It shouldn't take listeners long to get over the novelty of hearing Wagner on the piano. After all, piano transcriptions were the primary way opera, in general, and Wagner specifically, were spread around Europe in the 19th century, and the composer's primary champion in this medium was none other than the greatest pianist of the age, Franz Liszt. Liszt's own transcription of the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde is the pièce de résistance on this release by pianist Nikolai Lugansky; it is not terribly often played, and it has lost none of its imposing scope over the decades. Lugansky leads up to this with transcriptions by Louis Brassin, upon which Lugansky has elaborated, and with a quartet of transcriptions from Götterdämmerung that come from his own hand. These are quite artfully done, incorporating the familiar leitmotifs of the Ring cycle while filling them in with technically fearsome connective tissue. Lugansky has done nothing less than put the listener in the place of an audience that might have heard Liszt play Wagner in the composer's own day, and ideal sound from the small Scuola della Carità reproduces the aristocratic Paris salons where Liszt would often have held forth. A bold, fresh release from Lugansky that made classical best-seller lists in early 2024.© James Manheim /TiVo

Jennifer Warnes was familiar with Leonard Cohen from a tour of duty as one of his backup singers in the early '70s, but this collection of Cohen's songs must have shocked her AM radio fans who knew her from her '70s country-pop hits and her movie themes, if they were even able to connect the woman who sang "It's the right time of the night for makin' love" with the one who declared "First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin" over stinging guitar work by Stevie Ray Vaughan on the opening track here. As that pairing suggests, Warnes wisely took a tougher, more contemporary approach to the arrangements than such past Cohen interpreters as Judy Collins used to. Where other singers tended to geld Cohen's often disturbingly revealing poetry, Warnes, working with the composer himself and introducing a couple of great new songs ("First We Take Manhattan" and "Song of Bernadette," which she co-wrote), matched his own versions. The high point may have been the Warnes-Cohen duet on "Joan of Arc," but the album was consistently impressive. And it went a long way toward reestablishing Cohen, whose reputation was in a minor eclipse in the mid-'80s. A year later, with the way paved for him, he released his brilliant comeback album I'm Your Man. For Warnes, the album meant her first taste of real critical success: suddenly a singer who had seemed like a second-rate Linda Ronstadt now appeared to be a first-class interpretive artist. © William Ruhlmann /TiVo

The back story of Kanye West's 2016 release, The Life of Pablo, is nearly impossible to put in a nutshell, but it involves an ever-changing album title, including one that offended Wiz Khalifa so much that a twitter war ensued. Then there was a "Bill Cosby is innocent" tweet, and a consensus among producers and insiders that this was the culmination of his career. There was the Season 3 release of West's fashion line, a coinciding event that seemed just as important to Yeezy as dropping this LP. More important, maybe, since the runway models all made their cues while The Life of Pablo missed its release date, and while the idea that this is Kanye's career in one album can be loosely applied, it's more an angelic-themed LP in the vein of 808s & Heartbreak, with another vicious, trite, spiteful, parasitic release nibbling at its host. The opening masterpiece, "Ultralight Beam," represents the angelic side, offering a complicated emotional ride with the Gospel of Kirk Franklin fueling the song's jaw-dropping climax. Then, on a smaller scale, there's "No More Parties in L.A." with Kendrick Lamar and Madlib as co-producer, plus samples of Junie Morrison and Larry Graham, all supporting a smooth, rolling soul song they never could've imagined -- one about dropping your own shoe line -- plus "sheets still orange from your spray tan." Add the gorgeous "FML" ("I will die for those I love/God, I'm willing to make this my mission"), which comes with the Weeknd, and a marvelous sample of post-punkers Section 25, and the vibrant The Life of Pablo circles the wagons around family and soul mates in a manner that makes this the most holy of endeavors. And yet, when "Real Friends" explores the flipside, the emotions are tweet-sized and click bait, because paying a cousin a quarter million just to get a laptop back, just because of ex-girlfriend nudes, seems like G-Unit bragging or yesterday's bossip. There's the much talked about Taylor Swift diss in "Famous," which is not only callous, trite, and illogical but sits on a sub-Yeezy beat, and yet "Waves" (sounds like Kraftwerk remixing Chris Brown), "Highlights" (Young Thug and Yeezy connect supremely, like Drake and Future), and "Low Lights" (nothing but bass and a woman testifying for pure perfection) are all captivating, and make Pablo a soul-filling, gospel-fueled alternative to West's vicious, industrial-powered LP Yeezus. The bleached anuses that ruin expensive t-shirts in "Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1" just don't seem as interesting in this context, but the other way to look at the erratic Pablo is as an "instant" LP, one that was mastered at the last minute and debuted via streaming. On that count, it's a fascinating, magazine-like experience with plenty of reasons to give it a free play, and with "Feedback" adding "name one genius that ain't crazy" to the mix, Pablo excuses itself from the usual criticisms, although it could have been tighter.© David Jeffries /TiVo

In the notes to his 2018 release Cinema, violinist Renaud Capuçon spoke of "reservations" about recording film music as a classical musician. This time around, there are no such reservations, perhaps because the previous release was quite successful. There are several differences between the two albums that may work to the advantage of this 2024 release; at the very least, Capuçon is not repeating himself. One is that the violinist focuses exclusively on French music this time around; even the several extracts from various English-language films included, such as Love Story and Lawrence of Arabia, have French composers, and the album reflects on the strength of the French strain in Anglo-American film music. Another departure is that Capuçon has replaced the Brussels Philharmonic from the 2018 album with the smaller historical-instrument group Les Siècles. They don't seem to be using anything other than modern instruments, but the performances of the arrangements by Cyrille Lehn are able to sharpen the contrast between the "voices" of Capuçon and the orchestra under the baton of Duncan Ward. Beyond these differences, the album, like its predecessor, will expose non-French audiences to some excellent film tunes that they may not have known. Consider the somber Concerto de l'Adieu from the epic film Dien Bien Phu, a sort of docudrama about the 1954 battle that drove the French out of Vietnam. The Decca label contributes fine studio sound from the ONDIF studio in Alfortville to this strong crossover release from the increasingly popular Capuçon.© James Manheim /TiVo

...Famous Last Words... was the last album that Roger Hodgson made with Supertramp before seeking a solo career, and he made sure that radio would take kindly to his last hurrah with the band. Sporting an airy and overly bright pop sheen, ...Famous Last Words... put two singles on the charts, with the poignant "My Kind of Lady" peaking at number 31 and the effervescent smile of "It's Raining Again" going to number 11. The album itself went Top Ten both in the U.S. and in the U.K., eventually going gold in America. The songs are purposely tailored for Top 40 radio, delicately textured and built around overly bland and urbane choruses. Hodgson's abundance of romantically inclined poetry and love song fluff replaces the lyrical keenness that Supertramp had produced in the past, and the instrumental proficiency that they once mastered has vanished. Hodgson's English appeal and fragile vocal manner works well in some places, but the album's glossy sound and breezy feel is too excessive. Hodgson gave his solo album, 1984's In the Eye of the Storm, a mildly progressive feel, quite unlike his last appearance with his former group.© Mike DeGagne /TiVo

Brian Burton was a teenage Roots fanatic -- so eager to own but too short on funds to buy his beloved band's Do You Want More?!!!??! that he paid an acquaintance to lift a copy for him. A decade later, Burton had become Danger Mouse, an ascendant producer with enough clout and confidence to seek lead Roots MC Black Thought for a collaboration. Mouse and Thought meshed and recorded demos for a potential LP. Other projects then took precedence. Thought reached out to Mouse after another 11 years passed, in 2017, and over the next year, the two laid down much of what materialized in 2022 as Cheat Codes. Given the project's genesis before the rapping half's 2018-2020 solo trilogy, it stands to reason that Cheat Codes isn't billed as Streams of Thought, Vol. 4. It's also of an even higher concentration. Returning to sample-based production, Danger Mouse favors '60s and '70s psych, prog, and soul recordings that are moody, trippy, and sometimes eerie. The crisp if soot-coated drums, smeared strings, moaning organs, and gnarled guitars are all very compatible with Thought, who scythes through it all with unparalleled wordplay delivered with surgical precision. The guest appearances are superfluous more often than they are truly complementary. Representing the latter, MF Doom (recorded post-Danger Doom) shuffles into place on "Belize" with such ease that he sounds like part of a longtime trio. Michael Kiwanuka sets up "Aquamarine" -- one of two tracks that also reconnects Mouse with fellow Kiwanuka producer Inflo -- by crooning a grave hook that leads to some of Thought's bleakest and most authoritative statements. They pivot from lines ending with "bullion," "Suleiman," a racist epithet, and "depression" to "I'm a king, I'm dipped in God's Black complexion." Some stellar outside contributions notwithstanding, Cheat Codes stimulates most when Mouse and Thought are sequestered, allowing the latter to leave space only for the occasional instrumental break or rare prominent sampled vocal. The title track is an unremitting torrent of high-alert reality checks like "Shit, it's real when you done lost your last feeling/Jump then bounce back off the glass ceiling/Back to stealing, to Xanax and smack dealing." "Violas and Lupitas," which could triple in length without losing its transfixing power, ends the album with a grand flourish: "Go ask them about the gatekeeper, world leader/Kill shit quicker than Usain could run a hundred meter." Quotables such as that, over a production that skillfully combines opulence and grit, prove that the duo fulfilled their plan right on time.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

Along with the mega-platinum Songs from the Big Chair, The Seeds of Love rendered Tears for Fears one of the '80s most successful pop groups. The album was created during a profound period of catharsis. Curt Smith was going through a divorce while Roland Orzabal was in primal therapy. Musically, it's their most sophisticated outing, and it should be: It took four years, four producers, and over a million pounds to complete. The duo sought to distance themselves from the synth pop of their earlier records in favor of a more organic approach using live musicians. Included in this all-star cast are Kate St. John, Jon Hassell, Robbie Macintosh, and Ian Stanley. Orzabal began writing in 1985 with touring keyboardist Nicky Holland and continued in London in 1986. Their collaboration netted half the album's tracks, including "Bad Man's Song." Due to outside pressures, Smith's only co-writing credit is the soaring title track, though he played, sang, and advised on all charts and mixes. The album's Muse is American vocalist/pianist Oleta Adams. Orzabal caught her set in a hotel bar in 1985 and asked her two years later to duet on the transcendent album-opener "Woman in Chains." It set the tone for the entire proceeding. (The glorious drumming on the cut is by Phil Collins.) Adams also contributed gospel vocals to "Bad Man's Song," which features a Holland piano intro strongly suggestive of Weather Report's "Birdland." The presence of drummer Manu Katche and bassist Pino Palladino underscores it. The production chart for "Sowing the Seeds of Love" borrows heavily from the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus," but ends up as a spiritual, sociopolitical anthem in its own sonic universe. Smith's devastatingly beautiful refrain and the brief, seemingly errant entrance of an operatic soprano and a choir, frame the panoramic horns, strings, and Fairlight orchestrations, resulting in one of the duo's most enduring songs. On "Advice for the Young at Heart," Smith's and Holland's vocals entwine in a melody grounded in blue-eyed soul, jazz, and elegant pop that recalls the Style Council. Hassell's fourth world trumpet introduces the lithe "Standing on the Corner of the Third World," clearing the way for a melody that melds Bacharach-esque pop to folk, rock, and chamber jazz, with riveting singing from Smith and Orzabal. "Swords and Knives" melds squalling prog rock guitar (a la Robert Fripp) to Afro-Latin polyrhythms and orchestral arrangements woven through psych-pop overtones. The rave-up rocker "Year of the Knife" is loaded with effects. Its siren-like strings provide ballast for ripping, multi-tracked guitars, samples, atmospherics, punchy drums, and a soul revue chorus. Closer "Famous Last Words" opens with ambient sounds and a lone piano as Orzabal delivers a love song about mortality. Simon Phillips' drumming propels wafting strings and a chorale, before they're stripped away at close. Thanks to the duo's uncompromising stubbornness, expansive creative vision, and Dave Bascombe's final production, The Seeds of Love has dated better than either of its predecessors and is inarguably Tears for Fears' masterpiece.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Three years after a dazzling entry into the world pop scene, this Australian-Berlin quintet is pulling a double shift for its second album, divided into two parts of nine tracks, Day and Night, recorded in the studios of La Frette-sur-Seine, a 19th century manor house where Marianne Faithfull, Nick Cave and the Arctic Monkeys have also worked. The first half is luminous, in the tradition of Parcels' first LP, with a pop/funk vibe that has worked very well for them. There are singles that will play well on the radio and at festivals: Free, Comingback, Theworstthing and the irresistible anthem Somethinggreater, while Daywalk demonstrates the Parcels' inextinguishable taste for jam sessions, which are always so elegant in their arrangements (cf. the very Beatles-influenced Outside). The Night is not in fact as dark as all that: we quickly find ourselves on the dance floor (naturally, the one from Studio 54 on Famous or LordHenry), before a relaxed trip to a hushed jazz club (Nightwalk) and then returning home (Inside). All in all, it makes for 24 exciting hours with Parcels. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

The tracks on this two-CD, 31-song anthology, spanning Cohen's career from his 1967 debut album through 2002's Ten New Songs, were chosen by Cohen himself. It could thus be regarded as an accurate mirror of how Cohen sees his own career path and catalog highlights. And there are many of the songs you would expect from any decent Cohen retrospective: "Suzanne," "Sisters of Mercy," "So Long Marianne," "Bird on a Wire," "Famous Blue Raincoat," and "I'm You're Man," for instance. Still, the balance and selection isn't ideal. There's just one song ("Famous Blue Raincoat") from Songs of Love and Hate, and no songs at all from Death of a Ladies Man. Cohen's 1988-2002 period is arguably overrepresented, with about half of the package's tunes dating from that era. And because his later period is so prominently featured, most listeners won't be able to get around the fact that his voice declined in expressive range in the later years, and his material was less striking than his best early songs. Still, for those who've enjoyed Cohen all along, it's a good dose of much of his better work, and certainly doesn't skimp on the running time, with each of the discs lasting 78 minutes.© Richie Unterberger /TiVo

James Blake is a master of contrasts and restraint—understanding that too much of a good thing can knock people over. The good thing in question, of course, is his marvel of a voice, which effortlessly sails from its rich natural baritone to a songbird-in-the-cloud falsetto. It can match the high drama of an opera star and sometimes you get the feeling that, if used for evil, it could wipe out a landscape. So on his fifth album's opener "Famous Last Words," an aural cocoon of gently pulsing R&B with gospel flourishes, the strings and piano drop out periodically so as not to suck up all the oxygen. (It's like the musical equivalent of Coco Chanel's adage: "Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.") "Coming Back" sways with lush piano and Blake's high-frequency "So I take it all! Take it all! Take it all back," before SZA slinks in and brings a cool, crisp edge—like a knife through full-fat butter. Love song "I'm So Blessed You're Mine" balances between The Voice singing alongside low-key instrumentation and ghostly "whoo"-ing over a busy hip-hop beat, sweeping strings and deep bass. Sometimes Blake ducks out all together—letting rappers Swavay and JID take over whole chunks of the strikingly spooky "Frozen." Soulful singer Monica Martin features on moody "Show Me," with Blake's baritone wearily intoning "I heard you had a sweet way..." before ascending to deliver the kicker: "That I've yet to see." Finger-snapping "Foot Forward" covers smooth piano R&B; "Life Is Not the Same" mixes a jazz mood, a low-key trap beat and a melody that recalls Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me a River" era, Blake's voices wavering and quivering and sustaining like some hypnotizing force. But the scene-stealer here—indeed, one of the most stunning tracks Blake has ever recorded—is "Say What You Will," a collaboration with singer-songwriter Finneas (best known as Billie Eilish's brother and producer). World-weary and clever, it uses melancholy strings, choir-boy sighs and an ethereal melody to build a tastefully lush bed. "I look okay in the magic hour/ In the right light with the right amount of power," Blake sings. "I might not make all those psychopaths proud/ At least I can see the facеs of the smaller crowds." He has said: "The song is about finding peace with who you are and where you're at regardless of how well other people seem to be doing." Considering he's a favorite of Kanye West, has collaborated with the likes of Beyoncé and Jay-Z, and has made a stellar album, it's unclear who he even has to be envious of at this point. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

In 2004, he said that his album Solo Piano was a project that had relieved him of a variety of complexes that he had had about the relationship of his music to his character. How to sum up this singer, musician, entertainer? This record with a strong whiff of Satie solved a lot of problems, Jason Beck alias Chilly Gonzalez said at the time... A good decade later, this brilliant Canadian Zebedee bounds between passports, costumes, locations, eras and styles, always one step ahead of getting pigeonholed into a single role or genre. But he regularly returns to this solo, introspective work, as if compelled. This time, Solo Piano III rounds off what he describes as a trilogy. "The musical purity of Solo Piano III is not an antidote for our times", he says, "it is a reflection of all the beauty and ugliness around us. "Less monolithic than its predecessors, this final volume racks up a series of refined nods and winks with a rare intelligence. Satie and Chopin are never far away, and the same goes for Liszt, Bach or, more recently, Chico Marx of the Marx Brothers, the childhood idol of his to whom he dedicated the well-named Chico. Each track on this timeless record is dedicated to one of his "underdogs". Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk, Fanny Mendelssohn, sister of Felix Mendelssohn, Rudolf Steiner, founder of anthroposophy, composer and writer Hildegard von Bingen, aviator Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly over the Atlantic in 1928, but also groups like Migos and Beach House or Conchita Cintron, the first woman rejoneadora: all are crowned with this pianist's laurels. © Max Dembo/Qobuz

Presidents of the United States of America employed a bit of synergy on Election Day 2004, releasing lovingly remastered, expanded editions of their 1995 debut and the 2000 LP Freaked Out and Small. It was the debut that blew up originally, positing the Presidents in the midst of the mid-'90s grunge explosion with singles like "Peaches," "Lump," and "Kitty." With their modified lineup -- vocalist Chris Ballew played a "basitar," while cohort Dave Dederer rocked the "guitbass" -- PUSA couldn't create the thick sonics of their fellow Seattle grungers. But their quirky take on punk-pop did help expand the palette of MTV and alternative radio, and make their oddball singles part of the enduring sound of the era. This expanded edition arrives via Ballew, Dederer, and drummer Jason Finn's own PUSA imprint. It includes the original album in its entirety, as well as 12 bonus tracks and demos dating from the same era. (And mindset, as "Carolyn's Booty" proves. "I caught a glimpse of Carolyn's booty/As she was going from the bathroom into my bedroom....") Presidents fans will dig the demos, especially. Taken from Ballew's four-track cassette demos, they're a gloriously weird jumble of muffled Mellow Gold-era Beckisms ("Stranger" and "Boll Weevil," particularly) and the kind of loopy humor that would bloom on Presidents itself. If that's not enough bonus material, this "Ten Year Super Bonus Special Anniversary" edition includes a "Super Bonus Thrillpack DVD," with videos, live material, and commentary from the band. Vote yes on the Presidents!© Johnny Loftus /TiVo

Sporting the same lineup as on American Psycho (read: two members from the band's prime, but no Glenn Danzig), the reunited Misfits continue their questionable resurrection from the grave with Famous Monsters, titled after a '70s horror magazine. To their credit, the band does try to maintain a certain amount of variety in coloring its sonic palette, throwing in a little doo wop and rockabilly, and they do sound tighter than in the past. However, there's still no getting around the fact that Glenn Danzig was so intrinsic to the sound and direction of the original Misfits that Famous Monsters can't help but feel like an inferior, forced imitation much of the time.© Steve Huey /TiVo

Blues for the Modern Daze is the 21st album from guitar legend Walter Trout and follows 2010’s Common Ground. Produced by engineer Eric Corne (Michelle Shocked, Glen Campbell) and Trout himself, the album was recorded at the Entourage Studios in North Hollywood. Inspired by his early blues roots and by country blues musician Blind Willie Johnson in particular, the album sees Trout deliver his first proper blues album in 23 years.© TiVo