A half-century into their career, synth-pop provocateurs Ron and Russell Mael—now 77 and 74 years old—are as funny, arch and deservingly influential as they've always been. "The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte," the title track of their twenty-fifth album is lush and robust; as Cate Blanchett, who stars in the accompanying video, has said: "You know, 'the girl is crying in her latte'—it's so deep and shallow, simultaneously." "Is it due to the rain/ Or is she in some pain ... The girl is crying in her latte, yeah," Russell sings. "Now she's leaving the place/ Someone's taking her place/ Orders, then takes a seat/ Looks like it's a repeat ... So many people are crying in their latte." And that's the sort of complementary push-pull the brothers have always trafficked in: highbrow-lowbrow, humorous-sad, pop-niche. They're also genius observers of the world and fantastic imagineers of some world that maybe excited decades ago (or maybe just in their heads). "It's Sunny Today" catalogs all the things you could do on a gorgeous day—to the tune of Christmastime luxury-car commercial strings. Gleeful in the way of  "I Predict" off 1982's Angst in my Pants, "Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is" applies New Wave pop to the narrative of an already world-weary newborn ready to return to the womb ("Were I born in the south of France/ I would feel less resistant to/ Somewhere that just deserves adieu," go the lyrics, like the caption to a New Yorker cartoon). Set to percolating synth, "Veronica Lake"—the latest in a long line of Sparks' cinematic references—is a garishly funny tale of women on WWII assembly lines whose Hollywood dreams get in the way of Rosie the Riveter reality: "And they all want to be Veronica Lake/ But that peek-a-boo hair, it's a big mistake/ As the foreman has to yell, 'put on the brake'/ Yet another girl caught/ Veronica Lake." "Not That Well-Defined" swirls with the rich darkness of balalaika, "We Go Dancing" is manic ballet theater, and "Take Me for a Ride" is Hitchcockian unhinged. Chanty "The Mona Lisa's Packing, Leaving Late Tonight" churns and sways as if on the high seas. And "When You Leave" is deliciously, wormishly defiant. "They'll be breaking out the good music when you leave/ The Stylistics ... the Delfonics ... There'll be red wine on all the carpets when you leave ... They can't wait," Russell sings, before adopting a lighter voice in response:  "I'm going to stay/ Just to annoy them." It all ends with the troubadour surprise of "It Doesn't Have to Be That Way" and melodramatic "Gee, That Was Fun"—mashing up "My Way" and "Bohemian Rhapsody"-style pomp for what could be read as a grateful career retrospective. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Two generations. Two styles. Two voices. And an album in common… For about twenty years, crooner Tony Bennett and singer and pianist Diana Krall had produced a few duos here and there, but never an entire album. With this Love Is Here To Stay, they jumped right in and involved another five-star tandem in their enchanted parenthesis of refined vocal jazz: George and Ira Gershwin. They went digging through the vast repertoire of the most famous brothers of 20th American popular music to create this album that seems from another time, produced with the trio of impeccable pianist Bill Charlap, Peter Washington on the double bass and Kenny Washington on drums… Tackling the Great American Songbook is always a redeeming and almost necessary baptism of fire for any worthy jazz singer. And these two didn’t wait for 2018 to do it. Here, each one excels in what they do best, even if, at 92 years of age, Tony Bennett obviously doesn’t have the same organ as he did when he sung I Left My Heart In San Francisco, which made him popular in 1962. Sinatra’s favourite singer knows it, and manages to find a range in line with his vocal condition. The result is particularly touching. A great professional, Diana Krall adapted her singing to the New Yorker, turning their exchanges into endearing, slightly retro flirting. The 38 years between them become the main asset of an old-fashioned yet delightful album. © Clotilde Maréchal/Qobuz

During the late '50s, Ella Fitzgerald continued her Song Book records with Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book, releasing a series of albums featuring 59 songs written by George and Ira Gershwin. Those songs, plus alternate takes, were combined on a four-disc box set, Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book, in 1998. These performances are easily among Fitzgerald's very best, and for any serious fan, this is the ideal place to acquire the recordings, since the sound and presentation are equally classy and impressive.© Leo Stanley /TiVo

The highest-charting Christian album on the Billboard charts since 2006, Awake could be tagged as Skillet's mainstream breakthrough on that fact alone. Certainly, the band's monster modern rock does sound like it could slip onto an active rock playlist -- maybe not quite in 2009, but earlier in the decade, when metallic rockers heavy on the guitar downstrokes and power ballads with chant-along vocals were relatively common. That's not to say that Skillet sound out-of-step with the times -- there's still a gleam to the Howard Benson production that sounds modern -- and they do mange to imprint their own identity on this sometimes generic brand of contemporary rock, thanks to their communal vocals, with male and female voices trading off and skyscraper hooks. Skillet also don't always focus solely on religion, as many of their songs are grounded in inspirational positivity, so that's another reason why Awake finds the band poised to break into the mainstream.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Dig Me Out pushes Riot Grrrl out of the basement and onto rock ’n’ roll's main stage. Clocking in at under 37 minutes, the album has two gears: intense and more intense. Carrie Brownstein's stinging guitars (as inspired by classic rock as art punk), Corin Tucker's gale-force wail and Janet Weiss's monster drums veer deceptively close to mania on songs like the title track and "It's Enough" but are actually tense, tight and totally in control. "Turn It On" is a masterpiece of dynamics; an ascending squall drops to a low rumble and then flies into a frenzy. Instead of harmonies, Brownstein and Tucker stick to conversation, offering push-and pull sides of a breakup on "One More Hour" and an ironic examination of women's work on "Little Babies." “It’s everything,” Tucker spits on “Not What You Want,” and it truly is — the sound and fury of a young band at the height of their power. © Qobuz

Note: tracks 13, 15 and 18 are not available in 24-bit, you should download the album through your Qobuz application for PC / Mac.  In the midst of Eighties synths there arises an atypical soulful voice. At the head of the Fine Young Cannibals, Roland Gift is a crooner with a nasal but fascinating falsetto. Backed by two former members of the excellent Birmingham ska band The Beat (guitarist Andy Cox and bassist David Steele), this artist, who also made his debut in a ska band (Akrylykz), offers a kind of hybrid soul of silky pop, smooth jazz and elegant rock. 31 years after its release, The Raw & the Cooked, their second and no-less-classy album resurfaces in remastered form in 24bit Hi-Res augmented by B-sides, demos and remixes. Hard not to think of Prince as soon as the catchy She Drives Me Crazy opens the record, especially since this single was recorded at Paisley Park, the studio of the funkster of Minneapolis and, that one of his acolytes, David Z, produced. Tight and effective rock 'n' soul groove can be found on most other tracks. As with the self-titled debut album that Fine Young Cannibals had released four years earlier and reissued at the same time, the very 80's rhythm – elastic drums and plastic drum box – is sometimes a bit outdated but never undermines the coherence of the record and the strength of the writing. The minimalist hip hop beat of I'm Not the Man I Used to Be shows that the trio also knows how to break the mould and even confound their fans’ expectations, as on the surprising cover of the punk anthem Ever Fallen In Love by Buzzcocks, re-done here for the dancefloor. To rediscover, urgently. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

A major pop star in Scandinavia, Lisa Ekdahl was 24 when she attempted to sing straight-ahead jazz on the consistently weak When Did You Leave Heaven, which was her first release in the U.S. and her first all-English recording. The Swedish singer's thin, girlish, mousy voice might work on bubblegum pop, but it's hardly appropriate for standards like "Cry Me a River" and "I'm a Fool to Want You." Ekdahl tries to emulate Billie Holiday, although the disc ends up sounding more like Paula Abdul with a Scandinavian accent making an ill-advised attempt at acoustic jazz. Especially embarrassing is her version of "Lush Life" -- this is a song that even 35-year-old singers shy away from because they don't feel they've done enough living, and Ekdahl gives no indication that she has the type of depth needed to sing this Billy Strayhorn classic convincingly. As many gifted jazz singers as Sweden had in the late 1990s (including Jeanette Lindström and Lina Nyberg), it's most regrettable that RCA Victor chose to record someone who should have stuck to commercial pop.© Alex Henderson /TiVo

If Rich Machin and Ian Glover were aiming for a dark, moody vibe on their debut album as Soulsavers, 2003's Tough Guys Don't Dance, they hit the jackpot when they persuaded Mark Lanegan to lend his vocal talents to their second full-length project, It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land. While the downbeat atmosphere of Soulsavers' languid drum loops, spare keyboard patterns, and ghostly string samples certainly set the stage for their celebration of the dark night of the soul, Lanegan's vocals steal the show and run with it on the opening track, "Revival," and if anything he pulls the songs into even deeper and more forbidding territory as the album goes along. The quiet desperation of Lanegan's performance on "Spiritual," the ragged menace of "Ghosts of You and Me" and the blasted, forlorn resignation of "No Expectations" rank with his finest recorded work to date, and as strong as the musical backdrops are on this set, it's all but impossible to imagine these songs being nearly as effective with anyone else as lead singer. It's also worth noting that the most effective songs on this album happen to be covers, suggesting that while Soulsavers have no small talent as producers and arrangers, they have a ways to go in terms of writing material. But if Lanegan takes the spotlight away from Machin and Glover on It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land, they unquestionably gave him a remarkable vehicle for his vocal skills, and it would certainly be to the advantage of both sides for Soulsavers and Lanegan to collaborate again some day. © Mark Deming /TiVo