Wildflowers, the Tom Petty album from 1994, was—not surprisingly—his most personal work to that point, and as it turned out, of his career. Born of the emotional turmoil of a collapsing marriage, it truly was a “solo” album, as judged by the songwriting alone, even if three of the Heartbreakers played…

New York City brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario, doing business as The Lemon Twigs, write good, sometimes great songs whose charms sometimes get buried in their own everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to arranging. Songs for the General Public The Lemon Twigs 4AD, Aug. 21 6/10 It’s what the D’Addario brothers do.…

Steve Howe has recorded 21 solo albums over a 45-year period—and, incidentally, has been a major instrumental voice in Yes, perhaps the pre-eminent progressive rock group over the past half-century. If you count his work with Yes and with the more pop-oriented Asia, along with his solo work, Howe…

Progressive rock typically revels in complexity, aspirations to higher things both musically and thematically, and expert musicianship. Arguably the most durable and influential American prog-rock group, Kansas, checks off all those boxes on its new album, The Absence of Presence, the venerable band’s 16th studio album. It comes four…

Longtime Jayhawks leader Gary Louris has been saying he wanted to get his bandmates more involved in songwriting and singing lead than they have been on the band’s last several releases. XOXO The Jayhawks SHAM/Thirty Tigers, July 10 8/10 That has now happened, to highly satisfying effect, on XOXO,…