The Swedish hitmakers' first compilation prepared for the CD format, and one of the biggest-selling releases of all time.© TiVo

Khruangbin's  A LA SALA is billed as a return to basics. Made with minimal overdubs and in only the company of the band's longtime engineer Steve Christensen, the mostly-instrumental trio's fourth record is a quieter, more introspective affair. The measured first track "Fifteen Fifty-Three," which starts with crickets and ends with birds chirping, sets the tone for an album where several tunes include ambient or found sounds. In the sweet and gentle flow of "May Ninth," bassist Laura Lee Ochoa quietly sings, "Oh what a dream to me/ Memory burned and gone/ A multicolored grey/ Waiting for May to come/ Happy for the rain." Her whispers can be heard in several tracks including "Pon Pón," a classic example of the instinctual way that the trio mind meld into a groove—here spiced with a dash of West African bounce.Khruangbin have routinely sought out vocal collaborators (like fellow Texan Leon Bridges) but have now mastered the art of adding ghostly, often near wordless  background vocals.  Lee purrs in the sinuous "Todaviá Viva," a funk jam paced by drummer Donald "DJ" Johnson's rim shots and high hat.  "Hold Me Up (Thank You)" is firmly in the pocket from the opening notes, with Speer darting in and a more assertive Lee singing simple lyrics that conclude with, "Thank your father, thank your mother/Hold me up." With his instantly recognizable guitar tone always submerged in reverb, Mark Speer continues to refine his playing, trending more towards the jazz improvisations while also being able to savor shorter, less challenging moments like in "Caja de la Sala."  He stretches a solo into a song in the dance track "A Love International."  A LA SALA (a phrase Lee used as a child to summon her family into the same place) closes on the slow, reflective "Les Petits Gris," set to a repeated keyboard phrase before it dissolves into the sound of crickets in full thrall.  Khruangbin continue to find new ways to make instrumental-centered music consequential. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

ABBA Gold: Complete Edition is a curious release -- with two discs of material, it's probably too much for casual listeners seeking only ABBA's biggest chart hits (available instead on the single-disc Gold collection), while more serious fans will have already invested in the four-disc Thank You for the Music box set, rendering this package almost totally irrelevant. There's undoubtedly great music here, of course -- the problem is just that it's unlikely to fill the needs of most consumers.© Jason Ankeny /TiVo

J.J. Cale's debut album, Naturally, was recorded after Eric Clapton made "After Midnight" a huge success. Instead of following Slowhand's cue and constructing a slick blues-rock album, Cale recruited a number of his Oklahoma friends and made a laid-back country-rock record that firmly established his distinctive, relaxed style. Cale included a new version of "After Midnight" on the album, but the true meat of the record lay in songs like "Crazy Mama," which became a hit single, and "Call Me the Breeze," which Lynyrd Skynyrd later covered. On these songs and many others on Naturally, Cale effortlessly captured a lazy, rolling boogie that contradicted all the commercial styles of boogie, blues, and country-rock at the time. Where his contemporaries concentrated on solos, Cale worked the song and its rhythm, and the result was a pleasant, engaging album that was in no danger of raising anybody's temperature.© Thom Owens /TiVo

Teenage Dream did its job. With its five number one singles, the 2010 album turned Katy Perry into a genuine superstar, the kind of musician whose image rivaled her music in popularity, the kind who could topline her own 3-D theatrical documentary, the kind whose name became shorthand for a sugar-pop sensibility. This meant there was only one thing left for her to do on its 2013 sequel, Prism: to make a graceful pivot from teen dream to serious, mature artist. Prism hits these marks precisely yet isn't stuffy, not with its feints at trap-rap, but even with the preponderance of nightclub glitz, there isn't a shadow of a doubt that Katy Perry has toned down her cheesecake burlesque, opting for a hazy, dreamy, sun-kissed hippie Californian ideal that quietly replaces the happily vulgar pinup of her earliest years. All the lingering nastiness of One of the Boys -- the smiling Mean Girl backstabbing of "Ur So Gay," for instance -- and the pneumatic Playboy fantasy of Teenage Dream are unceremoniously abandoned in favor of Perry's candy construct of a chipper, cheerful grown-up prom princess, the popular girl who has left all her sneering dismissals in the past. Perry remains a terminal flirt but she channels her energies into long-term relationships -- the sexiest song, "Birthday," is a glorious retro-disco explosion delivered to a steady boyfriend, while elsewhere she testifies toward unconditional love -- and the overall effect transforms Prism into a relatively measured, savvy adult contemporary album, one that's aware of the latest fashions but is designed to fit into Katy's retirement plan. Ultimately, this makes Prism a tighter, cleaner record than its predecessors -- there are no extremes here, nothing that pushes the boundaries of either good taste or tackiness; even when she cheers on excess on "This Is How We Do" she's not a participant but rather a ringmaster, encouraging her fans to spend money they don't have just so they can have a good time. Ultimately, this sense of reserve reveals just how canny Katy Perry really is: she's determined to give her career a dramatic narrative arc, eager to leave behind the bawdy recklessness of her early years in favor of something that's age appropriate. That's why the lead single from Prism was "Roar," an homage to Sara Bareilles so transparent that the singer/songwriter may deserve co-credit: the inspirational adult contemporary single signaled how Perry no longer views herself as a fluffy confection but rather a showbiz staple who'll be here for years and years, and Prism fully lives up to that carefully constructed ideal.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Commercially, Super Trouper, ABBA's seventh album, was another worldwide blockbuster. "The Winner Takes It All," its lead-off single, released several months in advance of the album in most territories, was a smash; for example, it was the group's 14th consecutive Top Five hit in the U.K. and their eighth number one there. The title track was also a British chart-topper (their last), as was the album, their sixth. "Lay All Your Love on Me" made the U.K. Top Ten, and "On and on and On" was released as a single in some countries, hitting the Top Ten in Australia. (Typically, American success was more modest, though the album went gold, and "The Winner Takes It All" was a number one adult contemporary and Top Ten pop hit.) Musically, Super Trouper found ABBA, always trend-conscious, taking account of the passing of disco and returning to the pop/rock sound typical of their early albums. Only "Lay All Your Love on Me" employed a dance approach. The title song had the kind of martial beat and pop sound more in keeping with the group that had broken through with "Mamma Mia" and "S.O.S.," and "On and on and On" paid homage to one of their chief influences, the Beach Boys, with an arrangement reminiscent of "Do It Again." Lyrically, there was a distinct sense of world weariness and melancholy, from the divorce lamentations of "The Winner Takes It All" to the dissatisfaction with touring expressed in "Super Trouper" and even the nostalgia for a simpler time in "Our Last Summer." For performers on top of the world, the members of ABBA were putting an unusual amount of what sounded like real unhappiness into their pop music. [The 2001 reissue added "Elaine," a non-LP B-side, and "Put on Your White Sombrero," an outtake. Both were excellent songs.]© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Widely considered the Swedish foursome's first classic album -- and historically important as the first to use the now-famous mirror-B logo -- 1976's Arrival contains three huge hit singles, the dramatic "Money Money Money," the downcast "Knowing Me, Knowing You," and quite possibly the band's finest four minutes, the absolutely perfect pop classic "Dancing Queen," a combination of Spector-ian grandeur, McCartney-esque melody, and the indescribable vocals of Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The rest of ABBA's fourth album is strikingly consistent and accomplished, from the sly, bouncy "When I Kissed the Teacher" to the atmospheric title track, making room in between for the three excellent singles and five other substantial pop tunes. Although three LPs and a greatest-hits compilation preceded it, Arrival is aptly titled, as this album announces the band's move beyond bubblegum.© TiVo Staff /TiVo

Wishing to escape the superstar expectations that sank Blind Faith before it was launched, Eric Clapton retreated with several sidemen from Delaney & Bonnie to record the material that would form Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. From these meager beginnings grew his greatest album. Duane Allman joined the band shortly after recording began, and his spectacular slide guitar pushed Clapton to new heights. Then again, Clapton may have gotten there without him, considering the emotional turmoil he was in during the recording. He was in hopeless, unrequited love with Pattie Boyd, the wife of his best friend, George Harrison, and that pain surges throughout Layla, especially on its epic title track. But what really makes Layla such a powerful record is that Clapton, ignoring the traditions that occasionally painted him into a corner, simply tears through these songs with burning, intense emotion. He makes standards like "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" and "Nobody Knows You (When You're Down and Out)" into his own, while his collaborations with Bobby Whitlock -- including "Any Day" and "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?" -- teem with passion. And, considering what a personal album Layla is, it's somewhat ironic that the lovely coda "Thorn Tree in the Garden" is a solo performance by Whitlock, and that the song sums up the entire album as well as "Layla" itself.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Something/Anything? proved that Todd Rundgren could write a pop classic as gracefully as any of his peers, but buried beneath the surface were signs that he would never be satisfied as merely a pop singer/songwriter. A close listen to the album reveals the eccentricities and restless spirit that surges to the forefront on its follow-up, A Wizard, A True Star. Anyone expecting the third record of Something/Anything?, filled with variations on "I Saw the Light" and "Hello It's Me," will be shocked by A Wizard. As much a mind-f*ck as an album, A Wizard, A True Star rarely breaks down to full-fledged songs, especially on the first side, where songs and melodies float in and out of a hazy post-psychedelic mist. Stylistically, there may not be much new -- he touched on so many different bases on Something/Anything? that it's hard to expand to new territory -- but it's all synthesized and assembled in fresh, strange ways. Often, it's a jarring, disturbing listen, especially since Rundgren's humor has turned bizarre and insular. It truly takes a concerted effort on the part of the listener to unravel the record, since Rundgren makes no concessions -- not only does the soul medley jerk in unpredictable ways, but the anthemic closer, "Just One Victory," is layered with so many overdubs that it's hard to hear its moving melody unless you pay attention. And that's the key to understanding A Wizard, A True Star -- it's one of those rare rock albums that demands full attention and, depending on your own vantage, it may even reward such close listening.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Cale moves toward country and gospel on some songs here, but since those are two of his primary influences, the movement is slight. And longtime producer Audie Ashworth attempts to place more emphasis on Cale's vocals on some songs by double-tracking them and pushing them up in the mix. But much of this is still low-key and bluesy in what was becoming Cale's patented style.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Even as "the fourth tenor" has become one of the world's most popular and renowned classical and operatic singers, Andrea Bocelli has been teasing pop fans over the years by recording brilliant duets with the likes of Celine Dion and Sarah Brightman. Who better to helm the Tuscan-born vocal giant's first pure pop album than David Foster, who has made foreign language singing all the rage by introducing the world to Josh Groban? Amore features songs from various musical eras, from the 1920s through the '80s, which Bocelli sings in his native Italian, Spanish, and French. He launches the collection with beautiful Spanish on the tender, soaring ballad "Amapola" and a graceful "Besame Mucho" before introducing his facility for French with the lush, film score-like "Les Feuilles Mortes," which becomes "Autumn Leaves." Foster then unleashes a successful Santana-styled duet approach on the singer, pairing him with Kenny G ("Mi Manchi"), a delightfully torchy Christina Aguilera (on "Somos Novios," which became "It's Impossible") and Stevie Wonder (who adds vocals and harmonica to "Canzoni Stonate"). Purists may balk at such tandems, but pop fans will be enchanted, and Foster handles the productions of these tracks with admirable restraint. Though he covers artists ranging from Edith Piaf to Luis Miguel and Frank Sinatra, the most engaging reworking is a sweet take on "Can't Help Falling in Love," which was recorded live at Lake Las Vegas. In typical Foster's tug-the-heartstrings fashion, the disc closes with Italian and English versions of the inspirational ballad "Because We Believe," but for the most part, this magical effort fully realizes its aim to become a trendsetter for romantic pop in the 2000s.© Jonathan Widran /TiVo

Power pop bands are often caught in a quandary. Their core audience praises them for their classicist approach, but if they ever want to break out into a larger audience, they have to modernize their sound, which makes their cult angry. The problem is especially difficult for bands that came of age in the early '90s, since they were weaned on not just the Beatles and Beach Boys, but also the Pixies and Sonic Youth. As a result, bands like the Dandy Warhols are restless, anxious to make catchy pop songs while keeping indie cred, and that's why their major-label debut, The Dandy Warhols Come Down, is so uneven. The band has talent for not just punchy hooks, but for layered sonics as well, but they don't know how to meld the two together. As a result, the most immediate moments on the record are awash in a sea of feedback, which can't be trance-inducing since its spell is punctured by pop hooks. And while those pop songs are good, they aren't enough to prevent Come Down from being a frustrating listen. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Philly soul staples Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes were in full swing on 1975's Wake Up Everybody. Sporting their trademark lush, string-laden production from Gamble and Huff (who also wrote about half the album's material), the smooth soul outfit delivers a mix of deep soul balladry and uptempo dance tracks. The title track, with its socially relevant messages, is a standout. There is no shortage of fine vocal performances all around, notably from Melvin and from future solo star Teddy Pendergrass.© Anthony Tognazzini /TiVo

Released in Europe in October 1994 and in the U.S. six months later, Thank You for the Music is the ABBA box set retrospective, tracing their ten years of record-making, 1972-1982, including 52 previously released tracks on the first three discs, plus a fourth disc of rarities. Listening to all the singles, plus scattered album tracks and B-sides, provides a clear picture of the group's development. Early on, there is considerable stylistic experimentation, as these pop dabblers ape everything from Phil Spector's Wall of Sound rock to big-band swing. But after "Dancing Queen," they find their niche in disco, and the second disc is loaded with hit songs anchored to the familiar bass-heavy walking beat and swooping synths-meant-to-sound-like-strings that defined that most '70s genres. On the third disc, covering their last years, ABBA returns to the more propulsive pop/rock of early classics like "SOS" and "Mamma Mia," revving up the tempo in acknowledgment of the arrival of new wave. Wracked by romantic discord, they also achieve somewhat more meaningful lyrics before calling it a day. In the album's liner notes, the bandmembers register mild protest at the inclusion of unreleased material on the fourth disc -- what they finished and liked, they released, they note. Fair warning. Most prominent in a collection of alternate takes, miscellaneous B-sides, foreign-language recordings, and TV soundtracks is the 23-and-a-half-minute "ABBA Undeleted," a medley of 15 song fragments and Swedish studio chatter that suggests ABBA had a few more hits in them if they had found the time to finish them off. Nevertheless, this remains fan-only material. [This album is not to be confused with the 1983 compilation of the same title released by Epic Records in the U.K.]© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

ABBA's second (and U.S. debut) album contains the American Top Ten title track, as well as "Honey, Honey," a minor U.S. hit that deserved better. This album is rather unusual in the group's output, however, for the fact that the guys are still featured fairly prominently in some of the vocals, and for the variety of sounds -- including reggae, folk-rock, and hard rock -- embraced by its songs. The reggae number "Sitting in the Palmtree" is quite remarkable to hear, with its perfect Caribbean beat and those radiant female voices carrying the chorus behind the beat. "King Kong Song" is a good example of hard rock by rote, going through the motions of screaming vocals and over-amplified guitar (courtesy of Janne Schaffer), although even here, when the women's voices jump in on the choruses, it's hard not to listen attentively; the quartet knew what a powerful weapon they had, but not quite how to use it. They get a little closer to their winning formula on the catchy, folky-textured pop song "Hasta Mañana," which sounds like a lost Mary Hopkin number. "Dance (While the Music Still Goes On)" is on the money as the embodiment of the Euro-disco sound that the group would embrace on their future albums, although it also hints at a vague oldies sound, with a melody that somehow reminds this listener of both the Four Seasons' "Dawn" and the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby."© Bruce Eder /TiVo

From 1981, this was J.J. Cale's sixth album (following the succinctly titled NUMBER 5, and returning to his tradition of single-word album titles). Though Cale didn't use one constant band throughout the album, it's got a remarkably unified feeling. This is in part due to the great musicians on hand (pianist Bill Payne, drummers Jim Keltner and Russ Kunkel, and guitarist James Burton among others), but primarily to Cale himself. His songs and his overal approach to music are all-encompassing; the seductive and laid-back grooves his rhythm sections empower are written into the very fabric of the songs. "Carry On," "Pack My Jack"--these are songs of simple, sturdy strengths, succinctly written and concisely rendered. There are never any stray notes or decorative filigrees. Friendly and inviting, SHADES sounds good in any season and at any time of day (and may be some of the best hangover cure music around).© TiVo