This is a master class on how to create a re-issue that covers and expands upon essential and ultimately timeless music made by one of rock’s true icons. It’s the final word on arguably Bowie’s most experimental years and an important historical document presented with boldness, integrity and dignity, all elements reflected in the artist’s work and ever evolving art.

They [vault songs] offer something completely new, which is what many people expect from an album release, but they aren’t the most interesting thing about Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), in my opinion. .... That matured, time-honed voice coming out of Swift in her latest re-recording is a mirror image of a fan base who has weathered the storm and come out the other end with her.

Over the course of 23 tracks—a mix of archival classics, recent entries, and a couple of covers—the band struts their stuff with the usual flair and panache.

For a long time now, Radiohead has been achieving mesmerizing results by blazing the trail for synthetic sounds in rock and roll. But it’s the humanity, oh, the humanity, that makes A Moon Shaped Pool so moving.

Yola can hold her own with the best, and it’s likely this terrific album will end up as one of the most impressive debuts of this or recent years. Its combustive combination of talent, songwriting and sympathetic yet bold production makes Yola’s release one of the finest soul/country fusions in recent memory.

While the sisters have never made a bad album, as soon as you push play and the title track comes roaring out with its classic Led Zeppelin-styled riff, sung and played simultaneously by Rebecca, it’s clear that the sisters have found their footing.

Weller’s in sturdy, soulful voice throughout. There is virtually no interaction with the audience, yet he’s clearly invested in this performance. Even if you’re familiar with the older material, you’ll want to explore it again after hearing it revived with full orchestration. The audio mix is stunning, the strings and horns are beautifully conceived and the entire concert is a succinct and often challenging overview of one of the UK’s most consistently impressive and creative singer-songwriters.

The vibrant, caffeinated production and pulsating sonics help these performances explode with dollops of the frazzled charm, roaring intensity, and sheer musicality we expect from a Jack White project. White, a faithful baseball fan, has knocked another one out of the park.

Carrie & Lowell demonstrates, brilliantly and harrowingly, over and over again, how life’s most valuable lessons can only be gleaned by enduring its worst circumstances.

This record is urgent, pissed, strident and macabre.

The words are as woodsy and quaint as ever. Pecknold seems to take his inspiration from classic British poetry, and rarely refers to objects, characters, or events that would place him in the 21st century, relying instead on imagery like old stone fountains, seeds, keys, sand, and the night sky.

In many ways, this is as radical, experimental and mind-expanding of a pop album as you’re likely to hear anytime soon, let alone by a festival headlining artist.

An album so full of emotion, it takes a while to absorb it all. It’s not perfect, and it’s not meant to be. But the juxtaposition of slickness and rawness somehow works, making the kind of statement the Chicks have been working toward since they first sang of mattress dancing and offing that unfaithful Earl.

It’s arguably her finest, most moving and cohesive disc which, considering her extensive catalog, is saying plenty.

The sumptuous yet sublime Lightning, Show Your Stuff, makes it apparent that quantity has never come at the expense of quality.

The second, slower side is the less immediate of the two, but the one that features its most jaw-dropping moments, namely twin seven-minute monoliths “Sister” and “Woman.”

Even as her world expands, and her style shifts along with it, Brandy Clark keeps her feet grounded in the here and now. Her songwriting is only getting better.

By compiling these often difficult to find sides, we get an intimate glimpse into talents of Joe Strummer many haven’t heard before. If anything it makes his untimely 2002 death at just age 50 even more tragic. But at least we have his music, and the stunning 001 is a near perfect summation of it.

As both a comeback and perhaps a farewell to recording, with Full Circle Lynn continues with the style, talent and class that have personified her lengthy, legendary career.

Strange Mercy is more mysterious than its predecessors, the references more obscure, but it also feels more personal.

This terrific batch of songs needs no such handicap to be recommended as a perfect way for newcomers to start a musical relationship with Clark’s burnished Americana or for existing fans to continue theirs.

As usual, Petty makes it seem easy. And with help from his fellow Mudcrutchers, the unassumingly titled 2 is proof that even Tom Petty’s modest side projects are better and more compelling than many acts at their best.

For folks new to the Truckers, intrigued but a little overwhelmed by their rather expansive catalog, this is the album to start with.

Smiles may be hard to come by on We All Want The Same Things, but flat-out songwriting excellence is in plentiful supply.

Heavy? Sure. Wrenching? Yep. Soul searching? Big time. The pureness of Gibson singing almost wincingly personal words along with magnificent and above all creative production makes for a stunning album you’ll want to spend time with.

Good To Be is an album that’s sorely needed in these turbulent times when divisions and despair are clearly so predominant. In that regard, consider Good To Be a most worthy mantra to maintain.

Her 11th studio set, Blood (produced by Kenny Greenberg) is as inescapably devastating as it is cathartic, liberating and beautiful. ... Blood is an irrefutable masterpiece.

The Asylum Years is not only a set suited for the aficionado but also one ideal for the novice. With five CDs and an expansive booklet, it’s not necessarily an inexpensive proposition. However, it could be considered the essence of essential.