“We are not serious when we are 17.” But Billie Eilish has all the marks of a serious young lady and someone who we should indeed take seriously. At the age of sixteen she released the noteworthy Don’t Smile at Me, an EP created with the help of her older brother, Finneas O’Connell. The EP is comprised of the singles Copycat, Bellyache and Ocean Eyes and was posted two years earlier on Soundcloud when Eilish was just 14 years old. Critics hailed her music due to its depiction of a lost adolescent with bleached hair, dressed in oversized sweaters. With the album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? and its strange title and shocking cover, Eilish and her dark hair flaunt their more obscure side. One is immediately struck with how well polished Finneas O’Connell’s production is after an intro in which Eilish jokingly mocks her brother for his Invisalign (a kind of invisible dental brace). The first track Bad Guy features an EDM beat which contrasts with the dreaminess of the subsequent Xanny. The rest of the album follows this trend, weaving together both harsh and soft songs combined with the mature lyrics of a girl who was diagnosed with Tourette’s at the age of 11 and speaks of Xanax and young girls descent into a hellish existence. In this mix of gloomy pop and creepy trap beats, Eilish excels. A real eye-opener. © Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz

After two EPs, Playground in 2017 and Lonely City in 2019, which revealed her to fans and propelled her into the small, hybrid, and blended world of young British jazz, the saxophonist, singer, flautist, keyboardist and above all songwriter, producer and arranger, Laura Misch, has released her debut album under the label One Little Independent Record, and it is as ambitious as it is seductive. Conceived in close collaboration with the electronic music producer William Arcane, Sample the Sky, in a series of original free-flowing songs, develops an immersive sonic realm, that is at once funereal, melancholic, and insidiously unsettling, and highlights the angelic yet sensual voice of the singer. Mixing strings layered on synthesizers, skilfully deconstructed grooves, ethereal saxophone loops, Maria Osuchowska’s dreamy harp and Tomas Kaspar’s guitar, the music builds dreamlike, highly sensory landscapes on the fringes of ambient and alternative pop, serving a backdrop of intimate and subtly activist poetic discourse that invites a form of connection and reconciliation with our environment. The birth certificate of a new major voice in the British scene! © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz

For American audiences, the phenomenal worldwide success of Oasis was a little puzzling. That's because they only had part of the picture -- unless they were hardcore fans, they didn't hear nearly three albums of material released on B-sides and non-LP singles. Critics and fans alike claimed that the best of these B-sides were as strong as the best moments on the albums, and they were right. None of the albums had a song that rocked as hard as "Fade Away" (cleverly built on a stolen melody from Wham!'s "Freedom"), "Headshrinker," or "Acquiesce." There was nothing as charming as the lite psychedelic pastiche "Underneath the Sky" or the Bacharach tribute "Going Nowhere"; there was nothing as affecting as Noel Gallagher's acoustic plea "Talk Tonight" or the minor-key, McCartney-esque "Rockin' Chair," nothing as epic as "The Masterplan." Most bands wouldn't throw songs of this caliber away on B-sides, but Noel Gallagher followed the example of his heroes the Jam and the Smiths, who released singles where the B-sides rivaled the A-sides. This meant many American fans missed these songs, so to remedy this situation, Oasis released the B-sides compilation The Masterplan. Oasis unfortunately chose to opt for a single disc of highlights instead of a complete double-disc set, which means a wealth of great songs -- "Take Me Away," "Whatever," "D'Yer Wanna Be a Spaceman?," "Round Are Way," "It's Better People," "Step Out," a raging cover of "Cum on Feel the Noize" -- are missing. But The Masterplan winds up quite enjoyable anyway. Apart from the sludgy instrumental "The Swamp Song," there isn't a weak track here, and the brilliant moments are essential not only for Oasis fans, but any casual follower of Britpop or post-grunge rock & roll.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

From beyond the grave, Leonard Cohen has returned with Thanks for the Dance, three years after the amazing record You Want It Darker. His previous album contained fiercely determined lyrics (“I’m ready my Lord”) and that dark deep voice that makes your hairs stand on end, all layered over choir and organ melodies. Cohen died in the night nineteen days later, on November 7th 2016. But the singer already had plans for the afterlife: a posthumous album. He entrusted the task to his son Adam, who had been involved with the production of what everyone thought was the master’s final work. Adam commented: “I know my father’s sound very well and we had already discussed the arrangements during the recording sessions for You Want It Darker.” Gathering together the nine songs that were deliberately set aside, both solo and with guitar, Adam Cohen called upon his faithful colleagues for the accompaniments. “Despite everything, I went through a phase of doubt. So I decided to call on all the talented artists from the last album, starting with Javier Mas, the Spanish guitarist who accompanied my father on stage.” We find Feist, Beck (on guitar), Daniel Lanois, Damien Rice and Patrick Watson. The opus unfolds in a sober key – with just guitar, mandolin, piano and choir – and it is utterly moving throughout. We are treated to The Hills and its powerful build, the light percussion in The Night of Santiago, the dazzling brilliance of The Goal and a humble invitation to ponder life in Listen to the Hummingbird: “Listen to the Hummingbird, don’t listen to me” he sings in the closing song. But above all, it is the Canadian’s deep voice that serves as raw material, exploring all his favourite themes: loneliness, disappearance, humility, Jewishness. After the curtain fell on You Want It Darker, it’s time for the curtain call. Masterful. © Charlotte Saintoin/Qobuz

De La Soul's fourth album is still something of an enigma. It was their first without producer Prince Paul, and one that would precede a four-year-gap in their catalog—a potential reinvention that appeared to stall out without a timely follow-up. Stakes Is High is also even more culturally against the grain than Buhloone Mindstate was, with scattered lyrical jabs against the now-dominant gangsta mode of rap culminating in the powerful, frustrated bitterness of the legendary Dilla-produced title cut. But it's also the kind of album where the doubt and uncertainty of its creators—DJ Maseo has remarked in interviews that Stakes felt like a "do or die" breaking point, the difference between tour buses and day jobs—reinforces the idea that they always operated best with their backs against some wall or another. So even if they're uncertain about their own future or whether there's even a place for their abstract, bohemian strain of hip-hop, they could still put out an album that speaks loudly to a core of fans who were just as happy to hear another chance for Common to wax philosophical smack-talker ("The Bizness") and more than willing to take a chance on a Brooklyn up-and-comer called Mos Def ("Big Brother Beat"). And while their search for what's next points towards a future they not only helped build but put in good hands, their own mic presence sounds both more matter-of-fact and more accessible without sacrificing their humor or their own idiosyncrasies. Sometimes they lean into the same kind of genre-pastiche-parody snark that animated the more sardonic moments on De La Soul Is Dead—"Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby, Ooh Baby" is bested only by Chris Rock's "Champagne" when it comes to mocking Bad Boy-esque retro-'80s R&B crossover—but for the most part they lead by their own example, building a bridge between their Native Tongues roots and the Soulquarian future that would emerge near decade's end. And as frustrated as they get—scorning faux-mafioso rappers on "Itzsoweezee (Hot)," or refusing the pressure of going supercommercial on "Dog Eat Dog"—they never forget to maintain their free creative spirit, even on an album that's almost aggressively downtempo. The promise of the soul-jazz production on Buhloone Mindstate has been met by a slate of beats that flip from woozy samba organ ("Supa Emcees") to velvety soul-via-g-funk (the Spearhead X-produced "Dinninit") to spiritual jazz-slash-euphoria gospel (mood-lifting closer "Sunshine") but, to the last, all feature some of the most effectively propulsive direct-hit drum breaks in the group's whole discography. Funnily enough, it's that lingering bitterness that makes Stakes Is High so rewarding: it's the sound of a storm being weathered. © Nate Patrin/Qobuz

Touted as a personally curated compilation by Paul McCartney, Pure McCartney is the first McCartney compilation since 2001's Wingspan: Hits and History. A full 15 years separated this and Wingspan, longer than the span between that double-disc set and 1987's All the Best, but the 2001 set also stopped cold in 1984, leaving over 30 years of solo McCartney recordings uncompiled on hits collections. In both its standard two-CD and deluxe four-disc incarnations, Pure McCartney attempts to rectify this, going so far as to include "Hope for the Future," his song for the 2014 video game Destiny. A fair chunk of the compilation rests upon songs heard on Wings Greatest, All the Best, and Wingspan -- "Jet," "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," "Another Day," "Mull of Kintyre," "Let Em In," "Band on the Run," "No More Lonely Nights," "Live and Let Die," "Say Say Say," "Listen to What the Man Said," and "Silly Love Songs" are all de rigueur -- so the interesting things lie in the margins, or in the music made since 1984. The standard edition contains three selections from Flaming Pie -- the 1997 album that kicked off a latter-day streak of excellent records from McCartney -- and a couple of cuts from both Chaos & Creation in the Backyard and Memory Almost Full, but it bypasses Flowers in the Dirt entirely. Flowers is also entirely absent on the deluxe edition, which nevertheless offers plenty of room for digressions -- here, the new wave future shock of "Temporary Secretary," the rockers "Junior's Farm," the hippie come-on "Big Barn Bed" and "Hi Hi Hi," and the frivolous synth pop of Press can all be heard -- so it paints a much richer portrait of McCartney's solo work, but even then it feels slightly incomplete. Hits are missing, including the brassy Brit-pop of "Take It Away," "My Brave Face," and the seasonal "Wonderful Christmastime," as are electronic risks like "Check My Machine," but their absence only underscores one fact: McCartney made more great music than what can fit on even a four-disc box. Pure McCartney gets closer to capturing the full range of his career than any of his previous compilations, but it's still only an introduction to one of the richest bodies of work in pop music. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

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What better than a 4-CD box set to crown the career of an artist who left us too soon? In 2017, Tom Petty’s sudden passing broke the hearts of all true rock enthusiasts. His wife Dana and his daughter Adria decided to grieve by working on this An American Treasure album. After leaving behind many unreleased treasures, his close ones, such as producer Ryan Ulyate and band members Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench put their heart and soul into this production. A “family” selection that features demos, alternative versions, album tracks and live performances, showing the evolution of the Heatbreakers’ frontman. Outtakes from the 1976 (Surrender), alternative versions from the 1979 (Louisiana Rain) and demos from the 1984 (The Apartment Song), everything here is powerful with a great sound, thanks to the careful remastering work of Chris Bellman, who had already worked on recordings from Diana Ross, Rick James and a few other Motown artists. The album retraces Tom Petty’s debuts with the Heartbrakers as well as the band Mudcrutch, but also his solo career with over 60 tracks in Hi-Res 24Bit. In a chronological order, this four-hour anthology ends with his 2016 live performance of Hungry No More. An emotional experience both for his fans and the younger generations wishing to discover this key artist in American rock history. © Anna Coluthe/Qobuz