More than 50 years into their heavy metal legacy, Judas Priest are still screaming at full power on their 19th studio full length Invincible Shield. The album, their first studio effort of its kind since 2018's Firepower, is again produced by the band's touring guitarist Andy Sneap, and its 14 songs stretch out at over just an hour long runtime. The album charges out of the gates with the dumbfounding riffery of "Panic Attack." The song touches on all of the now-signature elements of Priest's sound, with dizzying harmonic guitar solos, a relentlessly pushy beat, and layers of Rob Halford's vocals, part winking metal theater, part authentic menace. The majority of the album sticks to thrash levels of speed and force, though the band switches gears to fantastical mid-tempo lurking on the epic "Crown of Horns" and the chugging "Trial by Fire." There's an unexpected acoustic breakdown in "Giants in the Sky" and some bluesy swaggering on the chunky "Fight of Your Life," but by and large Invincible Shield finds Judas Priest delivering a tightly wound and immaculately polished rendering of everything fans have come to expect from them over the last half a century. While at this point there's some unavoidable self-awareness to their craft, it does nothing to take away from the exhilarating fun and lawless excitement of the album. Invincible Shield simply reminds us that this particular kind of excitement is synonymous with Judas Priest.© TiVo Staff /TiVo

Audio Vertigo is the tenth studio album from British indie outfit Elbow and follows 2021's Flying Dream 1. Produced by Elbow's Craig Potter and recorded at various studios across the U.K., including their own Blueprint Studios in Salford, the album sees the band opt for a grittier, more garagey feel compared to their previous work, while also expanding their sonic palette.© Rich Wilson /TiVo

The sheer fun of John Williams' Saturday-matinee-writ-large score is made especially evident on the soundtrack album. In terms of his three best-known themes of the late '70s (Star Wars, Superman: The Movie, and Raiders of the Lost Ark), the main Raiders theme really is the most striking of the group.© Steven McDonald /TiVo

Capitol's 2005 collection All the Best weighs in at only 18 tracks, which is a little bit light to truly contain all of the best songs Tina Turner has recorded over her lengthy career. And, truth be told, it doesn't come close to containing all of her best -- it concentrates on material she recorded from her '80s comeback, Private Dancer, on, stretching all the way into the '90s but focusing on such '80s hits as "What's Love Got to Do with It," "Private Dancer," "The Best," "Better Be Good to Me," "Typical Male," and "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)," adding her biggest '90s hit, "I Don't Wanna Fight," plus a couple of OK but forgettable new songs. The classic 1973 version of "Nutbush City Limits" is here, but it's the only Ike & Tina cut; the version of "Proud Mary" is taken from the soundtrack of her 1993 biopic What's Love Got to Do with It. That highlights the problem with All the Best -- it has many of the big hits, but for one reason or another ignores the music on which her legend is built. Still, as a summation of her comeback and beyond, it's good, and for fans who favor this sound, it's a good disc to have.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

"Change? Never. You can evolve, add things, but why would you want to change? What’s the point?" Liam Howlett, the brains behind The Prodigy, was very clear in 2015 upon the release of The Day is My Enemy, the last album from the British group who created a fierce mix of techno, jungle, punk and hip-hop know as big beat at the start of the 90s. This new album confirms that the trio still don’t plan on straying from their path, the path of making infernal noise with the objective of blowing up the stage.Mutant synth gimmicks, motor engine-like noise, brutal bass-lines, punchy intros, thrashing guitars: like all Prodigy albums No Tourists is like running through a blitz. Partly put together in hotel rooms, the album also includes a collaboration with New Jersey punk-rap duo Ho99o9 on the track Fight Fire with Fire, a riot rallying call on which Howlett dives deep into the hardcore. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

Michael Giacchino's fifth score for director Matt Reeves (following Cloverfield, Let Me In, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and War for the Planet of the Apes), 2022's The Batman was a remarkable undertaking for several reasons. Firstly, as the inaugural film in yet another reboot, Giacchino was responsible for composing new music themes for beloved franchise characters. Secondly, Reeves approached Giacchino to do the score before lead actor Robert Pattinson was even cast; as a result, music including the main Batman motif pre-dated production on the film. The Batman is also the longest score Giacchino had ever written to this point; the film has a running time of nearly three hours, and the score recording clocks in at four minutes short of two hours. It was recorded in October 2021 with a 70-piece orchestra and six-member boys choir divided between Abbey Road Studios One and Two and tracked concurrently with two different conductors. The instrumentation is another noteworthy feature, consisting of rock instruments as well as orchestral strings, brass, and percussion but almost no woodwinds (just three clarinets). If that's any indication of the score's sound, one would likely still underestimate how dark, lurking, and often (not always) eerily sparse the final work is, which had Giacchino looking to film noir classics for inspiration in addition to his Batman predecessors, Danny Elfman, Elliot Goldenthal, and Hans Zimmer. There was so much anticipation surrounding the film and score that Giacchino's main character tracks -- "The Batman," "The Riddler," and "Catwoman" -- were issued as singles and broke WaterTower Music streaming records for pre-release score material. The ominous, marching four-note (two-pitch) Batman motif is introduced on the opening track, "Can't Fight City Halloween," later appearing alongside the more elegant, melancholy Bruce Wayne theme on tracks including "Riddles, Riddles Everywhere." The Catwoman theme embodies jazzier noir, and the Riddler's rising and falling minor-key melody utilizes the children's choir. They intertwine and react to each other according to the onscreen action throughout the score, whose recording closes on the 12-minute "Sonata in Darkness," performed by pianist Gloria Cheng. The Batman marked Giacchino's debut on the Billboard 200. Note: Wordplay aficionados will want to do a close reading of the track list.© Marcy Donelson /TiVo

For their fourth studio album, American rock band Cage The Elephant have moved visibly forward from 2013’s Melophobia. Old influences such as the Pixies have been rigorously ousted and in its place we find a kind of childlike energy that manages to be structured, varied, and winning all at once. A solid effort from the Kentucky boys.

Breaking Benjamin are nothing if not consistent. Phobia finds them picking up exactly where they left off with 2004's We Are Not Alone, mixing heavy hard rock dynamics with a moody demeanor that never slips into full-on dejection, thanks in part to their proficient grasp of the accessible melody and ever-rousing chorus. Darkness permeates Phobia's tracks (bookended by a useless intro and outro), but the quartet always remembers the silver lining hanging in its oft-cloudy skies. Songs like "Until the End" exhibit this resilient attitude, affirming that while life can be tough, "Why give up? Why give in?…So I will go on until the end." Breaking Benjamin mix urgent up-front vocals with dense underside riffing ("The Diary of Jane," "Topless"), while still being able to effortlessly pull off songs with vulnerable edges ("Here We Are," "Breath"). This is heard even more in the gentle acoustic version of "The Diary of Jane" not listed on the back cover; it sounds natural and not just like a strained bonus novelty -- featuring Dropping Daylight's Sebastian Davin, the version may even be better than the original. As is often the case, certain tracks work out much better than others, as in the tough angst of "Dance with the Devil" versus the forced warbling of "Unknown Soldier." The main problem with the guys has always been that while everything is pulled off capably, there isn't always much to distinguish them from the rest of the post-grunge/alt-metal pack or really, each of their songs from one another. But what Breaking Benjamin lack in distinctiveness, they make up in a certain charm that makes them 100 times more appealing than most of their testosterone-clogged peers. Phobia will not win over any skeptics still holding out on the band, but for those already happily settled in the Benjamin camp, it makes for another satisfying listen.© Corey Apar /TiVo

Even though Kimbra fans know to expect the unexpected, A Reckoning proves she can still surprise. As she views the turbulence of the early 2020s through a personal lens, questioning relationships, identity, and the world at large, she creates moods that are distinctly different from any of her previous work. The droning and chiming electronics that drive the introspective opening track "Save Me" have more in common with Homogenic or Kid A than most of Kimbra's own discography, while "Gun"'s explosive outbursts make it clear that she's ready to rip it up and start again. Even when she indulges in crate-digging mashups like those on The Golden Echo and Primal Heart, the feeling that she's done putting up with nonsense remains on "LA Type," a funky skewering of West Coast fakeness that features Tommy Raps and Pink Siifu backing her up. Kimbra's use of hip-hop and electronic music on A Reckoning fortifies her resilience: she mixes teeth-rattling beats and slinky keys on "Replay"'s recriminations, and grounds "GLT"'s alluring kiss-offs with a massive bass and bars from Erick the Architect. When she returns to introspection as the album winds down, it showcases the growing maturity of her songwriting. "Foolish Thinking," a duet with Son Lux's Ryan Lott, is a tender meditation on how pain can lead to growth. Even better is "I Don't Want to Fight," where she keeps her words and vocals hauntingly simple. As heartbroken and fed up as she is on much of A Reckoning, Kimbra still makes room for playful songs and sounds. It's no coincidence that one of the sexiest-sounding songs, "Personal Space," is about taking time for herself. "New Habit" is ostensibly about meeting and obsessing over someone new, but its taut rhyme scheme and surging choruses feel like shedding a skin. Kimbra's willingness to shake things up is one of her greatest strengths, and by going to extremes on A Reckoning, she delivers some of her most daring and thoughtful music. © Heather Phares /TiVo