Given the cold shoulder Madonna's 2003 album American Life received by critics and audiences alike – it may have gone platinum, but apart from the Bond theme “Die Another Day,” released in advance of the album, it generated no new Top Ten singles (in fact, its title track barely cracked the Top 40) – it's hard not to read its 2005 follow-up, Confessions on a Dance Floor, as a back-to-basics move of sorts: after a stumble, she's returning to her roots, namely the discos and clubs where she launched her career in the early '80s. It's not just that she's returning to dance music – in a way, she's been making hardcore dance albums ever since 1998's Ray of Light, her first full-on flirtation with electronica – but that she's revamping and updating disco on Confessions instead of pursuing a bolder direction.

In a time of sociopolitical upheaval, Depeche Mode emerged with Spirit. Dark, brooding, and painfully relevant upon its release, the collection is one of their most intense and aggressive statements, isolating the frustration, anger, tension, and dread coursing across the globe in the wake of the 2016 U.S. presidential election and Brexit. With little subtlety, Depeche Mode take aim and leave few survivors. Producer James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco, Arctic Monkeys, Florence + the Machine) revives the trio after their two prior lackluster efforts and turns Spirit into a highlight of their late era, the strongest effort since 2005's Playing the Angel. From a fiery pulpit, Dave Gahan hurls line after line chastising the masses, wondering how the world got into such a bind.

Live at Legends captures the raging bluesman during a blistering set at his club in early 2010, playing pretty much exactly what you'd expect: "Damn Right I Got the Blues," "Best Damn Fool," and medleys of "I Just Want to Make Love to You/Chicken Heads," "Boom Boom/Strange Brew," and "Voodoo Chile/Sunshine of Your Love." That said, this isn't a complaint. While it's true that Guy and his crack band have his show down cold - this same basic set has been around for at least a decade with some additions and substitutions made while on tour playing larger venues - they throw down each and every time. Given that this is his club, the senses of immediacy and a certain closeness are present here whereas they're missing on other live recordings.

Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent present a highly accomplished version of one of the masterpieces of seventeenth-century sacred music. Composed shortly after L’Orfeo and dedicated to Pope Paul V, Monteverdi’s Vespers constantly surprise us with their audacity and their great emotional power. Stile antico and stile moderno combine here to wonderful effect, with Renaissance-style polyphony, accompanied monody and concertato style coexisting harmoniously. The importance accorded to the text (a key feature in Monteverdi), the virtuosity of the vocal writing and the independence of the part-writing are among the characteristics of this astonishing work. Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent prove themselves to be Monteverdi interpreters of the first rank. Their lively, refreshing reading, enhanced by the presence of eight internationally renowned soloists, will ensure the success of this release.

This is the second album pairing Alfred Schnittke and Arvo Pärt from the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir. The first, released in 2018, brought the group a Gramophone Award, and the BIS label and conductor Kaspars Putniņš have apparently decided to stick with what works. Both albums are superb. Schnittke and Pärt haven't often appeared together on recordings, Schnittke's stylistically allusive language being miles away from Pärt's minimalism, a fine example of which is provided by the Seven Magnificat Antiphons heard here.

To say the least, Kalevi Aho's Twelfth Symphony is unique in musical history. Like Wagner's Parsifal, it was written to be performed in a specific acoustic environment. But while Parsifal was composed for Wagner's six-year-old Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, Aho's Twelfth was composed for Finland's million-year-old Luosto Mountain in Lapland, hence the sobriquet Luosto Symphony. Commissioned by Soldankylä, the city at the base of the mountain, Aho wrote his Twelfth after carefully exploring the mountain slopes' acoustical properties and many of his artistic decisions were dictated by his findings. Given that vast stage, for example, the work would contain no fast sections requiring precision ensemble playing. And because it would be played outside, the possibility of an audible wind had to be taken into account.

The seminal San Francisco psychedelic band in the heyday of such things, Jefferson Airplane were sassy, political, and generally engaging. The band then morphed into Jefferson Starship, which was a whole other thing, a more polished band aiming at the pop charts. Eventually Jefferson Starship became just Starship, although the sound stayed aimed at the charts. This two-disc set combines the best tracks from all of these incarnations, which is a good thing if one is a fan of all of the approaches here, but not such a good thing if, like many, one prefers one version of the band to the other two.

Jody Grind's debut album was early progressive rock with a somewhat jazzier orientation than most such bands, though the playing was a good sight more impressive than the singing and songwriting. There's a fairly grim tone to the original material, all (save a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black") written by Tim Hinkley and Ivan Zagni, who wrench extended heavy blues and jazzy solos out of their organ and guitar, respectively. The showcase is an 18-minute, four-part suite, "One Step On," that – like many long rock tracks of the time – goes on for way too long, incorporating horn fanfares, lurching tempos, and operatic vocals (and, yes, a drum solo).

KK's Priest is a supergroup founded by ex-Judas Priest six-stringer K.K. Downing. Formed in 2019, the band is comprised of Downing, former Judas Priest members Tim "Ripper" Owens (vocals) and Les Binks (drums), guitarist A.J. Mills (Hostile), and bass player Tony Newton (Voodoo Six). The band released their Billboard-charting debut album Sermons of the Sinner in 2021, followed two years later by its sequel, Sinner Rides Again.
Emulating the sound, speed, and style of his flagship band's halcyon days, KK's Priest released their first single, the thrash-fueled "Hellfire Thunderbolt," in early 2021. It was followed later that year by their first full-length effort, Sermons of the Sinner, which hit number four on Billboard's Heatseekers chart and made several charts around Europe.

The Brahms vocal compositions (for their quality and abundance – over 400 of them) made Brahms a “worthy heir to Beethoven” in Germany, throughout Europe, and finally in France, where Ravel was the first and one of the few to admire “the beauty in his melodic ideas, their quality of expression and above all the brilliance of his orchestral language”. Schoenberg also later praised the innovation of his musical language in his Style and Idea.

In the CD Lisboa-Milano the Portuguese saxophonist Manuel Teles explores the contemporary repertoire for solo saxophone, delving into the creative architecture of the scores by Italian and Portuguese authors linked to the two cities of Milan and Lisbon. The program of the CD, which unfolds between works that cover a vast period of time, from 1985-87 to 2023, features pieces by Vincenzo Parisi (Eclamre, 1985-87), Christopher Bochmann (Essay XIII, 2001), João Pedro Oliveira (Integrais IV, 1987) and Salvatore Sciarrino (Bergson's clock, 1999). The album offers itself as a singular musical journey with a wide sound horizon, in a fascinating mix of styles, references and creative ideas. Protagonist of the recording Manuel Teles, a musician with active performances in prestigious concert halls and with numerous collaborations with various orchestral realities.

William Byrd's work stands out above all for the variety of genres and structural principles. This is particularly evident in his unique keyboard music. The influence that Byrd also had on the continental development of piano music remains remarkable. To commemorate the quadricentenary of Byrd's death, this album presents a special collection of the works of Byrd as well as two of his close contemporaries, by his long-time mentor Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1585) and the younger Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625). With William Byrd, Friederike Chylek follows up on her last albums Byrd –Keyboard works (OC1724) From Byrd To Byrd (OC1704) and Time stands still (OC1864). Friederike Chylek plays on an organ by Johann Christoph Leu, Klosterkirche Rheinau, 1715 and on a harpsichord by Boccalari, Napoli 1699, restored by Matthias Griewisch, 2019.