The Hollow Crown

It isn’t just Joe and Jane Average curled up on the couch binge-watching Game of Thrones in comfy sweats; it’s also your favorite artists, cradling a bowl of snacks, streaming away on the tour bus. As this compilation of Thrones-inspired songs makes clear, their fascination with the fabled HBO drama runs deep. On “Too Many Gods,” A$AP Rocky and Joey Bada$$ mull over false prophets while dropping in a GoT reference (“Playing with fire but I’m no Targaryen”). Singer-songwriters like Jacob Banks, Lennon Stella, Chloe x Halle, and ROSALÍA imbue their tributes with stern keys and an existential dread that's so familiar to the show's fans. And it’s especially fun to hear a pop singer like Ellie Goulding tap into a sinister ruthlessness on “Hollow Crown”: “Making a noose out of your hollow crown/I hold a match up to your paper castle/And watch it all burn down, down, down.

Ronnie James and his latest version of Dio roll out another collection of songs on Killing the Dragon, steeped in the requisite medieval imagery he loves to use. The songs and the sound remain the same throughout, and as far as Dio is concerned this can be both good and bad. From the beginning he takes listeners down a familiar route with "Killing the Dragon," which begins with a sinister intro and quickly kicks in with a classic metal guitar riff – formulaic yes, but definitely rocking…