Lady Gaga: The Fame Monster

Stefani Germanotta bestows on us an eight-track update on the "monsters" she has encountered during her year at the top

Jones: Hopeland

Within a deeply personal selection of songs and narratives, the album carves out some perfect moments of adult pop

The Manhattan Transfer: The Chick Corea Songbook

The group is back in the limelight as it's vocalese hallmarks are on display in virtuoso arrangements for this tribute

Schubert: Schubert Live — Volume Two, Imogen Cooper (piano)

Balancing intellect and emotion perfectly, the pieces tune into what the Germans call Sehnsucht — a kind of longing

Carolyn Mark and NQ Arbuckle: Let’s Just Stay Here

Retro Canadian country chanteuse meld with muscular rock to make an album sounding weightier than the sum of its parts

Tom Waits: Glitter and Doom Live

Dysfunctional work songs segue into spooky holler growls as the band thumps and scratches their way through the album

Schubert: String Quintet in C, D956, String Quartets in G, D887 and D minor, D810 Belcea Quartet- Valentin Erben

The Belcea’s urgent reading of the quintet’s opening establishes instantly the music’s deeply ambiguous character

Debussy: Khamma, Jeux, La Boîte à joujoux Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano

Even on the piano, the music has an uncanny magic — unmistakeable from the first bar, at its most potent in the last

Fred Anderson: Staying in the Game

Buoyed by Harrison Bankhead’s discombobulating bass solo, the Chicago saxophonist grabs you by the ears and won’t let go

The Antlers: Hospice

Brooklyn musician Peter Silberman conducts a sonically beautiful exploration of sinister obsession, delusion and grief

Rossini: Colbran, the Muse- Joyce DiDonato (mezzo)- Orchestra & Coro dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, cond Edoardo Müller

This American mezzo sports a more than acceptable trill, brilliant high staccato notes and long-breathed cantilena lines

Memory Tapes: Seek Magic

Dayve Hawk, a New Jersey recluse, creates an album that glories in the opportunities afforded by structural freedom

Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie; Till Eulenspiel WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, cond Semyon Bychkov

This piece is conducted with conviction, devoid of vulgarity, binding the sections into a compelling symphonic whole

Franco et le T.P.O.K. Jazz: Francophonic, Vol 2

Sinuous guitar licks, R&B hooks and full-blooded Afro-Latin vamps: these tracks spin on and on without losing momentum

Rihanna: Rated R

The R&B star has come back with all guns blazing. It’s a record that bursts with dark, pounding soundscapes

Cappella Mediterranea: Barbara Strozzi

The emotional tension is incredible; so is a recording conjured from the warm acoustic of Ambronay Abbey in France

Lady GaGa: The Fame Monster

You may feel compelled to gnaw your fist through the painful Latino warble Alejandro, a would-be Eurovision reject

Alan Gilbert: Mahler 9

The changing textures and dynamic contrasts in Mahler’s tumultuous Ninth Symphony have rarely had such clarity and bloom

Lisa O Piu: When This Was the Future

Narnian harmonies and an air of wintry wonderment defy you not to give yourself wholly to what you’re hearing

50 Cent: Before I Self Destruct

The oppressive mood, dreary delivery, and the ceaseless bragging, posturing and threats of violence soon become tiresome