His first record sans the Heartbreakers, Full Moon Fever is a career-definer for Petty straight from the opening notes of "Free Fallin." With bright guitar chords, the singer-songwriter's "And I'm free" howl, and backing vocals that crest like a Pacific wave, the song — indeed, the whole album — evokes the underlying melancholy of sunny Los Angeles. Full Moon Fever is also a tribute to Petty’s idols. Producer and co-writer Jeff Lynne of ELO layers on his signature pop polish, while leaving Petty’s raw-nerve vocals exposed. George Harrison’s harmonies give the defiant anthem "I Won’t Back Down" unexpected sweetness. Del Shannon gets a shout-out on the mischievous "Runnin' Down a Dream" — propelled by Heartbreaker Mike Campbell’s hellfire-and-brimstone guitar — and Roy Orbison hams up the chorus for the organ-chugging weirdness that is "Zombie Zoo." There’s even a true-blue cover of the Byrds’ "Feel A Whole Lot Better." But the star here, as ever, is Petty: cracking jokes on the jangling "Yer So Bad", tugging at the heartstrings with lullabye "Alright for Now" or snarling on the spaced-out "Love is a Long Road." © Qobuz

A “roadhouse” is a kind of roadside bar located in the middle of nowhere for drinking and listening to music. Thanks in part to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, roadhouses have acquired a unique reputation and irremediably generate an image that is at once strange, comforting, and melancholic. For the conception of their sixth album, the members of the Australian group The Paper Kites have certainly had a Lynchian ambiance in mind, as the record’s sleeve proves. The photo taken by Dara Munnis represents an actual roadhouse where the group played every night for a month. All of the album’s songs are taken from the concerts performed during this unique residency in the small town of Campbells Creek. Sam Bentley, the leader of the group, explains that Roadhouse is the fruit of a “collective dream”. “We wanted it to be a combination of all the greatest dive bars you’ve ever been to, late-night watering holes, smoky taverns, biker bars”, he adds. The overall color of the album is country and folk, found in the ballads dominated by the banjo, the harmonica, or even the steel guitar (“Rolling On Easy”, “The Sweet Sound of You” and “Hurts So Good”). Others, like “Marietta”, “Mercy” and “I Don’t Want to Go That Way” can instead be put away in the syrupy romanticism aisle, which is emphasized by the singer’s beautifully mournful voice. As for the tracks “Black & Thunder” and “June’s Stolen Car”, they stray a bit from the original folk trajectory and swing toward a more bluesy rock flavor. It’s an atmospheric album that feels like a comforting pause in the middle of a long trip on the desert roads of Australia. ©Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz

Bon Jovi had perfected a formula for hard pop/rock by the time of New Jersey, concentrating on singalong choruses sung over and over again, frequently by a rough, extensively overdubbed chorus, producing an effect not unlike what these songs sounded like in the arenas and stadiums where they were most often heard. The lyrics had that typical pop twist -- although they nominally expressed romantic commitment, sentiments such as "Lay Your Hands on Me" and "I'll Be There for You" worked equally well as a means for the band and its audience to reaffirm their affection for each other. The only thing that marred the perfection of this communion was Jon Bon Jovi's continuing obsession with a certain predecessor from his home state; at times, he seemed to be trying to re-create Born to Run using cheaper materials.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Hollie Cook and producer Ben Mckone decided to make a dub version of the British reggae star's 2022 album Happy Hour while going through the mixing process of the record and finding more room to explore within the lush, detailed arrangements. Happy Hour in Dub sequences the versions in reverse order of the original album's track listing, as if Hollie and her co-producers are retracing their steps. Lyrically, Happy Hour focused on themes of loneliness and self-care, creating a bittersweet dynamic when paired with music that otherwise seems fun and celebratory. While most of Cook's lyrics are dubbed out of these versions, there's still lingering feelings of hurt and disappointment, and a sense that she's attempting to drown out her sorrows. The line "love is a losing game" particularly sticks out during the dramatic "Unkind Dub," which is also filled with rushes of horns and shootout samples from old Westerns. Still, there's more upbeat tracks like "Dub My Way," highlighting "Move My Way"'s elastic bassline and garage-inspired rhythm, and adding a whirlpool of whooshing effects. Trombonist Rosie Turton gets a feature credit on "Golden Dub," a mysterious number with suspenseful strings, rich horns, and whispers hidden during the song's bridge. Joshua Waters Rudge from reggae-punks the Skints enthusiastically shouts out to Hollie during "Kush Dub," a version of "Kush Kween" which keeps Jah9's original guest verse. Kiko Bun provides some fragmented words of assurance on the tearful, slightly frantic "Dubbing On," while both he and Hollie seem to dissolve in heavy echo and tape rewind effects. "Happy Dub" takes it all back to the beginning, with Hollie trying to erase her sadness at a beachside cantina. Happy Hour in Dub arguably improves on the original album, expressing emotions that can be difficult to put into words, while also being a fascinating sonic trip. © Paul Simpson /TiVo

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Enigma burst on the scene in the early '90s with a pretty nifty schtick: dance beats and lush chord washes underpinning such exotica as muttered French sex talk and Gregorian chant, all unified by a bizarre theme somehow related to the Marquis de Sade. The concept was never as original as some people thought (Mark Stewart's "Maffia" had set plainchant to electro-funk as far back as 1984), but it worked nicely, and "Sadeness" (har har) was an international dance club hit. Two albums later, Michael Cretu (the individual who records under the Enigma moniker) doesn't seem to have done much to expand upon his original ideas. The monks are still there, floating in a murky club mix, though this time they're joined by a cool Mongolian ensemble as well. Cretu is singing more, which is unfortunate since his voice is mediocre and his lyrics silly, but the occasional high point does emerge, such as the darkly lovely "The Child in Us." Most of the album, however, is twaddle. Song titles like "Morphing Thru Time," "Beyond the Invisible" and (seriously) "Odyssey of the Mind" will give you a good idea of what to expect -- lots of atmosphere, lots of reverb, lots of sternly intoned lyrics about, er...something or other. What's missing is musical interest. Overall, the cool packaging is the only thing noteworthy about this disappointing effort.© Rick Anderson /TiVo

Like it says on the tin: Michel Portal is 85! But time has never managed to curb the desires and the creative madness of this artist who guards a no man's land between jazz, contemporary music and everything else. Portal has always prized unexpected or unlikely encounters. Blurring the lines. Magnifying the differences. Building on the margins. After ten years of discographic silence (Baïlador dates from 2011), the clarinettist embarks here his band with the cast of fire (Bojan Z on piano and keyboards, Nils Wogram on trombone and Bruno Chevillon on double bass) in an explosive improvisation which was inspired by the backdrop of the pandemic."This record was made under very special conditions, after two long months of lockdown. I and the members of my new quintet found ourselves in the studios of Label Bleu, eager for music but with mixed feeling of joy, fear of the virus and involuntary distrust of others, who were suddenly relegated to the status of "threatening strangers". As if it were a matter of each of us re-establishing the right distances from the world and from each other, music was created in the present tense over these few days of recording, by moving it between one another with a true collective intensity. It is this fundamental movement of opening up that, I believe, gives the music on this record its colour and direction – like a gradual return to life. What we have all sought here together was a way of re-finding the élan and carefree spirit of playing music, the simple joy of sharing something vivid and explosive in the moment: this faculty that music possesses, when we take it sufficiently seriously and with a light-enough heart, of breaking down all the walls between us!"Walls which can also be borders. MP85 erases them and moves from Africa (African Wind) to Armenia (Armenia) to the Basque Country (Euskal Kantua). The music is so tightly-made that we can close our eyes and follow the artists around the world in 50 minutes. Whether the improvisation is tinged with a certain melancholy (Armenia) or whether it's more lively, (Jazzoulie), Michel Portal's gang makes one forget the pandemic's deadening interruption. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Of the few records that trumpeter Carmell Jones led throughout his career, his first date was by far his best known and was generally his most satisfying. Teamed in Los Angeles with tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Frank Strazzeri, bassist Gary Peacock, and drummer Leon Pettis, Jones is featured on music that is essentially cool-toned hard bop. In addition to a couple of Jones' originals, there is an obscurity by bassist Jimmy Bond and three other tunes, including an 11-minute investigation of Duke Ellington's "I'm Gonna Go Fishing." Jones' Clifford Brown-influenced style blends well with Land, and the music swings throughout in fine fashion. This album was reissued by the British Charly label on their Affinity subsidiary in the mid-'80s.© Scott Yanow /TiVo

Lovers’ rock is the summer pop version of reggae, a style infused with a good dose of romance. The style developed in the UK across the 70s and 80s and later became an art form in its own right thanks to Dennis Bovell, a producer and bassist who spearheaded the movement (particularly with tracks like Silly Games, a hit sung by Janet Kay, and After Tonight, a track he released with his band Matumbi). Since the start of her career in 2011, Hollie Cook decided to embrace lovers rock and give it a new lease of life. On this fourth album by the daughter of Sex Pistol drummer Paul Cook, we’re immediately plunged back into this cool, unpolished style of reggae. There’s the catchy single Happy Hour, the brilliant track Moving On with its skank roots and strings, an ode to Notting Hill (Move My Way), and the melancholic final track, Praying, which rounds the entire album off beautifully. It’s easy to understand why Ms Cook enjoys such great success. This release is clean and features songs that are easy to sing and dance along to; in fact, you could say these nine impeccable tracks represent the very best reggae has to offer. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

This Swedish band has never sounded better. It was widely believed that Cult of Luna had reached their peak after their 2016 album Mariner (in collaboration with Julie Christmas), which was followed by the incredible A Dawn to Fear and the EP The Raging River, which felt like a natural extension of the album. But they were, in fact, still climbing—maybe they’ve only just reached the summit now. Over their past few albums, Cult of Luna seems to have changed their way of writing music. They now focus predominantly on the emotions that can be provoked through sound and on letting moments of inspiration guide their song writing process, rather than thinking things through too far in advance... This loose approach makes the result even more organic and visceral, while delivering even more ambitious songs. The Long Road North is the perfect example of this.The beginning of the album sounds like pure Cult of Luna in all its devastating glory, delivering the slow and full sound it’s known for (as heard in the opening track Cold Burn). The rest of the album highlights the band’s uncanny knack for seeing the bigger picture and always making steps in the right direction. The Long Road North is home to several anthology tracks, such as the title track and the incredible An Offering to the Wild and Blood Upon Stones. These are long journeys of over 10 minutes that show the band’s cinematic side like never before. More attention is afforded to the keyboards, yet they remain perfectly balanced with the guitars thanks to the album’s fantastic production. Cult of Luna doesn’t shy away from the light either; certain parts have a real glow about them, creating a striking contrast with the rest of their dark sound. More nuanced, more dynamic, and featuring incredibly raw and gritty vocals (as always), this album has all the ingredients of a major post metal album. This album brings together musicians from all walks of life (including the guitarists from Phoenix. Yes, the French band) who, if nothing else, all share this Swedish band’s love of music. This album is destined to be a classic. © Chief Brody/Qobuz

Ten years after Gerry Rafferty's death from alcoholism-induced liver failure, Rest in Blue is being released as a sort of "what-if?" vision of his final album. Culled from demo tapes Rafferty had pulled from his archives for consideration on the follow-up to 2009's Life Goes On, the songs on Rest in Blue were actually written across several decades of his career. His daughter took those tapes and oversaw a remixing project in an effort to deliver what could have (should have?) been his next album had he not died. To be clear: this is not a misguided attempt to modernize or reinterpret Rafferty's work; instead, the material is surprisingly and thankfully consistent, both within the context of the album as well as within Rafferty's career. It's important to not read too much narratively into the curation here, as these tracks represent more than 40 years of Rafferty's songcraft, the equivalent of an author pulling out boxes of old notebooks before beginning a new novel. So, it's best to approach Rest In Blue as a halted work-in-progress, rather than a fully formed album finally seeing the light of day. However, it must be said, starting off a posthumous album with a song about the very thing that killed the artist is ... a move. "Still in Denial," is a rough-edged, bluesy rocker that kicks off the album with a dose of infectious high energy; it's also about helplessly struggling with alcoholism, so the song tinged with the slightly bitter weariness Rafferty was known for. That approach persists throughout most of Rest In Blue, which is undercut with the folksy touches that are at the root of Rafferty's songwriting, but presented with more of a live, rockist vibe than the smooth melancholy of his best known stuff; this is definitely not soft rock. Cuts like "Sign of the Times" are brimming with energy (albeit one shot through with lyrical cynicism bemoaning the befouling of the planet) and even occasionally ("Slow Down") have a gleeful sense of optimism. And while Rafferty's voice is notably wobbly on "I Still Love You"—a beautiful number crafted with gentle guitar lines and his trademark multi tracked harmonies—it's quite strong elsewhere, like on the muscular, bluesy rocker "Keeper of My Soul" and a redux of "Stuck in the Middle with You." These two cuts close out the album, and while the loose rendition of "Stuck" may strike one as a little weird and unnecessary, it definitely fits with the organic and open mood of these 14 tracks. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz