Like its creator, Kamasi Washington's triple album debut, The Epic, is imposing, multi-faceted and aspiring to change music forever. A close collaborator with fellow innovative Angelenos Stephen Bruner (Thundercat), Steven Ellison (Flying Lotus) and Kendrick Lamar, Washington's evolved vision mixes bebop, soul jazz, old school organ trio R&B, space jazz and fusion à la Miles Davis. At the center of this prismatic, conscious-expanding maelstrom is Washington's bodacious horn whose tone and approach can by turns be compared to the playing of Azar Lawrence, Pharoah Sanders and especially John Coltrane. The musical forces assembled to energize Washington's intuitive, spiritual meld are truly Herculean. Supported by Thundercat, keyboardists Cameron Graves and Brandon Coleman, trombones, trumpets and more, Washington, who also served as producer, worked a string section, a 20-voice choir and solo vocalist Patrice Quinn into his futuristic arrangements. Despite overdubbing by the project's six engineers, the sonic results are sleek and uncluttered. The diverse flavors here vary with each tune. Introduced by Coleman's organ, "Final Thought" mixes funk and post-bop with Washington's nimble honking. The swing rhythms and wordless vocal choir of "The Next Step" show the results of his time with innovative big band leader Gerald Wilson. Unadulterated fun is the object of the 70's funk groove, "Re Run Home." For those who doubt his connection to music history there's the one-two punch of the standard "Cherokee" and his soaring re-imagining of a movement of Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune." While one can quibble that perhaps three discs is too much of a good thing, it's clear from the assured first notes of the aptly-titled opener "Change of the Guard" that Washington is a musical mystic who's fused his wisdoms and exposures into a debut that's not a product of the insular jazz bubble, nor an au courant hip hop-jazz mashup, but three hours that somehow sound old and new in the same moment—a virtuosic musical statement, one constantly verging on genius. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

A tie-in to the exhaustive 2013 box set Sound System, the 2013 compilation The Clash Hits Back is a novel approach to a career retrospective: it mirrors the 24-song set list for the band's July 19, 1982 concert at Brixton Fairdeal, then adds eight bonus hits at the end. The Clash Hits Back slightly tweaks the running order of the original set -- "Bankrobber" arrived five songs into the concert but appears eighth here -- but that doesn't matter much, as this swap doesn't alter the impact of the original set. The Clash were plugging Combat Rock so songs from that LP -- the singles "Rock the Casbah," "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" and "Straight to Hell," plus "Ghetto Defendant" and "Know Your Rights," adding up to just under half the album -- sit alongside a heavy chunk of London Calling and early hits, plus a few stabs at Sandinista!. What's added at the end is a mix of their high-octane early material ("White Riot," "Complete Control," "Clash City Rockers," Tommy Gun," "English Civil War") and their more adventurous studio recordings ("The Call Up," "Hitsville UK," "This Is Radio Clash"), adding up to a strong overview of all the band could do.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Belgium's dream pop trio Hooverphonic has seemed to creatively move beyond their icy smooth seascape found on 1998's Blue Wonder Power Milk and shift into a darkwave mood on their third full-length, The Magnificent Tree. Classic embryonic vocalic beauty from Geike Arnaert still carries the translucence of the band's signature ethereality, and she shines as hard as she did on the band's previous releases. However, musical composition on songs such as "Pink Fluffy Dinosaurs" and "Frosted Flake Wood" are more intricate and sonically defined. Chief songwriter and programmer Alex Callier and guitarist Raymond Geerts aim for abstract theatrics; multi-instrumentation is brooding and creeping, but Hooverphonic's distinct maturation cannot overshadow the gorgeous, flowing soundscapes they previously laid down. It's not disheartening by any means, for Hooverphonic does compose an attractive depiction of revamped new wave elements and twisted synth-pop in the face of new millennium teendom. They are far from manufactured label-conscious musical fascism, yet still are represented by a major label. But staying true to the Julee Cruise-like ambience, songs such as "Out of Sight" and "Mad About You" are thoroughly dramatic and make for an illustrious listen. The Magnificent Tree has not completely ignored the musical mystery, and the listener shouldn't forget such mastery while Hooverphonic's cultivation had to be perfectly split.© MacKenzie Wilson /TiVo

With just one exception, Donny Hathaway's second full-length is a covers album, featuring one of the most pop-averse artists in soul music surprisingly offering interpretations of contemporary hit material like "A Song for You," "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother," "Magnificent Sanctuary Band," and (most effectively) "Put Your Hand in the Hand," a laidback yet rolling, gospel-choir version of the song he was born to sing. In striking contrast to his debut, Donny Hathaway is a very dark record, and it opens on a particularly low note, with "Giving Up" (a 1964 R&B hit for Gladys Knight & the Pips). Most of Hathaway's performances are slow, piano-led laments, powerfully delivered but with little melodic sway to convert listeners. It's no coincedence then, that the only up-tempo song, "Magnificent Sanctuary Band," is the standout. "Little Girl" is a nice piece of gospel testifying with great male harmonizing on the chorus, and "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" is a solid rendering of a song usually drenched in pathos. Still, whereas Everything Is Everything saw him leading the choir up in the front of church, Donny Hathaway sounds like the lament of a man alone in the sanctuary after services are finished.© John Bush /TiVo

As the concept of "fourth world" music was inaugurated by Jon Hassell and indigenous music was embraced by the record industry, Steve Roach was visiting Australia, gathering the sonic food he needed to cook up this incomparable recording. With this double-disc set containing over two hours of music, Roach reached a plateau both in his musical evolution and within the genre that has yet to be eclipsed. Reveling in a near-seamless blend of organic and electronic sound worlds, Roach constructs a number of mini-epics that sonically reflect the Aborigine mystique, filtered through a collage of didgeridoos, incongruous samples from the deep outback, and other manners of unidentifiable electronic textures. Cloaked in the infinite tempest of ancient ritual, tracks such as "A Circular Ceremony" and "The Other Side" suggest not just primordial riddles or sacred ceremonial rites, but rather they touch on emotions that resonate across all cultural and ethnographic boundaries. Atmospheres suggest unknown flora and fauna developing their own febrile environments. Grooves percolate from hand-struck drums that are in turn programmed into multi-sequenced events, while samples of mysterious origin sparkle and flare out of vast, twilight regions. Undoubtedly Roach's first true masterpiece. © Rovi Staff /TiVo

Nat King Cole possessed one of the most accessible and appealing voices of any singer in the 1950s. This ballad-oriented set puts the emphasis completely on his voice (there is no piano playing or any hint of his jazz-oriented past) and features Cole accompanied by Gordon Jenkins' sweet arrangements for a string orchestra. Many other singers might find it difficult to overcome, much less uplift this type of accompaniment, but Cole's basic and honest delivery works quite well in this setting. Highlights include "The Very Thought of You," "But Beautiful," "This Is All I Ask," "For All We Know," and "The More I See You."© Scott Yanow /TiVo

Over the span of almost three decades, Scottish indie rock stalwarts Travis have persevered, both holding faithful to the sound that they helped break into the U.K. mainstream in the '90s and rocking long enough to watch their sonic progeny spread their wings and fly off in various artistic directions (see: Coldplay, Keane, Snow Patrol). And through it all, Travis remained reliable, seldom veering too far from the center. On their eighth album, Everything at Once -- a long-form commentary on modern life in the 21st century -- they revive familiar sounds and also push themselves into more cheerful and unencumbered directions. Vocalist Fran Healy's voice remains tender as ever on plaintive throwbacks like the strumming "All of the Places" and the warm "What Will Come," both of which would fit seamlessly on The Man Who or The Invisible Band. Rougher-edged moments like the '90s nostalgic "Radio Song" and the Muse-lite Wild West epic "Paralysed" sidle up nicely with the darker 12 Memories or Ode to J.Smith, their heaviest album to date. The highlights are the three most surprising tracks on Everything. "Magnificent Time" -- inspired, in part, by Keane's Tim Rice-Oxley -- is a positively ebullient number that bursts with joy. Within the Travis discography, it's a bit jolting -- think "Selfish Jean" with a lot more sunshine -- but the band's happiness is infectious. The title track, penned by bassist Dougie Payne, injects a funky strut to the album, with a slinky bassline and speak-singing reminiscent of Achtung Baby/Zooropa-era U2. "Idlewild," a magical duet with English singer/songwriter Josephine Oniyama, pops up toward the end of the album. There's a slightly disconcerting tone, despite the gorgeous manner in which Healy and Oniyama trade off verses, like a less scary version of Nick Cave's Murder Ballad duet with Kylie Minogue. The album closes with the uplifting radio-ready U2-meets-OneRepublic "Strangers on a Train." All at once, it reflects both the bands that influenced them and the ones that they have influenced over the years. The album's title may refer to modern society's urge for instant gratification, but it also provides a symbolic nod to what Travis have done over the course of their career. Everything at Once is their liveliest and most lighthearted effort to date, a celebration of both their legacy and their maturity.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

These energized tracks make it clear that COVID-19's enforced isolation sparked fresh inspiration in Elvis Costello to rediscover his trademark urgency, not to mention his gifts for wordplay and melody. From the spirited, Beatlesque opener, "Farewell OK" (which has echoes of the bounce of "Welcome to the Working Week") fans of his songwriting and performances from the past will be pleased. This is the Costello you remember and want to hear again. In "The Difference" where he asks, "Do you know what turns pleasure to plight?" an insistent beat and touch of Vox organ make for the kind of driving, New Wave pop tune he mastered forty years ago. Costello's lifelong fascination with roses (see 1991's Mighty Like a Rose) returns to tell a dreamlike story of, as he has explained, "a bereft couple … one of whom has long invited and courted theatrical darkness only for its violence and cruelty to become all too real." Set to a determined walking beat and with Steve Nieve leaning into the organ "Magnificent Hurt" resurrects much of Costello's need to testify! And it's impossible to mistake the autobiography of the title track, a man Costello describes as an "imaginary friend" and a "second, unpleasant nature." The Boy Named If is also that rare pandemic record that sounds as if it was recorded with the band all together in the same room. A trio of strengths buoy the songs here: Costello's impassioned vocal takes—he's able to hit all the high notes, with his conspiratorial growl and rising cries both in top form; the twisting, often opaque rhymes that have always been his specialty are again in high gear, as in this couplet from "Mistook Me for a Friend"—"I count my money out/ To pay for contraband/ I carry velvet gloves/ 'Cause the black gets on your hands;" and most powerfully, Pete Thomas' incredible drumming. To repeat the adage, Thomas sounds like "a man possessed." Located forward in the mix, his clattering, fleet, forceful rhythms—always fringed with just a dash of punk rock abandon as in "The Death of Magical Thinking"—are the album's bedrock and most pronounced musical flavor. There are of course lesser moments like "Penelope Halfpenny" which sounds like an idea that never quite gelled or perhaps is the sonic result of the remote recording process. Another inevitable side effect of this method are the sometimes abrupt endings that suddenly trail off or just stop after a chorus. Slowing to a close with a pair of ballads, including "Mr. Crescent" where his voice holds up well under close miking, The Boy Named If is Elvis Costello doing classic Elvis Costello, a glorious return from an enduring songwriting talent. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

If the grunge revolution hadn't occurred in the early '90s, there's a chance that Thunder would have followed the likes of Whitesnake and Bon Jovi up the charts. Already blowing up back home in the U.K. (with their 1990 debut Backstreet Symphony), the group enjoyed some spins on Headbanger's Ball in the U.S., and made admirers the likes of David Coverdale and Axl Rose. But unlike most of the other similarly styled metal bands that seemed to vanish during the early to mid-'90s, Thunder continued to issue albums and 2005 saw the release of The Magnificent Seventh!. Unlike some other acts from the hair metal era who decided to update their sound upon returning to the scene in the early 21st century, Thunder continue on in the melodic rock direction they've followed all along, as evidenced by such tracks as "I Love You More Than Rock n' Roll" and "Monkey See, Monkey Do."© Greg Prato /TiVo

Recordings on this, the Guy Garvey-fronted, Mancunian indie act's first live album are culled from two same-day October 2019 performances in a hometown venue at which they first performed in 2001. The Ritz provides an intimate setting in which the band deliver pared-down readings of material from their canon, including tracks from Giants of All Sizes, the studio LP released only days prior to these performances.© James Wilkinson /TiVo