Cat Power is back with her first new album in six years. It’s called Wanderer, and it’s out October 5 via Domino. The follow-up to Sun was produced by Chan Marshall herself and includes a song called “Woman” featuring Lana Del Rey.

Since practically inventing the sound of grindcore on Scum, Napalm Death underwent a major lineup shuffling, which is well chronicled for convenient comparison on the Death by Manipulation compilation. Six songs come from the group's 1989 Mentally Murdered EP and feature vocalist Lee Dorrian and guitarist Bill Steer, who would leave Napalm Death to lead Cathedral and Carcass, respectively…

The prologue is a unique feature of early baroque opera: an opening scene where an allegorical figure enters the stage to prepare the audience for the musical drama to come. Thus Prologue is the musical introduction of Italian star soprano Francesca Aspromonte and her exclusive, long term engagement with Pentatone, promising great joy as well as drama in the years to come. Prologue is a highly original album consisting of several prologues from early-baroque operas by Monteverdi, Caccini, Cavalli, Landi, Rossi, Cesti, Stradella and Scarlatti. Strung together, they form a representation in a single act, a theatre full of small, complete dramas: the opera before the opera. Francesca Aspromonte is quickly establishing herself as a shining star in the Baroque firmament. She has curated this album together with musical director Enrico Onofri, who leads il pomo doro, one of the most important and successful period ensembles of today.

"Chaka Khan" is the eponymous fourth solo album by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, released on the Warner Bros. Records label in 1982. Two singles were released from Chaka Khan: the Michael Jackson cover "Got to Be There" (US Pop #67, US R&B #5) and "Tearin' It Up" (US R&B #48), the latter also as a 12" single including an extended remix as well as an instrumental version, both mixed by Larry Levan and included on Warner Music Japan's 1999 compilation Dance Classics of Chaka Khan. The album track "Slow Dancin'" was a funky ballad duet with Rick James. On Billboard's charts, the album reached #5 on Black Albums and #52 on Pop Albums. The "Be Bop Medley" won producer Arif Mardin and Khan a Grammy Award in 1984 in the Best Vocal Arrangement For Two Or More Voices category.

Joy: The Ultimate Christmas Collection contains the definitive Artists & Pop, Easy Listening. The Best hits from Trey Ivey, Jody McBrayer, Southern Raised and many more.

Norwegian heavy metal /power metal band, GUARDIANS OF TIME, have announced the release of their fifth album Tearing Up The World. The album includes two songs with guest performances by Abbath and Tim ”Ripper” Owens.

Ritual is the eleventh Soulfly album, released in 2018. The album marks the 20-year anniversary of their debut album release by partially going back to the roots with the return of tribal stuff and grooves of early Soulfly albums, besides retaining some of the elements present on recent albums, such as death metal and black metal. Ritual features Randy Blythe of Lamb of God and Ross Dolan of Immolation. The album was named after Jane's Addiction album Ritual De Lo Habitual and Max Cavalera declares 'Ritual' a "very metal name".

Those who think of singer/saxman Curtis Stigers as a pop/rock artist and associate him with "I Wonder Why" and "Peace, Love and Understanding" will be surprised to learn that Baby Plays Around is very much a jazz album – not jazzy pop, but straight-ahead acoustic jazz. Not that there is any reason why someone with pop/rock credentials can't embrace jazz if his heart is really in it; after all, jazz and rock are both part of the blues family. And even though some pretentious individuals in the jazz world love to state that jazz is "America's classical music," the fact is that jazz has more in common with rock and R&B than with Beethoven or Mozart. Stigers thrived on that blues feeling as a pop/rock singer in the early '90s, and he thrives on it as a jazz singer.

It was one of those nights that was always going to be special. The city of Madrid with its three million inhabitants was bathed in warm, autumnal, red-gold evening sunshine as rock fans streamed over the Calle del Arenal Boulevard close to the Royal Palace and into the Joy Eslava…

Whereas Anthony Phillips' debut album The Geese & the Ghost was recorded piecemeal over a period of years, his sophomore set was cut in comparatively record time, a month in fall 1977, just as the first rave reviews for its predecessor hit the stands. It was an invigorating period and Phillips' confidence oozes out of every groove…

A double-length live set from the legendary Modern Jazz Quartet – recorded in Scandinavia in 1960, almost as a summation of the group's growing genius in the 50s! The tunes are a mix of John Lewis and Milt Jackson originals, plus other songs all given the wonderful MJQ twist – distilled into a sublime blend of piano, vibes, bass, and drums – all delivered with a sense of class, but never too much polish. The album is live, but still has that sophisticated composure that made the group so unique at the time – and the whole thing's a perfect complement to their famous studio albums on Atlantic!

The Return of the Fabulous Hofner Bluenotes is the twenty-second studio album by British singer-songwriter Chris Rea, released in 2008 by his own record label, Jazzee Blue. It comprises three CDs and double 10" Vinyl records in an 80-page hardback book. It is the second album of his project, the Hofner Blue Notes (2003). The project narrates the history of The Delmonts, an imaginary guitar instrumental band from the late 1950s, who in early 1960s evolved into blues band The Hofner Bluenotes. It also gives a brief history of the Hofner guitar, and its importance in the development of music in Britain. The music was recorded by Rea (guitars), Colin Hodgkinson (bass) and Martin Ditcham (drums), who feature in the book, together with Niel Drinkwater and Robert Ahwai.

In the U.S., few music listeners have any awareness of the British skiffle phenomenon of the late '50s, and the only performer from this era to enjoy any kind of profile in America is Lonnie Donegan, whose "Rock Island Line" charted here. Other notable skiffle acts, such as Johnny Duncan (not the '70s country star), the Vipers Skiffle Group, and the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group are unknown except to an elite few. The genre itself was basically an attempt to replicate American folk music in Britain by playing American folk and blues songs in an affectedly rural-sounding manner, and the result often sounded something like a strummy, energetic cousin of bluegrass coupled with the instrumental sound of Elvis' Sun sessions.