Moving from punk to symphonic music, even if it takes thirty years, isn’t something just anyone can do. Especially if, along the way, you zig-zag between techno, house, rock, ambient and even punk revival (with the album Animal Rights in 1997).  In 2021, Moby is still twisting and turning to avoid any and all labels that people might try to stick on him. The man who has become the image of the stereotypical "bedroom producer" is once again taking the world by storm with this collaborative album of covers featuring the likes of Gregory Porter, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Mark Lanegan, Víkingur Ólafsson and the Budapest Art Orchestra. What's more, this album is being released with the most prestigious of classical music labels: Deutsche Grammophon.  It all started in 2018, when Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel took Moby to see the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This concert took him back to his childhood days, when he was raised on classical music. It reminded him of the ability that orchestras have of expressing nuance, depth, and emotions in much greater detail than a pop song can. And we have to pay tribute to the talent of the Budapest Art Orchestra, which successfully reframes Moby's radio hits. Natural Blues takes on an unsuspected breadth, thanks to the ensemble's backing vocals and Gregory Porter's soulful voice. Jim James' contribution renders Porcelain more poignant than ever.On Go, the Hungarian string section does most of the work, lending the song an even more epic quality. For the soaring, serene rendition of Heroes, a tribute to his personal hero David Bowie, Moby invites his favourite singing partner, Mindy Jones, with whom he has worked on Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt and Innocent.  The Lonely Night also deserves special mention. The deep and comforting timbre of Kris Kristofferson’s voice makes this a perfect song for evenings by the fireside. It is just one more stylistic innovation in an album that's stuffed full of them. Despite the star-studded cast and the emotional richness of the material, this track sees Moby enjoying the simple things. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

After Reprise, which revisited its greatest hits in 2021 with the Budapest Art Orchestra string quartet, Moby is diving back into its archives for this new album with Deutsche Grammophon. It's not just any old music, however: “I made a point of only selecting music that was written or recorded in New York.” Once again, it is a question of taking pieces from his catalogue and transposing them into the orchestral world. It is here that we can see the importance of having a label like Deutsche Grammophon; they sent a chamber ensemble to the studio and managed to include a great cast of guests. In particular we find the American star Gregory Porter on In My Heart, as well as the Australian rocker Dougy Mandagi of The Temper Trap on a very classy version of Extreme Ways, which is taken from his 2002 ‘18’ album and also on the soundtrack to the famous film series Jason Bourne. The version of South Side with Ricky Wilson (Kaiser Chiefs) is noteworthy too; Gwen Stefani featured on the original. A Moby gala! © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

The new GoGo Penguin has arrived! The iconoclastic Mancunian combo (piano, bass, drums, and electronic sounds) was first noticed by Blue Note, who are forever on the lookout for “jazz-ish” groups to expand their audience; however, their dream was not to emerge unscathed. During the pandemic, the group separated from the great house to join XXIM Records, one of Sony Masterworks’ labels and this major company’s classical/jazz stable. Another change: the departure (amicably, it is said) of drummer, Rob Turner.To replace him, the pianist Chris Illingworth and bassist Nick Blacka turned to Jon Scott, who played with the Kairos 4tet and Mulatu Astatke, aka the godfather of ethio-jazz. We do end up finding a little less jazz on this sixth album, however. It instead offers short pieces that veer towards a more ambient and contemplative sound (the comforting Glimmerings opening), and cinema soundtracks, i.e., You're Stronger Than You Think , culminating with Parasite, an instrumental medley that gets carried away. It plays like a lounge jam session while the children sleep soundly upstairs. Elegant and cinematic, the GoGo Penguins’ music has, despite some turmoil, lost nothing of its feel-good nature. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

The companion albums Carly Rae Jepsen issues shortly after her major releases don't just give her fans more music to love -- they let her go beyond the boundaries of the works that spawned them. On The Loveliest Time, she turns the title of The Loneliest Time, and its heartache, on its head. Jepsen can't stay down for too long, and aside from her moody, string-laden acknowledgment of former loves on "Put It to Rest," she embodies the joy she was searching for on her previous album. She's got a song for just about every kind of love: With its skipping rhythm and breathy vocals, "Weekend Love" lives up to its name. When shouting from rooftops isn't enough, there's "Stadium Love," where she backs the head-over-heels choruses with arena-sized beats and a sizzling guitar solo. Though Jepsen is known for her songs about love at first sight, she's getting her groove back on the slinky, whispery disco of "Shy Boy," one of The Loveliest Time's brightest highlights -- and one of her sexiest songs yet. She balances gorgeous, heart-tugging pop songs like the Rostam Batmanglij-produced "Shadow" and "After Last Night" with more daring moves like "Anything to Be with You." A fresh-sounding mix of hip-hop-tinged beats, spiky guitars, and saxophone, it's a reminder of how good she sounds when she steps outside of her '70s- and '80s-inspired comfort zone. As much as she changes things up, Jepsen always has one foot on the dancefloor, and The Loveliest Time boasts some of her most kinetic songs in some time. She injects synth pop drama into "Kamikaze" and delivers blissful filter disco with "Psychedelic Switch," one of many moments on the album where she makes The Loneliest Time's fantasies come to life. Never less than sweet and engaging, The Loveliest Time may not be as ambitious as its predecessor, but when it comes to Jepsen's lighter-than-air pop, it just might be more consistent.© Heather Phares /TiVo

What is more magical than a Christmas album by a trio of female singers who execute close harmony to perfection? Briefly, close harmony is a singing technique in which the voices are very close to one another and remain confined to a single octave. In this regard, The Puppini Sisters are heiresses in a long and prestigious line of vocal music groups, the most famous undoubtedly being The Andrews Sisters, a trio who entertained Americans in the dark years of the 1940s. The Puppini Sisters took the same comforting approach when they conceived this album, recorded in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, or more precisely, during the 2020 holiday season. For Marcella Puppini, the group’s founder, this record, exclusively available on Qobuz, wasn’t solely about the music: “It was about reaching out and touching the hearts of our fans when they needed it the most. The joy we received in return was the best Christmas gift we could ask for.” Recorded in front of a live audience (reduced to follow safety measures) at Premises Studios in London, this album consists of classic, essential Christmas songs, from “Jingle Bells” to “Let It Snow”, “O Holy Night”, and many in between. Such a selection, paired with this vocal technique, inevitably immerses us into waters that are decidedly retro. The British trio revisits the past with sparkling enthusiasm, and sometimes, a touch of irony. To this end, the mischievous Puppini Sisters have also chosen more unexpected tracks, like George Michael’s “Last Christmas”, to which they bring a delightfully jazzy sensuality. They have also made sure to give a nod to Marcella’s Italian roots, covering “Ba Ba Baciami”, a bouncy foxtrot created in 1940 by Roman Alberto Rabagliati. Accompanied by a piano, an accordion, a bass, and, obviously, bells, The Puppini Sisters recreate the spirit of Christmas in all of its warmth, color, and joy. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz

Tom Waits collaborated with director Robert Wilson and librettist William Burroughs on the musical stage work The Black Rider in 1990. A variation on the Faust legend, the 19th century German story allowed Waits to indulge his affection for the music of Kurt Weill and address one of his favorite topics of recent years, the devil. Waits had proven an excellent collaborator when he worked with director Francis Ford Coppola on One from the Heart, making that score an integral part of the film. Here, the collaboration and the established story line served to focus Waits' often fragmented attention, lending coherence and consistency. He then had three years to adapt the score into a record album in which he did most of the singing and writing (though Burroughs contributed, singing one song and writing lyrics to three), and he used the time to come up with his best recording in a decade, a varied set of songs that work whether or not you know the show. (Seven of the 20 tracks were instrumentals.) Waits used the word "crude" to describe his working method several times in the liner notes, and a crude performing and recording style continued to appeal to him. But the kind of chaos that can sometimes result from that style was reined in by the bands he assembled in Germany and Los Angeles to record the score, so that the recordings were lively without being off-puttingly primitive. © William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars discovered a rapport in 2017 when the former, fresh off the release of Malibu, supported the latter on the 24K Magic tour. Mutual admiration and shared affinity for classic R&B predating their births, such as Motown and Philly soul -- and anything else with churning rhythm guitars, electric sitar, and flashy strings -- grew into Silk Sonic. The project was named by another favorite, funk legend Bootsy Collins, who hosts An Evening with Silk Sonic in expected cordial fashion on a handful of intros and featured appearances. The set would have to be left on repeat for at least six rotations to truly fill an evening -- it's only half an hour in length -- but none of the time is wasted. Paak and Mars might have had Teddy Pendergass' women-only concerts in mind as they made some of the ballads. "Leave the Door Open," an unlikely number one pop hit six months before the LP was released, is the number that best meshes the smooth and tender style of Mars with Paak's nephew-of-Bobby Womack rasp and comparatively Lothario-like (sometimes pushy) demeanor. The funkier slow jam "After Last Night" might invite comparisons to "Dick in a Box" but has a bit of Bootsy-style fantasy sleaze with a lyrical theme similar to "The Hunter Gets Captured By the Game." "Put On a Smile" provides more than mere entertainment with one of Mars' finest performances, while "Blast Off" coasts and sways like a 1979 Earth, Wind & Fire derivative. The energy in the uptempo material is all feel-good, too. The strutting "Fly as Me" lets loose a hook that recalls late-'60s/early '70s George Clinton ("[I Wanna] Testify," "I Wanna Know If It's Good to You"). "777," the most arrogant and ballerific cut, is shrewdly followed by the dashing roller disco jam "Skate," a Top 20 hit that preceded the album. The duo's playfulness here verges on hammy at times -- more often than on their solo recordings. The trade-off is that they push each other into new levels of showmanship without pandering to the audience. Besides, there's some genuinely witty stuff here. It's a wonder how Mars was able to keep his face straight while grousing, "Musta spent 35-45 thousand up in Tiffany's/Got her bad-ass kids runnin' round my whole crib like it's Chuck E. Cheese."© Andy Kellman /TiVo

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I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got became Sinéad O'Connor's popular breakthrough on the strength of the stunning Prince cover "Nothing Compares 2 U," which topped the pop charts for a month. But even its remarkable intimacy wasn't adequate preparation for the harrowing confessionals that composed the majority of the album. Informed by her stormy relationship with drummer John Reynolds, who fathered O'Connor's first child before the couple broke up, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got lays the singer's psyche startlingly and sometimes uncomfortably bare. The songs mostly address relationships with parents, children, and (especially) lovers, through which O'Connor weaves a stubborn refusal to be defined by anyone but herself. In fact, the album is almost too personal and cathartic to draw the listener in close, since O'Connor projects such turmoil and offers such specific detail. Her confrontational openness makes it easy to overlook O'Connor's musical versatility. Granted, not all of the music is as brilliantly audacious as "I Am Stretched on Your Grave," which marries a Frank O'Connor poem to eerie Celtic melodies and a James Brown "Funky Drummer" sample. But the album plays like a tour de force in its demonstration of everything O'Connor can do: dramatic orchestral ballads, intimate confessionals, catchy pop/rock, driving guitar rock, and protest folk, not to mention the nearly six-minute a cappella title track. What's consistent throughout is the frighteningly strong emotion O'Connor brings to bear on the material, while remaining sensitive to each piece's individual demands. Aside from being a brilliant album in its own right, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got foreshadowed the rise of deeply introspective female singer/songwriters like Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan, who were more traditionally feminine and connected with a wider audience. Which takes nothing away from anyone; if anything, it's evidence that, when on top of her game, O'Connor was a singular talent.© Steve Huey /TiVo

If In Utero is a suicide note, MTV Unplugged in New York is a message from beyond the grave, a summation of Kurt Cobain's talents and pain so fascinating, it's hard to listen to repeatedly. Is it the choice of material or the spare surroundings that make it so effective? Well, it's certainly a combination of both, how the version of the Vaselines' "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" or the three covers of Meat Puppets II songs mean as much as "All Apologies" or "Something in the Way." This, in many senses, isn't just an abnormal Nirvana record, capturing them in their sincerest desire to be R.E.M. circa Automatic for the People, it's the Nirvana record that nobody, especially Kurt, wanted revealed. It's a nakedly emotional record, unintentionally so, as the subtext means more than the main themes of how Nirvana wanted to prove its worth and diversity, showcasing the depth of their songwriting. As it turns out, it accomplishes its goals rather too well; this is a band, and songwriter, on the verge of discovering a new sound and style. Then, there's the subtexts, as Kurt's hurt and suicidal impulses bubble to the surface even as he's trying to suppress them. Few records are as unblinkingly bare and naked as this, especially albums recorded by their peers. No other band could have offered covers of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World" and the folk standard "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" on the same record, turning in chilling performances of both -- performances that reveal as much as their original songs.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Since starting out ten years ago as a hip-hop and chill electro producer for Délicieuse Musique, Parisian electronic producer Viken Arman has established himself as one of the leading names on the melodic house scene, exporting his contemplative music to all four corners of the globe. But for his first album, he took refuge in the beating heart of the global electronic scene, in Berlin. The city of a thousand clubs has often been a springboard for the artists it has hosted over the last twenty years, and Arman is no exception. Though he may have dreamed of a first album filled with collaborations with jazz musicians and singers, on Alone Together (the title says it all) he stands proudly alone, without guests or vocals. "What's important is that it's aligned with the present moment. You don't always have to overthink it", he philosophises. Throughout the writing of the album the energy of dance music is ever-present, with tracks of varying formats at 2, 4 and 9 minutes in length, as well as twists such as the unstoppable “You Don’t Hurt Me” where he accelerates the beat right at the drop before going into electro swing mode, breathing an irresistible pulse into the second half of the track. He alternates between shamanic house à la Acid Pauli (with whom he released “Reading from a Secret” in 2022) and French Touch-style house (“Can't Do Without You”) before bringing this trippy journey to a close with “Alone Together”, launched by a cosmic synth which is joined by an endlessly stubborn keyboard loop. One for the club or the desert! © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

Expanding on the concept of Songs for Young Lovers!, In the Wee Small Hours was a collection of ballads arranged by Nelson Riddle. The first 12" album recorded by Sinatra, Wee Small Hours was more focused and concentrated than his two earlier concept records. It's a blue, melancholy album, built around a spare rhythm section featuring a rhythm guitar, celesta, and Bill Miller's piano, with gently aching strings added every once and a while. Within that melancholy mood is one of Sinatra's most jazz-oriented performances -- he restructures the melody and Miller's playing is bold throughout the record. Where Songs for Young Lovers! emphasized the romantic aspects of the songs, Sinatra sounds like a lonely, broken man on In the Wee Small Hours. Beginning with the newly written title song, the singer goes through a series of standards that are lonely and desolate. In many ways, the album is a personal reflection of the heartbreak of his doomed love affair with actress Ava Gardner, and the standards that he sings form their own story when collected together. Sinatra's voice had deepened and worn to the point where his delivery seems ravished and heartfelt, as if he were living the songs.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

On her stellar sophomore set, Diamonds & Dancefloors, American pop hitmaker Ava Max bests her 2020 breakthrough debut with precision focus and a bounty of catchy hooks. Yet another instance where every track could be a lead single, the album is indebted to '80s synth-based dance-pop ("Million Dollar Baby," "Weapons") and early-'90s house anthems ("Ghost," "Diamonds & Dancefloors"), extending her pedigree as the next logical progression after forebears like Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa. With executive producer Cirkut back in tow, Diamonds & Dancefloors seamlessly evolves the playful pop heard on Heaven & Hell and hones the attack with an icy determination born from recent breakups. Hardened by heartbreak, Max takes her pain to the dancefloor, drying her tears through the power of pop. The energy never relents -- the skittering two-step of the Omar Fedi-assisted "In the Dark" is the closest thing to a "break" -- and it's pure, irresistible thrills from start to finish, buoyed by the power of Max's vocal range and passionate delivery. Beyond the official singles, other highlights include the dark synth creep of "Sleepwalker"; the disco-kissed earworm "Turn Off the Lights"; the electronic dance bliss of "Get Outta My Heart" (which samples Bernard Herrmann's Twisted Nerve score); and the pulsing neon-electro "Last Night on Earth." Deftly executed and ideal for repeat listens, Diamonds & Dancefloors makes it two-for-two for Max's catalog, delivering on the promise of her debut and pushing her even further toward the top of the early-2020s pop pantheon.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

Nancy Sinatra and the team at Light in the Attic knocked it out of the park with the 2021 compilation Start Walkin' 1965-1976, an absolutely top-shelf selection of twenty-three of singer's best cuts from her prime era that beautifully showcased her hits as much as it did the wide streak of weird that ran through much of her material during that time. That set was so good that one would be rightfully suspicious that this 2023 companion piece focused on deep cuts, rarities, and unreleased tracks would be a barrel-scraping exercise meant for completists only. Well, the barrel may be getting scraped, but Nancy Sinatra's output from the mid-'60s through the mid-'70s was a delightful combination of high-gloss AM radio perfection and freewheeling experimentation.  These tracks may not have had the same cultural impact as "These Boots Were Made for Walkin'" or "Some Velvet Morning" but are still rewarding in their own way.The collection starts off strong with the evocative pop-noir of "The City Never Sleeps at Night" (the bouncy b-side of "Boots") and "The Last of the Secret Agents," a dazzlingly goofy novelty number that served as the title theme for a 1966 parody of James Bond films starring Sinatra. Although there are a few weaker numbers scattered throughout—"Tony Rome" is atypically apathetic, and an inexplicable cover of the Move's "Flowers in the Rain" shows that baroque psychedelia may not have been Sinatra's forte—Keep Walkin' is more than balanced out by dizzyingly great numbers like the languid and louche "Easy Evil" (a 1972 demo that was previously only available on the 1998 Sheet Music compilation) that show how her willingness to be weird never abated.Sinatra's early '70s material is often overlooked. Not only did the cultural zeitgeist decidedly move on from her style—too square for the cool kids and too quirky to be "easy listening"—but she only released two albums during the decade, both in 1972. She nonetheless had a great run of non-LP singles between 1973 and 1976, and while some of those A-sides made their way onto the Start Walkin' collection, Keep Walkin' rounds out the tracklist by including her phenomenal cover of Lynsey De Paul's "Sugar Me" (as well as the B-side, a somewhat questionable cover of "Ain't No Sunshine") and the stunning "Kinky Love" from 1976. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz

As a film, The Last Waltz was a triumph -- one of the first (and still one of the few) rock concert documentaries that was directed by a filmmaker who understood both the look and the sound of rock & roll, and executed with enough technical craft to capture all the nooks and crannies of a great live show. But as an album, The Last Waltz soundtrack had to compete with the Band's earlier live album, Rock of Ages, with which it bears a certain superficial resemblance -- both found the group trying to create something grander than the standard-issue live double, and both featured the group beefed up by additional musicians. While Rock of Ages found the Band swinging along with the help of a horn section arranged by Allen Toussaint, The Last Waltz boasts a horn section (using Toussaint's earlier arrangements on a few cuts) and more than a baker's dozen guest stars, ranging from old cohorts Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan to contemporaries Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Van Morrison. The Band are in fine if not exceptional form here; on most cuts, they don't sound quite as fiery as they did on Rock of Ages, though their performances are never less than expert, and the high points are dazzling, especially an impassioned version of "It Makes No Difference" and blazing readings of "Up on Cripple Creek" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (Levon Helm has made no secret that he felt breaking up the Band was a bad idea, and here it sounds if he was determined to prove how much they still had to offer). Ultimately, it's the Band's "special guests" who really make this set stand out -- Muddy Waters' ferocious version of "Mannish Boy" would have been a wonder from a man half his age, Van Morrison sounds positively joyous on "Caravan," Neil Young and Joni Mitchell do well for their Canadian brethren, and Bob Dylan's closing set finds him in admirably loose and rollicking form. (One question remains -- what exactly is Neil Diamond doing here?) And while the closing studio-recorded "Last Waltz Suite" sounds like padding, the contributions from Emmylou Harris and the Staple Singers are beautiful indeed. It could be argued that you're better off watching The Last Waltz on video than listening to it on CD, but either way it's a show well worth checking out.© Mark Deming /TiVo

Morgan Wallen opens One Thing at a Time with two songs where the narrator cops to drinking too much and not quite remembering what they've said. It's not the only time he alludes to letting the bottle turn him into a different man, an elliptical allusion to the scandal that embroiled the country singer after he was captured on video uttering a racial slur. The incident happened not long after the release of Wallen's Dangerous: The Double Album, and far from knocking his career off track, the scandal helped consolidate his audience; the double-LP turned into the best-selling album of 2021. One Thing at a Time offers more of the same -- a lot more of it. Weighing in at 36 songs, it's six tracks longer than Dangerous: The Double Album, a difference that clocks in at nearly an additional half-hour, bringing it just a few minutes shy of two hours. This untrammeled sprawl means One Thing at a Time offers a little something for everybody: there are sentimental weepers like "Thought You Should Know," a superstar duet thanks to Eric Church's cameo on "Man Made a Bar," party songs, sad songs, songs that lift liberally from classic rock standards ("Everything I Love," which borrows from both Allman Brothers Band's "Midnight Rider" and Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See"), songs about beer, songs about whiskey, and songs about wine. On Dangerous: The Double Album, all this radio-ready variety suggested that Wallen wanted to appeal to every audience everywhere, but in the wake of his scandal, this multi-purpose crowd-pleasing suggests an artist who wants to provide the perpetual jukebox within a walled garden.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo