Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe aren't often discussed as one of pop music's great songwriting teams, but the wonderfully eclectic body of work they've created as Pet Shop Boys speaks for itself. Since crashing into the mainstream with 1985's chart-topper, "West End Girls," the London duo have delivered a remarkably consistent barrage of tightly crafted synth pop singles that fuse dance culture with trenchant cultural commentary and an undeniable sense of melodic grace. Each of their 14 albums has reached the U.K. Top Ten, and they've sent an astonishing 42 singles into the Top 30, including number ones like "It's a Sin" and "Heart." A bevy of compilations have celebrated Pet Shop Boys' highlights over the years, and 1991's Discography: The Complete Singles Collection was a significant number three hit itself. 2023's Smash: The Singles 1985-2020 is essentially an update of the aforementioned collection and contains, in chronological order, each of their singles from this 35-year period. In unpacking its 55-song sequence, the first thing one notices is the uniform quality of their songs: elegantly constructed, dense with pop nutrients, undeniably catchy, yet ever so smart. Tennant is an underrated vocalist who has continually pushed his range over the years, balancing wry asides and spoken word sections with his reedy and surprisingly nimble tenor. Lowe's ear for a catchy hook is another defining element and ranges from subtle (1990's droll standout "Being Boring") to grandiose (2013's marvelous banger "Love Is a Bourgeois Construct"). What's more, the pair has assembled this durable catalog almost without interruption, reliably delivering singles, albums, remixes, and EPs almost annually since their debut. Work ethic and quality don't always go hand in hand, but Pet Shop Boys have both in spades.© Timothy Monger /TiVo

Delivered in the wake of Phil Collins' massive success as a solo star, Invisible Touch was seen at the time as a bit of a Phil Collins solo album disguised as a Genesis album, and it's not hard to see why. Invisible Touch is, without a doubt, Genesis' poppiest album, a sleek, streamlined affair built on electronic percussion and dressed in synths that somehow seem to be programmed, not played by Tony Banks. In that sense, it does seem a bit like No Jacket Required, and the heavy emphasis on pop tunes does serve the singer, not the band, but it's not quite fair to call this a Collins album, and not just because there are two arty tunes that could have fit on its predecessor, Genesis. There is a difference between Collins and Genesis -- on his own, Phil was lighter, and Genesis was often a bit chillier. Of course, the title track is the frothiest thing the band ever did, while "In Too Deep" and "Throwing It All Away" are power ballads that could be seen as Phil projects, but "Land of Confusion" was a protest tune and "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" was a stark, scary tale of scoring dope (which made its inclusion in a Michelob campaign in the '80s almost as odd as recovering alcoholic Eric Clapton shilling for the brewery). But those songs had big hooks that excused their coldness, and the arty moments sank to the bottom, obscured by the big, bold pop hooks here -- pop that was the sound of the mainstream in the late '80s, pop that still effortlessly evokes its time.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Morgan Wade has not only conquered the sophomore slump; the music and her raspy Virginia twang sound better than ever. "80s Movie" is redolent of the kind of nostalgia Eric Church does so well, referencing cassette tapes and small-town water towers, When Harry Met Sally and Dirty Dancing, and remembering boyfriends with "Tom Cruise hair." And, as with Church, it's as inspired by '80s guitar rock as classic '80s country. But there are plenty of '90s touchstones, too, including the folksy jangle of "Roman Candle" and smoky "Outrun." "Alanis," with its jittering guitar, pays tribute to Alanis Morisette and "You Oughta Know," which came out the year Wade was born. (She performed that song with Morissette and other country singers at the 2023 CMT Awards.) "Alanis, lived out your pain through sweet profanity … Alanis, how did you ever keep your sanity?" Wade sings, in awe of the way Morisette would "scream on the stage and let out the rage 'til the lights go dark." Appropriately, the song ends with Alanis-style harmonica. There's a Sheryl Crow open-mic vibe "Phantom Feelings," a Julia Michaels co-write, with Wade hitting a growl as she gets nostalgic about being "young and … dumb" and "getting drunk at a bar downtown quoting Sylvia Plath." There's also a longing for being 16 and carefree, before knowing "the world was so damn mean," on "Losers Like Me," which rips with juke-joint piano and siren-wail guitar. "We said we wouldn't get jobs and we'd burn our bras/ We wouldn't turn out nothing like our moms/ I didn't/ But I wish I did," Wade reckons. Inevitably, the songs on this record will be picked over for clues to Wade's nebulous relationship with Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards, a favorite topic of internet gossip. Power ballad "Guns and Roses" should fuel the flames: "Chasing after you feels a little dangerous/ I could give it all, but it never is enough/ Just when I think we're friends/ All of your words turn to lead/ Planting flowers in my head/ Aiming for love, hitting me instead." And "27 Club," a bittersweet-sounding acoustic number, is sure to spur guessing games, as Wade sings about "laying in the bed at the Chateau/ With someone I saw on TV but barely even know" and being "out in LA with a Beverly Hills hottie/ The kind that wants to go and sniff the pills off my body." It builds and the guitars rock out, but Wade, who proudly wears her sobriety, is sometimes left "feeling so sad/ I could reach for the gun/ I could reach for the bottle/ But it's great/ I'm getting paid ... I didn't make the 27 club/ I'm 28." Glad she's here. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

After two decades, seven previous studio albums, multi-platinum sales, and sold-out concerts across the globe, Denmark's roots Volbeat have remained stubbornly consistent in wielding massive, power and thrash metal riffs, passionate rockabilly swagger, and punk rock attitude. Eighth album Servant of the Mind continues their M.O. while glossing up their sonic approach (a tad) and re-emphasizing the theatrical potential in guitarist/vocalist Michael Poulsen's songs. Again produced and mixed by longtime collaborator Jacob Hansen, Servant of the Mind is arguably the darkest, loudest, and heaviest album in their catalog --as well as their most accessible. Written in three months, it was recorded in three weeks. With its roiling drumkit and bass intro, opener "Temple of Ekur" is as epic and excessive as its title. The chugging guitar riff, driving tempo, and Poulsen's crystal clean, hooky vocals combine to make it a stadium anthem. "The Sacred Stones" commences with a massive Black Sabbath-like dual guitar riff from Poulsen and Rob Caggiano, underscored by Jon Larsen's thudding tom-toms and kick drums and Kaspar Boye Larsen's filthy bassline. Poulsen deliberately channels Ronnie James Dio in his singing. What emerges is a dynamic update of Heaven and Hell's approach transformed through Volbeat's musicality. "Shotgun Blues" is darker, edgier, and more ferocious. The guitars charge at one another with 1980s thrash metal abandon, forcing Poulsen to climb above them. The charging drum kit and distorted bassline add ballast and textural dimension. In typical Volbeat fashion, however, the chorus delivers an infectious lyric hook without sacrificing the heaviness. Contrast this tune with the brutal chug and burn of "Say No More," with its proggy stop-and-start bridge, double-timed drumming, and assaultive guitars. The band know how to throw curve balls, too. "Dagen Før" features a guest vocal from Stine Bramsen of Danish pop heroes Alphabeat. Volbeat render it an unapologetic AOR anthem with slick, sheeny '80s production, a cruising tempo, and an irrepressible pop melody perfectly melding Bramsen's and Poulsen's voices. While the proceeding "The Passenger" answers with a punky '80s thrash vamp through the verse, its refrain offers the kind of pop-metal grandeur only Volbeat and Ghost -- and vintage Blue Öyster Cult, of course -- are capable of summoning. "Becoming" nods at death metal as drums and bass swing under the punishing guitars but again, Poulsen sends it over the top with a fist-pumping refrain. "Step Into Light" is horrific metallic surfabilly with a soulfully resonant vocal. Closer "Lasse's Birgitta" enters with edgy, reverbed blues and rockabilly guitar vamps before a thrashing "Paranoid"-esque riff asserts the tune's body. Poulsen's vocal keeps the band centered even as he sings of witch burning in 15th century Sweden. Servant of the Mind doesn't offer much in terms of change for Volbeat. But these 13 songs, penned during a time of great global uncertainty, are wonderfully crafted, beautifully recorded, and performed with an incendiary energy. In other words, they all affirm life, fun, and better days ahead. Rock & roll can ask no more. © Thom Jurek /TiVo

Few will dispute George Friderick Handel being one of the most accomplished composers of the Classical era, but it should also be noted he possessed to an equal degree, a perhaps less-than-esteemed-but-vital gift in those pre-copyright days, the art of self-promotion. Even in the early stages of his career Handel was well-aware of his prodigious talent and sought to promote it to the utmost. It was that ambition which led the young composer in 1706 to Florence, at the behest of one of the Medicis, to assist in establishing the opera in that city. Handel later decamped for Rome where, his reputation preceding him, he quickly made the acquaintance of leading patrons of the arts among the nobility and upper echelons of the Catholic Church, leading to many commissions.One of those commissions came from Cardinal Carlo Colonna for the major work on this recording, a setting of the Psalm, 109 in the Vulgate, 110 in the King James, Dixit Dominus (The Lord said unto my Lord). Regardless of the composer’s young age of 22, it is the work of a mature master. Even more remarkable, Handel, though from a strict and observant Lutheran upbringing, was able to work with his Catholic patrons, setting a Latin text suitable for use in Catholic worship.There are many recordings of Handel’s Dixit Dominus and this is certainly one of the finest, with brilliant performances by soloists, orchestra, and chorus. Conductor Bart Van Reyn’s tempos are on the sprightly side, but never seem excessive or rushed. There is a wonderful freshness and sparkle to this reading, both in performance and the superb high-resolution sound. Particular praise must be made of the three soloists, whose virtuosity and sensitivity to the text are exemplary.A welcome bonus is a much lesser-known masterpiece by a much lesser-known composer, Giovanni Battista Ferrandini: his Marian cantata (mistakenly attributed until recently to Handel), Il pianto di Maria. In the excellent program notes, Aurélie Walschaert writes this lament differs from earlier ones modeled after the medieval text Stabat Mater, where a narrator describes the sorrows of Mary. Most of the text in this composition is in the first-person, with Mary herself describing the sorrows she is witnessing, thus deepening even further the emotion. A prize should go to mezzo-soprano Sophie Rennert, whose astonishingly empathetic delivery of the text will move any listener, whatever their religion. This is a must for every classical library.  © Anthony Fountain/Qobuz

The London Oratory Schola Cantorum has been around for several decades but came on the recording scene definitively only in the 2010s, offering a series of "Sacred Treasures of ..." albums. These are not the generic products one might guess from the title. Consider 2024's Sacred Treasures of Venice, which is not an anthology but an album focusing on a specific repertory and on one specific part of it at that. It made classical best-seller charts in early 2024. St. Mark's cathedral in Venice at the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th is known for polychoral magnificence, for sacred music in which instruments played a new and groundbreaking role. Of course, more intimate music was also pursued, and even in larger pieces practice, was flexible, and they might have been sung a cappella. These pieces by Giovanni Gabrieli, his uncle Andrea Gabrieli, the young Claudio Monteverdi, and a couple of other composers are ideally suited to the all-male London Oratory Schola Cantorum, whose boy singers have some texture and heft. However, it is interesting as well to hear the St. Mark's repertory sung this way; one hears that the big dimensions of the music were not just a response to St. Mark's architecture but represented a musical evolution as well. Giovanni Gabrieli was innovative not just in using instruments but in shaping musical architectures with register and harmony, and this is apparent even where no instruments are present. The contrasts among the composers here are also intriguing; hear the limpid, almost Palestrinian pieces of Giovanni Croce at the end. Hyperion records this young choir well, not at the London Oratory School but at St. Augustine's Church, Kilbourn, London, which has a spacious enough acoustic to put this music across. These are indeed Sacred Treasures of Venice, but this is also an album from which one can learn.© James Manheim /TiVo

After an amicable breakup in 2001, The Afghan Whigs began touring and making records again in the second decade of the 21st century.  With the departure of original guitarist Rick McCollum in 2014, frontman Greg Dulli and the reconstituted Whigs failed to impress with that year’s Do to the Beast and 2017’s In Spades. But the extra time the pandemic offered seems to have forced Dulli and his bandmates to change up their process, slowly building How Do You Burn? through separately recorded files. Guests abound, none bigger than the late Mark Lanegan who was in the duo Gutter Twins with Dulli, and here sings background vocals on "Jyja" and "Take Me There." (According to Dulli, Lanegan also chose this album's title.)  After the storming rock guitar opener, "I'll Make You See God," unexpected string arrangements color "The Getaway" before vocalist Susan Marshall (who previously guested on 1965) joins for "Catch A Colt," which the band's official biography compares to Some Girls-era Rolling Stones or Tusk vintage Fleetwood Mac but is actually a synth-y '80s flavored dance track. "Please, Baby, Please" is one of Dulli's "are you the one?" soul ballads in which he switches to a Prince-like falsetto at points. Its plea of "Please, baby, please/ I gotta know what I've been waiting for/ I gotta know who I've been looking for/ I gotta know if that's you knockin'" is convincing and seemingly heartfelt. Though marred by a sample of sirens at the end, the tuneful "A Line of Shots," on which Dulli plays and sings everything, grows larger thanks to a grandiose vocal performance. And distinctive singer Marcy Mays (Scrawl), who appeared on the 1993's Gentlemen, duets with Dulli on "Domino and Jimmy," with its catchy repeated chorus.  While this is not the Afghan Whigs of old, it is the best they've sounded since their rebirth. © Robert Baird/Qobuz 

This British compilation includes the entirety of the Cramps' first release, the Gravest Hits EP, along with selections from Songs the Lord Taught Us, Psychedelic Jungle, Smell of Female, and a live version of "You Got Good Taste" (shortened here to "Good Taste"). It covers the years 1979-1983, a formative period in the band's long career. Ten of the tracks can also be found on the domestic compilation Bad Music for Bad People, which was released the following year. Although the bulk of the material consists of covers, you can hardly tell (barring an intimacy with any of the originals). Once the Cramps get hold of a song, they always make it their own -- even the more recognizable numbers like "Surfin' Bird," "Lonesome Town," and "Fever." All benefit from Lux Interior's vocal prowess. He's a proto-punk screamer like Screamin' Jay Hawkins or the Sonics' Gerry Roslie on the rockin' numbers, but can caress a ballad like mid-period Elvis when the need arises. None of the songs sound as if they could possibly have been written anytime after the '60s. Alex Chilton produced the first ten tracks, the Cramps the remaining seven. [The cover art for ...Off the Bone has varied over the years; the 1987 Illegal edition is rendered -- appropriately enough -- in 3-D.]© Kathleen C. Fennessy /TiVo

"With a mixture of uptempo and slow-burn tunes, NOEASY is an expressive, balanced stroke of brilliance..." © TiVo