It may be far too obvious to even mention that Norah Jones' follow-up to her 18-million-unit-selling, eight-Grammy-winning, genre-bending, super-smash album Come Away with Me has perhaps a bit too much to live up to. But that's probably the biggest conundrum for Jones: having to follow up the phenomenal success of an album that was never designed to be so hugely popular in the first place. Come Away with Me was a little album by an unknown pianist/vocalist who attempted to mix jazz, country, and folk in an acoustic setting -- who knew? Feels Like Home could be seen as "Come Away with Me Again" if not for that fact that it's actually better. Smartly following the template forged by Jones and producer Arif Mardin, there is the intimate single "Sunrise," some reworked cover tunes, some interesting originals, and one ostensible jazz standard. These are all good things, for also like its predecessor, Feels Like Home is a soft and amiable album that frames Jones' soft-focus Aretha Franklin voice with a group of songs that are as classy as they are quiet. Granted, not unlike the dippy albeit catchy hit "Don't Know Why," they often portend deep thoughts but come off in the end more like heartfelt daydreams. Of course, Jones could sing the phone book and make it sound deep, and that's what's going to keep listeners coming back. What's surprising here are the bluesy, more jaunty songs that really dig into the country stylings only hinted at on Come Away with Me. To these ends, the infectious shuffle of "What Am I to You?" finds Jones truly coming into her own as a blues singer as well as a writer. Her voice has developed a spine-tingling breathy scratch that pulls on your ear as she rises to the chorus. Similarly, "Toes" and "Carnival Town" -- co-written by bassist Lee Alexander and Jones -- are pure '70s singer/songwriting that call to mind a mix of Rickie Lee Jones and k.d. lang. Throw in covers of Tom Waits and Townes Van Zandt along with Duke Ellington's "Melancholia," retitled here "Don't Miss You at All" and featuring lyrics by Jones, and you've got an album so blessed with superb songwriting that Jones' vocals almost push the line into too much of a good thing. Thankfully, there is also a rawness and organic soulfulness in the production that's refreshing. No digital pitch correction was employed in the studio and you can sometimes catch Jones hitting an endearingly sour note. She also seems to be making good on her stated desire to remain a part of a band. Most all of her sidemen, who've worked with the likes of Tom Waits and Cassandra Wilson, get writing credits. It's a "beauty and the beast" style partnership that harks back to the best Brill Building-style intentions and makes for a quietly experimental and well-balanced album.© Matt Collar /TiVo

To Pimp a Butterfly's proper and oft-biblical follow-up arrived on Good Friday, 13 months after untitled unmastered., an intermediary release that eclipsed the best work of most contemporary artists. If Kendrick Lamar felt pressure to continue living up to his previous output, there's no evidence on DAMN. He's too occupied tracing the spectrum of his mental states, from "boxin' demons" to "flex on swole," questioning and reveling in his affluence, castigating and celebrating his bloodline, humble enough to relate his vulnerabilities, assured enough to proclaim "Ain't none of y'all fuckin' with the flow." Throughout, he intensely examines most of the seven deadly sins, aware all along that his existence is threatened by anyone who objects to the color of his skin or clothes -- or, in the case of the blind stranger who shoots him during the album's opener, nothing that is apparent. Compared to the maximum-capacity, genre-twisting vastness and winding narratives of Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City and To Pimp a Butterfly, DAMN. on the surface seems like a comparatively simple rap album that demands less from the listener. There's relative concision in the track titles and material, and a greater emphasis on commercial sounds -- such as Mike WiLL's lean and piano-laced trap beat for the strong-arming "HUMBLE.," Lamar's first Top Ten pop hit, and a couple productions that are merely functional backdrops lacking distinction. In a way, however, DAMN. is just as lavish and singular as the preceding albums, its quantity and weight of thoughts and connected concepts condensed into a considerably tighter space. It contains some of Lamar's best writing and performances, revealing his evolving complexity and versatility as a soul-baring lyricist and dynamic rapper. Although it's occasionally distorted, stretched, smeared, and reversed to compelling and imagination-fueling effect, his voice is at its most affecting in its many untreated forms. Take "FEAR.," in which he switches between echoing hot-blooded parental threats to enumerating, with a 40-acre stare, various death scenarios. His storytelling hits an astonishing new high on "Duckworth," the album's finale. Over ethereal funk sewn by 9th Wonder, Lamar details a potentially tragic encounter between his father and future Top Dawg CEO Anthony Tiffith -- and the conditions leading to it -- that occurred long before Kung Fu Kenny was known as K. Dot.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

This is the second in a series of Byrd recordings by the vocal ensemble Alamire and the instrumental group Fretwork under the direction of David Skinner. The two recordings, Byrd 1588 and Byrd 1589, cover two books of music published by Byrd in their entireties. Normally this kind of recording can be a bit tedious for the general listener, inasmuch as the music wasn't intended to be performed sequentially in this way; it was issued so that home musicians could pick and choose what they wanted. In this case, however, there is a lot to learn. Byrd's 1589 volume Songs of sundrie natures lives up to its name, with secular madrigals and sacred pieces mixed together. The sacred works may be more familiar in choral settings, but Skinner argues that they weren't intended for church performance but for small gatherings, much like the secular pieces. This puts a new perspective on the music, showing how madrigalistic ideas showed up in the sacred music. Sample the gathering momentum of Christ rising again, the six-part final work on the album. The sacred works are performed a cappella, while the secular ones are accompanied by various instruments; this seems logical enough, but not all performers do it this way. The performances themselves are very strong, with the solo voices conveying deep expression without breaking out of the necessary homogeneous texture. Many of the works here have not been performed often, Byrd being a composer who is too often represented by a few hits. This album is recommended for anyone interested in delving more deeply into Byrd; it landed on classical best-seller charts in the spring of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo

Stankonia was OutKast's second straight masterstroke, an album just as ambitious, just as all-over-the-map, and even hookier than its predecessor. With producers Organized Noize playing a diminished role, Stankonia reclaims the duo's futuristic bent. Earthtone III (Andre, Big Boi, Mr. DJ) helms most of the backing tracks, and while the live-performance approach is still present, there's more reliance on programmed percussion, otherworldly synthesizers, and surreal sound effects. Yet the results are surprisingly warm and soulful, a trippy sort of techno-psychedelic funk. Every repeat listen seems to uncover some new element in the mix, but most of the songs have such memorable hooks that it's easy to stay diverted. The immediate dividends include two of 2000's best singles: "B.O.B." is the fastest of several tracks built on jittery drum'n'bass rhythms, but Andre and Big Boi keep up with awe-inspiring effortlessness. "Ms. Jackson," meanwhile, is an anguished plea directed at the mother of the mother of an out-of-wedlock child, tinged with regret, bitterness, and affection. Its sensitivity and social awareness are echoed in varying proportions elsewhere, from the Public Enemy-style rant "Gasoline Dreams" to the heartbreaking suicide tale "Toilet Tisha." But the group also returns to its roots for some of the most testosterone-drenched material since their debut. Then again, OutKast doesn't take its posturing too seriously, which is why they can portray women holding their own, or make bizarre boasts about being "So Fresh, So Clean." Given the variety of moods, it helps that the album is broken up by brief, usually humorous interludes, which serve as a sort of reset button. It takes a few listens to pull everything together, but given the immense scope, it's striking how few weak tracks there are. It's no wonder Stankonia consolidated OutKast's status as critics' darlings, and began attracting broad new audiences: its across-the-board appeal and ambition overshadowed nearly every other pop album released in 2000.© Steve Huey /TiVo

Alternating hard-driving blues-rockers with country-folk numbers, Humble Pie neatly showcases the two sides of this band's personality on their first release for a major American label and third album overall. All of the elements are in place for the sound that would reach its studio peak with the next release, Rock On, and culminate with the classic Live at the Fillmore album. "Earth and Water Song" provides a blueprint for the acoustic guitar-based sound Peter Frampton would ride to multi-platinum success as a solo artist later in the decade. "One Eyed Trouser-Snake Rumba" and "Red Light Mama, Red Hot!" show the hard-rocking direction in which Steve Marriott would move the band after Frampton's departure the following year. © Jim Newsom /TiVo

If there is one quality in Ibrahim Maalouf which can’t be denied, it is his feeling for large-scale spectacles. He flirts cheerfully with a variety of genres and styles, pushing his music beyond the borders of chanson, pop, hip-hop, rock, jazz and world music in one great unifying gesture. Each of the trumpeter’s projects showcase the ever-excessive, exuberant richness of his universe. This new ‘blockbuster’ of a release is probably the pinnacle of his style, and brings together renowned producers like Henry Was, Nutone and Tony Romera, alongside an impressive array of prestigious vocalists spanning the entire spectrum of contemporary popular music.The album creates a luxuriant, shimmering atmosphere through its epic production, using artists as diverse as Flavia Coelho, Alemeda, De la Soul, -M-, Tank and the Bangas, Dear Silas, DSmoke, Gregory Porter and Sharon Stone. It shifts cheerfully between moods, while resisting all the typical temptations of fusion music, which often entails stylistic clashes. In this tsunami of sound, Maalouf’s lyrical and elegant trumpet uncoils its refined melismas, conjuring a sound enriched by his oriental heritage, and adding an intimate colour to this hybrid, ultra contemporary performance. © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz

The second Tears for Fears album following Curt Smith's departure finds Roland Orzabal treading water (and self-consciously deep water at that). Long removed from the simple, melodic melancholy of the band's early work and abandoning the mid-period Beatles-influenced pop, Raoul and the Kings of Spain often borders on progressive rock. There's some genuinely pretty, if unexciting, music like the piano-driven ballad "Secrets," with it's soaring guitar line, and the gentle "Sketches of Pain." Unfortunately, everything is undone by Orzabal's lyrics (mostly co-written with guitarist/keyboardist Alan Griffiths). There seems to be a lack of ideas that cannot be concealed by the words, which are either inscrutable or embarrassingly silly ("What's the matter with your life/Did someone come and shoot your wife," he asks on "Sorry"). Listeners on both sides of the Atlantic couldn't be bothered, and the act's commercial fortunes fell even further.© Tom Demalon /TiVo

After a couple of years of relentless touring, Humble Pie capitalized on their loyal U.S. following to capture the market with this, their fifth studio album. Although lead guitarist Peter Frampton was replaced by Clem Clemson -- an excellent player -- the band remained essentially the same. Led by singer/guitarist Steve Marriott's soulful wail, the group enjoyed a huge hit from this record, "30 Days in the Hole" -- the track which defined the Pie's not-so-subtle appeal. The rest of the record is equally funky and intriguing. Stephen Stills guests on "Road Runner 'G' Jam," playing some nasty Hammond organ fills. In the end, though, the group defined themselves as the undisputed leaders of the boogie movement in the early 1970s, as a band.© Matthew Greenwald /TiVo

When Stankonia was released in the Autumn of 2000, Outkast were already a major group. The duo was formed eight years previously by Andree 3000 and Big Boi on the school benches of their college in the Eastern district of Atlanta. They then went on to smash open the American rap scene in 1994 with the single Player’s Ball. Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, with its mixture of over-the-top funky rap, TR-808s and live instrumentals became the go-to sound of ‘Dirty South’ rap. With ATliens (1996) and Aquemini (1998), OutKast created their own, distinct sound and mythology and saw real commercial success, literally putting Atlanta rap scene on the map. But it was with their fourth album that Andre and Big Boi became pop stars without resorting to blending more-accessible styles.Stankonia is a masterpiece of meta and postmodern street rap which merges politics, avant-garde and pure entertainment. It channels as much of Parliament’s P-Funk as it does the massive, supersonic rap sound that the Bomb Squad gave to Public Enemy and Ice Cube. Responsible for the majority of the production, Andre 3000 and Big Boi dabble also in dub, soul, rock and drum’n’bass. Larger than life musicians and unmatched storytellers, these two college friends make an unbeatable team and perfectly master their field here. From the polemic B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad) – in which a remix by Zack de la Rocha (Rage Against The Machine) features on this anniversary edition – to the ultimate tracks that are So Fresh, So Clean (revisited with Snoop Dogg here for the record’s 20th birthday) to Ms. Jackson, the sensual banger We Luv Deez Hoez and the thrilling Gasoline Dreams, Stankonia is a firecracker of an album which paved the way for the maximalist and hard-hitting albums of a certain Kendrick Lamar. © Damien Besançon/Qobuz

Thanks to Ego Death, their third album from 2015, The Internet has reached a wider audience… And yet, Purple Naked Ladies released in 2011 and Feel Good, released two years later, had already highlighted the soulful voice of their female singer Syd Tha Kyd and the rather sophisticated and mostly minimalist sounds from Matt Martians, both members of the Odd Future collective. The Internet was tackling different sections of the soul music, with a preference for 90s nu soul, sometimes veering toward R&B or even hip-hop. Three years later, the orgy of sensual beats that are most of all as languorous as ever is still on the menu of their fourth opus, Hive Mind. In its DNA, The Internet is viscerally chill and this chill & laid back philosophy even becomes here an ever more mastered trademark. A sound and an attitude that mean that none of the thirteen songs from the album will be obvious to your ears on the first listen. With its dreamy melodies, Hive Mind, like all the deep works, is only understood with time. It’s a luxury in 2018 to take your time… © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Although the quality of the material is decidedly uneven, the double album Eat It is the last Humble Pie record to capture the rough and tumble spirit of their heyday. Nevertheless, all of side four -- which was recorded live in Glasgow -- is worthless. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Maren Morris has settled into a sweet spot with her third record. Produced by Greg Kurstin (Adele, Halsey), it's still more country than her last album, Girl. With Morris—who went full pop on her massive 2018 Zedd collaboration "The Middle"—wearing a crown on the back cover, plus songs about unity and supporting the sisterhood, Girl practically screamed "millennial pop country." Humble Quest feels more rooted, both musically and personally. There are love songs for her husband, singer-songwriter Ryan Hurd, like flirty "Tall Guys," a beachbum vibe crossed with '60s girl-group sighs and packed tight with Morris' signature wordplay: "Keeps me looking up when I'm feeling down ... when I can't see over he puts me on his shoulder." (Morris is 5'1"; Hurd is 6'3".) Loosely rollicking "I Can't Love You Anymore" is clearly about Hurd (the clues include him being from Michigan and "so good-looking it kind of makes me sick"). Their toddler son, Hayes, can be heard cooing at the start of acoustic "Hummingbird"; with its Appalachian gothic vibe, it recalls Gillian Welch—intriguing new territory for Morris. The same goes for "Nervous," an edgy, sexy, '80s-inflected hard-charger. To the easy, early Sheryl Crow groove of  "Circles Around This Town," Morris writes her own history of arriving in Nashville. "I swear I don't know how I trusted/ A Montero with the AC busted/ A couple bad demos on a burned CD/ Would take me all the way to Tennessee," she sets it up, explaining how she "Drove circles around this town/ Trying to write circles around this town." She thinks about leaving, then catches her break with early hits: "Couple hundred songs and the ones that finally worked/ Was the one about a car and the one about a church" ("'80s Mercedes," "My Church").  And even now that she's had number one records and won CMA, ACM and Grammy Awards, the drive hasn't really changed: "I still got the pedal down/ I still get lost, I still get found." With its catchy vocal-melody ascent and pure country roots, "Detour" feels like an outtake from Morris' great Hero. "What Would This World Do?" is a piano ballad, sung with Hurd, that's heart-tugging in the Brandi Carlile vein. And Morris has practically guaranteed her future as a wedding-dance staple with "Background Music." Swoony and free-floating like a feather, it's a true-love ballad that measures mortality: "We call it forever but we know that there's an end to it/ You and I can dance our way through it/ And I'll love you 'til all that we are is background music," she sings. But it's obviously also incredibly personal for her and Hurd and their musical legacy. "Maybe all we'll ever be to them in a hundred years is three minutes in a car, in a bar, that says we were here." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz