Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were remarkable craftsmen from the start, as Steely Dan's debut, Can't Buy a Thrill, illustrates. Each song is tightly constructed, with interlocking chords and gracefully interwoven melodies, buoyed by clever, cryptic lyrics. All of these are hallmarks of Steely Dan's signature sound, but what is most remarkable about the record is the way it differs from their later albums. Of course, one of the most notable differences is the presence of vocalist David Palmer, a professional blue-eyed soul vocalist who oversings the handful of tracks where he takes the lead. Palmer's very presence signals the one major flaw with the album -- in an attempt to appeal to a wide audience, Becker and Fagen tempered their wildest impulses with mainstream pop techniques. Consequently, there are very few of the jazz flourishes that came to distinguish their albums -- the breakthrough single, "Do It Again," does work an impressively tight Latin jazz beat, and "Reelin' in the Years" has jazzy guitar solos and harmonies -- and the production is overly polished, conforming to all the conventions of early-'70s radio. Of course, that gives these decidedly twisted songs a subversive edge, but compositionally, these aren't as innovative as their later work. Even so, the best moments ("Dirty Work," "Kings," "Midnight Cruiser," "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again") are wonderful pop songs that subvert traditional conventions and more than foreshadow the paths Steely Dan would later take.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Perhaps the funkiest album of Herbie Hancock's early- to mid-'70s jazz/funk/fusion era, Man-Child starts off with the unforgettable "Hang Up Your Hang Ups," and the beat just keeps coming until the album's end. "Sun Touch" and "Bubbles" are slower, but funky nonetheless. Hancock is the star on his arsenal of keyboards, but guitarist Wah Wah Watson's presence is what puts a new sheen on this recording, distinguishing it from its predecessors, Head Hunters and Thrust. Others among the all-star cast of soloists and accompanists include Wayne Shorter on soprano sax, Stevie Wonder on chromatic harmonica, and longtime Hancock cohort Bennie Maupin on an arsenal of woodwinds.© Jim Newsom /TiVo

Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were remarkable craftsmen from the start, as Steely Dan's debut, Can't Buy a Thrill, illustrates. Each song is tightly constructed, with interlocking chords and gracefully interwoven melodies, buoyed by clever, cryptic lyrics. All of these are hallmarks of Steely Dan's signature sound, but what is most remarkable about the record is the way it differs from their later albums. Of course, one of the most notable differences is the presence of vocalist David Palmer, a professional blue-eyed soul vocalist who oversings the handful of tracks where he takes the lead. Palmer's very presence signals the one major flaw with the album -- in an attempt to appeal to a wide audience, Becker and Fagen tempered their wildest impulses with mainstream pop techniques. Consequently, there are very few of the jazz flourishes that came to distinguish their albums -- the breakthrough single, "Do It Again," does work an impressively tight Latin jazz beat, and "Reelin' in the Years" has jazzy guitar solos and harmonies -- and the production is overly polished, conforming to all the conventions of early-'70s radio. Of course, that gives these decidedly twisted songs a subversive edge, but compositionally, these aren't as innovative as their later work. Even so, the best moments ("Dirty Work," "Kings," "Midnight Cruiser," "Turn That Heartbeat Over Again") are wonderful pop songs that subvert traditional conventions and more than foreshadow the paths Steely Dan would later take.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

"With its more comprehensive and organic sound, SALT is a slow burn that will grow on you, with each listen revealing a new dimension to its sound."© TiVo

When Heartbeat City was released in March 1984, the Cars were already the proud owners of a few platinum-selling albums thanks to a rather original musical identity for their time. Acting as the missing link between the Ramones and Elvis Costello with a touch of Roxy Music, Ric Ocasek & Co. provided an ode to pop-punk music from their very first album in 1978. A sort of new wave made in America respectful of the rock’n’roll of yesteryear… The year 1984 also marked the birth of a new TV channel that would revolutionise pop and rock music by becoming an eminently influential media for music videos. The Cars were savvy enough to jump on this video bandwagon and their fifth album was strongly supported by MTV that played You Might Think and Magic on repeat, their two hit anthems that reached the top of rock charts. Undeniably talented for melodies that hit the spot and catchy choruses (their ballad Drive is a formidably languid slow), Ocasek once again releases a beautiful bubble-gum soundtrack of 1980s America. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz 

Nothing comes naturally for Katy Perry. Blessed with a cheerleader’s body, the face of a second-chair clarinetist and a drama club queen’s lust for the spotlight, Perry parlayed all these qualities into success via her 2008 pop debut One of the Boys, an album that worked overtime to titillate. Working hard is Katy Perry’s stock in trade: whether she’s cavorting in the Californian sun or heaving her cleavage, she always lets you see her sweat, an effect that undercuts her status as a curvy Teenage Dream, the ideal she puts forth on her 2010 sophomore set. All this labor produces fetching magazine covers -- sometimes accompanied by good copy within -- and grabbing videos but it undoes her records, since we always hear her fighting to be frivolous. And all Perry wants to do is have fun: all she wants is to frolic in the spotlight, and she’ll follow the path of others to get there, raising eyebrows a’la Alanis, strutting like Gwen Stefani and relying on Britney’s hitmaker Max Martin for her hooks. There’s no question Perry is smart enough to know every rule in pop but she’s not inspired enough to ignore them, almost seeming nervous to break away from the de rigeur lite club beats that easily transition from day to night or the chilly, stainless-steel ballads designed to lose none of their luster on repeat plays. Perry acknowledges some shifting trends -- she salutes fellow attention-whore Ke$ha on “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” replicates Ryan Tedder’s glassy robotic alienation on “E.T.” but tellingly avoids ripping off Lady Gaga, who is just too meta for the blunt Katy -- but these are merely accents to her old One of the Boys palette. And, once again, the music feels familiar, so Perry distinguishes herself through desperate vulgarity, wooing a suitor with “you make me feel like I’m losing my virginity,” extolling the virtues of blackouts and an accidental ménage a trois, melting popsicles, pleading for a boy to show her his “Peacock” (chanting “cock cock cock” just in case we at home didn’t get the single entendre). All this stylized provocation is exhausting, and not just because there’s so much of it (none of it actually arousing). It’s tiring because, at her heart, Perry is old-fashioned and is invested in none of her aggressive teasing. Not for nothing did she give her best post-One of the Boys song, “I Do Not Hook Up,” to Kelly Clarkson; its pro-abstinence rally flies in the face of the masturbatory daydream she’s constructed. It's ironic that her best song finds her lurking behind the scenes, because Perry's greatest talent is to be a willing cog in the pop machine, delivering sleek singles like “Teenage Dream” and “Hummingbird Heartbeat” with efficiency. Isolated on the radio, the way “Hot N Cold” was in 2009, these singles will wind up obscuring the overheated and undercooked nature of Teenage Dream as a whole. Then again, the album itself is almost incidental to the self-styled fantasy that Katy Perry sells with this entire project.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Here we have a rather unique marriage: indie pop and jazz. Although we can find the emotional force of PJ Harvey over here, or the melodic flourishes of Kate Bush over there, the foundation of Rosie Frater-Taylor’s universe is purely jazz. The Brit studied at the Royal Academy of Music and at merely 18 years of age, her first album (On My Mind, 2018) was hailed by the monthly Jazzwise magazine. Her second album, Bloom (2021), reached 3 million streams. Written during her international tour in 2022, this current opus retraces the singer’s personal journey, from the first inklings of her identity to descriptions of her love life. “I felt it was very important to capture my live band’s energy and chemistry to do the tracks justice. I feel this is where my desire to make the album ‘punch’ stems from,” she explains. This is very much a young woman of today, expressing herself through a musical style that’s all her own. Aside from the complex jazz harmonies that inundate the record, we also find rock influences (“Get In Line”), neo-soul (“Heartbeat”), and even a rhythmic foundation in flamenco on “Falling Fast”. The record may declare itself to be “featherweight”, but there’s a superhuman strength that emanates from Rosie Frater-Taylor’s lyrics, and from the musical kaleidoscope that she’s created. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz

Renewal, the sequel to his Grammy-winning Rounder debut Home, finds Billy Strings following a similar path that he did on his breakthrough record. The instrumentation and format are traditional bluegrass, while the songwriting is progressive and the execution is heartfelt and lively, elements that make Renewal feel vital and vibrant. At seventy minutes, Renewal runs a bit long but its momentum never ceases and the extra space allows for Strings and his supple, intuitive band to push at the boundaries of where traditional and progressive bluegrass meet.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

1982 was an interesting year for mainstream rock. Listeners were still a few years away from the chart-topping pop-metal bands, and a few years removed from the oft-indulgent '70s rock era. As a result, people were left with an era that was mostly populated by bands that wore headbands and largely modeled their sound after Foreigner. In other words -- bands that attempted to appeal to both the pop and rock audiences, by combining arena-worthy choruses and tough guitar riffs, topped off with a healthy scoop of melody. A perfect example would be Survivor, and their third release overall, Eye of the Tiger. With the group's first two releases barely causing a ripple on the charts, it was Tiger that catapulted the band to the top, thanks to the chart-topping title track, which was used as the theme song to the hit movie Rocky III the same year. Despite this, the Eye of the Tiger album is often overlooked, even though it almost topped the charts as well (peaking at number two). The reason for this was that while the group managed to appeal to both aforementioned audiences -- as evidenced by the Zeppelin-esque "Hesitation Dance" and the power ballad "I'm Not That Man Anymore" -- nothing here really scales the same height as the title track. But as a memento of mainstream rock circa the early '80s, Eye of the Tiger is a faithful snapshot.© Greg Prato /TiVo

In the time before this wonderful album named Camp existed, the “actors who rap” proposition would have been all red flags. Brian Austin Green, Mr. T, Joaquin Phoenix, and many others are on the “cons” list, while the “pros” would have been Drake (barely counts, unless Degrassi: The Next Generation was your thing) and maybe AVN award-winner Dirt Nasty. These were the horrible odds Community star and comedy writer Donald Glover was up against when he took the Internet’s Wu-Tang Name Generator to heart and became rapper Childish Gambino, but anyone who right-clicked on one of his 2010/2011 mixtapes can tell you, he beat those odds, and with Camp, indie rap fans won the Lotto. The gloriously different and wonderfully inspired rhymes that downloaders experienced are here once more, and Gambino’s style is still that attractive blend of heartfelt and humorous or, in a nutshell, I-just-wasn’t-made-for-these-times-and-yet-I-love-the-Internet with “That ain’t even ironic bitch/I love Rugrats!” being a quintessential punch line/decree. He’s got that Kanye-sized swagger on lock too, as the triumphant “All the Shine” struts with vibrant colors, and he's just as complicated, as the track slowly descends into self-doubt and earth tones before it fades into the soft and meek “Letter Home,” all of it adding up to some kind of bizarre and ambitious bipolar backpacker suite. Nerdy wonders and insightful laughs are the reasons you want to visit Camp Gambino, but you’ll stay for the lush, surprisingly large production from Glover and Ludwig Göransson, along with the thrill of untangling it all for hours on end, separating the incredibly cool moments from the touching ones and figuring out how this “actor who raps” packaged it all sensibly in a concept album about summer camp that doubles as his showcase debut. Try it and be stunned or submit to it and be satiated; Camp is like the Drake, Cudi, and Kweli camps all offered their best, but it’s really just Glover and his overwhelming bundle of talent, taking indie hip-hop to new levels after spending the day working alongside Chevy Chase. Remarkable.© David Jeffries /TiVo