Progressives might disagree, but the rehabilitation of Elvis Presley’s artistic reputation began in earnest with the publication of William F. Buckley Jr.’s novel Elvis in the Morning in 2001. (Charlie Rose: “Mick Jagger said about this book, ‘It’s the best Elvis novel I’ve ever read.’” Buckley: “Well, I think there are only two.”)  

Portrait of a Lady with a Harp: Music for Queen Christina of Sweden

Mara Galassi

March 25 marked the centennial of the death of the greatest French composer of all time, Claude Debussy. Whether he’ll ever earn the title of “Greatest Composer of All Time, Period,” however, is unlikely, if only because he ignored many of the conventions used to compare and contrast great composers in the first place.

In terms of structure, tonality, texture, and sonority (almost everything, in other words, that makes music music), as well as in terms of his openness to non-European and extra-musical influences, Debussy followed his own rules.

In a recent column responding to a profanity-laced post–Super Bowl speech by the Philadelphia Eagles’ Jason Kelce, the Catholic pundit Matthew Archbold wondered whether “the f-word is even a thing anymore.”

Had he thrown in the S-word, Archbold could’ve also been pondering the latest albums (listed in ascending order of quality and socially redeeming value) by Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake, MGMT, the Divine Comedy, and Belle and Sebastian.

Evergreen

Audrey Assad

Evergreen comes as close to perfect as an album that contains a tonally discordant rap cameo (by Propaganda on “River”) can. The beauty of Assad’s soprano voice unfolds naturally rather than showily, its fluidity both a metaphor and a match for the numinous instrumentation and the even more numinous lyrics. Although she draws on Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Nehemiah, Amos, and the Song of Solomon, it’s what she makes of them while making them her own that gives her devotionally compressed language the force of prayer.

Chinese Celebration

Various artists

Owners of the Arc Music releases on which many of these 19 recordings by 12 different performers or ensembles have previously appeared might take a pass. Newcomers, however, will marvel at how much Oriental folk music has in common, thematically as well as formally, with its Occidental counterparts. The piercingly nasal female vocals that occasionally pop up take some getting used to. But the erhu, the guzheng, the yangqin, the pipa, the Chinese dulcimer, and the drums will focus the attention of folk-fest habitués the world over.

When Brian Jones drowned in 1969, the Stones kept rolling. When Richard Manuel hanged himself in 1986, the Band played on. But when Mark E. Smith succumbed to cancer of the lungs and kidneys on Jan. 24, the Fall—the British post-punk band that he formed in 1976 and steered for the next four decades—fell for good.