Filming a concert is no mean feat, though Roger Waters has nailed it. Mostly thanks to Sean Evans, the director behind the images used for The Wall tour in 2014. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Waters paired up with Evans again for his latest tour Us + Them in 2019. In order to select the best performances while maintaining a visual (and sonic) cohesion, the recording took place over four days, during performances at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam in June 2018. Each new studio album is basically an excuse to go on another tour and bring as much of the Pink Floyd repertoire to the stage – something that’s also true for his brother-in-arms David Gilmour. Of course, there are a few tracks from his record Is This the Life We Really Want? released in 2017 (Déjà Vu, The Last Refugee, Picture That), but what the fans really want are the older tracks. Waters knows that of course, performing Wish You Were Here, Another Brick in The Wall, Dogs and Money. It’s a shame that Comfortably Numb is missing, even in the video version, especially since the classic was performed on stage over the four evenings. While the film strives to be even more politically engaged than those in the past (featuring an anti-Trump speech and touching on the Palestine crisis...), the live album only transcribes the musical magic. Most importantly, it spotlights the talented artists surrounding the bassist, with guitarist and singer Jonathan Wilson in the front row, whose physical (and vocal) resemblance to David Gilmour has wowed us all. Prepare to be surprised. © Chief Brody/Qobuz

When Hawkwind released their self-titled debut album in 1970, they seemed slightly behind the times, trading in sci-fi-tinged psychedelia at a time when the U.K. psych scene was fading out in favor of prog and art rock. Fifty-four years later, Hawkwind exist in a time zone all their own, having evolved with the passage of a few decades but still trading in their singular brand of space rock, with chugging guitars and buzzy electronics accompanying Dave Brock's tales of interplanetary sonic exploration. According to its accompanying press release, 2024's Stories from Time and Space is Hawkwind's 36th album (though the number is much higher if you add in all their live releases), and Brock was four months away from his 83rd birthday when it was released, so the album's lyrical concerns with how long these characters and their world can go on has a certain autobiographical undertow, even if the slightly doomstruck tone isn't that unusual for this band. (There's also a love story involved, but don't feel bad if you don't immediately recognize it without reading the liner notes.) Hawkwind don't rock as hard in the year 2024 as they did in their prime, but Stories from Time and Space doesn't sound rote or weak-willed, either, and if there's nothing here quite like the ten-minute pulse/drone track that opened 2023's The Future Never Waits, Brock and his synth-playing bandmates Magnus Martin and Thighpaulsandra are still traveling the spaceways with their extended journeys into abstract soundscapes and serialist rhythms, especially on the triple-play of "Traveler of Time and Space," "Re-Generate," and "The Black Sea." The group's focus is tighter on more song-oriented tracks like "Can't Last Forever" and "The Tracker," but even the most conventional-sounding performances show Hawkwind's commitment to aural questing is as strong as ever. The music boasts a strong sense of adventure, while this edition of the band plays with an admirable blend of tight musicianship and eagerness to follow the spirit wherever it feels like leading them. Hawkwind still sound like themselves and nobody else on Stories from Time and Space, and if it doesn't break new ground, it's the work of a band with interesting ideas and the talent and imagination to make something of them, which not many groups can manage, let alone one that's been doing this for more than half a century.© Mark Deming /TiVo

Perfect Angel is the best Minnie Riperton album, and still the closest she came to stardom. Stevie Wonder chipped in on drums, keyboards, and other instruments, and also wrote several tracks. "Reasons" was her finest uptempo tune, while the title track was a wonderful change-of-pace number. She also got her biggest hit, "Lovin' You," which became a signature tune. [In 2017, following numerous reissues that quickly went out of print, original label Capitol released a definitive Deluxe Edition, expanded with extended versions mixed by John Morales.] © Ron Wynn /TiVo

Perfect Angel is the best Minnie Riperton album, and still the closest she came to stardom. Stevie Wonder chipped in on drums, keyboards, and other instruments, and also wrote several tracks. "Reasons" was her finest uptempo tune, while the title track was a wonderful change-of-pace number. She also got her biggest hit, "Lovin' You," which became a signature tune. [In 2017, following numerous reissues that quickly went out of print, original label Capitol released a definitive Deluxe Edition, expanded with extended versions mixed by John Morales.] © Ron Wynn /TiVo

If Breakout began to establish Miley Cyrus as a singing star in her own right, free of Hannah Montana baggage, then Time of Our Lives is another confident step in that direction. The Time of Our Lives still boasts a couple of frothy, Hannah-esque party anthems, the title track and "Party in the USA." Though Cyrus' voice borders on shrill on both songs, they'll please Montana fans (that goes double for the live version of "Before the Storm" with the Jonas Brothers). However, when she lets her inner rock chick and ballad-singing diva come to the fore, Cyrus really shines: the lead track "Kicking and Screaming" has more guts and swagger than anything else she has recorded, and "Talk Is Cheap" underscores that she has a real flair for rock -- albeit of the well-groomed, Disney-fied variety. She is just as accomplished on the EP's ballads, particularly "Obsessed." Cyrus has always sounded older than her years, and as she leaves her teens, that's a good thing -- especially since The Time of Our Lives shows her music is catching up to her pipes.© Heather Phares /TiVo

Perfect Angel is the best Minnie Riperton album, and still the closest she came to stardom. Stevie Wonder chipped in on drums, keyboards, and other instruments, and also wrote several tracks. "Reasons" was her finest uptempo tune, while the title track was a wonderful change-of-pace number. She also got her biggest hit, "Lovin' You," which became a signature tune. [In 2017, following numerous reissues that quickly went out of print, original label Capitol released a definitive Deluxe Edition, expanded with extended versions mixed by John Morales.] © Ron Wynn /TiVo

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In a CD store (remember those?) this album would probably be found in the hip-hop section. But this French trio takes hip-hop as a departure point, or like a theme on which to create a kaleidoscopic array of variations. The result is an album that sounds simultaneously old-fashioned and brand-new -- the swaying old-school beat of "Show Me" is upended somewhat by Beat Assailant's sophisticated flow and a lovely vocal hook; "Now That I'm Free" features a slightly eerie groove that is made even eerier by a sharp, dark cameo appearance by Wu-Tang Clan's RZA; the faux orchestral strings and bouncy groove of "Hold On" are followed immediately by the cool and Latin-tinged "Listen to the Drums", which also evokes (bizarrely) the early sound of the Real Tuesday Weld. When Beat Assailant starts rapping in French the effect is even better than when he does so in English, and when things get glitchy (on "Just a Lil' Lovin'") the effect is better still. Actually, some of the English lyrics make you wish that every track were in French (sample couplet: "Don't forget to hold on/Never give up; stay strong"), but overall this is a very, very impressive debut. © Rick Anderson /TiVo

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