Given that his parents are of American and Lebanese heritage and he's spent significant parts of his life in England and Italy, Mika could be seen as a citizen of the world. However, it's not surprising that France holds a special place in his heart. It's where he spent his earliest years, where he began writing songs and learned to play the piano, and where his albums consistently place in the Top Ten of the charts. That France has been so important to his life and career makes it somewhat remarkable that Mika waited until his sixth album to release a record of songs sung entirely in French, but Que ta tête fleurisse toujours is a loving tribute to his roots in more ways than one. He named the album for a phrase his mother often said to him while growing up ("may your head always bloom"). Though she passed in 2021, the music she inspired is more uplifting than mournful, with the tenderness of "30 Secondes" and "Passager" coming through clearly even to listeners who don't speak a word of French. He complements these pensive moments with pulsing ones like "C'est la Vie" and "Touche Touche," where the pounding pianos and synths, disco rhythms, and falsetto vocals are unmistakably Mika. He rounds out the album with some skillful homages to classic French pop, such the string-laden daydream of "Moi, Andy et Paris" and the stylishly bittersweet "Jane Birkin," a much more restrained celebrity homage than his breakthrough single "Grace Kelly." By Mika's usual standards, Que ta tête fleurisse toujours may be understated, but its delicate ballads and feather-light pop make it a patisserie-worthy confection.© Heather Phares /TiVo

Theatre of the Absurd Presents C'est La Vie is the 13th album from British pop outfit Madness and follows 2016's Can't Touch Us Now. Recorded at the beginning of 2023, the album brings the band's brand of nuttiness to a melting pot of ska-inflected pop songs.© Rich Wilson /TiVo

Download not available

After four previous albums that to varying degrees meld his idol Django Reinhardt's gypsy jazz with French chanson in originals and specially chosen covers, guitarist and vocalist Thomas Dutronc realizes a dream with Frenchy. Accompanied by his quartet and an international cast of guests including Iggy Pop, Diana Krall, Stacey Kent, Youn Sun Nah, Haley Reinhart, Jeff Goldblum, and Billy Gibbons, he pays homage to the timelessness of French song with a mostly wonderful result. Iggy and Krall assist on Hernri Bette's and Andre Hornez's "C'est si Bon," immortalized by Yves Montand. While this version doesn’t add much, it's delivered bilingually, thus embracing Jerry Seelen's English lyrics. Edit Piaf's theme, "La Vie en Rose," finds Gibbons adding a silvery touch to an uncharacteristically languid guitar solo. The particular quality in the grain of Dutronc's voice and phrasing bridge Piaf's clipped enunciation with Chet Baker's vulnerable delivery style. "Plus Je T'embrasse," penned by American composer Ben Ryan, was rendered iconic by Blossom Dearie in 1958. Dutronc reads it with fingerpopping hipster sass. American soprano saxophonist, jazz giant Sidney Bechet (beloved in France since 1922) scored a hit there with "Petit Fleur." Its Latin percussion and lonely musette frame Dutronc's vocal and guitar exquisitely. He also reimagines chart hits by two French groups who composed their lyrics in English: A sultry, almost erotic read of Air's "Playground Love" with South Korea's Nah, and an all but unrecognizable version of Daft Punk's international smash "Get Lucky." While Dutronc's vocal on the latter is unsuitable for its melody, his hip take on gypsy-cool jazz adds dimension and savvy. There's another fine duet here between the guitarist and Stacey Kent on a resonant, sensual take of Pierre Barouh's title theme for the film "Un Homme et Une Femme." Frenchy couldn’t exist without a tune by Reinhardt (the French press has dubbed Dutronc "Django's Son"), a modern version of "Minor Swing" that replaces Stephane Grappelli's violin with a Rhodes piano, popping electric guitars, and hyper-strummed mandolin. Alongside Haley Reinhart, Dutronc offers a resilient, rockist read of Jacques Brel's eternal "If You Go Away" adds to a lineage started by Georges Brassens and Leo Ferre. A truly confusing entry here is the inclusion of "My Way." Set to the music of the French song "Comme d'habitude," composed and written by Jacques Revaux, Frank Sinatra's signature version (with unrelated English lyrics by Paul Anka), is the standard no matter who sings it. Dutronc's attempt to straddle cultural lines is valiant, but so wispy it should have been abandoned. Further, on Sacha Distel's and Jean Broussolle's "La Belle Vie" (Yankees know it as Tony Bennet's "The Good Life"), is temporarily elevated by Goldblum's deft pianism, but his uneven, ever so slight singing voice, when paired with the guitarist's expressive baritone, proves detrimental. Dutronc planned and recorded Frenchy with great care and more than a little skill. Fans will find much to delight in. However, attraction for non-Francophone audiences may prove -- despite the album's high quality -- somewhat limited.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Though this album is named 4, it’s actually Slash’s fifth album since 2010. However, it is the fourth record he’s released with his backing band, the Conspirators, and the incredible singer Myles Kennedy. This first-class team decided to do things a bit differently this time and travelled to Nashville to record with Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Rivals Sons, Chris Stapleton, Lady Gaga…), and they recorded as many tracks as they could live. This way of doing things can occasionally expose an imperfection or two, but it has the advantage of capturing real, raw rock and roll... Something that’s often lost when recording multiple takes.On the surface, 4 seems to stick to the classic hard rock that Slash is both so adept at and so revered for (perhaps even at the risk of the guitarist seeing little point of venturing out of this comfort zone). However, the sound and articulation of this album gives it a little extra soul, something often lacking in this type of ultra-codified production. This is rock. Real rock. The album is also the first record released by the brand-new Gibson Records label (created by the famous guitar company)… it only seems fitting that this new venture is kicked off with an album by Slash, the guitar legend who’s become almost synonymous with their brand.The music is solid and full of heavy accents. It hooks you right from the chorus of The River is Rising and hardly ever lets you go from that point onwards (except on rare occasions, for example during Fill my World), which is a good sign. The live recording, which is masterfully produced and mixed by Dave Cobb, makes volume 4 a far more organic record than the three that precede it. The technical guitar riffs (April Fool, Call off the Dogs) are incredible, and can feel similar to some of his best work with Guns N' Roses. This fantastic release also owes its success to Myles Kennedy, a singer who’s consistently at the top of his game and in tune with each and every composition. For fans of Guns N’ Roses, 4 reveals a frustrating truth: the contents of this album are far more convincing than the singles released by Guns N’ Roses around the same time. Perhaps Slash’s music has more room to breathe without Axl around? © Chief Brody/Qobuz

Download not available

Download not available

Download not available

When Up! was released in November 2002, Shania Twain revealed in one of many promotional interviews that she writes far more songs than can fit on her records and that she hides any personal, introspective songs she pens, not even playing them for her husband and collaborator Robert John "Mutt" Lange. Now, this is certainly a psychological quirk worth exploring, but it also suggests why Twain's albums are such brilliant pieces of mainstream pop. Anything that doesn't fit the mold is discarded, so the album can hum along on its big, polished, multipurpose hooks and big, sweeping emotions. This is Super-Size pop, as outsized and grandiose as good pop should be. And, unlike the work of most pop divas, where the subject matter is firmly about the singer, none of the songs on Up! are remotely about Shania Twain, the person -- let's face it, she's never faced a situation like "Waiter! Bring Me Water!," where she's afraid her guy is going to be stolen away by their hot waitress. No, these songs have been crafted as universal anthems, so listeners can hear themselves within these tales. Just as cleverly, the songs are open-ended and mutable -- always melodic, but never stuck in any particular style, so they can be subjected to any kind of mix and sound just as good. (Indeed, Up! was initially released in no less than three different mixes -- the "Red" pop mix, the "Green" country mix, and the "Blue" international mix; sometimes the differences in mixes were so slight, it sounded like nothing was changed, but each mix revealed how sturdy and melodic the structure of each of the 19 songs was, and how they were designed to sound good in any setting.) True, the sheer length of the album could be seen as off-putting at first, since these 19 tracks don't necessarily flow as a whole. Then again, part of the genius of Up! is that it's designed as a collection of tracks, so the album is durable enough to withstand years on the charts, producing singles with different textures and moods every few months. Time revealed Come on Over as a stellar pop album, and the same principle works for Up!. Upon the first listen, singles seem indistinct, and it seems like too much to consume at once, but once you know the lay of the land, the hooks become indelible and the gargantuan glossiness of the production is irresistible. In other words, it's a more than worthy follow-up to the great mainstream pop album of the late '90s, and proof that when it comes to shiny, multipurpose pop, nobody does it better than Shania Twain.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

One of the chief calling-cards of the Welsh rock band Stereophonics is their ongoing fidelity to their original sound. Since the group’s inception in 1997, Kelly Jones and co have stuck to a recipe that really works, placing a strong guitar attack, pop melodies and Jones’s gravelly voice at the heart of their music. Their ninth album, Keep The Village Alive, is no exception to this rule, and the songs the quartet deliver here are all hallmarks of the sound that has made Stereophonics one of the most popular rock bands of recent times. The new album was recorded in a small house in West London, where the Welsh band holed up for a few months to concentrate on songcraft, and to give free rein to the creativity of chief songwriter Kelly Jones. The bandleader co-produced the disc, alongside his sidekick Jim Lowe, and each of the tracks on the record betrays the energy and enthusiasm that we have come, by now, to associate with Stereophonics. Keep The Village Alive is an ideal weapon to conquer the charts with.

After leaving Tai Phong, Jean-Jacques Goldman's solo career gradually took off between 1981 and the release of Non Homologué, the best-selling French recording of 1986. He followed it with Entre Gris Clair et Gris Foncé in 1987, which sold even better. Part of this has to do with the ubiquitous presence of Goldman on French radio and MTV, but the rest is the sound on the recording, which balances rock dynamics with very stylized '80s production: glossy keyboards, heavily treated guitars, drum machines and programs, etc. And then there are the hooks, as evidenced in the first single "La Bas."© Thom Jurek /TiVo