Reissued November 24, 2017

Carried by the juggernauts “God’s Plan” and “Nice For What”, Drake is releasing his fifth album, Scorpion. Coming off of his uneven Views and his eclectic playlist More Life, the Toronto artist offers a complete panel of 25 tracks spread over two sides like an old vinyl or a dusty tape. Drake is trying to explore all the angles of his musical personality, with a first ensemble focused on rap, and the other edging towards pop. In “Scorpion”, Drake is also trying to encompass his entire dynasty, and invited his two long-time role models to the party: Jay-Z for a red-hot verse and Michael Jackson on a ghostly melody. Darker and sharper in the first part, Drake reaches later on a few radiant moments like “Blue Tint” and “Ratchet Happy Birthday”. But for the first time in many years, the worldwide musical emperor appears to falter on his throne and offers a glimpse into a few fragile moments. Following Pusha T’s repeated attacks, Drake recognises his paternity maybe sooner than he initially intended. And while he often claims to be “Emotionless”, Aubrey Graham here proves he can’t always be in control. He appears urgent on the “Nonstop” borrowed from Blocboy JB, nostalgic on the soulful “8 out of 10” and annoyed on the catchy “Sandra’s Rose”, produced by DJ Premier. Bit by bit, he’s always trying to prove his legitimacy, justifying his success, his accomplishments. Scorpion marks a turning point in his discography, a transition with a few flashes and short-winded moments that scratch the surface of the artist’s personality. Throughout the album, Drake doesn’t directly address his critics, but provides a lot of information about his position and state of mind. Slick but tormented. The best Canadian mix. © Aurélien Chapuis/Qobuz

The Bat for Lashes universe is one that is all its own. When seeking inspiration for the album, the British singer and producer Natasha Khan wrote and directed a short film. Put together between LA, London, her native Brighton, and Woodstock in New Jersey (where she has a home studio), the whole of The Bride will be performed in a very particular way, like the first singles, which were first performed live in churches. The album itself narrates the story of a woman who watches her husband die en route to their marriage, a theme that is sometimes particularly melancholy (Joe’s Dream). Between the overuse of reverb and lilting vocals, the album is nevertheless pretty and destabilising, which showcases the genuine artistic method that is at work. The producer Dan Carey (Nick Mulvey) and musician Ben Christophers have both supported Natasha Khan, to iron out the creases in this otherwise well-conceived whole.

Oldham County, Kentucky quintet Knocked Loose blows the mosh pit open with their debut LP, Laugh Tracks (Pure Noise). The band -- vocalist Bryan Garris, guitarists Isaac Hale and Cole Crutchfield, bassist Kevin Otten, and drummer Dylan Isaacs -- follows a pair of head-splitting hardcore EPs with this 11-track collection, an assault of aggression with some metalcore flourish. Laugh Tracks features the singles "Deadringer" and "Oblivion's Peak." It debuted in September 2016 on the Billboard 200 and in the Top 50 on six separate side charts.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

The Coincidentalist is Howe Gelb's first solo album since 2011's Alegrias, and his debut for New West Records. In 2012, his ever-evolving Giant Sand issued the sprawling "country rock opera" Tucson, which marked his return to the desert after spending most of the previous decade in Denmark. Self-produced, The Coincidentalist is a mostly low-key affair with a stellar mix by John Parish. As has been his M.O. for most of the last three decades, Gelb enlists a fine cast of co-conspirators: longtime bassist Thoger Tetens Lund, former Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, M. Ward on lead guitar, and the Silver Thread Trio (Gabrielle Pietrangelo, Laura Kepner-Adney, and Caroline Isaacs) on chorus vocals. Gelb plays acoustic and electric pianos, guitar, and chimes. The guest list is impressive, too. Bonnie "Prince" Billy duets with Gelb on set-opener "Vortexas." His warbling, soft croon juxtaposes perfectly with Gelb's laid-back, deep baritone, underscored Rhodes piano, slithering guitars, a cooing, Leonard Cohen-esque backing chorus, and Shelley's rolling lounge bar shuffle. A winding pedal steel (courtesy of the Mekons' Jon Rauhouse) floats in between Gelb's piano lines in a melodic yet arid, first-person morality tale. KT Tunstall trades verses with Gelb and their voices are perfectly suited to one another -- especially coming together in the refrain. The title track walks a series of lines between country, age-old AM radio pop, mutant flamenco, and mariachi, with Andrew Bird contributing a fine violin solo. "Running Behind" is a warm, exotica-tinged country love song with just enough reverb on the vocal, and a fine jazzy guitar solo by Ward, to make the tune sound as if it were recorded in a different era. There is real tenderness, as well as confusion, humor, and wry observation on The Coincidentalist; Gelb's clearly inspired by the past as well as the present and puts it all out there in an intriguing, quizzical, even iconoclastic way. "An Extended Place of Existence," recorded with Shelley in Spain, is a philosophical tome disguised as a love song, where country, early rock & roll (à la doo wop), and 21st century sonic experimentation balance each other out and sum up many of the albums themes. The Coincidentalist is one of Gelb's most realized efforts; despite its relaxed, airy presentation, it's musically and lyrically provocative, as poetic, strange, and mysterious as the desert itself. © Thom Jurek /TiVo

Seems like critics posted U.K. rapper Ghostpoet as left-field hip-hop's big hope just two verses into his debut, but the gifted man might really be the genre's Mark E. Smith, even if MC Obaro Ejimiwe doesn't share any of the indie rock frontman's same "quirks." Like Smith's group the Fall, Ghostpoet is outsider music that sounds familiar and yet unique, so unique that to be outwardly influenced by the man's rapid, literate mumble or his hazy, poetic delivery would be to mimic him. BBC DJ John Peel famously called the Fall's music "always different...always the same," and with this third album, it also applies to Ghostpoet. The instrumentation is different, as guitars and a traditional band support the lyrics where laptops and samplers used to be, and Ghostpoet himself has changed a bit, responding to the band with a more natural or organic flow while letting a little more mirth out, perhaps because bassists and drummers are more fun to hang around with than hard drives. Still, "Sorry My Love, It's You Not Me" may open like an early U2 number with echoing guitars and tats on the snare, but it's as if a beat were lifted from Boy or October once the vocals sneak in, boozily yearning "to feel magic and stars" before "it's just that you're forgettable, babe," because that's how Obaro breaks up. Featuring Maximo Park's Paul Smith, "Be Right Back, Moving House" sets out on a Mumford & Sons sized-journey, then gets wonderfully caught up in its rhythmically tangled second half, and if the artist does sound just like someone else -- rapper Tricky -- on "That Ring Down the Drain Kind of Feeling," the key cut breaks away into Ghostpoet land once the lyrics lay out a layered story of love and guilt. Add the devastating title cut plus more memorable melodies than usual, and Shedding Skin might be the Ghostpoet album to begin with for those who prefer something a bit traditional, but with three excellent efforts from the get-go, the point isn't where to start, but to start, because the rewards are consistent and plentiful.© David Jeffries /TiVo

The Highway Rider is pianist and composer Brad Mehldau's second collaboration with enigmatic pop producer Jon Brion. The first was 2002's ambitious but tentative Largo. As a collaboration, The Highway Rider is much more confident by contrast. Mehldau’s most ambitious work to date, its 15 compositions are spread over two discs and 100 minutes. His trio --bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard -- is augmented by saxophonist Joshua Redman, drummer Matt Chamberlain, and a chamber orchestra conducted by Dan Coleman. The album is a narrative jazz suite, orchestrated and arranged by Mehldau, though it has much in common with classical and pop music, as well.The group settings range from solo to quintet, with and without strings, all of it recorded live in studio. Redman's addition is welcome. “Don’t Be Sad” features his consoling tenor, Mehldau (on pump organ and piano), Grenadier, and both drummers with orchestra. It begins as a piano solo, languidly establishing a pace that begins to swing with gospel overtones. Later, Redman's lower-register blowing, strings, and winds carry it out joyfully. Brion adds drum‘n’bass overtones to the trio on the title track. The electronics are a narrative device designating motion; they accompany the gradually assertive knottiness in the post-bop lyric. Mehldau begins “The Falcon Will Fly Again” with a complex solo that touches on Latin grooves, even as Chamberlain and Ballard create an organic loop effect with hand percussion. Redman's soprano creates a contrapuntal melody extending the harmonic dialogue. Disc two’s lengthy “We’ll Cross the River Together” has quintet and orchestra engaging in a beautiful study of texture, color, and expansive harmonics with wildly divergent dynamics. It showcases Mehldau’s trademark pianistic elegance in counterpoint. Redman's deep blues tenor nearly weeps on “Sky Turning Grey (For Elliot Smith).” “Capriccio’'s Latin rhythms contrast ideally: Mehldau’s classical, gently dissonant motifs create an exploratory harmonic palette as Redman’s magnetic soprano playing joins Mehldau's in the last third, anchoring the complex melody. The closer, “Always Returning,” builds to a climax that incorporates themes from the cycle. Redman and Mehldau soar with the orchestra before they all close it in a whispering tone poem. By combining sophisticated -- yet accessible -- forms with jazz improvisation, The Highway Rider exceeds all expectations, giving jazz-classical crossover a good name for a change. It is Mehldau’s most ambitious, creatively unfettered, and deeply emotional work to date, and will stand as a high watermark in his catalog.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Although Sister Sledge had already peaked with their 1979 powerhouse We Are Family LP, they returned in the first half of 1980 with Love Somebody Today. Not quite as successful as its predecessor, but still showcasing the group's remarkable vocal strength, the album foundered primarily because it hit the brick wall laid down by the burgeoning disco backlash, but still managed to peak at number seven on the R&B charts in March. Partnered for the second go-round with Chic's Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, who wrote and produced all the songs, Sister Sledge spun out a sophisticated, slick set of smooth, mid-tempo R&B that concentrated on the sisters' vocals, leaving the musical arrangements in the background. Both the title track, which proved the album's only major hit, and the melancholy "You Fooled Around" emerged as the set's high points. Elsewhere, "Reach Your Peak" is a surprising combination of disco and jazz, leaving both "I'm a Good Girl" and "How to Love" to weigh in on the ballad front. It would have been hard for Sister Sledge to surpass the monstrously good one-two punch of "We Are Family" and "He's the Greatest Dancer." And, not surprisingly, much of Love Somebody Today sounds flat in comparison. But still, the sounds of Sister Sledge at the peak of their star power are better than much of the pap that passed for pop at the time.© Amy Hanson /TiVo

This album marked the formal debut of the psychedelic-era Moody Blues; though they'd made a pair of singles featuring new (as of 1966) members Justin Hayward and John Lodge, Days of Future Passed was a lot bolder and more ambitious. What surprises first-time listeners -- and delighted them at the time -- is the degree to which the group shares the spotlight with the London Festival Orchestra without compromising their sound or getting lost in the lush mix of sounds. That's mostly because they came to this album with the strongest, most cohesive body of songs in their history, having spent the previous year working up a new stage act and a new body of material (and working the bugs out of it on-stage), the best of which ended up here. Decca Records had wanted a rock version of Dvorak's "New World Symphony" to showcase its enhanced stereo-sound technology, but at the behest of the band, producer Tony Clarke (with engineer Derek Varnals aiding and abetting) hijacked the project and instead cut the group's new repertory, with conductor/arranger Peter Knight adding the orchestral accompaniment and devising the bridge sections between the songs' and the album's grandiose opening and closing sections. The record company didn't know what to do with the resulting album, which was neither classical nor pop, but following its release in December of 1967, audiences found their way to it as one of the first pieces of heavily orchestrated, album-length psychedelic rock to come out of England in the wake of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's and Magical Mystery Tour albums. What's more, it was refreshingly original, rather than an attempt to mimic the Beatles; sandwiched among the playful lyricism of "Another Morning" and the mysticism of "The Sunset," songs like "Tuesday Afternoon" and "Twilight Time" (which remained in their concert repertory for three years) were pounding rockers within the British psychedelic milieu, and the harmony singing (another new attribute for the group) made the band's sound unique. With "Tuesday Afternoon" and "Nights in White Satin" to drive sales, Days of Future Passed became one of the defining documents of the blossoming psychedelic era, and one of the most enduringly popular albums of its era.© Bruce Eder /TiVo

When considering the "strict" period of neo-prog (i.e., the 1980s), The Wake is definitely a classic. Together with Marillion's first LPs, it helped define what neo-progressive was and generated dozens of sound-alike albums by as many bands in the U.K. and worldwide. While IQ would top The Wake with the 1997 two-CD set Subterranea (stronger compositions, stronger musicianship), the former remains the band's true classic, a must-have for anyone remotely interested in progressive rock from the 1980s. The third album by the band, it took a more pop approach than Tales From the Lush Attic; there was no 20-minute epic track and songs were rather simple in terms of structure. "The Thousand Days," the title track, and "Corners" had single potential, especially the first of these, a stirring rock number. With its electronic drum track and medium-tempo feel, "Corners" is the weakest track of the set. These shorter songs are balanced out by strong longer tracks like "The Magic Roundabout," "Headlong," and mostly "Widow's Peak." On the latter two, IQ gets very close to Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, mostly thanks to Peter Nicholls' theatrical and emotional vocals. The rest of the band still feels "young" somehow. There are hesitations and questionable musical decisions (the first keyboard solo in "Headlong" is half-baked). But the emotion and grandeur are there, and all these elements, together with years of experience as musicians, would later coalesce for the recording of Subterranea. Since its release in 1985, The Wake has been reissued in various forms and with varying bonus tracks. The last commonly found edition is on Giant Electric Pea (a label managed by IQ's Martin Orford); to the seven original tracks this release adds the B-side "Dans le Parc du Chateau Noir" (also available on J'Ai Pollette D'Arnu) and demo versions of "The Thousand Days" and "The Magic Roundabout."© François Couture /TiVo

After setting the template for sampling and exotic cut'n'paste recording techniques on his debut 1980 album, Movies, former Can member Holger Czukay's second album, On the Way to the Peak of Normal, is the album where his fantastic blend of world music, crackly vocal samples, and incredible improvisational vision came together. However, his sophomore effort carried more avant-garde features than its predecessor, as the album opener and title track demonstrates. The Grönland vinyl issue contains four songs and features the Conny Plank-produced "Witches Multiplication Table," a track whose dark maelstrom of supernatural twitchiness beguiles in a hypnotic manner. This is a must for fans of Can and Czukay.© Aneet Nijjar /TiVo