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

On Halloween night 2022, Duran Duran donned a variety of horror movie-esque costumes and performed a very special concert in Las Vegas. The setlist highlighted a selection of their spookiest songs—"Hungry Like the Wolf," "Union of the Snake" and "Shadows on Your Side"—and a bevy of darker covers. From that night sprang the hair-raising studio album Danse Macabre, a delightfully frightful celebration of the band's influences and history encompassing cover songs, choice remakes, and three originals.Most notably, Danse Macabre includes contributions from former guitarists Andy Taylor and Warren Cuccurullo as well as long-time collaborator Nile Rodgers. One of the album's highlights, the slick disco-funk throwback "Black Moonlight," even features guitar from both Taylor and Rodgers; the collision of their individual styles crackles like dynamite. Taylor also contributes majestic guitar to two other remakes of Duran originals: a doom-laden update of 1981's "Nightboat" and a gorgeous, languid version of the beloved "Union of the Snake" b-side "Secret Oktober." The latter, now called "Secret Oktober 31st," weaves ominous sound effects (an uneasy music box, creepy chimes) into the song's signature haunting vocals and gouging bass; the end result sounds like something beamed straight out of a cobweb-covered haunted mansion. Cuccurullo, meanwhile, adds Big Thing-esque guitar stabs on the title track and soul-funk riffing on "Love Voudou," the latter a slinky, string-augmented remake of 1993's "Love Voodoo." Covers-wise, Danse Macabre also sounds inspired, led by a propulsive take on Siouxsie and the Banshees’ gothic howl "Spellbound" (also a highlight of the Vegas concert), a pulsating rendition of Cerrone's electro-disco explosion "Supernature," and a groovy version of Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" featuring Måneskin bassist Victoria De Angelis. However, Danse Macabre's best cover is an adventurous interpretation of Billie Eilish's "Bury a Friend." Bolstered by darkwave synth swerves, eerie background vocals and an arrangement that amplifies the broken-marionette vibe of Eilish's original, the song is playful and macabre in equal measures. The only tune that doesn't quite work is an uneven take on the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" that feels tossed-off and unrehearsed. Make no mistake, however: Danse Macabre isn't a sequel to Duran Duran's (unfairly maligned) 1995 covers album Thank You, but a compelling collection with its own singular appeal. Just listen to the album-closing original "Confession in the Afterlife," a wistful ballad shrouded by emotional ghosts that's deeply affecting. Spine-chilling veneer aside, Danse Macabre is no tricks—and all treats. © Annie Zaleski/Qobuz

As both an accomplished collaborator and a striking solo artist, Nils Lofgren is too talented to fit into any easy category.  He began as a classical accordionist at age five, but switched to guitar later in his youth, formed the rock band Grin, and played on Neil Young's After the Goldrush. While Lofgren has also been an on-and-off member of Crazy Horse since the early '70s, he's best known for his tenure as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band—joining in 1984 for the Born in the U.S.A. Tour. Those years with Bruce are audible in a version of the Springsteen original, "Back in Your Arms," which comes complete with backing from the Howard Gospel Choir. Another mass of voices beefs up the jumpiness of "We Better Find It," a tune with musical echoes of the 1980s. "Ain't the Truth Enough," another Bruce-like number, opens the album with the emotional reach that marks the E Streeter's best work.  Charged with a thumping beat and low-end menace, "Only Ticket Out" is the doleful tale of a tortured man who "Blacked out cold in an alley/ Full of NyQuil and stale dope." Later "Won't Cry No More," which chugs along with a steady groove, is dedicated to the late Rolling Stones drummer, Charlie Watts. In "Nothin's Easy (For Amy)," Lofgren pays tribute to his titular wife who's listed as co-producer on the album: "As I walk the hurt in this world/ People searchin' with no clue/ I take comfort in one truth/ Nothin's easy 'cept you." "Dream Killer," bathed in 1980's styled reverb, showcases Lofgren's still-supple voice and continued ability to hit the high notes in each chorus. Although the lyrics he sings are sappy—"Queen of mercy heal us with your love/ Cleanse this wasted world"—he lets loose with the album's vocal highlight on the closer, "Angel Blues." Calling a musician "a pro" is high praise and few deserve that compliment more than Nils Lofgren. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

After the success on their Love It to Death album and its hit single "I'm Eighteen," Alice Cooper seemed poised to make a giant leap to the head of the hard rock class. Killer delivers on the promise and then some as it offers moments of sweaty rock & roll brilliance, oddball horror ballads, and garage rock freak outs, all wrapped up in a glammy, sleazy package. Working again with producer Bob Ezrin, the band craft a sound that's powerful and lithe with guitars that slash and snake around each other, drums and bass that provide a solid foundation but also aren't short on melody and hooks, and of course Alice Cooper's one of a kind vocals. Whether he's strutting, crooning, or going slowly insane, his voice is like the character in a movie you can't take your eyes off for a second because you might miss a small gesture or look that will shock and surprise. The one-two punch of "Under My Wheels" and "Be My Lover" is one of the great album operners of all time, both songs taking classic rock & roll tropes and giving them a evil twist with romping horns, doo wop background vocals and the kind of libertine lyrics that are guaranteed to drive parents crazy. After this, the album takes off in a variety of directions including the horror prog ballad "Dead Babies," the raucous rockers "You Drive Me Nervous" and "Yeah Yeah Yeah" that come across like Steppenwolf tracks made by real bikers, the Western gunfighter ballad "Desperado" -- which juxtaposes some lovely orchestrated strings against Cooper's croaking vocals -- and the oddly rollicking title track where Cooper does a convincing carnival barker imitation while guitarists Mike Bruce and Glen Buxton get a chance to unwind and kick up some dust. Each and every track is handled with the same kind of unbridled glee that lets the listener know the band is having a blast; it's hard not to be swept along for the ride. The album's centerpiece "Halo of Flies" is a stunning work of rock & roll that encompasses the gutter freak psych of the band's earliest work, the expansive scope of prog rock, bits of the Sound of Music, martial drum solos, very stoned blues riffing, and Cooper's alternately pleading and withering vocals. It's the work of a band who can barely control all the ideas flowing out of them, yet somehow manage to corral their energy and creativity into something epic and unique. Indeed, there was no other group quite like Alice Cooper operating in 1971 and Killer is the moment where they put all the pieces together and began to soar.© Tim Sendra /TiVo

With 1971's Killer, Alice Cooper released a classic album that encompassed psychedelia, horror movies, musicals, prog and biker rock and compressed it all into timeless nuggets of hard rock gold. It also propelled the band into the rarified upper reaches of the charts and into larger concert halls too. While the next step for most bands would be to stick the the formula and double down on the hooks in ever more commercial ways, on 1972's School's Out these weirdoes did nearly the opposite. Apart from the brilliantly, brutally dumb title track, which indeed does strip their sound down to the thrilling basics and unleashes a perfect marriage of naggingly sharp riffs, hilarious lyrics, and sneering vocals -- the album flies off weird tangents that are barely related to anything the band had done before -- and also the last thing one might expect from them. Case in point the late night jazz ballad "Blue Turk" which comes complete with a finger snapping bass line, multiple horn solos, and a lounge lizard vocal by Cooper. Granted the subject matter is the joys of necrophilia, but the music is a million miles away from what rock fans who were clamoring to hear more Killer-style rockers might expect. "Alma Mater" is another plot twist of a song; a gentle doo wop-inspired ballad that flips the sentiments of the title track on their head as Cooper nostalgically laments his impending matriculation in tones that almost come across as earnest. These pale in the weirdness stakes next to "Gutter Cat vs The Jets," a loping. light-hearted tale of cool cats that morphs into a high-kicking version of "Jet Song" from West Side Story. Alongside these oddball gems, the band sounds locked in on the rockers like the piano-led "My Stars" and the happily vicious "Public Enemy #9"as well as suitably theatrical on "Luny Tunes" a deceptively melodic and orchestrated song about being locked up in the psychiatric ward. All these songs, and the album itself, have a light and almost swinging underpinning, almost nothing rocks as hard as Killer, some of it isn't even rock at all. Half the joy to be derived from listening to School's Out is to marvel at how daringly the band took all the goodwill they had engendered to this point and blew up their just barely established template in fascinating, aolmost reckless ways. The end result is a bewildering, impressively contrary album that's a glorious kiss off to expectations while also showing the band's range and ambition in glorious technicolor.© Tim Sendra /TiVo

Taj Mahal has released many kinds of albums in a six-decade career: folk, jump, country, blues of all stripes, sounds from Africa, the Caribbean, R&B, soul, collaborations with musicians from across the globe, and even children's records. Savoy moves in another direction still. Recorded in collaboration with producer, pianist, and longtime friend John Simon, this set offers blues-kissed reads of 14 tunes from the Great American Songbook. The album is titled as an homage to the iconic Harlem ballroom at 596 Lenox Ave. Mahal's parents met there in 1938 seeing Ella Fitzgerald front the Chick Webb Orchestra. Simon and Mahal discussed the project for decades, but August 2022 was when the planets aligned. They cut the set live with a core band and guests. Mahal's band includes guitarist Danny Caron, bassist Ruth Davies, Simon on piano, drummer Leon Joyce, Jr., and a vocal chorus with Carla Holbrook, Leesa Humphrey, and Charlotte McKinnon. Interestingly, Caron and Davies served in Charles Brown's band, and Joyce drummed with Ramsey Lewis for many years. "Stompin' at the Savoy" starts with spoken word; Mahal delivers a reenactment of his parents' meeting. As he commences singing and scatting the lyrics, backing singers underscore with oohs, aahs, and call-and-response. "I'm Just a Lucky So-and-So" is one of three Duke Ellington numbers here. The languid horn section plays a blues progression with added warmth and grace from Kristen Strom's swinging flute. The arrangement of George Gershwin's "Summertime" is delivered allegretto, with blue, finger-popping swing from lush horns. "Mood Indigo" benefits from co-producer Manny Moreira's accumulated years of big band and Broadway experience. His layered brass colorations add dimension. "Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me" offers languid, late-night horns (except in the bridge when they deliberately evoke gospel), and Simon's tasteful comping adds drama. The fluid blues guitar break from Caron benefits with elegance and bite. "Sweet Georgia Brown" is meaty and sprightly as Mahal's grainy singing and scatting contrasts beautifully with Evan Price's "Parisian hot jazz" violin. Maria Muldaur -- one of the great interpreters of vintage blues, jazz, R&B, and country -- joins Mahal on the fun, sultry "Baby It's Cold Outside," with excellent violin, trombone, and piano solos. "Caldonia," Louis Jordan's striding jump boogie, offers pumping piano, swinging guitar, and smoking sax and trombone solos behind Mahal's good-time vocal. His harmonica joins Strom's tenor sax to elevate in Benny Golson's dynamic "Killer Joe," before "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)" closes the set. Mahal references several classic versions and arrangements in shifting tempos, but he ultimately only sounds like himself. Savoy embodies the abundant joy of its predecessor, Get On Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, but the album offers added nuance, color, dynamics, and musical sophistication. It seemingly accomplishes the impossible by taking these (overly) familiar standards and breathing new life into them while simultaneously honoring their legacies as well as that of the historic Harlem ballroom. © Thom Jurek /TiVo

Killer Mike would rather be contradictory than one-dimensional: he's advocated for both socialist causes and self-sufficient Black capitalism, campaigned for progressive icon Bernie Sanders and broken bread with conservative Georgia governor Brian Kemp, and seems constantly torn—on and off the mic—between opening haters' minds and putting their brains to sleep. But with Michael, the Atlanta rapper's most personal and autonomously definitive album since his solo debut Monster 20 years earlier, the son of a policeman father and a mother who trafficked cocaine navigates the more personal and formative influences in his life that led him to his status as an outspoken one-man multitude. Mike reveals himself as someone whose upfront lyrical frankness and high-displacement-muscle-car-V8-engine of a voice belies deeper complications in his perspective—an ongoing process that reckons with the burden of what he owes people. For his mother and grandmother, both deceased and paid moving tribute to in "Motherless," what he owes is everything—his empathy, his insight, his ability to be a strong parent. For his detractors, "Talkin Dat SHIT!" owes them a verbal beating, not just invoking but channeling Three 6 Mafia and UGK as he personifies the G-as-activist ("you a leech, I'm a leader"). He gives his musical collaborators—Andre 3000 and Future elevating the next-phase utopianism of "Scientists & Engineers," Young Thug wringing both impassioned intensity and reflective quiet to his triplet flow on "RUN," El-P holding forth like a welcome guest in his Run the Jewels partner's home on "Don't Let the Devil"—the kind of free reign that only comes with the confidence of a vet who doesn't fear or even care about the possibility of being shown up. The production by No I.D. plays to the church pews, scoring straight-up sermons before driving souls to the polls, and the Chicago beatmaker's gospel/R&B inflections are just Atlanta enough to complete what few locally rooted details Mike leaves out. And what does Mike owe himself? Going by the impassioned soul-searching of "Shed Tears," the answer is a reckoning, a catharsis, an acknowledgement of the pain that made him even when it hurts to recall. Mike has stayed angry enough to challenge power and idealistic enough to believe those in power can be moved by his presence—but with a presence like his, it's not easy to doubt him. © Nate Patrin/Qobuz

Boosted by an extended rollout that was prolonged by a global pandemic, Vancouver alt-metal outfit Spiritbox made their grand entrance onto the metal main stage with their chart-topping debut full-length, Eternal Blue. Home to the radio hit "Holy Roller," the LP is a nu-metal-meets-djent riff-fest that balances vocalist Courtney LaPlante's vocal gymnastics -- which veer from angelic highs to visceral lows -- with the band's wall of muscle. While late-era Evanescence is definitely a touchstone, fans of TesseracT, Deftones, and Meshuggah will have plenty to enjoy, especially with tracks such as the swirling "Circle with Me" and the haunted title track. Upon release, the set topped the U.S. Rock charts and debuted just outside the overall Top Ten.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

The stalwart Atlanta metalers' 14th long-player and first outing with Napalm Records, Truth Killer sees Sevendust play to their strengths with a streamlined collection of songs that find the sweet spot between melody and aggression. Bolstered by the punchy, nu-metal bangers "Fence" and "Everything," the expansive 12-track set finds the band sharpening their sound with tastefully executed electronic elements while maintaining the soulful heaviness that has been at their core since the early 2000s.© James Christopher Monger /TiVo

Having apparently exorcised his demons by releasing the cathartic Tonight's the Night, Neil Young returned to his commercial strengths with Zuma (named after Zuma Beach in Los Angeles, where he now owned a house). Seven of the album's nine songs were recorded with the reunited Crazy Horse, in which rhythm guitarist Frank Sampedro had replaced the late Danny Whitten, but there were also nods to other popular Young styles in "Pardon My Heart," an acoustic song that would have fit on Harvest, his most popular album, and "Through My Sails," retrieved from one of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's abortive recording sessions. Young had abandoned the ragged, first-take approach of his previous three albums, but Crazy Horse would never be a polished act, and the music had a lively sound well-suited to the songs, which were some of the most melodic, pop-oriented tunes Young had crafted in years, though they were played with an electric-guitar-drenched rock intensity. The overall theme concerned romantic conflict, with lyrics that lamented lost love and sometimes longed for a return ("Pardon My Heart" even found Young singing, "I don't believe this song"), though the overall conclusion, notably in such catchy songs as "Don't Cry No Tears" and "Lookin' for a Love," was to move on to the next relationship. But the album's standout track (apparently the only holdover from an early intention to present songs with historical subjects) was the seven-and-a-half-minute epic "Cortez the Killer," a commentary on the Spanish conqueror of Latin America that served as a platform for Young's most extensive guitar soloing since his work on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Released in October 1977, the essential anthology Decade (a triple vinyl album back then!) gives a detailed overview of Neil Young’s work between 1966 and 1976. In 35 titles (including 6 unreleased pieces), the Loner’s genius bursts out for all to see. Mostly solo, but also with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills and Nash, this collection particularly shows that this decade was his most fascinating. Building on masterfully written songs, Neil Young mixes rock, folk and country with great originality for the time. In both ballads and much meaner songs, his style is like fireworks. He is most likely the most original artist of his generation. One that never shies away from questioning himself either. Novices can start climbing the mountain of his works with this five-star compilation record, before digging deeper, one album at a time. © MZ/Qobuz

Recorded just before the band began cranking out their earliest hits on classic albums like Lovedrive and Animal Magnetism, Virgin Killer is the first of four studio releases that really defined the Scorpions and their urgent metallic sound that was to become highly influential. While there are no tracks recognizable to the casual fan like "Blackout" and "Another Piece of Meat," on Virgin Killer, serious fans of the group treasure this 1977 collection. Some all-time Scorpions standouts like "Pictured Life" and the title cut have all the necessary guitar chops and fierce falsetto melodies to get even the most jaded heavy metal old-timer teary eyed with nostalgia. Perhaps Virgin Killer isn't as focused as the brilliant Lovedrive or as tuneful as either Animal Magnetism or Blackout, but the group's trademark enthusiasm (the single element that separated and defined them, especially during the occasionally over-serious days of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal) and dexterity shines through on this near-historic heavy metal collection.© Vincent Jeffries /TiVo

In 1997, after helping define ’90s Britpop, Blur unexpectedly embraced American indie rock. Led by guitarist Graham Coxon's love of artists like Dinosaur Jr. and Beck, the band took cues from the former's trembling lo-fi aesthetic on "You're So Great" (the rare track sung by Coxon) and the latter's early laconic weirdness on songs "Killer for Your Love" and "Country Sad Ballad Man." But even if you take the boys out of Brittania, you can't take the national influences out of the band. Opener "Beetlebum", a dreamy ode to drugs, comes on like a lost late-era Beatles track. "M.O.R." slips and slides with Pavement-style guitar but also lifts a chord progression right from Bowie’s "Boys Keep Swinging", while "Strange News From Another Star" is Sebadoh by way of Ziggy Stardust. But it's "Song 2" that steals the show; with its rip-roaring bass line, Damon Albarn’s deadpan-to-shout vocals, fuzzed-out guitars and compulsive "Whoo-hoo!" it’s an immediate classic. © Qobuz

Following the death of Avenged Sevenfold drummer James “The Reverend” Sullivan in 2009, the band marched on, enlisting the help of Sullivan’s drumming hero, Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy, for their fifth studio album Nightmare. Luckily, the sound of the band remains unchanged, and as one of the best drummers in the business, Portnoy picks up the reigns and rides the Deathbat's double kick in complete synchronicity with Gates, Christ, and Vengeance. Like their previous outings, the group incorporates a New Wave of British Heavy Metal influence throughout Nightmare while paying tribute to ‘80s hair metal with guitar god appeal; but playing retroactive music doesn’t seem to concern them, as long as they play it more skillfully than their forefathers. The group’s influences may be worn on their sleeves, (check out the chugging Metallica "One" breakdown in “Buried Alive,” or the Queensrÿche-style power-ballad “Victim”), but there is no denying that they have some of the best chops in the metal world. Songs shift from their trademark blistering assault to Black album ballads on a dime; M. Shadows continually amazes with his vocal acrobatics, and the opening riff of "Natural Born Killer" ramps up to an inhuman speed. "Save Me" ends the album as one of their most epic songs to date, in a proper 21 gun salute, as thunderous blasts and guitar divebombs interweave into a melodic, heartfelt “Tonight we all die young!” outro. It's a fitting tribute for their fallen 28-year-old comrade, and excellent proof of the band's ability. However, as great as Nightmare's finale is, the Alice Cooper-gone-blue “it’s your fuckin’ nightmare!” chorus on the title track is too cliché to be excused.© Jason Lymangrover /TiVo