With her tragic early death (though hardly surprising given Amy Winehouse's lifestyle) a truly unique voice of contemporary soul stopped singing on July 23, 2011. She has a voice that should never be overshadowed either by her chaotic life covering the pages of British tabloids, or by her struggles with alcohol and drugs, or even the hundreds of videos of failed concerts on YouTube... When the Winehouse phenomenon exploded with this second album, the sublime Back To Black being far superior to her first record Frank, soul music was going through a slump with hollow, syrupy R&B singers and sanitized productions flooding the scene. Few people tried to develop the path established by Aretha Franklin, Ann Peebles, Nina Simone, Tina Turner, Dinah Washington and Marlena Shaw. But then along came Amy Winehouse, with her incredible timbre, her genuine songs (which she wrote herself, unlike 90% of her peers), her vintage-tinged productions (which were never passé) and brass-filled instrumentation. To top it all off, even her image was distinctive: 50’s beehive, biker tattoos and a cheeky attitude. Back To Black topped the charts for months all over the world, and it's still a real masterpiece of soul music and R&B. When critical opinion meets popular opinion – something relatively rare that’s worth underlining - the enjoyment is only tenfold. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Neil Young continues to exploit his massive catalog of original songs in innovative ways. On his 45th studio album, he revisits 12 songs—mixed as a single track—that stretch as far back as his days with Buffalo Springfield. Young is clear about Before and After's intentions: "Songs from my life recently recorded create a music montage with no beginnings or endings. The feeling is captured, not in pieces but as a whole piece … music defies shuffling, digital organization, separation. Only for listening."  The constant subject throughout is the life affirming powers of having and giving love. With few exceptions the critical segues between tracks are seamless and unobtrusive; opener "I'm the Ocean," a classic Young chord progression that was originally on Mirror Ball, easily blends into "Homefires"—first released on Neil Young Archives Volume II 1972-1976. Young is the entire band on this single track, taken from a 96 kHz/24-bit digital source. (Perhaps as an inside joke, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy is listed in the credits as being an "Electric guitar & Amplifier tech.") He switches from acoustic guitar, harmonica and piano to pump organ occasionally, as he does in the transition between "On the Way Home" to "If You Got Love," an unreleased track from the 1983 Trans sessions. With Young's voice as a constant, there is an undeniable sameness to this continuous design. Except for "Comes a Time," he avoids the hits and concentrates on songs that he's felt were unjustly neglected in the past, or that he's found new meaning in today. That's audibly true in a new version of "When I Hold You in My Arms," his paean to life's inevitable changes. Originally on Are You Passionate?, there's now a renewed certainly as Young brings new fervor to familiar lines:  "Old heart's going up/ Old heart's coming down/ My feelings going up/ My feelings coming down/ You gotta hold onto someone in this life."  © Robert Baird/Qobuz

Queen Kylie Minogue's 2020 album, the bluntly titled Disco, was brilliantly lit by the glow of the disco ball. This time around, she's bringing an electro-pop strobe to the dance floor —and, at 55, proving age really doesn't mean anything. While Madonna has been spinning fruitlessly in search of reinvention, Minogue just keeps nailing trends and staying refreshingly relevant. "Padam Padam"—the onomatopoeic sound of a heartbeat—lives in a metallic echo chamber, carefully curated by producer Lostboy and decorated with an infectious snake-charmer chorus. "I'll be in your head all weekend," Minogue sings prophetically. "Tension" goes deep with '90s house keyboards and beats, and a robotic effect for Mingoue's sexy come-on, directing exactly how she wants to be handled by a lover—"Oh, my god/ Touch me right there/ Almost there/ touch me right there"—while also also making it clear she is completely in control: "I'm a star babe-babe-babe/ Do this all day-day-day/ Cool like sorbet-bet-bet." She works all her vocal tricks on tropical-vibe "One More Time": cooing, showing powerhouse strength, effortlessly hitting the high notes, sassing and whooping and sweating it. (Even though it's not a direct tribute, you can't help but be reminded by Daft Punk's monster hit of the same name.) "Green Light" is cool-breeze cafe pop with smooooooth jazz sax. "Things We Do for Love" delivers an energetic burst of euphoria with a shiny soap bubble of a bridge. "You Still Get Me High" fronts like a prom ballad before erupting into an emo-beat thriller, with wailing sax upping the adrenaline; it's like Kylie x Bleachers, and it's fun. "Hands" finds Minogue casually rapping and delighting in '90s girl-group R&B. "Vegas High" captures that city's cut-loose party vibe and is obviously a tie-in for her residency at the Venetian, which begins November 2023. But she makes up for that bit of cheesiness with "10 Out of 10,"  a goofy, giddy lark of a collaboration with Dutch DJ Oliver Heldens that delivers a Pet Shop Boys-style droll chorus: "Body, 10/ Touch, 10 / Energy, 10." Kylie: 10.  © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

With Iechyd Da - “good health” in Welsh as he comes from West Kirby, a small town nestled in the Wirral peninsula between Wales and Liverpool - Bill Ryder-Jones begins 2024 with grace. This fifth record follows the hazy shoegaze of Yawn, released 5 years earlier, and Yawny Yawn, his stripped-back piano version. The ex-guitarist of The Coral embarked on his solo journey in 2008 with a definitive departure from the rock quintet, whose glory had become as overwhelming as its stresses. These difficulties and his own melancholy have formed the basis, throughout his career, of the Englishman’s intimate music of languid, chamber-like folk ballads.They roll out here with an immensity that is more organic and luminous, releasing the pain of thwarted love with soaring strings. Opting for orchestral pop, sometimes reminiscent of the 60s, the gritty songwriter always writes of his struggles but is now fuelled by hope. Mirroring contortions of the heart and mind, the rhythms speed up and fade out, and the orchestration builds and diminishes, illustrating his emotions with melodic precision and luxury. In this optimistic production, the mixing once again entrusted to James Ellis Ford, we hear for the first time a village children’s choir (“We Don’t Need Them”, “It’s Today Again”), which brings an innocent warmth. The whole thing gently closes with the delicate notes of the instrumental song “Nos Da” (“good night” in Welsh). Astounding. © Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz

This expanded Let It Bleed edition of the Replacements' fourth studio album Tim—the final with their full, original lineup—is a marvelous, absolutely necessary corrective to the muddled-sounding original release from 1985. Tim found the band at their creative peak, with some of the best songs Paul Westerberg, Chris Mars, and brothers Tommy and Bob Stinson would ever write, fresh under their belts. Here we get to enjoy not only the demos and an entire live show that are staples of the expanded reissue game, but we get to hear a version of the original album that's worthy of the material, thanks to veteran producer and engineer Ed Stasium.The Replacements really were contenders, and it's easy to imagine they could at least have been as big as Tom Petty, if not Springsteen. In 1985, they were newly signed to a supportive label with major distribution (Sire, who had championed the Ramones and Talking Heads). And the songs! From the deadpan, self-effacing yet somehow swaggering opener "Hold My Life" to the delightful Big Star redux of "Kiss Me On The Bus," the wallflower anthem "Swingin Party," the anthemic as fuck "Bastards Of Young," the incredible college radio ass-kiss of "Left Of The Dial," and then ending with the absolute heartbreaker of "Here Comes A Regular," Tim had every right to be as good or better than their gleeful breakout 1984 album Let it Be. A Ramone (Tommy a.k.a Tom Erdelyi) was even brought in to produce the thing, after initial sessions with their hero Alex Chilton (excerpts of which are included here). The mix just never came together, and the band did not have the creative control they'd previously had under Twin/Tone Records.In those pre-Nevermind days, there were very few acts who'd made the transition from the supportive yet broke-as-heck indie label system to a major label with sonic integrity intact. R.E.M. didn't succeed at the task until 1988, and even the Replacements' longtime friends Hüsker Dü failed spectacularly in 1987 with the messy, uninspired Warehouse. Tim sounded flat and a bit strange to fans, in a manner likely similar to Detroiters first hearing the second MC5 album, or Bowie's mix of the Stooges' Raw Power. So much information seemed to be missing. The 'Mats fans watched the notoriously sloppy yet inventive band morph from jokey hardcore kids to serious contenders for the next great troubadours in the vein of the Band. To mainstream reviewers, it was a fresh blast, on the strength of the group's erratic, epic live shows and how great these songs are. In November 1985, Rolling Stone crowed that the album sounded "as if it were made by the last real band in the world." Unfortunately, the self-destruction and excess that seemed cute at first took its toll, and guitarist Bob Stinson would be asked to leave before they could record the followup, 1987's Pleased to Meet Me. Stinson died a decade later.The producers of this reissue deserve all the medals and awards for their painstaking and sonically dense paean to, resurrection of, and love letter for the Replacements' fourth studio album. The band would doubtless have still managed to fuck their career up even if the initial product had sounded this good. The released video for "Bastards" is, of course, the ultimate slacker moment: A single camera shot of a stereo playing the song, the focus pulled back to reveal a smoking male listening to it on a couch, who then kicks in the speakers when it's over. Today, we have the version of the song that should have soundtracked it. Almost forty years too late, but we have it. © Mike McGonigal/Qobuz

After the extensive retrospective of his ACT years, which, in three albums (3 Generations), offered a magnificent overview of his innumerable talents through a series of prestigious collaborations, trombonist, singer, composer, producer, and conductor Nils Landgren returns to the stylistic unity of the supergroup that he’s been a part of since 2019. He’s joined by some of his most loyal companions from the label (Michael Wollny on piano and Wolfgang Haffner on drums, both German, as well as Swedish bassist Lars Danielsson) to record the second volume of their alliance, following 4 Wheel Drive.With an eclectic repertoire that mixes original compositions with covers of pop songs by Paul Simon (“Still Crazy After All These Years,” “The Sound of Silence”), Genesis (“Hold On My Heart”), Sting (“Fields of God”), or even Elton John (“My Song”), the quartet deploys the same sharp attention to detail that they do on their first record. Placing his delightfully fragile voice or the rippling swirls of his trombone within a sophisticated frame of arrangements that are never ostentatious or abstractly deconstructivist, Landgren shows gratitude toward the melodic seduction of these songs, making space for his companions to make subtle digressions (notably, Michael Wollny, often taking the lead with dazzling interventions). Depending on the track, he is able to take the ensemble with him toward a more modernist chamber jazz, or, in the opposite direction toward a pop music that’s at once nostalgic and carefree. © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz 

When Magma was released in 2016, Gojira unveiled a theretofore hidden facet of the group’s personality: the album, written following the death of the mother of Joe and Mario Duplantier (guitarist/singer and drummer of the group respectively), is a dark introspection shot through with heightened sensitivity and palpable pain. This catharsis set to music no doubt left fans wondering what the follow-up would sound like. The single Another World, released in 2020, gave an early indicator, pointing in a brighter direction which was subsequently confirmed by the groovy and riff-centric Born For One Thing, signalling a return to the group's fundamentals. This proved to be the key for this opus which might just be the triumphant commercial breakthrough of a career that has been in perpetual rise: Gojira meticulously lay out each of the elements which have built their “trademark” sound through the years. Whether it’s raw death (Grind, Into The Storm), more progressive (The Chant, The Trails) or a return to their ethnic influences as on the eponymous title track or Amazonia, Gojira have an immediately identifiable uniqueness. So much so that the four Landes (France) natives can now afford to unleash a Sphinx or New Found, two tracks which are archetypal of their music, without anyone finding fault with it, since the band themselves are the symbolic of these types of combinations. There may not be many surprises, but when viewing Fortitude as a pivotal album, this huge “summary of previous episodes” makes sense. This is a gateway. Because even though the quartet’s work to this point has undoubtedly put France squarely on the worldwide metal map, they’re still miles from tapping into their full potential, a message the group make clear with this seventh clarion-call of an album. Gojira are like a child prodigy grown into an exciting teenage prospect, and now a balanced adult who lives his life as a man. They don't need to show off to be heard: their intelligence is self-evident and has already won them respect. In short, this band is the complete opposite of what our current trash culture offers us. Ultimately, that march against the tide explains why, 20 years after the completely unexpected surprise of Terra Incognita, Gojira’s Fortitude is in full flex, perfectly synthesising the past and looking ever higher and further into the future. © Charlélie Arnaud/Qobuz

A stunning self-reinvention by a band that many had given up for dead, 90125 is the album that introduced a whole new generation of listeners to Yes. Begun as Cinema, a new band by Chris Squire and Alan White, the project grew to include the slick production of Trevor Horn, the new blood (and distinctly '80s guitar sound) of Trevor Rabin, and eventually the trademark vocals of returning founder Jon Anderson. His late entry insured that Rabin and Horn had a heavy influence on the sound. The album also marked the return of prodigal keyboardist Tony Kaye, whose crisp synth work on "Changes" marked the band's definitive break with its art rock roots. "Owner of a Lonely Heart" was a huge crossover hit, and its orchestral break has been relentlessly sampled by rappers ever since. The vocal harmonies of "Leave It" and the beautifully sprawling "Hearts" are additional high points, but there's nary a duff track on the album.© Paul Collins /TiVo

Released to complement Kylie Minogue's 2023 album, Tension, Extension: The Extended Mixes features tracks from the acclaimed record in extended versions. The album appeared digitally as well as physically on double neon-pink, and green-splatter vinyl. Included is a longer version of the viral hit "Padam Padam."© Rich Wilson /TiVo

Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent is the debut studio LP from Scottish singer/songwriter Lewis Capaldi. Composed of heartwarming lyrics, huge singalong choruses, and crystalline pop production, the effort features the singles "Grace" and "Hold Me While You Wait."© Rob Wacey /TiVo

Time takes its cues more from such bands as the Alan Parsons Project and Wings than from Jeff Lynne's fascination with Pepper-era Beatles. Sure, all the electronic whirrs and bleeps are present and accounted for, and Time did spawn hit singles in "Hold on Tight" and "Twilight," but on the average, ELO had begun to get too stuck on the same structure and content of their releases. "The Way Life's Meant to Be" echoes very early ELO hits like "Can't Get It Out of My Head," and the "Prologue" and "Epilogue" segments try and bring about a unifying concept that doesn't quite hold up upon listening all the way through. Time proves to be competent ELO but not great ELO.© James Chrispell /TiVo

Tom Waits grew steadily less prolific after redefining himself as a junkyard noise poet with Swordfishtrombones, but the five-year wait between The Black Rider and 1999's Mule Variations was the longest yet. Given the fact that Waits decided to abandon major labels for the California indie Epitaph, Mule Variations would seem like a golden opportunity to redefine himself and begin a new phase of his career. However, it plays like a revue of highlights from every album he's made since Swordfishtrombones. Of course, that's hardly a criticism; the album uses the ragged cacophony of Bone Machine as a starting point, and proceeds to bring in the songwriterly aspects of Rain Dogs, along with its affection for backstreet and backwoods blues, plus a hint of the beatnik qualities of Swordfish. So Mule Variations delivers what fans want, in terms of both songs and sonics. But that also explains why it sounds terrific on initial spins, only to reveal itself as slightly dissatisfying with subsequent plays. All of Waits' Island records felt like fully conceived albums with genuine themes. Mule Variations, in contrast, is a collection of moments, and while each of those moments is very good (some even bordering on excellent), ultimately the whole doesn't equal the sum of its parts. While that may seem like nitpicking, some may have wanted a masterpiece after five years, and Mule Variations falls short of that mark. Nevertheless, this is a hell of a record by any other standard. Waits is still writing terrific songs and matching them with wildly evocative productions; furthermore, it's his lightest record in years -- it's actually fun to listen to, even with a murder ballad here and a psycho blues there. In that sense, it's a unique item in his post-Swordfish catalog, and that may make up for it not being the masterpiece it seemed like it could have been.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

The third album in Jacob Collier's ambitious Djesse series, 2020's Djesse, Vol. 3 finds the acclaimed British singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist exploring a vibrant mix of contemporary R&B, vintage-inspired funk, and hip-hop, all woven together by his kaleidoscopic electronic-based production. The set follows Collier's previous Djesse albums and again features a bevy of guest artists. This time out, he joins forces with Jessie Reyez and T-Pain on the kinetic "Count the People," Mahalia and Ty Dolla $ign on the lushly emotive "All I Need," and Tori Kelly on the swaggeringly soulful "Running Outta Love." We also get equally compelling contributions by Kimbra, Daniel Caesar, and Kiana Ledé. These are all gorgeously rendered songs that again underline Collier's reputation as a pop virtuoso, ably bringing together his love of '70s soul, jazz, EDM, and hooky pop.© Matt Collar /TiVo

Effectively his introduction to a wide audience -- it's his second album on a major but first to be thoroughly polished, right down to the inclusion of cameos -- Whitsitt Chapel finds Jelly Roll planting a stake firmly in the heart of country music. Much of his shift is due to how Ballads of the Broken, his 2021 mini-LP, landed a hit with "Son of a Sinner," a slow-burning outlaw anthem placed in soft enough focus to appeal to those listeners who have no stomach for the gaudy bounce of hick-hop. With its very title, Whitsitt Chapel appears thoroughly country and Jelly Roll plays with this theme throughout the record, emphasizing the sacred/profane connection by littering the album with tunes like "Halfway to Hell," "Church," "Dancing with the Devil," and "Hungover in a Church Pew." He still swears, he still sings to electronic rhythms, he still brings old rap friends Struggle Jennings and Yelawolf aboard for cameos, but he also finds space for country singers Brantley Gilbert and Lainey Wilson, all in an attempt to steer himself squarely toward the moody country mainstream. Jelly Roll not only seems kinder than, say, Jason Aldean, he seems earnest: his range may be limited but his delivery is sincere, and that lack of affectation reads as country even when the sound veers closer to post-grunge malls than backwoods honky tonk.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

What an album cover! The beautiful black and white photo by Robert Freeman is already a kind of must-have... Recorded only four months after their first album Please Please Me, the album With The Beatles, released in November 1963, is like a little extension. This second studio album brings together seven songs by the duo of Lennon/McCartney (notable mention: All My Loving), a George Harrison (Don't Bother Me), as well as six cover songs, and is mostly vintage rock'n'roll, soul and Motown rhythm’n’blues. Introducing new instruments, dubbed voices and sound eclecticism, With The Beatles depicts a young group that gradually extricate themselves from the influences of their elders in order to create their own unique musical universe. The original songs on this album, although certainly at the level that they would go on to achieve in subsequent years, show that The Beatles were already ahead of their time. ©MZ/Qobuz, Translation/BM

Arriving ten years after the single-disc Rocket Man: The Definitive Hits (known as Rocket Man: Number Ones in North America) and 15 years after the double-disc Greatest Hits 1970-2002, Diamonds ups the game by offering two variations on Elton John's greatest hits: a double-CD version and a limited-edition triple-disc box set. Given John's canon is close to set, it should come as no surprise that Diamonds follows the same path as its predecessors -- indeed, the first ten songs on Diamonds are the same as those on Greatest Hits 1970-2002, with minor rejiggering; ultimately, there is a 26-song overlap -- but within its standard two-disc set, it finds a place for some important hits absent in prior comps. Notably, this has "Little Jeannie," "I Don't Wanna Go on with You Like That," and his live duet with George Michael, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me," all welcome additions, and as it extends into the present, it also finds space for John's artistic renaissance of the 21st century in the form of "Electricity," "Home Again," and "Looking Up." The third disc on the deluxe version deepens the story further by adding a bunch of hits that could've feasibly been included on the first two discs -- "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "Pinball Wizard," "Mama Can't Buy You Love," "Part-Time Love," "Victim of Love," "Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)," "Kiss the Bride," the superstar charity single "That's What Friends Are For" -- and also underscores his enduring stardom and cultural reach by including OK '90s U.K. hits with Kiki Dee, Pavarotti, and LeAnn Rimes, plus his 2012 U.S. dance hit with Pnau, "Good Morning to the Night" (conspicuous in their absence is any duet with Leon Russell). This last disc offers up plenty of hits but it also feels slightly messy because of the leap from "Kiss the Bride" to "Live Like Horses," but that only indicates how John would've been equally well served by a four-disc set. Instead, we get this excellent -- if incomplete -- collection that is equally satisfying in either its double-disc or triple-disc incarnation.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

On her stellar sophomore set, Diamonds & Dancefloors, American pop hitmaker Ava Max bests her 2020 breakthrough debut with precision focus and a bounty of catchy hooks. Yet another instance where every track could be a lead single, the album is indebted to '80s synth-based dance-pop ("Million Dollar Baby," "Weapons") and early-'90s house anthems ("Ghost," "Diamonds & Dancefloors"), extending her pedigree as the next logical progression after forebears like Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa. With executive producer Cirkut back in tow, Diamonds & Dancefloors seamlessly evolves the playful pop heard on Heaven & Hell and hones the attack with an icy determination born from recent breakups. Hardened by heartbreak, Max takes her pain to the dancefloor, drying her tears through the power of pop. The energy never relents -- the skittering two-step of the Omar Fedi-assisted "In the Dark" is the closest thing to a "break" -- and it's pure, irresistible thrills from start to finish, buoyed by the power of Max's vocal range and passionate delivery. Beyond the official singles, other highlights include the dark synth creep of "Sleepwalker"; the disco-kissed earworm "Turn Off the Lights"; the electronic dance bliss of "Get Outta My Heart" (which samples Bernard Herrmann's Twisted Nerve score); and the pulsing neon-electro "Last Night on Earth." Deftly executed and ideal for repeat listens, Diamonds & Dancefloors makes it two-for-two for Max's catalog, delivering on the promise of her debut and pushing her even further toward the top of the early-2020s pop pantheon.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo