Highly anticipated since the biopic trend took over Hollywood, the film depicting the Jamaican icon’s ascension to superstardom has been fully approved by the Marley family, with Kingsley Ben-Adir in the role of Bob and eldest son Ziggy as executive producer. To seal the deal, the label Tuff Gong has released a “soundtrack” to the film, which unsurprisingly showcases a number of Bob Marley’s hits, resembling an encore to Legend, with the eternal classics that are “Get Up, Stand Up,” “I Shot the Sheriff,” “Natural Mystic,” “Is This Love” and “Redemption Song”.We also hear the famous version of “No Woman, No Cry” at London’s Rainbow Theatre on June 4, 1977 – a concert that was seized upon for reissues in both 2020 and 2022. From the film, we also find “So Jah S’eh” and a version of “War/No More Trouble” with backing vocals by Naomi Cowan in place of the I-Threes, the new sensation of Jamaican reggae incarnating Marcia Griffiths in the film, and Anna-Sharé Blake, protégée of Protoje, playing Judy Mowatt. On keyboard for this version is Aston Barrett Junior, who takes on the role of his father, Family Man, legendary bassist, orchestra conductor, and scorned composer of the Wailers, who passed away February 3rd, 2024, a few days before the release of One Love, and whose immense career would also be deserving of its own film. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

John Mayer sang on his 2001 debut Room for Squares, released when he was 22, about his "quarter-life crisis." Now he's 43 and his latest, Sob Rock, is right on time for the mid-life one. There's a whole lot of taking stock on songs like the what-if ballad "Shouldn't Matter But It Does," which finds him thinking of a former love: "It could've been always, it could've been me/ We could've been busy naming baby number three." The incredibly catchy "New Light" (produced by Kanye West collaborator No ID, it's all upbeat yacht rock and blue-eyed soul), actually feels like a throwback to the lonely-boy longings of Mayer’s debut, only now he's "pushing 40 in the friend zone." Meanwhile, "I Guess I Just Feel Like" is pure existentialism: "I guess I just feel like nobody's honest, nobody's true ... I guess I just feel like I'm the same way too," he sings along with slow-burn blues guitar. Mayer has said that pandemic stress pushed him to reach for the "security-blanket" '80s soft rock of his childhood, and the record is at once FM-radio familiar but not a punchline. Credit producer Don Was, who knows from delicious processed cheese, having steered Glenn Frey, Michael McDonald and Paul Young, among others. On the terrific "Last Train Home," Mayer enlists a seen-it-all veteran in the form of Toto percussionist Lenny Castro, but also brings in contemporary country-pop heroine Maren Morris to stand up to the sizzle tone of his PRS Silver Sky guitar. "Til the Right One Comes" bounces like a Christine McVie cut, and the delightful "Wild Blue" never lets you forget that he's a touring guitarist with the Grateful Dead. Mayer's warm rasp—always walking the line of sultry and sad—shines on "Shot in the Dark" and the gently pulsing "Carry Me Away." His offbeat sense of humor, which was entertainingly on display during his lockdown Instagram TV series, doesn't usually make its way into songs. But one of the catchiest on Sob Rock is also one of the most confounding: The music is smooth as silk, the delivery sounds sincere, yet there's Mayer singing Yoda-like lyrics for "Why You No Love Me": "Why you no even care?..." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

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

The Wailers' fourth album overall, Burnin', was their second for Island Records, released only six months after its predecessor, Catch a Fire. Given that speed, it's not surprising that several tracks -- "Put It On," "Small Axe," and "Duppy Conqueror" -- are re-recordings of songs dating back a few years. But they fit in seamlessly with the newer material, matching its religious militancy and anthemic style. The confrontational nature of the group's message is apparent immediately in the opening track, "Get Up, Stand Up," as stirring a song as any that emerged from the American Civil Rights movement a decade before. The Wailers are explicit in their call to violence, a complete reversal from their own 1960s "Simmer Down" philosophy. Here, on "Burnin' and Lootin'," they take issue with fellow Jamaican Jimmy Cliff's song of the previous year, "Many Rivers to Cross," asking impatiently, "How many rivers do we have to cross/Before we can talk to the boss?" "I Shot the Sheriff," the album's most celebrated song, which became a number one hit in the hands of Eric Clapton in 1974, claims self-defense, admits consequences ("If I am guilty I will pay"), and emphasizes the isolated nature of the killing ("I didn't shoot no deputy"), but its central image is violent. Such songs illuminated the desperation of poor Jamaican life, but they also looked forward to religious salvation, their themes accentuated by the compelling rhythms and the alternating vocals of the three singers. Bob Marley was a first among equals, of course, and after this album his partners, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, quit the group, which thereafter was renamed Bob Marley and the Wailers. The three bonus tracks on the 2001 reissue are all by Tosh and Wailer, though recorded at the album's sessions, suggesting the source of their frustration.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

When Frank Zappa found himself stuck in a wheelchair for most of the year 1972 (after a "fan" pushed him off the stage in December of the previous year), he relieved his band (including singers Flo & Eddie) of its duties and turned to studio work. One of the first things he tried was to write jazz fusion music scored for wider instrumentation than an average rock band. Waka/Jawaka was conceived in parallel to The Grand Wazoo, but with fewer players. The album, released in July 1972, is comprised of two extended instrumental pieces and two shorter songs. "Big Swifty," a theme-and-solos showcase, would become a live favorite, but the highlight came in the form of the orgiastic title track, recorded with ex-Mothers of Invention keyboardist Don Preston, trumpeter Sal Marquez, trombonists Bill Byers and Ken Shroyer, saxophonist Mike Altschul, bassist Erroneous, and drummer Aynsley Dunbar. The songs, never performed live, feel like filler material. Waka/Jawaka was Zappa's second solo album and is occasionally referred to as "Hot Rats II" (the handles of the faucets on the cover artwork show the words "hot" and "rats" instead of "hot" and "cold"). His writing and recording technique had matured a lot in very little time. The dirty blues jamming of the 1969 LP was replaced by clean, crisp jazz improvisations -- no need to say this was also an abrupt change in style from the Mothers' 1969-1971 incarnation. But this album was only transitional: Zappa's big-band stylings would really flourish in The Grand Wazoo a few months later.© François Couture /TiVo

Widely considered as one of the greatest and most important rap albums of all time, The Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready To Die is an indisputable masterpiece and one of the cornerstones of East Coast rap. Released by Sean "Puffy" Combs' Bad Boy Records in September, 1994, Biggie's debut album paved the way for countless future stars and signalled the beginning of an East Coast revival. Coming straight from the streets of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, The Notorious B.I.G. paints a picture of the darker, criminal side of early '90s New York, drawing mainly from personal experience. In contrast to the West Coast glamorization and glorification of the criminal lifestyle, Ready To Die includes tracks which give a brutally honest account of a crook’s life on the streets, something which helped Biggie gain the respect of the masses. The album also explores some of the rapper’s deeper and more troubling thoughts and emotions with tracks such as "Everyday Struggle" and the distressing late night phone call of "Suicidal Thoughts". The album’s lead single, "Juicy", went gold just over three months after its release, with following singles "Big Poppa" and "One More Chance" both certified platinum less than a year later. These three tracks signaled the arrival of the artist the East Coast had been waiting for to lead the charge against the West Coast dominance started by Dr. Dre and co. As well as telling the story of the streets, Biggie spends parts of the album explaining how his focus on music was a way for him to take a step back from the criminal lifestyle, something he demonstrates on "Machine Gun Funk" with the lyrics "Left the drugs alone, took the thugs along with me" and "I’m doing rhymes now, f*** the crimes now." However, the album also makes it clear that despite turning over a new leaf, it can be hard for someone who once had "a key knee deep in the crack game" ("Things Done Changed") to cut all ties with their past life. "Warning" documents a robbery attempt by two men who had heard of the known ex-drug dealer’s rise to the top of the rap game, and ends with Biggie firing two fatal shots, a poetic way of conveying the difficulty the rapper had in distancing himself from street life. Never shying away from telling his own story, "Respect" sees Biggie map out his turbulent life for us, from birth to dope smoking teen, drug dealer, convict, and finally rap sensation. With its old school loops and lucid yet humorous lyrics, Ready To Die cemented itself in rap folklore and marked the start of a career that was tragically ended far too soon with the rapper’s shooting in March, 1997. © Euan Decourt / Qobuz

At the dawn of the '90s, Judas Priest were in sad shape: out of touch, seemingly creatively bankrupt, coming off the two worst albums of their career, and left for dead by many observers. Trying to right the ship, Priest jettisoned longtime producer Tom Allom and his tinny '80s sound, as well as the serviceable groove drumming of Dave Holland, and brought in veteran metal producer Chris Tsangarides and onetime Racer X skinsman Scott Travis. Most importantly, though, Priest stopped trying to be a stadium act in the midst of hair metal's heyday. All those changes come into sharp focus as soon as the title cut of Painkiller starts -- Travis' thunderous (and crisp-sounding) percussive maelstrom lights an immediate fire under the bandmembers' asses; Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing tear through a crushing, diabolical riff; and Rob Halford starts shrieking like a wicked witch, giving perhaps the most malevolent-sounding performance of his career. It's a startling statement of musical purpose that arrived seemingly out of nowhere, heralding a comeback that rivals George Foreman's. Once the leanest, meanest, darkest metal band on the planet, Priest were clearly giving up on the mainstream and instead embracing the thrash and speed metal underground they'd helped spawn. Not only do they come to terms with it here, they teach those whippersnappers a thing or two, marrying furious instrumental pyrotechnics to an unerring sense of songcraft. Spurred on by Travis' jazz-trained double bass assault, Painkiller never once lets up, slowing down only for the elegant menace of the prog-tinged "A Touch of Evil," and without an unmemorable tune in the bunch. That constant, balls-out intensity is a big reason why metal's younger generation has come to consider Painkiller perhaps the ultimate speed metal album. Older Priest fans will likely complain that the lyrics are silly, and they won't be wrong -- for all its fury, the title track is about the winged knight riding the monster motorcycle depicted on the front cover. However, there's a convincing argument to be made that this brand of comic book fantasy holds up better over time (and is more fun) than most would care to admit (and it can't be any sillier than, for example, members of Morbid Angel worshipping H.P. Lovecraft's fictional Ancient Ones as actual demonic entities). Thus, Painkiller's influence reaches further than many longtime fans might expect: traditionalist power metal bands wanting a harder edge adopted a good chunk of Painkiller's approach, yet its blend of chops and aggression also caught the ears of the emerging extreme metal movement, even inspiring a cover version of the title track on Death's final album, The Sound of Perseverance. In the end, Painkiller secured Judas Priest's legacy with the next generation of metal fans; it's the point where their contributions make the most sense to modern ears more attuned to metal extremes (and more affectionate towards lyrical clichés). It isn't the most important of the Priest classics, but it is the fastest, the meanest, and, well, the most f***ing metal album they ever released. Simultaneously a stunning revitalization and the last great album they would ever make, thanks to Halford's imminent departure.© Steve Huey /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

The soundtrack for Pirates of the Caribbean was originally composed by Alan Silvestri, who left the project prior to the film's release. Credited to Klaus Badelt, a protégé of Hans Zimmer, it was hastily assembled at the last minute, resulting in a paint-by-numbers exercise in big studio fluff that required the work of several unnamed composers. Badelt and his mysterious co-conspirators have created a schizophrenic pastiche of Hollywood excess -- much like the film itself -- disguised as a traditional score. The swashbuckling is propelled by an instantly unmemorable -- albeit rousing -- motif that contains bits of every action score in existence. "Fog Bound" starts off with a sprightly Celtic flair before dissolving into a generic Jerry Bruckheimer wash of keyboard strings and synthetic flute patches. This is the case for much of the record, resulting in inspired flashes of creativity amidst a barrage of filler. © TiVo

The Chineke! Orchestra was the brainchild of Chi-Chi Nwanoku, a renowned English double bass player of Nigerian and Irish descent. Whilst chatting to Ed Vaizey, then Minister for Culture, he pointed out that she was often one of the only people of colour on stage at symphony concerts. And so, in 2015, the concept of the Chineke! Orchestra was born. This ensemble brings together a majority of Black, Asian and other ethnic minority musicians who are usually erased from the classical stage. A revolutionary orchestra, it’s only logical that, after performing Dvořák, Sibelius and Rachmaninov on Signum Classics, they’re joining forces with… Tuff Gong, the label founded by Bob Marley, to produce a record containing covers of the Jamaican icon’s songs.The roots of this particular project can be traced back to 2018, when the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason (a member of the Chineke! Orchestra who became a bit of a star on social media following his performance at Prince Harry’s wedding) included an incredible cover of No Woman No Cry on his album Inspiration. It caught the attention of Tuff Gong, who then decided to get on board with this experimental music and produce an album on which the ensemble would cover and rearrange ten of Bob’s classic hits. To take things to the next level, the album even includes vocals by Bob Marley himself (which were provided by Island Records). As you might expect, the raw edge of the original tracks is gone—even Bob’s voice sounds softer at times—but this work highlights the undeniable pop dimension of the Wailer’s music. Plus, it gives the band a personality that’s as artistic as it is political. “I ardently believe that all genres of music should be open to absolutely everyone, so it was wonderful for Chineke! to be able to bring new orchestrations to these iconic tracks,” Chi-Chi Nwanoku concludes. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

As the popularity of emo and punk-pop plateaued, many bands had a lot to prove to stay in the game. As of 2003, Brand New had sidestepped any notion that they'd be stuck in the prototypical mold found on Your Favorite Weapon. Unlike their debut, Deja Entendu isn't all about bitter breakups and doesn't fall into a permanent punk-pop hole. Produced by Steven Haigler (Pixies, Quicksand), this sophomore effort finds Brand New maturing, reaching for textures and song structures instead of clichés. They still, however, alternate their full-on blasts with slower acoustic work, which doesn't hurt. Many antiromantic lyrics such as "my tongue is the only muscle on my body that works harder than my heart" saturate the disc, but there's still some resentment with downers such as "I hope you come down with something they can't diagnose and don't have a cure for." "The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows" is one of the stronger tracks and isn't so much a fresh entry as it is a rewrite of their semihit "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad." It's not quite déjà vu; it's just consistent.© Kenyon Hopkin /TiVo

Salt-N-Pepa exhibited a lot of growth on Blacks' Magic (1990), their third album and, by far, best to date. For their follow-up, Very Necessary, released a long three and a half years later, in 1993, the ladies delivered a fairly similar album. Like its predecessor, Very Necessary boasts a pair of major hits ("Whatta Man," "Shoop") and a lot of fine album tracks. Also like Blacks' Magic, Very Necessary is filled with strong, prideful rhetoric: femininity, sex, relationships, romance, respect, love -- these are the key topics, and they're a world apart from those of the gangsta rap that was so popular circa 1993. And as always, the productions are dance-oriented, with a contemporary R&B edge. Most tracks were produced by Hurby "Luvbug" Azor, though Salt is credited on a few, chief among them "Shoop." Very Necessary is just as impressive as Blacks' Magic, if not more so. The key difference is, Blacks' Magic was a striking leap forward for Salt-N-Pepa, who were somewhat of a novelty act up to that point, whereas Very Necessary is a consolidation of everything that had worked so well for the duo previously. Hence the lack of surprises here. Still, the raised expectations don't change the fact that Very Necessary is one of the standout -- and, for sure, one of the most refreshingly unique -- rap albums of its era. © Jason Birchmeier /TiVo

Widely considered as one of the greatest and most important rap albums of all time, The Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready To Die is an indisputable masterpiece and one of the cornerstones of East Coast rap. Released by Sean "Puffy" Combs' Bad Boy Records in September, 1994, Biggie's debut album paved the way for countless future stars and signalled the beginning of an East Coast revival. Coming straight from the streets of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, The Notorious B.I.G. paints a picture of the darker, criminal side of early '90s New York, drawing mainly from personal experience. In contrast to the West Coast glamorization and glorification of the criminal lifestyle, Ready To Die includes tracks which give a brutally honest account of a crook’s life on the streets, something which helped Biggie gain the respect of the masses. The album also explores some of the rapper’s deeper and more troubling thoughts and emotions with tracks such as "Everyday Struggle" and the distressing late night phone call of "Suicidal Thoughts". The album’s lead single, "Juicy", went gold just over three months after its release, with following singles "Big Poppa" and "One More Chance" both certified platinum less than a year later. These three tracks signaled the arrival of the artist the East Coast had been waiting for to lead the charge against the West Coast dominance started by Dr. Dre and co. As well as telling the story of the streets, Biggie spends parts of the album explaining how his focus on music was a way for him to take a step back from the criminal lifestyle, something he demonstrates on "Machine Gun Funk" with the lyrics "Left the drugs alone, took the thugs along with me" and "I’m doing rhymes now, f*** the crimes now." However, the album also makes it clear that despite turning over a new leaf, it can be hard for someone who once had "a key knee deep in the crack game" ("Things Done Changed") to cut all ties with their past life. "Warning" documents a robbery attempt by two men who had heard of the known ex-drug dealer’s rise to the top of the rap game, and ends with Biggie firing two fatal shots, a poetic way of conveying the difficulty the rapper had in distancing himself from street life. Never shying away from telling his own story, "Respect" sees Biggie map out his turbulent life for us, from birth to dope smoking teen, drug dealer, convict, and finally rap sensation. With its old school loops and lucid yet humorous lyrics, Ready To Die cemented itself in rap folklore and marked the start of a career that was tragically ended far too soon with the rapper’s shooting in March, 1997. © Euan Decourt / Qobuz