Quick Takes: Mavis Staples, Cheap Trick, AVTT/PTTN, Black Crowes, Green Day

Plus Roddy Bottum's riotous memoir.

Getting to the end of the big box set season—I have two or three that I’m planning to write up at length, including next week’s deluxe edition of Let It Be by the Replacements—so I’ll finally get a chance to revisit records that need more time (Amanda Shires, Wednesday, Geese, etc.). In the meantime, here’s what’s caught my ear in the past week or so.

Mavis Staples—Sad and Beautiful World [2025]

★★★★

Creeping ever closer to 90, Mavis Staples sounds remarkably alive on Sad and Beautiful World, a record produced by Brad Crook, who previously worked with Bon Iver and Waxahatchee.