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

Alter Bridge bring the muscle on 2022's Pawns & Kings, their mighty seventh studio set and first since 2019's Walk the Sky. The Floridian post-grunge survivors keep their formula intact, working with longtime producer Michael Baskette on one of their heaviest outings yet. While there may be few surprises here, Alter Bridge have settled into a rather consistent groove over the past decade, playing to their melodic hard rock strengths while working within a set framework. Almost progressive in length, weighty songs like the "Fable of the Silent Son" and the title track lean into the band's power and fantasy metal tendencies. At this point in their career, the core duo of singer/guitarist Myles Kennedy and lead guitarist/singer Mark Tremonti presents a streamlined front bolstered by rhythm section Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips, a brotherhood that remains unchanged since the group's 2004 debut. From the opening battle cry of "This Is War" to the slick and tuneful "Last Man Standing," Pawns & Kings adds another reliable and tightly crafted volume to Alter Bridge's robust canon.© Timothy Monger /TiVo

Like any Ryan Adams album, Love Is Hell comes with a back-story, one that is carefully calculated to construct the enfant terrible's self-myth. Love Is Hell was intended to be the official follow-up to 2001's Gold -- the album that was not a collection of demos (that was 2002's Demolition), or the recorded-but-shelved albums 48 Hours or The Suicide Handbook, or even his alleged song-by-song cover of the Strokes' Is This It. Longtime Smiths fan that he is, Adams teamed up with John Porter -- the man who produced The Smiths, Meat Is Murder, and part of The Queen Is Dead -- with the intention of creating his own mope-rock album, hence the title Love Is Hell. Americana label that it is, Lost Highway balked at releasing a stylized tribute to Mancunian rainy-day bedsit music and didn't release it, encouraging Adams to record a different album, presumably one more in line with the label's taste. In the press and on the web, our hero spread stories about how the label claimed it was "too depressing" and "dark," thereby cultivating the myth that he's a maverick genius, while the label cheerfully countered with the defense that it just knew that our boy could do better. Eventually, a compromise was arranged: Adams kicked out a new album, the self-descriptive Rock N Roll, while releasing the equally self-descriptive Love Is Hell as two EPs, the first hitting the streets the same day as the "official" album, the second arriving a month later. Five months after that, the full-length Love Is Hell, containing both EPs plus "Anybody Wanna Take Me Home" from Rock N Roll, was released, negating the worth of the individual EPs (which were, after all, merely two halves of one album) and likely irritating legions of fans who bought both EPs.While it took longer than necessary to have the whole bloody affair of Love Is Hell released as its own entity, it's hard not to view it as a companion piece to Rock N Roll, particularly because they're two sides of the same coin. In effect, both Rock N Roll and Love Is Hell are tribute albums, each a conscious aping of a style and sound, both designed to showcase how versatile and masterful Adams is. But since he's a synthesist more than a stylist, Adams, for all his bluster, winds up as a Zelig-styled character, taking on the characteristics of the artists he's emulating -- something that can be sonically pleasurable, but far from being the substantive work of mad genius that he relentlessly sells himself as. If Love Is Hell has the edge over Rock N Roll, it's because it's more carefully considered in its production and writing, and he manages to hide his allusions better than he does on Rock, where every title and chord progression plays like an homage. Here, he shoots for the Smiths and winds up in Jeff Buckley territory tempered with a dash of Radiohead circa The Bends. To claim that it is a dark affair is to criticize its milieu more than its substance, because the songs have the form and feel of brooding, atmospheric mope-rock, not the blood and guts of the music. Adams is fairly adept at crafting that mood -- anybody who's such a fan of rock history should be -- sometimes relying more on a blend of attitude and atmosphere instead of songwriting. Such is the fate of a stylized tribute to a style with specific sonic attributes, but Adams also does come up with a clutch of effective songs: the epic sprawl of "Political Scientist," which captures him at his best Buckley; the title track, which is nearly anthemic with its ringing guitars; the understated "World War 24"; the gently propulsive "This House Is Not for Sale," which would fit nicely between a Julian Cope and Morrissey track on a college radio show from the late '80s. "English Girls Approximately" is an effective Bob Dylan and Paul Westerberg fusion, and the closer, "Hotel Chelsea Nights," is one of his best songs, a mildly anthemic soulful anthem with vague overtones of "Purple Rain." Nevertheless, it's telling that the best song here is a cover of Oasis' "Wonderwall." It's a well-done cover but not much of a reinvention -- Adams uses Noel Gallagher's solo acoustic version of the song as a template, replacing strumming with fingerpicked guitars and altering the phrasing slightly -- which is why the song itself shines through so strongly: it resonates how the other songs are intended to, but don't. While it doesn't fatally hurt Love Is Hell, since it is an effective mood piece, it does undercut it, revealing how Adams delivers the sizzle but not the steak.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Arguably the most influential live reggae album ever, Babylon by Bus captures Bob Marley and the Wailers during the European leg of their Kaya tour in the spring of 1978. The success of this set was not entirely unexpected, however. If the universal and widespread acclaim of Live! -- their first concert recording -- was an indicator, all involved knew that a Bob Marley & the Wailers performance contained unique energies and a vibe all of its own. Sharply contrasting the somewhat pastoral grooves of the Kaya album, Babylon by Bus possesses a more aggressive sound -- which was a trademark of this particular band. Tyrone Downie's progressive rock keyboard flavors on "Exodus," as well his judiciously located percussive clavinet accentuations during "Punky Reggae Party," lock in with Aston "Familyman" Barrett's viscous basslines to create something akin to psychedelic reggae or even along the lines of Parliament/Funkadelic. Likewise, "Heathen" highlights Anderson's explosive guitar leads, which are distinctly reminiscent of Eddie Hazel from his early days with Funkadelic. The lead guitar solos on "Rebel Music (3 O' Clock Roadblock)" and "Is This Love" also define Al Anderson's innovative and decidedly Western guitar style, as it is seamlessly and thoroughly integrated with Marley and the Wailers. As with their first concert album, Babylon by Bus highlights material from the band's history up to that point. "No More Trouble" is placed in an entirely new context when linked with "War," which features lyrics taken from a United Nations speech given by Haille Selassie I, the Ethiopian emperor considered the father of modern Rastafarianism. Other early tracks, such as "Kinky Reggae" and "Stir It Up," prove to be not the only favorites of concert attendees. More recent offerings of "Is This Love," "Jammin'," and "Exodus" actually garner the most audible support. Without question, Babylon by Bus is an integral component of any popular music collection.© Lindsay Planer /TiVo

The tenth studio long-player from the venerable Swedish melodic death metal unit featuring ex-members of Carcass, Carnage, Mercyful Fate, Armageddon, Eucharist, and Spiritual Beggars, War Eternal is the first outing to feature the talents of new vocalist Alissa White-Gutz, formerly of the Canadian extreme metal outfit Agonist, who joined the group after the amicable departure of longtime Arch Enemy crooner Angela Gossow. The self-produced Century Media-issued, 14-track collection of new music was preceded by the singles "No More Regrets," "You Will Know My Name," and the blistering title cut.© James Christopher Monger /TiVo

Album number four from High on Fire offers a few change-ups right out of the gate. For starters, it marks the debut of the band's third bassist, Jeff "Zeke" Matz. Secondly, it's thus far the most varied set in the batch. Matt Pike has always been a very texturally oriented guitarist. His strumming technique filled a lot of the space that can be the death knell of a power trio metal band. He's been inventive without having to be a guitar hero. (But in this sense, putting the sound of a band before his own ego gratification actually makes him one.) In producer and recording engineer Jack Endino -- who worked with both Soundgarden and Nirvana -- this crew found a very able and willing collaborator. Endino understands "heavy," but he also understands dynamics, and he encouraged Pike to explore some new sonic territory as a soloist as well. The slippery elements of strangeness on tracks like "Waste of Tiamat," where acoustic guitars strung high introduce the tune's opening bars before that crushing riff drops the hammer and is immediately followed by a brief but furious drum solo. Elsewhere, on the brief instrumental "Khanrad's Wall," a tambour and a 12-string acoustic (played by Matz) engage tom-tom heavy drumming, but it's followed by the speeded up near-Motörhead intensity of "Turk." The guitar solo in the middle, while mixed down just above the riff, is insane; just off the rails. That intense pace is furthered by the brief but well-paced drum orgy on "Headhunter," which gives way to "Rumors of War" in all its doomy (yet a bit quicker) riff-laden glory. Those who long for the old-school sounds of High on Fire will not be dismayed by this sound since there is plenty of the extreme doom riffing on "Dii" and extreme distortion of both guitars and bass in "Cyclopian Scape," after the 12-string intro that has its own strange resemblance to something off of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti. For all the changes and advances, this is still High on Fire. No matter the proceeding, they are a band with a signature sound and it gets milked -- only with interesting colors, and textures added. Death Is This Communion is a step up from Blessed Black Wings, and just may be the band's finest and most focused moment yet.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Emotional bloodletting never quite fit 30 Seconds to Mars -- perhaps it was residual prejudice from Jared Leto’s status as actor-turned-musician, but they always seemed to skim the surface, not even when they pushed roiling emotions to the forefront in the best traditions of grunge and screamo. When they were mining a post-grunge or nu metal or emo vein, this was a liability, but now that they’ve shifted their music with the shifting times, adopting a hybrid of the Killers’ retro new wave and My Chemical Romance’s gothic prog, they’ve wound up with a sound that suits their stance. Which isn’t to say that they’ve gotten any less ridiculous -- if anything, they’re more absurd, piling up Auto-Tuned vocals, gurgling synthesized loops, Kanye cameos, and a children's choir on almost every other song. Producers Steve Lillywhite and Flood, both veterans of U2, do give This Is War an appropriately epic scale, although appropriate seems an inappropriate word for such an ungainly mix of synth rock, metal, and prog, the distillation of all manner of brooding ‘80s teenage obsessions. What saves it from being nothing but thirtysomething wish fulfillment is that this move toward goth-glam requires 30 Seconds to emphasize hooks and gives them aural variety, which doesn’t make them seem any more serious but does make them considerably more palatable.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

On their debut, Of Skin and Heart, the Church play straightforward pop/rock firmly rooted in new wave, though owing no small debt to '60s pop. Edgier and more direct than their later work, it also ranks among their finest for that very reason. None of the excesses and ambitions that would sometimes get out of hand on later releases are present, though much of the band's basic formula was laid down -- Steve Kilbey's cool, detached vocals and slightly surrealistic lyrics combined with some outstanding pop hooks, nice harmonies, and layers of ringing guitar. The classic "Unguarded Moment" (arguably one of the greatest singles of the '80s) overshadows much of the material on the album, but there is really no shortage of great songs here. [The album was originally released in the U.S. as The Church with some tracks dropped in favor of three tracks from singles released around the same time. In 1988, Arista released Of Skin and Heart on CD in its original form with the added tracks from The Church tacked onto the end.]© Chris Woodstra /TiVo

The final concert of Bob Marley’s career, this oft-bootlegged show has never sounded better than on this official 2011 release from the Marley estate. With plenty of hiss and maxed levels, Live Forever is hardly perfect when it comes to sound quality, and the laid-back show doesn’t stand up against Marley’s live masterpiece Babylon by Bus, but fans who want their reggae party a little less “punky” will find this a great, chilled alternative. Seeing as they were on tour in support of the album, plenty of material from Uprising appears, including lesser-known numbers such as “Zion Train” and “Work.” They’re both interesting and very pleasing in these live versions, but the highlights remain the classics, including an R&B-influenced rendition of “No Woman No Cry” and a rock-solid performance of “Natural Mystic.” While “Jamming” comes with a bit more of a bounce than usual, it is “Exodus” that really comes alive, speeding up as it goes while threatening to fly off the tracks. Most everything else gets coated in island soul and the cool confidence the successful Wailers were projecting at the time, so don’t expect a revolution. Still, it’s good to hear the legend both on top of his game (Babylon by Bus) and on top of the world (Live Forever). Marley fans have room for both, and will rightfully declare Live Forever a worthy addition to the extended catalog.© David Jeffries /TiVo