28-year-old Michael Kiwanuka's second album, Love & Hate, comes 4 years after his first, and with it, a more refined sound. The same soulful tones that gave Kiwanuka such a broad following remain the focal point of the new album, as do the lilting melodies and baleful lyrics, but thanks to producers Dangermouse and Inflo, as well as a huge supporting cast of musicians, this album manages to throw the punch we were promised by the first. Beginning with a 9 minute, Pink Floyd inspired 'opus', the album feels expansive and varied. It feels like a coming of age record, a musical maturation for this singer, who is already being hailed as one of the greatest voices around. Ranging from sweeping orchestral arrangements to melancholy introspections, this second effort seems more mature and measured, but remains a 'nearly' moment. Overdone and overloaded, this second album has lost some of the immediacy and realness that made the first stand out. Kiwanuka's voice is sometimes overwhelmed by the size and scale of the arrangements, rather than playing to his strengths. Nevertheless, the overall quality of the record will undoubtedly make it a big winner this year. RK/Qobuz

Although they might not be the first '90s band to come to mind, it's hard to overstate Garbage's long-lasting influence on "pop" music—you can hear the industrial yet accessible dance-floor rhythms in the songs of Lady Gaga, while Billie Eilish's darker twists and turns echo those of singer Shirley Manson. For the band's seventh album, released a quarter-century after they broke through, Garbage's formula isn't so different, but they've revitalized it with lyrics that fit a shaken-up world that feels like it's rapidly changing and also not fast enough. "It was our way of trying to make sense of how fucking nuts the world is and the astounding chaos we find ourselves in," Manson has said—noting that the lyrics are critiques of racism, sexism, misogyny and capitalism. She comes out guns blazing on the industrial ass-shaker of an opener, "The Men Who Rule the World": "The men who rule the world/ Have made a fucking mess/ The history of power/ The worship of success." Her past experience of being rejected as a solo artist by her record label—for being too noir—drives the high-speed chase sounds of "The Creeps" ("They were selling me cheap out there on the street … they got a gun against my head"). "Waiting for God," inspired by the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements," is haunting and almost dirge-like as Manson explores the futility of hopes and prayers to deal with man's evil. Elsewhere, the ballad "Uncomfortably Me" snakes like '80s goth pop, "Anonymous XXX" slinks with a Latinx flair of driving drums and drunken horns sounds, and Manson's heaving whisper ("If I had a dick would you blow it?") prowls around a Depeche Mode-like dance-floor groove. But it's not all doom and gloom. "Flipping the Bird," as you would expect, is a lyrical kiss-off to people who pigeonhole, but it is as poppy-sounding as old hits like "Only Happy When It Rains." "This City Will Kill You" (a warning to not be lulled into danger by glamour) indulges in a Roxy Music lushness. And the title track isn't just upbeat—it's hopeful. It was inspired by a trip she took to Santiago, Chile, witnessing protests against corruption and inequality. As she sings: "Be kind, beware/ Be good, don't be scared/ Nothing lasts and no one stays/ The same forever so accept the change." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

According to her brief liner notes, Patti Smith indulged the idea of a covers album, considering songs as far back as 1978 on the back pages of Jean Genet's Thief's Journal when she was still assembling her groundbreaking early catalog; it's evident she feels that covers have been part and parcel of her recording experience from the outset. Her debut, Horses, has her own apocalyptic version of Van Morrison's "Gloria" as well as a healthy portion of Chris Kenner's "Land of a Thousand Dances" inside "Land." On 1979's Wave she covered the Byrds "So You Want to Be (A Rock and Roll Star)," and scored with the single. Her intuitive reading of Bob Dylan's "Wicked Messenger" was a beautiful aspect of Gone Again in 1996, and she paid tribute to Allen Ginsberg by using one of his poems in "Spell," on 1997's Peace and Noise. And who can forget her reading of Pete Townshend's "My Generation" issued on the 30th Anniversary edition of Horses?While it's a popular notion these days to consider a covers album a stop-gap between albums, the truth is that Smith has never been in a hurry when it comes to recording, though she has been very productive over the last decade. She has always paid tribute in one form or another to her heroes, however disparate. This collection is a wondrous sampling of pop hits, hard rock, ballads, and soul done in Smith's inimitable way of interpreting songs -- by getting inside them and breathing their meaning, and often uncovering new shades of meaning -- from within. She begins with a newer, more spiritual reading of Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" letting her fine band -- Jay Dee Daugherty, Lenny Kaye and Tony Shanahan -- pulse the tune's changes and vibe while she comes across as a shaman leading the way down into the underworld. Her taking on Tears for Fears' smash hit "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" may come as a surprise, but in her open-throated take, the tune brims with the wisdom of a prophetess proclaiming the folly of humankind's need for power and greed. And while her version of Neil Young's "Helpless" may come across as a bit too reverent, the seed of memory is what infuses her take on this beautiful ballad. Loss and remembrance become a memento mori, an effigy to those who who've traveled on from this plane of existence. "Gimme Shelter" is a natural, and it carries all the foreboding of an apocalypse out the original nearly 40 years later as if to say that Jagger and Richard were right all along. The tune becomes a plea for shelter, rather than a demand. George Harrison's "Within You Without You" is the complete blending of spiritual longing, with droning acoustic guitars, skittering snares and open chord drones from Kaye's electric and fleshly experience. Smith's read of Dylan's "Changing of the Guard" is ambitious. Where the original was drenched in mariachi horns and a female backing chorus, she overturns those trappings and accents Dylan's last expressionistic lyric. She sings as if everything is at stake in this clash between the forces of light and darkness, where Melville, Dumas, Joan of Arc, the myth of Orpheus and the tales of Ovid are informed by both biblical prophecy and the tarot. The meld of acoustic guitars, brushed drums and muted kickdrum wind around her. The piano and Kaye's muted electric guitars fill the space where most of the backing vocals and horns once were -- except where Smith's daughter Jesse Paris Smith harmonizes -- and seduce the emotion out of the nearly surreal narrative of renunciation.Perhaps no tune moves here like Smith's reading of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," with help from Sam Shepherd and John Cohen on banjo, Peter Stampfel on fiddle, and Kaye and Duncan Webster on guitar in a strange dreamscape driven by a standup bass. Smith digs into the lyric and then offers a poem that is as much an early American folk song elegy to the environment Kurt Cobain grew up in as it is to what's happening to America itself, but with current touches. Her poet's heart not only complements the original but makes the song timeless and brings Cobain's mature spirit to flesh once more. It is the most moving track on the set and the most visionary. Smith closes her set with a true outlaws campfire song in Gregg Allman's "Midnight Rider," and a darker than written, sparsely textured, elegiac cover of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise," with a truly haunting piano by Luis Resto. Her small notes annotating each track are welcome and revealing in and of themselves. If this is truly the covers album Smith has always wanted to record, she's succeeded on a level with the best of her studio recordings and a welcome addition to her catalog. Each song has her imprint without sacrificing the intent or spirit of the original. Full of slow burning passion and emotion, Twelve is magnificent.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

As the title suggests, this 16-track collection brings together a selection of British duo Tears for Fears' best-loved hits. The album features the U.K. Top Ten hits "Mad World," "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," and "Sowing the Seeds of Love."© Rich Wilson /TiVo

In almost equal measure, Black Radio III is both different from and similar to Robert Glasper's first two natural syntheses of R&B, jazz, and hip-hop carried out with his fluctuating gang of singers, rappers, and instrumentalists. It's as much an extension of Glasper's activity since 2016's ArtScience -- what stands in 2022 as the last Robert Glasper Experiment session -- part of a sequence that follows August Greene, Collagically Speaking, Fuck Yo Feelings, Dinner Party, a bunch of soundtracks, and dozens of concomitant recordings the keyboardist augmented as a collaborator. The change most evident from the outset is that Black Radio III is not credited to Robert Glasper Experiment. Derrick Hodge is the bassist on more than half of the cuts, and fellow band vet Chris Dave drums on two of them, but Glasper in the rhythm section is often flanked by other familiar associates such as Burniss Travis II and Justin Tyson. The additional musicians enhancing the shared complex simplicity of the principal players are greater in number, ranging from turntablists Jahi Sundance and DJ Jazzy Jeff to guitarist Isaiah Sharkey. Also unlike the first two volumes, this was over a year in the making and enabled by remote contributions, rather than knocked out within a week with everybody in a room. In one way or another, each selection is either a love song in the traditional sense or at least filled with love. Interpersonal ballads are most common. "Better Than I Imagined," a Grammy-winning 2020 single, is a meeting between a distressed H.E.R. and seductive Meshell Ndegeocello that smolders. Jennifer Hudson struts and shrugs through "Out of My Hands," a midtempo thumper (co-produced by Terrace Martin) that rates with her "Spotlight" and "Angel." Ledisi and Gregory Porter make the best match of all on the quiet fire of "It Don't Matter," harmonizing as Glasper takes a lilting rare solo. No more than a foot behind them are the vocal duo that bobs through "Why We Speak," a bolt of sunshine. Glasper's stink face-inducing electric lines set up luminous Esperanza Spalding, singing mostly in French with a dizzying mix of percussive and elongated notes -- reminding "not to sell our soul" -- and Q-Tip somehow finds a seam to further brighten the song without getting in the way. There are also some harder-hitting moments, such as a poignant opening with unwavering Amir Sulaiman poetry leading to a pro-Black summit with Killer Mike, BJ the Chicago Kid, and Big K.R.I.T. The unexpected touches, such as Glasper's own drunk-funk drums on "Shine" and the Theo Parrish-like beatdown house gait of "Everybody Love" (featuring Musiq Soulchild and Posdnous), are as welcome as the familiar ones. Speaking of which, the Lalah Hathaway-fronted cover here is a slow-swaying update of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" that would have made for an apt finale. Instead, it's smack in the middle, and no less effective for it.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

Renowned producer Trevor Horn presents his latest compilation, Trevor Horn Reimagines the 80s. This collection reinterprets a multitude of '80s hits in an entirely new way: Horn wanted to rebuild some of the '80s biggest singles from the ground up, with modern production standards. Several guest vocalists appear throughout the record, including Robbie Williams, Seal, and Tony Hadley.© Liam Martin /TiVo

The title is a tip-off: Lenny Kravitz is a hippie, something that was commonplace 20 years before his debut, Let Love Rule, and was familiar five years later when he scaled the charts with Are You Gonna Go My Way, but was practically unheard of in 1989 when the Grateful Dead were reaping the benefits of hippies turning into establishment. Kravitz had yet to become a classic rock caricature and he could still surprise on this unformed, endearingly unwieldy first record, where he split the difference between John Lennon, Curtis Mayfield, David Bowie, and Prince, sometimes exhibiting too clear of a debt to his idols but more often getting by on a combination of chutzpah and pastiche, something that winds up as an enormously appealing guilty pleasure. Kravitz has a tendency to overreach lyrically, striving to speak deep truths about big themes from world peace to child abuse, but the winning thing about Let Love Rule is how it plays as sheer sound, evoking memories of the paisley-drenched '60s and the lush sounds of '70s soul, all filtered through the multicultural flowering of the late '80s. Remarkably for an album that's essentially the work of a one-man band, Let Love Rule never feels stiff or insular -- it feels roomy and open, testament to Kravitz's talents as a producer -- but the record remains one of his best because it also has one of his greatest collections of songs, chief among them the stately, psychedelic march of "I Build This Garden for Us," the hippie-funk of "Sittin' on Top of the World," the Hendrixian riffs of "Freedom Train," the urban groove of "Mr. Cab Driver," and the surging "Let Love Rule," songs that created Kravitz's sound and persona and remain among his most engaging work.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

If The Hurting was mental anguish, Songs from the Big Chair marks the progression towards emotional healing, a particularly bold sort of catharsis culled from Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith's shared attraction to primal scream therapy. The album also heralded a dramatic maturation in the band's music, away from the synth-pop brand with which it was (unjustly) seared following the debut, and towards a complex, enveloping pop sophistication. The songwriting of Orzabal, Smith, and keyboardist Ian Stanley took a huge leap forward, drawing on reserves of palpable emotion and lovely, protracted melodies that draw just as much on soul and R&B music as they do on immediate pop hooks. The album could almost be called pseudo-conceptual, as each song holds its place and each is integral to the overall tapestry, a single-minded resolve that is easy to overlook when an album is as commercially successful as Songs from the Big Chair. And commercially successful it was, containing no less than three huge commercial radio hits, including the dramatic and insistent march, "Shout" and the shimmering, cascading "Head Over Heels," which, tellingly, is actually part of a song suite on the album. Orzabal and Smith's penchant for theorizing with steely-eyed austerity was mistaken for harsh bombasticism in some quarters, but separated from its era, the album only seems earnestly passionate and immediate, and each song has the same driven intent and the same glistening remoteness. It is not only a commercial triumph, it is an artistic tour de force. And in the loping, percolating "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," Tears for Fears perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the mid-'80s while impossibly managing to also create a dreamy, timeless pop classic. Songs from the Big Chair is one of the finest statements of the decade.© Stanton Swihart /TiVo

After scoring their commercial breakthrough with "I'm Not in Love" from 1975's The Original Soundtrack, 10cc continued to build on their good fortune with How Dare You. It didn't spawn another massive hit like "I'm Not in Love," but it is a well-crafted album that shows off 10cc's eccentric humor and pop smarts in equal measure. This time, the hit singles were "I'm Mandy Fly Me" and "Art for Art's Sake." The first tune is the fanciful tale of a plane crash victim saved from death by the stewardess of his dreams that plays out a poppy mock-exotica musical backdrop while the second is a tongue-in-cheek parody of commercial-minded artists set to a rocking, cowbell-driven beat. Elsewhere, How Dare You pursues a similar mix of zany humor and pop hooks: "Iceberg" brings its tale of a frigid romantic partner to life with an incredibly intricate and jazzy vocal melody, and "I Wanna Rule the World" is a witty tale of a dictator-in-training with enough catchy riffs and vocal harmonies for two or three songs. How Dare You loses a bit of steam on its second side when the songs' tempos start to slow down, but "Rock 'N' Roll Lullaby" and "Don't Hang Up" keep the listener involved through a combination of melodic songwriting and typically well-crafted arrangements. In the end, How Dare You never hits the giddy heights of The Original Soundtrack but it remains a solid album of witty pop songs that will satisfy anyone with a yen for 10cc.© Donald A. Guarisco /TiVo

Renowned producer Trevor Horn presents his latest compilation, Trevor Horn Reimagines the 80s. This collection reinterprets a multitude of '80s hits in an entirely new way: Horn wanted to rebuild some of the '80s biggest singles from the ground up, with modern production standards. Several guest vocalists appear throughout the record, including Robbie Williams, Seal, and Tony Hadley.© Liam Martin /TiVo