After releasing two excellent -- but very different -- records in 2017, Samantha Fish spent the last year undergoing some changes. She moved to New Orleans and left her longtime label Ruf Records for Rounder. The guitar slinger has always stretched herself musically. For years she soaked up examples imparted by mentors in her twin pursuits as a guitarist and bandleader, transforming what worked in her own image -- she remade the blues that way too. On Kill or Be Kind it's the worthy ambition to become a better songwriter. Not content to pen rhyming couplets to frame blistering solos and riffs, she has, since Belle of the West, sought the place where melody lives. Fish and Grammy-winning producer Scott Billington sought out top-notch co-writers to collaborate on the album. Jim McCormick returns for four songs. Kate Pearlman and Eric McFadden who usually write for country and pop artists are also here with Oklahoma roots rocker Parker Milsap and Ohio bluesman Patrick Sweeney. Fish cut the record in New Orleans and in Memphis.Love is the theme on this album. It's everywhere. So are the many changes that go along with having it, losing it, and abandoning it. Fish runs the blues voodoo down on the squalling slide opener "Bulletproof" with noisy, howling production that weds Billy Gibbons' nasty distorto-boogie to Tom Waits racket-making musicality. Immediately following, the title track's swampy Rhodes piano, organ, and roiling horns meet her incendiary vocal and a loose backbeat. "Watch It Die" is smoking blues-rock with killer lyric poetry. The words get rung out with a passionate vocal that matches Fish's wrangling slide guitar and punchy horns. "Fair Weather" weds gentle rock to R&B in a deep ballad about the aftermath of a broken romance. "Love Your Lies" pops out of the box with a '60s girl group vibe; testifying Memphis horns and Fish's guitar cook it down on the backbeat. Its hook is irresistible. The whomping tom-toms that introduce "Dream Girl" frame Americana pulled taut between desire and disappointment: "If I could give up the happy ever after/I'd be gone…." The guitar break is short and spare, yet it underscores all the emotion the lyrics convey. "She Don't Live Around Here Anymore," is sweet yet deeply sad soul. In the grain of Fish's voice lies a vulnerable tenderness that's held in check by the wisdom in her shattered heart. The bluesy R&B in "Dirty" underscores the dark, hurtful, ravenous side of love and names it unreservedly. Closer "You Got It Bad," is revved-up, gritty soul-blues where horns and Wurlitzer frame Fish's snarling slide and searing vocal. The cut sends the album off on a cautionary note that's as much a confession in a cracked mirror as an affirmation of love's redemptive and destructive power. Kill or Be Kind is a watermark for Fish. Her writing, singing, and playing all serve the truth of what she seeks here: the heart of song.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Released in advance of Massive Attack's sixth album, 2010's Heligoland, this EP featured the first single drawn from the album, "Splitting the Atom" (featuring guest vocals from Horace Andy), and another tune from the LP, "Pray for Rain" (featuring Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio). The EP also includes an alternate version of "Psyche" (remixed by Van Rivers and the Subliminal Kid) and the non-LP track "Bulletproof Love."© Mark Deming /TiVo

The follow-up to 2015's White Light, which saw the Irish siblings returning to the recording studio after a ten-year absence, Jupiter Calling dials back on the polished folk-pop of its predecessor in favor of a more stripped-down and organic approach, courtesy of producer T-Bone Burnett. Recorded to two-inch tape mostly live, and with minimal overdubs at RAK Studios in London, the 13-track set was described by Caroline Corr as "the most freeing experience we've ever had in the studio." It's definitely the warmest-sounding Corrs outing to date, and the austere studio setup lends itself to the band's penchant for pairing pop acumen with Irish balladry, which they do with great aplomb on heartfelt cuts like "Son of Solomon," "Dear Life," and "Live Before I Die." The more architecturally intricate tracks -- like the breezy "Bulletproof Love," ambrosial "Season of Our Love," and politically charged "SOS" (Song of Syria) -- impress as well, with their rich sonic patina and compelling vocal performances that, more often than not, notch the groove between stoic and vulnerable.© James Christopher Monger /TiVo

After introducing fans to the fresh sounds and heady concepts of a new era with Map of the Soul: Persona, K-pop boy band BTS expand on that vision with their sleek and polished seventh full-length, Map of the Soul: 7. Through the lenses of fame and relationships, the group embark on a psycho-emotional journey that explores ideas of identity and self, using Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung's concepts as a backbone. Backed by impeccable production from a team of familiar faces (including Hitman, Hiss Noise, and P-Dogg), they transform contemporary trends from the worlds of hip-hop, pop, and dance into a fittingly unique BTS experience. Highlights from their 2019 EP set the stage, as leader/rapper RM gets existential with "Intro: Persona," using Jung's persona archetype (which represents how we present ourselves to the world) to ponder "Who the hell am I?" The Halsey collaboration "Boy with Luv" and the Ed Sheeran-penned "Make It Right" also appear, before booming dance number "Dionysus" makes way for over a dozen previously unreleased tracks. Opening the standout middle stretch, Suga tackles the dark side of Jungian concepts with "Interlude: Shadow," an intense rap flurry that samples "Intro: O!RUL8,2?" as the rapper lists his deepest desires for fame and glory. Smoothing out with the sexy "Black Swan" and "Filter," Map of the Soul: 7 reaches a peak with the haunting highlight "Louder Than Bombs," co-penned by Troye Sivan and Allie X. From there, the defiant anthem "ON" stacks a horn section atop a drumline and a choir for a booming effect that is further elevated by a bonus Sia version on the digital version of the album. For fans of the boys' aggressive rap cyphers, the raucous "UGH!" pummels hard, incorporating gunshots and menace on the set's most unhinged moment. Like Love Yourself: Answer, Map of the Soul: 7 closes with an uplifting, emotionally satisfying run that plays on sentiment and optimism. They reach a peak on "We Are Bulletproof: The Eternal," a triumphant, electro-tinged declaration of love to their ARMY fan base. Singing "We were only seven/But we have you all now," the septet acknowledge that "BTS" is more than just themselves, a direct nod to the massive international following that helped make them one of the biggest global names in music. In just a few short years, BTS have evolved from mischievous K-pop underdogs to genre-blurring kings of stadium pop. With each album, they continue on the path of self-discovery and maturity, pulling off yet another effortless display of pop prowess without forgetting the fans who have helped them along the way.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

The second full-length outing from the bombastic British rockers, Young & Dangerous picks right up where the Struts' 2014 debut, the bawdy, neo-glam pop fest Everybody Wants, left off. No longer just a showcase for charismatic Jagger/Mercury-esque frontman Luke Spiller -- he is still an alveolar trill-seeking force of nature -- the 13-track set plays out like a Mutt Lange production with Mark Ronson at the helm. This is stadium hard rock for the streaming generation, a neon-streaked cornucopia of seismic earworm hooks that yield tectonic plate-shaking choruses, all dressed up in a glitzy Slade meets Imagine Dragons wrapper. It's also a shit-ton of fun, the direct antithesis to the group's retrofitted contemporaries Greta Van Fleet's painfully derivative sophomore effort, Anthem of the Peaceful Army, which arrived just a week prior. Lead singles "Bulletproof Baby," "Primadonna Like Me," and "Body Talks," the latter of which serves as a bookend, with a souped-up, Kesha-assisted electropop version doubling as the closer, are as immediate and infectious as they are brazenly forged in fires that have long been reduced to ash. Self-aware and unrepentant, the Struts succeed where other artists who look to the past often fail, in large part because, like the Darkness before them, they possess both pop smarts and considerable amounts of moxie. They may not be capable of staging a second British Invasion, but they sure would put on a helluva Super Bowl halftime show.© James Christopher Monger /TiVo