Van Morrison grew up with Skiffle - yes, at 77 years of age that’s still possible! Skiffle is the precursor to pop music which allowed young musicians in England to learn the ropes of traditional American music, folk, jazz and blues in the 50’s and early 60’s. Skiffle bands played makeshift acoustic instruments, guitars, banjos and washboards, with big smiles and hair slicked back behind the ears. Although it was very popular at the time, the genre was soon swept away by the pop explosion (before the Beatles, John Lennon had his skiffle band, the Quarrymen), but it is remembered as a safe haven for musical learning, and a bygone golden age. More than 20 years ago, Van Morrison honoured skiffle on a live album with two of the genre’s heroes: Lonnie Donegan and Chris Barber (The Skiffle Sessions, live in Belfast). He has now returned to the studio and to the band for Moving On Skiffle, which is like an elixir of youth. The album’s 23 tracks are all covers of songs that belong to American folk and blues heritage. Van Morrison doesn’t claim to revolutionise anything here. Using cheerful, acoustic instruments, he celebrates the eternal youth of songs that will still be sung around campfires 50 years from now. Just as Dylan revisited Sinatra’s repertoire on Shadows In The Night and Fallen Angels in the mid-2010’s, Van Morrison flips through the musical album of his youth, bringing it back with a catchy simplicity and joy. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz

Bob Dylan recorded Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde during an 18-month hot streak in 1965 and 1966, which is widely (and justly) regarded as one of the most impressive fusions of quantity and quality in the history of rock music. John Darnielle doesn't appear to be gunning for Dylan's status as rock's most venerable man of letters (even though he can honestly say he's a better novelist), but it's worth noting Darnielle managed to crank out three excellent albums between April 2020 and June 2021 with his group the Mountain Goats, a hat trick he should point to with pride. Adding to the pleasant surprise, the third Mountain Goats in this run, 2021's Dark in Here, is the best of the three, the work of a man with stories to tell and the skills to make something special from them. Darnielle is a songwriter with a taste for concept albums, and while these 12 tunes don't have a clear thematic connection, they share a common mood: paranoia. Practically everyone in Dark in Here has some sort of secret, a fundamental truth they cannot or will not share, and they're guarded in the extreme as they try to suss out this conspiracy theory or that action from some shadowy other goings on. It's hard to tell if these folks are engaged in espionage or just think people are out to get them for no good reason, and that's part of what makes these stories so fascinating -- Darnielle allows each protagonist to show us what's going on in their mind, and then gives us the choice of deciding just how divorced from reality they may be. Darnielle's bone fides as a songwriter are a given at this point, but his talent for record making has begun matching his skill as a tunesmith and vocalist, and his regular collaborators -- multi-instrumentalist Matt Douglas, bassist Peter Hughes, and drummer Jon Wurster -- are remarkably sure hands with nuance, and as capable of exploring the space and making their way back as any first-class jazz ensemble. And whoever got the idea of bringing in Muscle Shoals legend Spooner Oldham to contribute additional keyboards deserves a raise. Without drawing undo attention to himself, Darnielle has been moving from strength to strength as one of indie rock's most vital and original talents, and Dark in Here demonstrates he's working at the top of his game and it's a joy to hear. Let's just hope there's no motorcycle accident in his future. © Mark Deming /TiVo

The title Re-Loaded: 20 #1 Hits slyly winks at Blake Shelton's first hits collection, Loaded: The Best of Blake Shelton. Released in time for the holiday season of 2010, a lot has happened between that compilation and this 2015 collection -- namely, Shelton has turned into a household name thanks to his starring role on NBC's televised music competition The Voice (not to mention his headline-grabbing romance with Miranda Lambert), and he's had the hits to go along with his fame. According to Billboard's U.S. Country Airplay charts, he had precisely 12 number one hits from the three albums he's released since Loaded and they're all here, sequenced in reverse-chronological order beginning with "Sangria," running through the smooth-rolling "Sure Be Cool If You Did" and the modulated rowdiness of "Boys Round Here," and ending with "Honey Bee," the smash that hit in 2011 just as the singer started on The Voice. Next up are his eight number ones from the 2000s -- "Hillbilly Bone," "She Wouldn't Be Gone," "Home," "Some Beach," "The Baby," and "Austin" -- finally concluding with the nicely laid-back, grooving "Gonna," a song that underscores how Shelton easily transitioned from traditionalist to mainstream crooner. By focusing so heavily on his 2010s, the rest of Reloaded also emphasizes this shift, and leaves behind many of the great, brawnier singles he had from the 2000s, but that's a fair trade-off: not only will this collection appeal to 2010s converts, it is true to who Shelton is in 2015.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Poplife was a turning point in David Guetta's career. It made the French DJ's fame truly global by giving him his first number one dance hit stateside: a collaboration with the always fresh Chris Willis forever to be known as "Love Is Gone." Other singles that burned up the dancefloor were "Baby When the Lights" and "Everytime We Touch," though it was not the same recording as the one of the same name by Euro-pop group Cascada. The strength of the beats on Poplife made Guetta a recognizable name in the United States, and gave him the platform on which he could build relationships, and ultimately, form collaborations, with A-List pop artists, as he did on his next album, One Love.© Matthew Chisling /TiVo

Poplife was a turning point in David Guetta's career. It made the French DJ's fame truly global by giving him his first number one dance hit stateside: a collaboration with the always fresh Chris Willis forever to be known as "Love Is Gone." Other singles that burned up the dancefloor were "Baby When the Lights" and "Everytime We Touch," though it was not the same recording as the one of the same name by Euro-pop group Cascada. The strength of the beats on Poplife made Guetta a recognizable name in the United States, and gave him the platform on which he could build relationships, and ultimately, form collaborations, with A-List pop artists, as he did on his next album, One Love.© Matthew Chisling /TiVo

In the first edition of the Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde was a smart and streetwise rock & roller with just enough maturity to make something of what life had shown her by her mid-twenties -- and she had the rough-and-tumble band to match for her first two albums. The second version of the group cast her as an unwitting but unbowed survivor, determined to move on and keep rocking despite the deaths of two of her bandmates, and the tough, no-nonsense approach of her new collaborators on Learning to Crawl reflected her attitude. Released in 1986, Get Close marked the debut of the Pretenders' Mark Three, and on this album listeners are introduced to Chrissie Hynde, Mature Professional Musician with a band to match. Get Close is never less than solid as a work of craft, and guitarist Robbie McIntosh, drummer Blair Cunningham, and bassist T.M. Stevens deliver tight and emphatic performances throughout, but they also sound like what they are -- journeymen musicians who bring their chops to their projects while leaving their personalities at the door. While Hynde always dominated the Pretenders, by this time it was obvious that this was fully her show, and if she felt less like rocking and more like exploring her emotions and thoughts about parenthood on midtempo pop tunes, no one in the group was going to prod her into doing otherwise; the presence of a large number of additional session players further buffs away any of Get Close's potential sharp edges. Despite all this, Hynde's voice is in great form throughout, and when she gets her dander up, she still has plenty to say and good ways to say it; "How Much Did You Get for Your Soul?" is a gleefully venomous attack on the musically unscrupulous; "Don't Get Me Wrong" is a superb pop tune and a deserved hit single; and the Motown-flavored "I Remember You" and the moody "Chill Factor" suggest she'd been learning a lot from her old soul singles. But after three great albums from the Pretenders, Get Close sounded good but not especially striking, and its hit-and-miss approach, with a few great songs surrounded by lesser material, was something Hynde's fans would find themselves getting used to over the group's next few releases.© Mark Deming /TiVo

The Gerry Mulligan Quartet of 1952-53 was one of the best-loved jazz groups of the decade and it made stars out of both the leader and trumpeter Chet Baker. Mulligan and Baker had very few reunions after 1953 but this particular CD from 1957 is an exception. Although not quite possessing the magic of the earlier group, the music is quite enjoyable and the interplay between the two horns is still special. With expert backup by bassist Henry Grimes and drummer Dave Bailey, these 13 selections (plus two new alternate takes) should please fans of both Mulligan and Baker.© Scott Yanow /TiVo

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Their first release through the Source Etc. label, Giant is the 2006 album from French trio Herman Düne. Produced by the siblings themselves, the follow-up to Not on Top includes the single "I Wish That I Could See You Soon," the instrumental closing track "Mrs. Bigger," and 14 other alt-pop tracks influenced by the likes of Sonic Youth, Pavement, and Belle & Sebastian. Produced by Richard Formby, it's also the last release featuring drummer André before he left the band for his Stanley Brinks solo career.© Jon O'Brien /TiVo

Nothing but a Burning Light, Bruce Cockburn's first release for Columbia, teams him with producer T-Bone Burnett, whose singer/songwriter background, and spiritual leanings, seemed to be a perfect match. Throughout, Burnett's production is understated, allowing Cockburn's voice, guitar, and songs to lead the way over a solid foundation of bass, drums, and tasteful organ by Booker T. Jones. This sort of sympathetic production brings out the best in Cockburn and his material, which is consistently strong. Songs such as "Kit Carson," "Mighty Trucks of Midnight," and "Indian Wars" continue the weightier concerns of his work of the past decade, but the majority of the record takes on a more personal, introspective tone. "One of the Best Ones" and "Great Big Love" are winning affirmations of love and life, while the retelling of the nativity, "Cry of a Tiny Babe," is as beautiful and moving a contemporary Christmas song as you're likely to hear. Cockburn also decides to include a rare cover, his excellent reading of the Blind Willie Johnson gospel-blues "Soul of a Man," which fits nicely in the whole of the album. Though it may lack the immediate power, Nothing but a Burning Light is Bruce Cockburn's best since his 1984 release Stealing Fire. Jackson Browne and Sam Phillips guest on backing vocals.© Brett Hartenbach /TiVo

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