Pop/Alt - With the release of her second album Hunting My Dress in the U.K., the brilliant, intrepid songstress Jesca Hoop becomes yet another talented American artist to find a more welcoming musical home outside of the U.S. Maybe borders don't really matter much anymore in cyberspace where everything can be accessed with a click but it does say something pretty sad about the chances for adventurous artists like Hoop to find some kind of critical, concerted and supportive spotlight for an effective launch here. Following a major press campaign overseas and a European tour with Andrew Bird we find the silver lining: Hoop promises an early 2010 U.S. street for Dress.

Idle rants aside, now we have Hoop's new imported Dress: an album that, as expected, asks a lot of the listener in some respects but, also as expected, pays big dividends for those willing to hop on board for the ride. Working with producer and extraordinary guitarist Tony Berg and a troupe of talented players, Hoop has created miniature vocal sonicscapes of startling originality, building songs that flit and dart, build and then break down again all against a backdrop of stark guitar runs, boldly progressive time measures and a tiny grab bag of head-turning production surprises.

“My aim was to produce as much energy and force with as little sonic information as possible," observes Hoop. "Less is more was our motto." And in one of the best lines of the year adds, "Anything is worth trying and nothing is too precious to mute." We guarantee you won't hear anything this year quite as bracingly innovative as Hunting My Dress. Highly recommended.

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Jesca Hoop - "Whispering Light" (from the album Hunting My Dress)

Jesca Hoop - "Murder of Birds" (featuring Guy Garvey) (version from Kismet Acoustic EP)

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Seal has always been something of an enigmatic performer, a Londoner of Nigerian/Brazilian descent who found success with the heavily electronic dance pop of the early and mid 90's with songs such as "Crazy" and "Kiss From A Rose". It's been an odd journey for Seal along the way, looking to move beyond the past -- and into some new directions. The best of these has to be the fine, criminally overlooked (at least in the U.S.) project of a year ago: Soul, reworkings of classic R+B songs under the production guidance of hitman David Foster.

Soul was an album that by all rights should have been a disaster (ie. glossy, Rod Stewart-styled pap), but turned out to be one of the better cover albums of the last decade. As always, it came down to that distinctive Seal voice -- and, with the artist clearly energized and into it, it worked. The album went on to sell more than three million copies worldwide, the vast majority to European fans.

In support of Soul, Seal recorded a live concert of the songs which was later shown on PBS but strangely never made available here on disc. Now five months after being released on CD and DVD in Europe, the DVD of Soul Live is packaged together in the "deluxe" version of a solid if rather perfunctory collection of 18 Seal tracks imaginatively titled Hits (December 8). Of note are two previously unreleased songs on the CD -- covers that may have been originally completed for the Soul project: Ashford and Simpson's "I Am Your Man" (first recorded by Bobby Taylor in 1968) and Sly Stone's classic funk rave-up "Thank You". Look for a new Seal studio project in 2010. Watch the video "If You Don't Know Me By Know" from Soul Live after the jump...

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Seal - "I Am Your Man" (from the album Hits)

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Pop/Rock - Six years ago Emily Maguire left her London home, guitar in hand and headed for the outback of Australia, looking for a change in her life at a time of an emotional struggle. She had already discovered Buddhism as a centering influence in her life and, with some encouragement of new friends and peers, began the process of recording a few of the dozens of songs that she'd written. The result was Stranger Place, a surprisingly mature album of lyrical folk/rock. Word of mouth and gigs in her new homeland and back in London helped spread the word of a promising new singer and songwriter. By the time her second album Keep Walking was released in 2008, Maguire was receiving solid critical notice and a growing cult fan base.

New album Believer, out in the U.K. and Australia November 16 (no U.S. deal yet) isn't as much a revelatory listen as it is an affirming one. There's nothing remotely edgy or hipster-ironic going on here, just finely crafted songs that have that certain So-Cal Eagles/Fleetwood Mac aura to them -- midtempo, pop/rockers and bittersweet ballads all delivered with Maguire's warm, gently sanded vocals and spiritual lyrical themes. "I'd Rather Be" typifies the Believer style: chunky guitar riffs, mid-tempo rhythm kick, simple but memorable melodic structure and breezy, sing-along chorus. This is the basics done exceedingly well and a welcome reminder that sometimes playing it straight -- and straight down the middle -- has its own unpretentious rewards.

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Emily Maguire - "I'd Rather Be" (from the album Believer)

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Familiar with the term "at sixes and sevens"? No? Well, look it up (please). That's pretty much where we're at trying to figure out the origins as well as the final output of Tame The Night, the sophomore, impressively D.I.Y. album from Sevilla, Spain-to-L.A. transplant Lucia Iman. Sometimes the story is as interesting as the music -- and for this intriguing, admittedly minor December 1 release, this is one of those times. It began with Iman's fans being given the option to "buy" a stake in Iman's new album and  -- with the support of 903 "backers" -- Iman raised $50,000 (check out her website "sellaband.com" below), hired noted producer Malcolm Burn (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin) and, with some studio player support, recorded Tame The Night at Burn's upstate NY studio.

The end result is an oddly captivating album that reveals itself in fits and starts with a minimum of fanfare. We get the lovely, pulsing "Do You Remember", a simple electro-pop canvas that manages to find an array of interesting mix of musical colors. Then there's the Spanish folk/pop ballad "Son De Mar", the cinematic piano lullabye "Mr. Green", quirky waltz "One Two Three" and eerily atmospheric "Wintersong" -- all held together by Iman's dreamily airy vocals and Burn's uncluttered, down-to-basics production. As we noted earlier, this is not earthshaking stuff and some may find Iman's style on Tame The Night a bit too tepid and, well, tame, when a touch more heat may have given off a little more light as well. But for those seeking late night lounge pop diversions, this is worth a listen.

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Lucia Iman - "Do You Remember (Remix)" (from the album Tame The Night)

Lucia Iman - "Son De Mar" (from the album Tame The Night)

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It was 1992 and Neil Young was ready to head to Nashville, meet up with some old friends (James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Nicolette Larson) and recapture the sound and spirit of his brilliant country/folk masterpiece Harvest, then celebrating its 20th anniversary. The result was Harvest Moon, a gentle acoustic album of laid back picking and harmonizing that rejuvenated Young's commercial career and met with enormous critical success. It was, for many people, the quintessential Neil Young sound reinvented and the album went on to sell more than two million copies -- one of the most successful releases in his long history. "...He has surrounded his meditations in some of his simplest, most gorgeous melodies in years...", declared Q.

 The latest of Young's "from the vaults" live series of archival recordings, Dreamin' Man Live '92 (December 8), recreates the Harvest Moon album in an intimate live setting, pulling versions of each of the disc's ten tracks from a series of acoustic concert performances he gave in 1992 just prior to the release of the Harvest Moon album. Ironically, the disc's ten-minute epic "Natural Beauty" was taken from these live performances for the original release. The album's remaining tracks were recorded in the studio with back up from Young's Stray Gators: Music City studio vets Kenny Buttrey (drums) and Ben Keith (peddle steel) along with long-time Young players Spooner Oldham (keyboards) and Tim Drummond (bass).

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Rock - Culled from three decades of concerts and literally hundreds of hours of performance recordings, the extensive 48-track, 4-CD box set Live Anthology arriving November 24 from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is a handpicked collection of the band's best songs mixed in with a few interesting rarities and covers. Petty and fellow Heartbreaker Mike Campbell worked with engineer Ryan Ulyate to comb through the many concerts in the Petty vault, looking for the best takes but careful not to mess with the original masters -- all of the songs are presented warts and all, with no "fixes" or overdubs.

Along with their own hits and originals, the Live Anthology also features some of their legendary covers including the Zombies’ “I Want You Back Again,” Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic", The Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil,” Fleetwood Mac’s blues rave-up “Oh Well,” Booker T. and the MGs “Green Onions” and The Byrds “Ballad Of Easy Rider” among others. A special Deluxe Live Box, available exclusively at Best Buy, includes a fifth audio CD with 14 additional songs as well as two DVDs and a special Blu-Ray HD DVD that features all 62 tracks in super hi-fidelity sound. Full CD track listing after the jump...

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Tom Petty - "Refugee" (1983 Irvine, California from Live Anthology)

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Pop/Alt/Blues/Rock - It's probably safe to say that there's not a lot of middle ground of opinion when it comes to the music of Tom Waits. Easily considered one of our finest songwriters, Waits has been making uncompromising music since the early 70's, moving from the early incarnation of raspy piano bar balladeer and story teller - culminating in such well-known classics as "Downtown Train" and "Jersey Girl" -  to the dramatic, challenging and increasingly raucous recordings of stomping, blistering and razor-sharp Americana-meets-alt/art-rock. Needless to say the man is an original. Wailing with a megaphone, raining down a cacophonous barrage of angular, demanding and often humorously surreal rants, Waits can also still manage to muster a lovely, if croaking, New Orleans-styled ballad of unparalleled melodic simplicity.

All is on display and in full force on Glitter and Doom Live, a sprawling live recording that captures Waits and his amazing band roaring, reeling and crawling through seventeen classics of uniquely Waits-ian showman-like bluster and blues. Taken from a variety of performances throughout his international tour, the disc's original songs are often completely reworked here to maximum quaking theatricality, with Waits taking center stage in a variety of roles and pushing his backing quintet to one brutal, punching climax after another. Hymns of stark emotion, swampy, ragged rock stomps and gutter-tough boogity boogies drift and collide at will. Did we mention the guy's an original? Also included -- a second disc titled "Tom Tales" a collection of in-between song ramblings and stories, invective and insight. For the adventurous, there's nothing quite like a Tom Waits performance and Glitter and Doom Live shows us, in all its odd and manic glory, just why that is. EPK after the jump.

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Tom Waits - "Get Behind the Mule" (from Glitter and Doom Live)

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Rock/Pop/Alt - Even though Snow Patrol has been banging around the U.K. for almost 15 years, it wasn't until the band's 2003 album Final Straw - their first with producer Jacknife Lee - and first major hit "Run" that they finally began their ascendancy to massive chart and tour success. For U.S. audiences, it began in 2006 with the album five-million-selling Eyes Wide Open and the huge, can't-escape-from-it single "Chasing Cars". A year ago, Snow Patrol released their fifth album A Hundred Million Suns, a tougher-edged version of the band's grandeur rock style that received some solid reviews but failed to meet the commercial expectations raised post-"Chasing Cars."

 New November 10 anthology Up To Now, as the title suggests, collects thirty tracks from the Snow Patrol catalog, including rarities, covers, radio hits and selections from frontman Gary Lightbody's side-project Reindeer Section featuring members of various Scottish bands. Of particular note are three previously unreleased newer recordings including lead single "Just Say Yes", a song Lightbody wrote for Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger's never-released solo album and, according to the band, a more "techno" style that may be an indication of the band's new direction. Up To Now's deluxe version tacks on a third disc -- a DVD featuring two exclusive documentaries, ‘The Lightning Strike’ animated film and previously unseen live footage. Watch the "Just Say Yes" video after the jump...

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Snow Patrol - "Just Say Yes" (from the album Up To Now)

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Pop/Adult - Reworking rare Edith Piaf songs, recording them live in concert and, naturally, in French may automatically violate three cardinal rules of American popular music career advancement, but fortunately for us, the wondrously talented singer and songwriter Martha Wainwright doesn't exactly follow the canons of the "business" of music. At the suggestion of friend and off-center production genius Hal Wilner and perhaps taking a page from brother Rufus' recent foray into iconic female singer (ie., his glam Judy Garland tribute), the Montreal-raised Wainwright decided to take on her Francophile upbringing and boldly reinterpret the mournfully dramatic songs of the legendary Little Sparrow, considered to be the greatest and most popular French singer ever.

Recorded live over the course three nights in New York this past June, Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, A Paris (November 9 in Europe, U.S. TBD) features fifteen Piaf songs -- only a couple of which most would recognize -- chosen from more than 300 that Wainwright researched via Wilner. "In doing the shows, I realized the record should be live," she remarks. "I think there was an energy that happened. And a tension and an energy in the music that really worked." Wainwright called upon some of the best "downtown" NY musicians and worked to keep the quirky twists of Piafs original productions while adding some bold new strokes. The result is a daring, powerful and personal work that - while not for every palate - challenges and then rewards. And isn't that what art is supposed to do?

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Martha Wainwright - "C’est Toujours la Même Histoire" (from the album Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, A Paris: Martha Wainwright's Piaf Record) (Recorded live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

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Pop/Folk/Jazz - Whether she's singing jazz standards, rustic folk ballads, sophisticated adult pop or the tradition-steeped, three-part harmony glory of the Canadian trio The Wailin' Jennys, versatile New York-based singer/songwriter Heather Masse has proven that she can do it all...and do it exceptionally well at that. With a an unaffected, beautifully textured voice that is both warmly inviting and strikingly pure, Masse brings a natural nuance to a song that is neither overly studied or under played. We heard one side of her talent with last year's flawless jazz/folk five-track EP Many Moons that featured simple piano/voice duets of uncommon elegance and another this summer on The Wailin' Jennys impeccable live album.

With the release of her new solo album Bird Song, arriving November 10 via Red House, Masse and her band have created her most fully realized work yet, a stunning, remarkably varied collection of uniquely American music that touches progressive folk, bluegrass-tinged Americana and contemporary adult leanings. Album opener "I Don't Wanna Wake Up Today" is a gentle blues/rock swayer featuring Masse's lovely vocals and tasteful piano and guitar shadings while the goose-bump inducing title track takes a soft rhythmic accompaniment, Masse's honey-dipped voice and a Celtic-meets-Appalachia melody to subtle, celestial harmonic heights. Highly recommended.

Heather Masse - "Bird Song" (from the album Bird Song)

Heather Masse - "I Don't Wannna Wake Up Today" (from the album Bird Song)

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Pop/Rock - Recorded this past July at Paul McCartney's New York City Field performances -- site of the the Beatles 1965 concert at Shea Stadium -- the new Good Evening New York City (Hear Music) CD and/or DVD captures The Cute One with full band, bombast and brillance with a heaping 33-song slab of both Beatles and solo materical. Says Macca: "It was three great nights for the band and for me personally it was very exciting to be back opening a new stadium on the site of the old Shea Stadium where we had played 44 years previously. Even more exciting because this time round you could hear us!”

From the label: "As the inaugural musical event at Citi Field, the site of the former Shea Stadium, the July 2009 shows held special significance not only for McCartney but for generations of his fans. The shows were performed on the same hallowed ground that The Beatles, in 1965, played the 34-minute show that would set the precedent for the modern day stadium rock show--and where in 2008 McCartney joined Billy Joel for the final rock show before the original stadium's demolition. As documented on Good Evening New York City, "I'm Down" from the 1965 set list was revived for the Citi Field shows, albeit this time played through a PA that was not overpowered by screaming fans (though there were still several thousand who tried).

Other highlights of “Good Evening New York City” include faithful takes on Beatles classics "Drive My Car," "Got To Get You Into My Life," "The Long And Winding Road," "Blackbird," "Eleanor Rigby," "Back In The USSR," "Paperback Writer," "Let It Be," "Hey Jude," "Helter Skelter" and more, plus "Something" rendered on ukulele gifted to Paul by George Harrison, and a tribute to John Lennon in the form of a medley of "A Day In The Life" and "Give Peace A Chance." Wings era chestnuts include “Band On The Run," "My Love," "Let Me Roll It" and the pyrotechnic tour de force of "Live And Let Die," while timeless McCartney solo material ranges from "Here Today" to the upbeat "Flaming Pie" and "Dance Tonight" to a pair of numbers from Electric Arguments, the 2008 album released under the alias of The Fireman."

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Folk/Pop - "Winter is the season of imagination..more than any other", says Sting reflecting on his new album If On A Winter's Night (October 26, Decca). Taking what he calls the "magical" time of year and applying the experiences of his recent classical and traditional British folk excursion Tales of the Labyrinth, he has emerged with the rarest of seasonal projects -- an album almost completely devoid of any well-known holiday standards. There are the ancient ballads and 14th century, lullabies and even a traditional "begging song." And there are even a couple of Sting originals including a version of "The Hounds of Winter" from his Mercury Falling album."I was drawn to songs that has an ambivalent quality about them," he observes, "because that's how I feel about winter and Christmas generally."

The mood overall is one of somber mystery: you can practically smell candle wax and wood fire along the damp English countryside. Sting, to his credit, doesn't overplay his hand here, singing his carefully chosen selections with an admiring but respectful nod to historical and studied classical stylistic references - which can take the listener aback at times. He also brings in some excellent backup including longtime guitarist Dominic Miller and the stunning Webb Sisters, who flew to New York to record some vocals while on their extended tour with Leonard Cohen. For the hardcore Christmas "carols" music fan, this isn't for you -- but if you found his Labyrinth of interest or have a taste for some dusted-off Brit-trad folk, Winter's Night might be what you're looking for. Watch the EPK after the jump...and look for a live concert of Sting performing songs from If On A Winter's Night on PBS next month and on DVD November 23.

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Sting - "The Snow It Melts the Soonest" (from If On A Winter's Night)

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Glasgow-based folk/pop trio Zoey Van Goey may have a twee nerdy charm just below the surface of their clever, often lyrically surreal and quietly mindblowing debut album The Cage Was Unlocked All Along, but we're certainly the better for it. Jangly guitars, electronica flourishes and the lovely vocals of Kim Moore bring an undeniable sunny disposition to the shiny surface of the ZVG mystique but beneath the well-mannered charm there's a deeper, darker subversive element bleeding through. There are songs of apocolyptic computer meltdowns and teaching English in Japan, romantic ballads of kidnapping, bandits and buried treasure. Described by one critic as "cuddlecore", this is music that seems to intersect somewhere between a smile and a grimace, smart songs that bring you back to reveal something new and interesting with each listen.

 The threesome's first single, 2007's "Foxtrot Vandals" was produced by Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch and moves at a brisk trot, all strum and propulsive, shimmering kick. But with producer Paul Savage at the helm -- and with many more months of writing and studio work -- Cage ended up veering off into more shadowy and daring territory: quieter, pulsing with electronics and decidedly more studied in tone. Songs such as the delicately structured "City Is Exploding" and the chiming, atmospheric "The Best Treasure Stays Buried" seem to drift with a languid nonchalance but the razor-edged lyrics - and Moore's wonderfully cryptic singing - keep the imagery and lovingly crafted melodies in sharp focus. Cage, released independently by the band in June just got wider U.K. distribution today and is available as an import. Highly recommended.

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Zoey Van Goey - "The Best Treasure Stays Buried" (from the album The Cage Was Unlocked All Along)

Zoey Van Goey - "City Is Exploding" (from the album The Cage Was Unlocked All Along)

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Pop/Rock - Wearing your influences so proudly on your sleeve can often work against you. After all, if you're simply recycling melodies, riffs and production style of another era, why bother? Fortunately for the quirkily named Ivan and Alyosha, Seattle duo Tim Wilson and Ryan Carbury's love of 60's and 70's pre-punk Brit Invasion pop/rock may serve as a defining touchstone but the lovingly crafted nuggets that emerge from their debut EP The Verse, The Chorus (Cheap Lullaby) have the superb songwriting chops behind them to let them be judged on their own exemplary merits.

Like San Francisco's late, great Jellyfish, Portland's Shins, Scotland's Del Amitri and Travis and Boston's Bleu, Ivan and Alyosha's affinity for Lennon and McCartney, ELO's Jeff Lynne, T-Rex's Marc Bolan (and the more modern derivations) is pretty clear from the outset. But stripped of the homage-heavy production, songs such as "Beautiful Lie" and "Easy To Love" still have the gloriously hummable and inventively twisty melodies intact to stand up to the most meticulous retro comparisons. Choruses soar, guitars jangle, harmonies swoon and all is right with the world again -- somebody really does make 'em like they used to. Recommended.

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Ivan and Alyosha - "Easy to Love" (from the EP The Verse, The Chorus)

Ivan and Alyosha - "Beautiful Lie" (from the EP The Verse, The Chorus)

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Folk/Americana - Acclaimed producer Don Was literally pulled off to the side of an L.A. freeway when he heard the voice of Pieta Brown live in the studio from trendsetting radio station KCRW. A few phone calls, emails and months later, Brown and guitarist Bo Ramsey met up with Was at his home to play him some new songs. Wanting to capture her remarkable voice "unadorned", Was grabbed his bass and joined Brown and Ramsey in the studio, mixing the impromptu sessions live as they went down. The result is the wondrous Shimmer (November 10, Red House), a seven-track mini-album that captures Brown's poetic lyricism, wonderfully sweet and smoky voice and the intimate immediacy that comes from three skilled musicians plying their crafts with palpable inspiration.

Residing stylistically somewhere between Lucinda Williams' alt-country twang and the eclectic, boundary-blurring songwriting of Cat Power and Leslie Feist, Brown draws deep upon her slow-cooked rural roots but unlike most, moves ahead into her own quietly daring territory. Beneath her soft, folksy drawl lies an intensity -- what Was calls "major star power magnetism" and the BBC has termed "seductive simplicity." Songs such as "You're My Lover Now" drift and sway with easy, graceful moves as Brown's deceptively wispy voice is suspended in air, seemingly close enough to feel her breath in your ear. Highly recommended.

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Pieta Brown - "You're My Lover Now" (from the album/EP Shimmer)

Pieta Brown - "It's Just As Well" (from the album Remember the Sun)

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John Mayer describes his new album  as a "heartbreak handbook" adding "the album is called Battle Studies and that's because it incorporates a lot of the lessons, a lot of the observations, and a little bit of advice." The eagerly anticipated follow-up to his 2006 Grammy-nominated ("Best Album") Continuum is a turning point of sorts for the platinum-selling singer/songwriter and blues/rock guitarist, an experiment in creative approach and the ever-changing world of selling and marketing music. First single "Who Says" exemplifies the strategy in its lyrical content -- "who says", indeed, what he as an artist/celebrity can or can't do?

"Taking the challenge of 'how do I follow Continuum?'", he says, "well, you just say I'm not following it at all. You just leave it, and you step to the side and you begin something completely new." Mayer, known as one of the premier musical artist Twitterers in both pithy comments ("I am totally womanizing these pretzels right now") and number of "followers", has brought his own special transparency to the new project with a series of videos updating the progress on the album and giving some insights into the recording and his travels.

The album's eleven tracks promise some surprises including a straight-up Robert Johnson blues cover ("Crossroads") and a Taylor Swift duet ("Half of My Heart") but there's also much that we've come to expect from Mayer: catchy folk/pop songwriting ("Who Says") and densely layered, imaginatively structured anthems such as the newly released second single "Heartbreak Warfare" (video after the jump). Introspective and emotionally charged, Mayer's soulsearching has yielded a transitional album that makes us glad we're along for the ride. Here's hoping that his million+ Twitter followers react as enthusiastically to his music as they do to his "tweets." It's a brave new world this odd "business" has evolved into...but it's people like Mayer that keep things interesting.

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John Mayer - "Heartbreak Warfare" (from the album Battle Studies)

John Mayer - "Who Says" (from the album Battle Studies)

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Folk/Pop/Alt - We will admit to a bit of heightened curiosity about the ever-curious lo-fi, alt-folk, slightly loony "master of the idiotically cosmic" (Rolling Stone) Devendra Banhart. The few months of dating Natalie Portman, the new signing to major label Warner Brothers, the bizarre photo spreads...well, we're in hippie-meets-hipster Devendra-land where just about anything is possible. Banhart's seventh album What Will We Be follows up his remarkable 2007 project Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, a disc that The Boston Globe described as a "trippy collection (that) spans Brazilian Tropicalia, '60s psychedelia, classic rock, blissed-out pop, gospel...a ridiculous range of styles, but one that works under Banhart's expansive, expressive umbrella."

Recorded at a makeshift home-studio in California with Banhart and Paul Butler (Band of Bees) producing, What Will We Be features backup from Noah Georgeson (guitar and vocals), Greg Rogove (percussion), Luckey Remington (bass and vocals), and Rodrigo Amarante (guitar and vocals). Alternately hazy and dazy, the curiously affecting What Will We Be could be more aptly titled What Will Be Will Be as Banhart and crew careen from one style (and musical decade) to another, from Spanish lullaby to trippy folk to doo-wop chorus to piano bar sing-a-longs to ramshackle, 60's rustic folk/rock all delivered with Banhart's quavering croon in tow.

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Devendra Banhart - "Maria Lionza" (from the album What Will We Be)

Devendra Banhart - "Last Song for B" (from the album What Will We Be)

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Pop/Rock - It's easy to forget just what a massive album Sheryl Crow's debut Tuesday Night Music Club was back in 1994. The result of a collaborations with a close knit group of L.A. friends and fellow musicians including producer/writer Bill Bottrell, David Baerwald, David Ricketts (David and David) and the late Keven Gilbert, 93's SNMC was a brilliant, admittedly uneven and genre-busting album of SoCal spunky pop/rock with blues, alt/country and jazz influences. But it wasn't until the following year that the album took off on the back of a string of singles ("All I Wanna Do", "Leaving Las Vegas", "Strong Enough") going on to sell over seven million copies worldwide and establishing Crow as a female performer of both smart, sexy appeal and determined will. Crow picked up three Grammy awards including Record of the Year and Best New Artist. Beyond the hits, Tuesday Night was a groundbreaking album displaying a variety of moods and themes with many of the disc's best tracks - "No One Said It Would Be Easy", "We Do What We Can", "I Still Believe" - getting the least amount of radio focus.

Arriving November 17 is a special expanded version of Tuesday Night Music Club featuring a second disc of ten rare tracks, B-sides and outtakes and covers (Eric Carmen's "All By Myself", Led Zep's "D'yer Maker"). Four songs that were recorded in '95 and intended for Crow's next album are also included with new production from original TNMC producer Bottrell. A "Deluxe" 3-disc set also features a DVD of six music videos along with a mini-documentary of live performances, backstage footage and more from Crow's extended tour in support of Tuesday Night Music Club.

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Sheryl Crow - "We Do What We Can" (from the album Tuesday Night Music Club)

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Pop/Adult - “Change is what a lot of this record is about," sums up Norah Jones of her forthcoming album The Fall (Blue Note). “I’ve gone through a lot of transitions in the last couple of years, musically and personally,” she tells the New York Times. “And then in a way, we all have, with everything that’s been going on.” As we revealed here in July, Jones worked with Kings of Leon producer Jacquire King on The Fall to create a sound -- or "zone" as she calls it -- that is decidedly different from her usual mellow country cabaret sound, into what the NYT calls an "atmospheric rock record drenched in hazy reverb and rooted in chugging rhythm."

But it's not just a the past production style that has been jettisoned here. Jones has been working with a not only a variety of new co-writers (including Ryan Adams and Okkervil River’s Will Sheff) but also, with King's assistance, an impressive array of new studio musicians to flesh out her bold new direction. The result is an album that, even on her standard ballad fare, bristles with both new found edge and energy. New songs include "Young Blood", "Light As A Feather" (written with Adams) and "Stuck" (a collaboration with Sheff). Reaffirming her theme of change, Jones sings on the confessional waltz "Back to Manhattan", "“I don’t know nothing about leaving, but I should do it today.” We can't wait.

In the meantime, check out her performance of "Young Blood" (and The Fall tracklisting after the jump).

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Norah Jones - "Chasing Pirates" (from the album The Fall)

Norah Jones - "Man of the Hour" (from The Fall, recorded for the "Radio Happy Hour" netcast)

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Pop - Alaskan singer/songwriter Kate Earl received acclaim for her 2005 debut album Fate Is the Hunter with an affinity for personal, sharply observant and finely crafted songs. Drawing comparisons to Fiona Apple and Rickie Lee Jones, Earl's dark and deeply dreamy compositions display an innate soulfulness that remains on display for her more R+B/pop-influenced self-titled sophomore effort. Working with producers Louis Biancanello and Sam Watters, Earl brings a sleek pop sheen to her newer songs, by and large leaving the acoustic sound behind for a brighter, bouncier and more radio-friendly feel. For our part, we're partial the retro-pop throwback of "Nobody" and the creepin' "Can't Treat Me That Way" though we think a lighter touch might have been more effective overall. Still, peel back the studio lacquer and glamourpuss photos (and cheesefactor 9 video) and you'll find some smart, effervescent pop tunes.

"The sound I have dreamed of for years and years is finally coming to life," Earl observes. "The first time around I came to my producer with the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill record. But it wasn't the time. So for the past two years I have gone back to the sound in my mind coaxing it out... Learning how to write it and communicate to everyone around me what I hear. All of myself. The folk jazz, blues, gospel, soul, rock and roll AND hip hop... and the rest." As she sums it up, "It's a brand new day."

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Kate Earl - "Nobody" (from the album Kate Earl)

Kate Earl - "Can't Treat Me That Way" (from the album Kate Earl)

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