Not knowing which box to put Alt-J in is rather positive, isn't it? Especially with This Is All Yours, the second album of the band from Leeds (a quartet turned into a trio), although things are not much better as far as classification is concerned... We can certainly say that it's often pop, sometimes folk, occasionally electro, sometimes lyrical, sometimes stripped down, very much focused on the voice of its singer, but above all, experimentation is in excess at every turn on this album. In short, like Radiohead, Alt-J prevents the pop from going in circles, it is so much better and it is the pinnacle of what we look for in a Qobuzissime! © MD/Qobuz

The second release in the Red, White, and Blues Trilogy from Whitesnake, Love Songs collects some of the band's best-known love songs. Included are the U.K. chart hits "Is This Love" and "The Deeper the Love" alongside a handful of remastered and remixed previously unreleased songs.© Rich Wilson /TiVo

Not knowing which box to put Alt-J in is rather positive, isn't it? Especially with This Is All Yours, the second album of the band from Leeds (a quartet turned into a trio), although things are not much better as far as classification is concerned... We can certainly say that it's often pop, sometimes folk, occasionally electro, sometimes lyrical, sometimes stripped down, very much focused on the voice of its singer, but above all, experimentation is in excess at every turn on this album. In short, like Radiohead, Alt-J prevents the pop from going in circles, it is so much better and it is the pinnacle of what we look for in a Qobuzissime! © MD/Qobuz

Among Ella Fitzgerald's gigantic discography, the eight volumes of her Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Complete American Songbook form a sacred pantheon. The idea for these records came from producer Norman Granz, who managed the singer and was the boss of Verve. The first volume, Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Songbook, which came out in 1956, was a runaway success with critics and the public alike. So much so that in that same year, Ella followed it up with Sings the Rodgers & Hart Songbook and then again in 1957 with Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook. This volume, which is given over to the songs of Irving Berlin, was conceived in sessions from 13 to 19 March 1958, with an orchestra directed by the classy and reserved Paul Watson. It's hard to sum up this double album in few words (it originally came out in two separate volumes) without breaking out reams of superlatives. Newcomers to her work can take this record as an easy base camp from which to ascend Ella Everest. Across a repertoire to die for (Berlin passed away in 1989 at the age of 101, having written more than 800 songs!), with light and gay numbers taking centre stage, Ella's voice picks out the great writer's romanticism, which never feels cloying. For fellow composer Jerome Kern, at the heart of Irving Berlin's writing was his faith in American vernacular: his songs were indivisibly linked with the country's history and image. Here, in ubiquitous favourites like Cheek to Cheek, in Watson's arrangements, in ambient swing, in freewheeling and sensual singing, we see the then-41-year-old American reaching the summit of perfection. This is one to play and play and play, again and again and again... © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Dropped by a major label in 2018, The Wombats could have sunk like a stone. Instead, the Liverpool-formed trio has come out of that dilemma as energized as ever on their last two albums, including the new Fix Yourself, Not the World. In fact, they seem to take the title to heart: The record is the sound of a pessimist becoming a realist and trying to make the best of what they have (not exactly optimism, but baby steps). Which is pretty impressive considering the members were in three different countries during the recording sessions. "Ready for the High" starts off as a bottom-heavy monster, with dark-cloud, give-up lyrics about feeling stuck. "You can scream like a banshee and still nothing comes/ You can buy a heart balloon and watch the sky grow dull," Matt "Murph" Murphy sings. But then the whole thing opens up at the bridge, giving way to a sea of swaying trumpets symbolizing the true meaning: "The song is about being engulfed in a bad place, but rather than accepting this as immutable, acknowledging that it is only temporary and that better times are closer than they (currently) appear," Murph has said. "People Don't Change People, Time Does" sends a similar message, even if it's from a skewed perspective. "Everything I love is going to die/ So baby keep your big mouth shut and stop wasting my time," go the lyrics, reminding you to hold tight onto the raft you have. Sometimes, though, that cling wrap can look a bit like desperation. Depending on your view, bop "If You Ever Leave, I'm Coming With You" either promises or threatens, "I'm forever locking myself in the glass of your rearview." Throughout, the muscular synth comes on like, well, not quite Duran Duran—maybe more like the ⅗ Duran side project Arcadia—with exuberant, dancefloor-ready pop beats. "Wildfire" has a mid-tempo swagger that cruises on a funk groove and finds Murph putting his falsetto to good use. "Work Is Easy, Life Is Hard" shimmies and shakes. "Flip Me Upside Down" is as frenetic as Friday rush-hour city traffic. And "Don't Poke the Bear" could be a Parklife-era Blur melody. Sometimes songs sound so alike as to blend one into the other, but it's a good schtick—even when the outlook slips back into old habits: "it's not paranoia if it's really there," Murph frets on "Worry," its chorus like careening on a rain-slick road. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

Atlanta-based CCM artist Lauren Daigle delivers Behold, her first Christmas album and second LP for the Centricity label. Co-produced by Paul Mabury and Jason Ingram, the album offers soft jazz arrangements of a variety of holiday standards from "O Holy Night" to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Inspired by the jazz sounds of her hometown of New Orleans, Behold also includes a new song "Light of the World," which was written by Mabury and Ingram. Behold follows up Daigle's 2015 Christian chart-topping debut How Can It Be.© Timothy Monger /TiVo

Atlanta-based CCM artist Lauren Daigle delivers Behold, her first Christmas album and second LP for the Centricity label. Co-produced by Paul Mabury and Jason Ingram, the album offers soft jazz arrangements of a variety of holiday standards from "O Holy Night" to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Inspired by the jazz sounds of her hometown of New Orleans, Behold also includes a new song "Light of the World," which was written by Mabury and Ingram. Behold follows up Daigle's 2015 Christian chart-topping debut How Can It Be.© Timothy Monger /TiVo

The pop/soul community, so prevalent in 1994, coughed up just one other slick, highly polished production piece for 1995: Luther Vandross, This Is Christmas. You might find it hard to get past "The Mistletoe Jam" (silky soul voice smugly intoning "Girl, get over here and get under this mistletoe with me...").© Roch Parisien /TiVo