It’s important to remember that before becoming a gold-standard pop star, Taylor Swift grew up on Nashville country music. Music City's folklore now seems a long way off for the thirty-year-old singer. However, Taylor Swift has never stopped dipping her pen into the same ink as her cowgirl elders, perfectly handling romance, heartbreak, introspection, sociopolitical commentary and personal experiences, such as when she sang of her mother’s cancer on Soon You’ll Get Better… It was in lockdown, with restricted means and limited casting, that she put together Folklore, released in the heart of summer 2020. The first surprise here is Aaron Dessner on production. By choosing The National’s guitarist, whom she considers one of her idols, Swift has opted for a musician with sure-footed tastes and boosted her credibility among indie music fans. She hammers this home on Exile with Justin ‘Bon Iver’ Vernon (the album’s only duet), a close friend of Dessner's with whom he formed Big Red Machine.This surprising, even unusual album for Swift is by no means a calculated attempt to flirt with the hipsters. And it really is unusual for her! No pop bangers, nor the usual dig aimed at Kanye West; the album is free of supercharged beats and has delicate instrumentation (piano, acoustic guitar, Mellotron, mandolin, slides…). Folklore toes a perfect line between silky neo-folk and dreamy rock. It’s as if the star had tucked herself away in a cabin in the forest to dream up new ideas, much like Bon Iver did in his early days… By laying her music bare and relieving it of its usual chart music elements, Taylor Swift has added more substance to her discography. This is clear on August, which would never have resonated as well if it had been produced by a Max Martin type… Upon announcing the album, Swift wrote online: “Before this year I probably would’ve overthought when to release this music at the ‘perfect’ time, but the times we’re living in keep reminding me that nothing is guaranteed. My gut is telling me that if you make something you love, you should just put it out into the world.” A wise decision for a beautiful and mature record. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Always on the cutting edge of new technologies since his beginnings in the 70s at Pierre Schaeffer's GRM (the  music research group of the French Broadcasting and Television Office, where concrete and electronic music were born), Jean-Michel Jarre has conceptualized an augmented reality concert to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Palace of Versailles. The French artist, who had already given a concert in virtual reality for 2020's Fête de la Musique (a French music celebration that takes place on June 21st each year), set up his machines and donned his virtual reality headset once again in the famous Hall of Mirrors for an hour-long show on Christmas Day, December 25th, 2023. A limited audience was able to attend the "concert-production hybrid" live at the palace, but it was also broadcast to the metaverse to be watched via virtual reality.For Versailles 400, Jarre took an understated approach, with a concert lasting precisely an hour, a duration undoubtedly linked to the exceptional conditions imposed by the location. He starts off with music evocative of Jean-Baptiste Lully, using a harpsichord and vocals modified via a talk-box ("Le Château"), before going on to the hit "Epica Oxygène," delivering a rather rhythmic show, slowly but surely transforming the Hall of Mirrors into a techno rave or a new wing of the ISS. After the Egyptian pyramids and the Red Square, Jean-Michel Jarre can check yet another historical site off his list. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

Breaking away from their contemporaries, South Korean girl group NewJeans elevate their inspired blend of dance genres and R&B to new heights on their second EP, Get Up. U.K. garage, drum'n'bass, and Jersey and Baltimore club fill the front half of the effort, a thrilling triple hit of "New Jeans," "Super Shy," and "ETA." Things smooth out on the back end with the lush, seductive "Cool with You," "Get Up," and "ASAP." NewJeans are so adept at all styles that the shift feels effortless and fresh, positioning them at the fore of the next wave of K-pop daring.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

Empty Sky was followed by Elton John, a more focused and realized record that deservedly became his first hit. John and Bernie Taupin's songwriting had become more immediate and successful; in particular, John's music had become sharper and more diverse, rescuing Taupin's frequently nebulous lyrics. "Take Me to the Pilot" might not make much sense lyrically, but John had the good sense to ground its willfully cryptic words with a catchy blues-based melody. Next to the increased sense of songcraft, the most noticeable change on Elton John is the addition of Paul Buckmaster's grandiose string arrangements. Buckmaster's orchestrations are never subtle, but they never overwhelm the vocalist, nor do they make the songs schmaltzy. Instead, they fit the ambitions of John and Taupin, as the instant standard "Your Song" illustrates. Even with the strings and choirs that dominate the sound of the album, John manages to rock out on a fair share of the record. Though there are a couple of underdeveloped songs, Elton John remains one of his best records.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Faced with some unexpected free time due to a lockdown inspired by a global pandemic, Taylor Swift turned inward. The result of her introspection was folklore, an album whose hushed atmosphere belies the speed of its composition and recording. Once she started the project, Swift turned to her longtime colleague Jack Antonoff for some input, but she also contacted an unexpected new collaborator: Aaron Dessner, the driving force behind the acclaimed indie rock band the National. Dessner's presence is a signal that folklore represents a shift for Taylor Swift, moving her away from the glittering pop mainstream and into gloomier territory. All of this is true, if perhaps a bit overstated. The 16 songs on folklore are recognizably her work, bearing telltale melodic phrases and a reliance on finely honed narratives that turn on exquisitely rendered lyrical details. Still, the vibe of the album is notably different. Sweetness has ripened into bittersweet beauty, regret has mellowed into a wistful sigh, the melodies don't clamor for attention but seep their way into the subconscious. None of these are precisely new tricks for Swift but her writing from the explicit vantage of other characters, as on the epic story-song "the last great american dynasty," is. Combined, the moodier, contemplative tone and the emphasis on songs that can't be parsed as autobiography make folklore feel not like a momentary diversion inspired by isolation but rather the first chapter of Swift's mature second act.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

John Williams’ Violin concerto No. 2 is dedicated to violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and draws inspiration from her style, energy and playing. Given her fame and success, the American composer often found himself humbly reflecting upon what exactly his work could offer her during its composition.John Williams put his all into this work, drawing upon his vast understanding of the symphonic repertoire (and evidently his exceptional memory!). There’s no specific references within this composition since it’s woven from musical elements from all over the place. It’s a composite piece, but it’s ultimately rather personal.Anne-Sophie Mutter’s melodic playing is given the opportunity to really shine on this recording, since the composition includes all manner of violin techniques and styles (and provides luxurious orchestration). Originally created on the 24th of July 2021 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer on his ninetieth birthday, Concerto No. 2 was recorded shortly afterwards in October of the same year. It was also coupled with new arrangements of a variety of film music (The Long Goodbye, Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark), which were made especially for Anne-Sophie Mutter. © François Hudry/Qobuz

‘Virtual reality applied to sound’ is the theme for the insatiable Jean-Michel Jarre’s 22nd album with Sony. Conceived in 3D spatialised audio, the record conjures up some extraordinary sensations, with sounds coming from every direction. Credits are shared with Pierre Henry, the French pioneer of musique concrète, known for his avant-garde hit ‘Psyché Rock’. Both Henry and Jarre have history with Pierre Schaeffer, the founder of GRM (Groupe de recherches musicales de l’ORTF), where the first French electronic music experiments took place. Pierre Henry was never part of the GRM, carrying out his experiments in parallel, but he was still very close to Schaeffer in the 50s.Jarre worked an internship at GRM during the late 60s, where he idolised Shaeffer. A collaboration between Jarre and Henry had been suggested in 2015 for the album Electronica, but Pierre Henry’s faltering health and subsequent death in 2017 meant that the project never came to fruition. Nevertheless, Henry left a series of sounds to Jean-Michel Jarre, which he used to create Oxymore - a tribute to the late composer, whose signature sound becomes apparent right from the first track. This is a pretty catchy record, Jarre clearly deciding to make the most of the kick pedal on ‘ZEITGEIST’ and ‘BRUTALISM’. The influence of musique concrète is plainly evident, with lots of Pierre Henry-esque noises swirling through the tracks. The fusion of these two electronic pioneers is enjoyable (though inevitably unbalanced), with excellent highlights such as the meta-disco ‘SONIC LAND’ and the trippy ‘SYNTHY SISTERS’: tracks where Jarre sounds like he’s having more fun than ever before. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

Time takes its cues more from such bands as the Alan Parsons Project and Wings than from Jeff Lynne's fascination with Pepper-era Beatles. Sure, all the electronic whirrs and bleeps are present and accounted for, and Time did spawn hit singles in "Hold on Tight" and "Twilight," but on the average, ELO had begun to get too stuck on the same structure and content of their releases. "The Way Life's Meant to Be" echoes very early ELO hits like "Can't Get It Out of My Head," and the "Prologue" and "Epilogue" segments try and bring about a unifying concept that doesn't quite hold up upon listening all the way through. Time proves to be competent ELO but not great ELO.© James Chrispell /TiVo

Seldom does a "cash in" turn into a "classic," but in the case of this 1961 album of outtakes and leftovers by Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane recorded four years prior, that's exactly what happened. Monk and Coltrane only played together briefly, during the last half of 1957 when Monk's quartet was in transition and Coltrane himself was juggling a busy solo recording schedule after being booted from Miles' first great quintet due to his heroin addiction. While Coltrane may have been struggling a bit at the time, Monk was at the height of his powers; over the course of 1957 the pianist would record and release four albums, at least two of which—Monk's Music and Brilliant Corners—are classics. Of those four, Coltrane was only featured prominently Monk's Music (his playing on the otherwise solo Thelonious Himself was limited to a single cut), the only album for which they had an official recording session. However, Coltrane would play in the studio with Monk's group on two other occasions during the year, and it was Riverside label owner Orrin Keepnews' realization that he had three decent recordings from the last of those sessions that prompted the release of Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane in 1961. Now, four years may not seem like a huge gap between recording and release, but in that time, Monk's rapport with Keepnews had deteriorated (the pianist would sign with Columbia in 1962, as soon as his contract with Riverside expired) and Coltrane, having wrapped up his successful run with Atlantic Records, had just signed a new deal with Impulse!. Keepnews shrewdly took those three songs from July, 1957 ("Ruby, My Dear," "Trinkle, Tinkle," "Nutty") and packaged them with outtakes from the two Monk albums on which Coltrane had appeared. That one of those outtakes, "Functional," was a piano piece with just Monk playing may make this set seem like a barrel-scraper, but in truth, there's a good argument that Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane is a far better album than any of the ones that were contemporaneously released in 1957. The interaction between Monk and Coltrane is intense and dynamic on all the takes here (except, you know, the solo piano piece), and Keepnews masterfully sequenced the set by leading off with heavy-hitting Monk chestnuts like "Ruby, My Dear" and "Trinkle, Tinkle," making the album sound like a classic, even on first listen. Sonically, the album sparkles, especially on the most recent "Original Jazz Classics" remaster, giving these random session takes a sense of intentionality. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz

A musical romance about a jazz pianist (Ryan Gosling) and an aspiring actress (Emma Stone) set in the City of Angels, La La Land was written and directed by Damien Chazelle, the man behind the 2014 Oscar winner Whiplash. He enlisted his former Harvard roommate Justin Hurwitz to write the songs and score for the film. The pair also worked together on Whiplash, about drummers, and on a 2009 student project that went on to receive theatrical distribution, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, about a jazz trumpeter. Hurwitz is joined here by lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, two veterans of musical theater (the off-Broadway musical Dogfight, TV's Smash, Broadway's Dear Evan Hansen) at the relatively young age of 31 by the time of release. (The latter is also true of Chazelle and Hurwitz.) La La Land's original soundtrack includes both songs and instrumentals, with the songs performed by a cast that also includes John Legend, fresh off his Oscar win for Selma's "Glory," and Callie Hernandez, a musician-turned-actress. Hernandez performs alongside Stone, Jessica Rothe, and Sonoya Mizuno on "Someone in the Crowd," a soaring, uptempo number with swing-era rhythms. Preceding it, the film opens with a big production number set in L.A. traffic that Hurwitz said was inspired by Jacques Demy-Michel Legrand film musicals of the '60s ("Another Day of Sun"). While listeners and moviegoers alike will find that Gosling and Stone don't quite have the singing chops of an Astaire and Rogers, their voices are warm and approachable, and their duet "A Lovely Night," in particular, is a bright charmer. Later, Legend delivers the goods on "Start a Fire," a song written in the context of a jazz musician trying to cross over to the contemporary mainstream. Score tracks range from the tender-slash-anxious piano piece "Mia & Sebastian's Theme," to the legit jazz exercise "Herman's Habit," to the Romantic tone poem "Planetarium." The film and the soundtrack wrap up with a second reprise of Gosling's "City of Stars," this time hummed by Stone, which will likely provide a feel-good earworm after the music ends.© Marcy Donelson /TiVo

Seldom does a "cash in" turn into a "classic," but in the case of this 1961 album of outtakes and leftovers by Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane recorded four years prior, that's exactly what happened. Monk and Coltrane only played together briefly, during the last half of 1957 when Monk's quartet was in transition and Coltrane himself was juggling a busy solo recording schedule after being booted from Miles' first great quintet due to his heroin addiction. While Coltrane may have been struggling a bit at the time, Monk was at the height of his powers; over the course of 1957 the pianist would record and release four albums, at least two of which—Monk's Music and Brilliant Corners—are classics. Of those four, Coltrane was only featured prominently Monk's Music (his playing on the otherwise solo Thelonious Himself was limited to a single cut), the only album for which they had an official recording session. However, Coltrane would play in the studio with Monk's group on two other occasions during the year, and it was Riverside label owner Orrin Keepnews' realization that he had three decent recordings from the last of those sessions that prompted the release of Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane in 1961. Now, four years may not seem like a huge gap between recording and release, but in that time, Monk's rapport with Keepnews had deteriorated (the pianist would sign with Columbia in 1962, as soon as his contract with Riverside expired) and Coltrane, having wrapped up his successful run with Atlantic Records, had just signed a new deal with Impulse!. Keepnews shrewdly took those three songs from July, 1957 ("Ruby, My Dear," "Trinkle, Tinkle," "Nutty") and packaged them with outtakes from the two Monk albums on which Coltrane had appeared. That one of those outtakes, "Functional," was a piano piece with just Monk playing may make this set seem like a barrel-scraper, but in truth, there's a good argument that Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane is a far better album than any of the ones that were contemporaneously released in 1957. The interaction between Monk and Coltrane is intense and dynamic on all the takes here (except, you know, the solo piano piece), and Keepnews masterfully sequenced the set by leading off with heavy-hitting Monk chestnuts like "Ruby, My Dear" and "Trinkle, Tinkle," making the album sound like a classic, even on first listen. Sonically, the album sparkles, especially on the most recent "Original Jazz Classics" remaster, giving these random session takes a sense of intentionality. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz