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There is little question that Natalie Merchant has a devoted audience, yet it still is curious that she released Live in Concert as her third solo album. After all, two albums don't really provide enough of a repertoire for a live record, especially if she's reluctant to sing 10,000 Maniacs material. Furthermore, she doesn't really change the recorded arrangements of her songs for performance -- which may not be a problem in a live setting, since a concert is about mood as well as music. But when that same performance is translated to disc, it doesn't have the same feeling, and that's the case with Live in Concert. Assembled from the tapes of her five-show stand at the Neil Simon Theater in June 1999, this recording leans heavily on Tigerlily, containing no less than five songs from her solo debut. The remainder of the record is devoted to covers, plus two 10,000 Maniacs numbers and just one song from 1998's Ophelia, the album she was supporting on the tour. Since Ophelia did not match Tigerlily's success, this sequencing highlights the material that the majority of her fans love, but it also makes Live in Concert feel like an alternate version of Tigerlily, especially since there's little difference between these live takes and the original versions. Merchant is in fine voice throughout the record, performing with conviction, and her backing band is appealingly professional, meaning that this is a solid record. However, since its material adheres so faithfully to the original recordings -- even the 10,000 Maniacs songs are only slightly changed -- it only becomes interesting when she tackles songs she hasn't recorded before: the covers, which she reworks into her signature style. Still, it's not enough to make Live in Concert more than anything but a souvenir for hardcore fans.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Of the myriad double-live sets Miles Davis recorded in the early '70s, In Concert: Live at Philharmonic Hall is the only one documenting his On the Corner street-funk period, which is immediately obvious from the cover art. Actually, in terms of repertoire, the material from Get Up With It, Big Fun, and A Tribute to Jack Johnson each takes up a greater percentage of space, but the hard-driving rhythms and plentiful effects make it clear which of Davis' fusion aesthetics applied. In Concert begins to move Davis' live work even farther away from jazz tradition, as he largely forgoes concepts of soloing or space. Instead, Davis presides over a pulsating mound of rhythm, expanding his percussion section and using traditional lead instruments more to create texture -- including his own horn, which he feeds through a wah-wah pedal and other amplification effects. Drummer Al Foster, tabla player Badal Roy, and percussionist Mtume are the centers of the recording, and electric sitar player Khalil Balakrishna adds an exotic dimension to the already tripped-out sonic stew. And "stew" isn't too far off -- the individual voices and elements in the music tend to get mixed and muddled together, which may be frustrating for some jazz fans not used to listening for the thick layers of texture in the soundscapes or the furious energy in the grooves. There are few melodies to latch onto, save for a theme from On the Corner that Davis frequently uses during the first disc to signal transitions. But melody isn't the point of this music; it's about power, rhythm, and the sum energy of the collective, and of Davis' electric jazz-rock albums, In Concert does one of the most mind-bending jobs of living up to those ideals.© Steve Huey /TiVo

The primary feeling elicited from this live recording by Katie Melua is one of absolute sincerity, thanks to the autobiographical nature of the programme. Recorded in December 2018 at the Westminster Central Hall, the album opens with a traditional Georgian folk song (her country of origin), Tu Ase Turpa Ikavi, before following with Plane Song in which the singer describes her arrival in Northern Ireland (her adoptive country) in 1993. In the space of a few minutes, Katie Melua manages to take us through her journey charged with raw emotion. Accompanied by only a guitar, a piano and a discreet rhythm section, the singer has the power to showcase her velvety voice as well as the quality of her songwriting which blend pop and folk music. Of course, she performs hits like Nine Million Bicycles and The Closest Thing to Crazy, but there are a couple of surprises, like the cover of The Cure’s Just Like Heaven or What A Wonderful World. By slowing down the tempo of Louis Armstrong’s classic and joining forces with the Gori Women’s choir (who feature on several other songs from the album), Katie Melua imbues a relaxed ambience in the London concert hall. If we’re still talking about covers, we should mention the vibrant All-Night Vigil - Nunc Dimittis (a Russian religious song composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1915) and Fields of Gold by Sting. It appears that Katie Melua enjoys plunging herself into as wide an array of genres as possible, but thanks to her melancholic voice and radiant sensitivity, she nevertheless manages to instil a sense of unity to this magical concert. © Nicolas Magenham/Qobuz

This whole album was an afterthought -- Procol Harum had been invited to play a concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the DaCamera Singers in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, in August of 1971, at the tail-end of their last tour with Robin Trower in the lineup. Amid all of the preparation -- including the writing of new orchestral arrangements by Gary Brooker and with a new lead guitarist, Dave Ball, just joining the lineup -- Brooker decided that it might be a good idea to preserve a professionally made tape of the show and suggested that A&M Records, to which they were signed, might want to record the performance; the label agreed with just a week to go until the concert. Even "Conquistador," the song on which the resulting album's commercial success was built, was added at the last minute, with no time for the orchestra to rehearse the arrangement that Brooker wrote on the flight from England. They did it cold, opening the concert, and the eventual album featured a performance -- highlighted by the orchestra's brass in a Spanish mode, running scales on the strings, and B.J. Wilson's powerful drumming -- helped loft the single to number 16 in America. The group's second-biggest hit record (after "A Whiter Shade of Pale"), in turn, helped lift the album into the American Top Five. Ironically, the success of the LP also left Procol Harum's image slightly askew, with the presence of the orchestra and choir and the selection of songs, from the most ambitious part of the band's repertory, all combining to present the group as more of a progressive rock act than they actually were. "Conquistador" was the most accessible song on the album, and nothing else here matches it for sheer, bracing excitement, but the rest -- especially "Whaling Stories" and "A Salty Dog" and the multi-part "In Held 'Twas I" -- were all opened up by the vast canvas provided by the orchestra, and the group didn't wimp out in their own performance; Wilson, Ball, Brooker, and company all played hard and heavy where the songs required it. [Note: Long out of print on CD, Procol Harum Live: In Concert With the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra & the Da Camera Singers was finally reissued in August of 2002 by Repertoire Records in a newly annotated edition with one bonus track, "Luskus Delph," which was recorded at the same show and only ever issued on vinyl as a U.K. single B-side.] © TiVo

While In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall may not be Opeth’s only live album, it’s certainly their classiest. Recorded at the famous London venue, the live album features the Swedish progressive death metal masters masterfully executing a nearly three-hour set. Most notable about the live set is that Opeth chose to kick it off by performing Blackwater Park, their artistic breakthrough, in its entirety. With an amazingly tight performance and a sparklingly clear recording, In Live Concert at the Royal Albert Hall is an easy addition for metal fans. If you’ve ever wanted to hear the quintessential death metal band at work live, it won’t get any more convenient than this.© Gregory Heaney /TiVo