After a trilogy that propelled them to the top, Imagine Dragons are once again lighting concert halls on fire with a fourth opus: Origins. The Las Vegas band had made an impressive entrance with a subtle blend of rock and pop, adorned with almost dance tones. With Natural, Dan Reynolds sings at the top of his voice over a catchy chorus, a technique used throughout the rest of the album. Energetic and rhythmic choirs (Machine), eighties-style electro bass and romantic vocals (Cool Out), and even folk melodies on the acoustic guitar (West Coast) − Imagine Dragons have gone for eclecticism and it works! Even though they are carrying on the tradition of XXL hit songs and relying on harmonic powers, it’s their punchy songwriting that shines through. Their latest album, Evolve, explored relatively dark territories, whereas with Origins the scope significantly expands: identity problems, messages of hope, realisation of various anxieties… Imagine Dragons express many different emotions. It’s an album that will once again ensure exponential success to these kings of the charts. © Anna Coluthe/Qobuz

The late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson was well known for film scores in which he got considerable emotional mileage out of repetitive, almost minimalistic gestures. The suites from Sicario (by filmmaker Denis Villeneuve) and The Theory of Everything (about Stephen Hawking) heard here were both nominated for Academy Awards in their full versions, and the latter took a Golden Globe for Best Original Score. A Prayer to the Dynamo, however, is something else again, an independent orchestral work. Physical and online versions of the album apparently differ in their track sequencing, with this work coming first only in the physical albums. This is preferable, for it is quite an arresting and distinctive work. The title refers to a disused power station in Iceland where the composer recorded concrete sounds, incorporating them into the score as samples. This is one of few pieces Jóhannsson wrote independently of a cinematic context, and it is receiving its world premiere recording here (it was performed by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, which commissioned it). The language is not distinct from that of the film scores, but the samples lend the music a mysterious and somewhat futurist sound. The "prayer" element of the title is entirely apropos. Conductor Daniel Bjarnason and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra offer the clean, somewhat mechanical sound the music requires, and it is well recorded in Reykjavik's Harpa Concert Hall. Strongly recommended to those interested in the potentialities of new film music, and really anyone will find this an interesting listen. The album made classical best-seller charts in the autumn of 2023.© James Manheim /TiVo

Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson's elegant score for the 2014 Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything relies heavily on stirring, lightly minimalist elements and a simple four-note ostinato that is developed and deconstructed at various points throughout the soundtrack. The film, directed by James Marsh, follows Hawking from his days as a healthy and promising young Oxford undergrad to the disabled theoretical physics genius who was forced to communicate through a computer. It's an inspirational tale of overcoming physical adversity through determination and fierce intellect, and Jóhannsson reflects this internal universe with a smart and largely uplifting orchestral score. Hawking's courtship and marriage to wife Jane are at the center of the film and their dedication to one another is reflected here in several wistful, romantic themes punctuated by darker, more haunted elements. Often known for blending icy minimalism with textural electronics, Jóhannsson's work here is far more sentimental, telling the story of Hawking's humanity rather than his science. © Timothy Monger /TiVo

As the Swedish composer's third collaboration with director Ryan Coogler and actor Michael B. Jordan, Ludwig Göransson's original score for Marvel's Black Panther was also his most adventurous and cross-cultural to date. Pushed by Coogler to utilize as much traditional African music as possible, Göransson traveled to the International Library of African Music in Grahamstown, South Africa, where he collected hundreds of sounds that would find their way into the score (such as the tambin flute that was central to Killmonger's recurring theme). Göransson also recruited Senagalese singer Baaba Maal, whose haunting vocals appear throughout the album, most prominently on the grand anthem "Wakanda" and the moving "A King's Sunset." Throughout, tribal chants, a crew of percussionists, and a 40-person Xhosa choir collided with American hip-hop trap beats and Western string orchestration, supporting the multicultural sound of the fictional kingdom of Wakanda, especially on standout moments like "Killmonger's Challenge" and "United Nations/End Titles." Motifs from the triumphant score also found their way onto the Kendrick Lamar-curated soundtrack, like on the Jay Rock single, "King's Dead," which shared vocal samples with the exhilarating "Casino Brawl." In the same week that the soundtrack topped the charts, the score also landed in the Top 100.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

From Charlie Parker to Piazzolla: the recorder as you've never heard it before! The present programme is a collection of music rooted in folk cultures from all around the world, personally sourced and curated by Lucie Horsch, presented here in newly commissioned arrangements and transcriptions for the recorder. The entire programme features a variety of supporting musicians, including the trailblazing genre-bending collective Fuse Ensemble, as a quintet from the Dutch orchestra Ludwig, and many others. © Decca

It may be a bit reductive to call Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain the Reckoning to Slanted & Enchanted's Murmur -- not to mention easy, considering that Pavement recorded a song-long tribute to R.E.M.'s second album during the Crooked Rain sessions -- but there's a certain truth in that statement all the same. Slanted & Enchanted is an enigmatic masterpiece, retaining its mystique after countless spins, but Crooked Rain strips away the hiss and fog of S&E, removing some of Pavement's mystery yet retaining their fractured sound and spirit. It's filled with loose ends and ragged transitions, but compared to the fuzzy, dense Slanted, Crooked Rain is direct and immediately engaging -- it puts the band's casual melodicism, sprawling squalls of feedback, disheveled country-rock, and Stephen Malkmus' deft wordplay in sharp relief. It's the sound of a band discovering its own voice as a band, which is only appropriate because up until Crooked Rain, Pavement was more of a recording project between Malkmus and Scott Kannberg than a full-fledged rock & roll group. During the supporting tour for Slanted, Malkmus and Kannberg recruited bassist Mark Ibold and percussionist Bob Nastanovich, and original drummer Gary Young was replaced by Steve West early into the recording for this album, and the new blood gives the band a different feel, even if the aesthetic hasn't changed much. The full band gives the music a richer, warmer vibe that's as apparent on the rampaging, noise-ravaged "Unfair" as it is on the breezy, sun-kissed country-rock of "Range Life" or its weary, late-night counterpart, "Heaven Is a Truck." Pavement may still be messy, but it's a meaningful, musical messiness from the performance to the production: listen to how "Silence Kit" begins by falling into place with its layers of fuzz guitars, wah wahs, cowbells, thumping bass, and drum fills, how what initially seems random gives way into a lush Californian pop song. That's Crooked Rain in a nutshell -- what initially seems chaotic has purpose, leading listeners into the bittersweet heart and impish humor at the core of the album. Many bands attempted to replicate the sound or the vibe of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, but they never came close to the quicksilver shifts in music and emotion that give this album such lasting appeal. Here, Pavement follow the heartbroken ballad "Stop Breathin'" with the wry, hooky alt-rock hit "Cut Your Hair" without missing a beat. They throw out a jazzy Dave Brubeck tribute in "5-4=Unity" as easily as they mimic the Fall and mock the Happy Mondays on "Hit the Plane Down." By drawing on so many different influences, Pavement discovered its own distinctive voice as a band on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, creating a vibrant, dynamic, emotionally resonant album that stands as a touchstone of underground rock in the '90s and one of the great albums of its decade.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo