Lightbringer is the second 2023 album from American rock outfit Rival Sons and is the sequel to Darkfighter. Produced by the band and Dave Cobb (Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell), the six-track set sees the band continue with their take on classic rock.© Rich Wilson /TiVo

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

Island continues to promote the legacy of Bob Marley’s music, this time paired with artists from the African continent on the album Africa Unite. The title echoes one of the songs from the album Survival, released in 1979, with its famous sleeve comprised of 48 flags, 47 of them from African countries (but not South Africa, still under the apartheid regime). The record was one of the singer’s most political, advocating for Pan-Africanism and the independence of English colonies. The Jamaican is paired here with a cast of artists from the afrobeat and larger African scenes, and the same formula is repeated across ten tracks, with the chorus sung by Bob Marley placed on top of new arrangements, and the verses covered by the featured artist.As an opener, “So Much Trouble in the World” leads the way, between ska and afrobeat rhythms, with the two Zimbabweans and representatives of “Zimdancehall” Winky D and Nutty O, while the Nigerians Teni and Oxlade deliver a very Afropop version of “Three Little Birds”. Stonebwoy fares pretty well on “Buffalo Soldier”, “Redemption Song” gets a little sun with the South African Ami Faku, and the groove version of “Waiting in Vain” by the Nigerian Tiwa Savage has a certain charm as well. Of course, some purists may make a fuss, but it must be noted that the effectiveness of Bob Marley’s songwriting defies new arrangements just as well as the years that pass. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

That’s a hell of a list. With such famous friends, Sheryl Crow has turned Threads into an incredibly impressive collaborative album. The 5-star casting is wonderfully eclectic. From Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones to Public Enemy’s Chuck D., Willie Nelson, St. Vincent, Sting, Emmylou Harris, Lucius, Mavis Staples, Stevie Nicks, James Taylor, Jason Isbell and even her ex, Eric Clapton, the American singer crosses over stylistic and generational boundaries, highlighting her own colourful musical identity. Over the course of her ten previous albums, Sheryl Crow has slalomed between rock’n’roll, pop, country, blues and soul, never settling down in one genre. Such is the case again on Threads, even if the general atmosphere remains rooted in a rather classical rock’n’roll. When she topped the charts in the early 90s, this classicism already stood out next to her contemporaries such as Nirvana, Beck and The Smashing Pumpkins... Crow composed the bulk of the songs on this record, as well as adding some exceptionally tasty covers to the mix (George Harrison’s Beware of Darkness, Bob Dylan’s Everything is Broken, The Worst by the Rolling Stones, Kris Kristofferson’s Border Lord). Her prose on this record is more introspective than ever, taking on an almost confessional tone. Perhaps something to do with her recent shocking statement: Threads will be her last record! While we wait to find out if she will ever reconsider, Sheryl Crow signs her densest work at the age of 57. © Max Dembo/Qobuz

Johnny Cash was in the unenviable position of being a living legend who was beloved by fans of classic country music without being able to interest anyone in his most recent work when he was signed to Rick Rubin's American Recordings label in 1994. Rubin, best known for his work with edgy rockers and hip-hop acts, opted to produce Cash's first album for American, and as he tried to brainstorm an approach that would introduce Cash to a new audience, he struck upon a brilliant idea -- doing nothing. For American Recordings, Rubin simply set up some recording equipment in Cash's Tennessee cabin and recorded him singing a set of songs accompanied only by his acoustic guitar. The result is an album that captured the glorious details of Johnny Cash's voice and allowed him to demonstrate just how emotionally powerful an instrument he possessed. While Rubin clearly brought some material to Cash for these sessions -- it's hard to imagine he would have recorded tunes by Glenn Danzig or Tom Waits without a bit of prodding -- Cash manages to put his stamp on every tune on this set, and he also brought some excellent new songs to the table, including the Vietnam veteran's memoir "Drive On," the powerful testimony of faith "Redemption," and a sly but moving recollection of his wild younger days, "Like a Soldier." American Recordings became a critical sensation and a commercial success, though it was overrated in some quarters simply because it reminded audiences that one of America's greatest musical talents was still capable of making compelling music, something he had never stopped doing even if no one bothered to listen. Still, American Recordings did something very important -- it gave Cash a chance to show how much he could do with a set of great songs and no creative interference, and it afforded him the respect he'd been denied for so long, and the result is a powerful and intimate album that brought the Man in Black back to the spotlight, where he belonged.© Mark Deming /TiVo

Uprising would be the final studio album featuring Bob Marley & the Wailers to be released during Marley's lifetime. Prophetically, it also contains some of the band's finest crafted material, as if they were cognizant that this would be their final outing. The album's blend of religious and secular themes likewise creates a very powerful and singular quest for spirituality in a material world. Although it is argued that an album's graphic design rarely captures the essence of the work inside, the powerful rebirthing image of a rock solid Marley emerging with his arms raised in triumph could not be a more accurate visual description of the musical jubilation within. Musically, the somewhat staid rhythms often synonymous with reggae have been completely turned around to include slinky and liquid syncopation. "Work," "Pimper's Paradise," and the lead-off track "Coming in From the Cold" are all significant variations on the lolloping Rasta beat. The major difference is the sonic textures that manipulate and fill those patterns. The inventive and unique guitar work of Al Anderson -- the only American member of the original Wailers -- once again redefines the role of the lead electric guitar outside of its standard rock & roll setting. "Zion Train" is awash in wah-wah-driven patterns creating an eerie, almost ethereal backdrop against Marley's lyrics, which recollect images from Peter Tosh's "Stop That Train" all the way back on Marley & the Wailers' international debut Catch a Fire. The final track on the original pressing of Uprising is "Redemption Song." Never has an artist unknowingly written such a beautiful and apropos living epitaph. The stark contrast from the decidedly electric and group-oriented album to this hauntingly beautiful solo acoustic composition is as dramatic as it is visionary. Less than a year after the release of Uprising, Marley would succumb to cancer. The 2001 "Definitive Remaster" version of Uprising contains the band version of "Redemption Song" and the 12" mix of "Could You Be Loved."© Lindsay Planer /TiVo

Since the release of his last non-mixtape/non-collaboration album in 2013, Drake has solidified his position as a pop music icon, scaling the charts, dominating gossip columns, and generally living the good life. Or so it seems. 2016's Views is another in a string of dour transmissions from the dark night of Drake's soul. As before, he casts himself as both the melancholy bachelor looking out over the city from his penthouse manor, and the criminally underrated rap genius demanding his due, and it's one album too many for both personas. He's already delved deeply into his insecurities, lambasted all his exes, and displayed his fierce self-pride, never shying away from telling everyone exactly where he started and how far he's come. Frankly, it's become as boring and annoying as a needle stuck in a groove. No matter how ably the production casts his raps and ballads in the best possible light, no matter how well the frequent use of chopped and swirled samples from '90s R&B songs fit in the mix, no matter that the occasional song rises up from the narrative and makes a splash, the album is a meandering, dreary rehash of what Drake has done before in much better fashion. Of the songs that stand out, his uptempo, Caribbean-flavored duet with Rihanna ("Too Good") is the most enjoyable; "One Dance," another song with a Jamaican dancehall feel, is another fun track. Still, these poppy moments feature Drake as the wounded lover, being treated poorly yet again. A few other tracks connect, like the almost light-hearted "Feel No Ways," which makes good use of a stuttering Malcolm McLaren sample or, of course, the hugely catchy hit song "Hotline Bling." The nostalgic "Weston Road Flows" comes close, with the great Mary J. Blige sample running through the track, but stumbles when Drake name drops Katy Perry and brags about wrecking marriages. The track, like so many others made up of over-blown boasts, seems to be fighting a battle that was won long ago. Drake has not only arrived, he's taken over. And if he's never going to get the same respect that someone like Chance the Rapper gets, making records as self-pitying and self-serving as Views isn't going to do much to further Drake's career artistically, either. Basically, Drake needs to lighten up and add some new colors to the paintbox, whether it’s songs about something other than his bummer love life (like the good times before the inevitable breakup), or the fabulous things that come from all the money and fame he never lets anyone forget he's accrued. Eventually, people will get tired of the same old song if it's sung too often. On Views, Drake is starting to sound a little weary of it himself.© Tim Sendra /TiVo

The soundtrack for Mad Max: Fury Road was provided by Tom Holkenborg, aka Junkie XL -- a Dutch composer, musician, and producer who previously worked on The Dark Knight Rises, Paranoia, and Man of Steel, among other films. For Fury Road, he was up to the task of providing thunderous sounds -- battering drums, screaming guitars, urgent strings and horns, all physical and skillfully orchestrated -- to match the intense action. Even the relatively quiet, drone-like interludes are rife with tension. Outside the context of the film -- as a soundtrack for joyriding, for example -- it could be dangerous.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

Katy Kirby's debut, 2021's Cool Dry Place, was a delight; her second album is even better. Exuding a Brill Building vibrancy, it holds echoes of Regina Spektor and Rufus Wainwright's pomp melancholy, with orchestral parts arranged by Rowen Merrill. Kirby has said that, once she accepted she was writing love songs, "I wanted them to sound like they were bidding for a spot in the wedding reception canon." Songs like "Drop Dead" fizz with an air of curiosity if not mischief; it's piano pop without strictly being for piano. Kirby has a vivid way with imagery, as when she suggests on "Cubic Zirconia"—a jaunty bit of easy-roll country folk—that beauty can come with modesty. "Cubic Zirconia/ Baby, no one can tell/ When they're up against your throat/ You know they shine just as well," she sings, admiring a "face framed by hoodie like an oyster in a shell." The crystalline analogy comes into play again, albeit with a hint of skepticism, on "Salt Crystal." But by the time the title track rolls around, in the form of a sweet ballad, Kirby's view of synthetic beauty is tinged. "I am under her heel like rock candy/ Crushed to glitter laid out on the concrete," she sings, later adding, "Her eyes burn white as Styrofoam right into me." Kirby's first record was about coming out from a sheltered evangelical Christian upbringing in Texas (she didn't hear artists like Coldplay until attending Belmont University in Nashville). Her sophomore effort is a sonic scrapbook of her first queer relationship, with the title track written even before Kirby knew the truth about herself. There are highs, as when she sings of happiness and love as a "Double-triple backflip off the high dive" on the supertender "Party of the Century." With its Carpenters melody and tremulous strings, there’s common ground with Clairo's gently percolating music. Like Clairo, too, Kirby's voice is cozy, warm and lilting, making it a safe space for the emotional lows of Blue Raspberry, as when she sings, "Must have been such an awful night/ What I can't remember won't hurt me/ Thank God in advance, I'm already forgetting" on "Hand to Hand," the instruments stepping delicately, deliberately. "You're doing the work now/ You're trying so hard/ This one goes out to your redemption arc," Kirby sings on "Redemption Arc." Life imitating the construct of a movie script, the song sounds like it could soundtrack such a cinematic scene: The melancholic melody blooms into a flash of grandiosity, before quietening down as if remembering its shyness. But that won't handicap Kirby, who tells herself to "Swing for the fences," on folky, sweet "Fences." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Deep remorse and the longing for divine redemption are two of the central topics in the cantatas of Northern German Baroque composers. Griet De Geyter and Il Gardellino have selected three exemplary works in this genre by Dieterich Buxtehude, Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach, giving special emphasis to the clearly led voice and striking expressivity of the young Belgian soprano. The emotional climax is Bach’s cantata with obbligato oboe Mein Herz schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199, which is based on Christ’s parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. The programme is complemented by an instrumental sonata by Buxtehude and two organ versions of the chorale Jesu, meine Freude, played by Leo van Doeselaar. © Passacaille

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

The follow-up to 2018's Grammy-nominated Vicious, Back from the Dead, sees the Lzzy Hale-fronted rockers deliver a potent set of songs inspired by Hale's self-described "journey of navigating mental health, debauchery, survival, redemption, and rediscovery" during the Covid-19 pandemic. Halestorm's fifth full-length effort, the album was produced by Nick Raskulinecz and includes the singles "The Steeple" and "Back from the Dead," the latter of which became the group's sixth single to reach number one on the Active Rock charts.© TiVo