The key to Chris Stapleton's immense success, of course, is his remarkable, inimitable vocal tone: a worn-leather rasp that can stretch high and low, project real strength and sweetness, and isn't specifically "country"—there are traces of Stax soul, Ray Charles' R&B and deep-fried Southern rock. But Stapleton also feels reliable; he's an artist of integrity and good taste who doesn't bother with false moves or trying on trends. In short, he is classic in real time. And that hasn't changed with Higher, his fifth solo album (after fronting the band Steeldrivers for years) in less than a decade. Co-produced once again with Dave Cobb, the album taps into the catholic formula that works well for him. Single "White Horse" is glorious arena rock, a sinewy flex with some particularly heavy moments. "South Dakota" brings Memphis-blues stomp, slithering confidently and managing to make that prairie state sound badass: "I'm in South Dakota/ Trouble ain't hard to find." Written with Miranda Lambert, "What Am I Gonna Do" is a mid-tempo pleaser with lazy-sun Skynyrd guitar and Stapleton, as always, beautifully complimented by harmonies from his wife Morgane Stapleton. She matches him as an equal duet partner and not just support on "It Takes a Woman," a '70s-ish country ballad that gives Stapleton the chance to hit an otherworldly note as he sings, "You make me hiiiiiiiigh and keep my feet on the ground." Sultry "Think I'm In Love With You" delivers a very '80s adult-contemporary vibe, complete with urbane strings—violin not fiddle. "Loving You On My Mind" is silky R&B, Stapleton sounding like a natural lover man as he sings, "Ever since there's a morning/ I've been wondering/ How you do that thing you did last night." He pushes toward falsetto on that one, but goes all the way on soulful ballad "Higher." Acoustic "Mountains Of My Mind" is gentle as a mountain stream and evokes memories of Guy Clark, while memorable "The Bottom" has a Willie Nelson feel, as Stapleton finds a way to deepen country's tangling of love—and heartbreak—and alcohol: "The heart holds a memory/ And the memory holds a past/ And the past holds a woman/ At the bottom of a glass/ So I don't have a problem/ If I don't see the bottom." And "Crosswind" is a metaphor-rich driving song ("carrying a heavy load," "picking up speed") that mimics the rhythm of rolling truck wheels for an excellent snapshot of outlaw country: "Trying to keep all the rubber on 65/ Might not make it out alive/ White-knuckling the wheel just to survive/ Caught in the crosswind." The parts are old, but Stapleton makes it feel brand new. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

A unique band that’s often copied but never equalled, Meshuggah has left an undeniable mark on the metal scene thanks to their trademark rhythms (which are as crazy as they are unexpected, and wrapped up in low-pitch, distorted sounds). Their work has led to a whole new genre that was eventually given its own name: djent. 35 years after its creation, the band continues to shake up conventions while offering a sound that’s uniquely their own. Fans have seen them switch from seven, to eight, to nine strings, and return to live recording with their album The Violent Sleep of Reason, but now the Swedish band are taking a more serious approach to metal… and it’s somehow made their music more accessible, all things considered.Immutable sounds serious in every sense of the word. Despite a lot of editing over a lot of sessions, the band has never sounded so organic. Their mechanical (though not clinical) undertones are even more imposing, sometimes sounding similar to their album Koloss, released in 2012. Die-hard fans will be pleased to hear that Meshuggah still plays the convoluted and impeccably placed riffs they’re known for (God He Sees in Mirrors, The Abysmal Eye), but this is still one of their most melodic records to date, no matter how distorted the guitars are. You can hear a faint suggestion of the editing work on the intense opening track Broken Cog and the incredible 9-minute long instrumental They Move Below. This is a release that, while still maintaining their signature djent sound, definitely pushes this Swedish band into the realms of prog rock.A true masterpiece, Immutable is a steamroller of an album with an unusual sense of depth, ready to crush anything in its path. It’s a sucker punch with finesse. More than 25 years after their incredible album Destroy Erase Improve, Meshuggah have proved they’re still the undisputed leaders of the genre they created. No one’s ever come close to following in their footsteps, and now everyone knows who’s boss. © Chief Brody/Qobuz

With their eighth studio album, 2023's ebullient So Much (For) Stardust, Fall Out Boy fully re-embrace the emo and punk-pop dynamism of their classic work. It's a soaring style they've been threatening to unleash ever since returning to regular activity following their hiatus after 2008's Folie a Deux. Although their subsequent follow-ups like Save Rock and Roll, American Beauty/American Psycho, and Mania all topped the Billboard 200, the albums often felt like the band were working hard to stay current, throwing their songs into a production blender of contemporary pop, hip-hop, and EDM sounds with varying degrees of success. Without ever sounding too much like a throwback, So Much (For) Stardust has a homecoming feeling, as if Fall Out Boy are getting back to their rock roots. It's a vibe that's underlined by the presence of producer Neal Avron, with whom they recorded the core of their most beloved albums, including 2005's From Under the Cork Tree. From the start, there's a balance of measured craftsmanship (they purportedly took their time in the studio) and big melodic hooks, all effusively delivered by singer Patrick Stump. It's an infectious combination the band perfect on the opening "Love from the Other Side," a song ostensibly about dealing with (and perhaps being the cause of) a bad breakup. That said, it could just as easily work as a metaphor for the group's attempts at transforming their sound coming off the emo highs of the early 2000s. Early in the song, Stump admits, "We were a hammer to the statue of David." There's a bittersweet nostalgia implied by the song, as if the band are looking back on their career and taking stock of where they (and by proxy their fans) find themselves in a post-emo, post-pandemic world. They return to that sentiment on "I Am My Own Muse," where Stump, bellowing against a symphonic string bombast and guitarist Joe Trohman's fiery riffs, sings, "Smash all the guitars 'til we see all the stars/Oh, we've got to throw this year away like a bad luck charm." This kind of bold rock affection drives much of the album, as on the '80s AOR of "Heartbreak Feels So Good," the Queen-meets-Michael Jackson post-punk stomp of "Hold Me Like a Grudge," and the dreamy new wave romanticism of "Fake Out." Adding to the emotional push of the record are several unabashed musical and pop-cultural references, including the Earth, Wind & Fire intimations of "What a Time to Be Alive," the Don Henley "Boys of Summer" flourishes at the center of "The Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years)," and even a snippet of Ethan Hawke's soliloquy about the meaning of life from Reality Bites in which his character offers up the adage "It's all just a random lottery of meaningless tragedy in a series of near escapes." Whether that's how Fall Out Boy feel about their career or not, So Much (For) Stardust is a gloriously welcome return to form.© Matt Collar /TiVo

Rather than trying to beat their ever-growing legion of imitators at their own game, Swedish prog metal destroyers Meshuggah look to prove that other bands not only aren't in the same league as them, but aren't even playing the same sport. On Koloss, their seventh album, they call upon all of their technical mastery as they take a slower, more groove-oriented approach to songwriting that's more about the perfect execution of precisely syncopated riffs than simply getting out there and proving that they've taken guitar lessons. While restraint isn't necessarily a word one would seem likely to use while describing a band as extreme as Meshuggah, it's exactly that quality that makes Koloss such a solid, even airtight, album. With so many years of experience as innovators under their belts, they have the kind of restraint and patience required to not overplay songs like the album-opening "I am Colossus" and the later track "Swarm." Rather than feel the constant need to dazzle the listener with guitar heroics, Meshuggah let everything just unfold in the most brutally heavy and effective way possible. With their status as the old guard on the more progressive end of the extreme music spectrum, Meshuggah have easily proven to listeners time and time again that they know their way around their instruments better than most, so even though Koloss isn't the band's most daring or experimental work to date, it's definitely worth any metal fan's time.© Gregory Heaney /TiVo

Danzig debuts with a record of simple, pounding, bluesy metal featuring lead singer Glenn Danzig's trademark Elvis-meets-Jim Morrison bellow and outlandishly dark, evil lyrics. There isn't a great deal of musical variety or complexity here, but the band powers its way through such signature tunes as "Twist of Cain," "Am I Demon," and the (future) hit "Mother" with a primal energy. Plus, Danzig's tongue-in-cheek posturing as the ultimate unholier-than-thou heavy metal frontman gives the record a definite appeal, even if one is not inclined to view his theatrics as dangerous or threatening.© Steve Huey /TiVo

In the year of his 90th birthday (which he would have celebrated on the 23rd of September 2020 had he not died in 2004), Ray Charles is honoured with a new 90-track compilation box set. Just another compilation like all the rest? Yes and no. Ray Charles is undoubtedly one of the most-compiled artists in the history of music. Published by Tangerine, the label that the musician set up at the end of the 50s to keep the rights to his songs, this box set starts out like all the others: with the post-Atlantic hits, Georgia On My Mind, Hit The Road Jack, One Mint Julep, Busted... These are timeless treasures of proto-soul, but there doesn't seem to be much novelty here. The rest is much more interesting, and much rarer: tracks recorded between the second half of the 1960s and the 2000s, many of which were only released on vinyl, never reissued on CD and until now unavailable on digital. This is the first time that Ray Charles' lesser-known years have been given the compilation treatment in this way, and it is a revelation. In the 90s and 2000s, the production of his songs had a synthetic feel, and they did not age too well. These rarer songs are often hidden gems of southern soul, flavoured with country and wrapped in sumptuous symphonic orchestrations. Whether he is singing the Muppets (It's Ain't Easy Being Green) or Gershwin (Summertime, a duet with Cleo Laine), Ray Charles is always deeply moving. Now, the dream is to hear reissues of all these albums in their entirety. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz

Come On Come On proved that even with two previous hit albums under her belt, Mary Chapin Carpenter was still as hot as could be. This album serves as one of the signposts that contemporary country would not only aspire to, but actually become in the 21st century. One need only to stack this slab up against 2006 recordings by Little Big Town and Sugarland to see the roots of Carpenter's blend of sophisticated pop, folk, and soft rock with country. This disc climbed all the way to number six on the country charts, yielding an astonishing seven hit singles, fully revealing Carpenter's meld of aesthetics, skill, and marketing savvy, and she established herself not only as one of her chosen genre's top artists, but crossed over into the then-burgeoning Americana and AAA radio formats as well. With friends such as Rosanne Cash, Joe Diffie, Shawn Colvin, and the Indigo Girls lending a hand, there's a full range of country, folk, and pop-styled songs strewn across the album, helping it and Carpenter herself gain enormous recognition from other audiences outside of country music. "He Thinks He'll Keep Her," a title keeping with country music's tradition of double entendres, became Carpenter's first number one hit, while the confident "I Feel Lucky" peaked at number four and netted her another Grammy. Lucinda Williams' "Passionate Kisses," with its beautiful guitar arrangements, also made it to number four, and Carpenter's vocal enthusiasm makes Dire Straits' "The Bug" one of the album's most spirited efforts. These songs, along with the title track's compelling folk essence, gave Come on Come On a well-rounded sound and exposed her talent for reaching slightly beyond the genre's long-established niches. Not only is Carpenter's music extendable, but her writing rescues country music from its familiar themes of "love 'em and leave 'em" conventionality while still managing to portray maturely the perils of romance and heartbreak from a female perspective. Carpenter repeated much of Come On Come On's full-ranged charm for 1994's Stones in the Road release, which garnered her yet a third Grammy in as many albums.© Mike DeGagne & Thom Jurek /TiVo

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

Recording under the stage name Vance Joy, Australian singer/songwriter James Keogh was vaulted to international attention in 2013 when the second single from his debut EP became a surprise multi-platinum hit in his home country. The easygoing, ukulele-led "Riptide" continued gaining traction, cracking the Top Ten in several European countries and even making waves in the U.S. The major labels quickly came calling, with Atlantic offering Keogh a purported five-album deal. Not a bad start for the former pro footballer who abandoned the sport to follow his artistic muse. With the global might of Atlantic at his back, the man now known as Vance Joy delivers his debut album, Dream Your Life Away. Built around the centerpiece of "Riptide," the album offers up a dozen or so additional songs in that familiar mold of romantic, introspective, acoustic folk-pop. Musically, Joy falls somewhere between the laid-back surfer charm of Jack Johnson and the bearded earnestness of the Mumfords' nu folk scene. Much of Dream Your Life Away focuses on gently picked lovelorn pleas and somewhat uninspired romantic phrasing with tracks like "Georgia" and "First Time" being some of the more ponderous offenders. Joy's melodies throughout are fine though not particularly memorable and, regrettably, that could describe the record in general. As shown by the initial success of "Riptide," many fans will be willing to embrace another tender-voiced folk-pop crooner, but the material here seems a bit too middle of the road to really distinguish him from the crowded pack of similar young bards. With its sweet harmonies and strong build, the album's most engaging track, "Winds of Change," is smartly placed at the top, setting an enjoyable tone of promise that doesn't quite deliver over the remaining 45 minutes.© Timothy Monger /TiVo