Originating by way of an Aix-En-Provence Festival staging, William Christie and his Arts Florissants bring dramatic flair and musical panache to Mozart's great late Singspiel in equal measure. To begin with, there's a dream cast led by the alluring pairing of Hans Peter Blochwitz as Tamino and Rosa Mannion as Pamina. Anton Scharinger makes for an earthy Papageno, Reinhard Hagen is a commanding Sarastro, whilst Natalie Dessay's input as Queen of the Night comes over in both her showpiece arias as steadfast and electrifying. The casting in depth continues: rare is a Magic Flute that can boast singers of the calibre of Willard White and Linda Kitchen in the relatively small roles of Speaker and Papagena. Then, the uniformly warm vocal blend is homogeneously matched, note for note, with the gut strings and less aggressive winds of Les Arts Florissants. Not that there's anything limp or lacklustre about Christie's brisk tempi; whilst sharp editing maintains the theatrical urgency. The melliflously played "magic" flute and exact keyed glockenspiel input for Papageno's bells are further examples of the care which has gone into this state of the art "authentic" interpretation. With a work like The Magic Flute, recorded choices are voluminous. Neville Marriner with his Academy of St Martins-in-the-Fields on Phillips puts in a brave showing, but William Christie maybe wins out in a thorough interpretation which simultaneously celebrates the opera's joy and mystery. –Duncan Hadfield

Toronto punks The Flatliners have announced the upcoming release of their new album, Inviting Light, out April 7. This is the band’s first full-length release with Dine Alone. Along with the announcement, an album pre-order has launched – which includes instant downloads of the previously released single “Hang My Head” and lead single “Human Party Trick”.

Aussie trio The Waifs are celebrating their 25th Anniversary in a big way, announcing a national tour for 2017, and a new double-album as well. The band will release their eighth album Ironbark on 3rd March, a day after they embark on a huge national tour. The jaunt (aptly) features 25 shows, and will put The Waifs on the road for almost two months, celebrating the new album as well as 25 years of music. Ironbark is 14 tracks long, but it’ll come with 11 bonus tracks to further celebrate 25 years of The Waifs. Ironbark is the follow-up to 2015’s Beautiful You, and was recorded in the unfinished kitchen of Josh Cunnigham’s retreat in rural New South Wales.

This all female trio combine dramatic piano, strong cello and heady vocals, using dark melodies to tell their stories of real life and fantasy. Influenced by a love of film scores and classical composition, the three experiment with different styles of acoustic folk and pop to create music not for the faint hearted.

How did Miley Cyrus' "We Can't Stop" become a '50s-style doo wop number? Since when was Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" about an upright bass fiddle? At what point did Macklemore's "Thrift Shop" evolve into a '20s hot jazz tune? And whose idea was it to rework Lorde's "Royals" into a polished ballad sung by a sad clown? It's all part of the topsy-turvy world of Postmodern Jukebox, an ongoing musical project spearheaded by pianist and arranger Scott Bradlee, who takes contemporary pop and rock tunes and fashions new arrangements for them that cast them in an unpredictable variety of musical styles from the past. Born on Long Island, Bradlee relocated to New York City after studying jazz at the University of Hartford. While playing gigs at restaurants and nightclubs in New York City, Bradlee began experimenting with ragtime and jazz arrangements of pop tunes from the '80s, and he recorded several self-released digital albums of his offbeat versions of well-known melodies, as well as performances that interpolated seemingly dissimilar songs of different eras.