France's biggest-selling home-grown female artist, Mylène Farmer's eighth studio album, Bleu Noir, is the first of her career without the input of long-term collaborator Laurent Boutonnat. Instead, the near 50-year-old diva has assembled an array of hotshot producers including RedOne (Lady Gaga), experimental British outfit Archive, and Moby on 12 tracks that combine her trademark melancholic lyrics with a slightly more commercial electro-pop sound, as on the singles "Ouis Mais... Non," "Lonely Lisa," and the title track, as well as two English-language songs, "Light Me Up" and "Inseparables."© Jon O'Brien /TiVo

Composed on 1686 as part of the festivities organised by the Duc de Vendôme in honour of the Grand Dauphin, during the latter’s visit to his estate at the Château d’Anet in September of that year, Acis et Galatée is Lully’s last complete opera. His faithful librettist Quinault having retired from writing for the stage, he collaborated this time with the poet Campistron on a work that tells the story of the love between the sea-nymph Galatea and the shepherd Acis – a love threatened by the violence of the jealous cyclops Polyphemus. This opera, an undoubted dramatic success, gives the orchestra an important part, expressively evoking, for example, the giant’s cries of anger, the terror of the chorus, and the lovers’ hasty flight in Act III. It includes some magnificent pieces, including the final Passacaille, as well as inventive treasures, such as duet for hautes-contre (high tenors) “Ah! je succombe au tourment qui m'accable”, or the burlesque march that accompanies the entry of Polyphemus and his fellow cyclopes, conveying their uncouthness. But the loveliest pieces in the score are for Galatea: “Enfin, j’ai dissipé la crainte”, for instance, or “Que ne puis-je expirer après ce coup funeste?”. Lully died in March 1687, a few months after the première, leaving Achille et Polyxène unfinished. © Aparté

This seems like a crucial moment for Anderson East. With Encore, the artist born in Alabama leaves the keys of the production to the excellent Dave Cobb and entrusts the writing of some titles to experts such as Chris Stapleton (King For A Day and If You Keep Leaving Me) and Ed Sheeran (All on My Mind). His Southern roots solidly surface in his blend of country and soul music (If You Keep Leaving Me will make you think of Otis Redding) or blues (Somebody Pick Up My Pieces). At the heart of this fusion of classic American music, Anderson East even slips covers of Ted Hawkins (Sorry You're Sick) and Willie Nelson (Somebody Pick Up My Pieces). With a perfect balance between vintage country soul sonorities and a still very contemporary approach, Encore is an endearing mainstream disc. It’s a work that most of all proves that his music is there to last. And what a voice he has too! © CM/Qobuz

For his last season at the helm of the Opéra de Bordeaux, Marc Minkowski—always keen to conduct forgotten works which have, in some way, marked the history of music—sets his sights on Robert le Diable, Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera which was a true social phenomenon in 19th century France. The Palazzetto Bru Zane - Centre de musique romantique française has followed suit by officially publishing this concert version, which also features some excellent vocal soloists. Admired by Balzac, Sand and Dumas, this ‘grand opéra à la française’ (great French opera) faded into obscurity after the First World War. Its creator became a sort of pariah – one met with both condescension and mockery. With its ‘seductive and haunting melodies’ (Alexandre Dratwicki), it’s nevertheless a flamboyant work that greatly inspired his contemporaries, such as Verdi, who referred to it in La Traviata. The extraordinary impact of Robert le Diable was such that it was performed a great many times on every continent. A true one-man band, Marc Minkowski has invested himself entirely in this undertaking, learning this vast score practically by heart and conducting it with his usual power and conviction. The international cast is full of surprises thanks to their deep understanding of the work and the protagonists’ fantastic pronunciation. This new release, to the credit of the Bru Zane label, revitalises our knowledge of this work that’s scarcely mentioned in specialised dictionaries. © François Hudry/Qobuz

Suprême NTM is the self-titled fourth and final album from the controversial French hi-hop duo. Released in 1998, it would be the last album Suprême NTM would release before Joey Starr and Kool Shen parted ways to form their own separate labels.© Gregory Heaney /TiVo

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Julie Driscoll left Trinity, the band she fronted and directed with Brit soul-jazz icon Brian Auger, in 1969. She recorded a pair of solo albums, married Keith Tippett, a brilliant jazz improviser and bandleader, and recorded with Ovary Lodge, a free-form vocal ensemble, in 1977. In 1978 she and Auger reunited for Encore, a one-off studio offering that revealed the hole she'd left in the progressive pop scene of the late '60s. Her voice was in even better shape nearly a decade later: fuller, stronger, more throaty, without giving up a bit of her range. Auger, meanwhile, had remained very active with his groundbreaking soul-jazz-funk ensemble the Oblivion Express. While some complain that these sides don't have the Swinging London imprint on them, that would be because they stayed back there in the musty, dusty pop history bin. Listening to Encore in the 21st century is nearly a revelation. Auger, for his part as the band's musical director on his trademark B-3, acoustic piano, and a slew of electronic keyboards, is a strictly no-BS performer. He's as straight-ahead as they get, and Julie Tippetts understands that the root of the song is in its intention. Together, they make a nearly flawless pair on these nine cuts. Nowhere is this clearer than on the two tracks previously defined by other vocalists. "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," while oft-covered, had never come close to Eric Burdon & the Animals' version. Tippetts, however, plasters the song with bluesy feeling and a smoldering, nearly angry plea. Then there's Jack Bruce's "Rope Ladder to the Moon." Tippetts implicitly understands the jazz feel of the tune as Bruce wrote it. The funky backdrop bassline by David McDaniels doesn't even muddy it up. Auger's Rhodes piano and B-3 and George Doering's gorgeous acoustic guitar playing are certainly the pegs the tune turns on, but it's Tippetts who delivers the authority and dark secret in this song about love's cruelty. And, of course, there's Pops Staples' "Freedom Highway," in which the vocalist here gives Mavis Staples a run for her money in offering the sense of determination and joy in the gospel and blues shout she got to use so rarely in her solo career. But there's more than this, too: Tippetts and Auger deliver the album's two bookends written by Al Jarreau, "Spirit" and "Lock All the Gates," as harder, funkier jazz numbers while never losing the airiness at their core. On the former, Tippetts is prodded and edged to the ledge by Auger and McDaniels, and the tune nearly lifts off. The only weak spot on this whole set is the Auger vocal on Milton Nascimento's "Nothing Will Be as It Was." It's not that the tune wouldn't have been a standout on an Oblivion Express record, but on this one it's pale in comparison to the solid groove consciousness and expression in Tippetts' Earth angel voice. Auger wrote a couple of winners here as well in both "Git Up" and "Freedom Pilot," and they stand up with the canonical tracks just fine. The former is as jazzy funk tune with some knotty twists and turns that Tippetts pulls off without a seam, and the latter is a soul groover. Finally, it should be mentioned that "No Time to Live," the Steve Winwood-Jim Capaldi tune, is given all the elegance of the original, but Tippetts adds her own sense of smoke and fire to its lyric, turning it inside out as a soul tune. The lead work of Doering as it punches through Auger's fat acoustic piano makes this little ballad soar. Ultimately, this is as necessary as any of the previous Auger/Driscoll (nee Tippetts) collaborations, and aurally reveals that for the two of them, time may move on, but their collaborative spirit is nearly effortless in its balance, dignity, feeling, and poise.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

In the mid-'80s, Alice Cooper was able to crawl out of obscurity and rebuild his cult following. Though 1986's Constrictor and the supporting Nightmare Returns tour hardly commanded mainstream attention, the album and tour were his most successful in years, proving Cooper still had enough life to launch a full-fledged comeback. Not even a year after the release of Constrictor, Cooper released Raise Your Fist and Yell, which is more of a return to his dark thematic role than its predecessor. The album is obviously rushed and suffers similar flaws to Constrictor, most notably its large amount of filler. Nonetheless, Cooper manages to sound energetic and charismatic throughout the record as he sings about his three favorite topics: sex, rebellion, and death. "Lock Me Up," "Step on You," and "Not That Kind of Love" are dripping with traditional Cooper sleaze, while "Chop, Chop, Chop" and "Roses on White Lace" seem reminiscent of Cooper's Welcome to My Nightmare days. With Raise Your Fist and Yell, Cooper embraced his past while still managing to sound fun and exciting. All things considered, it still seems surprising that 1989's Trash completely deserted Cooper's menacing, villainous role. After all, Raise Your Fist and Yell, though far from a highlight, showed Cooper was still able to provide both rock anthems and theatrical experiments -- and do it rather well, for that matter.© Barry Weber /TiVo

Greatly influenced by Evelyn "Champagne" King but obviously her own person, Robin S. had one of 1993's more memorable R&B/dance music collections in the promising Show Me Love. That year, the urban contemporary market was inundated with faceless artists who made a point of sounding as contrived and generic as possible in order to appeal to R&B radio's rigid formats. But Robin -- a sassy, big-voiced belter who knows how to make sparks fly -- sounded like she was coming from the heart. The success of her sleek yet gritty hits "Show Me Love" and "Back It Up" led many to think of Robin as a dance-floor diva. But as much as she excels in that area, "My Kind of Man" and "I'm Gonna Love You Right (Tonight)" demonstrate that she has no problem handling the silkiest of slow jams.© Alex Henderson /TiVo