The Commodores' early years were spent on the Southern funk circuit, where their energetic, catchy tunes, and keyboard-oriented funk made them both a college and a radio staple. They scored seminal hits with "Brick House" and "Slippery When Wet," although it became apparent quite early that lead vocalist Lionel Richie also had a bright future as a solo balladeer, with such tunes as "Easy" signaling his future on adult contemporary and Quiet Storm/urban contemporary radio. This collection highlights early up-tempo and ballad hits.© Ron Wynn /TiVo

Philly rapper Lil Uzi Vert was never stylistically timid, experimenting with genre boundaries as early as their 2017 emo/rap-dabbling effort Luv Is Rage 2. Even with their adventurous background, Uzi has never taken things quite to the extremes found on third studio album The Pink Tape, which flits from sinister trap bangers like the Travis Scott-assisted "Aye" to pop-friendly moments like "Endless Fashion" featuring Nicki Minaj to chugging groove metal and rap synthesis on "Suicide Doors," and even on to straight-up metalcore with help from Bring Me the Horizon on "Werewolf." Plenty of rappers have expanded their sound by bringing in unexpected elements of metal and hardcore, but few have covered System of a Down as Uzi faithfully does on "CS" (shorthand for one of their biggest songs, "Chop Suey!"). Among the more extreme metal moments, The Pink Tape also gets into frantic and bubbly electronic beats on "x2" and moody, vaporous atmospheric trap on "Patience," which is bolstered by Don Toliver's contributions. At close to an hour-and-a-half running time and more than 25 songs, The Pink Tape sounds inspired as often as it drags. Some of Uzi's experiments are fun and exploratory while others flop, and the entire album is a lot to digest in one go. There are still plenty of solid tracks regardless of what style Lil Uzi Vert is trying on, but more fastidious editing might have delivered a more enjoyable, less meandering overall listening experience.© TiVo Staff /TiVo

Do not be fooled by the small stature or seemingly advanced years of this Caribbean Queen: The seemingly endless energy that Calypso Rose presents on stage and in her music is nothing short of impressive! The ambassador of Caribbean carnival music thrills here with traditional sounds and recurring themes around the rights of women or disadvantaged fringe groups, in the truest sense of the word. An encounter with Manu Chao led to this musical collaboration and after the first free seconds of Far From Home, modern influence of French musician in the form of ska and reggae.

There are dozens of compilations of music by Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango, one of the great globetrotters in world music, who brought the sound of his trademark “Soul Makossa“ (that had little actual makossa in it) to Europe, the United States, Asia, and beyond. He has recorded with everyone from Sly & Robbie to Fela Kuti to Don Cherry. He has been recording since the 1960s, and criss-crossing the globe since 1972. That said, of all the compilations out there, this one is unique. First of all, its 17 tracks are all previously unreleased. Secondly, recorded in both France and in New York, the music contained herein was written and recorded for soundtracks and library recordings; meaning, of course, that apart from cinema, this music appeared in television programs and in commercial radio and television advertising. The list of musicians and complete discographical information is unavailable, but the French Fremaux & Associes imprint that compiled these sides has done an admirable job of getting Dibango to go into his memory banks and offer at least partial details. All of these tracks were cut between 1971 and 1975. The French recordings were easier because they contained players from his Parisian band: Jacques Bolognesi, Ivan Julien, François Jeanneau, and Slim Pezinhere. The sides recorded in New York contained guest musicians that were all jazz superstars, including drummer Tony Williams, bassist Buster Williams, and pianist Cedar Walton. Not surprisingly, the sounds here are of a wide variety, they are not only appealing, but stellar. The styles range from the Afro-beat sounds in “Lagos Go Slow,” to the funky, African jazz of “Da Bush a Bush,” to the Gato Barbieri-influenced Afro-Cuban jazz funk in “Blowin’ Western Mind,” to straight-up exotica funk on “Aphrodite Shake.” This set offers the many sides of one of Africa’s and the world’s most diverse musicians at his very best. Anyone who’s ever been interested in Dibango’s music will want this set. There are liners by Benjamin Goldstein, Jacques Denis, and Patrick Fremaux, and though they hold less actual historical information than the music fanatic would necessarily desire, they are aesthetically and culturally informative. In true label fashion, this set is attractively packaged and competitively priced.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Recorded in the inspiring settings of the Château de Chambord in 2020, this album does justice to Louis de Caix d'Hervelois, whose career, like Watteau's paintings and Marivaux's plays, began in the eighteenth century. His elegance, lightness and delicate eroticism can still impart a certain frisson in an age when seriousness and constraints of all kinds have rather displaced a certain joie de vivre.Likely a pupil of Marin Marais, Caix d'Hervelois wrote and published extensively for the viola da gamba, an instrument that was in the final stages of its development and would shortly be supplanted by the cello, which was more sonorous and easier to play. He left a considerable legacy in stone as well as in music, which he taught to a great many pupils. A totally independent musician, which was very rare at the time, he made his living from tutoring the bourgeoisie of Paris, from his publications and, above all, it seems, from his real estate investments: for this excellent musician was also a formidable businessman.At first, his style was inspired by that of his master Marin Marais. But it evolved in a new direction, oriented towards lightness and virtuosity. In hushed salons, listeners came to be intoxicated by the original and playful harmonies of this Picard who had come to Paris seeking fame and fortune. The delicacy of his music and the modesty of his art still touch listeners today, especially since the musicians of the ensemble La Rêveuse, led by Florence Bolton on viol and Benjamin Perrot on continuo, bring consummate artistry to bear on this characterful example of fine French art. © François Hudry/Qobuz

Ruby Vroom was one of the great debut albums of the '90s. It was an invigorating, refreshing blend of relentlessly funky beats and downtown beatnik hipster and jazz sensibilities that came around when grunge was the order of the day. Despite the hip-hop/funk heroics of the rhythm section (Sebastian Steinberg on upright bass and Yuval Gabay on drums), M. Doughty's funky white-boy pose came less from hip-hop than the rhythms and cadences of the performance poetry scene. He can be introspective and yearning, as in "True Dreams of Wichita" or "Janine," and has a feel for cinematic description, but more often delivers with the sly wink of a real smart ass. Also, his performance-poetry background means his phrasing and timing are impeccable. Doughty's guitar playing is quite spare, but careful listening will reveal more buried in the mix. The secret weapon of the band, and what really sets them apart is the keyboard/sampler playing of Mark de Gli Antoni. He not only set the bar for sampler players in the pop world, but in the decade since Ruby Vroom was released, no one has even come close to his mixture of inventiveness and musicality. Everything from creaking doors, buses, and sampled trombone solos to Raymond Scott and Tori Amos (!) provide elements and atmosphere, not to mention the genius pairing of Howlin' Wolf and the Andrews Sisters on "Down to This." He can also lay in jazzy piano chords and musically punctuates Doughty's musings with wonderful, unplaceable sounds. Production is clean and crisp, with rich, deep bass and taut drum sounds, while de Gli Antoni's samples often make the band seem much larger than it really is (the band had no problem duplicating the sound live, by the way). There isn't a bad song on here; it's their best album top to bottom, and it still sounds fresh ten years down the road. Excellent.© Sean Westergaard /TiVo

By 1971, when he released his second offering as a leader, guitarist Volker Kriegel was already established on Germany's jazz-rock scene as a monster player, courtesy of his membership in the Dave Pike Set. Before joining that band, Kriegel had been known as a formidable jazz talent since his teenage years with vibraphonists Fritz Hartschuh and Claudio Szenkar. Spectrum was issued by MPS, the visionary label that issued groundbreaking recordings by everyone from Oscar Peterson and Monty Alexander to George Duke and Peter Herbolzheimer. Kriegel's sidemen here include British pianist John Taylor on Rhodes, Peter Trunk on upright and electric bass and cello, Dutch percussionist Cees See, and master drummer Peter Baumeister. He wrote everything on the date. "Zoom" is a riff-tastic opener with Kriegel playing sitar as well as electric guitar, with Taylor's funky vamps, See burning on tablas and congas, and Baumeister breaking up a storm. This is jazz rock fusion at its very best. "More About D" commences with shakers, spacy Rhodes, and a pizzicato bassline. When Kriegel enters it becomes knotty, serpentine fusion, with loads of free jazz elements alternating with Eastern modes, walking and swinging post-bop, and more throughout its ten-minute duration. It features some of the guitarist's finest playing on the recording and delivers a portrait of his holistic musical vision. "Suspicious Child, Growing Up" reveals that Kriegel had heard, and apparently loved, the Allman Brothers Band. Its meld of acoustic and electric country blues, underscored by soulful, Stax-like electric piano and rumbling bass and percussion, gives a wide-angle view of its composer's lyricism. Closer "Strings Revisited" invert the solo capacities of cello and guitar as lead instruments with Trunk playing his instrument like a guitar, before he and Kriegel fluidly exchange fours and eights with some killer brushed breaks, rolls, and fills from Baumeister, as Taylor's piano impressionistically paints the frame before taking a smoking post-bop solo full of nuanced arpeggios and legato phrasing. Kriegel enjoyed a long, fruitful career with MPS and it's these records which define his legacy as a creative, restless musician who explored all types of jazz, rock, and world music on every recording he made for the label. That said, Spectrum is special for its ideas, boldness, confidence, and no-boundaries approach. As a result, it holds up generations later as a true jazz-rock classic.© Thom Jurek /TiVo

Finally! As of 2014, Lick My Decals Off, Baby, The Spotlight Kid, and Clear Spot had needed a proper remastering treatment for quite some time when Rhino came to the rescue, remastering all three in one fell swoop as Sun Zoom Spark: 1970 to 1972. As if that weren't enough for fans, they added an entire bonus disc of outtakes and alternates as well. The albums themselves are fairly different from each other. Lick My Decals followed directly after Trout Mask Replica and is the closest there is to Trout Mask's sonic assault. On the other side, Clear Spot's horn charts, backup singers, and Ted Templeman production were probably catchy enough for actual radio success (well, maybe in a better world). The Spotlight Kid is pitched somewhere in between. However, it's all prime Beefheart. The band is always in sync, Don's voice sounds great (as does his harmonica playing), and it's all got that unique rhythmic sense. The bonus material doesn't disappoint either. It's all from the Clear Spot and Spotlight Kid sessions and sounds fantastic. The alternates of songs that were on the albums are interesting but not revelatory, but hearing these early versions of songs that appeared on later albums is pretty fascinating. This version of "Harry Irene" predates both the Shiny Beast version and the Bat Chain Puller version. The two takes of "Dirty Blue Gene" are quite interesting as well, not just because they're significantly different than the version that ended up on Doc at the Radar Station but also because they're significantly different from each other (the third take is quite a bit more aggressive, with a really cool guitar tone at the end). "Pompadour Swamp" is a great guitar instrumental that ended up as "Suction Prints." It's hard to believe some of these cuts were left off originally, but albums were shorter back in the day. They make this set pretty close to essential for longtime fans (as if the fantastic sound weren't enough).© Sean Westergaard /TiVo

The first of two chart-topping albums released back to back in consecutive weeks, Future's eponymous LP is the extroverted party-starting sibling to HNDRXX's introverted contemplator. Here, production is the star, adding excitement and variety to Future's reliable, trap-star flow. 808 Mafia's Southside is at the top of the pack, with a hand in at least half of the album's tracks. Among his highlights, "Good Dope" helps Future make the trap sound as addictive as any Migos track; "Zoom" bends sound waves atop a warped hang drum-sounding sample, and "POA" rides a thrilling melody that sounds like a dulcimer on lean. "Draco" glitters with a spacy loop provided by DJ Spinz, while Zaytoven closes Future with two of the most confessional songs -- perhaps a direct prelude to what's found on HNDRXX -- including "When I Was Broke," a touching ode to his ride-or-die that features tinkling piano and distorted dub. Album highlight "Mask Off" employs a sample of Tommy Butler and Carlton Williams' "Prison Song," the flute melody elevating Future's rags-to-riches tale with Metro Boomin's effective production. Although Future's typical predilection for sex, drugs, and crime still rules, the inspired production on Future at least makes for an interesting listen. Taken together with HNDRXX, it becomes more of a fascinating peek into the rapper's psyche, showing multiple sides to Future's personality and his struggles with his trap past and his self-imposed destiny to become a future Hendrix.© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo

With Wide Awake! (2018) produced by Danger Mouse, Parquet Courts moved further than ever down the chaotic path of postpunk revival, inspired by the ghosts of Jonathan Richman, The Fall, The Feelies, Velvet Undergound and a bit of Pavement. Andrew Savage's band also had fun changing its vibe with salutary pop sparks and hip-swinging grooves... Produced by Rodaidh McDonald and John Parish (PJ Harvey), Sympathy For Life pushes the envelope ever further, taking in some Talking Heads-style mixes along the way (such as the groovy Plant Life). To concoct this seventh album, the Brooklynites first set about playing some long, long jams before pruning them, creating some finely calibrated songs. This record takes inspiration from the New York club scene of the seventies, notably the Loft, David Mancuso's cult informal club where Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckles and Louie Vega made their names. Parquet Courts also bears the imprint of Primal Scream's Screamadelica. In the end, there are some strong dance markers, but they never shift the band from a visceral rock vibe. On the contrary: Parquet Courts sets up its 100% garage rock philosophy right in the middle of the dancefloor. It's invigorating. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

Saxophonist Eric Alexander's improvisational skills have only grown deeper since he burst onto the scene in the early '90s. Blessed with a rounded tone and impressive technical chops, Alexander has long carried on the swinging, acoustic jazz tradition with a sound informed by such icons as Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins. Less remarked upon is just how inventive and surprising his version of straight-ahead acoustic jazz can be. With his superb 2017 effort, the Latin-infused Song of No Regrets, he reveals this inventive side, offering up a set of groove-based anthems, inspired in part by the buoyant '60s pop of Sergio Mendes. Joining him here are a cadre of longtime associates in pianist David Hazeltine, bassist John Webber, and drummer Joe Farnsworth. Also augmenting these largely Latin-tinged arrangements are percussionist Alex Diaz and trumpet titan Jon Faddis. What's particularly compelling about Alexander's approach here is how he marries the bubbly Brazilian pop of Mendes' Brasil '66 band with his own kinetic, post-bop style. It's a balance he strikes throughout Song of No Regrets, applying his searching, muscular jazz flow to not only the Mendes-penned title track ballad, but also to the fiery opener "But Here's the Thing" and his intense take on Jorge Ben's bossa nova classic "Mas Que Nada" (also made famous by Mendes). Alexander also works a similarly ingenious magic on Stevie Wonder's "These Three Words," reworking the midtempo '90s R&B groover into a soulful, afterglow-ready instrumental featuring Faddis on Harmon-muted lead. Elsewhere, he dives into the boogaloo-heavy "Boom Zoom," and dims the lights to a sultry, dreamy haze on the languid ballad "Corazon Perdido."© Matt Collar /TiVo