A decent but short (nine songs) late '60s set, with somewhat sparser production than he'd employ with the beefier arrangements of the "Thrill Is Gone" era. Brass and stinging guitar plays a part on all of the songs, leading off with the eight-minute title track, a spoken narrative about his famous guitar.© Richie Unterberger /TiVo

Compton rapper YG flits between a few different forms of expression on sixth studio album I Got Issues, with moments of infectiously funky West Coast gangsta rap sitting beside R&B excursions and attempts at crossover pop. Tracks like opener "Issues" and album high point "Scared Money" (which is bolstered by strong guest features from J. Cole and Moneybagg Yo) are high-powered, cool, and confrontational blasts of controlled intensity, and this tough veneer transforms into something equally bold but less conventional with the unexpectedly trumpet-heavy instrumental and help from Nas on "No Weapon." Elsewhere on the album, YG airs out his relationship woes on moody old-school tracks like "Toxic" and "Baby Momma," then quickly switches gears for bedroom brags, vocoded vocal hooks, and a special guest appearance from H.E.R. on the silken R&B tune "Go Dumb." Moments later, he's teaming with Roddy Ricch and Post Malone over a generic pop-rap beat and absentee hooks on blatant chart attempt "Sober," one of the album's most out-of-place and forgettable inclusions. There's even more ground covered from there as songs like the dull "No Love" and the more captivating "How to Rob a Rapper" lean into classic, bass-focused West Coast G-funk. YG's bouncing between styles gives I Got Issues a scattered flow that pushes the best tracks to the forefront and makes the weaker material feel all the more tedious. © TiVo Staff /TiVo

A decent but short (nine songs) late '60s set, with somewhat sparser production than he'd employ with the beefier arrangements of the "Thrill Is Gone" era. Brass and stinging guitar plays a part on all of the songs, leading off with the eight-minute title track, a spoken narrative about his famous guitar.© Richie Unterberger /TiVo

In this humanistic ode de to nature, French cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca presents a packed programme on the theme of saving the planet. He has invited a host of artists from all over the international music scene to add their voices to that of his own eloquent instrument, in a unique and unprecedented project of solidarity. "Wonderful World" is a project of multiple inputs, all converging on Christian-Pierre La Marca’s awareness of the need to save our planet. As he explains, "music has the ability to awaken consciences, to make people more sensitive, without trying to convince or mobilize them. Music is a short circuit that goes straight to the heart". His sense of engagement has already found artistic expression in his creation of the "Concert for the Planet" in 2019. Today it is embodied in this multi-ethnic album of many-voiced solidarity featuring classical, neoclassical, world music and jazz, all intoning the same song of the Earth. Songs of wonder, questioning, wake up calls, songs of prayer: all are heard in the course of these twenty-six titles, reflected in the images by Yann Arthus-Bertrand inserted in the booklet. The cello, in the hands of Christian-Pierre La Marca, has often been compared to the human voice, in its handling of the melodic lines and curves, its flexibility, its lyrical intensity. Here it is mirrored in the voices of sopranos Sabine Devieilhe and Patricia Petibon, as well as the clarinet of Michel Portal, the pianos of Thomas Enhco, Baptiste Trotignon, Nathanaël Gouin and Thierry Escaich, the accordion of Félicien Brut and the contrabass of Édouard Macarez, as well as the pop duo Lilly Wood & The Prick. In addition, an ensemble of musicians from the Orchestre de Paris lends its support, with bespoke arrangements of a variety of pieces ranging through Harlen’s Over the Rainbow, Fauré’s song Après un rêve, Summertime by Gershwin, The Swan by Saint-Saëns, I giorni by Ludovico Einaudi, The Hours by Philip Glass, and Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars. As La Marca concludes, "this ode to nature is primarily a hymn to the idea of sharing. What I wanted – as well as bringing this programme to fruition – was to have a musical adventure alongside exceptional artists from different worlds and horizons. After all, isn’t that our mission as artists? To share with our audience, to move, to awaken consciences across the world?". © naive classique