It's a running joke that every album released by the Rolling Stones is the band's "best since X," where X represents a random release from their extensive back catalog. Unsurprisingly, Hackney Diamonds has already received similar plaudits and comparisons. But the Stones' first full-length of original songs since 2005's A Bigger Bang can't really be compared to anything they've done before—namely because it's the first Stones album recorded (for the most part) without drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021. Watts does add his trademark crisp, jazzy swing to a pair of highlights: the strutting "Mess It Up" and swaggering boogie-rocker "Live by the Sword." (On the latter, former bassist Bill Wyman also contributes a grimy low end and Elton John adds freewheeling piano.) Elsewhere on Hackney Diamonds, Watts' hand-picked drumming replacement Steve Jordan anchors the rhythm section with his looser approach—a perfect match for big-sky rockers like the saxophone-augmented, funk-tinted "Get Close."But even with the lineup change, Hackney Diamonds feels like classic Stones—no asterisk needed. The album brims with familiar signifiers: fiery guitar interplay between Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood; an abundance of Jagger-Richards songwriting credits; and Jagger's inimitable vocals, which veer between spitfire sleaze and tender balladeer. Musically, Hackney Diamonds also spans the entire Stones continuum. "Dreamy Skies" is the kind of laid-back country rocker the band excel at writing; the string-swept "Depending on You" occupies a more introspective space; and "Driving Me Too Hard" is 1970s-era honky-tonking. On "Tell Me Straight," Richards even takes a turn on lead vocals. So what's the secret to Hackney Diamonds? Avowed Stones superfan Andrew Watt produced the album, which was an inspired choice: Watt pushes the Stones to play to their strengths and not rely on cliches. Hackney Diamonds' guests are also a welcome presence. Paul McCartney contributes bass to the barnstorming "Bite My Head Off," while the torchy power ballad centerpiece "Sweet Sounds of Heaven" includes keyboards and piano from Stevie Wonder and towering vocals from Lady Gaga. Fittingly, Hackney Diamonds ends with a song that's long featured into the Stones' mythology: a cover of Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone" (here called "Rolling Stone Blues"). The Stones' performance is raw and unfiltered, with shuffling harmonica and unpolished Jagger vocals; it sounds more like a low-key jam session than a high-gloss studio work. "Rolling Stone Blues" also gets to the heart of why Hackney Diamonds works so well: On the album, the Stones aren't trying to repeat themselves or recapture any past glories—but they are remembering their roots, and channeling the passion, ambition and musical chemistry that initially propelled them to superstardom. © Annie Zaleski/Qobuz

It's a running joke that every album released by the Rolling Stones is the band's "best since X," where X represents a random release from their extensive back catalog. Unsurprisingly, Hackney Diamonds has already received similar plaudits and comparisons. But the Stones' first full-length of original songs since 2005's A Bigger Bang can't really be compared to anything they've done before—namely because it's the first Stones album recorded (for the most part) without drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021. Watts does add his trademark crisp, jazzy swing to a pair of highlights: the strutting "Mess It Up" and swaggering boogie-rocker "Live by the Sword." (On the latter, former bassist Bill Wyman also contributes a grimy low end and Elton John adds freewheeling piano.) Elsewhere on Hackney Diamonds, Watts' hand-picked drumming replacement Steve Jordan anchors the rhythm section with his looser approach—a perfect match for big-sky rockers like the saxophone-augmented, funk-tinted "Get Close."But even with the lineup change, Hackney Diamonds feels like classic Stones—no asterisk needed. The album brims with familiar signifiers: fiery guitar interplay between Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood; an abundance of Jagger-Richards songwriting credits; and Jagger's inimitable vocals, which veer between spitfire sleaze and tender balladeer. Musically, Hackney Diamonds also spans the entire Stones continuum. "Dreamy Skies" is the kind of laid-back country rocker the band excel at writing; the string-swept "Depending on You" occupies a more introspective space; and "Driving Me Too Hard" is 1970s-era honky-tonking. On "Tell Me Straight," Richards even takes a turn on lead vocals. So what's the secret to Hackney Diamonds? Avowed Stones superfan Andrew Watt produced the album, which was an inspired choice: Watt pushes the Stones to play to their strengths and not rely on cliches. Hackney Diamonds' guests are also a welcome presence. Paul McCartney contributes bass to the barnstorming "Bite My Head Off," while the torchy power ballad centerpiece "Sweet Sounds of Heaven" includes keyboards and piano from Stevie Wonder and towering vocals from Lady Gaga. Fittingly, Hackney Diamonds ends with a song that's long featured into the Stones' mythology: a cover of Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone" (here called "Rolling Stone Blues"). The Stones' performance is raw and unfiltered, with shuffling harmonica and unpolished Jagger vocals; it sounds more like a low-key jam session than a high-gloss studio work. "Rolling Stone Blues" also gets to the heart of why Hackney Diamonds works so well: On the album, the Stones aren't trying to repeat themselves or recapture any past glories—but they are remembering their roots, and channeling the passion, ambition and musical chemistry that initially propelled them to superstardom. © Annie Zaleski/Qobuz

Sometime after the Rolling Stones wrapped up their 2022 tour -- the second they completed since the 2021 death of their drummer Charlie Watts -- Mick Jagger decided the band had spent enough time working on their first record of original material since 2005's A Bigger Bang. Jagger gave Keith Richards, the only other surviving founding member of the Stones left in the band, a deadline of Valentine's Day 2023 for wrapping up the sessions that had been dragging on for years. The ultimatum worked: by October of that year, the Stones released Hackney Diamonds, their first collection of new songs in 18 years. The album doesn't entirely consist of material the Stones cut early in 2023 -- two tracks feature Charlie Watts, including "Live by the Sword," which has original bassist Bill Wyman guesting on a Stones record for the first time in 30 years -- yet it bears the unmistakable imprint of a record delivered on a deadline. There's little hesitation, no thoughtful pondering here: Hackney Diamonds just barrels ahead with a clean efficiency. Although they're largely working with a new producer -- Andrew Watt, who came recommended by Paul McCartney -- the Rolling Stones don't attempt new tricks anywhere on Hackney Diamonds, save maybe "Whole Wide World," whose bizarre neo-new wave vibe gets odder thanks to Jagger singing in an exaggerated cockney accent. Even that is a slight nod to the band's mall-rat rock of the early '80s, one of many different guises the Rolling Stones adopt over the course of Hackney Diamonds. While a good portion of the record is devoted to straight-ahead rock & roll, they also find space for ragged country ("Dreamy Skies") and acoustic blues ("Rolling Stone Blues"), not to mention "Sweet Sounds of Heaven," a showstopping ballad featuring Lady Gaga. That track is a good indication of how Hackney Diamonds plays. At first, it seems like a solid evocation of "Beast of Burden," but it's a slow burn, a song that sounds stronger with each repeated listen. So is of the rest of Hackney Diamonds. Because it has no grand conceptual hook and because the Stones so thoroughly integrate their superstar guests -- not only are Gaga and Wyman here but so are Stevie Wonder, Elton John, and McCartney -- it doesn't overwhelm upon an initial listen the way the lengthy Voodoo Lounge or A Bigger Bang do; that small scale is its strength. At its heart, it's nothing more than the Rolling Stones knocking out some good Rolling Stones songs, which seems like a minor miracle after such a long wait.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Instant-classic debut from the English rock band that introduced the world to the Gallagher brothers.© TiVo

GRRR Live! captures the December 15, 2012 concert the Rolling Stones held at Newark's Prudential Center as part of their 50 & Counting Tour. GRRR!, the multi-format 50th Anniversary compilation, was barely a month old at the time, hence the title of this belated 2023 release: the Stones were out hawking their hits, so why not name it after a comp few remember a decade later? As the concert was originally designed as a pay-per-view extravaganza, the show is packed with guest stars, ranging from the Stones' old mate Mick Taylor playing on "Midnight Rambler" and New Jersey's own home state hero Bruce Springsteen jamming on "Tumbling Dice" to young guns Black Keys, Lady Gaga, and Gary Clark, Jr. & John Mayer. The set list offers few surprises -- if you don't recognize a song, that's because it's a new tune added to GRRR! -- but the Stones are in fine form, never seeming tired of playing the hits in a fashion that guarantees a splendid time for one and all. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

B.B. King hasn't made many better pop-flavored albums than this. Besides making Leon Russell's "Hummingbird" sound like his own composition, King showed that you can put the blues into any situation and make it work. Joining King here were Leon Russell, Joe Walsh and Carole King; several pop luminaries who did more than just hang on for the ride. © Ron Wynn /TiVo

As the title implies, this is indeed Bob Marley & the Wailers captured in performance at the Lyceum Ballroom in London during the final U.K. leg of the Natty Dread tour. Passionate and symbiotic energies constantly cycle between the band and audience, the net result of which is one of the most memorable concert recordings of the pop music era. With the addition of lead guitarist Al Anderson during the recording sessions for their previous long-player, Natty Dread, the Wailers took increasing strides toward a seamless transition into the consciousness of the rock music audience. Anderson's bluesy guitar runs liberate "Burnin' and Lootin'" as well as "Trenchtown Rock," the only new composition on Live! Anderson bobs and weaves his supple-toned fretwork among the somewhat staid rhythms common to reggae. The mutual affinity that binds Marley with his audience is evident in the roars of approval that greet the opening notes of "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)," "I Shot the Sheriff," and "Kinky Reggae." Likewise, "No Woman, No Cry" elicits a group singalong as the sheer volume of the audience challenges that of the amplified musicians. With this evidence, there is no denying that Bob Marley & the Wailers were becoming the unlikeliest of pop music icons. Additionally, Live! underscores the underrated talents of the Wailers as musicians. Older works such as "Burnin' and Lootin'" and "I Shot the Sheriff" benefit greatly from Tyrone Downie's keyboard punctuation and the soulful backing vocals of the I-Threes.© Lindsay Planer /TiVo

Beth Hart commands the stage with just one click of her fingers! The Californian tigress is still as feisty as ever without getting caught up in the clichés. In this live performance recorded on May 4th 2018 in London’s most prestigious setting, the Royal Albert Hall, she sets up her very own cabaret mixing blues, jazz and vintage soul. A woman who honours Nina Simone, Howlin’ Wolf, Dinah Washington, Buddy Guy and so many other key personalities of rhythm’n’blues, she shows us the full extent of her talent during this two-hour show. With a microphone to hand or sat behind her piano, what impresses us most is Beth Hart’s ability to mix all her musical influences and produce one very personal cocktail. Her secret? Her voice, of course. A kind of unstoppable magnet that pulls every word, every sentence, every chorus and which is made even more powerful by her contact with the audience. © Clotilde Maréchal/Qobuz

Early in March 1977, the Rolling Stones played a pair of surprise shows at the El Mocambo, a 300-seat club in Toronto. The purpose of the gigs, the only concerts they played in 1977, was to generate source material for a live album that turned out to be Love You Live. Only four tracks from the El Mocambo performances showed up on Love You Live, amounting to a side of blues covers on that double-LP. A full album's worth of El Mocambo recordings circulated as a bootleg for years, but the overdue 2022 official release contains the entirety of the second night's show along with three bonus tracks from the first night, amounting to a whopping 23 tracks. Such an exhaustive portrait is welcome as Live at the El Mocambo does represent a bit of an odd moment for the Stones: it captures them caught between the over-sized jam session Black and Blue and the audacious revitalization of Some Girls, a period where Ron Wood was just getting his sea legs. Wood encouraged the group to play a bunch of blues standards and they agreed, balancing these chestnuts with some of their own oldies ("Let's Spend the Night Together," "Brown Sugar," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Honky Tonk Women"), a good chunk of Black and Blue and It's Only Rock N Roll, plus "Worried About You," a ballad that sat on the shelf until Tattoo You. This means Live at the El Mocambo presents the Stones as something between a hard-working club band and conquering heroes hawking their latest ware; the set list is very much of its time, lacking such warhorses as "Satisfaction" and "Street Fighting Man," and it's better for it. The Stones often sound as if they're enjoying hunkering down on a smaller stage, giving enthusiastic performances that avoid sloppiness. It adds up to a gas, a record that belongs alongside Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! and Brussels Affair as among the best official live Stones albums.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

With electric guitar ace Joe Bonamassa strongly inspired by blues and blues-oriented six-stringers (e.g., Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter), many of his fans would politely pester him about recording a disc of blues standards. Originally done as a lark, the results of such a session were deemed by Bonamassa good enough to be released -- hence, Blues Deluxe, on which he covers some lesser-known songs and includes three originals. Of course, his fierce, scorching guitar is center stage. If axemen such as Peter Green, Rory Gallagher, and Buddy Guy are your cup of tea, this Deluxe item is a necessity. © Mark Keresman /TiVo

When does an artist morph from being current to nostalgia? It's an often imperceptible evolution that can happen almost overnight. Back in 2010, when this album was first released, old friends and musical contemporaries Carole King and James Taylor were fast approaching that turn. And yet this pair of indispensable American singer/songwriters were still in fine voice and even more buoyant spirits during these shows which judging by the crowd reaction, were a rousing success. Capturing highlights from three 2007 shows at the legendary (and still open) Troubadour in West Hollywood, these shows were meant to celebrate the club's 50th anniversary, and also its history with King and Taylor, who once laid the foundations of their respective careers there. In 1969 prior to her first solo release Writer, King played piano in Taylor's band during a six-night residency at the club. The next year they returned to co-headline a multi-night stand. Their appearance in 2007, using the same band as those original gigs—Danny Kortchmar (guitar), Leland Sklar (bass) and Russ Kunkel (drums)—were a love fest for the fans and performers alike, igniting the subsequent 2010 Troubadour Reunion Tour which touched down in the US, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The big news with this reissue is that for the first time it's available in 96 kHz/24-bit high resolution. While live albums will never be noted for their pristine sound, the increased level of detail, hearing the resonances of the room for the first time and the newly crisped edges to the overall production are a welcome improvement. Needless to say, finding suitable material was not this duo's problem. The dilemma quickly became which songs not to play. Adopting the your song-my song method of a guitar pull they swing back and forth between originals. No disrespect to Taylor but King's songs, many from her 1971 breakthrough, Tapestry, are hard to top. While not the singer she was in 1970, King delivers a first-class rendition of "It's Too Late" which is spiced by a tight Danny Kortchmar solo. "Smackwater Jack," with King playing barrelhouse piano licks, becomes even more of a head-bobbing, toe-tapping stomp than the original. She reaches back, giving a slow performance of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" her 1960 hit for the Shirelles, in which Taylor sings a duet in the chorus. Wise performers that they are, they save the big fireworks for the finale: Taylor works his way through a slow-paced "Fire and Rain," King adds the necessary snap to "I Feel the Earth Move" before Taylor volleys back with "You've Got a Friend" where King takes a verse and sings duet in the choruses on a song that opened side two of Tapestry. In closing, they trade verses on King's "Up On The Roof," a 1962 hit for The Drifters, and sing a duet on Taylor's "You Can Close Your Eyes," which seems a bit anticlimactic and mournful for a friendly performance—akin to listening to '70s FM Radio—from aging old pros which is anything but. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

Recorded live on the 1989 Steel Wheels tour, this compilation documents the Rolling Stones' explosive show in Atlantic City, New Jersey. With guest appearances including Axl Rose and Eric Clapton, the project highlights the excitement of the band's return to touring.© David Crone /TiVo

The basic Blondie sextet was augmented, or replaced, by numerous session musicians (including lots of uncredited horn and string players) for the group's fifth album, Autoamerican, on which they continued to expand their stylistic range, with greater success, at least on certain tracks, than they had on Eat to the Beat. A cover of Jamaican group the Paragons' "The Tide Is High," released in advance of the album, became a gold-selling number one single, as did the rap pastiche "Rapture," but, despite their presence, the album stalled in the lower half of the Top Ten and spent fewer weeks in the charts than either of its predecessors. One reason for that, admittedly, was that Chrysalis Records pulled promotion of the disc in favor of pushing lead singer Debbie Harry's debut solo album, KooKoo, not even bothering to release a third single after scoring two chart-topping hits. But then, it's hard to imagine what that third single could have been on an album that leads off with a pretentious string-filled instrumental ("Europa"), and also finds Harry crooning ersatz '20s pop on "Here's Looking at You" and tackling Broadway show music in a cover of "Follow Me" from Camelot. Though more characteristic, the rest of the tracks are weak compositions indifferently executed. Thus Autoamerican was memorable only for its hits, which would be better heard when placed on a hits compilation.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Guitarist Joe Bonamassa was opening for B.B. King when he was only eight years old and was a veteran of the road and gigging by the time he was 12, so it’s tempting to toss him in the all flash but no soul prodigy trash bin that has been filling up pretty well since Stevie Ray Vaughan shuffled off to blues heaven -- but that would be a big mistake. Bonamassa has soul, plenty of it, and he plays guitar with a reverent grace, and sometimes lost in all this is that he’s a pretty good singer, too, sounding more than a little bit like a reconstituted Paul Rodgers. His stunning headline show from the Royal Albert Hall, which featured guest spots by Eric Clapton and Paul Jones, was released in 2009 on DVD, and download versions of the songs have been available for a while, but this two-disc set marks the first official release of the concert as an album in and of itself, and it’s simply wonderful, full of great guitar playing, solid singing, and with a horn section and double drummers on board, the sound is full and even majestic. Bonamassa is the real deal, and tracks here like the elegant opener “Django,” “The Ballad of John Henry,” the marvelous cover of Charley Patton's “High Water Everywhere,” and a shifting, sprawling workout on Rod Stewart's “Blues Deluxe” show a musician at the top of his game, one who has learned that a guitar lead should serve the song and not the other way around. Bonamassa isn’t some kid prodigy anymore -- he’s grown up into one of the most soulful blues-rock performers on the planet. There’s plenty of proof of that here. © Steve Leggett /TiVo

Verve Records have released a live album, recorded on November 26th 1961 at New York’s famous jazz club, Village Gate. On stage are Stan Getz and his new quartet comprising of pianist Steve Kuhn, double bass player John Neves and drummer Roy Haynes. Although the recordings were set aside after that night and had ended up in the record company’s archives, 58 years later, they have now re-emerged with flawless sound. Getz at the Gate understandably arouses much interest as the saxophonist’s artistic direction throughout the entirety of the 2 hours 20-minute concert is one that he did not pursue thereafter.Getz formed this new group having just returned from Europe and its more modern and aggressive sound was most likely influenced by John Coltrane’s quartet in which Kuhn played. But in 1962, his album with guitarist Charlie Byrd was a hit, sparking the trend for bossa nova-infused jazz and propelling Getz not only down other stylistic paths but also to the top of the charts with numerous albums with Luiz Bonfá, João Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astrud Gilberto. Getz at the Gate is quite clearly light years away from this exoticism but is still far from the Getz bop, cool or West Coast jazz from his early days. Here, in a highly effective post-bop style, he revisits tracks played during the 1950s such as When The Sun Comes Out, Like Someone in Love and even Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most and Roy Haynes’ drumming ties everything together brilliantly, as always. Of course, the four men also show their admiration for Coltrane by taking on his legendary Impressions. In short - a previously unreleased and utterly thrilling concert. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz