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More than a quarter-century after Tom Petty's Wildflowers was first released, it can finally be heard the way the singer-songwriter intended. When he turned in 25 songs, hoping for a double album, Warner Bros. asked him to pare it down to one. But just three years past his death, his family and Heartbreakers bandmates Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell (technically a solo release, Wildflowers features most of the band) have restored the record to its original glory and added in a trove of home demos, alternate takes and live tracks—some 70 songs in all. Produced by Rick Rubin while Petty's decades-old marriage was crumbling and he was reportedly battling heroin addiction, the 1994 release remains one of the all-time great break-up records; heard all together, the extended LP (the All The Rest part is produced Petty's longtime engineer Ryan Ulyate) Petty is a deeper devastating beauty. "New" tracks like the Byrds-y "Leave Virginia Alone," tender "Something Could Happen" and psychedelic Beatles-meets-Wall of Sound "Somewhere Under Heaven" are a comfortable coda to classics such as "You Don't Know How It Feels" and "It's Good to Be King." Extra track "Hope You Never" is a gorgeous, direct complement to old favorite "Only a Broken Heart." As perfect as the original album has always played, it's hard to imagine not including the swaying After the Gold Rush-esque "Hung Up & Overdue" (with backing vocals by Beach Boy Carl Wilson) or sunny, jangling "California" (which also shows up in a demo version, with a telling extra verse: "Don’t forgive my past/ I forgive my enemy/ Don’t know if it lasts/ Gotta just wait and see"). Dig into the home recordings, and it's an even bigger mystery why the harmonica-inflected "There Goes Angela" and plaintive "There's a Break in the Rain (Have Love Will Travel)" weren't contenders over, say, the Celtic-flavored "Don't Fade on Me." Chalk part of that first-listen awe up to the intimacy of these solo demos, which also cast a new, revelatory light on the gently folksy title track and "You Don't Know How It Feels." Live non-album favorites "Girl on LSD" and "Drivin' Down to Georgia" are captured here, along with a blistering "Honey Bee" and lovely takes on "You Wreck Me" and "Crawling Back to You." Tench has recalled Petty calling Wildflowers "the best record we ever made." Now it's even better. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Philly soul staples Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes were in full swing on 1975's Wake Up Everybody. Sporting their trademark lush, string-laden production from Gamble and Huff (who also wrote about half the album's material), the smooth soul outfit delivers a mix of deep soul balladry and uptempo dance tracks. The title track, with its socially relevant messages, is a standout. There is no shortage of fine vocal performances all around, notably from Melvin and from future solo star Teddy Pendergrass.© Anthony Tognazzini /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

More than a quarter-century after Tom Petty's Wildflowers was first released, it can finally be heard the way the singer-songwriter intended. When he turned in 25 songs, hoping for a double album, Warner Bros. asked him to pare it down to one. But just three years past his death, his family and Heartbreakers bandmates Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell (technically a solo release, Wildflowers features most of the band) have restored the record to its original glory and added in a trove of home demos, alternate takes and live tracks—some 70 songs in all. Produced by Rick Rubin while Petty's decades-old marriage was crumbling and he was reportedly battling heroin addiction, the 1994 release remains one of the all-time great break-up records; heard all together, the extended LP (the All The Rest part is produced Petty's longtime engineer Ryan Ulyate) Petty is a deeper devastating beauty. "New" tracks like the Byrds-y "Leave Virginia Alone," tender "Something Could Happen" and psychedelic Beatles-meets-Wall of Sound "Somewhere Under Heaven" are a comfortable coda to classics such as "You Don't Know How It Feels" and "It's Good to Be King." Extra track "Hope You Never" is a gorgeous, direct complement to old favorite "Only a Broken Heart." As perfect as the original album has always played, it's hard to imagine not including the swaying After the Gold Rush-esque "Hung Up & Overdue" (with backing vocals by Beach Boy Carl Wilson) or sunny, jangling "California" (which also shows up in a demo version, with a telling extra verse: "Don’t forgive my past/ I forgive my enemy/ Don’t know if it lasts/ Gotta just wait and see"). Dig into the home recordings, and it's an even bigger mystery why the harmonica-inflected "There Goes Angela" and plaintive "There's a Break in the Rain (Have Love Will Travel)" weren't contenders over, say, the Celtic-flavored "Don't Fade on Me." Chalk part of that first-listen awe up to the intimacy of these solo demos, which also cast a new, revelatory light on the gently folksy title track and "You Don't Know How It Feels." Live non-album favorites "Girl on LSD" and "Drivin' Down to Georgia" are captured here, along with a blistering "Honey Bee" and lovely takes on "You Wreck Me" and "Crawling Back to You." Tench has recalled Petty calling Wildflowers "the best record we ever made." Now it's even better. © Shelly Ridenour/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

Vocalist Catherine Russell's fourth studio album, 2013's Strictly Romancin', is a swinging and bluesy collection of standards perfect for laid-back evening of romance or relaxation. Here, Russell frames her sultry, resonant voice with both small and large ensembles that dig into a variety of vintage-sounding arrangements. This is jazz and blues steeped in the kind of classic swing of artists like Bessie Smith, Dinah Washington, and others. Included are such songs as "I'm in the Mood for Love," "Ev'ntide," "Everbody Loves My Baby." © Matt Collar /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

There's definitely a need for a thorough career retrospective of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes: one covering their '50s and '60s period, the hit-filled run headed by Teddy Pendergrass during the first half of the '70s, and even the group's less viable post-Pendergrass years. Of course, with the maze of record companies involved, this is a tall order. So, those wanting to check out the group should start with this collection of their prime Philadelphia International hits. Although only containing eight tracks, Collectors Items has most of the chart-toppers, including "If You Don't Know Me By Now," "Wake Up Everybody," and "The Love I Lost." The slick, Philly bump groove marks most of the material, showing why producers Leon Huff and Kenny Gambell, as well as arranger Thom Bell, deserve a good portion of credit for their label's success beyond having a major impact on the black music scene, the Philly Sound, like Motown and Stax before, had substantial crossover appeal as well, influencing the likes of David Bowie and Elton John. And with Pendergrass' soul-fire, gospel-drenched vocal delivery lighting up extended cuts like "Bad Luck" and "Where Are All My Friends," not to mention most of the numbers here, the smooth musical backdrops are infused with just the right amount of grit. A great collection, topped off with a fine duet featuring Pendergrass and future Blue Notes singer Sharon Paige. If you feel the need for a more thorough collection than this budget-price release, check out Epic's 15-track If You Don't Know Me By Now: The Best of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, which covers the same mid-'70s period.© Stephen Cook /TiVo

Experienced reggae fans will immediately notice something about this long-overdue Joe Higgs reissue: that it sounds startlingly like an early-'70s Wailers album. There's a good reason for that: the relatively obscure Joe Higgs was the architect of the legendary Wailers' early sound. Higgs mentored the young Bob Marley and his trio in songwriting, arranging, and harmony singing, and in 1972 (when Life of Contradiction was originally released) Marley and company were completing their metamorphosis from a bouncy ska and rocksteady outfit into a serious and rootsy ensemble that would change the face of reggae music for good. Higgs' solo work has always been respected by reggae fans but has never garnered the commercial success it deserved. It's unlikely that this reissue will do much to change that -- it's much too clearly a product of its time -- but a solid core of listeners have been awaiting its release for years, and they won't be disappointed. Higgs is in excellent voice on every track, and the rhythms laid down by the Now Generation band are perfect examples of the churning, midtempo reggae sound that was in the ascendant in the early '70s. Highlights include the brilliant "Got to Make a Way" and "Come on Home," and the bonus tracks (the non-album single "Let Us Do Something" plus version) sweeten the deal nicely. The lyrics may get a little bit trite at times (how's this for insight: "Life is an experience that only a fool could refuse"), but Higgs' heart is so clearly right, his voice is so powerful, and the rhythms so sharp and dread, the occasional lyrical banality is easy to overlook. Very highly recommended. © Rick Anderson /TiVo

Spicing up the Swedish rap-metal with some Middle Eastern melodic flavor and more dynamic vocals, this eponymous release added a much-needed dimension to Clawfinger's six-year-old approach to industrial hard-hop. Choice cuts like "Chances" have the incredibly fat guitars, fresh textures, and hooks to prove producer Peter Reardon's considerable knob-twisting abilities and world music vision. While Clawfinger has its expansionist moments, the Swedish outfit was not going to abandon its mostly monochromatic and mechanized signature sound on this, the band's third full-length release. The middle section of Clawfinger, with songs like "Not Even You," "Nobody Knows," and "Wrong State of Mind," features material that carries the same Kool Moe Dee vocal delivery over mostly by the numbers industrial metal guitar washes. Clawfinger reached their musical peak with the release of their genre-bending debut, and they earned the resulting critical praise and Euro-award hardware soon after. But by the 1999 (U.S.) release of this self-titled disc, many American rap-rock and industrial metal artists like Rage Against the Machine and White Zombie had done much better work with the musical amalgams, leaving these Scandinavians in a relative stasis, which this eponymous disc did little to excite. © Vincent Jeffries /TiVo

On Mutha's Nature, James Brown returned to a bass-heavy groove sound with a new J.B.'s band, which made for a funkier result than on recent albums, but he still wasn't coming up with slogans to match those of old -- "Give Me Some Skin" and "If You Don't Give a Dogone About It" just didn't rank with "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud." And given that Brown largely buried his vocals in the mix, it wouldn't have been easy to tell if he did have something to say. (One time you could hear him, though, was on a cover of Gershwin's "Summertime" that Brown rewrote into a vaguely religious/environmentalist message song.) Brown hadn't been humbled by his recent lack of commercial success: "the King, as you've named me, has come back to set our musical record straight again like Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, and now Brown," he wrote in his liner notes. But the accomplishments didn't match the rhetoric. © William Ruhlmann /TiVo