder of the group Bjorn Again.

ABBA was a Swedish pop music group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They became one of the most renowned and commercially successful musical groups in history, started with their Eurovision Song Contest victory in 1974. Initially, they were two married couples.

Among the songs performed here are “Dancing Queen,” “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” and, on German TV, “S.O.S.” with the Agnetha and Anni-Frid dressed in cat costumes. Usually, the four sang live to prerecorded tracks for their television appearances, looking to replicate their often-intricate studio recordings. “S.O.S.” also is shown from a 1975 “Saturday Night Live” episode, set on the Titanic. A 1976 Swedish show has them doing a couple of lesser-known songs, including Bjorn singing lead on “Why Did It Have to Be Me?”

On an Olivia Newton-John special, ABBA performs covers of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann” and Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock,” as well as their Dancing Queen/Fernando” and “Take a Chance on Me.” They do “Money, Money, Money” in Japan.

There are nine songs, or portions thereof, from the Dick Cavett TV special, including “Super Trouper,” Bjorn’s lead on the lewd “Two for the Price of One,” “Slipping Through My Fingers” and the more rock “Me and I” and “On and On and On.” This portion closes with “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” “Summer Night City” and “Thank You for the Music.” Grade: B+

ABBA: Rock Case Studies (2007, Shoreline Entertainment, DVD, NR, 101 min.). This was the follow-up to the ABBA video above, and it does repeat a fair amount of the interview footage from that documentary. Among the new bits is views and discussion of ABBA’s Eurovision Song Contest victory with “Waterloo” and talk about early hits, including “Mamma Mia,” and later hits, including “Chiquitita” (promo video) and “Voulez-Vous.”

Mostly, this documentary, using the same commentators, talks about the various aspects of the songs. Grade: B

David Bowie: Up Close & Personal (2007, Shoreline Entertainment, DVD, NR, 61 min.). This documentary covers Bowie’s career up through the disbandment of his Spiders from Mars band after the “Bowie Pin Ups” covers album in 1973. “Pin Ups” was his seventh studio album.

There is frank talk, particularly about their relationships with Bowie, by Angie Bowie, who met Bowie at 17, worked with his record label and eventually became his first wife, and bandmates Trevor Bolder (bass) and Mick “Woody” Woodmansey (drums, fired after “Aladdin Sane”). The other Spider, guitarist Mick Ronson, who left the band to make a solo album, died in 1993.

Among the other albums covered are “The Man Who Sold the World,” “Hunky Dory” and “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.”

The documentary provides an interesting look at the early Bowie and his music. Grade: A