It's a running joke that every album released by the Rolling Stones is the band's "best since X," where X represents a random release from their extensive back catalog. Unsurprisingly, Hackney Diamonds has already received similar plaudits and comparisons. But the Stones' first full-length of original songs since 2005's A Bigger Bang can't really be compared to anything they've done before—namely because it's the first Stones album recorded (for the most part) without drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021. Watts does add his trademark crisp, jazzy swing to a pair of highlights: the strutting "Mess It Up" and swaggering boogie-rocker "Live by the Sword." (On the latter, former bassist Bill Wyman also contributes a grimy low end and Elton John adds freewheeling piano.) Elsewhere on Hackney Diamonds, Watts' hand-picked drumming replacement Steve Jordan anchors the rhythm section with his looser approach—a perfect match for big-sky rockers like the saxophone-augmented, funk-tinted "Get Close."But even with the lineup change, Hackney Diamonds feels like classic Stones—no asterisk needed. The album brims with familiar signifiers: fiery guitar interplay between Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood; an abundance of Jagger-Richards songwriting credits; and Jagger's inimitable vocals, which veer between spitfire sleaze and tender balladeer. Musically, Hackney Diamonds also spans the entire Stones continuum. "Dreamy Skies" is the kind of laid-back country rocker the band excel at writing; the string-swept "Depending on You" occupies a more introspective space; and "Driving Me Too Hard" is 1970s-era honky-tonking. On "Tell Me Straight," Richards even takes a turn on lead vocals. So what's the secret to Hackney Diamonds? Avowed Stones superfan Andrew Watt produced the album, which was an inspired choice: Watt pushes the Stones to play to their strengths and not rely on cliches. Hackney Diamonds' guests are also a welcome presence. Paul McCartney contributes bass to the barnstorming "Bite My Head Off," while the torchy power ballad centerpiece "Sweet Sounds of Heaven" includes keyboards and piano from Stevie Wonder and towering vocals from Lady Gaga. Fittingly, Hackney Diamonds ends with a song that's long featured into the Stones' mythology: a cover of Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone" (here called "Rolling Stone Blues"). The Stones' performance is raw and unfiltered, with shuffling harmonica and unpolished Jagger vocals; it sounds more like a low-key jam session than a high-gloss studio work. "Rolling Stone Blues" also gets to the heart of why Hackney Diamonds works so well: On the album, the Stones aren't trying to repeat themselves or recapture any past glories—but they are remembering their roots, and channeling the passion, ambition and musical chemistry that initially propelled them to superstardom. © Annie Zaleski/Qobuz

Jonathan Demme's creative direction and this group's brilliance make for an unusual live performance event. Starting solo with David Byrne, each song brings another band member to the stage until the full band kicks in. With Bernie Worrell on keyboards and a strong hit-filled set from the Speaking in Tongues tour, this is definitely worth checking out.© Scott Bultman /TiVo

It's a running joke that every album released by the Rolling Stones is the band's "best since X," where X represents a random release from their extensive back catalog. Unsurprisingly, Hackney Diamonds has already received similar plaudits and comparisons. But the Stones' first full-length of original songs since 2005's A Bigger Bang can't really be compared to anything they've done before—namely because it's the first Stones album recorded (for the most part) without drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021. Watts does add his trademark crisp, jazzy swing to a pair of highlights: the strutting "Mess It Up" and swaggering boogie-rocker "Live by the Sword." (On the latter, former bassist Bill Wyman also contributes a grimy low end and Elton John adds freewheeling piano.) Elsewhere on Hackney Diamonds, Watts' hand-picked drumming replacement Steve Jordan anchors the rhythm section with his looser approach—a perfect match for big-sky rockers like the saxophone-augmented, funk-tinted "Get Close."But even with the lineup change, Hackney Diamonds feels like classic Stones—no asterisk needed. The album brims with familiar signifiers: fiery guitar interplay between Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood; an abundance of Jagger-Richards songwriting credits; and Jagger's inimitable vocals, which veer between spitfire sleaze and tender balladeer. Musically, Hackney Diamonds also spans the entire Stones continuum. "Dreamy Skies" is the kind of laid-back country rocker the band excel at writing; the string-swept "Depending on You" occupies a more introspective space; and "Driving Me Too Hard" is 1970s-era honky-tonking. On "Tell Me Straight," Richards even takes a turn on lead vocals. So what's the secret to Hackney Diamonds? Avowed Stones superfan Andrew Watt produced the album, which was an inspired choice: Watt pushes the Stones to play to their strengths and not rely on cliches. Hackney Diamonds' guests are also a welcome presence. Paul McCartney contributes bass to the barnstorming "Bite My Head Off," while the torchy power ballad centerpiece "Sweet Sounds of Heaven" includes keyboards and piano from Stevie Wonder and towering vocals from Lady Gaga. Fittingly, Hackney Diamonds ends with a song that's long featured into the Stones' mythology: a cover of Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone" (here called "Rolling Stone Blues"). The Stones' performance is raw and unfiltered, with shuffling harmonica and unpolished Jagger vocals; it sounds more like a low-key jam session than a high-gloss studio work. "Rolling Stone Blues" also gets to the heart of why Hackney Diamonds works so well: On the album, the Stones aren't trying to repeat themselves or recapture any past glories—but they are remembering their roots, and channeling the passion, ambition and musical chemistry that initially propelled them to superstardom. © Annie Zaleski/Qobuz

This may be the "Beyoncé goes country" record—but, in truth, she's always been here. A Houston native and rodeo fan, she released countrified "Daddy Lessons" on 2016's Lemonade then upped the ante with a Chicks remix that was met with industry backlash. But no one puts Beyoncé in a corner, and Cowboy Carter is her gracious "told ya so" moment. First single "Texas Hold 'Em" saw her become the first Black woman to top Billboard's Hot Country chart, and it's a joy: echoing the Chicks' and Shania's C&W pop, but also Rhiannon Giddens' mountain folk (that's her playing banjo on the song) as well as all-American sweet soul music. The excellent Raphael Saadiq is a co-writer, and his touch shows. And damned if the affecting ballad "16 Carriages"—grand in the "Halo" tradition—doesn't sound like an autobiographical recounting of Beyoncé's career start as a teen. "At fifteen, the innocence was gone astray/ Had to take care of home at an early age/ I saw Mama cryin', I saw Daddy lyin'/ Had to sacrifice and leave my fears behind," she sings, chillingly, against crackling percussion and Robert Randolph's pedal steel. No wonder Dolly Parton blessed the cover of "Jolene," intro-ing that song with a comparison of her own titular character to the notorious Becky with the good hair. Beyoncé layers on the twang and tweaks the lyrics: "Jolene, I know I'm a queen, Jolene/ I'm still a Creole banjee bitch from Louisianne (don't try me)." Willie Nelson shows up as a radio DJ spinning samples from Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Son House. "Spaghettii" opens with a spoken intro from pioneer Linda Martell—the first Black woman to perform on the Grand Ole Opry, in 1969, but who also faced racism on the road and returned to South Carolina to be a bus driver. Over drill beats, Beyoncé shows off her rap skills in a stunning display ("Just a fishin' expedition, dumb admission/ In the kitchen, cookin' up them chickens/ Extra leg, but I ain't even tryna kick it/ Cunty, country, petty, petty, petty/ All the same to me, Plain Jane, spaghetti"), joined by Shaboozey. He also guests, as does Pharrell, on wild bull ride "Sweet Honey Buckiin,'" which starts with Bey crooning Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces." The Cowboy Carter guest list is dizzying: rising star Willie Jones (gospel-inflected "Just for Fun"), Miley Cyrus (ride-or-die R&B ballad "II Most Wanted"), Gary Clark Jr. (sun-streaked yacht rocker "Bodyguard"). Post Malone joins the party for slow-burn flirt "Levii's Jeans," produced by The-Dream and Nile Rodgers. A goosebump-inducing cover of The Beatles' "Blackbird" showcases four of the most exciting young Black women in country music right now: Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts. There are sweet lullabies ("Protector"), giddy-up grind ("Tyrant") and Beyoncé singing a bit of the aria "Caro Mio Ben" ("Daughter"). And "Ya Ya" is an absolute  jaw-dropper—packed with Tina Turner energy and interpolations of Nancy Sinatra and the Beach Boys—that slides into a snippet of Chuck Berry's "Oh Louisiana" reworked as a psychedelic blues fever dream.  © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Note to Clapton lovers: here comes the Super Deluxe edition of an expanded compilation of his best tracks, played at the Royal Albert Hall, in London, in 1990 and 1991. It was released in the form of a double LP of fifteen tracks at the time. London’s prestigious concert hall hosted 32 of his Slowhand concerts, 18 of which were performed in succession - breaking his own record - and with four different groups. This new box set of 47 titles, three-quarters of which were previously unreleased, is this time divided into three parts (the first edition was divided into four parts); “Rock”, “Blues”, and “Orchestral”. At the time, Clapton had been accompanied by some high-flying musicians. On the first record, we find Phil Collins on drums for covers of Bob Marley’s I Shot The Sheriff , and Bob Dylan’s Knockin' On Heaven's Door. On the second record, we find Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, and Jimmy - on guitar. Jimmy is the older brother of Stevie Ray Vaughan, who died in a helicopter crash in August 1990. More reserved, performed with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, and conducted by Michael Kamen, the third record offers 10-minute-long scintillating and highly-charged versions of Crossroads, by Robert Johnson, and Layla. Almost six hours of enjoyable listening. © Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz

Encompassing heavy metal, folk, pure rock & roll, and blues, Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album is a monolithic record, defining not only Led Zeppelin but the sound and style of '70s hard rock. Expanding on the breakthroughs of III, Zeppelin fuse their majestic hard rock with a mystical, rural English folk that gives the record an epic scope. Even at its most basic -- the muscular, traditionalist "Rock and Roll" -- the album has a grand sense of drama, which is only deepened by Robert Plant's burgeoning obsession with mythology, religion, and the occult. Plant's mysticism comes to a head on the eerie folk ballad "The Battle of Evermore," a mandolin-driven song with haunting vocals from Sandy Denny, and on the epic "Stairway to Heaven." Of all of Zeppelin's songs, "Stairway to Heaven" is the most famous, and not unjustly. Building from a simple fingerpicked acoustic guitar to a storming torrent of guitar riffs and solos, it encapsulates the entire album in one song. Which, of course, isn't discounting the rest of the album. "Going to California" is the group's best folk song, and the rockers are endlessly inventive, whether it's the complex, multi-layered "Black Dog," the pounding hippie satire "Misty Mountain Hop," or the funky riffs of "Four Sticks." But the closer, "When the Levee Breaks," is the one song truly equal to "Stairway," helping give IV the feeling of an epic. An apocalyptic slice of urban blues, "When the Levee Breaks" is as forceful and frightening as Zeppelin ever got, and its seismic rhythms and layered dynamics illustrate why none of their imitators could ever equal them.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Audio Vertigo is the tenth studio album from British indie outfit Elbow and follows 2021's Flying Dream 1. Produced by Elbow's Craig Potter and recorded at various studios across the U.K., including their own Blueprint Studios in Salford, the album sees the band opt for a grittier, more garagey feel compared to their previous work, while also expanding their sonic palette.© Rich Wilson /TiVo

Kacey Musgraves' sixth album, Deeper Well feels like a rewind—not just to her own earlier work, but to a folk-scene era from well before she was born. There are shades of the Mamas and the Papas and the early 1960s Cafe Wha? scene (the album was recorded blocks away, at Greenwich Village’s Electric Lady Studios). It’s not not country, but it’s also far from cowboy-hatted Nashville. Musgraves has described her last record—her "divorce album"—2021's Star-Crossed, as "more dramatic and acerbic, there were a lot more electronic instruments." This time, she's tuning into the world around her, but also trying to figure out the secrets of the cosmos. "My saturn has returned," she sings on the title track—a bit of classic singer-songwriter acoustic pluck that gently tumbles like water over creek rocks—before metaphorically shuddering at someone's "dark energy." Folk-naif "Heart of the Woods" marvels at nature "communicating through the roots of the trees." "I saw a sign or an omen," she declares on "Cardinal," a Hollies-esque number with 12-string guitar and a round-robin bridge. Musgraves has said it's about a real-life pattern of seeing birds and wondering if they were a sign from friend John Prine after the legend passed away in 2020. The bulk of the songs are written with her co-producers Ian Fitchuk, who worked on her last few records, and Daniel Tashian, who also helped out on 2018’s excellent Golden Hour. (It’s no stretch to imagine Star-Crossed never having happened and Deeper Well being the natural progression from Golden Hour.) "The Architect" is the only song here penned with her longtime writing partner Shane McAnally; and yes, it feels a bit more countrified than the others. Musgraves' Texas twang is strong as she questions "are there blueprints or plans?" to life. She adopts a particularly velvet timbre on moody cautionary tale "Lonely Millionaire," which interpolates the song "Kody Blu 31" by Atlanta rapper JID. "Too Good To Be True" borrows from Anna Nalick's "Breathe (2AM)," while "Heaven Is" reimagines a Scottish folk traditional. And Musgraves hasn't abandoned the rebel spirit that got her "Follow Your Arrow" banned from country radio in 2013. "Dinner With Friends" is a dreamy, free-floating gratitude list—"The feeling you feel when you're looking at something you made/ The layers and ruffles in my favorite pink champagne cake"—that calls out "My home state of Texas/ The sky there, the horses and dogs/ But none of their laws." There's not much dynamic range on Deeper Well; Musgraves is in a pleasantly pretty, low-key mood throughout. But there is one stand-out "what was that?!" moment at the bridge of "Anime Eyes," when the love song explodes in a whirlwind psychedelic bridge, as Musgraves breathlessly lets loose with a torrent of sensory emotion: "Ridiculous hazy, crazy, rainbow, explosions of ecstasy ... Happy tears overflowing, lightning bolts so overwhelming!" It's wild and free and DGAF. The album ends, tellingly, on a line from the song of the same name: "Nothing to be scared of." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Sometime after the Rolling Stones wrapped up their 2022 tour -- the second they completed since the 2021 death of their drummer Charlie Watts -- Mick Jagger decided the band had spent enough time working on their first record of original material since 2005's A Bigger Bang. Jagger gave Keith Richards, the only other surviving founding member of the Stones left in the band, a deadline of Valentine's Day 2023 for wrapping up the sessions that had been dragging on for years. The ultimatum worked: by October of that year, the Stones released Hackney Diamonds, their first collection of new songs in 18 years. The album doesn't entirely consist of material the Stones cut early in 2023 -- two tracks feature Charlie Watts, including "Live by the Sword," which has original bassist Bill Wyman guesting on a Stones record for the first time in 30 years -- yet it bears the unmistakable imprint of a record delivered on a deadline. There's little hesitation, no thoughtful pondering here: Hackney Diamonds just barrels ahead with a clean efficiency. Although they're largely working with a new producer -- Andrew Watt, who came recommended by Paul McCartney -- the Rolling Stones don't attempt new tricks anywhere on Hackney Diamonds, save maybe "Whole Wide World," whose bizarre neo-new wave vibe gets odder thanks to Jagger singing in an exaggerated cockney accent. Even that is a slight nod to the band's mall-rat rock of the early '80s, one of many different guises the Rolling Stones adopt over the course of Hackney Diamonds. While a good portion of the record is devoted to straight-ahead rock & roll, they also find space for ragged country ("Dreamy Skies") and acoustic blues ("Rolling Stone Blues"), not to mention "Sweet Sounds of Heaven," a showstopping ballad featuring Lady Gaga. That track is a good indication of how Hackney Diamonds plays. At first, it seems like a solid evocation of "Beast of Burden," but it's a slow burn, a song that sounds stronger with each repeated listen. So is of the rest of Hackney Diamonds. Because it has no grand conceptual hook and because the Stones so thoroughly integrate their superstar guests -- not only are Gaga and Wyman here but so are Stevie Wonder, Elton John, and McCartney -- it doesn't overwhelm upon an initial listen the way the lengthy Voodoo Lounge or A Bigger Bang do; that small scale is its strength. At its heart, it's nothing more than the Rolling Stones knocking out some good Rolling Stones songs, which seems like a minor miracle after such a long wait.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

On account of being everywhere, he may have felt like he was getting lost. Having become a major producer in the music industry, James Blake was seen on some of the biggest projects in the past few years: records as high-stakes as Travis Scott’s comeback album Utopia in July 2023, or Rosalía’s Motomami the year prior. The year before that, he had signed off on his biggest commercial success Friends That Break Your Heart, accentuated by the single “Coming Back” (featuring SZA). It was a good time for the Englishman to get back to his roots, having emerged at the beginning of the 2010s on the tail end of the short-lived wave of post-dubsteppers like Mount Kimbie and SBTRKT. This wave was spearheaded by labels such as Hessle Audio, Hemlock, or the Belgian R&S, which had released its acclaimed second EP CMYK in 2010.Now it's the return of James Blake 1.0, with winks to his origins in the English bass music scene, between the dubstep of the excellent “Loading” (with English singer Judie Tzuke, known for her hit “Stay with me till Dawn” in 1979), the grime single “Big Hammer,” and even “Fall Back,” paying homage to Burial’s muted beats. He goes even further back into the history of British dance music with the more techno “Tell Me,” with a beat that rises at full speed and a raving synth loop that vanishes into thin air. And what can be said about the celestial finale, “Playing Robots into Heaven,” a track that, against all odds, lives up to its name perfectly? Some pure, unadulterated James Blake, 100% all-natural! © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz    

A misconception has sometimes been associate with Norah Jones: that the Texan is little more than a pleasant light-jazz singer whose albums serve as harmless background music for high-brow and proper evening dinners. Though her writing, playing and eclectic collaborations, she has clearly proved that she is far more interesting than this cliché. And this 2020 offering is a new illustration of her complexity. As is often the case with Norah Jones, Pick Me Up Off the Floor is not quite jazz, not quite blues, not quite country, etc… Her genre-defying music works primarily to suit the song being played. Here we find what has been left behind after sessions with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Thomas Bartlett, Mavis Staples, Rodrigo Amarante and several others.But for all that the result is not simply a contrived mishmash of collaborations but a collection of songs that hold the same silky groove (present on six out of 11 tracks on the record in which Brian Blade’s drums work delicate miracles) and calm sound which increasingly suits the artist, somewhere between pure poetry and realism. “Every session I’ve done, there’ve been extra songs I didn’t release, and they’ve sort of been collecting for the last two years. I became really enamoured with them, having the rough mixes on my phone, listening while I walk the dog. The songs stayed stuck in my head and I realised that they had this surreal thread running through them. It feels like a fever dream taking place somewhere between God, the Devil, the heart, the Country, the planet, and me.” Rarely has Norah Jones sang with such strength, like on I’m Alive where she sings of women’s resilience, or on How I Weep in which she tackles love and exasperation with unequalled grace. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Proving that she's both fearless and capable of almost anything musically, Dolly Parton has taken her induction in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame seriously and made a rock album built from a slew of favorite mainstream covers and several originals she wrote for the occasion. The respect she commands as a worldwide celebrity is reflected by the massive guest list whose vocal tracks were recorded elsewhere and mixed together in Nashville by producer Kent Wells and a veritable horde of engineers. Vocalists who make an appearance on the songs that they originally made famous include Sting ("Every Breath You Take"), Steve Perry ("Open Arms"), Elton John ("Don't Let the Sun Go Down"), Debbie Harry ("Heart of Glass"), and Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr ("Let It Be"). The voice of Lynyrd Skynyrd lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant returns from the grave to sing a verse and duet on the choruses in the epic and appropriate closer, "Free Bird."  While Parton could have allowed a smile to peak out here or there on this massive undertaking, she plays it straight throughout.  Not surprisingly, women receive commendable attention as songwriters and guest players with performances by Ann Wilson, Parton's goddaughter Miley Cyrus, Stevie Nicks, Joan Jett, Lizzo and others. There are also flashes where Parton stops playing rock star. Her original "World on Fire" is a plea for unity and common sense to will out: "Now tell me what is truth/ Have we all lost sight/ Of common decency/ Of the wrong and right/ How do we heal this great divide/ Do we care enough to try?" What makes these 30 tracks work is that no one can sell it quite like Parton. While her voice strains on some  numbers—she's always been more of a careful interpreter than a furious belter—she's full of old pro wiles and is the soul of authenticity throughout; she gives her all to every number. In the rousing "(I Can't Get No) "Satisfaction" with P!nk and Brandy Carlile, Parton's between-line exhortations are heartfelt and spot on. Rather than arty re-interpretations or an empty marketing concept, this is an abundance of what Parton does best: feel the songs she's singing.  © Robert Baird/Qobuz

"Mosquitoes can enjoy me/ I can't go inside," Mitski sings—lulls—on "Buffalo Replaced," a bottom-heavy grunge ballad from her seventh album that finds the singer revealing a nagging self-vexation. "I have a hope/ Though she's blind with no name/ She shits where she's supposed to feed herself when I'm away/ Sometimes I think it would be easier without her." Like Tori Amos, Kate Bush, or Frank Ocean, Mitski has a tendency to reveal so much wildness via a calming presence. Not that the weight isn't heavy; back in 2019, she announced her "last show indefinitely," later admitting that she was worn down by physical and mental exhaustion caused by the music business and its "super-saturated version of consumerism," but also the demands of representation. She has criticized always having her Asian American heritage pointed out; "It's like racism masked in progressive thought … I'm a symbol." Last year she told the BBC: "I needed to step away to get out of that mechanism and just learn how to be human again, I think." That break led Mitski to what she calls "my most American album … This land, which already feels inhospitable to so many of its inhabitants, is about to feel hopelessly torn and tossed again—at times, devoid of love. This album offers the anodyne." Drawing from influences including Ennio Morricone's high-drama spaghetti western scores and Carter Burwell's "tundra-filling Fargo soundtrack," The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We finds Mitski pairing her sometimes dark thoughts with music and sounds—an orchestra arranged and conducted by Drew Erickson, and a 17-voice choir—that convey turmoil. On "When Memories Snow," both piano and Mitski's vocals determine a marching pace while she presents a haunting internal scenario:  "When memories snow/ And cover up the driveway/ I shovel all those memories ... and when memories melt/ I hear them in the drainpipe/ Dripping through the downspout/ As I lie awake in the dark." Then the orchestral tension builds and explodes, horns and strings and choral voices elbowing each other for space. Opener "Bug Like an Angel" starts off like an acoustic campfire nod-along as Mitski sings, "As I got older, I learned I'm a drinker/ Sometimes a drink feels like family"—then, out of nowhere, a full-throated, big as Broadway choir trills "family!" She remains on even keel for "The Deal" as the music swirls like an atmospheric weather system, finally picking up to tornado strength, grabbing everything in its path and tossing it. It's not all chaos, though, as the anodyne settles in. Countrified "Heaven" is light with strings and Cowboy Junkies-esque. "My Love All Mine" is swoony romance, rich and full. And "Star" twinkles and explodes into a supernova, as Mitski convinces that lost love is never completely lost. At the end, "I Love Me After You," there is majesty—big buzz, crashing cymbals—as she performs a self-care routine (hydration, toner, brushing her hair) only to proclaim, "I love me after you/ King of all the land." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

In celebration of their 40 th anniversary, The Cure didn’t just hire out a little pub in their hometown of Crawley, Sussex – they hired out the whole of Hyde Park instead! What an epic location for an epic group. The recording of this concert on July 7, 2018 in London in front of a crowd of 65,000 people is a reminder that the style, sound, creativity, song- writing and atmosphere that Robert Smith and his gang bring to the table is like no other. With his mascara, lipstick and static hair-do, the lead singer of The Cure has never sung so well despite being only a few months off his 60 th birthday here. The concert journeys through four decades of hits (which are sometimes cold wave but are mostly pop) and you can really appreciate the breadth of their work, along with all those melodies that you recognise subconsciously and Robert Smith’s ability to just get on with it. Joined onstage by his long-time partner in crime Simon Gallup (bass), as well as Reeves Gabrels (guitar), Roger O’Donnell (keyboards) and Jason Cooper (drums), he sings some beautiful versions of Pictures of You, In Between Days, Just Like Heaven, A Forest, Disintegration, Lullaby, The Caterpillar, Friday I’m in Love, Close to Me, Boys Don’t Cry, 10:15 Saturday Night and Killing an Arab. © Max Dembo/Qobuz

After a prolific tear through the mid-'80s, the Cocteau Twins slowed down near the decade's end. Having released 5 albums and 8 standalone EPs between 1982 and 1986, they took an unheard-of two years to release Blue Bell Knoll, their first on U.S. major label Capitol Records, after which ... silence. There was no tour. No promo jaunt. Just a few magazine features and, if you were lucky to catch it on 120 Minutes, a music video featuring the group and their ever-faithful reel-to-reel machine. News reports surfaced that Elizabeth Fraser and Robin Guthrie had a baby, and that Simon Raymonde's father had died. Whispers circulated that Guthrie's cocaine habit was out of hand and that, despite the new baby, he and Fraser's relationship was in tatters. It would not have been surprising if the next thing the public heard from the Cocteau Twins was an announcement of their breakup. Instead, in September 1990, they released Heaven or Las Vegas, an album that could easily stand as the best work in their entire catalog. (4AD label head Ivo Watts-Russell called it "a perfect record," though that didn't stop him from dropping the band a month after its release, due to irreconcilable personality differences.) Despite whatever turmoil and crisis was consuming the band at the time—and by all accounts, there was more than plenty—Heaven or Las Vegas shines and shimmers with a sense of emotional resonance and clarity that had previously never been fully realized on a Cocteau’s release. The pop songs here–"Iceblink Luck," "Fotzepolitic," the title track–are explosively joyful and irresistibly catchy. Guthrie's intricate, gossamer guitar work glides atop sturdy, forceful beats anchored by Raymonde's liquid basslines and Fraser's voice at its most expressive and expansive (and nearly intelligible). Meanwhile, midtempo, introspective tracks like "Fifty-Fifty Clown" and "I Wear Your Ring" and, especially, the heart-wrenching beauty of the album's final three tracks ("Wolf in the Breast," "Road, River and Rail," and "Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires") traffic in an emotional purity that's as close to plain spoken as the group had ever been. And while the precise lyrical components are still quite cryptic, the impact is inarguable. Heaven or Las Vegas is pure flex on behalf of the Cocteau Twins, showing off everything they're capable of doing, all at once, and at the highest level. It would be a remarkable piece of art by any group, but for one that was literally falling apart at the time, it's a dizzying accomplishment. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of their first album, Sony Music CG has brought together all the WHAM! singles on one disc, with a host of bonus tracks. It could only begin with Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do); the George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley duo’s brassy, bouncy calling card. The original track is followed by 5 re-jigged versions sure to delight fans. Of particular note is the Special US Remix, with its handclaps raising the slider on an already effective original rhythm, which is followed by Young Guns (Go For It), on the back of which WHAM! became a veritable social phenomenon. Relaxed, elegant and gently anti-conformist, the two young men went on to score a string of hits: Bad Boys, with its unforgettable opening synth gimmick, the summery Club Tropicana, and the unmissable Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, a 1984 single that sounds like it came straight out of the Motown catalogue. The number of hits on this compilation is all the more impressive given that WHAM! had a relatively short lifespan, sacrificed in favour of George Michael's phenomenal solo success. Songs like Last Christmas reflect the evolution of George Michael: it is signed by both of WHAM!’s members, but it is Michael alone who carries it on his shoulders. The christmas jingle is presented here in its original version, accompanied by a “Pudding Mix” which features a synthesised bell. As the album is structured chronologically, it ends with the band's least emblematic singles: The Edge of Heaven, Battlestations, and Where Did Your Heart Go?— a cover of the American band Was (Not Was) sung by Michael, on which Ridgeley is simply absent. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz

Unable to perform his 2021 spring tour at the Royal Albert Hall due to COVID-19 restrictions, Eric Clapton, a staunch defender of free access to his concerts, is playing an intimate show at Cowdray House, a plush mansion in England’s Sussex countryside. Spectators? Only one. In the balcony, his wife Melia McEnery, for whom the work is titled, in the form of a declaration of love: The Lady In The Balcony: Lockdown Sessions. But anyone else can watch too, since the whole thing was captured by Russ Titelman and even screened in the cinema. This is how the maestro responds to the harshness of the current situation: by offering moments of grace. With his musicians Chris Stainton (keyboards), Nathan East (bass) and Steve Gadd (drums), Clapton plays a whole range of classic blues songs from his discography: Key To Highway by Big Bill Bonzy, his cover of JJ Cale's After Midnight, Man of the World and Black Magic Woman written in the early days of Fleetwood Mac by Peter Green, whom Clapton salutes in passing, or the vintages Layla or Tears In Heaven. The old friends end on electric with Muddy Waters' brilliant Long Distance Call and Got My Mojo interspersed with Bad Boy from Clapton's first album. With the unlikely acoustics offered by the venue and a particular attention to the impeccable sound recording, Slowhand goes on a journey, in a peaceful mood, among friends. A Dantean era calls for an exceptional concert. © Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz

Welcome To The Jungle, It’s So Easy, Nightrain, Mr Brownstone, Paradise City, My Michelle, Sweet Child O’ Mine, You’re Crazy… Look no further to explain the success of this monument that sold over thirty million copies worldwide: right from the start, it feels like a best-of album rather than a first studio effort… Even Out Ta Get Me, Think About You, Anything Goes and Rocket Queen, the four “weak tracks” of this masterpiece, would have satisfied fans of other bands who were sick of Guns N’ Roses at the time. Add to this two tracks that were sidelined at the time mostly for copyright reasons and are unearthed here, Shadow Of Your Love and Move To The City, as well as the studio version of Reckless Life. Though they feel like a walking disaster, this mighty gang had something others didn’t have in the microcosm of the Los Angeles hard rock scene: the ability to give birth to rock classics in record time. Some will no doubt find it unjust that the controversial track One In A Million was a kind of collateral victim of the reissue of Lies, from which it was removed. But this improved rerelease goes to show that, even if it wasn’t necessarily their goal, the musicians’ sound and performance are also two major components in any masterpiece. The reason they decided to include the before and after Appetite For Destruction, meaning the two EPs Live?!*@ Like a Suicide (the false live) and G N' R Lies, is because it is clear that all the ingredients were far from being in place at the Sound Studio where the twenty-ish alternative versions were recorded, featured here as a “bonus”. Mike Clink’s expert production, and Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero’s calibrated and well-balanced mixing obviously helped give the selected original twelve songs their ultimate form. And therefore optimal efficiency. But other live or acoustic titles gleaned here and there to close out this reissue (Bob Dylan’s Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Live), It’s So Easy (Live), AC/DC’s Whole Lotta Rosie (Live), November Rain (Acoustic), the very short but promising The Plague, the instrumental Ain’t Goin’ Down No More or the Rolling Stones’ Jumpin’ Jack Flash (Acoustic)) prove that the band’s five members went through a period, albeit much too short, in which they were touched by grace. And there will most likely be further proof if one day Axl Rose decides to unearth the version of the album he re-recorded in 1999 with the new Guns N’ Roses line-up, without Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler. It was with this winning cast that Guns N' Roses beat the ultimate sales record for a first album in the United States. And although the multiple line-up evolutions that followed didn’t lead to any commercial disasters, they never gave the band the opportunity to repeat the feat of Appetite For Destruction. © Jean-Pierre Sabouret/Qobuz

Who's Next is not an album lacking for reissues. In addition to a deluxe edition from 2003, there have also been multiple audiophile editions and remasters of the album since its 1971 release. So what could a "super deluxe edition" possibly contain? Quite a bit, as it turns out. As even casual Who fans know, the genesis of Who's Next was as Lifehouse, a multimedia rock opera even more ambitious than Tommy. Pete Townshend had developed a bizarre, dystopian story that somehow merged his devotion to Indian guru Meher Baba, his recent fascination with synthesizers, and the idea that the only thing that could save humanity from a test-tube-bound future was "real rock 'n' roll." Yeah, the aftereffects of the '60s were wild. After some live shows at the Young Vic in London and a series of marathon recording sessions, a 16-song tracklist was finalized, but by this point, it was collectively decided—both creatively and commercially—that perhaps another concept-dense double album might not be the best studio follow-up to Tommy. So, eight Lifehouse songs were re-cut and one new song ("My Wife") was recorded and the leaner, meaner Who's Next was released in August 1971. The album was both an instant success and has become an undisputed part of the classic rock canon, thanks to the inclusion of absolutely iconic tracks like "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Baba O'Riley," and "Behind Blue Eyes."While one could make an argument that the taut and focused power of Who's Next inadvertently proved the point of the Lifehouse story (namely, that rock 'n' roll is most effective when it's at its most primal), it's important to remember that Who's Next was also a giant artistic leap forward for the Who, as it found them at the peak of their powers as a pummeling rock band and as a band willing to be experimental and artful in their approach to being a pummeling rock band. (If any evidence is needed of the group's unrivaled power, check out take 13 of "Won't Get Fooled Again" on this set, which is so immediate and electric that it could easily be mistaken for a concert performance.) While several Lifehouse tracks found their way to other Who and Townshend records, getting a sense of the contours of the project has been difficult. But this massive, 155-track set creates those lines thanks to the inclusion of multiple Townshend demos as well as recording sessions of Life House tracks that occurred both before and after the release of Who's Next, and, most notably, two freshly mixed live shows from 1971 (including one of the Young Vic shows) that provided both the energy and, in some cases the basic tracks, for the album versions. While nothing on this bursting-at-the-seams edition overrides the all-killer-no-filler approach of Who's Next, it does provide plenty of long-desired context and documentation for what made that record so powerful. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz