On this reissue CD of a Contemporary set (bassist Leroy Vinnegar's first as a leader), six of the seven songs have the word "walk" in their title, including "Would You Like to Take a Walk," "Walkin' My Baby Back Home," "I'll Walk Alone," and Vinnegar's original "Walk On." Vinnegar actually does not take much solo space and generously features his talented sidemen: vibraphonist Victor Feldman, trumpeter Gerald Wilson, tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards, pianist Carl Perkins, and drummer Tony Bazley. A fine, straight-ahead session.© Scott Yanow /TiVo

With their eighth studio album, 2023's ebullient So Much (For) Stardust, Fall Out Boy fully re-embrace the emo and punk-pop dynamism of their classic work. It's a soaring style they've been threatening to unleash ever since returning to regular activity following their hiatus after 2008's Folie a Deux. Although their subsequent follow-ups like Save Rock and Roll, American Beauty/American Psycho, and Mania all topped the Billboard 200, the albums often felt like the band were working hard to stay current, throwing their songs into a production blender of contemporary pop, hip-hop, and EDM sounds with varying degrees of success. Without ever sounding too much like a throwback, So Much (For) Stardust has a homecoming feeling, as if Fall Out Boy are getting back to their rock roots. It's a vibe that's underlined by the presence of producer Neal Avron, with whom they recorded the core of their most beloved albums, including 2005's From Under the Cork Tree. From the start, there's a balance of measured craftsmanship (they purportedly took their time in the studio) and big melodic hooks, all effusively delivered by singer Patrick Stump. It's an infectious combination the band perfect on the opening "Love from the Other Side," a song ostensibly about dealing with (and perhaps being the cause of) a bad breakup. That said, it could just as easily work as a metaphor for the group's attempts at transforming their sound coming off the emo highs of the early 2000s. Early in the song, Stump admits, "We were a hammer to the statue of David." There's a bittersweet nostalgia implied by the song, as if the band are looking back on their career and taking stock of where they (and by proxy their fans) find themselves in a post-emo, post-pandemic world. They return to that sentiment on "I Am My Own Muse," where Stump, bellowing against a symphonic string bombast and guitarist Joe Trohman's fiery riffs, sings, "Smash all the guitars 'til we see all the stars/Oh, we've got to throw this year away like a bad luck charm." This kind of bold rock affection drives much of the album, as on the '80s AOR of "Heartbreak Feels So Good," the Queen-meets-Michael Jackson post-punk stomp of "Hold Me Like a Grudge," and the dreamy new wave romanticism of "Fake Out." Adding to the emotional push of the record are several unabashed musical and pop-cultural references, including the Earth, Wind & Fire intimations of "What a Time to Be Alive," the Don Henley "Boys of Summer" flourishes at the center of "The Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years)," and even a snippet of Ethan Hawke's soliloquy about the meaning of life from Reality Bites in which his character offers up the adage "It's all just a random lottery of meaningless tragedy in a series of near escapes." Whether that's how Fall Out Boy feel about their career or not, So Much (For) Stardust is a gloriously welcome return to form.© Matt Collar /TiVo

Her self-titled debut LP (later retitled Ain't No Mountain High Enough after the single became a hit) was arguably her finest solo work at Motown and perhaps her best ever; it was certainly among her most stunning. Everyone who doubted whether Diana Ross could sustain a career outside the Supremes found out immediately that she would be a star. The single "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" remains a staple in her shows, and is still her finest message track.© Ron Wynn /TiVo

Ane Brun’s unmistakable voice incarnates the sweet softness of her ballads in its tonality; mellifluous and light, with a slight tremble that ushers in a precious ephemerality. Playful as Joanna Newsom and Fiona Apple, powerful as Joni Mitchell and Dolly Parton, this Norwegian has reconstituted the art of her elders to come up with her own music, for her own universe. Her personal touch resonates even throughout her covers. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of her career, Ane Brun has returned to her signature move by releasing four perfect compilations, exclusively covers, of which Portrayals is the first volume. “Covers have been such a big part of my career. It’s almost a career in itself. They have their own dynamic. I wanted to celebrate that by giving these songs their own space. It’s always a real creative process to record your own version of someone else’s song. I’m not interested in doing a cover version that sounds like the original…” Like Nina Simone, or, closer to home, Cat Power, the Scandinavian makes every song her own. Something that is all the more impressive given that the "revisited" artists come from any background in whichever decade. Portrayals features tracks from Sade (By Your Side), Nick Cave (Into My Arms), Bob Dylan (Make You Feel My Love), Radiohead (How to Disappear Completely), Emmylou Harris (All My Tears), Foreigner (I Want to Know What Love Is), Alphaville (Big in Japan), Beyoncé (Halo), Rodgers & Hart (Blue Moon), the Beatles (From Me to You) and many others. Magical. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

It's often unfair to compare the Rolling Stones to the Beatles but in the case of the group's mono mixes, it's instructive. Until the 2009 release of the box set The Beatles in Mono, all of the Fab Four's mono mixes were out of print. That's not the case with the Rolling Stones. Most of their '60s albums -- released on Decca in the U.K., London in the U.S. -- found mono mixes sneaking onto either the finished sequencing or various singles compilations, so the 2016 box The Rolling Stones in Mono only contains 56 heretofore unavailable mono mixes among its 186 tracks. To complicate things further, the box -- which runs 15 discs in its CD version, 16 LPs in its vinyl incarnation -- sometimes contains both the British and American releases of a particular title (Out of Our Heads and Aftermath), while others are available in only one iteration (Between the Buttons is only present in the U.K. version). All this is for the sake of expedience: this is the easiest way to get all the mono mixes onto the box with a minimal amount of repetition. To that end, there's a bonus disc called Stray Cats -- with artwork that plays off the censored plain white cover art for the initial pressing of Beggars Banquet -- collecting the singles that never showed up on an official album, or at least any of the albums that made the box. Along with the odd decision to have the CD sleeves be slightly larger than a mini-LP replica (they're as big as a jewel box, so they're larger than a shrunk vinyl sleeve, a size that's rarely seen in other releases), this is the only quibble on what is otherwise an excellent set. The sound -- remastered again after the 2002 overhaul for hybrid SACDs -- is bold and colorful, with the earliest albums carrying a wallop and the latter records feeling like they're fighting to be heard in two separate channels and all the better for it. If nothing here provides a revelation -- none of the mixes are radically different, the way that some Beatles mono sides are -- this nevertheless is the best the Rolling Stones have sounded on disc (or on vinyl) and there's considerable care in this package, from the replications of the sleeves to the extensive notes from David Fricke. Plus, hearing the Stones in mono winds up being a hot wire back toward the '60s: this feels raw and vibrant, as alive as the band was in the '60s.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

The release of Roses, the fifth album from this Melbourne, Australia indie-folk quintet, marks 10 years since Paper Kites’ international debut with their single, Bloom, in 2010, as well as the transformation of original duo Sam Bentley and Christina Lacy into a group including Sam Rasmussen, David Powys and Josh Bentley. Welcome to campfire ambience and the mood of a late morning lie-in, miles from the stress and violence of the world, with ten ethereal, romantic new songs that invite the listener in to relax and forget real-life troubles and strife. You’ll recognise the melancholy sterling guitar lines, a Sam Bentley signature, similar to Chris Isaak or some tracks by The XX. The novelty? Each song features a different guest vocalist, a parade of vocal wonderment dazzling the current scene, with singers from the four corners of the planet: Sweden’s Amanda Bergman, England’s Lucy Rose, Aussie Julia Stone, Ireland’s Rosie Carney, New Zealander Nadia Reid and Portuguese singer MARO. She helps kick off the album, and the mood is immediately set, with her spellbinding vocals gradually blending with Bentley and Lacy in Walk Above the City. Melancholy takes hold and spreads its way through the subsequent tracks, Climb on Your Tears with American-Irish singer Aoife O’Donovan (of Crooked Still), and a ballad that sounds like it just crossed over from the soundtrack to a David Lynch film, Crossfire, with a vocal from Amanda Bergman that would not be out of place in an episode of Twin Peaks. Without Your Love, featuring the lovely Julia Stone, pumps some energy back into the proceedings. As the title indicates, Roses is the perfect album to help celebrate Valentine’s Day, every day. © Yan Céh/Qobuz

Empire of the Sun's debut offering of experimental electro-pop and dance-rock is very well-timed, hitting the market just as the buzz surrounding MGMT's Oracular Spectacular has started to recede. Like those similarly colorful Americans, Empire of the Sun's two members embrace the glam lifestyle in spirit and song, wearing festive costumes in concert and festooning their music with oddball flourishes, androgynous lyrics, and a general sense of theatricality that borders on schizophrenia. Walking on a Dream runs an interesting gamut, sampling equally from hip-hop ("Swordfish Hotkiss Night"), arty synth pop ("Standing on the Shore"), and all the stops in between. With its programmed percussion and futuristic keyboards, the music sounds slightly more indebted to Pnau than the Sleepy Jackson; nevertheless, Luke Steele (the brains behind the latter band) takes center stage on the bulk of these songs, speak-singing in a childish tenor one minute and cooing like a lovestruck female the next. The aforementioned MGMT followed a similar path with their own debut -- a fact that simply cannot be emphasized enough, given the vast similarities between both records -- but while MGMT took cues from the likes of David Bowie and Prince, Empire of the Sun's fusion is more reminiscent of worldbeat and fantasy movie soundtracks. The outlandish cover art follows suit, as Steele and Nick Littlemore (dressed up in bizarre Star Wars-styled regalia) are flanked by a decorative elephant, a tiger, and what appears to be the skyline of Atlantis. Like the music it promotes, the cover art is purposely ludicrous, but listeners who have a palette for such whimsy should walk away happy.© Andrew Leahey /TiVo

Given Adam Naas’ voice and the stripped down visuals on this second album, you might have expected a load of stripped-back and post-soul gems, or perhaps even a disco revival. The Frenchman’s first EP appeared in the autumn of 2016, just months after Prince’s death—difficult to believe that was mere coincidence. Two years later, his début album landed somewhere between glam, pop and soul, serving only to confirm this princely lineage. Today, however, Adam Naas shows that if there’s one thing he’s learned from the Kid of Minneapolis, it’s his taste for freedom and artistic independence. He’s defined in equal measure by his characteristic fluidity between genres and influences.On Goldie and The Kiss of Andromeda, he loses (for the most part) the electronic sounds, or any other gimmicks from the 2010s, in favour of guitars (acoustic, electric and pedal-steel), piano, violins, backing vocals—all infused with this feeling that all the musicians are swaying gently behind their instruments. The album has an old-fashioned feel to it, but it doesn’t sound retro or nostalgic. Adam Naas has set sail, floating off into a musical territory which borders 60s country-pop, 80s new wave, choral gospel and 90s/2000s indie folk.With guitars that twinkle like fireflies in the moonlight, Adam Naas reveals himself to be something of an offbeat folk songwriter. Think Sparklehorse or Mac DeMarco. Although you won’t be thinking most of the time… Unplug and let yourself drift away to these dreamy, cottony songs. They’ll sound even better this summer, shirtless under the stars. Qobuzissime! © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz

Boggy Depot finds Jerry Cantrell in an interesting position. Unlike most famous musicians launching a solo career, Cantrell is a reluctant solo artist. If he had a choice, it's clear he would have recorded most of the material on Boggy Depot with Alice in Chains and tour it with the band, but Layne Staley's inertia, poor health, and personal problems meant that the band couldn't function as a normal working group. Instead of holing up, Cantrell made a solo album that's an Alice album by any other name. Everything that an Alice fan has loved, particularly the morose atmosphere and the dark, grinding guitars, is here in spades. There are certain individual touches to be sure -- since Cantrell hasn't been a studio in a while, he feels compelled to drag all the songs out a little bit too long with guitar solos -- but it's not far removed from what he's done in the past. Boggy Depot doesn't have the psychological weight of Dirt, Alice's best album, but it comes close to replicating the sound. And for some fans, that might be enough, especially since they'll actually get to see Cantrell in concert and get new records on a fairly regular basis.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

This two-LP set is both a lot more and a bit less than what it seems. It is seven years' worth of mostly very high-charting -- and all influential and important -- songs, leaving out some singles in favor of well-known album tracks, and in the process, giving an overview not just of the Rolling Stones' hits but of their evolving image. One hears them change from loud R&B-inspired rockers covering others' songs ("Time Is on My Side") into originators in their own right ("Satisfaction"); then into tastemakers and style-setters with a particularly decadent air ("Get Off of My Cloud," "19th Nervous Breakdown"), and finally into self-actualized rebel-poets ("Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Midnight Rambler") and Shaman-like symbols of chaos. On its initial release, Hot Rocks sold well, not only as a unique compilation but also as a panorama of the '60s. The only flaw was that it didn't give a good look at the Stones' full musical history, ignoring their early blues and psychedelic eras. There are also some anomalies in Hot Rocks' history for the collector -- the very first pressings included an outtake of "Brown Sugar" featuring Eric Clapton that was promptly replaced. This is an exciting assembly of material.© Bruce Eder /TiVo

This prophetically titled project represents yet another crossroad in John Mayall's ever evolving cast of prime British bluesmen. This album also signifies a distinct departure from the decibel-drowning electrified offerings of his previous efforts, providing instead an exceedingly more folk- and roots-based confab. The specific lineup featured here is conspicuous in its absence of a lead guitarist, primarily due to Mayall recommending himself out of his most recent string man. After the passing of Brian Jones, the Rolling Stones decided to tour and at the behest of Mick Jagger, Mayall suggested Mick Taylor -- who had been with him since Crusade (1967). Mayall gave this potentially negative situation a positive outcome by retooling the combo into an acoustic quartet featuring old friends as well as some vital new sonic textures. Mayall (vocals/harmonica/slide guitar/telecaster six-string/hand & mouth percussion) joined forces with former associates Steve Thompson (bass) and Johnny Almond (tenor & alto sax/flute/mouth percussion), then added the talents of Jon Mark (acoustic finger-style guitar). It becomes readily apparent that Mark's precision and tasteful improvisational skills place this incarnation into heady spaces. The taut interaction and wafting solos punctuating "So Hard to Share" exemplify the controlled intensity of Mayall's prior electrified outings. Likewise, Mark's intricate acoustics pierce through the growl of Mayall's haunting slide guitar solos on "Saw Mill Gulch Road." The Turning Point also examines a shift in Mayall's writing. The politically charged "Laws Must Change," the personal "I'm Gonna Fight for You J.B." and the incomparable "Room to Move" are tinged with Mayall's trademark sense of irony and aural imagery.© Lindsay Planer /TiVo