Randy Newman was the nephew of film composers Alfred, Emil, and Lionel Newman, which would suggest at least some familiarity with the field, even though he had only scored one minor movie (Cold Turkey). And in his songs, heard on his series of solo albums, he displayed far more knowledge of popular music styles of the early 20th century than any of his singer/songwriter peers. Listening to his records, you could always tell that he knew his way around Scott Joplin's rags. Who better, therefore, than Newman to make his debut as a big-budget film composer by scoring an adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime? So must movie producer Dino DeLaurentiis have reasoned in giving Newman the assignment. And the result worked out quite well. Newman naturally re-created much of the cakewalking Tin Pan Alley style of the turn-of-the-century era depicted in the film, but he actually had a more challenging assignment than might have appeared, since the story moves from one social stratum to another and ranges in tone from the comic to the melodramatic to the tragic. Especially impressive is the three-part "Dénouement," which brings the plot strands together. On this soundtrack album, billed as "music from the motion picture plus additional music," one gets to hear several vocal numbers in addition to the instrumental cues. A period song, "I Could Love a Million Girls," sung by Donald O'Connor, gives a sense of frivolity; "One More Hour," sung by Jennifer Warnes and, like the score, nominated for an Oscar, has a drawing-room formality; and Newman himself is heard singing "Change Your Way" (which was not in the film), the sort of song that would be at home on any of his solo albums. The 2002 reissue adds Newman's demo of the "Ragtime Theme."© TiVo

After the catharsis of 2021's Act 1, Imagine Dragons complete the story with Mercury: Act 2, a whopping 18-track journey that examines the time after the shock and grief of loss has begun to settle. While part one processed those messy emotions with some of the rawest and most vulnerable moments in the band's usual radio- and gym-friendly catalog, part two loses focus by biting off more than they can chew. There are plenty of great songs here -- fully expected for a band as hook-savvy as Imagine Dragons -- but there's simply too much going on and not enough editorial trimming to make this as impactful an experience as Act 1. Starting strong with irresistible singles "Bones" and "Sharks," Act 2 soon takes a turn to the pensive and reflective, with frontman Dan Reynolds lamenting his shortcomings on "I Don't Like Myself" and pleading for relief on "Take It Easy." The second half of the album is weighed down by similar moments, snuffing the momentum of the handful of classic stompers peppered throughout. Of this introspective bunch, the country-dusted acoustic gem "Crushed" is on par with "Wrecked" as a tearjerking standout, as "Sirens" merges the group's usual radio-friendly ear with a deep well of emotion. While the buoyant handclaps-and-synths highlight "Younger" and the riffs-and-breakbeats blazer "Blur" come closest to joining their array of mainstream smashes on a future Greatest Hits set, the bulk of Act 2 is truly for the dedicated fans who care to patiently sit with Reynolds and his feelings until everyone's ready to pump out a more focused and immediate set. [Compiling both parts on Mercury: Acts 1 & 2, the band presents the full experience across an expansive 32 tracks, which joins Act 1 and 2 as well as the hit single "Enemy" with JID from the Arcane League of Legends soundtrack.]© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

Love it or hate it, Over-Nite Sensation was a watershed album for Frank Zappa, the point where his post-'60s aesthetic was truly established; it became his second gold album, and most of these songs became staples of his live shows for years to come. Whereas the Flo and Eddie years were dominated by rambling, off-color comedy routines, Over-Nite Sensation tightened up the song structures and tucked sexual and social humor into melodic, technically accomplished heavy guitar rock with jazzy chord changes and funky rhythms; meanwhile, Zappa's growling new post-accident voice takes over the storytelling. While the music is some of Zappa's most accessible, the apparent callousness and/or stunning sexual explicitness of "Camarillo Brillo," "Dirty Love," and especially "Dinah-Moe Humm" leave him on shaky aesthetic ground. Zappa often protested that the charges of misogyny leveled at such material missed out on the implicit satire of male stupidity, and also confirmed intellectuals' self-conscious reticence about indulging in dumb fun; however, the glee in his voice as he spins his adolescent fantasies can undermine his point. Indeed, that enjoyment, also evident in the silly wordplay, suggests that Zappa is throwing his juvenile crassness in the face of critical expectation, asserting his right to follow his muse even if it leads him into blatant stupidity (ironic or otherwise). One can read this motif into the absurd shaggy-dog story of a dental floss rancher in "Montana," the album's indisputable highlight, which features amazing, uncredited vocal backing from Tina Turner and the Ikettes. As with much of Zappa's best '70s and '80s material, Over-Nite Sensation could be perceived as ideologically problematic (if you haven't got the constitution for FZ's humor), but musically, it's terrific.© Steve Huey /TiVo

A bassist vital to the US jazz scene since the 90’s – partner of choice for musicians as notable as Joe Henderson, Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, and Pat Metheny – Christian McBride, alongside his frequent work as a sideman (on over 300 records to date), leads a rich career as a frontman, expanding upon his orchestral formations (from trios to big band) in varying registers. He encompasses a large palette of styles that are always deeply anchored in the foundations of traditional African-American jazz. This new record conceived and recorded in partnership with another bass virtuoso, Edgar Meyer, himself exploring other idioms and imagining other landscapes (from bluegrass to “crossover” classical), indisputably introduces a new perspective to the bassist’s rich discography.Intended to feel like a conversation between friends, each speaking in a relaxed, playful tone, offering support through active listening in order for each to be able to “play their own melody” with full peace and security of mind, But Who’s Gonna Play the Melody? sounds like a charming and timeless departure into a world entirely dedicated to the bass. Applying their great virtuosity towards each melody, without ever veering into competitive territory, the two musicians, with an irresistibly natural sense of groove, never cease to seduce the listener through a repertoire that draws not only from jazz, but also from folk, classical music, bluegrass, and funk, making room for the kind of collective memory that goes beyond styles and generations. An album with no pretense other than the pure pleasure of playing music – authentically all-encompassing in the best possible way. © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz

How to encapsulate the incredible life and times of Dmitri Shostakovich? His story of tragedy and triumph is the stuff of Hollywood political thrillers. Rocketing to stardom at 19, the Soviet Union's leading composer later runs afoul of Stalin and fears for his life until the dictator's death — all while writing music of extraordinary intensity (and occasional insignificance), eventually becoming an enigmatic legend whose motivations continue to puzzle fans and scholars today. If you're new to Shostakovich's 15 symphonies, this new double-disc album is a pretty good starter kit. It contains the Fifth, his most famous symphony, the Ninth, his most approachable and which looks backward toward the classical period of Haydn, and the Eighth, one of his boldest and most unconventional. The set also includes an example of another Shostakovich specialty, writing for films and plays, with a suite of excerpts from a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet.The bonus is that these works are played with insight and panache by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its music director, Andris Nelsons, who are recording all the Shostakovich symphonies live. The first installment in the series, featuring the Symphony No. 10, was released last fall and won a Grammy.When Nelsons was born in Latvia, his country was firmly under Soviet rule. One could imagine a distinct sympathy for both Shostakovich and Shostakovich Under Stalin'sShadow, the title the record company has attached to the album series. Judging from these two releases alone, Nelsons is poised to become the next big thing in an ever-crowded field of Shostakovich conductors. The playing he coaxes from his musicians is at the highest level and the deep soundstage of the recording makes it an excellent album for headphones. (Just watch out for the bass drum!) @NPR

As opposed to the original official "Soundtrack" release, a single disc with the soundtrack elements edited and arranged into concert movements, this two-disc set has every note composed for The Phantom Menace, including a cue that was cut from the film. Buffs can readily hear how Williams introduces embryonic forms of familiar themes from the earlier films. For instance, the innocent lullaby for little Anakin Skywalker ends in a nine-note pattern that is the theme of the future Darth Vader's Imperial March. And Williams subtly uses harmonies to mark the character who is secretly plotting to become Emperor. However, in this form the music is totally subordinated to the film's dramatic form, rather than musical logic.This score is not so successful as coherent music, as the earlier films' scores were, as released in their final versions on RCA Victor. The cause is the same dramatic flaw that made the movie unexpectedly unsatisfying: it was really an extended set-up for a larger-scale story, without a central mythic hero who faces a defining ordeal. The score resultingly lacks a unifying focus, as well. Still, this release is a better portrayal of the music than the original soundtrack album, which threw away the concluding fight music, The Duel of the Fates, by making it track two. It is worth the extra cost for film score and Star Wars buffs, and includes some remarkable "desert music" not included in the original disc. It is very well played by Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra with the New London Children's Chorus and the London Voices, all stunningly produced by Williams and recorded by Shawn Murphy. It comes in a lavish package, with over sixty color shots from the movie in a bound-in presentation booklet, clearly aimed at fans and collectors.© TiVo

Conversations with Christian is an unusual release, as it features the veteran bassist playing duets with a number of good friends. The vocal meetings include Angélique Kidjo, Sting, and Dee Dee Bridgewater (the latter with a hilarious, funky cover of the Isley Brothers' signature song "It's Your Thing"). The pairings with musicians of McBride's generation (trumpeter Roy Hargrove, tenor saxophonist Ron Blake, and guitarist Russell Malone) all exceed expectations. There are several enjoyable duets with pianists, one featuring Latin jazz master Eddie Palmieri, a duo improvised tango by Chick Corea and the leader, plus an all too rare acoustic outing by the talented George Duke (who tears up the keyboard with his hard-charging "McDukey Blues"). But McBride's meetings with Dr. Billy Taylor (playing his beautiful "Spiritual" with some potent arco playing by the bassist) and the elegant, swinging meeting with the gifted jazz master Hank Jones ("Alone Together") remain moments to savor, as they are among the final recordings by the two jazz greats, both of whom died in 2010. The last track is a funky blues just for laughs, with actress Gina Gershon joining the bassist by playing a Jew's harp, and featuring lots of comic spoken exchanges between the two. Throughout it all, Christian McBride plays with the chameleon-like adaptability of a Milt Hinton or Ray Brown. In the two-plus decades since arriving on the jazz scene, Christian McBride has demonstrated that he is a jazz master in the making, and this is easily one of his most compelling sets. © Ken Dryden /TiVo

Though the reissue campaign that presented PJ Harvey's albums with their demos was extensive, it still didn't gather everything in her archives. She fills in those gaps with B-Sides, Demos & Rarities, a comprehensive set of harder-to-find and previously unreleased material that covers three decades of music. Kicking off with a handful of previously unreleased demos, the collection celebrates what makes each track special within Harvey's chronology. Short but fully realized versions of "Dry" and "Man-Size" reaffirm that by the time she hits the record button, she knows exactly what she's doing; the guitar and voice sketches of "Missed" and "Highway 61 Revisited" are as formidable as the finished takes; and the demo of the B-side "Me Jane" (yes, that's how thorough this set is) offers one of the Rid of Me era's catchiest songs in an even rawer state. B-Sides, Demos & Rarities reinforces just how vital Harvey's non-album tracks are to her creative trajectory. The uncanny carnival oompah of "Daddy," a "Man-Size" B-side, feels like one of the earliest forays into the eeriness that gave an extra thrill to To Bring You My Love, White Chalk, and much of Harvey's later work. She continues Is This Desire?'s experimentation on "The Bay," which contrasts songwriting befitting a classic folk ballad with pulsing keyboards and jazzy rhythms, and continues to try to make sense of the world's chaos on Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea-era material spanning the whispery Saturn return of "30" to "This Wicked Tongue," an updated expression of biblical sin, desire, and torment that delivers one of the set's most quintessentially PJ Harvey moments. Fittingly for such an anachronistic-sounding album, White Chalk's B-sides reach back to Harvey's earliest days: "Wait" and "Heaven" date back to 1989 and deliver sprightly, strummy folk-pop that's almost unrecognizable as her work. The set's previously unreleased music contains just as many revelations. One of its most notable previously missing puzzle pieces is the demo of Uh Huh Her's title track. A shockingly pure expression of rage, jealousy, and sorrow, it may have been too raw and revealing even for a PJ Harvey album, but it's a shame that it and the like-minded "Evol" didn't make the cut. Conversely, "Why'd You Go to Cleveland," a 1996 collaboration between Harvey and John Parish, and the 2012 demo "Homo Sappy Blues" are downright playful, proving the complete picture of her music includes something akin to fun. Highlights from the collection's 2010s material include "An Acre of Land," a lush ballad rooted in the British folk traditions that are just as essential to her music as punk or the blues, and the 2019 cover of Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand," which pays homage to a kindred spirit while transforming the song into something more desolate and plaintive. A must-listen for anyone following Harvey's archival series, B-Sides, Demos & Rarities serves as a fascinating parallel primer to her music and the multitudes within it.© Heather Phares /TiVo

Michael Giacchino's fifth score for director Matt Reeves (following Cloverfield, Let Me In, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and War for the Planet of the Apes), 2022's The Batman was a remarkable undertaking for several reasons. Firstly, as the inaugural film in yet another reboot, Giacchino was responsible for composing new music themes for beloved franchise characters. Secondly, Reeves approached Giacchino to do the score before lead actor Robert Pattinson was even cast; as a result, music including the main Batman motif pre-dated production on the film. The Batman is also the longest score Giacchino had ever written to this point; the film has a running time of nearly three hours, and the score recording clocks in at four minutes short of two hours. It was recorded in October 2021 with a 70-piece orchestra and six-member boys choir divided between Abbey Road Studios One and Two and tracked concurrently with two different conductors. The instrumentation is another noteworthy feature, consisting of rock instruments as well as orchestral strings, brass, and percussion but almost no woodwinds (just three clarinets). If that's any indication of the score's sound, one would likely still underestimate how dark, lurking, and often (not always) eerily sparse the final work is, which had Giacchino looking to film noir classics for inspiration in addition to his Batman predecessors, Danny Elfman, Elliot Goldenthal, and Hans Zimmer. There was so much anticipation surrounding the film and score that Giacchino's main character tracks -- "The Batman," "The Riddler," and "Catwoman" -- were issued as singles and broke WaterTower Music streaming records for pre-release score material. The ominous, marching four-note (two-pitch) Batman motif is introduced on the opening track, "Can't Fight City Halloween," later appearing alongside the more elegant, melancholy Bruce Wayne theme on tracks including "Riddles, Riddles Everywhere." The Catwoman theme embodies jazzier noir, and the Riddler's rising and falling minor-key melody utilizes the children's choir. They intertwine and react to each other according to the onscreen action throughout the score, whose recording closes on the 12-minute "Sonata in Darkness," performed by pianist Gloria Cheng. The Batman marked Giacchino's debut on the Billboard 200. Note: Wordplay aficionados will want to do a close reading of the track list.© Marcy Donelson /TiVo

Zappa in New York was recorded in December 1976 at the Palladium and originally intended for release in 1977. It was held up due to arguments between Frank Zappa and his then-record label, Warner Bros. When the two-LP set finally appeared in March 1978, Warner had deleted "Punky's Whips," a song about drummer Terry Bozzio's attraction to Punky Meadows of Angel. The Zappa band, which includes bassist Patrick O'Hearn, percussionist Ruth Underwood, and keyboard player Eddie Jobson, along with a horn section including the two Brecker brothers, was one of the bandleader's most accomplished, which it had to be to play songs like "Black Page," even in the "easy" version presented here. Zappa also was at the height of his comic stagecraft, notably on songs like "Titties & Beer," which is essentially a comedy routine between Zappa and Bozzio, and "The Illinois Enema Bandit," which features TV announcer Don Pardo.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Since the pianist's early days, the South Korean Seong-Jin Cho (1994) has professed a fondness for French music in general and Debussy in particular. At his first public performance at the age of eleven, he played Children’s Corner by Debussy. When he decided, in 2012, to pursue his musical education abroad, he chose Paris, and the Conservatoire National Supérieur, where he frequented the classes of Michel Béroff, the undisputed expert on Debussy. Cho has come back to work again with his old teacher, who became a friend, with the aim of creating his own Debussy album; the choice of works here is "restricted" to works requiring a middling level of virtuosity - mechanical exhibition isn't his thing, even though he has amply mastered his instrument - but whose poetical content allows the pianist to show off his own exquisite expertise as a musician. An homage to his own childhood, Children’s Corner, but also the two books of Images and the exquisite Suite bergamasque. Let’s not forget that Seong-Jin Cho won Warsaw's 2015 Chopin Prize, a sure-fire ticket to an international career. © SM/Qobuz

Gershwin's World is a tour de force for Herbie Hancock, transcending genre and label, and ranking among the finest recordings of his lengthy career. Released to coincide with the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin's birth, this disc features jazzman Hancock with a classy collection of special guests. The most surprising of Hancock's guest stars is Joni Mitchell, who delivers a gorgeously sensual vocal on "The Man I Love," then provides an airy, worldly take on "Summertime." On these two tracks, she shows she has come a long way from her folksinger beginnings to become a first-class jazz singer in her own right. Stevie Wonder's unmistakable harmonica complements Mitchell's singing on "Summertime" and shares lead instrument space with his own voice on the W.C. Handy classic "St. Louis Blues." Jazzman extraordinaire Wayne Shorter smokes a solo spot on Duke Ellington's "Cotton Tail" and carves out some space for his soprano saxophone in the midst of "Summertime." A number of the young lions of jazz are featured on various cuts, and Herbie's old pal Chick Corea joins the leader for a piano duet of James P. Johnson's "Blueberry Rhyme." Gershwin's wonderful, extended "Lullaby" finds Hancock teamed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, as does an attractive arrangement of a "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra" by Maurice Ravel, whose jazz influence can be heard on the piece. In addition, one of the most beautiful tracks on the album places star soprano Kathleen Battle's voice at the forefront of Gershwin's own "Prelude in C# Minor." Yet with all the fine performances by his guests, Gershwin's World remains Hancock's show, and he plays magnificently throughout. From beautiful to funky, percussive to melodic, improvisational to tightly arranged, Hancock and cohorts take a wondrous journey through the music and world of Gershwin.© TiVo

Guitarist Joe Bonamassa was opening for B.B. King when he was only eight years old and was a veteran of the road and gigging by the time he was 12, so it’s tempting to toss him in the all flash but no soul prodigy trash bin that has been filling up pretty well since Stevie Ray Vaughan shuffled off to blues heaven -- but that would be a big mistake. Bonamassa has soul, plenty of it, and he plays guitar with a reverent grace, and sometimes lost in all this is that he’s a pretty good singer, too, sounding more than a little bit like a reconstituted Paul Rodgers. His stunning headline show from the Royal Albert Hall, which featured guest spots by Eric Clapton and Paul Jones, was released in 2009 on DVD, and download versions of the songs have been available for a while, but this two-disc set marks the first official release of the concert as an album in and of itself, and it’s simply wonderful, full of great guitar playing, solid singing, and with a horn section and double drummers on board, the sound is full and even majestic. Bonamassa is the real deal, and tracks here like the elegant opener “Django,” “The Ballad of John Henry,” the marvelous cover of Charley Patton's “High Water Everywhere,” and a shifting, sprawling workout on Rod Stewart's “Blues Deluxe” show a musician at the top of his game, one who has learned that a guitar lead should serve the song and not the other way around. Bonamassa isn’t some kid prodigy anymore -- he’s grown up into one of the most soulful blues-rock performers on the planet. There’s plenty of proof of that here. © Steve Leggett /TiVo