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Jason Isbell released his first solo record not long after parting ways with the Drive-By Truckers and quickly settled into a groove with his band, the 400 Unit, releasing two well-received albums and winning Song of the Year at the 2012 Americana Music Awards for "Alabama Pines." But his fourth solo record, Southeastern—the first released under his own name—is even more stunning. Produced by Dave Cobb and released in the wake of Isbell getting sober, the landmark modern Americana album feels like a collection of short stories populated by vibrant, deeply human characters grappling with challenging life experiences. "Elephant" is a striking song about the complicated emotions that crop up with a friend dying from cancer; "Songs That She Sang In The Shower" features someone in a dark mental space haunted by the memory of an ex's presence; and "Yvette" is from the perspective of a teenage boy ready to protect a classmate from abuse. And the stark "Traveling Alone" on which Isbell's wife Amanda Shires contributes solemn fiddle and vocals, focuses on a narrator who's weary of his own behaviors (and past) and is looking for a fresh start.Isbell's strident guitars cut to the emotional quick throughout, whether hewing toward delicate folk-rock or his trademark Southern rock roar. However, he also cut many of his vocals in one take, which gives Southeastern a feeling of raw immediacy that's matched by Cobb's warm production. But in a nod to one of the album's thematic undercurrents—searching for connection and community wherever you can—Isbell surrounds himself with guest musicians. Will Johnson's vocals enrich the barnstorming "Super 8," while Kim Richey appears on two songs, including the waltzing folk number "Stockholm." Isbell's 400 Unit bandmates Chad Gamble and Derry deBorja add drums and keyboards (respectively). An expanded 2023 version of Southeastern contains demos and live tracks (and is also newly in hi-res), which amplifies the nuances of the songwriting. A decade-plus on, the album remains one of Isbell's finest—and most vulnerable—moments. © Annie Zaleski/Qobuz

March 1985 was a golden age for Rogers Nelson… at just 27 years old, Prince already had six huge albums to his name: For You (1978), Prince (1979), Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981), 1999 (1982) and, of course, the massive Purple Rain (1984) which catapulted him into superstardom. His seventh album, Around the World in a Day, was released just a month after he finished touring. This record set his music on a new trajectory, experimenting with rock, pop and even psychedelic sounds. This live album was recorded in Syracuse, New York, on the 30th of March 1985 during his Purple Rain tour, and Prince made sure to pepper it with genius. This genius was multiplied tenfold by the adrenaline he put into his stage performances. Everything he touched would fizzle and spark with energy. He was supported by his fantastic band, The Revolution, which was composed of Bobby Z. on drums, Brown Mark on bass, Dr. Fink on keyboard, Eric Leeds on saxophone and the amazing twosome Wendy & Lisa on guitar and keyboard, not to mention guests such as percussionist Sheila E. His compositions, each one more perfect than the last, contain raw rock, pop and rhythm & blues. They’re a far cry from the old Prince from the decade prior, who was more inclined to stretch his tracks into extra-long improvs that flirted with jazz-fusion. He still enjoys making the pleasure last on this album, as evidenced by Baby I’m a Star, however, he maintains a funky, rock n roll beat throughout. Remixed by the sound engineer Chris James, who he would continue to work with throughout his later career, this reissue is a momentous release that can only be described with superlatives. Its explosive tone is established right from the opening track, Let’s Go Crazy. Prince and The Revolution: Live is 1 hour and 54 minutes of pure brilliance. It’s a must-listen! © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

The history of rock is full of bands that go unnoticed, along with their all-too neglected albums… Love and their record Forever Changes are at the front of the peloton in that category. Released in November 1967, this third studio album by the Californian quintet rivals some of the greatest records by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones or The Kinks because it offers a unique alternative. The ingenious and elusive Arthur Lee mixed together every genre imaginable on the album, from pop, jazz, folk and flamenco to psychedelic rock, psychedelia and classical music. With a touch of baroque, we find rather daring and audacious brass and string arrangements by David Angel. Carried by Lee's whirling voice and Bryan MacLean's clear guitars, Love created a record that is melancholic at some points, cheerful at others, but always very profound. The eclectic sound stems from its authors; Lee veers towards more bluesy rock melodies while MacLean is open to plural sonorities, whether they are classical or world music... The Summer of Love dismantled its tent for a few months and Forever Changes, an album that meanders between baroque pop and psychedelic folk, became the soundtrack of the disillusionment of America and its citizens. They were still dreamers, just perhaps aware of the fact that years to come wouldn’t be quite so multicoloured. In short, this album fuses the sublime with the sinister, and the years slide past this masterpiece without ever eroding its beauty. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

The incredible story of “the marching band that plays the techno classics” started with a video shared on social media. On a square in Madrid in front of an exhilarated crowd, Meute covered The Man With the Red Face, the iconic track by Laurent Garnier, who then invited them straight away to his festival, Yeah! in the Luberon. Their popularity caught on quickly and all of a sudden the eleven musicians from Hamburg are doing the rounds of festivals, with a hundred dates a year in the most prestigious locations, where they play their “smash hits”, like Rej, the minor success from German duo Âme, or Flume’s remix of You & Me by Disclosure. And everyone loves it! Flume leaves comments on their Facebook videos, and Garnier himself went so far as recording a reworked version of The Man With the Red Face with the red jackets (their uniform) for their 2017 album Tumult. “We simply brought two styles of music together which don’t initially seem to be match, but which actually work really well together”, explains founder Thomas Burhorn. With Live in Paris – which notably includes covers of Acamar by Franky & Sandrino, here enhanced as a Spanish version, Wixn by Surismo and Deadmau5’s Gula, as well as the aforementioned tracks – the group demonstrates that beyond the surprise of seeing a marching band cover electro music, they are able to perfectly capture the atmospheric drama of this genre of music with tremendously effective arrangements on stage. Which are just as effective listening at home as well… © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

When Rhino gave an official vinyl release to the legendary Little Feat bootleg Electrif Lycanthrope for a 2021 Record Store Day, fans of the band were—at least as much as fans of any band ever can be—actually satisfied. That album was culled from a 1974 radio broadcast performance and had long been the stuff of legends among collectors, as it presented the band at the beginning of their long creative peak, performing in a relaxed and up-close atmosphere. Couple that with 2002's excellent expanded edition of Waiting for Columbus (which tacked on about a dozen previously unreleased live tracks from the original album's shows), and you've got some amazing and in-depth evidence for this band's live legacy. But that was two decades ago. Waiting for Columbus has long been considered one of the best live albums of all time, so why not stretch that thing out to a 73-track 20th anniversary super deluxe edition?  Little Feat was running hot during this '77 tour and operating at a more quasi-rockstar level than they were three year prior, but they never lost the sense of loose-limbed adventurousness that made them so appealing. While Waiting For Columbus was, like most other live albums of the era, culled from recordings of multiple shows on the same tour, the thing is, all of those shows were pretty great. And this edition proves it, as each of those shows—Manchester City Hall (7/29/77), The Rainbow, London (8/4/77), Lisner Auditorium, Washington, D.C. (8/10/77)—is included in full here, each in incredible fidelity. In addition to multiple previously unreleased versions of the songs that made their way onto the original album, this set also includes many that weirdly didn't make the double LP's cut. "Rock and Roll Doctor" and "Skin It Back" aren't nearly as iconic Little Feat tracks as "A Apolitical Blues" or "Mercenary Territory," but they certainly were barnstorming features in the band's sets, making their belated inclusion more than welcome. This latest iteration of Waiting For Columbus utterly dwarfs Electrif Lycanthrope in size and scale; but for sure, Little Feat fans have got to be satisfied now.  © Jason Ferguson/Qobuz

Released without fanfare on Christmas Day 2022, All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster (Live from Red Rocks) documents Zach Bryan's final show of 2022, a concert held at the fabled Red Rocks venue in Colorado in early November. Winter came without warning that day: the temperature plummeted into the 20s as a blizzard blew in, forcing the Bryan brigade to cut their opening acts loose and trim their own set so they could send the crowd home before conditions got too dangerous. He had a recording crew on hand, planning to preserve this tour closer regardless of the weather, so he wound up with a document of this most unusual show. The band certainly plays with a sense of urgency that's palpable even on the slow tunes; they're racing toward the finish line, trying to keep everybody's spirits up in the cold. Even if you didn't know this backstory, you'd figure out that it's freezing thanks to Bryan's incessant on-stage patter, where he's constantly mentioning the cold and worming a variation of "How Ya Doin' Red Rocks" into what feels to be every other song -- an affectation that's excusable given the circumstance. The nervous energy also translates to a performance that's livelier and more robust than Bryan's sprawling American Heartbreak, lending color and muscle to songs that could seem like sketches in the studio.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Recorded at the Gibson Amphitheatre in California on June 28, 2006, Real Live Roadrunning features live renditions of all of the cuts from Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris' collaboration of the same name, as well as solo cuts from each and Dire Straits classics like "So Far Away" and "Romeo & Juliet." The musicianship is as flawless as expected, but there's not a whole lot to separate the tunes here from their studio sisters. The accompanying DVD is a much better example of the pair's quiet dynamic, allowing both the duo and its talented band a broader spectrum on which to emit their wry tales of love, loss, and life.© James Christopher Monger /TiVo

Dave Brock, Hawkwind's only founding member, was 81 when he recorded this album and shows no sign of slowing down. Since emerging from the pandemic with 2021's Somnia, the band -- Brock on guitar, synth, and vocals; Doug MacKinnon on bass; Richard Chadwick on drums and vocals, and Magnus Martin on keyboards -- have worked constantly. In late 2021, they recruited Tim "Thighpaulsandra" Lewis to join them on tour and he remains with the studio group. There's something very unusual about the title-track opener of The Future Never Waits, Hawkwind's 35th album. It commences not with the usual foreboding, distorted, paranoid throb, but with a breathing groove and a spacy pulse that, at over ten minutes, winds through many of the band's sonic trademarks in a drift with largely static dynamics. In its own way, it's a self-contained musical universe, constantly pointing outward only to pull back in on itself with every pass. "The End" abruptly segues in. It's more recognizable as Brock's dirty, machine-gun guitar riff sets the tone -- sounding like South London in 1977 -- joined by bass, drums, and synth to erect a nearly straight-ahead pop-punk hook that circles hypnotically in the coda. "They Are So Easily Distracted" is another ten-minute adventure. Introduced by a syncopated drum kit, it offers wafting synth and etheric spoken voices before an acoustic piano vamp frames a warmly seductive tenor saxophone solo. Electric piano is layered atop the sax, and the tune finds its way to full group interplay." The single "Rama (The Prophecy)" is classic Hawkwind. It uses Chadwick's drums as the engine to relentlessly drive Brock's guitar and vocal assault as electronics, percussion, and effects serve to center the primary instruments. Instrumental "USB1" is seemingly painted by electric piano, organ, synth, guitars, and limpid drums. Its trance-like drift and groove very gradually introduce a deeply bluesy guitar solo from Brock. "Outside of Time" also reflects the mercurial depths of vintage Hawkwind. Its murky production places the entire ensemble at the same dynamic level for a simple vamp in 4/4 time, covered by effects, reverb, drifting Mellotrons, pianos, and synths around Thighpaulsandra's soloing organ, making for a space age love song. "I'm Learning to Live Today" follows and is one of those pregnant Hawkwind jams that begins seemingly in the middle, a fully developed distorted guitar and bass vamp commiserate with roiling intensity above a swinging drum kit and Brock's vocal. Here it recalls Robert Wyatt's as the band builds a psychedelic space ritual around him. Other than the throwaway "Aldous Huxley," "The Beginning" is anolher disappointment. It wastes the first half fooling with electronic wankery and noise before transforming into a pillowy, midtempo psych ballad. Thankfully, the breezy, sunny electro-acoustic rocker "Trapped in this Modern Age" closes the album, balancing it out. More consistent than 2021's Somnia and 2019's All Aboard the Skylark, The Future Never Waits is, at once, more exciting and musically adventurous -- even with the (minor) missteps. This is a significant late-career highlight from Hawkwind.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Alternating hard-driving blues-rockers with country-folk numbers, Humble Pie neatly showcases the two sides of this band's personality on their first release for a major American label and third album overall. All of the elements are in place for the sound that would reach its studio peak with the next release, Rock On, and culminate with the classic Live at the Fillmore album. "Earth and Water Song" provides a blueprint for the acoustic guitar-based sound Peter Frampton would ride to multi-platinum success as a solo artist later in the decade. "One Eyed Trouser-Snake Rumba" and "Red Light Mama, Red Hot!" show the hard-rocking direction in which Steve Marriott would move the band after Frampton's departure the following year. © Jim Newsom /TiVo

Early in March 1977, the Rolling Stones played a pair of surprise shows at the El Mocambo, a 300-seat club in Toronto. The purpose of the gigs, the only concerts they played in 1977, was to generate source material for a live album that turned out to be Love You Live. Only four tracks from the El Mocambo performances showed up on Love You Live, amounting to a side of blues covers on that double-LP. A full album's worth of El Mocambo recordings circulated as a bootleg for years, but the overdue 2022 official release contains the entirety of the second night's show along with three bonus tracks from the first night, amounting to a whopping 23 tracks. Such an exhaustive portrait is welcome as Live at the El Mocambo does represent a bit of an odd moment for the Stones: it captures them caught between the over-sized jam session Black and Blue and the audacious revitalization of Some Girls, a period where Ron Wood was just getting his sea legs. Wood encouraged the group to play a bunch of blues standards and they agreed, balancing these chestnuts with some of their own oldies ("Let's Spend the Night Together," "Brown Sugar," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Honky Tonk Women"), a good chunk of Black and Blue and It's Only Rock N Roll, plus "Worried About You," a ballad that sat on the shelf until Tattoo You. This means Live at the El Mocambo presents the Stones as something between a hard-working club band and conquering heroes hawking their latest ware; the set list is very much of its time, lacking such warhorses as "Satisfaction" and "Street Fighting Man," and it's better for it. The Stones often sound as if they're enjoying hunkering down on a smaller stage, giving enthusiastic performances that avoid sloppiness. It adds up to a gas, a record that belongs alongside Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! and Brussels Affair as among the best official live Stones albums.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Marcus Garvey hit Jamaica like a force ten gale, its legacy so great that in later years many fans mistakenly came to believe it was Burning Spear's debut album (it wasn't, two earlier records were released by Studio One). It made an instant hero of Winston Rodney, and the album remains a cornerstone of the entire roots movement. Spear was accompanied by the Black Disciples, a baker's dozen of the island's best musicians, including bassists Robbie Shakespeare and Aston Barrett, guitarists Earl "Chinna" Smith and Tony Chin, and drummer Leroy Wallace. The Disciples helped the vocal trio bring their vast potential and musical vision to vinyl, one they'd threatened with previous releases, but never quite attained. Producer Jack Ruby's was equally important to the album's sound, gracing it with a deep roots mix that accentuated the haunting atmospheres of the music. Unfortunately, the listener experiences only wisps of that here. The Island subsidiary Mango believed the production too threatening, or at least too commercially inviable, for white audiences, and thus remixed it into what they considered a more palatable form. However, Marcus Garvey is so powerful a record that, even in this diluted state, it remains a masterpiece. If the music itself defined and glorified the roots sound, it was Winston Rodney which gave the movement's philosophy voice. Rodney's vocal talent is actually fairly minimal, his delivery more a chant than actual singing, but his intense passion overcame any deficiencies, with Rupert Willington and Delroy Hinds dulcet backing vocals counterpointing Rodney's rougher tones. A fervid rastafarian, Rodney used Marcus Garvey as a shining torch to light the way to political and religious consciousness. The album's twinned themes of cultural concerns and religious devotion combined to create a powerfully intertwined message of faith and political radicalism. "No-one remember old Marcus Garvey," Spear sing at the beginning of "Old Marcus Garvey"; by the time the song's over, it's unlikely anyone will forget again. These musical mnemonics of Jamaica's past heroes and history, which include the hit title track, of course, "Slavery Days," another Jamaican hit, and "The Invasion" are amongst the album's strongest tracks, with the three devotional numbers equally inspiring. Oppression may be the fate of many Jamaicans, both past and present, but by giving voice to those trampled by poverty, slavery, or politics, Spear's underlying message remains one of hope.© Jo-Ann Greene /TiVo

Biopic The Dirt tells the story of Mötley Crüe's wild ride through their time as one of the most popular and most debaucherous bands of the metal years. During a blistering run that lasted the entirety of the '80s, the L.A. band sold millions of records, toured the world, and challenged death constantly with reckless behavior, substance abuse, and the kind of mayhem that sometimes seems like it only existed in the time when hair metal reigned. Some of these misadventures were collected in the 2001 book The Dirt, and the 2019 film adaptation of the book further dramatizes some of the group's already unbelievable antics, as well as getting into the music that made it all happen. The soundtrack to the film is made up entirely of music by Mötley Crüe, but in addition to 14 selections from their early catalog, they recorded four entirely new tracks in 2018 especially for inclusion in the film. Rapper Machine Gun Kelly (who plays the role of drummer Tommy Lee in the film) features on the song "The Dirt (Est. 1981)," dropping a rapped coda about tattoos, girls, cars, and the rock & roll lifestyle into the song's pop-metal framework. Huge, hooky choruses were part of the Crüe's formula for success in the '80s, and they don't shy away from that formula here, either. In addition to two other new songs, "Crash and Burn" and "Ride with the Devil," the band offer an unlikely cover in the form of Madonna's 1984 smash hit "Like a Virgin." Die-hard metalheads might scoff at the idea of a band synonymous with '80s metal decadence taking a stab at one of the decade's most commercial artists, but 35 years later the context of the song (and of all the musicians in the equation, for that matter) has shifted to the point where the cover can be taken at face value. It's a revved-up version of an undeniably catchy song, delivered with an extra dose of menace and possibly a self-aware smirk at how ridiculous it is. The Dirt soundtrack pairs the nostalgia of well-loved favorites ("Home Sweet Home," "Kickstart My Heart," "Shout at the Devil") with the reinvigorated excitement of the raw newer songs for a collection that feels more like a companion to the film than a greatest-hits repackaging.© Fred Thomas /TiVo

As a suburban California kid, DJ Shadow tended to treat hip-hop as a musical innovation, not as an explicit social protest, which goes a long way toward explaining why his debut album, Endtroducing....., sounded like nothing else at the time of its release. Using hip-hop, not only its rhythms but its cut-and-paste techniques, as a foundation, Shadow created a deep, endlessly intriguing world on Endtroducing....., one where there are no musical genres, only shifting sonic textures and styles. Shadow created the entire album from samples, almost all pulled from obscure, forgotten vinyl, and the effect is that of a hazy, half-familiar dream -- parts of the record sound familiar, yet it's clear that it only suggests music you've heard before, and that the multi-layered samples and genres create something new. And that's one of the keys to the success of Endtroducing.....: it's innovative, but it builds on a solid historical foundation, giving it a rich, multifaceted sound. It's not only a major breakthrough for hip-hop and electronica, but for pop music.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

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