Using the textured sonics of The Unforgettable Fire as a basis, U2 expanded those innovations by scaling back the songs to a personal setting and adding a grittier attack for its follow-up, The Joshua Tree. It's a move that returns them to the sweeping, anthemic rock of War, but if War was an exploding political bomb, The Joshua Tree is a journey through its aftermath, trying to find sense and hope in the desperation. That means that even the anthems -- the epic opener "Where the Streets Have No Name," the yearning "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" -- have seeds of doubt within their soaring choruses, and those fears take root throughout the album, whether it's in the mournful sliding acoustic guitars of "Running to Stand Still," the surging "One Tree Hill," or the hypnotic elegy "Mothers of the Disappeared." So it might seem a little ironic that U2 became superstars on the back of such a dark record, but their focus has never been clearer, nor has their music been catchier, than on The Joshua Tree. Unexpectedly, U2 have also tempered their textural post-punk with American influences. Not only are Bono's lyrics obsessed with America, but country and blues influences are heard throughout the record, and instead of using these as roots, they're used as ways to add texture to the music. With the uniformly excellent songs -- only the clumsy, heavy rock and portentous lyrics of "Bullet the Blue Sky" fall flat -- the result is a powerful, uncompromising record that became a hit due to its vision and its melody. Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Using the textured sonics of The Unforgettable Fire as a basis, U2 expanded those innovations by scaling back the songs to a personal setting and adding a grittier attack for its follow-up, The Joshua Tree. It's a move that returns them to the sweeping, anthemic rock of War, but if War was an exploding political bomb, The Joshua Tree is a journey through its aftermath, trying to find sense and hope in the desperation. That means that even the anthems -- the epic opener "Where the Streets Have No Name," the yearning "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" -- have seeds of doubt within their soaring choruses, and those fears take root throughout the album, whether it's in the mournful sliding acoustic guitars of "Running to Stand Still," the surging "One Tree Hill," or the hypnotic elegy "Mothers of the Disappeared." So it might seem a little ironic that U2 became superstars on the back of such a dark record, but their focus has never been clearer, nor has their music been catchier, than on The Joshua Tree. Unexpectedly, U2 have also tempered their textural post-punk with American influences. Not only are Bono's lyrics obsessed with America, but country and blues influences are heard throughout the record, and instead of using these as roots, they're used as ways to add texture to the music. With the uniformly excellent songs -- only the clumsy, heavy rock and portentous lyrics of "Bullet the Blue Sky" fall flat -- the result is a powerful, uncompromising record that became a hit due to its vision and its melody. Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

U2's first two greatest-hits albums neatly divided themselves by decade, with the first covering the '80s and the second summing up the '90s. Their third hits comp, 2006's U218 Singles, is at once more ambitious and more concise, offering an overview of their first 26 years on a single disc comprised of 18 tracks -- and since two of those are new songs, that leaves just 16 songs to tell their whole story. That's not much space for a band with a career as lengthy and ambitious as U2, so it's inevitable that some painful cuts have been made. Nothing from October, Zooropa or Pop is here, and unless you're buying various import editions that have "I Will Follow" as a bonus track, there's nothing from Boy, either. There's only one cut each from The Unforgettable Fire and Rattle and Hum -- and bucking conventional wisdom, none of their three widely accepted masterpieces -- War, The Joshua Tree, or Achtung Baby -- provide the most songs here. No, out of all their albums the one that dominates U218 Singles is All That You Can't Leave Behind, their 2000 comeback from the depths of the misguided Pop, and one of two records that they've released since their last hits compilation, The Best of 1990-2000.The other record they've released since then is How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which provides two songs here -- or, as many as there are from War and Achtung Baby. What this means is that this compilation skews very heavily toward latter-day U2 -- eight out of 18 tracks, a full 44 percent of the collection, are from 2000 on, which means that U218 Singles presents the classicist version of the band, featuring the anthems from U2 at their peak, plus the highlights from when U2 were trying their best to sound like U2 at their peak. They did it quite well, of course, from both a commercial and artistic standpoint, sometimes writing songs that stood proudly alongside "Pride (In the Name of Love)" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (as in "Beautiful Day") and sometimes not ("Elevation"). When it's all mixed together, it paints a portrait of a band that's a little slicker and streamlined than it often was, and it's hard not to miss the big-hearted yet moody band that made "Bad," "Gloria," and "A Sort of Homecoming," not to mention the middle-aged Euro experimentalists responsible for "Numb" and "Stay! (Faraway, So Close)," two essential components of the band that has been forced aside by the arena rock pros on display here.Then again, U2 always were the best arena rockers of their generation, and for those who love the spectacle and sound of the band in full flight, U218 Singles serves up that side of the band quite well, along with two new entries that find the band continuing the assured, even-handed sound of Atomic Bomb: a cover of the Skids' "The Saints Are Coming," recorded with Green Day and rewritten to vaguely address the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and "Window in the Skies," an anthemic pop number that relies too heavily on synth strings yet is saved by the band's sturdy songwriting and reliable performance. As such, it might not cover all the bases, but it covers enough of the major ones to be a good summary for fellow travelers who just know U2 from the radio, and it's also a good one-stop introduction to the basics for neophytes.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

In 1997, U2 surprised their fanbase by releasing Pop, an album that explored more indie, electro/dance aspects. Three years later, All That You Can’t Leave Behind, saw Bono’s band return to more familiar ground that was by no means less interesting. Briton Brian Eno and Quebecois Daniel Lanois were secured by the Irish band to produce the album. The legendary partnership was historically inseparable through their joint work on U2’s The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. From the opening Beautiful Day, all elements that make up U2’s DNA are reunited: The Edge’s sublime echo-drenched guitars drenched, progressive rhythmic guitar from Larry Mullen’s progressive rhythmic guitar, and Bono’s singing that crescendos like his life depends on it. On tracks like Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of, the gospel singing provides a touch of radiance. The spontaneous and effective rock’n’roll riff on Elevation is irresistible. Twenty years later, All That You Can’t Leave Behind has lost none of its magic, it’s confident, accessible and packed arena-worthy melodies, All That You Can’t Leave Behind. This luxurious reissue features the original album along with an array of bonus content: B sides, demos and remixes by the likes of Paul Van Dyk, Nightmares on Wax and Wyclef Jean, as well as an impeccable live performance, recorded in 2001 at Boston’s Fleet Center, to remind us that the stage is U2’s preferred stomping ground. © Clothilde Maréchal/Qobuz

There have been plenty of George Strait compilations, and most of have been very good, but none have been as good as 2004's 50 Number Ones. While the 1995 box set Strait Out of the Box illustrated the range and depth of Strait's musical achievement, it may have been too lengthy for some listeners, and shorter compilations like the two-volume The Very Best of Strait left too many hits behind -- and by 2004, all those compilations were out-dated, since Strait continued to top the charts until the release of 50 Number Ones. This double-disc contains all the big hits that he's had since Strait Out of the Box, along with all of his classics from the '80s and early '90s. The title might bend the truth a little bit -- at least according to the Billboard charts, such latter-day singles as "True" and "Run" only peaked at number two, not number one -- but it doesn't matter, since this contains all of his major singles in one convenient package. And it's not noteworthy just because it's one-stop shopping, it's also noteworthy because it proves exactly how consistent George Strait's body of work has been over the last twenty-some years. From start to finish, there's not a slow spot here -- it's a thoroughly entertaining collection that belongs in the ranks of country's greatest-hits albums.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

At 80 years old the queen of outlaw country—a woman who held her own on records and on stage with Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, the love of her life—sounds sweet and strong. Her twelfth solo album is cleanly produced by Margo Price and mixed by Shooter Jennings, Colter and Jennings' son who has been behind the boards for everyone from Brandi Carlile and Tanya Tucker to Marilyn Manson and Duff McKagan. You can hear Price's influence—or is it that Colter's influence on Price is revealed?—on groovy "Standing on the Edge of Forever"; with Stax soulful organ and blistering Southern rock guitar, the song sounds like it could have been on Price's own early 2023 album, Strays. The younger singer joins Colter on "I Wanna Be With You," a sort of countrified Dusty Springfield number written in the '70s and shelved until now, as well as outlaw honky-tonk "Lost Love Song," with its jangle-click drums and woozy keys. About those drums: They sound incredibly crisp throughout (hat tip to Shooter), including on "Secret Place"—which finds Colter duetting with Jenni Eddy Jennings, her daughter with legendary guitarist Duane Eddy ("Peter Gunn"). Eddy Jennings has a lovely warmth that embraces her mother's voice, while Price's silver songbird tone highlights the lived-in experience of Colter's on the twangy, Waylon-esque "Maybe You Should." Written for Colter's friend Lisa Kristofferson (wife of outlaw Kris), "Angel in the Fire" possesses some of the breathy bittersweetness and vulnerability of her classic "I'm Not Lisa" from 1975 and incorporates ranchera guitar that nods to Colter's Arizona childhood. There's a classic country ballad ("Hard on Easy Street") and a reworked old spiritual, "Can't Nobody Do Me Like Jesus," that positively springs to life—Colter and Price manage to turn gospel soul, tinged with blues harmonica, into badass honky-tonk. And Colter sounds like a steel magnolia on "Fine Wine," seemingly a heart-rending tribute to Waylon, who passed away in 2002: "Never thought I'd be here without you/ Big shoes to fill, you hung the moon ... But you've been gone so long/ I have to pick up and move." © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz

This single is U2's first from their breakthrough 1987 album The Joshua Tree. Bono spoke with NME about "With or Without You" and Scott Walker's Climate of Hunter, which was a great influence on the LP. Listen to "'With or Without You.'" Other influences included the Righteous Brothers and the Walker Brothers. U2.com notes this bit of trivia: "With or Without You" was played live for the first time on the second night of the Joshua Tree tour in Tempe, Arizona, on April 4, 1987. During that performance, Bono included snippets of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." "With or Without You" became U2's first number one on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and was voted Best Single by readers in the 1987 Rolling Stone magazine poll. According U2.com, "With or Without You" is the second most popular U2 song for artists to cover. This single contains the B-sides "Luminous Times (Hold on to Love)" and "Walk to the Water." The With or Without You single released in Guatemala also has the album version of "Mothers of the Disappeared." This single, and the two that follow, are significant because they contain the songs that constitute the "restored version" of The Joshua Tree. "With or Without You" is one of the few U2 songs to have charted higher in the U.S. (number two) than in the U.K. (number four). The With or Without You single was the first the band released on CD. With or Without You also appeared in CD video format and is one of their rarest collectibles. (This is not considered a promo item, about 50 copies were manufactured to experiment with the Philips CDV system.) It has a gold cover with text only.© JT Griffith /TiVo

Decades after they were recorded, the eight volumes of the Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Complete American Songbook series became timeless relics in jazz history and of 20 th century music in general. The idea for this immense project was originally proposed by producer Norman Granz, who was the singer’s manager as well as founder of the record label Verve. The first volume, Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Songbook, was published in 1956 and delighted the public and critics alike – so much so that that same year Ella Fitzgerald followed up with this recording, devoted to the songbook by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart this time. As in the previous volume, Buddy Bregman, a gifted protégé of Granz who was just 25 years old at the time, conducted the orchestra and arrangements. The music in this album has a luxurious feel and oozes sensuality but Bregman’s strings never once overpower Ella’s rich and sensual voice. As for the more up-tempo tracks like the famous The Lady is a Tramp, that’s when the singer proves to us why she was crowned the queen of swing. The musicians who played in her August 1956 sessions in Los Angeles were as ever, the crème de la crème of West Coast jazz, including trumpeters Pete Candoli and Maynard Ferguson, saxophonists Bud Shank and Bob Cooper, and guitarist Barney Kessel, to name but a few. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Rodgers & Hart Songbook was a greater success than her songbook dedicated to Cole Porter due to the sheer popularity of the New-York duo’s songs. Ella continued her project in the years that followed, with albums revisiting the repertoires of Duke Ellington in 1957, Irving Berlin in 1958, George and Ira Gershwin in 1959 Harold Arlen in 1961, Jerome Kern in 1963 and Johnny Mercer in 1964. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

After four decades of filling stadiums all over the world, U2 have decided to release an intimate revisit of their discography. This decision was borne from the pandemic, as the album took shape during the 2021 lockdowns and each member of the group had to record their parts remotely. The album is divided into four CDs—one for each member. Each CD features 10 songs, totalling 40 tracks which were curated by The Edge, the band's guitarist, who explains, “Once we surrendered our reverence for the original version, each song started to open up to a new authentic voice”. This new release has taken material from all but two of their albums (October and No Line on the Horizon), and although a few hits have been left off the track list, there's still plenty of opportunity for a nostalgic sing-along.There's a piano/guitar version of One, an almost ambient remake of Where the Streets Have No Name and a very dry Sunday Bloody Sunday. Bono’s CD opens with a hushed With or Without You, as if the band were under strict instructions not to wake the neighbours as they recorded. There are some great hits but also some forgotten tracks, such as Stories for Boys from their first album, Boy. There’s something for everyone, hardcore fans and casual listeners alike. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz