During a very busy year for the K-pop group, Twice issued their second Korean-language full-length, Eyes Wide Open. Following a Japanese compilation, a K/DA collaboration, and a chart-topping EP, the girls' sophomore effort contained more of their sleek, R&B-influenced dance pop, complete with harmonized vocals, effortless cool, and plenty of beats to keep the body moving. A fun and stylistic mix, the album features highlights such as the '80s synth pop-indebted lead single "I Can't Stop Me" and the smooth "Behind the Mask," co-penned with English pop diva Dua Lipa. Upon release, Eyes Wide Open became the group's highest U.S. chart showing to date, landing at number 72 on the Billboard 200.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

You might think that Castro's first album recorded for mighty blues indie Alligator -- and twelfth overall -- would mark a departure for this longtime rocking soulman. Despite a fuller sound, fleshed out with Lenny Castro's percussion and boosted by an ever-present horn section led by longtime cohort Keith Crossan, this is another typically solid effort from the singer/guitarist. Perhaps it's unfair to expect that Castro would somehow break free of, expand, or alter the blue-collar persona he has cultivated over his solo career as he shifts to a higher-profile label affiliation. Veteran producer/musician John Porter returns to join Castro's strong, husky vocals -- a cross between Delbert McClinton, James Brown, and Bob Seger -- to a rather slick, radio-friendly approach that buffs off the frontman's natural grit, arguably overly so. Every track is tweaked to perfection with keyboards and brass charts, leaving little to chance or room for the music to breathe. It's a marked change from Castro's anything-goes concerts where the songs are tightly rehearsed, yet open for improvisation. Studio sets are naturally more sterile, but there remains a nagging feeling that this is too studied for his style of soulful rock. That's abundantly clear on his cover of the Wilson Pickett chestnut "Ninety-Nine and One Half," a natural song for his gutsy vocals but performed in a version that pales next to Pickett's spine-tingling original. Still, when the singer dives into the slow blues of "Backup Plan" all the pieces fit, and Castro's John Fogerty-styled vocals rip into the tune with the kind of aggression generally missing from the musical backing. Covers of Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody" and the Righteous Brothers' rollicking "My Babe" bring out the inherent Memphis R&B grease of the former and the churchy fun of the latter without messing with the original concepts. "Trimmin' Fat" is a fun, swampy, party-rocking new tune that tries too hard to force a concert singalong of its title. Much better is Allen Toussaint's "Victims of the Darkness," a 1972 gem that benefits from Castro's sympathetic reading. Blues lovers hope the journeyman performer will someday break into the mainstream, and perhaps albums like this one will hasten that. But Hard Believer doesn't capture Castro's powerful concert persona, and anyone that has experienced his live show can't help but be slightly let down by this well-crafted, professionally recorded and produced, if somewhat disappointing release. © Hal Horowitz /TiVo

In Austin, TX, a town where great roots rock bands grow like crabgrass in suburbia, the True Believers gained a reputation as something very special right off the bat, and their blazing live shows earned them a rabid following long before they cut their first record. Unfortunately, they also became the classic example of a fine band brought down by their own record company; their first album was cut on the cheap for an independent label (and often sounds like it), and after a major label bought out their contract and paid for a significantly more polished and powerful second album, the band was dropped following a corporate reorganization, and a potential breakthrough album was left collecting dust in the vault. Hard Road finally gives this great band their due, bringing together the True Believers' self-titled debut and their previously unreleased follow-up on one compact disc. While the self-titled first album's low-budget production (especially the out-of-balance snare sound) makes it sound more like a demo than a polished final product, the performances are game, the triple-guitar lineup kicks pretty hard, and the songs are great, especially "The Rain Won't Help You When It's Over," "Tell Her," and a rollicking cover of the Velvet Underground's "Train Round the Bend." The unreleased album's production is a bit more boomy and bombastic than it needs to be, but it certainly gets the band's wall of guitars on tape with a lot more authority and force (especially Jon Dee Graham's slide work), and while the new rhythm section imposed on the band by producer Jeff Glixman doesn't sound all that different than the band's original timekeepers, the True Believers do sound a lot tighter and strike with greater impact on these songs, whether they're rockers like "She's Got" or introspective mid-tempo tunes such as "One Moment to Another." And while these two albums were where Alejandro Escovedo first began to gain his reputation as one of America's great songwriters, his brother, Javier Escovedo, and Jon Dee Graham make it clear he wasn't the only fine songwriter in the group, and their tightly interlocked guitars are a wonder to behold. The True Believers deserved better than the hand they were dealt, and one listen to Hard Road provides all the proof you need. © Mark Deming /TiVo

At the ripe old age of 20, Clarksdale, Mississippi guitar slinger Christone "Kingfish" Ingram has been anointed "the next explosion of the blues," by no less than Buddy Guy. The proclamation is accurate. Ingram is young, but he's spent most of life pursuing the blues across the Delta and Chicago traditions, with nods at '70s hard rock and soul along the way. First exposed to blues via gospel in church, Ingram has been playing guitar since he was ten; he first stepped on a stage to play at the age of 11, at Clarksdale's famous Ground Zero Club, as part of Mississippi blues icon Bill "Howl-N-Madd" Perry's band -- Perry is Ingram's mentor. Before he was 18, Ingram had already toured the U.S. and six other countries, performed at the White House, and made appearances in the Marvel series Nick Cage. His musical influences range from Robert Johnson -- who supposedly made his deal with the devil not far from Ingram's home at the intersection of Highways 61 and 49 -- to Muddy Waters, Guy, and even Prince (he offers a hell of a cover of "Purple Rain" live). Kingfish was recorded in Nashville for Alligator Records and produced by Grammy-winning songwriter, bluesman, country singer, and drummer Tom Hambridge, who co-wrote most of these 12 songs with the guitarist. Opener "Outside of This Town," reveals the influence of ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons with its meaty, angular fills and pulled strings. It's followed by the slow-burning ballad "Fresh Out," on which Ingram trades solos with his hero Guy. Ingram can deliver an acoustic ballad like a master, too: check "Been Here Before" and "Hard Times" with Keb Mo' on acoustic resonator guitar (he appears throughout the record) offering balance, nuance, and restless country-soul. The slow burn of "Love Ain't My Favorite Word" calls forth the influence of Guy's '80s period with its biting, sharp notes and unexpected fills between sung lines and aggressive solo flourishes during turnarounds. "Before I'm Old" shines a light on Guitar Slim before the scorching lead break. "Listen" is a country-blues with a gorgeous vocal from Ingram. "Trouble," on the other hand, is drenched in the New Orleans R&B lineage à la Professor Longhair, and dragged into the present via an intense, rolling melodicism in Ingram's singing and soloing. The funky shuffle and snare breaks in "Believe These Blues" add a hefty yet slow-burning menace to the otherwise nocturnal shuffle. "Hard Times" with Keb Mo' is a slow-burn acoustic shuffle steeped in the Delta mud, while closer "That's Fine by Me" is a sweet, sultry, and soulful nocturnal blues with edgy fills reminiscent of early B.B. King, yet firmly grounded in this historical moment. The bottom line is that Ingram arrives fully formed as an already authoritative presence on Kingfish, all revved up and ready to. This is as promising as a debut album gets. © Thom Jurek /TiVo

Before The Beginning? Before taking over the sound waves with its most popular combination (with the presence of Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie) Fleetwood Mac already existed in 1968. Risen from the ashes of the Bluesbreakers, this version of the band, created by the brilliant Peter Green (with two other guitarists, Jeremy Spencer and a very young Danny Kirwan, Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on the bass), took inspiration from the Delta blues by covering some of its legendary icons: Robert Johnson, Elmore James, T-Bone Walker… In three discs, Sony has uncovered thirty live rarely heard versions from 1968 to 1970 -- including four demos. These tracks are phenomenal, unlabelled and therefore entirely appraised and approved by their creators, who present a vision of contrasts over the course of the record. It begins in 1968 with lively but consistent guitars, before a more wandering feeling to the music in 1970, with Green’s signature extended instrumental sections, like the vibrant 13-minute-long Rattlesnake Shake, the fierce Oh Well or the languid tones of the famous Albatross, all in more rough-around-the-edges versions. Sadly, Spencer would go on to join the Children of God, Kirwan would be thrown out due to his alcohol dependency and Peter Green’s genius slowly evolved into madness. This is a real piece of British musical history. © Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz

Donna Summer's brassy, matter-of-fact mezzo does not play the sexy sanctified diva, and her musicians' crisp, loud beats don't evoke rapture or delirium. Instead, she and her rhythm men live up to the title of "She Works Hard for the Money." Here's praise for a waitress' 12-hour workday that sums up Summer's own post-dance queen job status, as well as disco fans' own spotlighted lives and maintains the pressure, from the steel-and-synth riffs of "Stop, Look & Listen" to the impatient tenderness of "People, People." No one writes about love with as mesmeric a sense of wonder as Summer confesses in "Love Has a Mind of Its Own," "Unconditional Love," and "I Do Believe (I Fell in Love)."© Michael Freedberg /TiVo

It does seem strange, very strange indeed, to be hearing an official release of this historic concert, which has been available as a bootleg for decades. The Halloween gig at Philharmonic Hall in New York was a special part of the tour for Another Side of Bob Dylan, arguably his greatest acoustic recording. What's more poignant, however, is how it previews the material on Bringing It All Back Home. While the songs on Another Side hinted at things to come, nothing could have prepared audiences for the dreamy surrealism of "Mr. Tambourine Man," or the nightmarish abstract poetry of "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," and "Gates of Eden" -- all of which appear on Disc One. The remainder of the material comes from Dylan's preceding catalog; there are stirring protest and topical songs, folk songs, humorous narratives, love songs, great wisecracks, and talking blues -- "Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues!"), most of them classics -- "With God on Our Side," "Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," "Times They Are A-Changin'," "Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," "Mama You've Been on My Mind," "All I Really Want to Do," "It Ain't Me Babe" -- all of these songs and many others (there are 17 in all) are delivered with the confidence of the seasoned performer; a man who knows his audience and how to handle them. It's not cynical, not detached, just masterful. For those unfamiliar with this set, Joan Baez makes an appearance near the end of the show, and duets with Dylan on four cuts including an amazing read of "Silver Dagger." It is true that if you possess the boot, you have all the music here, and chances are, it has some pretty good sound. But you'll need this version, too. For starters, the sound is spectacular, wonderfully warm and immediate, and the transfer is extremely clean with wonderful dynamics. Secondly, the package is deluxe. In addition to a fine essay by Princeton historian and author Sean Wilentz (he made the gig when he was 13), there are a truckload of killer photos from the show and the period, along with complete discographical information that puts the bootleg packages to shame. For those interested in the acoustic Bob Dylan, this concert is like the grail; his voice is in impeccable shape, and his delivery is revelatory. For those interested in the transition from acoustic to electric, this show is the seam, and for those who are die-hard fans, this is another welcome item in the official catalog.© Thom Jurek /TiVo