Avec « Le retour des beaux jours », Vanessa Paradis fait son grand retour à la musique. Ce 8ème album studio est le fruit de son étroite collaboration avec Étienne Daho et Jean-Louis Piérot. Il a été enregistré, mixé et réalisé à Paris (Motorbass Studio) et Londres (Abbey Road). Le premier single « Bouquet final », l'un des hits de l'été 2025, annonce un album pop soul très attendu…

As an artist, singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Samantha Fish has earned numerous accolades for her unique self-expression (including multiple Blues Music Awards and a GRAMMY nomination), which she channels through explosive riffs, visceral rhythms, and spine-tingling vocals. Her talent has been recognized by none other than Eric Clapton, who invited her to perform at his Crossroads 2023 in Los Angeles. She’s a festival headliner, who has graced the cover of guitar magazines and toured internationally to packed houses. Fish commands her cathartic shows with her edgy vocal delivery and in-your-face slide guitar.

On 2016's Afraid of Heights, Canadian hard rock mainstays Billy Talent stared fear and anxiety in the face and struck an ideal balance between energy and message, delivering one of the best albums in their catalog. Six years later, they confront negativity and darkness once again on Crisis of Faith, ten tracks of cathartic release and hardened hope from a band still digesting the chaotic years between releases. Executive produced by guitarist and main songwriter Ian D'Sa, Faith sticks close to their winning formula, offering a few artistic surprises to push the group forward. Opening salvo "Forgiveness I + II" is an instant standout, a two-part prog exercise that unfolds from a crunchy riff-packed assault into an unexpected midtempo, horn-backed epic. It's one of the most daring and satisfying creative moves in their decades-long career…

Helen Merrill's first American record since 1968 (she had spent much time in Japan) is mostly a duet set with pianist John Lewis; three songs also have flutist Hubert Laws, bassist Richard Davis and drummer Connie Kay. The emphasis is on ballads, with all of the nine songs (other than the pianist's "The Singer") being quite well-known. The obvious empathy between Merrill and Lewis is well displayed on such numbers as "Django" (which has rarely been sung), "Angel Eyes," "Alone Together" and "Mad About the Boy." An introspective set full of subtle creativity.

The first solo album by the former leader of the Impressions, Curtis represented a musical apotheosis for Curtis Mayfield - indeed, it was practically the "Sgt. Pepper's" album of '70s soul, helping with its content and its success to open the whole genre to much bigger, richer musical canvases than artists had previously worked with. All of Mayfield's years of experience of life, music, and people were pulled together into a rich, powerful, topical musical statement that reflected not only the most up-to-date soul sounds of its period, finely produced by Mayfield himself, and the immediacy of the times and their political and social concerns, but also embraced the most elegant R&B sounds of the past. As a producer, Mayfield embraced the most progressive soul sounds of the era, stretching them out compellingly on numbers like "Move on Up"…

Heldon's real excellence as a band is dramatically demonstrated with this fine recording. A dashing young left-wing intellectual, Richard Pinhas was something of a cult figure in his native France, or at least had the potential to be one, but he wisely rejected the role of rock & roll guitar hero with backing band, in favor of something much more interesting and radical. Patrick Gauthier on moog and Francois Auger on percussion had played with Pinhas on and off for the previous several years, and at this point they had developed into a solid sympathetic unit with a strongly rhythmic orientation. The intricate interlocking rhythms, created by percussion and several synthesizers, have a proto-techno quality at times, and suggest both the German group Can and, on at least one piece, early Ash Ra Tempel…

Laid-back London groove maestro Simon Green (alias Bonobo) returns after a considerable absence (on the recording front, at least) with this fourth full-length helping of his masterfully mellow monkey magic. While it's not terribly divergent from the future-jazz cut-ups that made his earlier efforts such an instinctively natural fit with the turn-of-the-century Ninja Tune stable, Black Sands evidences a clear evolution into a more distinctive, sophisticated, and complex style, resulting in his most musically adventurous work to date, and certainly his most modern-sounding. Green's clearly been keeping his ear to the ground for a bit of rhythmic reinvigoration: the immediately striking "Kiara" reworks the hauntingly elegant string refrain that opens the album with submerged vocal splices and a halting, head-nodding left-field hip-hop beat á la relative Ninja Tune newcomer Flying Lotus…

"Back to the Sea" has speed and twin guitar work like Keepers-era Helloween, "To the Realm of Gods" the driving, marshal beats and harmonized vocals of Sabaton and "Oceans of Eternity" the epic, neoclassical stylings of Rhapsody of Fire. A quick scan of the nautical-themed song titles will make clear the pirates of Alestorm and Running Wild were just over the horizon from Terra Atlantica's recording location as well. If albums like Captain Morgan's Revenge, Theater of Salvation and Symphony of Enchanted Lands are in your heavy rotation, make room for Oceans.