Although Eric Clapton has released a bevy of live albums, none of them have ever quite captured the guitarist's raw energy and dazzling virtuosity. The double live album Just One Night may have gotten closer to that elusive goal than most of its predecessors, but it is still lacking in many ways. The most notable difference between Just One Night and Clapton's other live albums is his backing band. Led by guitarist Albert Lee, the group is a collective of accomplished professionals who have managed to keep some grit in their playing. They help push Clapton along, forcing him to spit out crackling solos throughout the album. However, the performances aren't consistent on Just One Night -- there are plenty of dynamic moments like "Double Trouble" and "Rambling on My Mind," but they are weighed down by pedestrian renditions of songs like "All Our Past Times." Nevertheless, more than any other Clapton live album, Just One Night suggests the guitarist's in-concert potential. It's just too bad that the recording didn't occur on a night when he did fulfill all of that potential. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Phoenix recorded much of its seventh album at a studio within Paris' Musée des Arts Décoratifs, located in the northern wing of the Louvre, during the 2020 pandemic lockdown. To get to their space, the band had to walk through darkened hallways containing draped statues and even Napoleon's "grand, goofy" gold throne. Band member Christian Mazzalai has said he was originally worried that being surrounded by "too much beauty" might stymie writing efforts, but it had the opposite inspiration: They sketched out almost all of the songs in less than two weeks. The hush of the museum also seemed to have a funny effect, leading the band to create an energizing, feel-good record. Straight from the top, the title track unfurls cool electro disco like a call to the dancefloor. "Ooh ha!/ Singing hallelujah," an activated and frisky Thomas Mars sings. (There's also a menacing reference to their Louvre neighbor: "You're Mona Lisa immortalized/ Décapitée." The album's cover art, meanwhile, is a zoomed-in piece of Botticelli's Madonna con Bambino e otto angeli.) Delightful "Tonight," a duet with Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, sounds ready-made for a cardio workout. Koenig lends a world-beat feel to the hyper track, and his softly rounded vocal edges cushion Mars' nasal sharpness.  Spacey but beachy at once, "The Only One" glitters and shimmers like a theme song for the beach course of Super Mario Kart, with Mars singing "How can I be the only one?" through some shiny and synthetic filter. "Season 2" boasts a super bouncy beat—"Giddyup!" Mars cheers—and dizzying keyboard. "After Midnight" is poppy and irresistible, and upbeat-but-relaxed "Artefact" could be an outtake from the band's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix album. "All Eyes on Me" is the outlier here, but majorly appealing: There's an unusual urgency powered by edgy beats, spiky synth and whoops from Mars. Closer "Identical," which first appeared on the soundtrack for the 2020 movie On the Rocks, directed by Mars' wife Sofia Coppola, samples the queer South African duo Faka and is a tribute to Philippe Zdar of Cassius, who often worked with Phoenix and died in 2019 after an accidental fall from a building. "Everything about the song is Philippe," the band has said. The track is full-to-bursting with a big, thumping heartbeat rhythm as Mars sings: "I'm losing my friend/ I'm losing my grip/ Praying all night to radio waves … Take my advice/ Make your mistakes." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

It may have taken the Notorious B.I.G. a few years to follow up his milestone debut, Ready to Die (1994), with another album, but when he did return with Life After Death in 1997, he did so in a huge way. The ambitious album, intended as somewhat of a sequel to Ready to Die, picking up where its predecessor left off, sprawled across the span of two discs, each filled with music, 24 songs in all. You'd expect any album this sprawling to include some lackluster filler. That's not really the case with Life After Death, however. Like 2Pac's All Eyez on Me from a year before, an obvious influence, Biggie's album made extensive use of various producers -- DJ Premier, Easy Mo Bee, Clark Kent, RZA, and more of New York's finest -- resulting in a diverse, eclectic array of songs. Plus, Biggie similarly brought in various guest rappers -- Jay-Z, Lil' Kim, Bone Thugs, Too $hort, L.O.X., Mase -- a few vocalists -- R. Kelly, Angela Winbush, 112 -- and, of course, Puff Daddy, who is much more omnipresent here than on Ready to Die, where he mostly remained on the sidelines. It's perhaps Puffy himself to thank for this album's biggest hits: "Mo Money Mo Problems," "Hypnotize," "Sky's the Limit," three songs that definitely owe much to his pop touch. There's still plenty of the gangsta tales on Life After Death that won Biggie so much admiration on the streets, but it's the pop-laced songs that stand out as highlights. In hindsight, Biggie couldn't have ended his career with a more fitting album than Life After Death. Over the course of only two albums, he achieved every success imaginable, perhaps none greater than this unabashedly over-reaching success. Ready to Die is a milestone album, for sure, but it's nowhere near as extravagant or epic as Life After Death.© Jason Birchmeier /TiVo

Back to the Egg is Paul McCartney's attempt to get back to rock & roll after the soft rock of London Town. Assembling a new lineup of Wings, McCartney leads the group through a set of his most undistinguished songs, ranging from the forced arena rock of "Old Siam, Sir" to the formulaic adult contemporary pap of "Arrow Through Me" -- and those are two of the more memorable cuts on the record. Part of the problem is the weak sound of the record and Wings' faceless performances, but the true problem is the songs, which have no spark whatsoever. On the basis of Back to the Egg, it's no wonder that McCartney returned to solo recordings after its relative failure.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Craig Armstrong scored the sweeping string arrangements for Massive Attack's Protection. It is therefore fitting that his debut album should see release through the Bristol band's Melankolic imprint. Nor should it surprise anyone that The Space Between Us is a veritable waterworks of strings, harps, and longing. To the classically trained Armstrong's credit, the album's resplendent romanticism never becomes soggy or overbearing. Even as the strings welter and arc in dizzy, heaven-bound spirals, a shadowing of spare downtempo electronics maintains an attractively lugubrious atmosphere. The Space Between Us is mostly instrumental, though former Cocteau Twin Elizabeth Fraser graces "This Love" with a heart-stopping vocal turn. She blazes brilliantly against Armstrong's flowering backdrop, as does Paul Buchanan's Brian Ferry-like delivery of "Let's Go Out Tonight." Armstrong's gift for simple and sensitive melodicism surpasses the crass, tear-jerking histrionics in which many of his peers wallow. "Laura's Theme," "Glasgow," and Armstrong's original setting for Romeo and Juliet's oft-scored balcony scene prove him the equal of icons like Nino Rota and Francis Lai, and suggest that cinema is Armstrong's true calling. Sure enough, Armstrong hit the silver screen in 1999 with his score for Jake Scott's Plunkett & Macleane.© TiVo

Eric Clapton was contracted to Polydor Records from 1966 to 1981, first as a member of Cream, then Blind Faith, and later as a solo artist and as the leader of Derek and the Dominos. The 19-track, 79-minute Cream of Clapton disc surveys his career, presenting an excellent selection from the period, including the Cream hits "Sunshine of Your Love," "White Room," and "Crossroads"; "Presence of the Lord," Clapton's finest moment with Blind Faith; "Bell Bottom Blues" and "Layla" from Derek and the Dominos; and 11 songs from Clapton's solo work, among them the hits "I Shot the Sheriff," "Promises," and "I Can't Stand It." The selection is thus broader and better than that found on 1982's Time Pieces collection, and with excellent sound and liner notes by Clapton biographer Ray Coleman, The Cream of Clapton stands as the single-disc best-of to own for Clapton's greatest recordings. [Not to be confused with the popular 1987 Polydor (U.K.) compilation The Cream of Eric Clapton.]© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

It may have taken the Notorious B.I.G. a few years to follow up his milestone debut, Ready to Die (1994), with another album, but when he did return with Life After Death in 1997, he did so in a huge way. The ambitious album, intended as somewhat of a sequel to Ready to Die, picking up where its predecessor left off, sprawled across the span of two discs, each filled with music, 24 songs in all. You'd expect any album this sprawling to include some lackluster filler. That's not really the case with Life After Death, however. Like 2Pac's All Eyez on Me from a year before, an obvious influence, Biggie's album made extensive use of various producers -- DJ Premier, Easy Mo Bee, Clark Kent, RZA, and more of New York's finest -- resulting in a diverse, eclectic array of songs. Plus, Biggie similarly brought in various guest rappers -- Jay-Z, Lil' Kim, Bone Thugs, Too $hort, L.O.X., Mase -- a few vocalists -- R. Kelly, Angela Winbush, 112 -- and, of course, Puff Daddy, who is much more omnipresent here than on Ready to Die, where he mostly remained on the sidelines. It's perhaps Puffy himself to thank for this album's biggest hits: "Mo Money Mo Problems," "Hypnotize," "Sky's the Limit," three songs that definitely owe much to his pop touch. There's still plenty of the gangsta tales on Life After Death that won Biggie so much admiration on the streets, but it's the pop-laced songs that stand out as highlights. In hindsight, Biggie couldn't have ended his career with a more fitting album than Life After Death. Over the course of only two albums, he achieved every success imaginable, perhaps none greater than this unabashedly over-reaching success. Ready to Die is a milestone album, for sure, but it's nowhere near as extravagant or epic as Life After Death.© Jason Birchmeier /TiVo

God has never hidden his admiration for J.J. Cale, and this is why Eric Clapton decided to invite his idol on stage during his 2007 world tour. They played five of sixteen songs together, including (of course) Cocaine and Clapton’s own cover of After Midnight. This was after the two artists had worked together on the album The Road To Escondido (2006). The concert took place at the Valley Center in the San Diego area. And the local star wasn’t the only one to give his fingers a workout, as Derek Trucks from The Allman Brothers Band and Robert Cray also support Slow Hand on some of the tracks. Clapton himself declared that his ultimate ambition was to share the stage with the Californian guitarist. So when the latter passed away in 2013, the British virtuoso wanted to pay him one last tribute at Live in San Diego. © AR/Qobuz

Although Eric Clapton has released a bevy of live albums, none of them have ever quite captured the guitarist's raw energy and dazzling virtuosity. The double live album Just One Night may have gotten closer to that elusive goal than most of its predecessors, but it is still lacking in many ways. The most notable difference between Just One Night and Clapton's other live albums is his backing band. Led by guitarist Albert Lee, the group is a collective of accomplished professionals who have managed to keep some grit in their playing. They help push Clapton along, forcing him to spit out crackling solos throughout the album. However, the performances aren't consistent on Just One Night -- there are plenty of dynamic moments like "Double Trouble" and "Rambling on My Mind," but they are weighed down by pedestrian renditions of songs like "All Our Past Times." Nevertheless, more than any other Clapton live album, Just One Night suggests the guitarist's in-concert potential. It's just too bad that the recording didn't occur on a night when he did fulfill all of that potential.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Mariah Carey claims Rainbow, her first album since divorcing Tommy Mottola, "chronicles my emotional roller coaster ride of the past year," but less subjective listeners could be forgiven for viewing it as simply another Mariah Carey album. After all, all the elements are in place -- the crossover dance hits, the ballads, the cameos, the hip producers, the weird cover choice from the early '80s. But dig a little deeper, and her words ring true. Rainbow is the first Carey album where she's written personal lyrics, and allusions to her separation from Mottola are evident throughout the album, even if it doesn't really amount to the "story" she mentions in the liner notes. As appropriate for any introspective album, it's a bit ballad-heavy, which makes Rainbow seem a little samey. Yet that's not the only reason the record has a weird sense of déjà vu, since this follows the same formula as its two predecessors, distinguished primarily by her newfound fondness for flashing flesh. That repetition isn't necessarily a problem, since she does formula very well, managing to appeal to both housewives as well as b-boys. Rainbow proves that she can still pull off that difficult balancing act, but it's hard not to be a little disappointed that she'd didn't shake the music up a little bit more -- after all, it would have been a more effective album if the heartbreak, sorrow, and joy that bubbles underneath the music were brought to the surface.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Talking about the first time she harmonized with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt in 1975, Dolly Parton said, "We all got to singin' and it was absolutely incredible. It gives me chills, even now." Given Parton's remarkable life and career, one would imagine it would take a lot to prompt that reaction, but there's no false modesty in Dolly's words. Parton, Harris, and Ronstadt were all splendid vocalists on their own, but they'd also shown a talent for collaborating with others throughout their careers. And when the like-minded women decided to make an album together, they created something rare, a collaboration between three major stars that never smacks of ego. Parton, Harris, and Ronstadt brought out the best in one another on their brilliant 1987 album, Trio, with the group harmonies sounding even more glorious than their lead vocals. (Trio also found Parton and Ronstadt working with better and more flattering material than they'd had on their solo albums in quite a while.) Trio was enough of a success that the singers carved out time in their busy schedules to make another album together, 1999's Trio II, with similarly impressive results. Ronstadt's health prevents her from making another Trio album in the 21st century, but Rhino Records have given us the next best thing with The Complete Trio Collection. This three-disc set brings together Trio and Trio II in full with a bonus disc of 20 outtakes and alternate versions recorded during the sessions for the original albums. Both Trio and Trio II have aged quite well, especially the first album with its emphasis on acoustic, bluegrass-influenced arrangements that blend well with three-part harmonies. (As Harris quips in the liner notes, they were playing Americana music before it had a name.) And if disc three often covers material that appears elsewhere in the set, Parton, Harris, and Ronstadt tried enough different approaches to these songs that the variants still sound fresh, and the performances are a knockout throughout. At the end of an unreleased take of "You Don't Knock," Harris quietly says, "That one felt real good," and like Dolly, she speaks the truth. For fans of the original Trio albums, buying The Complete Trio Collection to get the disc of unreleased takes might seem a bit excessive, but for anyone with a taste for great country or folk singing who has never heard Parton, Harris, and Ronstadt's work together, this set is nothing less than essential.© Mark Deming /TiVo

It's kind of surprising that Al Jarreau's catalog hasn't been treated with greater care. Best of Al Jarreau, released by Warner Bros. back in 1996, remains the best anthology of Jarreau's career, and the various Love Songs series put together by different labels have tended to exist merely as a way to take advantage of the Valentine's Day market (Sony BMG released a Love Songs comp for the Bay City Rollers, of all artists), but this particular Love Songs is more than something to fill the shelves, compiling many of Jarreau's biggest hits released from 1976 through 2006. Since it skips across 30 years, a number of favorites are bound to be missing -- "Your Precious Love," "Since I Fell for You," and "Moonlighting," for instance. Even so, this covers the basics rather well.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

While Jimmie Dale Gilmore's first two solo albums presented him as an enlightened honky tonk cowboy, 1991's After Awhile, his first set for Elektra, was less stylistically bound to country music, and approached Gilmore as a singer/songwriter, albeit one with a decided West Texas sensibility. The result was a considerably more subdued and personal set than Gilmore had offered in the past; Gilmore wrote all of the album's 12 songs (except for Butch Hancock's "My Mind's Got a Mind of Its Own," which fits Gilmore like a glove), and the quieter, often acoustic-based arrangements provide a more sympathetic backdrop for the more cerebral corners of his songs than the spunky old-school country frameworks of his work for Hightone (Gilmore discusses his interest in Buddhist and Hindu teachings in the liner notes, which would have seemed a bit odd on Fair and Square or Jimmie Dale Gilmore). While the bluesy wail of "Midnight Train" and the uptempo shuffle of "My Mind's Got a Mind of Its Own" proved Gilmore hadn't turned his back on the rootsier side of his musical vocabulary, the more languid tracks reflect a high and lonesome mood that's solely Gilmore's province, and "Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown," "Treat Me Like a Saturday Night," and "Blue Moon Waltz" are simply beautiful performances of remarkable songs that could have come from no one else. After Awhile is a subtle, unforced masterpiece that captures Gilmore at the subtle peak of his abilities.© Mark Deming /TiVo