The return to form that began on 2016's Dystopia continues with The Sick, the Dying...and the Dead!, the 16th studio album from metal institution Megadeth. As with Dystopia, Megadeth ringleader Dave Mustaine and his bandmates focus on precision thrash, this time around turning in a tighter, cleaner batch of songs that feel both intently focused and streamlined for maximum intensity. The time leading up to the album wasn't an easy one for the band, however, and the six years that passed between the last record and this one stand as the longest time between new material in the band's nearly 40-year history. The turbulent time spent working on The Sick included not just Mustaine being diagnosed with and aggressively treated for throat cancer but also Megadeth co-founder and bassist David Ellefson leaving the band due to his involvement in a sex scandal. The hard-fought nature of this particular chapter in the band's development can be heard in the songs, which are, for the most part, no-nonsense ragers marked by the kind of technical perfection the band made their name on in the '80s and '90s. After the title track opens the album with a somewhat conceptual, meandering arrangement, Megadeth gets right down to business with the speedy and powerful "Life in Hell," a song that matches the snarling menace of anything in the band's catalog. New drummer Dirk Verbeuren makes his debut on The Sick, and his economical but relentless playing is a huge factor in the direct force that defines the album. Six-and-a-half-minute mini-epic "Night Stalkers" is a swarm of riffs and Mustaine's well-established war imagery, with an unexpected voiceover cameo from Ice-T. The band stays primarily in full-on mode, with sinister blasters like "We'll Be Back" and "Celebutante" giving way to only slightly less brutal workouts like the creeping "Killing Time," which includes one of the album's most masterfully constructed breakdowns. Mustaine has sounded angry and irritated on almost every song he's ever recorded, but the bile is a little thicker on The Sick. It's a tense and impatient record, even by Megadeth's standards, and re-affirms the band's status as completely essential metal deities who are still operating on a level of excellence most of their peers fell from decades ago. © Fred Thomas /TiVo

Listening to The Band is like contemplating old sepia pictures of America: it means hearing the sounds of a rock'n'roll brimming with its classical influences: blues, folk, country, jazz... After accompanying Bob Dylan in the studio and on stage, the Canadian gang led by Robbie Robertson put out their first album in high summer 1968. The record was cooked up in the Woodstock house they dubbed Big Pink. Out of step with other albums of its day, Music From Big Pink with its sleeve painted by Dylan himself, packs some timeless gems: The Weight, This Wheel's On Fire, Chest Fever, Tears Of Rage… Country in silk shirts, folk fused with jazz, old-timey waltzes and roots rock, this long meander prefigures Americana... Above all, this is a collective work – they don't call it The Band for nothing – and from bassist Rick Danko to drummer Levon Helm via pianists Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel, and Robertson on guitar, everyone brings a stone of their own to build this major edifice of American rock. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

After experimenting with synthesizers and a pop sound on his solo debut, Don Henley hits the mark on his sophomore release, Building the Perfect Beast. This album established Henley as an artist in his own right after many successful years with the Eagles, as it spawned numerous hits. While the songs seem crafted for pop radio, it's hard to fault him for choosing arrangements that would get his messages to the masses. Unlike most pop in the 1980s, however, Henley had deep intellectual themes layered beneath the synthesizer sounds and crisp production. In the opening song "Boys of Summer," he talks about trying to recapture the past while knowing that things will never be the same. Henley has a gift for writing about the heart and soul of America and for mixing his love for the country and small-town life ("Sunset Grill") with cynicism about government ("All She Wants to Do Is Dance") and modernization ("Month of Sundays"). Although the politics and the sound of the album make the decade of release easy to place, Henley's earnest delivery and universal messages give many of the tracks a timeless feel, which is no small feat. This is Henley's most consistent album, and it is the place to start for those wanting to sample his solo work.© Vik Iyengar /TiVo

Listening to The Band is like contemplating old sepia pictures of America: it means hearing the sounds of a rock'n'roll brimming with its classical influences: blues, folk, country, jazz... After accompanying Bob Dylan in the studio and on stage, the Canadian gang led by Robbie Robertson put out their first album in high summer 1968. The record was cooked up in the Woodstock house they dubbed Big Pink. Out of step with other albums of its day, Music From Big Pink with its sleeve painted by Dylan himself, packs some timeless gems: The Weight, This Wheel's On Fire, Chest Fever, Tears Of Rage… Country in silk shirts, folk fused with jazz, old-timey waltzes and roots rock, this long meander prefigures Americana... Above all, this is a collective work – they don't call it The Band for nothing – and from bassist Rick Danko to drummer Levon Helm via pianists Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel, and Robertson on guitar, everyone brings a stone of their own to build this major edifice of American rock. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

« If the concept of "world music" has established itself in recent years, then Steve Tibbetts must be included in the list of pioneers. This is his fourth album, and it would be hard to imagine a more adventurously eclectic record. The elements of Tibbetts' music are truly pan-global. Consider the instruments: the acoustic guitar is of Spanish origin; the electric guitar and electric bass are recent American inventions; the kalimba is African; the tabla Indian; the steel drum and the various percussion instruments are from Latin America. Some of these instruments are very old while others are virtually brand new. And Tibbetts' techniques — especially his use of tape manipulation and multi-track recording — are based on very recent technology. Tibbetts' music, like the instruments he uses, is culturally diverse. Like Kip Hanrahan, he is a composer / conceptualizer whose ideas are not contained within conventional musical boundaries. Unlike Hanrahan, Tibbetts is the chief instrumentalist in his work, and his compositions are based on the multi-tracking of his guitar and kalimba parts. [...] If the album has a flaw, it is that some of the pieces are too brief — they end just as you are being drawn into them. But, overall, Tibbetts' music has a persuasive charm that grows on one with repeated listenings. It encourages you to listen and hear in new ways, and that is one of the best things any music can do.» (Downbeat review : Four and 1/2 stars) 

Instead of repeating the formula that made Elton John a success, John and Bernie Taupin attempted their most ambitious record to date for the follow-up to their breakthrough. A loose concept album about the American West, Tumbleweed Connection emphasized the pretensions that always lay beneath their songcraft. Half of the songs don't follow conventional pop song structures; instead, they flow between verses and vague choruses. These experiments are remarkably successful, primarily because Taupin's lyrics are evocative and John's melodic sense is at its best. As should be expected for a concept album about the Wild West, the music draws from country and blues in equal measures, ranging from the bluesy choruses of "Ballad of a Well-Known Gun" and the modified country of "Country Comfort" to the gospel-inflected "Burn Down the Mission" and the rolling, soulful "Amoreena." Paul Buckmaster manages to write dramatic but appropriate string arrangements that accentuate the cinematic feel of the album.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Three years would pass between OU812 and 1991's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Not only was that the longest gap between Van Halen albums to date, but that time period also saw the world collectively turn from the stadium rock of Van Halen to the upcoming alternative rock revolution; Nevermind would be released three months after Unlawful, but the winds of change were blowing briskly while Van Halen spent a year (!) recording this album. The Van Halen that emerged was a dramatically changed one—complexity and intensity replaced riffs and swagger, and there's an uncomfortably melodramatic seriousness to even the dumb numbers ("Spanked" is about phone sex but it's more dour than dirty). Of course, this is the album on which Eddie plays guitar with a drill ("Poundcake"), as well as the home of two mega-hits "Right Now" and "Top of the World" (which are both, incredibly, sequenced at the album's close), but it's otherwise a slog to listen to, as dense as it is unremarkable.  © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the official score for the first stand-alone installment in the Star Wars anthology film series by Michael Giacchino. Being the first composer since John Williams to apply his skills to a Star Wars movie, Giacchino introduces a fresh and revised musical palette with overtones and flavors of Williams’ much revered scores. Comprising cascading brass sections, nostalgic string motifs, and huge, bombastic percussion, the score also incorporates some of Williams’ best-known themes such as "The Imperial March" and "The Force Theme."© Rob Wacey /TiVo