Quick Takes: Tobias Jesso Jr., Prince, Tina Turner, Bill Evans Trio, Aerosmith & Yungblood

Tobias Jesso Jr. returns, Prince's psychedelic Around the World in a Day expanded, the unholy union of Aerosmith and Yungblud, Tina Turner goes country, the complete Riverside Recordings of Bill Evans

We begin with a short note about scheduling. The imminent Thanksgiving holiday means that my kindergartener will be home for “nine days of rest,” as she puts it. This means I will likely be able to manage one full post next week but I’ll open up my first chat for paid subscribers sometime next week, all about the subject on everybody’s mind: the best albums of 2025.

And onto some new records and reissues that have caught my attention…

Tobias Jesso Jr.—Shine [2025]

★★★

Tobias Jesso Jr. slipped out of the public eye after releasing Goon in 2015, choosing to work as a behind-the-scenes collaborator for the likes of Adele, Harry Styles, Orville Peck, and Justin Bieber. All benefited from Jesso’s command of classic pop structure, even if they didn’t quite trade on the warm charms of Goon. It was a record that seemed out of time—rooted in the soft-focus pop emanating from Southern California in the 1970s yet performed at a knowing distance. Shine, an unexpected sophomore set released a decade after the debut, doesn’t find Jesso attempting to replicate that enveloping haze. It’s intimate to the point of austerity, often featuring little more than Jesso and a piano. The hushed surroundings mean the sudden clamor of percussion on “I Love You” is especially jarring, a neat trick in production that doesn’t quite change the fact that Shine can sometimes resemble songwriting demos. They’re aching, finely rendered ballads crying out for additional color.

Prince—Around the World in a Day [Deluxe Edition] [2025; 1985]

★★★

Compared to the hefty multi-disc expansions that have recently hit the market, the simplicity of this Deluxe Expanded Edition of Around the World in a Day almost comes as a relief.