Since 2019, Taylor Swift has been leading her fans and her music into a space-time rift worthy of a science-fiction block-buster: when she releases a new album, there's a 50/50 chance that it's an old one. What is the meaning of this devilry? Well, it’s mainly due to complicated and conflicting contracts, copyrights and (very) large sums of money, that have  all led Taylor Swift to decide to re-record and re-release her first six albums with some bonus, previously unreleased period tracks. The latest replicant is the album Speak Now, originally released in 2010. This third album of Taylor Swift’s was a major milestone in her discography: aged just twenty, she wrote all the songs for the first time, whilst moving away from the country aesthetic that had made her famous. It was a very personal album, with a lot of diary-style love stories from the point of view of a young woman barely out of her teens. Thirteen years on, it’s clear why Taylor Swift would sing these songs again (to get her hands back on the revenue generated by her old albums). But how? With a fuller voice, and by tidying up some of the lyrics that might be found off-putting today. Hardcore fans and commentators may cry revisionism, but the rest of us will certainly be delighted to find this early album almost unchanged © Stéphane Deschamps

Arriving swiftly on the heels of Moving on Skiffle, Accentuate the Positive is certainly a kissing cousin to its 2023 companion: it's another spirited revival of a style that a young Van Morrison held dear. Despite being titled after the Johnny Mercer & Harold Arlen standard, Accentuate the Positive isn't an ode to the Great American Songbook. It's nominally a celebration of the early days of rock & roll, an era that did see various styles, attitudes, and demographics mingle, so Morrison's decision to punctuate classics by Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, Little Richard, and Chuck Willis with pop tunes, country hits, and jump blues isn't far afield: all this music was part of the early explosion of rock & roll. Besides, Van Morrison has never been a rockabilly cat, he's a blues shouter and he plays precisely to those strengths here, leading his band through lively and loving readings of rock & roll oldies, never apologizing for the unabashed nostalgia of the entire enterprise.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Caroline Polachek's latest album, Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, has been one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year, arriving on Valentine's Day to the delight of fans around the world. After the success of her debut album, Pang, Polachek's path to this latest project has been a long and winding one, with the artist dropping singles along the way, like breadcrumbs leading us to this pop paradise.As a singer-songwriter and producer, Polachek's unique take on pop music is often described as experimental, but it's her tasteful approach that truly sets her apart. With Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, Polachek invites us onto her island, surrounded by love and masterfully crafted sonic ideas that offer a much-needed palette cleanser in the saccharine-sweet buffet of pop music we are all constantly fed.The album is a mishmash of influences from all genres and eras, creating a sound that feels both timeless and forward-thinking. Each track is a building block, from the opening notes of "Welcome to My Island" to the closing chords of "Billions." On "Pretty In Possible," Polacheck channels the '80s hit "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega, giving it a 2023 makeover, while "Bunny is a Rider" delivers a breakbeat, radio-ready hit that's sure to get you moving. Meanwhile, the Spanish guitars on "Sunset" transport us to a world of sun-kissed beaches and endless summers.While some critics might argue that Polachek's abstract lyrics and varied influences create a lack of throughline to the album, the counterpoint could be that this lack of consistency was intentional. By viewing the album as the soundtrack to her world, we can fully immerse ourselves in the sonic experience and discover the beauty in the chaos.  The journey takes the listener from the modern club banger "I Believe" to the ethereal "Butterfly Net," which offers a moment of respite from the chaos. The church bells and swaying harmonies of "Blood and Butter" feel like looking out over the ocean, while the Trinity Children's Choir singing "I never felt so close to you" on the closing track "Billions" brings us full circle on this island of love.Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is passionate, curious and seductive (it could be an alternative soundtrack for the television show White Lotus). While it's hard to predict what she'll do next, one thing is for sure: this is Caroline Polacheck's world, and we're all just living in it. © Jessica Porter-Langson/Qobuz

Over the course of three essential albums, Dogrel (2019, Qobuzissime!), A Hero's Death (2020) and Skinty Fia (2022), Fontaines D.C. have established themselves as a major voice in UK rock. In fact, the Irish band quickly proved capable of breaking free of the post-punk shackles and branching out into other musical flavours. It's hardly surprising that the first solo album from their charismatic singer Grian Chatten is a rather strong display of stylistic eclecticism. In fact, there are no traces of hardcore post-punk on Chaos For The Fly, which showcases the pen of this Skerries native. Throes of success, homesickness, fear of the future, need for freedom, extreme introspection, simple contemplation… it's all there! Grian Chatten whispers his prose through a mist of melancholy that never overstates, hypnotising us with his viscerally poetic voice. As for the instrumentation, whether he opts for a stripped-down style based around a simple acoustic guitar (it was in this simple instrument that he composed his album), or for polished and varied arrangements, the leader of Fontaines D.C. demonstrates total mastery. The astonishing Bob's Casino, a slightly retro duet with his sweetheart Georgie Jesson in a very She & Him or Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazlewood spirit, demonstrates it convincingly. In short, when it’s pens down at the end of the year, Chaos For The Fly will be up there with the best albums. Way up there! © Marc Zisman

Following the 40th anniversary of Simple Minds' New Gold Dream in 2022, the group headed to the 12th century Paisley Abbey to pay tribute to the record. The one-off recording captures the band performing the album in full.© Rich Wilson /TiVo

T-Bone Burnett is blunt: "Rhiannon is the next in a long line of singers that includes Marian Anderson, Odetta, Mahalia Jackson and Rosetta Tharpe." After hearing Tomorrow Is My Turn, her 2015 debut solo album that revisited such wonders as Elizabeth Cotten, Dolly Parton, Hank Cochran and even Aznavour, the famous producer's opinion sounded obvious. The journey into the timeless Americana of folk, jazz, gospel, blues, soul and country continues for the former member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops with Freedom Highway, the title of which is that taken from a civil rights anthem composed by the Staple Singers for the famous Selma marches in Montgomery, Alabama in March 1965. This album is much less rooted in the past than it seems, at a time when America is living through some of its most turbulent moments. With her truly stunning voice, Rhiannon Giddens stirs up the ghosts of slavery and the civil rights struggle, and makes them more modern and alive than ever. Even when she sings Joan Baez's Birmingham Sunday, you could swear you're hearing a tune from 2017! Rhiannon Giddens' strength is that she never does taxidermy. Superbly produced and interpreted, this album is not merely a sepia coloured memory to decorate the conscience and the mind. No, this is a strong and magnificent record that perpetuates a musical, spiritual and ideological tradition that can never die, especially when it is interpreted in this way. © MZ/Qobuz

The reason to mention the "particulars" of this document of informal sessions is because Keith Jarrett went to the trouble of doing so in his liner notes: they came about in the aftermath of he and Charlie Haden playing together during Ramblin' Boy, a documentary film about Haden. The duo, who hadn't played together in over 30 years, got along famously and decided to do some further recording in Jarrett's Cavelight home studio without an end result in mind. The tapes sat -- though were discussed often -- for three years before a decision was made to release some of them. Jasmine is a collection of love songs; most are standards played by two stellar improvisers. Picking out highlights on this eight-song, hour-long set is difficult because the dry warmth of these performances is multiplied by deeply intuitive listening and the near symbiotic, telepathic nature of the playing. The entire proceeding flows seamlessly. The depth of emotion in Peggy Lee's and Victor Young's "Where Can I Go Without You" opens the world of the bereft lover -- and Haden's solo seems to make her/him speak. Jarrett's intro to "I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life," by Cy Coleman and Joseph McCarthy, reveals in its lyric just how woefully ironic this tune is. The loss and reverie steeped in false bravado are expressed in Jarrett's arpeggios and underscored by Haden's emphasis on single notes during the changes and a deep woody tone he gets in the combination of skeletal flourishes during Jarrett's solo. On the surface it might seem that the inclusion of Joe Sample's "One Day I'll Fly Away" is an odd inclusion; yet it acts on some level as the hinge piece for the set. Its simplicity and sparseness are offset by the profound lyricism Jarrett imbues it with. Haden asserts, quietly of course, that the complex emotions in the tune go beyond any language -- other than music's -- to express. After a devastatingly sad reading Gordon Jenkins' "Goodbye" with Jarrett at his most poignant and clean, a brief reading of Jerome Kern's and Oscar Hammerstein's "Don't Ever Leave Me" closes the set. The way it's played, this tune is not a plea, but a poetically uttered assertion between lovers. Jasmine is, ultimately, jazz distilled to its most essential; it not only expresses emotion and beauty, but discovers them in every moment of its performance.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Reinventions rarely come as thorough and effective as Achtung Baby, an album that completely changed U2's sound and style. The crashing, unrecognizable distorted guitars that open "Zoo Station" are a clear signal that U2 have traded their Americana pretensions for postmodern, contemporary European music. Drawing equally from Bowie's electronic, avant-garde explorations of the late '70s and the neo-psychedelic sounds of the thriving rave and Madchester club scenes of early-'90s England, Achtung Baby sounds vibrant and endlessly inventive. Unlike their inspirations, U2 rarely experiment with song structures over the course of the album. Instead, they use the thick dance beats, swirling guitars, layers of effects, and found sounds to break traditional songs out of their constraints, revealing the tortured emotional core of their songs with the hyper-loaded arrangements. In such a dense musical setting, it isn't surprising that U2 have abandoned the political for the personal on Achtung Baby, since the music, even with its inviting rhythms, is more introspective than anthemic. Bono has never been as emotionally naked as he is on Achtung Baby, creating a feverish nightmare of broken hearts and desperate loneliness; unlike other U2 albums, it's filled with sexual imagery, much of it quite disturbing, and it ends on a disquieting note. Few bands as far into their career as U2 have recorded an album as adventurous or fulfilled their ambitions quite as successfully as they do on Achtung Baby, and the result is arguably their best album.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars discovered a rapport in 2017 when the former, fresh off the release of Malibu, supported the latter on the 24K Magic tour. Mutual admiration and shared affinity for classic R&B predating their births, such as Motown and Philly soul -- and anything else with churning rhythm guitars, electric sitar, and flashy strings -- grew into Silk Sonic. The project was named by another favorite, funk legend Bootsy Collins, who hosts An Evening with Silk Sonic in expected cordial fashion on a handful of intros and featured appearances. The set would have to be left on repeat for at least six rotations to truly fill an evening -- it's only half an hour in length -- but none of the time is wasted. Paak and Mars might have had Teddy Pendergass' women-only concerts in mind as they made some of the ballads. "Leave the Door Open," an unlikely number one pop hit six months before the LP was released, is the number that best meshes the smooth and tender style of Mars with Paak's nephew-of-Bobby Womack rasp and comparatively Lothario-like (sometimes pushy) demeanor. The funkier slow jam "After Last Night" might invite comparisons to "Dick in a Box" but has a bit of Bootsy-style fantasy sleaze with a lyrical theme similar to "The Hunter Gets Captured By the Game." "Put On a Smile" provides more than mere entertainment with one of Mars' finest performances, while "Blast Off" coasts and sways like a 1979 Earth, Wind & Fire derivative. The energy in the uptempo material is all feel-good, too. The strutting "Fly as Me" lets loose a hook that recalls late-'60s/early '70s George Clinton ("[I Wanna] Testify," "I Wanna Know If It's Good to You"). "777," the most arrogant and ballerific cut, is shrewdly followed by the dashing roller disco jam "Skate," a Top 20 hit that preceded the album. The duo's playfulness here verges on hammy at times -- more often than on their solo recordings. The trade-off is that they push each other into new levels of showmanship without pandering to the audience. Besides, there's some genuinely witty stuff here. It's a wonder how Mars was able to keep his face straight while grousing, "Musta spent 35-45 thousand up in Tiffany's/Got her bad-ass kids runnin' round my whole crib like it's Chuck E. Cheese."© Andy Kellman /TiVo

2018's Time & Space saw Turnstile breach the headwaters of the mainstream with a bracing set of songs that were delivered with gusto and peppered with creative funk and hip-hop interludes. The Baltimore hardcore enthusiasts go all-in on their dizzying third long-player, Glow On, bringing in Dr. Dre protégé Mike Elizondo (Mastodon, Twenty One Pilots, 50 Cent) to helm the production and delivering a 15-track set that stays true to their punk roots while carving out an impressive swathe of old, new, borrowed, and blue sonic real estate. Commencing with a billowing synth arpeggio, triumphant opener "Mystery" sets the table with an earworm-heavy blast of punchy '90s alt-rock that pulls the choicest pieces of meat from the carcasses of Fugazi, Jane's Addiction, and Nirvana. "Blackout," "Holiday," and "T.L.C. (Turnstile Love Connection)" go big as well, with the former administering lethal amounts of taut, Helmet-worthy riffage over a mix of analog and triggered beats -- replete with Latin drum flourishes -- and the latter two cuts looking to consolidate the mosh pit and the dancefloor into a sweaty, earthbound murmuration. The interstitial moments of Time & Space have been folded in rather than tacked on this time around, which helps otherwise sonic outliers like the languid indie rocker "Alien Love" (one of two tracks to feature Devonté Hyne, aka Blood Orange) and the bubbly and aptly named dance-pop gem "Underwater Boi" find some equilibrium with the rest of the album. Turnstile's predilection for genre-hopping never tempers their enthusiasm, and the concise and inclusive hardcore anthems that have been their forte since emerging in 2010 still make up the bulwark of their sound. Both vital and respective of the listener's time at just under 35 minutes, Glow On rolls in like a violent, late-summer storm and pummels the power grid but mercifully leaves the lights on.© James Christopher Monger /TiVo

This is U2 following in the footsteps of David Bowie. Like the Heroes singer, who moved to Berlin in 1976 to find fresh inspiration, Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen went to the German capital in 1990 to write their seventh album. With the wall having fallen a year earlier, there was an atmosphere of freedom, and indeed of chaos. Produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, Achtung Baby blends these two moods, both in content and form. Musically, it is more experimental, industrial and electronic than in the band's previous albums, although it retains a certain lyricism. As for the lyrics, they meet the Irish group’s usual standard, transcending their sentimental themes to evoke human relationships more generally (So Cruel, Even Better Than the Real Thing, Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses). Unification is at the heart of some tracks, starting with the famous One. But here again, Bono brings a universal outlook.This Berlin exile was not ideal from an artistic point of view and they finished Achtung Baby at home, in Irish studios. However, traces of Germany can be felt in some of the songs, starting with Zoo Station, a reference to the Zoologischer Garten underground station. The rocking Until the End of The World was written for the film of the same name by German director Wim Wenders. It is a fictional conversation between Jesus and Judas, carried by a powerful guitar solo by The Edge. Eno summed up U2's European album as follows: “Buzzwords on this record were trashy, throwaway, dark, sexy and industrial (all good) and earnest, polite, sweet, righteous, rockiest and linear (all bad).” In addition to the remastered version of Achtung Baby, this 30th Anniversary Edition includes 22 previously unreleased songs and many remixes. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz

With integrity intact and a hearty combination of poppy punk and wit throughout, the Offspring's fifth album is a raucous ride through America as seen through the eyes of a weary, but still optimistic, young kid. Riffs on political correctness, '70s radio fodder, and suburban disquiet are spread thick on Americana. If the band's targets seem a bit simple and predictable, its music rarely is. The SoCal roots aren't played to a fault, the blend of salsa and alterna-rock sounds natural, and the Offspring pretty much laugh at their culture, as well as themselves, the entire time. Best track is "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)," which manages to bridge Def Leppard and Latin hip-hop (and the musical timeline they represent) and, in the process, disrobes Middle America's average white teen's quick fascination with and instant disposability of a once-regional heritage. With Americana, the Offspring are merely contributing their part.© Michael Gallucci /TiVo

Steve Miller had started to essay his classic sound with The Joker, but 1976's Fly Like an Eagle is where he took flight, creating his definitive slice of space blues. The key is focus, even on an album as stylishly, self-consciously trippy as this, since the focus brings about his strongest set of songs (both originals and covers), plus a detailed atmospheric production where everything fits. It still can sound fairly dated -- those whooshing keyboards and cavernous echoes are certainly of their time -- but its essence hasn't aged, as "Fly Like an Eagle" drifts like a cool breeze, while "Take the Money and Run" and "Rock 'n Me" are fiendishly hooky, friendly rockers. The rest of the album may not be quite up to those standards, but there aren't any duds, either, as "Wild Mountain Honey" and "Mercury Blues" give this a comfortable backdrop, thanks to Miller's offhand, lazy charm. Though it may not quite transcend its time, it certainly is an album rock landmark of the mid-'70s and its best moments (namely, the aforementioned singles) are classics of the idiom. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Evolve is the third LP from British drum'n'bass artist Sub Focus and follows 2020's collaborative album with Wilkinson, Portals. Sub Focus draws from across the electronic music spectrum for the record, bringing together crisp breaks, arpeggiated riffs, lush vocals, and rumbling basslines. Guest spots come from the likes of Metrik, Jonny L, and CamelPhat.© Rich Wilson /TiVo

In a duet with singer and percussionist Abraham Rodriguez Jr., the bassist Avishai Cohen is now fulfilling a lifelong ambition with the release of his Iroko. He has been passionate about Latin music since his arrival in New York in 1992, where he began to take lessons from the legendary Puerto Rican bassist Andy Gonzalez. It was during this period that Cohen also crossed paths with Rodriguez, who was playing in Ray Santiago’s (a salsa pianist) group. The two musicians immediately discovered elective affinities. Embarking on the career that we now know (Iroko is nothing less than his 20th record as a leader), the double bassist never lost contact with Rodriguez, who, during a break, became known as the one of the most sought-after percussionists and singers on the New York Latin scene. Determined to make public his love for this rich and complex musical tradition, Avishai Cohen, before leaving on tour at the head of a sextet made up of his favourite New York Latin musicians, could only take advantage of the opportunity to finally record this long-awaited brotherly duet with Rodriguez. With a varied repertoire combining traditional Yoruba tunes, popular Afro-Caribbean songs, and masterfully revisited US classics (from James Brown to Frank Sinatra), the two men draw their energies and references from a vast melting pot of genre-wide hybridizations from the New York Latin music scene. What resulted was a striking catalogue of grooves combining the heritage of Afro-Cuban traditions with elements of R'n'B, jazz, and Motown soul. Both minimalist and sumptuous, bursting with heady polyrhythms, subtle vocal harmonies, and potent melodies, Iriko's music is certainly rejuvenating. © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz