More than a decade since their last album was released, Sweden's The Hives sound as nihilistic and melodic as they did on their 2000 garage-punk classic Veni Vidi Vicious. "Mmm, stand to the side when my shit starts wrecking/ You're gonna think you gone blind," frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist wails on "Bogus Operandi," which starts off with grand dramatic pauses before the sparks start—and don't stop—flying.  From there, it's straight into "Trapdoor Solution," a breakneck minute and three seconds of garage fuzz that finds Amqvist as guttural as ever. But there are surprises and experiments here, too. "Stick Up" crashes together Cab Calloway vaudeville and horror punk. "Countdown to Shutdown"—with references to Ponzi schemes and Maslow's hierarchy of needs pyramid—cruises on a slinky groove courtesy of bassist The Johan and Only (Johan Gustaffson), who has toured with the band and played on 2020's Live at Third Man Records, but makes his studio album debut here. Almqvist plays it more louche—think Jonathan Fire*Eater—than fevered on "Rigor Mortis Radio" ("I got your email saying you wanted me/ I got your email, delete delete"). And he adopts a bluesman delivery for "Crash into the Weekend," a mondo rug-cutter fueled by frenzied handclaps and furious rockabilly guitar. "I'm going to crash into the weekend like a busted jaw/ Riding shotgun to a monkey on a circular saw … I’m going to crash into the bottom of a bottomless pit." Almqvist promises (threatens?). According to Hives lore, which has always been over-the-top, the album's title refers to their invisible "sixth member" and manager who mysteriously recruited each musician via letter and now, apparently, has led the band to an empty grave. (For what it's worth, the name is registered to Nicholaus Arson, a.k.a. Niklas Almqvist, band guitarist and Pelle's brother.) But don't get bogged down in the goofiness—just enjoy the ride. "Two Kinds of Trouble" stomps, "The Way the Story Goes" rides a fierce, sped-up Cramps groove and "The Bomb" is a hoot—all frenzied chanting, tight rhythm and playful call-and-response: "What do you want to do?/ Go off!/ What don't you want to do?/Not go off!" The album breathlessly wraps up with the punishingly fast and furious "Step Out of the Way," clocking in at less than a minute and a half because what human over 22 could keep up with this? © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

By 1973, the disparity between the Grateful Dead's studio work and their eminence as live performers was already well established. Their sixth studio album, Wake of the Flood, served as a transitional document, bridging the gap between the gentle Americana they'd presented three years prior on American Beauty, and the increasingly electrified jamming they were exploring on-stage around then, while also setting the scene for the more complex progressive sounds they'd soon be getting into. After satisfying their nine-title/dozen-disc deal with Warner Bros, the Dead began their own record labels: Grateful Dead Records (for group releases) and Round Records (for solo projects). Wake of the Flood was the first Dead disc issued entirely under the band's supervision -- which also included manufacturing and marketing. Additionally, the personnel had been altered, as Ron "Pigpen" McKernan had passed away. The keyboard responsibilities were now in the capable hands of Keith Godchaux -- whose wife Donna Jean Godchaux also provided backing vocals. A majority of the tracks here had been incorporated into their live sets -- some for nearly six months -- prior to entering the recording studio. This gave the band a unique perspective on the material, much of which remained for the next 20-plus years as staples of their concert performances. Instead of hushed folk and bluegrass-informed songwriting, the Dead tap into the improvisatory, jazz-informed playing they excelled at live throughout Wake of the Flood. "Eyes of the World" contains some brilliant ensemble playing and Bob Weir's "Weather Report Suite" foreshadows the epic proportions that the song would ultimately reach. The lilting Jerry Garcia ballad "Stella Blue" is another track that works well in this incarnation and remained in the Dead's rotating set list for the remainder of their touring careers. The disconnect between the group's powers as a live band and their limitations as a studio band was a sticking point throughout their lengthy run. Wake of the Flood doesn't quite reach the goal of a middle ground, but it is one of the stronger studio documents the band produced, and captures hints of what they could do on-stage better than most of their studio sets from a time when they were truly unstoppable.© Lindsay Planer & Fred Thomas /TiVo

Just as he had followed his 1980 commercial breakthrough The River with the challenging Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen followed the most popular album of his career, Born in the U.S.A., with another low-key, anguished effort, Tunnel of Love. Especially in their sound, several of the songs, "Cautious Man" and "Two Faces," for example, could have fit seamlessly onto Nebraska, though the arrangements overall were not as stripped-down and acoustic as on the earlier album. While Nebraska was filled with songs of economic desperation, however, Tunnel of Love, as its title suggested, was an album of romantic exploration. But the lovers were just as desperate in their way as Nebraska's small-time criminals. In song after song, Springsteen questioned the trust and honesty on both sides in a romantic relationship, specifically a married relationship. Since Springsteen sounded more autobiographical than ever before ("Ain't Got You" referred to his popular success, while "Walk Like a Man" seemed another explicit message to his father), it was hard not to wonder about the state of his own two-and-a-half-year marriage, and it wasn't surprising when that marriage collapsed the following year. Tunnel of Love was not the album that the ten million fans who had bought Born in the U.S.A. as of 1987 were waiting for, and though it topped the charts, sold three million copies, and spawned three Top 40 hits, much of this was on career momentum. Springsteen was as much at a crossroads with his audience as he seemed to be in his work and in his personal life, though this was not immediately apparent.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

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Kicking off with the furious "Walk on Hot Coals" where Rory Gallagher's stinging guitar and Lou Martin's insistent piano pounding spar within the context of one of Rory's classic rockers, the album presents a well rounded picture of Gallagher's eclectic influences. A jaunty, acoustic run through Big Bill Broonzy's "Banker's Blues" (oddly credited to Gallagher), the ragtime "Unmilitary Two-Step" as well as an unusually straightforward country tune "If I Had a Reason" with Rory on lap-steel and Martin doing his best honky-tonk, effectively break up the blues-rock that remains the soul of the album. The album's centerpiece, a brooding "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" finds the band locked into a swampy groove for over eight minutes as Gallagher abbreviates his own solo providing room for Martin's aggressive piano. On "Hands Off" the guitarist even picks up saxophone, and he shows off his spooky Muddy Waters' inspired slide on the train chugging "Race the Breeze," one of the guitarist's best tunes. The final two bonus tracks tacked on for this reissue don't add much of interest; an early, shuffle version of "Stompin' Ground" lacks the tension of the song that later showed up as the only studio tracks on the live Irish Tour 1974 album, and Roy Head's "Treat Her Right" sounds like a soundcheck warm-up, which it probably was. Concise track-by-track liner notes from Rory's brother Donal provide useful background information, and the remastered sound taken from the original tapes is a revelation, with Gallagher's guitar parts and especially vocals, clear and precise in the spiffed up mix.© Hal Horowitz /TiVo

With Destroy Erase Improve, Meshuggah shattered any preconceived notions about what death, thrash, and prog metal could be with one astoundingly accurate, calculated blow. The Swedish outfit managed to surpass their startlingly original, if relatively immature debut, Contradictions Collapse, with a record so pure in concept and execution, it borders on genius. Lyrical themes visualize the integration of machines with organisms as humanity's next logical evolutionary step, while the music backing it up is mind-bogglingly technical, polyrhythmic math metal -- the work of highly skilled men with powerful instruments. While the idea looks unwieldy on paper, Meshuggah handles it with a balance of raw guts and sheer brainpower, weaving hardcore-style shouts amongst deceptively (and deviously) simple staccato guitar riffs and insanely precise drumming -- often with all three components acting in different time signatures. Guitarist Fredrik Thordendal adds an element of weirdness with Allan Holdsworth-style neo-jazz fusion leads that serve as melodic oases amidst the jackhammer rhythms. While such bold, challenging arrangements could result in a wank-fest or, even worse, a chaotic mess, Meshuggah carefully synchronizes their bludgeoning instrumentation, embracing minimalism without excess and playing to the power of the song so the listener isn't neck-deep in over-composed indulgences. As a result, "Future Breed Machine," "Suffer in Truth," and "Soul Burn" are mind-bogglingly profound, integrating body, mind, and soul into a violently precise attack, the point being that change can be extraordinarily difficult -- if not maddening -- but the results are transcendent. While industrial metallers Fear Factory have attempted to tackle similar themes, Meshuggah outclasses them on all fronts, proved by the stunning brilliance of Destroy Erase Improve. The album is a bona fide '90s classic, a record boasting ideas so well-balanced -- natural yet clinical, guttural yet intelligent, twisted yet concise -- it muscled simplistic subgenres out of the way and confidently pointed toward the future of metal.© John Serba /TiVo

Me'shell NdegéOcello's debut album twists and turns through so many genres -- R&B, pop, jazz, hip-hop -- that it's hard to put a finger on just where she wants to take its 13 songs. That she also spins conventional racial and sexual identity here makes Plantation Lullabies an occasionally overwhelming -- as well as a vibrantly sophisticated -- listen. NdegéOcello defies labels throughout, tagging her slinking and crawling songs with a rubbery flow that's just as rooted in '70s funky soul as it is in '90s hip-hop culture. The best songs here -- "If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)," "Dred Loc," and "Outside Your Door" -- work their way into their grooves with a seamless, and almost uniform, bounce. It can be a bit derivative (for all of NdegéOcello's genre crossing, she always seems to go back to the same musical blueprint), but most of the time it's just about as boundary-busting and as affecting as '90s R&B gets.© Michael Gallucci /TiVo

Before the Flood is a documentary from Fischer Stevens that follows actor Leonardo DiCaprio on a three-year journey as he surveys the impact of climate change. Its soundtrack is a superb collaboration between multi-instrumentalists and producers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, revered composer Gustavo Santaolalla, and Scottish post-rock outfit Mogwai. Opening things nicely is the title track. Comprised of minimal yet solid electronic beats and wavering Swarmatron sounds, the piece is littered with some melancholy piano and striding basslines. Santaolalla's diverse use of strings and acoustics also functions perfectly upon Reznor and Ross' canvas of intertwining electro-organic beauty. "A Minute to Breathe" is a sorrowful piano sonnet with Reznor’s vocals evoking the message; his voice cracks through the vocals that break around the mix, panning nicely and sliding off into the distance as he sings "I don’t wanna say goodbye...", ending with all the elements bringing themselves together and some distant brass sitting atop the rest before fading into the distance. Mogwai’s "Dust Bowl" delivers swollen, frosty ambience layered with delay-heavy synth pads and light treble-picked guitar. Santaolalla’s technical prowess is unmistakable on such tracks such as "Thin Ice" -- his familiar use of the Ronroco is evident here with beautifully picked notes running alongside some sorrow-laden violas. He opts for a more sinister tone with "The Melting Pot," which consists of an ominous, rumbling, and persistent bass running underneath perilous strings before peaking altogether with portentous ambience. Santaolalla's abilities are impeccably combined with those of Reznor and Ross. With "Trembling," his familiar command of strings dominates the first half of the song, and the powerhouse production duo’s talents suddenly come into play around mid-track; synthesized bass and trickling piano adorn the mix, with the light touch of Swarmatron and everything awash with some beautiful reverb. A surefire highlight is Reznor and Ross' "8 Billion" -- a very interesting piece, mostly because the same melody runs throughout while surrounding harmonies burgeon unpredictably. It’s a long track that simultaneously transforms its palette and remains locked into its central melody; a perfect example of the production duo’s unwavering ability to constantly find new kinds of musicality within noise. Mogwai close the album brilliantly with "After the Flood," a wonderful track composed of lonely glockenspiels and benevolent static with wobbly, synthesized strings rippling throughout before a thudding bass drum breaks through with light hi-hats. A cacophony of noise -- the effects, harmonies, and melodies are all used equally and very effectively throughout the record, truly giving it a sense of scale and significance. It's the perfect soundtrack for DiCaprio’s trek across the globe investigating the imminent perils of climate change and what we must do to save the planet. The soundtrack for Before the Flood is an extremely impressive and collaborative effort from some of the most creative musicians on the scene today. © Rob Wacey /TiVo