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It's all about the title. First time around, Eminem established his alter ego, Slim Shady -- the character who deliberately shocked and offended millions, turning Eminem into a star. Second time at bat, he turned out The Marshall Mathers LP, delving deeper into his past while revealing complexity as an artist and a personality that helped bring him an even greater audience and much, much more controversy. Third time around, it's The Eminem Show -- a title that signals that Eminem's public persona is front and center, for the very first time. And it is, as he spends much of the album commenting on the media circus that dominated on his life ever since the release of Marshall Mathers. This, of course, encompasses many, many familiar subjects -- his troubled childhood; his hatred of his parents; his turbulent relationship with his ex-wife, Kim (including the notorious incident when he assaulted a guy who allegedly kissed her -- the event that led to their divorce); his love of his daughter, Hailie; and, of course, all the controversy he generated, notably the furor over his alleged homophobia and his scolding from Lynne Cheney, which leads to furious criticism about the hypocrisy of America and its government. All this is married to a production very similar to that of its predecessor -- spare, funky, fluid, and vibrant, punctuated with a couple of ballads along the way. So, that means The Eminem Show is essentially a holding pattern, but it's a glorious one -- one that proves Eminem is the gold standard in pop music in 2002, delivering stylish, catchy, dense, funny, political music that rarely panders (apart from a power ballad "Dream On" rewrite on "Sing for the Moment" and maybe the sex rap "Drips," that is). Even if there is little new ground broken, the presentation is exceptional -- Dre never sounds better as a producer than when Eminem pushes him forward (witness the stunning oddity "Square Dance," a left-field classic with an ominous waltz beat) and, with three albums under his belt, Eminem has proven himself to be one of the all-time classic MCs, surprising as much with his delivery as with what he says. Plus, the undercurrent of political anger -- not just attacking Lynne Cheney, but raising questions about the Bush administration -- gives depth to his typical topics, adding a new, spirited dimension to his shock tactics as notable as the deep sentimental streak he reveals on his odes to his daughter. Perhaps the album runs a little too long at 20 songs and 80 minutes and would have flowed better if trimmed by 25 minutes, but that's a typical complaint about modern hip-hop records. Fact is, it still delivers more great music than most of its peers in rock or rap, and is further proof that Eminem is an artist of considerable range and dimension.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

GRRR Live! captures the December 15, 2012 concert the Rolling Stones held at Newark's Prudential Center as part of their 50 & Counting Tour. GRRR!, the multi-format 50th Anniversary compilation, was barely a month old at the time, hence the title of this belated 2023 release: the Stones were out hawking their hits, so why not name it after a comp few remember a decade later? As the concert was originally designed as a pay-per-view extravaganza, the show is packed with guest stars, ranging from the Stones' old mate Mick Taylor playing on "Midnight Rambler" and New Jersey's own home state hero Bruce Springsteen jamming on "Tumbling Dice" to young guns Black Keys, Lady Gaga, and Gary Clark, Jr. & John Mayer. The set list offers few surprises -- if you don't recognize a song, that's because it's a new tune added to GRRR! -- but the Stones are in fine form, never seeming tired of playing the hits in a fashion that guarantees a splendid time for one and all. © Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Released four years after the multi-platinum Unorthodox Jukebox, 24K Magic -- or XXIVK Magic, if you're foolish enough to go by the cover -- might as well be considered the full-length sequel to "Uptown Funk," Bruno Mars' 2014 hit collaboration with Mark Ronson. On his third album, Mars, joined primarily by old comrades Philip Lawrence, Brody Brown, and James Fauntleroy, sheds the reggae and new wave inspirations and goes all-out R&B. This is less an affected retro-soul pastiche -- like, say, The Return of Bruno -- than it is an amusing '80s-centric tribute to black radio. Sonically, '80s here means the gamut and the aftershocks felt the following decade, from the sparking midtempo groove in "Chunky," which recalls Shalamar even more than album two's "Treasure," to some full-blooded new jack swing moves. The clock is turned back a couple more decades to passable strutting James Brown-isms in "Perm," while "Too Good to Say Goodbye," co-written by Babyface, draws its structure and certain components from early-'70s Philly soul. Almost all of the material involves Mars in winking bad-boy player mode. He's often just ampin' like Bobby, yet the performances are undeniable, dealt out with all the determination and attitude of a kid who just bought a custom lavender Razz with his paper route money. Lead single "24K Magic" is a scrupulous compound of early-'80s funk tricks, another needed injection of good-time energy into commercial airwaves, but the album's true triumph is buried near the end -- not that it takes long to get there -- and scrapes the dawn of the '90s. In living color, decked out with a rattling breakbeat and zipping bassline, "Finesse" revisits the era when producers like Teddy Riley, Dave "Jam" Hall, and Dr. Freeze pushed their genre forward by fusing hip-hop to what they learned from electronic post-disco R&B pioneered by Leon Sylvers III, Kashif, and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Like much of what precedes it, the song is a blast. Those who want their rich and modern synthesizer funk minus flash would do well to seek Bugz in the Attic's "Consequences," Dâm-Funk's "Galactic Fun," Amalia's "Welcome to Me," and Anderson Paak's "Am I Wrong," for starters.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

San Francisco's 4 Non Blondes burst onto the national scene with their massive, neo-hippie anthem "What's Up" from their debut Bigger, Better, Faster, More? Although they failed to recreate the single's success, the album, as a whole, is a fairly engaging mix of alternative rock, quasi-funk, and blues. The focal point is on lead singer Linda Perry who also plays guitar and was the primary writer of the material. Perry has a powerful set of pipes akin to Johnette Napolitano, but, unfortunately, she tends to cut loose when a little more restraint would benefit the proceedings. However, "Superfly" is a feel good, funky number and "Spaceman"'s yearning lyrics are delivered over a quiet, martial drum rhythm. A solid debut that got lost in the wake of its mammoth hit.© Tom Demalon /TiVo

Listening to Regina Spektor's music is like having a one-on-one conversation with someone who not only knows her own mind but is constantly reexamining her feelings while connecting with larger overarching truths through the smallest, most intimate details of everyday life. Six years have passed since Spektor's last album, and given that she was also pregnant while recording this new one, it was almost a sure thing that her pandemic album was going to be a powerful ringer. Even measured against her previous catalog of uniformly appealing, inventive albums, Home, before and after is bursting with creative energies. Opening with alternating notes on piano, "Loveology" is Spektor at her playful, melodic best. The same holds true for the rhythmic echo pop of "SugarMan" where she coos the wonderful second couplet: "I'm not your doll/ I'm not your pet/ But I'm not my own/ Ever since we met." The Bronx, New York-raised Spektor salutes her hometown in the album's first single, "Becoming All Alone," which settles into an engaging mid-tempo groove, swinging between unadorned piano and voice and sweeping string/horn/synth orchestrations with backing vocals from her husband Jack Dishel. The urgent "Up the Mountain" gallops along over undulating strings, slowing near the middle, before revealing the key verse: "On the mountain there's a forest/ In the forest there's a garden/ In the garden there's a flower/ In the flower there's a nectar/ In the nectar there's an answer /In that answer there's another." Three lines in "Raindrops" sum up her powers of observation: "Round each corner there's a chance/ People searching glance to glance/ Moving about real fast like insects and fish when they're scared." It's clear that Spektor's songwriting has been super-charged in the years since her last record, nowhere more evident than in the 8-minute plus mini-symphony-opera-performance piece, "Spacetime Fairytale." Backed by a lush, momentous orchestral arrangement from Jherek Bischoff, Spektor plays piano and sings that while there's no such thing as time "This world began outside of time/ Some days it's yours, some days it's mine/ Some days it's cruel, some days it's kind/ It just can't stay the same." Before a percussive tap dance interlude by Caleb Teicher, she returns to a more intimate reflection on time, "My mind is full of melodies/ They search for homes inside of me/ Like begging, pleading refugees/ But I can't find the time." Producer John Congleton, who is making a specialty of working with talented female singer-songwriters (Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, St. Vincent), adds structure, tempos and a weighty synth presence to everything.  He also functions as the band playing bass, synths, keyboards, drums, percussion, and drum programming. With Congleton and Ariel Shafir engineering, the album has a spacious feel while retaining Spektor's sonic signature of a close-miked voice. String and horn arrangements, played by FAME'S Skopje Studio Orchestra, are handled by the hugely talented Bischoff, who has written commissions for Kronos Quartet as well as original compositions for film, TV, and the stage. Distinct and original, carefully groomed and sonically precise, Home, before and after is Regina Spektor at the very top of her game. © Robert Baird/Qobuz

During the late '50s, Ella Fitzgerald continued her Song Book records with Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book, releasing a series of albums featuring 59 songs written by George and Ira Gershwin. Those songs, plus alternate takes, were combined on a four-disc box set, Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book, in 1998. These performances are easily among Fitzgerald's very best, and for any serious fan, this is the ideal place to acquire the recordings, since the sound and presentation are equally classy and impressive.© Leo Stanley /TiVo

Quiet Fire proves to be an apt title, as Flack's MOR-informed jazz and gospel vocals simmer just below the surface on the eight sides here. Forgoing the full-throttled delivery of, say, Aretha Franklin, Flack translates the pathos of gospel expression into measured intensity and sighing, elongated phrases. There's even a bit of Carole King's ashen tone in Flack's voice, as manifested on songs like "Let Them Talk," Van McCoy's "Sweet Bitter Love," and a meditative reworking of King's "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow." The album's other high-profile cover, "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," features the ideal setting for Flack's airy pipes with a tasteful backdrop of strings and a chorus featuring soul songstress Cissy Houston (Whitney's mom). Switching from this hushed sanctity, Flack digs into some groove-heavy southern soul on "Go Up Moses," "Sunday and Sister Jones," and an amazing version of the Bee Gees hit "To Love Somebody" (this perennial number has been done by everyone from Rita Marley to Hank Williams, Jr.). Flack finally completes the modern triumvirate of southern music, adding the country tones of Jimmy Webb's "See You Then" to the Quiet Fire's stock of gospel and soul. And thanks to top players like guitarist Hugh McCracken, organist Richard Tee, bassist Chuck Rainey, and drummer Bernard Purdie, the varied mix all comes off sounding seamless. One of Flack's best.© Stephen Cook /TiVo

Japanese pianist and composer Hiromi is one of the more unpredictable, captivating talents in modern jazz. Her Trio Project with drummer Simon Phillips and contrabass guitarist Anthony Jackson, now into its sixth year, has matured into one of the most fluidly inventive on the scene. Spark, recorded over four days in October of 2015, is the group's fourth offering. Like its predecessors, it has a loosely connected thematic scheme. In this case, it's the spark of inspiration that leads to creation, risk-taking, spiritual connection, and development via an album-length dream sequence. The established hallmarks of the trio are abundant -- tight, twisting, turning, sometimes incendiary dialogue in constantly evolving themes and motifs that embrace everything from post-bop to proggy rockisms to funky soul-jazz. The title track is introduced by an inquisitive, nocturnal piano figure before a wash of electric keyboards enters underneath, and the band is off, playing one theme after another in widening circles. Hiromi's invention in the lower and middle registers resonates with Jackson's roiling bass patterns, Phillips' syncopated breaks, and insistent fills that never lose the pocket. "Take Me Away" has a trance-like repetition in its intro. It expands its textural foundation with Jackson playing guitar-esque fills and Phillips riding the snare and cymbal as agents of hypnosis. A sweeping refrain, followed by a knotty bridge that leads to a crescendo, introduces a souled-out groove that recalls Ahmad Jamal. The trio swings on a vamp played by Jackson. The percussive pulse of "Wonderland" gives way to something approaching a classical fugue before opening wide into expansive post-bop then folds back again before Hiromi takes her solo. It's rife with emotive arpeggios and fluid harmonic investigation. The rhythm section swings hard, adding dimension via extension and extrapolation. Phillips uses octobans -- high-tuned tom-toms -- to create a near theatrical fantasia that the pianist answers with high-wire lyricism and choppy chords. Drama and dynamic are in constant conversation on "Dilemma." Pulse, speed, and force are balanced by moments of near sublime inquiry as the lines between jazz, prog, and classical crossover vanish. The uptown electric jazz funk of "What Will Be, Will Be" feels light in contrast. A careful listen reveals the influences of Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock in its finger-popping groove consciousness. Closer "All's Well" is based on a swinging midtempo blues. It pushes boundaries on all sides yet never sacrifices feel. Spark integrates each element in this band's arsenal to create a whole that is provocative and seamless. Hiromi's band challenges modern music norms with authority. Their spirit of restless creativity is expressed with as much warmth and humor as technical acumen. The tunes here, though rigorous musical workouts, all reach the level of song -- not an accomplishment most piano trios can claim.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Although nominally a rap group, Black Eyed Peas call upon so many forms of songwriting and production that slotting them into hip-hop is like slotting Prince into R&B -- technically true, but very limiting. Elephunk, the group's third LP (and the first to feature Fergie), doesn't have top-notch rapping, but as driven by frontman Will.I.Am, it does possess some of the most boundary-pushing productions in contemporary, (mostly) uncommercial hip-hop, right up at the level occupied by Common and OutKast. The smart, brassy opening club thump "Hands Up" hits another level with a sly bridge flaunting some heavy metallic slide guitar, while the highly pressurized love jam "Shut Up" features great interplay between Taboo and new member Fergie. Space doesn't allow for description of each track, but suffice to say any Will.I.Am track is going to feature loads of ideas and fresh sounds, not to mention plenty of stylistic change-ups -- from the digital-step ragga of "Hey Mama" (featuring Tippa Irie) to the Latinized, loved-up "Latin Girls." Like a latter-day Digital Underground, Black Eyed Peas know how to get a party track moving, and add a crazy stupid rhyme or two ("bop your head like epilepsy" from the suitably titled "Let's Get Retarded").© John Bush /TiVo

Makers of sophisticated dance-pop with more than enough production finesse to intrigue electronica listeners, Röyksopp complete their transition from trip-hop maestros to electronic popsters on their third album, Junior. As on 2005's The Understanding, the melodies here are unmissable, whether there's a star vocal feature or not -- and, to signal their rising status, there are several here. Karin Dreijer of the Knife returns for two songs (including the dizzyingly Moroder-like "This Must Be It"), while Robyn makes her Röyksopp debut on "The Girl and the Robot" (which may or may not be an inter-life form torch song), and Lykke Li also makes a first appearance with "Miss It So Much" (also curiously robotic, with the lyric "My mechanical heart, how it tears me apart"). Besides the stars, Anneli Drecker of Bel Canto does the heavy lifting, lending her heavenly voice to four songs. Overall, the Röyksopp duo remain stellar producers, with a good handle on the three things most important to dance-pop: bewitching melodies, intriguing effects, and enough character to find a fanbase among the non-chart-buying public. (Their old standby, back in force here, is a squelchy synth bassline that creaks and shudders as it cycles through arpeggio after arpeggio). As in the past too, many of the usual stylistic signposts are passed -- Giorgio Moroder, Daft Punk, Air. In the end, Röyksopp remain among the best at middlebrow dance-pop, crafting music that can and will rule the supermarket aisles while still having a shelf-life longer than the canned ham you'll find there.© John Bush /TiVo

When Up! was released in November 2002, Shania Twain revealed in one of many promotional interviews that she writes far more songs than can fit on her records and that she hides any personal, introspective songs she pens, not even playing them for her husband and collaborator Robert John "Mutt" Lange. Now, this is certainly a psychological quirk worth exploring, but it also suggests why Twain's albums are such brilliant pieces of mainstream pop. Anything that doesn't fit the mold is discarded, so the album can hum along on its big, polished, multipurpose hooks and big, sweeping emotions. This is Super-Size pop, as outsized and grandiose as good pop should be. And, unlike the work of most pop divas, where the subject matter is firmly about the singer, none of the songs on Up! are remotely about Shania Twain, the person -- let's face it, she's never faced a situation like "Waiter! Bring Me Water!," where she's afraid her guy is going to be stolen away by their hot waitress. No, these songs have been crafted as universal anthems, so listeners can hear themselves within these tales. Just as cleverly, the songs are open-ended and mutable -- always melodic, but never stuck in any particular style, so they can be subjected to any kind of mix and sound just as good. (Indeed, Up! was initially released in no less than three different mixes -- the "Red" pop mix, the "Green" country mix, and the "Blue" international mix; sometimes the differences in mixes were so slight, it sounded like nothing was changed, but each mix revealed how sturdy and melodic the structure of each of the 19 songs was, and how they were designed to sound good in any setting.) True, the sheer length of the album could be seen as off-putting at first, since these 19 tracks don't necessarily flow as a whole. Then again, part of the genius of Up! is that it's designed as a collection of tracks, so the album is durable enough to withstand years on the charts, producing singles with different textures and moods every few months. Time revealed Come on Over as a stellar pop album, and the same principle works for Up!. Upon the first listen, singles seem indistinct, and it seems like too much to consume at once, but once you know the lay of the land, the hooks become indelible and the gargantuan glossiness of the production is irresistible. In other words, it's a more than worthy follow-up to the great mainstream pop album of the late '90s, and proof that when it comes to shiny, multipurpose pop, nobody does it better than Shania Twain.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Continuing the spooked-out and raging snarls of their Gravest Hits EP, the Cramps once again worked with Alex Chilton on the group's full-album debut, Songs the Lord Taught Us. The jacket reads "file under: sacred music," but only if one's definition includes the holy love of rockabilly sex-stomp, something which the Cramps fulfill in spades. Having spent Gravest Hits mostly doing revamps of older material, the foursome tackled a slew of originals like "The Mad Daddy" and "TV Set" this time around, creating one of the few neo-rockabilly records worthy of the name. Years later Songs still drips with threat and desire both, testament to both the band's worth and Chilton's just-right production. "Garbageman" surfaced as a single in some areas, a wise choice given the at-once catchy roll of the song and downright frightening guitar snarls, especially on the solo. The covers of the Sonics' "Strychnine" and Billy Burnette's "Tear It Up" -- not to mention the concluding riff on "Fever" -- all challenge the originals. Interior has the wailing, hiccuping, and more down pat, but transformed into his own breathless howl, while Ivy and Gregory keep up the electric fuzz through more layers of echo than legality should allow. Knox helms the drums relentlessly; instead of punching through arena rock style, Chilton keeps the rushed rhythm running along in the back, increasing the sheer psychosis of it all.© Ned Raggett /TiVo