This Life is the ninth studio album from original British boy band Take That and follows 2017's Wonderland. The record sees Gary Barlow, Mark Owen, and Howard Donald deliver a selection of grown-up pop cuts produced by Dave Cobb, Jennifer Decilveo, Ryan Carline, and Barlow himself. The singles "Windows," "Brand New Sun," and "This Life" are included.© Rich Wilson /TiVo

Curtis Harding has said that his third album is inspired by something his mother—a gospel singer who introduced him to music by Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples—used to say: "Give me my flowers while I'm still here." So he decided to pour out his love and appreciation, via song, for the people he loves before it's too late. Sometimes, that takes on a romantic bent: Bobbing along on rubber-band bass, "The One" finds Harding crooning, "Baby I'm the one/ Baby I'm the one/ Baby I'm the one you need," horns ascending along with him. Other times, it's for family, friends and community. "Hopeful" is a gorgeous, gospel-soul number, in the spirit of the Staples Singers, with majestic strings and a psychedelic breakdown. "Evolution of change to pulsate the mind state/ It's not impossible for our mission to succeed/ You ask 'Are we chosen?'/ I'll say 'Indeed,'" Harding sing-raps. "All the things that cause casualty to your soul/ Let it go/ Most of all be hopeful." Since his 2014 debut, Harding has been like a breath of fresh air, borrowing from garage rock, gospel, blues and, especially, the psychedelic soul of the Temptations and Isaac Hayes, to create something new that feels familiar without leaning too retro. (Leon Bridges also does this well.) Harding calls it "slop 'n' soul," as in the messy bits hogs are fed. "Can't Hide It" lays down a funk riff and insistent drums to go with a Curtis Mayfield style chorus and breakdown. The album's title track will raise the hair on your neck, it's so alive with bright trumpet and sax, and a choir that sounds as big as Up With People. "Explore" stretches out on a bed of slow-cruise drums, dirty sax and mid-century futuristic synth, Harding luxuriating in the cool R&B with Eddie Kendricks-style falsetto lines. He adopts an Auto-Tune rap for "So Low," which opens with spacey synth and a trilling flute that, later in the song, does backflips. "Where's The Love" snaps like the Temptations. "It's a Wonder" simmers in a bath of moody strings and dark, shadowy bass. And the gentle folk-and-soul rocker "Forever More" finds both Harding and the high trumpet parting the clouds like beacons of light. © Shelly RIdenour/Qobuz

After a very brief period of identity crisis and vocalist turmoil, the members of Asking Alexandria reintroduced themselves with prodigal frontman Danny Worsnop on the band's fifth full-length, Asking Alexandria. Produced by Matt Good (From First To Last), this eponymous return is the group's most polished effort to date, less raw and muscular than past albums. While this evolution might prove divisive to longtime fans, Asking Alexandria remains highly enjoyable, a triumphant offering that benefits as much from familiarity as it does from pure power and Worsnop's inimitable presence. Kicking off with a strong opening run of powerful anthems, Asking Alexandria wastes little time getting back into the groove with Worsnop. The urgent "Alone In A Room" highlights some new vocal directions -- perhaps inspired by Worsnop's work during his time away from the band -- which incorporate more '80s arena-rock singing than '00s metalcore screaming. Meanwhile on "Into the Fire" (co-produced by Korn's Jonathan Davis), the band reminds listeners that they can still pummel with a brutal grace, combining soaring gang choruses with Worsnop's blood-curdling bellows. "Eve" is the closest they come to old-fashioned viciousness, an epic explosion of demonic wails and chugging riffs. Yet, even through that brutality, Worsnop's vocal warmth on the chorus elevates the track to an arena-worthy singalong. Of the potentially contentious inclusions, "Hopelessly Hopeful" and "Rise Up" feature programming flourish one might find in a Top 40 pop song, reaching a peak on "When The Lights Come On," which could easily be mistaken for the heaviest Fall Out Boy song yet-to-be-written. Despite this mainstream sheen, these songs hit as hard as anything in their catalog; the true winner for most jarring moment comes with "Empire." Featuring Seattle rapper Bingx, this misstep completely pulls listeners from the flow of the album. On any other record, "Empire" could be passable, like an unholy alliance of Machine Gun Kelly teaming up with All Time Low. However, inserted at the close of an album that has made a point of throttling listeners with its might, it's an unwelcome and unexpected shift in tone that would have been better as a b-side or inclusion on a soundtrack of mash-up tunes. Overall, Asking Alexandria is a worthy return from the classic lineup, retaining the best aspects of its past and taking steps into its future. Regardless of a stumble or two, Asking Alexandria is well worth a listen. While The Black was a passable offering at a time when it seemed like it would be a permanent arrangement, this reunion simply feels right. © Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

A contemporary band who draw their influences from vintage blues, soul, and rock & roll, Vintage Trouble make their major-label debut with 2015's 1 Hopeful Rd. A set of songs that range from the rollicking dance tune "Strike Your Light" and hard-driving rockers like "Another Baby" to late-night ballads such as "From My Arms," 1 Hopeful Rd. is a strong showcase for the California-based band whose independent debut, The Bomb Shelter Sessions, earned them an enthusiastic following in Europe, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Featuring vocalist Ty Taylor, guitarist Nalle Colt, bassist Rick Barrio Dill, and drummer Richard Danielson, 1 Hopeful Rd. was produced by Don Was, whose previous clients include the Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, and Joe Cocker.© Mark Deming /TiVo

Are they an indie rock band inspired by country, or a country band influenced by indie rock? Whichever the case may be, The Execution of All Things finds Rilo Kiley establishing a wonderful balance of beautiful indie rock and subtle country. Several guests are on such instruments as French horn, cello, flute, and accordion, while there's also a "boy choir" that includes Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes. It all adds brilliantly to Rilo Kiley's passionate and powerful songwriting. "With Arms Outstretched" evokes a country feel in its lyrics, yet has all the sensibility of indie pop. "It's 16 miles to the promised land and I promise you I'm doing the best I can," Jenny Lewis sings. "I visit these mountains with frequency and I stand here with my arms up." You may want to watch out for the unexpected, though infrequent, foul language, but otherwise this strong follow-up to Take-Offs & Landings fits right in with the already respected Saddle Creek roster. © Kenyon Hopkin /TiVo

A real soundtrack for a film by John Carpenter (such as, for example The Fog, written in 1980), Kazakhstan, the first track on this vast five-hour box set, sets the tone. Enormous blankets of sound, serpentine melodies, dustings of notes scattered across parallel dimensions, with in(de)finite contours. Music For Installations is the first collection of all of the music that Brian Eno (who turns 70 in 2018) composed for different art exhibitions from 1986 to the present day. When the Briton visited the Venice Biennale, the Russian Museum in St Petersburg or the Sydney Opera House, he decided to accompany each of these exhibitions with a new, tailor-made musical composition, and he brings magisterial skill to a genre of which he has been the uncontested champion since 1978’s visionary Ambient 1: Music for Airports: the atmospheric wanderings, the sensory, spartan touches, the minimalist and languorous structures dominate the field. By bringing together music and painting, Brian Eno has fun creating contrasts, and subverting common points of reference: “If you think of music", he says, "as a moving, changing form, and painting as a still form, what I’m trying to do is make very still music and paintings that move, “I’m trying to find in both of those forms, the space in between the traditional concept of music and the traditional concept of painting." There can be no doubt that this new collection of ambient sounds, always exhilarating, often utterly hypnotic, is one of the most exciting displays of Brian Eno's genius. This is not to be missed. © Pierre-Yves Lascar/Qobuz

After reinventing himself as more of a headphone artist with 2006’s glitchy album This Binary Universe, BT takes it a step further on These Hopeful Machines, an effort that breaks the two-hour mark with only 12 songs. If that sounds like the progressive trance version of Saturnz Return, BT’s magnum opus does share some of the indulgence problems found on Goldie’s epic, but this effort is much more humble. The driving force behind Machines seems to be the producer’s love of freedom and exploration, as most tracks build, fade away, morph, and wander about with little care for what radio, clubs, or a major label might require. Fans who enjoy the glitch-meets-trance textures of Universe will find even more to love here, and more songs, too, as BT, the returning JES, and a handful of guest vocalists deliver the usual lyrics filled with modern mysticism. Riding “Suddenly” from its crunchy, avant opening to its Black Eyed Peas-like middle and onto its glitch-fueled flame-out is exciting, while the closing take on the Psychedelic Furs’ “Ghost in You” is a different trip, something akin to calmly floating in an ‘80s pop hit for eight minutes. “Forget Me” combines alt-rock angst and field recordings to great effect, while “Le Nocturne De Lumiere” creates a dream world out of thumb pianos and thumping house beats. Listeners who don’t mind so many devices and left turns must still be predisposed to BT’s airy, big-sky style of electronica to get the most out of this long, involved journey. These Hopeful Machines doesn’t try to convince, it’s meant to reward the already converted with a vast wonderland of melodic glitch and prolonged bliss.© David Jeffries /TiVo

Recordings usually start to live their own lives after their release. However, this one happened to be very special since it acquired its very meaning long before getting to the publishing phase. Recorded in September 2021, this project survived February 24, 2022 - the date marking for me the end of a fragile balance between humanity and medieval darkness. This recording is dedicated to the people of a free and independent Ukraine, whose unshakable spirit will never be defeated. © Vadym Kholodenko/Quartz Music