After the catharsis of 2021's Act 1, Imagine Dragons complete the story with Mercury: Act 2, a whopping 18-track journey that examines the time after the shock and grief of loss has begun to settle. While part one processed those messy emotions with some of the rawest and most vulnerable moments in the band's usual radio- and gym-friendly catalog, part two loses focus by biting off more than they can chew. There are plenty of great songs here -- fully expected for a band as hook-savvy as Imagine Dragons -- but there's simply too much going on and not enough editorial trimming to make this as impactful an experience as Act 1. Starting strong with irresistible singles "Bones" and "Sharks," Act 2 soon takes a turn to the pensive and reflective, with frontman Dan Reynolds lamenting his shortcomings on "I Don't Like Myself" and pleading for relief on "Take It Easy." The second half of the album is weighed down by similar moments, snuffing the momentum of the handful of classic stompers peppered throughout. Of this introspective bunch, the country-dusted acoustic gem "Crushed" is on par with "Wrecked" as a tearjerking standout, as "Sirens" merges the group's usual radio-friendly ear with a deep well of emotion. While the buoyant handclaps-and-synths highlight "Younger" and the riffs-and-breakbeats blazer "Blur" come closest to joining their array of mainstream smashes on a future Greatest Hits set, the bulk of Act 2 is truly for the dedicated fans who care to patiently sit with Reynolds and his feelings until everyone's ready to pump out a more focused and immediate set. [Compiling both parts on Mercury: Acts 1 & 2, the band presents the full experience across an expansive 32 tracks, which joins Act 1 and 2 as well as the hit single "Enemy" with JID from the Arcane League of Legends soundtrack.]© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

Croce's debut ABC album was also his commercial breakthrough, topping the charts for five weeks, largely due to the comic, up-tempo title tune, a story song about competing pool hustlers, although Croce also reached the Top 20 with the change-of-pace ballad "Operator (That's Not the Way It Feels)." Just after his death, ABC issued the track "Time in a Bottle," and a newly ironic message propelled it to number one.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

The Essential Taj Mahal pulls together the bluesman's Columbia, Warner, Gramavision Private Music, and Hannibal labels' recordings, making it the first truly cross-licensed compilation of his work. Given the depth and breadth of this set (it covers four decades), the listener gets not only a cross-sectional view of the artist, but also his innovative and idiosyncratic journey through the blues: Mahal has not only kept the tradition alive, he's expanded it and deepened it, tracing its roots and developments through the course of American, Caribbean, and African cultures. While there is no unreleased material here, there doesn't need to be. The sheer adventure in these recordings reveals the wealth of the contribution Mahal has made not only to the blues, but to popular culture both present and past. This is a comp to own, to be moved by, and to ultimately enjoy. Columbia issued a three-CD set earlier, but there were things there that needed to be trimmed. This leaner and meaner version is superior.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

The 2015 digital compilation The Capitol Rarities: 1968-1977 is a nice, 33-track round-up of songs that were originally digitally released as bonus tracks on Capitol's acclaimed Band reissues from 2000 and 2001. With those expanded CDs fading into the history books, it's best for the non-LP cuts not to get stranded, particularly when so many of them are so very good. Among the highlights are the wooly "If I Lose," non-overdubbed selections originally released on the 1975 double-LP The Basement Tapes, studio versions of "Don't Do It" and "Get Up Jake," and alternates of "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" and "Time to Kill," but it's all worthwhile.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Refreshingly youthful and age-appropriate, Norwegian singer/songwriter Sigrid's debut Sucker Punch captures the spirit of being a young adult navigating life and love while embracing the messiness of growth, making mistakes, and learning the ropes along the way. Landing in early 2019 after a couple years of steadily earned attention from singles "Don't Kill My Vibe" and "Sucker Punch," the album features Sigrid's empowering synth pop anthems punctuated by moments of reflective restraint that showcase her powerful vocals. At times joyous, at times pensive and full of heartache, Sucker Punch is simply full of life and its accompanying highs and lows. Sigrid tackles uncertainty and self-doubt on "Basic," which drops out toward the end to reveal a vulnerable, imperfect peek behind the curtain. Later, she faces her problems instead of running away on the indie pop power move "Level Up." This confidence and maturity imbue Sucker Punch with plenty of charm, which lends itself to upbeat highlights such as "Don't Feel Like Crying" and "Sight of You," a pair of '90s throwbacks that channel Carly Rae Jepsen's best. Elsewhere, Robyn's electro-heart beats on "Strangers" while "Never Mine" provides an unlikely pairing to Taylor Swift's "Style." The album is primarily concerned with these beat-forward standouts, even while the poise and gravity of Sigrid's lyrics add depth to its dance-friendly nature. That sheen is stripped away for two key moments on Sucker Punch where her voice takes center stage, pushing her empowering messages of self-respect and inner strength to the fore. Echoing Adele in both instances, "In Vain" is for anyone who's ever wasted time and energy in a futile attempt to save someone, while "Dynamite" triumphantly closes the set with the content realization that self-worth is more important than a failing relationship any day. It's a simple joy to hear an artist in her early twenties sing songs that are so relatable and timeless while remaining unblemished by label-endorsed hyper-sexualization or tired tropes of fame. Sucker Punch is a masterful debut from a promising talent unafraid to just be herself.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

Gin Wigmore is already a huge star in her native New Zealand, but she is virtually unknown in the rest of the world, although she has what it takes to go international: her songs are full of sharp observations about the downside of love and lust, with arrangements that sound big and huge and are built for a superstar on a grand stage, and she knows full well that the way there heads out to the dancefloor. Her songs sound huge, spunky, and feisty, and in some ways she's the midnight dance chanteuse that Britney Spears always seemed to want to be. But then there's Wigmore's voice. It's an acquired taste, really, a kind of near helium-soaked whine that sounds a bit like Billie Holiday, only stripped of Holiday's emotionally weary and elegantly nuanced phrasing. One either accepts Wigmore's voice or one doesn't, although there's no denying her drive, passion, and musical vision. That said, Gravel & Wine, which was originally released in New Zealand in 2011, is a huge-sounding dance-pop album full of songs geared for both the dancefloor and the radio stations that drive people to go there, all big, stomping drums and kinetic high vocals about men who don't measure up, jealous girls, and the trashy, dangerous side of love and other hazards. Among the highlights are "Man Like That," which was prominently featured in the James Bond film Skyfall, the feisty, spunky, and defiant "Devil in Me," and the cautionary tale "Happy Ever After," which pretty much attacks the concept of its title. The dance throttle is to the floor through almost all of this set, but sooner or later, one has to decide about that voice.© Steve Leggett /TiVo

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It's all about the title. First time around, Eminem established his alter ego, Slim Shady -- the character who deliberately shocked and offended millions, turning Eminem into a star. Second time at bat, he turned out The Marshall Mathers LP, delving deeper into his past while revealing complexity as an artist and a personality that helped bring him an even greater audience and much, much more controversy. Third time around, it's The Eminem Show -- a title that signals that Eminem's public persona is front and center, for the very first time. And it is, as he spends much of the album commenting on the media circus that dominated on his life ever since the release of Marshall Mathers. This, of course, encompasses many, many familiar subjects -- his troubled childhood; his hatred of his parents; his turbulent relationship with his ex-wife, Kim (including the notorious incident when he assaulted a guy who allegedly kissed her -- the event that led to their divorce); his love of his daughter, Hailie; and, of course, all the controversy he generated, notably the furor over his alleged homophobia and his scolding from Lynne Cheney, which leads to furious criticism about the hypocrisy of America and its government. All this is married to a production very similar to that of its predecessor -- spare, funky, fluid, and vibrant, punctuated with a couple of ballads along the way. So, that means The Eminem Show is essentially a holding pattern, but it's a glorious one -- one that proves Eminem is the gold standard in pop music in 2002, delivering stylish, catchy, dense, funny, political music that rarely panders (apart from a power ballad "Dream On" rewrite on "Sing for the Moment" and maybe the sex rap "Drips," that is). Even if there is little new ground broken, the presentation is exceptional -- Dre never sounds better as a producer than when Eminem pushes him forward (witness the stunning oddity "Square Dance," a left-field classic with an ominous waltz beat) and, with three albums under his belt, Eminem has proven himself to be one of the all-time classic MCs, surprising as much with his delivery as with what he says. Plus, the undercurrent of political anger -- not just attacking Lynne Cheney, but raising questions about the Bush administration -- gives depth to his typical topics, adding a new, spirited dimension to his shock tactics as notable as the deep sentimental streak he reveals on his odes to his daughter. Perhaps the album runs a little too long at 20 songs and 80 minutes and would have flowed better if trimmed by 25 minutes, but that's a typical complaint about modern hip-hop records. Fact is, it still delivers more great music than most of its peers in rock or rap, and is further proof that Eminem is an artist of considerable range and dimension.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo