British-born Jamie Lidell may have relocated to Nashville, Tenn., but his new album is anything but country.   His fifth full-length release — self-produced in his home studio —...

Iceage, "You're Nothing" (Matador Records)   The second album from the four Danish lads known as Iceage is an even more caustic slab of brooding punk than their blindsiding...

Holly Williams is the kind of poetic songwriter country music once embraced. These days, the powerfully sensitive songs featured on her new album, "The Highway," are relegated to the...

On "Electric," Richard Thompson plugs in and delivers his most generous helping of guitar solos in many years, perhaps ever. The fretwork is marvelous even by his lofty standards, and some...

Kris Kristofferson, "Feeling Mortal" (KK)   As the title "Feeling Mortal" implies, singer-songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson confronts the consequences of aging in...

Jonas Kaufmann, "Wagner" (Decca)   Just about anything the German tenor Jonas Kaufmann does these days is special, and he sounds in particularly fresh voice as he ventures into...

There's no shortage of classic recordings of the second and most popular opera in Wagner's four-part "Ring" cycle.   This new version — first installment of a...

Fans of the Eels will be surprised to know that the band's frontman, Mark "E'' Everett, seems to have been lifted from his melancholy — a sentiment that has inspired the...

Erin Boheme dropped off the radar after making an impressive debut as a traditional jazz singer at age 18. Seven years later, she's released "What A Life," the first album by another...

Though she was first heard singing vocals for U.K. acts like Joker and SBTRKT, South Londoner Jessie Ware strikes out on her own — providing a much-needed injection into the British music scene...