Who can say from which percentage of various influences a band loses its affiliations to this or that category? Up to now labelled as “death metal”, including on their own Facebook page, Rivers of Nihil took so many liberties on their third album that the fervent zealots of the genre are likely to be somewhat confused. But you have to remember that the late Chuck Schuldiner founded the band with (the aptly named) Death in a spirit of open-mindedness that extended from classical music to jazz and that, since, a lot of water has passed under the bridge crossed by Possessed, Opeth and so many others… You could thus ask yourself why the band from Reading, Pennsylvania, distances itself so much from those who came before it in the more adventurous subcategories of death metal (technical, melodic…). And the answer is more than obvious in each and every corner of this incredibly rich album.Not only the musicians would allow themselves to do almost everything, but they do it with insolent ease and perfection. Aside from the essential codes from its original genre, they include elements that we didn’t have the pleasure to hear since the best of fusion, ambient or progressive rock from the 70s… We’ll look in vain for an error in the aerial guitar solos worthy of Gilmour or the delicate arpeggios from Brody Uttley and Jon Topore (Capricorn / Agoratopia, Hollow...), the vocal parts alternating between growl and ultra-melodic singing from Jake Dieffenbach (Where Owls Know My Name...), the vertiginous blast beats from Jared Klein (A Home, Old Nothing, Death is Real...), the jazzy bass lines from Adam Biggs (Subtle Change (Including the Forest of Transition and Dissatisfaction Dance), the interventions from the brass instruments starting as soon as the incredible The Silent Life (or even in Terrestria III: Wither...), not forgetting, almost everywhere, the silky synth pads, or the soaring of the violins and other perfectly calibrated tempo changes of tempo… You would have to go back to the beginnings of Dream Theater, a little more than 30 years ago, to find musicians who are so young but also possess a high level of skill and such a wide musical vocabulary, with a knowledge that goes beyond plain curiosity. And, like them, RON will probably make you want to go and listen to Pink Floyd, an assumed reference, but also to King Crimson, U.K. (with Allan Holdsworth), Soft Machine, Frank Zappa, Magma, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Devin Townsend and Porcupine Tree... Just for this laudable performance, they deserve true recognition. © Jean-Pierre Sabouret/Qobuz

Pusha T's slow crawl to a debut solo album included the killer mixtape Fear of God II: Let Us Pray, which sure seemed official, being released by Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music with major-label distribution. It stretched the definition of a mixtape fairly far, but West and his team are masters at using smoke and mirrors, as My Name Is My Name is a combination of right place and right time with the results being hot enough to burn up any rulebook. Here, the former Clipse member takes that crew's uncompromising stance into the post-Yeezus and post-Death Grips age with a claustrophobic and tight effort that roars. If ever an album could slap a listener, it's this one or Yeezus, but the big difference is that Pusha is pavement while West is penthouse. With this one, the streets keep rocking with cool and connectable moments, from an album title inspired by the television series The Wire to the idea of inviting Kelly Rowland over for the playful come-on "Let Me Love You" (Pusha offers "I know you think I'm the one, but who doesn't?," a flirty moment that would have never seemed possible while in Clipse). The Rowland cut neatly fits into an album that arcs up to its most approachable moment, because even when Big Sean and 2 Chainz show up on "Who I Am," the guaranteed 2013 hitmakers are thrown into an industrial hip-hop grinder, a challenging moment balanced by a simplistic hook right out of the Busta Rhymes playbook. "Sweet Serenade" is aptly titled, although even Chris Brown and Swizz Beatz can't pull Pusha from the edge, while "40 Acres" with the-Dream lives up to its guest's name as elegant and ethereal production meets the rapper at his most poignant ("Born to mothers who couldn't deal with us/Left by fathers who wouldn't build with us"). "S.N.I.T.C.H." with Pharrell brings some light Neptunes soul into this ominous universe, "Suicide" is a raw Clipse flashback mashing with stuttering electro trap music, and "Hold On" with Rick Ross tastes like well-aged port as an uncredited Kanye brings the sweetness with background singing while the downtrodden lyrics offer the bitter and give the song some serious body. With Pusha's pen at full force and his performance a proper combination of cold and tense, the album is as if Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury were atom-smashed into something more artful and unstable. My Name Is My Name is a remarkable and vital solo debut.© David Jeffries /TiVo

Most recordings of Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, a setting of texts and some original chants from the Russian Orthodox all-night vigil service, are Russian; the work includes sonorities that are unique to that vocal tradition. The U.S.-based Clarion Choir has specialized in Russian choral music, and they are a logical choice to take on this quite difficult work. With 32 members, the Clarion Choir is quite a bit smaller than the choir Rachmaninov would have heard and those that have performed the work since. Director Steven Fox wisely avoids trying to compete with the Russians on their own ground, instead forging a distinctive sound in which quieter passages are quite delicate. These contrast sharply with the almost gravelly vocal textures usually heard in the work, but in climactic passages, Fox gives his group a fascinating kind of focused power that carries a good deal of ecstatic emotion. Sample part X, "Having beheld the Resurrection," for an idea. The choir seems to enunciate clearly and to approach the text with a sense of commitment; it would be interesting to consult a speaker of Old Church Slavonic for an evaluation of the group's success in this regard, but there is much distinctively beautiful singing here in any case, and the sound engineering from New York's Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity is ideal. This release appeared on classical best-seller charts in early 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo

Depending on your count (namely, whether you choose to include 1999's I Wanna Be Santa Claus or not), What's My Name is the 20th album Ringo Starr has released as a solo artist, but the real telling part of that statistic is how eight of those records have been released in the 21st century. During the 2000s and 2010s, Ringo has been treating the recording studio like an extension of his All-Starr Band, inviting his celebrity friends in to have a laugh while playing a few tunes. Not much has changed with What's My Name, at least on the surface. Starr once again sits alone in the producer's chair, and he corrals a group that features a lot of familiar faces, including Joe Walsh, Steve Lukather, Nathan East, Benmont Tench, Dave Stewart, and Colin Hay. Ringo isn't shy about evoking the ghost of the Beatles, covering John Lennon's "Grow Old with Me," a choice that is a good bit more sensitive than a ham-fisted electronic reading of "Money" filled with clanky drum machines and vocoders. Grappling with the mayhem of modernity is an underlying theme of What's My Name, surfacing explicitly on the opening "Gotta Get Up to Get Down" when Joe Walsh announces himself by blustering "Everybody's on the internet, what's up with that?" Such grumbling and griping is drowned out by the good vibes. Ringo admits on the title track, "I can't get enough of peace and love/This is what I've come to understand," and there's a sense of gratitude flowing throughout What's My Name, apparent in "Magic," "Better Days," "Life Is Good," "Send Love, Spread Peace," and "Thank God for Music." Often, his good cheer comes across as corny, a situation accentuated by the big, bright surfaces -- it's the work of pros who are working at home, seeking only to please themselves. As the spirits are sunny and the songs tuneful, it's hard not to find What's My Name ingratiating, even though much of the album is so good-intentioned, it's silly.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Pusha T's slow crawl to a debut solo album included the killer mixtape Fear of God II: Let Us Pray, which sure seemed official, being released by Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music with major-label distribution. It stretched the definition of a mixtape fairly far, but West and his team are masters at using smoke and mirrors, as My Name Is My Name is a combination of right place and right time with the results being hot enough to burn up any rulebook. Here, the former Clipse member takes that crew's uncompromising stance into the post-Yeezus and post-Death Grips age with a claustrophobic and tight effort that roars. If ever an album could slap a listener, it's this one or Yeezus, but the big difference is that Pusha is pavement while West is penthouse. With this one, the streets keep rocking with cool and connectable moments, from an album title inspired by the television series The Wire to the idea of inviting Kelly Rowland over for the playful come-on "Let Me Love You" (Pusha offers "I know you think I'm the one, but who doesn't?," a flirty moment that would have never seemed possible while in Clipse). The Rowland cut neatly fits into an album that arcs up to its most approachable moment, because even when Big Sean and 2 Chainz show up on "Who I Am," the guaranteed 2013 hitmakers are thrown into an industrial hip-hop grinder, a challenging moment balanced by a simplistic hook right out of the Busta Rhymes playbook. "Sweet Serenade" is aptly titled, although even Chris Brown and Swizz Beatz can't pull Pusha from the edge, while "40 Acres" with the-Dream lives up to its guest's name as elegant and ethereal production meets the rapper at his most poignant ("Born to mothers who couldn't deal with us/Left by fathers who wouldn't build with us"). "S.N.I.T.C.H." with Pharrell brings some light Neptunes soul into this ominous universe, "Suicide" is a raw Clipse flashback mashing with stuttering electro trap music, and "Hold On" with Rick Ross tastes like well-aged port as an uncredited Kanye brings the sweetness with background singing while the downtrodden lyrics offer the bitter and give the song some serious body. With Pusha's pen at full force and his performance a proper combination of cold and tense, the album is as if Clipse's Hell Hath No Fury were atom-smashed into something more artful and unstable. My Name Is My Name is a remarkable and vital solo debut.© David Jeffries /TiVo

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This is the Jigsaw Seen's 1991 EP for the now-defunct New Jersey-based Skyclad label. The mini-CD featured an early version of "Persephone Again" (the track was later re-recorded for release on the Swedish-released Pop Under the Surface, Vol. 1 compilation and the band's own self-released Zenith from 2000) and a cover of Love's "The Daily Planet." © Bryan Thomas /TiVo