For this third and final part of The Lord of the Rings (released in 2003 and adapted from Tolkien’s famous book), Howard Shore once again benefited from the exceptional opportunity to create 3h50m of music, which covers 90% of the film! Other than the London Philharmonic Orchestra, there is a wide variety of choirs and prestigious soloists. The latter are sometimes even actors in the films: The Green Dragon is an Irish-inspired tune, performed by the actor Billy Boyd, a.k.a. Pippin. Other soloists (both actors and not) include the famous flautist James Galway, as well as Viggo Mortensen and Renée Fleming. All three are present in The Fellowship Reunited.On the instrumental side of things, we hear several leitmotifs, some of which are already known (and sometimes developed), others completely new. One of the most beautiful phrases related to the ring appears in the first track, Roots and Beginnings, and evokes Richard Wagner's own ring theme from the opera Der Ring des Nibelungen. The simplicity of this short melodic phrase (only nine notes long) shows that Howard Shore wanted to personify the ring and not the stakes that it represents. Far from the strange calm of this music, we also encounter more epic, even horrific pieces, such as the amazing Shelob's Lair. Howard Shore is David Cronenberg's appointed composer, and in this respect, an undeniable specialist in the field. Finally, it’s worth listening to the majestic song Into the West as the closing credits roll, with Annie Lennox on mic. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz

The Sacrament of Sin is the seventh studio album from German power-metal outfit Powerwolf and follows their 2015 release Blessed & Possessed. Recorded at the beginning of 2018 at the Fascination Street Studios in Örebrö, Sweden with producer Jens Bogren (Amon Amarth, Opeth), the album sees the group deliver a collection of bold, anthemic power metal in their trademark style.© Rich Wilson /TiVo

Reading about the power inherent in Robert Johnson's music is one thing, but actually experiencing it is another matter entirely. The official 1998 edition of the original 1961 album was certainly worth the wait, remastered off the best quality original 78s available, of far superior quality to any of the source materials used on even the 1991 box set. Johnson's guitar takes on a fullness never heard on previous reissues, and except for a nagging hiss in spots on "Terraplane Blues" (the equalization on this disc is extreme, to even sport some minute turntable rumble in the low end), this really brings his music alive. If there is such a thing as a greatest-hits package available on Johnson, this landmark album, which jump-started the whole '60s blues revival, would certainly be the one. The majority of Johnson's best-known tunes, the ones that made the legend, are all aboard: "Crossroads," "Walkin' Blues," "Me & the Devil Blues," "Come On In My Kitchen," and the apocalyptic visions contained in "Hellhound On My Trail" are the blues at its finest, the lyrics sheer poetry. And making its first appearance anywhere is a newly discovered (in 1998) alternate take of "Traveling Riverside Blues" that's appended to the original 16-track lineup. If you are starting your blues collection from the ground up, be sure to make this your very first purchase.© Cub Koda /TiVo

Pet Shop Boys followed the release of 1993's Very (their only album to top the U.K. charts) with their third world tour, which brought them to Australia, Singapore, and Latin America for the first time. A particularly electric concert in Rio de Janeiro was filmed by a local television crew and released on VHS and Laserdisc as Discovery: Live in Rio in 1995. Inspired by the vibrancy of New York City nightlife, the duo focused the tour on uptempo dance songs, and embraced spontaneity more than they did on their earlier tours, which were more staged and theatrical. They're joined on-stage by a quartet of free-spirited dancers, a pair of percussionists, and charismatic backing singer Katie Kissoon. The energy is more than reciprocated by the audience, who scream, cheer, and sing along throughout the entire show. The arrangements totally embrace the type of hyper-glitzy Euro-dance which was everywhere at the time, and older singles like "Always on My Mind" and "Domino Dancing" sound absolutely huge. Early B-side "Paninaro" is given a reggae-disco remake, sounding even more charged-up than the version released as a single around the same time as Discovery. Elsewhere, PSB nod to several then-current dance hits -- the crowd goes wild when "One in a Million" slides into Culture Beat's "Mr. Vain," as well as the medley of "Left to My Own Devices" and Corona's glorious "Rhythm of the Night." They also perform Blur's cheeky alt-dance classic "Girls & Boys," which they had previously remixed, fully transforming an already PSB-indebted song into one of their own. Wisely, the duo know when to dial the energy down a notch from time to time, so that everyone involved avoids the risk of short circuiting and burning out. In this manner, even "West End Girls" feels like a bit of a comedown. Joking that they were never asked to appear on MTV Unplugged, they offer largely acoustic versions of "Rent" and "Suburbia," which only leave more room for the crowd to shout along. Of course, there's no way they couldn't do this show without ending it with a bang, and the final sequence includes "I Will Survive" into "It's a Sin," an Olympic-sized "Go West," and of course the poignant fan favorite "Being Boring." Long confined to obsolete formats, Discovery was given a long-overdue CD/DVD reissue in 2021.© Paul Simpson /TiVo

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Appearing a year after Lee "Scratch" Perry's death at the age of 85, King Scratch is the late musician's first posthumous anthology, though far from his first compilation issued by Trojan Records. The collection mainly focuses on Perry's work from the '60s and '70s, from early rocksteady singles (like his own "People Funny Boy," a vicious putdown of former employer Joe Gibbs, and Upsetters tracks like "Return of Django") to productions from his legendary Black Ark studio, with only a taste of his later output at the end of the set. For the most part, the compilation concentrates on songs Perry produced for other artists rather than dub versions and experiments, with a large percentage being concise 7" single mixes, and only a handful constituting extended 12" versions or album cuts. A considerable amount of Perry's best-known productions is on here, with many of them included in rare or previously unreleased mixes largely unheard outside of Jamaica. These include undisputed timeless classics like Susan Cadogan's "Hurt So Good" (a Top Five hit in the U.K.) and Junior Murvin's "Police and Thieves" appearing in a 12" mix accompanied by DJ Jah Lion. Similarly, Max Romeo's "Chase the Devil" (known to ravers for being sampled by the Prodigy on the 1992 single "Out of Space") leads into Perry's truly wild "Disco Devil," which dunks the same rhythm in a vat of acidic distortion and echo. The two songs included by the Congos originate from the same time period as the 1977 opus Heart of the Congos, a truly visionary fusion of Rastafarian roots lyrics and Perry's otherworldly sonics, though neither track appeared on the original album. The final stretch of the compilation concentrates on solo Scratch, including late-era Black Ark recordings like "Bafflin' Smoke Signal," then ending with two cuts that appeared on Trojan-issued albums from the early 2000s. A warped take on Bob Marley's "Exodus," here included in a rare 7" mix, and the title track to the Grammy-winning Jamaican E.T. demonstrate the hallmarks of Scratch's later work, from his inimitable creaky vocals and free-associative wordplay to his still-unconventional approach to production, with multiple voices and strange, ear-catching noises layered in the mix. It would be nearly impossible to compile a truly definitive anthology of Perry's daunting body of work -- even an exhaustive dozen-disc box would likely miss some essentials and leave several corners of his discography untouched. That said, King Scratch's format, focusing mostly on singles while including numerous rare and alternate versions, makes it both an ideal starting point for novices as well as a must for longtime fans, not unlike 1997's vital Arkology. [In addition to the standard double-CD and streaming edition and a truncated double LP, King Scratch was also issued as a massive box set consisting of four LPs and four CDs, with no overlapping material, and a 50-page book.]© Paul Simpson /TiVo

A beautiful and varied selection of Easter choral music on its new album under the direction of Daniel Hyde. "Now the green blade riseth" is a procession through time and history, with music rooted in ancient Gregorian chant all the way through to contemporary works charting the course of Holy Week and Easter. The album presents not only a rich variety of choral music but a demonstration of the flexibility and agility of the Choir of King’s College: Daniel Hyde conducts the Choir in music from the golden age of English polyphony (Byrd’s Civitas) and the era of Italian grand opera (Rossini’s O salutaris Hostia), as well Victorian, Edwardian and mid-twentieth century choral masterpieces. A selection of popular Easter hymns structures the programme, which culminates in Duruflé’s stunning transcription of Tournemire’s Choral Improvisation sur le "Victimæ paschali", performed by Matthew Martin on the King’s College organ. © King's College Recordings

Pianist Darrell Grant showcases some of neo-bop's strengths on this ambitious two-disc set from Origin Records. Looking back to the bop era for inspiration, Grant also astutely mixes in classical elements, folk themes, flirts with light R&B, and walks surely and boldly into pop territory, all through a bop lens from the vantage point of the 21st century. Working with guitarists Bill Frisell and Adam Rogers, saxophonist Steve Wilson, vibist Joe Locke, drummer Brian Blade, and bassist John Patitucci, Grant balances trio, quartet, and quintet settings with a handful of vocal pieces (Grant sounds a bit like a slightly cautious Keb' Mo' when he sings, which is actually kind of endearing) into a loosely constructed suite that rose out of Grant's close study of the cultural and political struggles in South Africa. Adding to the recurrent themes of hope and freedom that emerge here are several spoken word samples from the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, John Kennedy, and Franklin D. Roosevelt that are carefully woven into the sequence at key points. That it all works is a testament to Grant's ability to balance accessibility with purpose, and Truth and Reconciliation, although it has a theme and several urgent points to make, never sounds like a treatise and avoids pretension somehow, even though it includes two versions of Sting's "King of Pain." Grant also visits Dizzy Gillespie's "Algo Bueno" here, along with Betty Carter's "Tight" (one of the best single tracks on Truth and Reconciliation, along with the sweeping "Blues for the Masters"), Jerome Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight," and a surprisingly effective treatment of Sheryl Crow's "I Shall Believe." Grant has constructed an approach to jazz and bop that is capable of being all things to all camps while still pursing his own creative and personal exploration, and this balancing act over what can be incredibly thin ice is a pretty impressive achievement. Grant is inquisitive, likeable, and skilled, and so is Truth and Reconciliation.© Steve Leggett /TiVo

Another very solid, early-'70s outing.© Bill Dahl /TiVo