For your consideration: a wildly successful indie rock band with a legion of followers on an equally successful, highly credible independent label makes the jump to major-label powerhouse Atlantic, leading to much chagrin and speculation among its fans as they awaited with bated breath for what would happen to the group. The result was For Your Own Special Sweetheart, inarguably the most polished and fully realized album of Dischord alumnus Jawbox's career. Fast forward ten years and you find Barsuk's Death Cab for Cutie in the same position, making the same move. A new label, a larger crowd (thanks to their repeated appearances on The OC), and a side project of Ben Gibbard (Postal Service) that very well overshadowed the success of his main project. All of the moves were perfectly aligned to take the little band that could into the rock stratosphere. But the difference between Jawbox and Death Cab for Cutie was that For Your Own Special Sweetheart went on to be the finest release of Jawbox's canon. Plans definitely comes close to that mark, but falls slightly short. In comparison to the dry, raw production of Transatlanticism, Plans is warm and polished, the kind of album expected from a band obsessed with the sound of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. Chris Walla does an amazing job bringing the group's sound in a different direction than before without compromising too many of the things that made the group sound great to begin with. Thematically, Plans is the Death Cab for Cutie suitable for graduate students, world-weary and wiser from their experiences, realizing they can no longer be love-starved 20-somethings without a clue yet hopelessly cursed to face the same issues. And there's merit to be had in acknowledging that maturity, for even blink-182 figured out their age and released their "serious" album. Gibbard's wispy, poetic lyrics (which could easily have been stolen from Aimee Mann's dressing room while she wasn't looking) still remain an artery from which the rest of the band beats and are some of his finest ever, but this time around the band aligns itself more with a series of emotional murmurs rather than a heart attack. The album winds its way from one ballad to the next, with brief stopovers at moderately up-tempo numbers to help break things up a bit. And it's this sense of resignation that either makes or breaks the album, depending on which Death Cab for Cutie is your favorite: the melancholic, hopeless romantic or the one who wears its heart on its sleeve with unbridled energy and passion. If Transatlanticism was Gibbard's Pet Sounds and Postal Service was SMiLE, then this is definitely Wild Honey, loved by adoring new fans and those who enjoy the ballads. But those hoping for a bit more -- for the bar to be raised higher -- might find this a mildly predictable exercise in Gibbard exorcising the demons of Phil Collins that haunt him. Plans is both a destination and a transitional journey for the group, one that sees the fulfillment of years of toiling away to develop their ideas and sound. But it's with the completion of those ideas that band is faced with a new set of crossroads and challenges to tread upon: to stay the course and suffer stagnation or try something bold and daringly new with their future. Which road they'll take will make all the difference.© Rob Theakston /TiVo

Using the textured sonics of The Unforgettable Fire as a basis, U2 expanded those innovations by scaling back the songs to a personal setting and adding a grittier attack for its follow-up, The Joshua Tree. It's a move that returns them to the sweeping, anthemic rock of War, but if War was an exploding political bomb, The Joshua Tree is a journey through its aftermath, trying to find sense and hope in the desperation. That means that even the anthems -- the epic opener "Where the Streets Have No Name," the yearning "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" -- have seeds of doubt within their soaring choruses, and those fears take root throughout the album, whether it's in the mournful sliding acoustic guitars of "Running to Stand Still," the surging "One Tree Hill," or the hypnotic elegy "Mothers of the Disappeared." So it might seem a little ironic that U2 became superstars on the back of such a dark record, but their focus has never been clearer, nor has their music been catchier, than on The Joshua Tree. Unexpectedly, U2 have also tempered their textural post-punk with American influences. Not only are Bono's lyrics obsessed with America, but country and blues influences are heard throughout the record, and instead of using these as roots, they're used as ways to add texture to the music. With the uniformly excellent songs -- only the clumsy, heavy rock and portentous lyrics of "Bullet the Blue Sky" fall flat -- the result is a powerful, uncompromising record that became a hit due to its vision and its melody. Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Stuart Murdoch and his mates in Glasgow's long-running pop auteurs Belle and Sebastian sound more jubilant today than ever. In 2021, after 26 years and 11 albums together, COVID forced Murdoch (vocals, guitar) along with original members, Stevie Jackson (guitar), Sarah Martin (vocals, violin), Chris Geddes (keyboards) and Richard Colburn (drums) as well as relatively new additions Bobby Kildea (guitar) and Dave McGowan (guitar, bass) to stay home in Scotland and record a new album. Some songs turned into A Bit of Previous, released in May 2022, and another album's worth of music from those fertile sessions has now become Late Developers. Far from being an odds and sods collection, these 11 tracks are an equally rich lode of Belle and Sebastian exploring pop music's prismatic spectrum. Echoes of the band's folkier past appear in "Will I Tell You a Secret," where a harpsichord effect on the keyboard gives the tune a 1960s chamber pop flavor. With horns, backing vocals and the pace of a classic R&B ballad "The Evening Star" changes the focus to Motown with a dash of Memphis soul snap. Gush is the emotional response that comes to mind when the handclaps, chiming guitars and luscious vocal harmonies of "Give A Little Time'' make their case: "Speculate, accumulate/ Embrace the love, erase the hate." But not all the words here ignore the more jagged aspects of the emotional inner life that has always been Belle and Sebastian's constant subject. In the sweet and sour vein of what their official bio calls "coaxing you towards inner peace with … a melody that lifts you out of the murk of all that terrifying truth," the very Smiths-esque "When We Were Very Young" finds Murdoch, who now has "kids and dystopia," lamenting against a perky melody: "I wish I could be content/ With the football scores/ I wish I could be content with my daily chores/ With my daily worship of the sublime/ I wish I could walk away/ From my scars and sores." Produced by the band and Brian McNeill with help from a quartet of mixers, the result is bright, full, and in-your-face. The cleverly titled Late Developers is filled with joy and now the wisdom of age; Belle and Sebastian continue to make smart, stylish pop music look easy. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

On his third LP, Golden Hour, Norwegian producer Kygo recovers from the slight stumble of his sophomore effort, 2017's Kids in Love, with a bright, joyous collection of atmospheric electronic dance anthems. Less tropical house and more straightforward festival material, Golden Hour uplifts and inspires with positivity and a team of famous faces to help deliver Kygo's message. Along with his international crossover smash "Higher Love," which features the vocals of the late Whitney Houston, the set also includes the hit "Lose Somebody" with OneRepublic and appearances from Kim Petras, Oh Wonder, Zara Larsson, Tyga, and country singer Zac Brown. His second chart-topper in Norway, Golden Hour also returned him to the Top Ten in Australia and across Europe.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

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On his second live album, Kenny Loggins puts together a special show consisting of rearranged versions of old favorites like "What A Fool Believes" (complete with co-author Michael McDonald on vocals) and "Your Mama Don't Dance." It's Loggins' version of an "unplugged" performance (despite a substantial backup band), and as such, a turning away from the technology-happy days of albums like Back To Avalon (which, by the way, is forgotten in a catalog promotion in the CD booklet), without quite returning to the more homegrown quality of early albums like Celebrate Me Home. The real question in Loggins' career is what will happen with his next set of new material, but as a placeholder, this release should be welcomed by his fans, who may find even "Footloose" tolerable in a barrelhouse piano arrangement.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo