Something/Anything? proved that Todd Rundgren could write a pop classic as gracefully as any of his peers, but buried beneath the surface were signs that he would never be satisfied as merely a pop singer/songwriter. A close listen to the album reveals the eccentricities and restless spirit that surges to the forefront on its follow-up, A Wizard, A True Star. Anyone expecting the third record of Something/Anything?, filled with variations on "I Saw the Light" and "Hello It's Me," will be shocked by A Wizard. As much a mind-f*ck as an album, A Wizard, A True Star rarely breaks down to full-fledged songs, especially on the first side, where songs and melodies float in and out of a hazy post-psychedelic mist. Stylistically, there may not be much new -- he touched on so many different bases on Something/Anything? that it's hard to expand to new territory -- but it's all synthesized and assembled in fresh, strange ways. Often, it's a jarring, disturbing listen, especially since Rundgren's humor has turned bizarre and insular. It truly takes a concerted effort on the part of the listener to unravel the record, since Rundgren makes no concessions -- not only does the soul medley jerk in unpredictable ways, but the anthemic closer, "Just One Victory," is layered with so many overdubs that it's hard to hear its moving melody unless you pay attention. And that's the key to understanding A Wizard, A True Star -- it's one of those rare rock albums that demands full attention and, depending on your own vantage, it may even reward such close listening.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Miles Davis' final official collaboration with arranger Gil Evans resulted in their weakest project. There were only 27 minutes of music on the original Quiet Nights LP, and six minutes were taken up by a quintet performance of "Summer Night." The six remaining tracks are enjoyable enough (highlighted by "Once Upon a Summertime" and "Corcovado"), but rather brief, making one wonder why Evans could not have been persuaded to write more material.© Scott Yanow /TiVo

Hip-hop fans have known for years that Method Man and Redman are two of the top MCs in the field, and their tour together not only proved the fact, but also showed they rap incredibly well together. Their deliveries are similar and the flow never falters, but the hint of gravel in Meth's voice makes them easily distinguishable. Now, with Blackout!, the duo's first album together (though both guested on each other's 1998 LPs), listeners have the proof on wax. Skating on top of spare, hard-hitting productions by Erick Sermon, Wu-Tang's RZA, Mathematics, and Redman himself -- under his Reggie Noble alias -- Meth and Redman trade off on hardcore rhymes and freestyle over each other. There's barely room for breath, but the rhymes are tight and inventive throughout. There are only two guest appearances (for Ja Rule & LL Cool J on "4 Seasons" and Ghostface and Street on the hilarious Blair Witch Project send-off "Run 4 Cover"), and the focus on just Meth and Redman makes for an even tighter, more combustible LP. Even with the high expectations that come along with a project of this magnitude, Blackout! rarely disappoints.© John Bush /TiVo

Renewing the legend of his first album, Nas went back to basics. Back then, he was piqued by the success and the arrogance of his competitor Jay-Z; he returns here with a more violent, concise formula, where every blow finds its target. From the start of Stillmatic, Nas sets the tone and takes Jay-Z apart on "Ether". The affecting “Got Ur Self A Gun” reworks the theme from the gangster series Sopranos, and strikes the best balance between pure rap and crossover since “The Message”. Then he gets back together with his mentor Large Professor for two keystones of his discography: "Rewind" and "You're Da Man". With introspection and honesty, this is a Nasir who is both more triumphant and more vulnerable than ever before. On the gem "One Mic", he explains the meaning of his writing and the reality of his words, like a revealing dramatic soliloquy. We even find AZ on “The Flyest” for an incomparable duo that harks back to the “Life’s A Bitch” period. Giving us exactly what we want, Nas has given us the perfect soundtrack for his anger. Leaving behind the megalomaniacal flights of fancy of I am and Nastradamus in particular, he returns here as the superhero of a rap whose soul is intact, reduced to the essentials.  © Aurélien Chapuis/ Qobuz

Aaliyah's second album doesn't necessarily prove that she is indeed One in a Million, but it does showcase more depth and talent than her acclaimed debut. That's not only due to the greater variety of material on One in a Million, or to the way that her producers (Vincent Herbert, Jermaine Dupri, and many others) immaculately produce each track, but it is also due to the fact that Aaliyah's singing is smoother, more seductive, and stronger than before. It might not be the commercial juggernaut of Age Ain't Nothin' but a Number, but One in a Million is a more consistently satisfying album. © Leo Stanley /TiVo

At the end of 2005, Mary J. Blige's career was supposed to be anthologized. The singer had her way, however, and one of her best studio albums came out instead. In retrospect, her previous album, 2003's Love & Life, was awkward; the P. Diddy collaborations, likely intended to recapture the magic the duo put together on What's the 411? and My Life, didn't always pay off, and Blige was about to become a wife, so the songs steeped in heartbreak and disappointment weren't delivered with as much power as they had been in the past. The Breakthrough also contains some of the drama that fans expect, despite Blige's continued happiness, but it's clear that she has gained enough distance from the uglier parts of her past that she can inhabit them and, once again, deliver those songs. The past does play a significant role in the album, as in "Baggage," where she apologies to her husband for bringing it into their relationship. "Father in You" sounds like a note-perfect facsimile of a classic soul ballad, rising and falling and twisting with a sensitive string arrangement, but the lyrics are pure Blige, acknowledging the ways in which her husband has made up for the absence of her father. On the nearly anthemic "Good Woman Down," she sees a less matured version of herself in young women and uses her experiences to advise. She jacks the beat from the Game's "Hate It or Love It" for "MJB da MVP," where she reflects on her career, thanks her supporters, and reasserts her rightful position as the queen of hip-hop soul. It's one of several tracks to beam with a kind of contentment and confidence that Blige has never before possessed. Take "Can't Hide from Love," where she's such a force that Jay-Z dishes out a quick introduction and knows to stay out of the way for the remainder of the track, or the glorious "I Found My Everything," her "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." Beat for beat, the album features the best round of productions Blige has been handed since the mid-'90s. Apart from only a couple lukewarm tracks and a poorly recorded version of "One" with U2, it is completely correct.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

21 Savage seems to go from strength to strength. Gold releases Savage Mode and Issa Album, hit singles such as X and No Heart and collaborations with the likes of Drake, Cardi B, Post Malone, Future and Offset (with whom he released Without Warning) have all contributed to the Atlanta rapper’s quick rise to the top of the rap game. This latest release, i am > i was, is 21 Savage’s second solo album and includes collaborations with J Cole (a lot), Offset (1.5), Post Malone (all my friends) and Childish Gambino (monster) amongst various others. Not too shabby a lineup. The production team for the album includes Southside, Metro Boomin and Wheezy to name a few. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard top 200 and stayed at the top spot for two consecutive weeks, and deservedly so. 21 Savage fills this album with honest and hard-hitting lyrics over unrelenting beats, focusing on often troubling experiences from his past. Despite the nature of the lyrics, 21 never forces the issue and delivers these tracks with a laid-back tone and a well-polished flow that he switches up from track to track. The highlights of the album include a lot, on which he reflects on the effects of some past experiences (including the death of his brother), all my friends, where 21 provides a platform for Post Malone to strut his stuff, can’t leave without it and asmr. But in all honesty, weak points on this album are few and far between. On the penultimate track ,letter 2 my momma, the rapper pays a heartwarming tribute to his mother, a very nice touch. This deluxe edition includes the bonus track out for the night (part 2) featuring Travis Scott. It goes without saying that rap fans will be eagerly awaiting whatever 21 has in store for us next. © Euan Decourt/Qobuz

Despite sounding rushed to capitalize on fourth quarter sales, 2010’s Loud proved that Rihanna’s reign indeed would not let up. The album’s first three singles topped the Hot 100. A fourth one merely went Top Ten. Just as Loud was losing its grip, during the fourth quarter of 2011, Rihanna fired again with another number one single, “We Found Love” -- its success more likely due to the singer’s ecstatic vocal than Calvin Harris' shrill, plinky production. While Talk That Talk is built like another singles-chart-devouring machine, it’s both more rounded and less random than Loud. “We Found Love” and “Where Have You Been” -- the latter with a quote from Geoff Mack's “I’ve Been Everywhere” and echoes of the chorus from Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” -- function as place-holding dance tracks, and there are a couple empty anthems and ballads in the drippy “We All Want Love” and the bombastic “Farewell.” It’s the darker and dirty-minded material that tends to be most effective -- where Rihanna is more alive and believable, where her collaborators provide the most adventurous productions. In the Bangladesh-produced “Cockiness (Love It),” one of the most hypnotic and wicked beats of the last decade, Rihanna absolutely relishes the chance to sing-taunt “Suck my cockiness, swallow my persuasion.” Two of Stargate and Esther Dean's three contributions -- the desperate, xx-sampling “Drunk on Love“ (“Nothing can sober me up”) and the prowling “Roc Me Out” -- pack more sleek menace than Rated R's “G4L” and Loud’s “S&M.” The album’s best track, however, is the wholly sweet and flirtatious “Watch n’ Learn,” featuring a dizzying Hit-Boy beat -- rat-a-tat snares, swirling/swelling synthesizers, irresistible plucked melodies -- that is even more unique in the context of 2011 pop radio than his work on Kanye West and Jay-Z's “Ni**as in Paris.” Behind Good Girl Gone Bad and Rated R, this is Rihanna's third best album to date. Minus the fluff, it's close to the latter's equal.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

While his big rival and former employer, 50 Cent, squandered his success by spreading himself too thin with video games, films, and a whole lot of time devoted to the G-Unit empire, the Game spent his time working the streets with beef-minded, sometimes-epic freestyles landing on mixtapes. Every time the G-Unit versus Game beef was just about to be settled, the Game showed up late to sign the treaty, and then, when he was called out on it, he would retaliate as hard as before, bringing everything back to square one. His mentor, Dr. Dre, told him to lie low, but give the Game good advice and he'll do the opposite, as if he were compelled to do so by some unseen force (probably his mile-high ego). As the release date of his heavily anticipated Doctor's Advocate approached, things got weird. Because of the G-Unit contract, nobody was sure if the album would say Aftermath or Insterscope on the back. In the final moments, it was revealed that the cover art shamelessly references his debut, and then -- towering above it all -- there was Dre's absence from the final product, and yet the album's original, Dre-boasting title sticks like a final "screw you"/"bring it on" pointed right at the haters. As all this drama spills into the actual album and feeds the cocksure rapper's craving for chaos, it becomes obvious the "sophomore slump" wasn't enough of a challenge for the Game, and even more obvious that he's following a career path of his own. Just like The Documentary, Doctor's Advocate is obsessed with the West Coast, especially Dre. The Doctor's name is dropped incessantly, to the point it will drive haters and anyone unfamiliar with the Game's history crazy. The ghost of Dre is there in every instantly grabbing club-banger and fierce street track that arcs up to the key title track, where the Game lays it all on the table with an open letter to the producer. He uses words like "family" and "father" to pay tribute to their relationship before Aftermath and Dre associate Busta Rhymes is brought in as a guest just to amp up the desperation question. On paper, Doctor's Advocate sounds like the blueprint for the most desperate follow-up ever, with the Game treating the universe as his fanboy while constantly referencing people who aren't here and an era of which he's not a part, the golden age of the West Coast. On the crip-walkin' "Da S***" there's talk of bringing back Doggystyle and The Chronic; on "California Vacation," with Snoop by his side, he claims to be previewing Dre's so-far unreleased Detox album; and "Compton"'s old-school bounce is firmly 1993 and produced by will.i.am, who returns to his hood sound after years with the polished Black Eyed Peas. will's transformation back is just one of the magical things that happens around and in spite of the Game's flippant attitude and decidedly one-track mind. Other beat-makers like Kanye West, Just Blaze, Scott Storch, and Swizz Beatz are all on fire, and guests like Tha Dogg Pound, Nas, and Xzibit give their all to an album that doesn't even bother to mention them on the back cover. Course, toying with expectations and respect is the dangerous tightrope the Game walks brilliantly, and while this is nothing new, the fact remains that every track here is as good as or better than those on his debut. There's no precedent for an album that worships a no-show so hard on one hand, flips the bird to hip-hop protocol with the other, and knowingly refuses to push things forward, even flaunts it. What's fascinating is how the Game sets up all these obstacles for himself, just to prove he's unstoppable, and offers a decided placeholder album when most would have gone a different route. The place he's holding is on top, and even without Dre, Doctor's Advocate suggests he shouldn't budge.© David Jeffries /TiVo

Marc Anthony was a salsa superstar throughout the '90s, long before the Latin pop explosion of the 1999. Once Ricky Martin ushered in a new era of crossovers that spring with "Livin' La Vida Loca," there was a rush of crossover acts, almost enough to make it seem like Anthony was left behind. After all, his bid for mainstream success as the starring role in Paul Simon's Broadway musical The Capeman was undone as it became one of the Great White Way's most notorious failures. Still, Anthony had his own English-language album in the works. Titled Marc Anthony, the record appeared in the fall of 1999, guaranteeing it a shot at a mass audience, which is exactly what it was designed to do. As a matter of fact, it's almost a bit too calculated, opening with two interchangeable ballads that set the tone for a pleasant, subdued set of Latin-tinged adult contemporary pop. Anthony sings beautifully throughout, but he's never given the opportunity to be truly electric, the way he can be with hot salsa numbers. The liveliest the album gets is the catchy, mid-tempo single "I Need to Know," which is gently danceable, or the mild salsa of "That's Okay," and the Latin dance-pop of "She's Been Good to Me." The rest is almost all pop ballads, perfectly produced and gamely sung by Anthony. Some of these work very well, others simply fade into the slipstream. That's particularly frustrating because Anthony is such a talented singer that it's evident that he's capable of much more than this. Marc Anthony isn't bad for what it is, and a few of its singles are quite good, but it's not at the level of his earlier records, or Martin's crossover bid of 1999, either.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

First, the bad news. There are no new tricks on BlowBack, the star-studded 2001 comeback by Tricky, the pioneering trip-hopper that wandered his way into the wilderness. He wandered so far that nobody really cared anymore if he had anything to say -- particularly because he wound up saying the same thing, slightly differently, over and over again. He doesn't escape from this problem here, yet he's found a map -- and that map is craft. He knew this before, since the best moments of Angels With Dirty Faces and Juxtapose were when he knew how to spin his signatures just right, so they jelled into something brilliant. He has the same gift here, and he extends it throughout the record, so this is the first record that really plays smoothly from start to finish since Pre-Millennium Tension. That, of course, isn't the same thing as being as good, since he has ceased to innovate, and he has a couple of annoying flaws, including his tendency to create one mood and sustain it without developing it, plus his love of dancehall toasting. The thing is, for all of his genius, Tricky doesn't really have the greatest taste in the world. Yes, he's worked with Björk and PJ Harvey, but he's also brought Bush into the studio, and here Live's Ed Kowalczyk, three members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Cyndi Lauper all contribute sonic coloring. The genius of Tricky is, he knows how to pull out the best in such unlikely collaborators, making it sound like a natural extension of his work. Then again, it could just be that John Frusciante and Flea know "Brand New You're Retro" so well, it's easy to turn it out again on "Wonder Woman." So, it's a mixed bag, but it plays sharper than his albums of late. Yes, there are some astonishing slips -- the backing track of "Something in the Way" sounds great, but Hawkman, the ragga bane of this album, castrates it of its power -- but, at this point, that's a given with Tricky. Once you get past that, once you stop expecting genius -- or at least something that matches Maxinquaye (or even Tension) -- it's much easier to enjoy BlowBack.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Chick Corea and Stefano Bollani's Orvieto (named after the Italian city in which it was recorded) finds the two pianists, an American who is pushing 70 and an Italian in his late 30s, paired at a duo acoustic piano concert from December 2010. The set consists of tunes alternated from each of the player's repertoires, but only the selections were agreed upon in advance; otherwise, the two are winging it. Naturally, Corea takes the lead on his numbers and Bollani on his, making it easy to tell the difference between them, even if their playing styles were not sufficiently distinct. The opening with the mutually composed-on-the-spot "Orvieto Improvisation No. 1" suggests a more esoteric effort than the concert as a whole turns out to be, as Corea and Bollani feel each other out with dissonant chords in a modern classical manner, before the piece develops rhythmically and comes together. The track gives way to Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Retrato em Branco e Preto," Bollani's first showcase (fans will recall that he recorded an entire album of Jobim music, Falando de Amor), which demonstrates the Italian's sometimes florid, always emotional, and highly melodic playing style. Here and elsewhere, Bollani demonstrates a pretty, lyrical, and showy approach, including cascading runs, as Corea supports him with rhythmic chording. The older player demonstrates his technical ability starting with a take on the standard "If I Should Lose You," taking fast, bright, single-note runs. And so it goes, as Bollani actually proves the more traditional of the two, Corea recalling his bop roots, particularly when the duo's second improvisation gives way to Miles Davis' "Nardis," a tune associated with Bill Evans (a player to whom Corea has devoted an entire album). Although Corea is often figuratively as well as literally on Bollani's home turf, providing support on Bollani originals and another Jobim selection, the show closes with a strong reading of Corea's "Armando's Rhumba" before the enthusiastic crowd brings the pianists back to make up a "Blues in F." And thus the veteran of Hispanic heritage and the younger Italian mix their Southern European flavors on one of the building blocks of American jazz, making for a heady musical concoction that confirms the talents of both.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

Despite sounding rushed to capitalize on fourth quarter sales, 2010’s Loud proved that Rihanna’s reign indeed would not let up. The album’s first three singles topped the Hot 100. A fourth one merely went Top Ten. Just as Loud was losing its grip, during the fourth quarter of 2011, Rihanna fired again with another number one single, “We Found Love” -- its success more likely due to the singer’s ecstatic vocal than Calvin Harris' shrill, plinky production. While Talk That Talk is built like another singles-chart-devouring machine, it’s both more rounded and less random than Loud. “We Found Love” and “Where Have You Been” -- the latter with a quote from Geoff Mack's “I’ve Been Everywhere” and echoes of the chorus from Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” -- function as place-holding dance tracks, and there are a couple empty anthems and ballads in the drippy “We All Want Love” and the bombastic “Farewell.” It’s the darker and dirty-minded material that tends to be most effective -- where Rihanna is more alive and believable, where her collaborators provide the most adventurous productions. In the Bangladesh-produced “Cockiness (Love It),” one of the most hypnotic and wicked beats of the last decade, Rihanna absolutely relishes the chance to sing-taunt “Suck my cockiness, swallow my persuasion.” Two of Stargate and Esther Dean's three contributions -- the desperate, xx-sampling “Drunk on Love“ (“Nothing can sober me up”) and the prowling “Roc Me Out” -- pack more sleek menace than Rated R's “G4L” and Loud’s “S&M.” The album’s best track, however, is the wholly sweet and flirtatious “Watch n’ Learn,” featuring a dizzying Hit-Boy beat -- rat-a-tat snares, swirling/swelling synthesizers, irresistible plucked melodies -- that is even more unique in the context of 2011 pop radio than his work on Kanye West and Jay-Z's “Ni**as in Paris.” Behind Good Girl Gone Bad and Rated R, this is Rihanna's third best album to date. Minus the fluff, it's close to the latter's equal.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

Busta Rhymes rocketed to superstardom in an alarmingly short time, simply because there was no other rapper quite like him. Nobody else in his position had his wild sense of humor, reckless fashion sense, and, most importantly, willingness to take risks. Yes, underground rappers like the Jurassic Five and the entire Wu clan relentlessly pushed the boundaries of hip-hop, but they operated at the fringes of pop culture. Busta placed himself smack in the middle of middle America, gleefully taking cameos on Cosby and recruiting both Janet Jackson and Ozzy Osbourne to appear on his third album, Extinction Level Event (The Final World Front). Where this could seem like pandering by some artists, there's no condescension or crass commercialism in his approach. Busta's party is careening out of control because he doesn't see a reason to exclude anybody. That's the reason why Executive Level is a richer listen than most contemporary hip-hop records -- it has hard beats, weird samples, unpredictable musical juxtapositions and collaborations, and sharp, intelligent rhymes. Like any artist who attempts so much, Busta occasionally falls flat (the rewrite of "Iron Man" wasn't a great idea), but there's so much happening on Executive Level that the missteps don't really matter -- especially since Busta has come up with a party record that doesn't just sound the end of the millennium, it feels like it.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Though Snoop Dogg never slipped from the charts, Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$ smacks of a comeback, and it's a great one. After finally being released from No Limit (he's still distributed by Priority), Snoop Dogg drafted a set of great producers for his sixth album, as well as a varied cast of featured guests capable of drawing in just about every segment of the hip-hop audience. Still one of the smoothest rappers around and the bemused observer of all around him, he slips on the tried and true pimp and godfather personas, but also has the nerve to feature an X-rated sex romp ("Lollipop," with Jay-Z and Nate Dogg) directly after a tender anthem to love and marriage ("I Believe in You") -- and sound extremely convincing with both. The pair of tracks produced by the Neptunes ("From tha Chuuuch to da Palace" and "Beautiful") are the highlights, two of the best they've done since their commercial breakout. Hardcore fans of rap, though, will want to skip ahead to "The One and Only" for a perfect meld of West Coast and East Coast -- the first meeting of Snoop and DJ Premier on wax. (Premier also turns in a hilariously cartoonish production for "Batman & Robin.") Yes, there are a few missteps: The G-funk roll on a few tracks sounds a little dated, and Bootsy Collins impersonator Mr. Kane makes a few embarrassing appearances ("Stoplight" is a bland, unnecessary update of Parliament's "Flashlight"). And two other remakes sound OK, but won't have a long shelf life. The first is virtually a cover of Eric B. & Rakim's "Paid in Full" called "Paper'd Up," and it's immediately followed by a redo of Robert Palmer's Jam & Lewis anthem "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" ("Wasn't Your Fault"). You've got to be a strong figure to keep together an album this long and this rangy, but Snoop Dogg is up to the task.© John Bush /TiVo