A serpent woman haunts Cecile McLorin Salvant's dreams on her boldly realized seventh album, 2023's Mélusine. Inspired by the European folktale most famously detailed by 14th century French writer Jean d'Arras, Mélusine tells the tale of a shapeshifting maiden, half-serpent/half-woman, whose righteous anger takes on ever-more dualistic meanings under Salvant's dynamic musical sway. Having been lavished with accolades, including several Grammy Awards for her clarion, swinging jazz and French chanson-infused albums, Salvant has increasingly leaned into the more stylistically experimental and personal aspects of her artistry. It was an approach she took to new levels with 2022's Ghost Song, performing her poetic originals alongside unexpected covers of songs by Kate Bush and Sting. Centered on the title track, which she composed during the Ghost Song sessions, Mélusine is a gorgeously realized production. Although there are some English lyrics here, the album features the most French Salvant has sung on record. Thankfully, she offers translations of each song with a sentence that also highlights how each track illuminates the story.The album also finds Salvant (who produced the album with Tom Korkidis) pulling together all of her disparate influences, from her moody cabaret jazz reading of Charles Trenet's "La Route Enchantee" to her playfully mischievous interpretation of the 14th century composition "Dites Moi Que Je Suis Belle," the latter of which is done in dancerly duet with djembe percussion master Weedie Braimah. Along with Braimah, she's joined throughout by several longtime associates including pianists Sullivan Fortner and Aaron Diehl, bassists Paul Sikivie and Luques Curtis, drummers Kyle Pool and Obed Calvaire, and saxophonist Godwin Louis. Shifting the line-up track to track, Salvant offers inspired forays into '70s sci-fi-inspired Canadian musical theater ("Petite Musique Terrienne" from Starmania), the dramatic French pop of Veronique Sanson ("Le Temps est Assassin"), and an Afro-Latin take on 12th century troubadour Almuc Castelnau's "Dame Iseut" that Salvant sings in both Occitan and Haitian Creole, languages that underline her own rich dual heritage. There's even a synthesizer-accented take on Michel Lambert's haunting 1660 air de coeur "D'un Feu Secret" that sounds like electronic composer Suzanne Ciani, Ella Fitzgerald, and the Modern Jazz Quartet giving a Baroque court performance. Her originals here are just as stylistically wide-ranging as she pulls together jazz and Haitian compas rhythms on "Doudou," accompanies herself on analog synth on "Wedo," and weaves a dreamy overlay of vocals and electric piano on "Aida." It almost goes without saying that Salvant's voice is utterly sublime on Mélusine, rich with an earthy jazz warmth on one song and shimmering with a brightly attenuated operatic resonance on another. There's also a feeling that for her, the story of a half-serpent half-woman is in keeping with her life as a Black woman raised in Miami by a Haitian father and French mother. Whether it's with the themes of romantic heartbreak and bodily autonomy, or the global boundary-pushing musicality at play on Mélusine, Salvant's work is transcendent.© Matt Collar /TiVo

The guitar music on this ECM release by Zsófia Boros is all pretty contemporary; the oldest piece is the Milonga of Alberto Ginastera. The composers are an interesting group; Mathias Duplessy is a largely self-taught French guitarist who traveled in Romany circles and learned flamenco styles, which shaped his music. However, none of them is much known, at least beyond France and Argentina. It is impressive that guitarist Boros shapes the pieces into a coherent whole. The overall mood is reflective, quietly lively, suggestive of improvisation, but within her framework, Boros adds numerous shades. Sample El Abrazo ("The Embrace"), by the Quique Sinesi. The album takes its title from its finale, El último aliento ("The Last Supper"), by Carlos Moscardini, a deeply elegiac piece. Boros is a wonder, but even more spectacular is the engineering from ECM, an absolutely exemplary demonstration of how to record a solo guitar. The listener is put into a profoundly intimate space, but that space is not invaded by extraneous noises. This adds up to an absorbing 40 minutes of music for late nights, accompanied by brandy and perhaps other quiet intoxicants. An unusually fresh and fully realized release from ECM that made classical charts in the spring of 2023, despite the obscurity of its repertory.© James Manheim /TiVo

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One Second expands the Eurodisco approach of Stella, and while it's considerably less adventurous than Yello's earlier works, it's engaging dance music, highlighted by some clever uses of Latin rhythms and vocal cameos from Billy Mackenzie and Shirley Bassey.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

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Released to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their triumphant 2002 comeback, Paradize + 10 is a two-CD special edition of French new wave stalwarts Indochine's ninth studio album. Written off as has-beens before its release, the ever-changing Parisian outfit instead went on to achieve the biggest success of its career, selling over a million copies and scoring its first number one single in 15 years. A decade on and it still seems remarkable that such a dark and brooding record managed to restore them to their former glories. From the distorted post-punk of "Popstitute" to the My Bloody Valentine-esque shoegaze of "Dunkerque" to the gothic industrial rock of the opening title track, it's an album that screams cult hit rather than multi-platinum chart-topper. Other than the dreadful tinny piano-led chanson of "Un Singe en Hiver," it's held up pretty well, particularly the more melodic New Order-inspired moments ("Mao Boy!" "Le Manoir"), but it's the second disc of "odds and sods" that will provide the most intrigue for their loyal fan base. As you'd expect, the 11 remixes range from the reductive (a misjudged chamber folk reworking of "Comateen") to the inessential (the utterly pointless Bootleg Indochine vs. Cassius mix of "Punker") to the rather impressive, particularly Tricky's claustrophobic take on Melissa Auf der Mar duet "Le Grand Secret" and Curve's French Kiks Mix of "Marilyn," which turns the Muse-esque glam-tinged tribute to Manson into a turbocharged Chemical Brothers-style knob-twiddling anthem. The two B-sides included, the aggressive space rock instrumental "Glory Hole" and Depeche Mode pastiche "Le Doigt sur Ton Etoile," are equally hit and miss, ensuring that while new converts should enjoy discovering the original album, the package as a whole is only likely to appeal to Indochine completists.© Jon O'Brien /TiVo