With 1971's Killer, Alice Cooper released a classic album that encompassed psychedelia, horror movies, musicals, prog and biker rock and compressed it all into timeless nuggets of hard rock gold. It also propelled the band into the rarified upper reaches of the charts and into larger concert halls too. While the next step for most bands would be to stick the the formula and double down on the hooks in ever more commercial ways, on 1972's School's Out these weirdoes did nearly the opposite. Apart from the brilliantly, brutally dumb title track, which indeed does strip their sound down to the thrilling basics and unleashes a perfect marriage of naggingly sharp riffs, hilarious lyrics, and sneering vocals -- the album flies off weird tangents that are barely related to anything the band had done before -- and also the last thing one might expect from them. Case in point the late night jazz ballad "Blue Turk" which comes complete with a finger snapping bass line, multiple horn solos, and a lounge lizard vocal by Cooper. Granted the subject matter is the joys of necrophilia, but the music is a million miles away from what rock fans who were clamoring to hear more Killer-style rockers might expect. "Alma Mater" is another plot twist of a song; a gentle doo wop-inspired ballad that flips the sentiments of the title track on their head as Cooper nostalgically laments his impending matriculation in tones that almost come across as earnest. These pale in the weirdness stakes next to "Gutter Cat vs The Jets," a loping. light-hearted tale of cool cats that morphs into a high-kicking version of "Jet Song" from West Side Story. Alongside these oddball gems, the band sounds locked in on the rockers like the piano-led "My Stars" and the happily vicious "Public Enemy #9"as well as suitably theatrical on "Luny Tunes" a deceptively melodic and orchestrated song about being locked up in the psychiatric ward. All these songs, and the album itself, have a light and almost swinging underpinning, almost nothing rocks as hard as Killer, some of it isn't even rock at all. Half the joy to be derived from listening to School's Out is to marvel at how daringly the band took all the goodwill they had engendered to this point and blew up their just barely established template in fascinating, aolmost reckless ways. The end result is a bewildering, impressively contrary album that's a glorious kiss off to expectations while also showing the band's range and ambition in glorious technicolor.© Tim Sendra /TiVo

Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Messe de Minuit ("Midnight Mass") has been a popular work almost ever since it was composed around 1694, and it was one of the first French Baroque pieces to be recorded during the LP era. It is an absolutely irresistible Christmas piece, with French folk tunes woven into the polyphonic texture. This recording comes along just in time for the 2023 Christmas season, and it should find plenty of listeners. Ensemble Correspondances and leader Sébastien Daucé are specialists in the music of Charpentier, and they capture the particular lilt of this wonderful work with delicately elegant singing throughout. The ensemble is small, with just 11 singers; this may be a bit undersized in a French scene that favored big groups (choral performances at the king's court may have had 100 or more), but the mass was written for a small Jesuit group, and the dimensions feel natural. Another draw is the presence of two sizable small-ensemble cantatas, quite different from each other and sung with the right dramatic emphasis. Here, the forces are perfectly appropriate, and the sound engineering from the Seine Musicale concert hall is ideal. A very satisfying holiday release for the French Baroque lover in one's life.© James Manheim /TiVo

This album of Villa-Lobos' piano music contains works that may be well known in Brazil but are hardly familiar elsewhere, and for most listeners, they will be real finds. The centerpiece is the group of ten excerpts from the set Cirandas ("Round Dances"), which are almost like a Brazilian version of Bartók; they are rooted in folk music but diverge into concise little statements exploiting the motivic and harmonic possibilities they represent. Almost everything here, as the album's title suggests, is Brazilian in flavor, but never in the usual ways; New York Skyline Melody (1939) is only a possible exception. The album ends spectacularly with the Liszt-level virtuosity of Rudepoêma, whose title suggests "Savage Poem" rather than rudeness. This fascinating work is a musical portrait of Artur Rubinstein, and when that pianist pointed out the meaning of the name, Villa-Lobos responded enthusiastically, "Yes! We are both savages!" The work is an excellent addition to the virtuoso repertory, and pianist Wilhem Latchoumia handles it confidently. Throughout, he has praiseworthy control over a wide variety of material that illuminates many strands of Villa-Lobos' musical personality. The La Dolce Volta label contributes excellent sound from the Metz Arsenal on an album that may well become one of the sleeper hits of the 2023 holiday season.© James Manheim /TiVo

This 2023 release is way outside the usual zone for the ensemble Les Arts Florissants and director Paul Agnew, who have specialized largely in the French Baroque. The booklet even lists an Italian language coach, but it is quite worthwhile, for these Italian-language madrigals by Schütz are sparsely recorded. They were published in 1611 while Schütz was studying in Venice with Giovanni Gabrieli, and they reflect his mastery of the polyphonic Italian madrigal style. There are some splashes of chromaticism, but nothing resembling the music of Gesualdo, Marenzio, or the other late Italian madrigalists. Instead, the model is the early madrigal books of Monteverdi, which would have been very much in the air while Schütz was there. The music reflects the texts in great detail, which was one of the straws in the wind pointing toward the emergent operatic styles, and there is a certain dramatic quality that seems to prefigure the mature Schütz. This is captured well by Les Arts Florissants, essentially opera specialists, and while there is a feel suggesting that the musicians are coming to this tradition from the outside, the performances hold the listener's attention. The Philharmonie in Paris is not really the right venue for this music and gives it a remote sound, but this is, nonetheless, a valuable addition to the Schütz discography.© James Manheim /TiVo

Yaron Herman is never where you expect him to be. He’s recently made a remarkable return to the traditional acoustic trio format (Songs of Degrees in 2019) and rediscovered the joys of interplay through two albums (Everyday, Y) through which the pianist made a conscious effort to open up to other musical aesthetics. However, this new record presents him in the studio, alone at the piano with no safety net, no preparation and no predefined concept. He resolutely plunges into his music sixteen years after his first solo album (Variations, 2006), exploring an array of styles that his listeners won’t be accustomed to hearing him play. In this minimalistic context, Yaron Herman surprises with this deliberately understated music. It’s characterised by a certain gentleness, unfolding its ever-changing and nuanced moods according to his frequently renewing inspiration. Intuitively passing from spontaneous, free improvisations to the more standard (and here, masterfully deconstructed) ‘All the Things You Are’; from pieces borrowed from Israeli popular music (‘Yesh Li Sikuy’ by Eviatar Banar) to a very moving reading of Gabriel Fauré’s ‘Après un rêve’, Yaron Herman offers up a brand of impressionist music that is overtly melancholic but always lyrical, projecting an inexhaustible melodic imagination. © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz

Poro, re delle Indie, HWV 28 (a.k.a. Poro, re dell'Indie, Poro, or Porus), a Handel opera seria of 1731, was a great success at the beginning, and modern scholars have pronounced it one of the finest Handelian operas. The work is performed from time to time, in the original Italian or in German translation, but recordings have been sparse. The opera constructs a romantic plot around the clash between Alexander the Great and the Indian king Porus, who interestingly is attested only in Greek sources, not Indian ones. Also interesting is that the libretto by Pietro Metastasio was originally called Alessandro nell'Indie, but Handel's opera shifts the central role to Porus, perhaps because the famed castrato Senesino was set to perform the part. Here, the role of Poro is ably handled by countertenor Christopher Lowrey. However, a notable feature of the opera, and perhaps one that made this the second-most-popular of Metastasio's libretti behind only the ubiquitous Artaserse (Artaxerxes) is the large collection of strong vocal roles, giving several singers the chance to shine. The opera seria pitfall of a series of set pieces is avoided, and the drama unfolds naturally. The role of Poro is balanced that of Alessandro himself, for tenor voice, and here, Marco Angioloni, one of a new breed of singer-directors, is very strong. Hear also Giuseppina Bridelli as Poro's sister Erissena, a rich, compelling contralto. In his role as director of the ensemble Il Groviglio Angioloni, he favors a substantial ensemble (ten violins) capable of rough, rather percussive attacks. With an English opera, an Italian ensemble, and an international cast of singers, this release marks a step out for the Château de Versailles label, which generally emphasizes French Baroque repertory. The music is, however, a fine choice and beautifully brought off.© James Manheim /TiVo

For his first album as a soloist, the Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński chose to explore some of the rarest repertoires, to the point that several of the pieces presented here are world premieres. As a result, we are introduced to composers who are almost unknown today: Gaetano Schiassi (1698-1754), Domènec Terradellas (1711-1751) and Nicola Fago (1677-1745), alongside other composers who are famous today such as Hasse, Zelenka or Durante. Helped by the bass-baritone Yannis François, Orliński covers a large amount of time, from the end of the 17th century to the last third of the 18th century, though solely in the spiritual domain, with Masses, Dixit Dominus or sacred oratorios. That said, the vocal and instrumental writing borrows from baroque, with its vocalisations, its embellishments and its brightness. On top of this, the ensemble il pomo d'oro performs the work with great confidence. © SM/Qobuz

One of Stan Getz's all-time greatest albums, Sweet Rain was his first major artistic coup after he closed the book on his bossa nova period, featuring an adventurous young group that pushed him to new heights in his solo statements. Pianist Chick Corea, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Grady Tate were all schooled in '60s concepts of rhythm-section freedom, and their continually stimulating interplay helps open things up for Getz to embark on some long, soulful explorations (four of the five tracks are over seven minutes). The neat trick of Sweet Rain is that the advanced rhythm section work remains balanced with Getz's customary loveliness and lyricism. Indeed, Getz plays with a searching, aching passion throughout the date, which undoubtedly helped Mike Gibbs' title track become a standard after Getz's tender treatment here. Technical perfectionists will hear a few squeaks on the LP's second half (Getz's drug problems were reputedly affecting his articulation somewhat), but Getz was such a master of mood, tone, and pacing that his ideas and emotions are communicated far too clearly to nit-pick. Corea's spare, understated work leaves plenty of room for Getz's lines and the busily shifting rhythms of the bass and drums, heard to best effect in Corea's challenging opener "Litha." Aside from that and the title track, the repertoire features another Corea original ("Windows"), the typically lovely Jobim tune "O Grande Amor," and Dizzy Gillespie's Latin-flavored "Con Alma." The quartet's level of musicianship remains high on every selection, and the marvelously consistent atmosphere the album evokes places it among Getz's very best. A surefire classic.© Steve Huey /TiVo