...Famous Last Words... was the last album that Roger Hodgson made with Supertramp before seeking a solo career, and he made sure that radio would take kindly to his last hurrah with the band. Sporting an airy and overly bright pop sheen, ...Famous Last Words... put two singles on the charts, with the poignant "My Kind of Lady" peaking at number 31 and the effervescent smile of "It's Raining Again" going to number 11. The album itself went Top Ten both in the U.S. and in the U.K., eventually going gold in America. The songs are purposely tailored for Top 40 radio, delicately textured and built around overly bland and urbane choruses. Hodgson's abundance of romantically inclined poetry and love song fluff replaces the lyrical keenness that Supertramp had produced in the past, and the instrumental proficiency that they once mastered has vanished. Hodgson's English appeal and fragile vocal manner works well in some places, but the album's glossy sound and breezy feel is too excessive. Hodgson gave his solo album, 1984's In the Eye of the Storm, a mildly progressive feel, quite unlike his last appearance with his former group.© Mike DeGagne /TiVo

That album recording of the sold-out tour The Wall Live 2010-2013. This series of concerts by Roger Waters is the first comprehensive interpretation of the concept album by Pink Floyd since 1990. Mixing explosive scenic rock performances with strong message of peace and compassion, The Wall Live attracted more than 4.5 million spectators in more than 200 concerts across four continents! Produced by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck, Paul McCartney), the disc offers a rather exhilarating listening experience of the masterpiece originally published back in 1979, which was the first narrative concept album of Floyd. Three decades later, this scenic reinterpretation demonstrates the sheer timelessness of these particular songs. Above all, the versions offered here shed new light that all Pink Floyd fans worthy of the name will treasure. © CM/Qobuz

There has been no shortage of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes compilations over the years, and the most recent prior to 2004's The Essential Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes was 2001's Ultimate Blue Notes, which was very good indeed, but it wasn't part of Sony/Legacy's Essential series, which was the label's flagship for hits collections. So, three years after Ultimate, they reconfigured the collection into Essential so it could be part of their successful series. Essential contains 14 of the 15 tracks from Ultimate -- the substitution is "Ebony Woman" for "Be for Real," a move most listeners wouldn't notice, since all the other big hits are here, including "The Love I Lost," "Don't Leave Me This Way," and "If You Don't Know Me By Now." The track sequencing may be different, but the collections are nearly identical in terms of tracks chosen, so they're nearly interchangeable for all practical purposes. Both are excellent overviews of one of the great Philly soul groups. If you already have Ultimate, there's no need to seek Essential out, and if you don't have either, either will suit your needs very well.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

When Legacy put together The Essential Teddy Pendergrass for release in 2007, four years had come and gone since the Philly soul singer's hits had last been anthologized in double-disc form. So, is this really all that necessary? Yes, it is completely necessary. Unlike 2003's Anthology, released through The Right Stuff, The Essential Teddy Pendergrass does not cut off just prior to TP's mid-'80s switch from Philadelphia International to Elektra/Asylum. This means that later R&B number ones "Joy" and "It Should've Been You," along with the 1984 Whitney Houston duet "Hold Me" (number five), are all included -- but this is at the expense of some of TP's lower-charting singles from the earlier years, which are squeezed out. Regardless, due its greater breadth, it is the more attractive set of the two. William C. Rhoden, who was a jazz critic and editor at Ebony prior to becoming a well-known sports columnist and author, penned the liner notes.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

Years from now writers will expound the mysteries of a subgenre called "Pandemic Music" and whether the insights have resonance or were just the result of hermetic inbred blip. Not surprisingly, instead of trying to change the subject, most recordings made during the lockdown tend to be solemn personal accountings of failures and past mistakes. Singer/songwriter Rodney Crowell had a record nearly completed when Covid-19 hit and he was forced indoors with his wife, two dogs and a lot of writing time on his hands. On his 22nd record the spiritual inheritor of the Texas troubadour tradition birthed by Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark is too wise to go too maudlin and egoistic. But Triage, which was retooled during 2020, is definitely a quieter, more lyrically dense Crowell—actively parsing his regrets—than we have heard in recent years. "Transient Global Amnesia Blues," inspired by a scary bout Crowell had with a benign form of amnesia, is uncommonly wordy and more than a little fantastical: "From the rainbow eucalyptus stands beyond the River Styx/ To the blood falls in the Arctic it's at least eight thousand clicks/ You can get there as the crow flies headed north from Singapore/ But you better get a move on 'fore she melts down to the core." Love was also clearly on Crowell's mind as he sat indoors; the title track is a meditation on this power over the bones of a song where he concludes, "Love is all creation/ Love is manifest" and the ruminations continue on the slow blues "I'm All About Love," which is saved by Joe Robinson's distorted guitarwork. The pandemic-induced associations continue in a brighter vein with "One Little Bird" where he again looks inward, returning to mistakes that "caused some hurt that I can't mend" with welcome harmonica solos by Rory Hoffman. Always a left-of-Music-Row pioneer of the genre now called Americana, Crowell the exceptional songwriter re-emerges in "Something Has To Change," Triage's most upbeat number that settles into a sturdy groove with Raymond James Mason's muted trombone growling out a solo. Just in case we didn't get the message, there's the explicit closer, "This Body Isn't All There is to Who I Am." A bit too serious and less tuneful than most Crowell collections, Triage is the sound of whatever got him through the long pandemic night. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

Considering their career spanned close to 30 years, it's amazing how condensed most people's vision of Supertramp has become. Or maybe not. Few listeners, after all, would disagree that their prime period encompassed the mere six or so years that divided Crime of the Century (their third album) from Breakfast in America (their sixth), and that the pile of vinyl on either side of that is more or less padding. Certainly Retrospectacle has no problem with that scenario. A completist's eye for affairs does permit the first two albums to enjoy a quick look-in, with one song apiece; and similar treatment is meted out to the seven albums that took the band through the '80s and beyond. The meat of the moment, however, arrives with "Land Ho," the first vinyl manifestation of the so-called "classic" 'tramp lineup, and a lost 45 from early 1974. And, from thereon in, it's all plain sailing -- five songs from Crime of the Century, four apiece from Crisis? What Crisis and Even in the Quietest Moments. . ., and a whopping six from Breakfast in America, all selected to depict the band at the peak of its creative and musical powers -- the haunted harp that opens "School," the staccato percussion that powers "Lady," the lurid harmonies of "From Now On," and on to the sheer illogical madness of "The Logical Song" -- in fact, the only weakness here is the substitution of a live "You Started Laughing" for the vastly superior studio B-side. That aside, though, Retrospectacle tells its story with as much panache as the best of Supertramp could ever demand.© Dave Thompson /TiVo

Drummer Patrick Carney recently said the goal for the Black Keys' twelfth album was to have "fucking fun." Sounds like mission accomplished. If you've been waiting for Beck to make a sequel to Midnite Vultures, this might be as close as we get. He's pretty much a third member of the band on Ohio Players—co-writing and/or guesting on eight of the 14 songs. His SoCal sunshine (and backing vocals) can be heard on the relaxed fit of "This Is Nowhere" and freak-show single "Beautiful People (Stay Here)," a co-write with Dan the Automator that borrows the groove of "Feeling That Vibe" by Richard Mead. Beck takes the vocal lead on "Paper Crown," a thick slab of greased-up R&B decorated with deep bass, sassy Hammond, Moog, Vocoder and 808—and that's before Three 6 Mafia's Juicy J rolls in and brings the strut down to a cool, slow roll. It's hard to say who's zoomin' who here, but something about the collision of Beck, Carney and Dan Auerbach brings out a wonderfully weird, playful side of the Black Keys. Delightful "Don't Let Me Go" melds Four Seasons-style pomp, mod garage rock and funk horns while "Read Em and Weep" gives Halloween haunted house vibes—with Beck on organ and Auerbach's revved-up surf guitar conjuring the spirit of teen-tragedy splatter platters (á la Jan and Dean's "Dead Man's Curve"). And it's not just Beck along for the ride.  "... It's a big Saturday night party record," Carney has said. "We just had people come through the studio and throw a little bit of special sauce at each song." The band also brought in Memphis horrorcore legend Lil Noid for sleazy-sounding "Candy and Her Friends." And Noel Gallagher—"We were referring to him as 'The Chord Lord' because he's just a perfectionist with it," Carney told NME—leaves his mark on three songs, including "Only Love Matters," a tight stomp meant for cutting a rug. The Oasis songwriter was apparently in a real dance mood; "You'll Pay" is hip-swiveling, Question Mark and the Mysterians cool, with Auerbach perfectly working his falsetto. Gallagher picks up backing vocals on both of those as well as "On the Game," a mellowed-out live take with a Derek and the Dominos feel. "Fever Tree"—another Beck joint—has a psyched-out stomp. Carney's drums are monstrous, and Auerbach's guitar is like a buzzsaw, on dangerous "Please Me (Till I'm Satisfied)." "I Forgot to Be Your Lover," meanwhile, is solid gold soul: Auerbach really sweats the line "And I'm sorry/ I'm so sorry" for the gritty cover of William Bell and Booker T. Jones' silky Stax single. There's apparently even more to look forward to: A rumored Alice Cooper song didn't make the album, but may be out later this year. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz