A misconception has sometimes been associate with Norah Jones: that the Texan is little more than a pleasant light-jazz singer whose albums serve as harmless background music for high-brow and proper evening dinners. Though her writing, playing and eclectic collaborations, she has clearly proved that she is far more interesting than this cliché. And this 2020 offering is a new illustration of her complexity. As is often the case with Norah Jones, Pick Me Up Off the Floor is not quite jazz, not quite blues, not quite country, etc… Her genre-defying music works primarily to suit the song being played. Here we find what has been left behind after sessions with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Thomas Bartlett, Mavis Staples, Rodrigo Amarante and several others.But for all that the result is not simply a contrived mishmash of collaborations but a collection of songs that hold the same silky groove (present on six out of 11 tracks on the record in which Brian Blade’s drums work delicate miracles) and calm sound which increasingly suits the artist, somewhere between pure poetry and realism. “Every session I’ve done, there’ve been extra songs I didn’t release, and they’ve sort of been collecting for the last two years. I became really enamoured with them, having the rough mixes on my phone, listening while I walk the dog. The songs stayed stuck in my head and I realised that they had this surreal thread running through them. It feels like a fever dream taking place somewhere between God, the Devil, the heart, the Country, the planet, and me.” Rarely has Norah Jones sang with such strength, like on I’m Alive where she sings of women’s resilience, or on How I Weep in which she tackles love and exasperation with unequalled grace. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Who's Next is not an album lacking for reissues. In addition to a deluxe edition from 2003, there have also been multiple audiophile editions and remasters of the album since its 1971 release. So what could a "super deluxe edition" possibly contain? Quite a bit, as it turns out. As even casual Who fans know, the genesis of Who's Next was as Lifehouse, a multimedia rock opera even more ambitious than Tommy. Pete Townshend had developed a bizarre, dystopian story that somehow merged his devotion to Indian guru Meher Baba, his recent fascination with synthesizers, and the idea that the only thing that could save humanity from a test-tube-bound future was "real rock 'n' roll." Yeah, the aftereffects of the '60s were wild. After some live shows at the Young Vic in London and a series of marathon recording sessions, a 16-song tracklist was finalized, but by this point, it was collectively decided—both creatively and commercially—that perhaps another concept-dense double album might not be the best studio follow-up to Tommy. So, eight Lifehouse songs were re-cut and one new song ("My Wife") was recorded and the leaner, meaner Who's Next was released in August 1971. The album was both an instant success and has become an undisputed part of the classic rock canon, thanks to the inclusion of absolutely iconic tracks like "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Baba O'Riley," and "Behind Blue Eyes."While one could make an argument that the taut and focused power of Who's Next inadvertently proved the point of the Lifehouse story (namely, that rock 'n' roll is most effective when it's at its most primal), it's important to remember that Who's Next was also a giant artistic leap forward for the Who, as it found them at the peak of their powers as a pummeling rock band and as a band willing to be experimental and artful in their approach to being a pummeling rock band. (If any evidence is needed of the group's unrivaled power, check out take 13 of "Won't Get Fooled Again" on this set, which is so immediate and electric that it could easily be mistaken for a concert performance.) While several Lifehouse tracks found their way to other Who and Townshend records, getting a sense of the contours of the project has been difficult. But this massive, 155-track set creates those lines thanks to the inclusion of multiple Townshend demos as well as recording sessions of Life House tracks that occurred both before and after the release of Who's Next, and, most notably, two freshly mixed live shows from 1971 (including one of the Young Vic shows) that provided both the energy and, in some cases the basic tracks, for the album versions. While nothing on this bursting-at-the-seams edition overrides the all-killer-no-filler approach of Who's Next, it does provide plenty of long-desired context and documentation for what made that record so powerful. © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz

Ezra Collective won well-deserved critical and commercial acclaim for 2019's You Can't Steal My Joy, a raucous debut long-player laced with elements of Afrobeat, jazz, hip-hop, and grime. However, before they could take it on tour globally, the COVID-19 pandemic set in. They introduce the same musical chemistry on Where I'm Meant to Be and still employ massive doses of jazz-funk layered inside swinging Afrobeat, salsa, grime, and soul.On "Life Goes On" (featuring Sampa the Great), party sounds meet James Mollison's honking tenor sax, Femi Koleoso's funky beats, and Sampa's rapid-fire delivery as T.J. Koleoso's insistent bassline and Ife Ogunjobi's trumpet solo above Joe Armon-Jones' organ and piano vamps before massive funk arrives with a trumpet solo to carry it out. "Victory Dance" commences as a triple-timed drum and percussion orgy atop shouted human voices. Afro-Cuban-styled horns and hand percussion bump and burn before the horns usher in an Afro-Cuban theme. Armon-Jones enters, then takes off with rapid montunos as the tune moves to intense salsa with soaring trumpet. They don't let up when Kojey Radical fronts the band on the single "No Confusion." Anchored by T.J.'s circular funk bassline, the horns pulse in driving Afrobeat style above Femi's breaking snares and hi-hat while Armon-Jones lays down sinister chord voicings, adding to the rhythm section's heft as Radical syncopates his incendiary delivery. "Welcome to My World" is all groove and grit as post-bop and Afrobeat horns meet dubwise rhythms in a strutting frenzy. "Ego Killah" is strictly dubwise steaminess with double-time bass and piano vamps; interlocking drums and percussion rub against and buoy one another. That track is followed by the R&B-centric "Smile" led by Armon-Jones' crystalline jazz piano harmonies supported by a rhythm section playing smooth, gentle, neo-'80s soul. "Live Strong" inserts grooving '70s-styled funk into shimmering contemporary jazz piano and swinging horns. Emeli Sande assists on the livelier sounding "Siesta," offering her heavenly yet assertive soprano atop Rhodes piano, congas, bongos, and bass. "Belonging" arrives as interstellar space jazz with glorious soloing from Mollison and martial snare from Koleoso. Armon-Jones opens a harmonic door in the bridge as the tune begins to assert itself, wedding spacious spiritual jazz to driving neo-electro and funk. His knotty acoustic piano solos with both Koleosos in trio. The set closes with a reading of Sun Ra's "Love in Outer Space" as a finger-popping, smooth, jazzy, neo-soul jam with Nao (Neo Jessica Jones) emoting in her wispy, reedy soprano as T.J. Koleoso guides her with a slippery, resonant bassline framed by ascendant horns and spectral keys. While Where I'm Meant to Be is a logical follow-up to Ezra Collective's debut, it's a soulful, musically advanced, rhythmically infectious one, too.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

It would be impossible to try and discover all the possibilities the harp has to offer within the Jazz genre (or Afro-American music in general) without coming across Dorothy Ashby (1932-1986). Ashby was the first musician to implant the harp into the collective imagination, typifying it as Western “salon music” with her bop album The Jazz Harpist (released in 1957). Brandee Younger, a budding harpist herself, is now following in her footsteps. With Brand New Life, she’s released an album that’s as ambitious as it is masterful. Using Dorothy Ashby’s greatest works as inspiration, the harpist creates a programme that skilfully blends a handful of original compositions and selected covers (Michel Legrand's The Windmills of your Mind and Stevie Wonder's It's Magic), achieving symbiosis between her art and her inspirations. Within an organic quartet composed of herself, Rashaan Carter (double bass), Joel Ross (vibraphone) and Makaya McCraven (drums and session producer), Younger updates Ashby’s take on the instrument with great refinement and skill. She adapts it to her own resolutely modernist language with the same ability with which she sews the threads between classical, jazz, soul and hip-hop. Joined by soul and hip-hop singers Mumu Fresh (Brand New Life) and Meshell Ndegeocello (Dust) and rap composers/producers Peter Rock and 9th Wonder, the harpist develops sophisticated and seductive melodic music. She’s careful to strike a balance between staying faithful to a song’s format whilst allowing room for improvisation and demonstrating the expressive fluidity and rhythmic richness of an instrument that’s finally been freed from the bourgeois shackles of the past. © Stéphane Ollivier/Qobuz

When they released The Big Black and the Blue in 2010, Johanna and Klara Söderberg were 20 and 23 years old respectively. The two Swedish sisters quickly made a name for themselves at the top of the charts thanks to their covers of songs by Fleet Foxes, Lorde, Jack White and even Black Sabbath… Though throughout it all, First Aid Kit imposed their own style. A sort of dreamy folk that was as fresh as it was mesmerizing, at the heart of which shimmered vocal harmonies… For their fourth album, the Söderbergs flew off to the West Coast of the United States. Written in California (Los Angeles) and recorded in Oregon (Portland), Ruins is without a doubt  their most beautiful achievement. It’s the strongest tie between their native Sweden and the America of their dreams. Produced by the wonderful Tucker Martine, an expert in classy country, this is a record that above all draws its inspiration from America's rich heritage (from the Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris period to the recent Fleet Foxes) while staying true to its authors. Sparkling arrangements, smooth rhythmics, intense vocal harmonies and notable guests (Peter Buck from R.E.M., Glenn Kotche from Wilco and McKenzie Smith from Midlake), everything’s there to make their folk-rock even more luxurious than on The Lion's Roar (2012) and Stay Gold (2014). It’s almost impossible not to role out the old cliché: an album of maturity. © MD/Qobuz

Bryan Ferry returned to London's Royal Albert Hall in March 2020, some 46 years after performing there in 1974 on his debut solo tour. Recorded just before the U.K. went into COVID-19 lockdown, the show saw Ferry work through a slew of new material as well as renditions of classic Roxy Music songs. © Rich Wilson /TiVo

Without a doubt, George Harrison's first solo recording, originally issued as a triple album, is his best. Drawing on his backlog of unused compositions from the late Beatles era, Harrison crafted material that managed the rare feat of conveying spiritual mysticism without sacrificing his gifts for melody and grand, sweeping arrangements. Enhanced by Phil Spector's lush orchestral production and Harrison's own superb slide guitar, nearly every song is excellent: "Awaiting on You All," "Beware of Darkness," the Dylan collaboration "I'd Have You Anytime," "Isn't It a Pity," and the hit singles "My Sweet Lord" and "What Is Life" are just a few of the highlights. A very moving work, with a slight flaw: the jams that comprise the final third of the album are somewhat dispensable, and have probably only been played once or twice by most of the listeners who own this record. Those same jams, however, played by Eric Clapton, Carl Radle, Bobby Whitlock, and Jim Gordon (all of whom had just come off of touring as part of Delaney & Bonnie's band), proved to be of immense musical importance, precipitating the formation of Derek & the Dominos. Thus, they weren't a total dead end, and may actually be much more to the liking of the latter band's fans.© Richie Unterberger & Bruce Eder /TiVo

On his very first concert album, the Weeknd celebrated a decade's worth of hits with Live at SoFi Stadium, which was recorded in November 2022 at two sold-out After Hours til Dawn Tour shows in Inglewood, California. Here, his hedonistic tales of sex, drugs, fame, and death are presented on an epic fantasy/sci-fi scale, matching the sizes of the stadiums he played on this triumphant global tour. For fans of his synth-heavy early-2020s material, the run of "Gasoline"/"Sacrifice"/"How Do I Make You Love Me?" is unmatched, a thrilling stretch of energy that could have gone stratospheric if he had included that other Swedish House Mafia collaboration, "Moth to a Flame." While Dawn FM and After Hours get the most love, every era is given attention, reaching all the way back to House of Balloons and even diving into deep cuts from his My Dear Melancholy EP. He dipped into his lengthy list of features with "Hurricane" (from Kanye West's Donda), "Crew Love" (from Drake's Take Care), "Or Nah" (from Ty Dolla $ign's Beach House EP), and "Low Life" (from Future's EVOL). While there were a few notable omissions (hits like "In Your Eyes" and "Pray for Me" to start), this is essentially a greatest-hits playlist and a dream set for both casual and die-hard fans alike.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

A misconception has sometimes been associate with Norah Jones: that the Texan is little more than a pleasant light-jazz singer whose albums serve as harmless background music for high-brow and proper evening dinners. Though her writing, playing and eclectic collaborations, she has clearly proved that she is far more interesting than this cliché. And this 2020 offering is a new illustration of her complexity. As is often the case with Norah Jones, Pick Me Up Off the Floor is not quite jazz, not quite blues, not quite country, etc… Her genre-defying music works primarily to suit the song being played. Here we find what has been left behind after sessions with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Thomas Bartlett, Mavis Staples, Rodrigo Amarante and several others.But for all that the result is not simply a contrived mishmash of collaborations but a collection of songs that hold the same silky groove (present on six out of 11 tracks on the record in which Brian Blade’s drums work delicate miracles) and calm sound which increasingly suits the artist, somewhere between pure poetry and realism. “Every session I’ve done, there’ve been extra songs I didn’t release, and they’ve sort of been collecting for the last two years. I became really enamoured with them, having the rough mixes on my phone, listening while I walk the dog. The songs stayed stuck in my head and I realised that they had this surreal thread running through them. It feels like a fever dream taking place somewhere between God, the Devil, the heart, the Country, the planet, and me.” Rarely has Norah Jones sang with such strength, like on I’m Alive where she sings of women’s resilience, or on How I Weep in which she tackles love and exasperation with unequalled grace. This Deluxe Edition contains two bonus tracks and a collection of 17 songs culled from Norah’s Live From Home weekly livestream series. Thie Live From Home selections include a mix of career-spanning originals and such covers as Guns N’Roses’ Patience, John Prine’s That’s The Way The World Goes Round and Ravi Shankar’s I Am Missing You. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Since Jason Isbell left the Drive-By Truckers in 2007, he and his backing band the 400 Unit have released a live EP (2008's Live at Twist and Shout), a full-length live album (2012's Live from Alabama), a concert video (2014's Jason Isbell: Live at Austin City Limits), and a limited-edition live in the studio EP dominated by covers (2017's Live from Welcome to 1979, a Record Store Day release). So is there really any compelling reason for Isbell to give us yet another live recording? One listen to 2018's Live from the Ryman, recorded during a six-night run of shows at Nashville's legendary Ryman Auditorium, does bring one good reason to mind -- Isbell and his band are an unusually good live act, and what they do communicates very well after the fact. Unlike Live from Alabama, Live from the Ryman was recorded in the wake of Isbell's breakthrough with 2013's Southeastern, and the set list was drawn from that album and its two follow-ups, 2015's Something More Than Free and 2017's The Nashville Sound. While Isbell and the 400 Unit have always delivered on-stage, the focus and insight that Isbell brought to these songs makes for a powerful listening experience, and the emotional honesty and introspection fuels performances that find him baring his soul, avoiding histrionics but making clear these stories come from deep inside his heart and conscience. And Isbell's band is stellar on these recordings, filling out the arrangements with dexterity and nuance. The 400 Unit know how to find the fine details in quieter numbers like "Flagship" and "Elephant," they can come out with potent hard rock on numbers such as "Hope the High Road" and "Cumberland Gap," and the high-spirited stomp of "Super 8" makes it that rare cautionary tale that's as fun as it is ominous. Live from the Ryman doesn't change what you already know about Jason Isbell as a writer or a performer, but as a document of his many strengths, it's powerful and thoroughly entertaining, and is one more reminder that he's as smart and gifted as any songwriter at work today -- and he can work the crowd like nobody's business.© Mark Deming /TiVo