New Release of the Week 1/26/10: Corinne Bailey Rae
Corinne Bailey Rae’s self-titled 2006 debut was one of the surprise successes of 2006. Her amalgam of soul and acoustic pop won her 2 million fans here in the states and won her a ton of Grammy nominations, and she did it without the benefit of a huge radio hit.
It’s pretty fair to say that a follow-up would have taken less than four years to complete, had Corinne’s husband not died from a drug overdose back in 2008. That event shook Corinne to her core, and she went through a period where she (justifiably) did not feel like writing songs and making music.
Finally, two years after her husband’s tragic death and nearly four years since her debut album’s release, Corinne is back with her sophomore work, “The Sea”. Advance reviews have largely been positive, and I’m looking forward to hearing the album. You can check out my pal Jeff Giles’ review of “The Sea” over at Eat Sleep Drink Music right here.
Also out this week:
*Lady Antebellum “Need You Now”: This co-ed trio is the hottest thing in country music right now not named Taylor Swift. The title track has already been a huge country hit and it’s made its’ way into the Top Ten on the pop charts as well. Expect “Need You Now” to open at the top of the Billboard charts next week with huge numbers.
*Michael Jackson “This is It” DVD: Those of you who didn’t get the chance to catch “This is It” in theaters really missed out. Despite the drug addict rumors, Michael was on top of his game as he was rehearsing for his run of shows in England. He also comes across as more human than anyone who’s followed him in the past two decades would think. Seriously-even if you’re not a super-fan, you’ll be impressed by the movie. There’s not a ton of bonus footage on the DVD, which kinda sucks.
*Barry Manilow “The Greatest Love Songs of All Time”: Is it me, or has Manilow done about 30,000 different versions of covers albums? Isn’t this guy a songwriter? Can’t he write his own material?
*David Sanborn “Only Everything”: One of the few horn players I can think of that I can immediately recognize when I can hear him-the others are Miles Davis and (sigh…) Kenny G, Sanborn is a legendary figure in jazz as well as pop, having played with everyone from David Bowie to Lenny Kravitz. I also have a soft spot for the guy because I was at one point co-workers (and friends) with his son Jonathan and he was surprisingly cool for a celebrity’s kid. His daddy raised him right. Anyway, the elder Sanborn’s new album features guest appearances from James Taylor and Joss Stone, among others.
Get the complete list of new releases from the fine folks at Pause and Play here!
Popularity: 7% [?]
First Listen: Gorillaz’ “Stylo”
Since the Gorillaz project was conceptualized a decade or so, I’ve gotta say that in terms of Damon Albarn projects, they’ve been my favorite. Blur’s always been kinda scattershot for me, and The Good, the Bad and the Queen was one of those albums I regretted buying after the first listen. Honestly, I could care less about the marketing gimmick (in this case, the band being “animated”)-all that matters to me is whether the music is good or not. For the most part, it has been, and Gorillaz has rightfully become the most critically adored and commercially accepted project of Albarn’s career-at least here in the States.
Anyway, there’s a new Gorillaz project coming later this year entitled “Plastic Beach”. The first single from it is called “Stylo”, and it features Albarn’s nasal vocal tones with assistance from a vaguely-recognizable Mos Def (who has officially recovered his mojo) and soul legend Bobby Womack (who can still sing with power past retirement age, if this song is any indication). The song itself is a little on the repetitive side, but I like the overall vibe of it. All Gorillaz songs seem to have this haunting quality to them.
Check out the song on Gorillaz’ official website and let us know what you think.
Popularity: 25% [?]
New Releases 1/19/10: Spoon, RJD2 & More
Hope that those of you who had a 3-day weekend had a good one, and hope that those of you in Massachusetts made it out to the polls today. Welcome to yet another Tuesday, one in which there are less new releases than normal-yep, it’s January. Here are some of the highlights.
Spoon “Transference”-I really tried to like “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”. Really. It just didn’t do anything for me. Of course, that probably just shot down the tiny sliver of indie cred I have left, but I don’t care. I did catch Spoon doing a soundcheck a couple of months ago, and they sounded pretty good-until the actual show, when they were completely upstaged by the two bands opening for them (Phoenix and Passion Pit). Anyway, we’re not about negativity here-this album should officially catapult Spoon into the major leagues.
RJD2 “The Colossus”-Ramble John Krohn, better known as RJD2, splits the difference between Moby and DJ Shadow. Each successive album has been less hip-hop based and more indie-pop based, which is fine. The guy’s talented. People slept on his last album, “The Third Hand” (which, to me, was Moby-er than ever before), but it was pretty good. “Colossus” might be my sole purchase this week.
“Crazy Heart” Original Soundtrack-If you watched the Golden Globes Sunday night, you’re well aware that Jeff Bridges took home the Best Actor in a Dramatic Motion Picture trophy for his performance of a down-and-out country singer in “Crazy Heart”. Newcomer Ryan Bingham also took home Best Original Song for “The Weary Kind”, also from this movie. Bridges (who turns out to be a pretty fine singer) turns in a few vocal performances here, as does Colin Farrell (!). The soundtrack was produced by T-Bone Burnett, who brought us one of the most popular soundtracks in recent years: “O Brother Where Art Thou”.
Also in stores today: a new one from Motion City Soundtrack (produced by Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus), British favorites The Editors (produced by legendary boardsman Flood, of Depeche Mode and U2 fame) and a new Eels record.
Get your complete list of this week’s releases here.
Popularity: 17% [?]
New Releases 1/12/09: Vampire Weekend and More!
Let’s get right to business.
*Vampire Weekend’s debut was my favorite album of 2007. It was really light in mood, had a fun vibe, and was different from just about any album that came out that year. In the fickle world of indie-rock blogging, you’re only good until the mainstream has caught up with you, and with a guest appearance on “Saturday Night Live” and almost 500,000 albums sold, they certainly don’t qualify as anyone’s secret anymore. While I have no doubts about the musical merits of their sophomore release, “Contra” (which is out today), I am curious to see how many hipper-than-thou types turn their noses up at the band when they wet their pants at the mere mention of the band’s name two years ago.
*If you’re like me, you hear the name “OK Go” and you think “treadmills”. Their video for “Here We Go Again” was a viral sensation. Even though I knew of them before the video (thanks to a song called “Get Over It” from their first album which appeared on an MTV compilation), they’re going to be stuck with that video probably for the rest of their careers. Anyway, the power-pop band is releasing album #3 today. “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky” is the title-and I assume said title is a joke and not the band trying to be pretentious.
*For those of you who make sure to tune in to “106 & Park” every night, you’ll be very happy to know that former B2K member Omarion is releasing his latest album, called “Ollusion”. This guy has a pretty dedicated fan base, but for whatever reason he just can’t seem to cross over. Two of his three previous solo albums debuted at #1, but quickly skidded down the charts and neither has crossed the million-sold mark here in the States. Having been released from his Sony Music contract, Omarion is now on his own EMI-distributed label after brief and unproductive stints in the camps of Timbaland and Lil Wayne.
*Isn’t it good to know that Ringo Starr’s still kickin’ around? The legendary ex-Beatle releases “Y Not” today, and it’s filled with as many guest appearances as one would expect from someone who gathers a ton of A-list musicians and heads out on the road every year. The featured artists on Mr. Starkey’s latest effort include Ben Harper, Richard Marx, Joe Walsh and some guy named McCartney.
Get the full list of this week’s releases (as well as future release dates) over at Pause and Play .
Popularity: 20% [?]
First Look: “Soldier of Love” by Sade
Sade’s new album is running neck and neck with the new one from Vampire Weekend (out tomorrow) as my most anticipated album of 1st quarter 2010. Sade always brings the goods, and after a ten-year gap between albums, let’s just say we’re salivating for new work from the British band.
A month or so ago, I premiered their new song “Soldier of Love”, and now the video has premiered. This is certainly the first Sade video I can remember with choreography, but the video fits in with the militaristic metaphors strewn throughout the song. Also worth noting is the fact that Sade (the woman) looks as good as she did twenty-five years ago!
Anyway, check out the video and let us know what you think.
Popularity: 6% [?]
First Listen: “The High Road” by Broken Bells
A couple of months ago, I wrote a post detailing my excitement upon finding out that James Mercer of The Shins was collaborating with supa-producer Danger Mouse on a full-length album project called Broken Bells. While the album isn’t due until March, the twosome have provided us with a sneak peak of the upcoming opus.
“The High Road” is the album’s first single, and while it’s fairly recognizable as a Danger Mouse track, I wouldn’t have placed James Mercer as the vocalist. He’s singing in a different register than we’re used to hearing on Shins records, but once you get over the surprise, you’re left with a pretty good track. Danger Mouse’s production work always has this mysterious, spooky quality to it, and it’s nice to hear Mercer sing over something with a little more boom-bap to it than your average Shins record. Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think.
Popularity: 18% [?]
New Releases 1/5/10: J5, Kanye and More!!
Welcome to January, folks. The flood of releases has slowed to a trickle, but it hasn’t totally died off. Here are a few of the releases attracting people to stores or their local DSPs this week.
Ke$ha “Animal”-True story. I don’t recall having EVER heard Ke$ha’s “Tic Toc”, despite the fact that it’s been the #1 record in the country for the past two weeks and recently broke a record for most legal downloads in a week. So in order to not seem totally out of touch, I’m listening to the song in the background while I type this. I don’t think I’m gonna be able to get through this whole thing. Granted, I come into this prejudiced: strike 1 for Ke$ha is that she sang the chorus of Flo-Rida’s obnoxious “Right Round”. Strike 2 is that she has a stupid-ass dollar sign instead of an “S” in her name.
Sorry, I just had to turn that off-it’s terrible. Give me Robyn. Give me Lady GaGa. Hell, I’d even take Fergie over this crap!! No wonder people talk so much shit about pop music these days. Anyway, for those of you who would be interested in this (and God help you if you are), her debut album comes out today. Watch it become a huge hit.
Katharine McPhee “Unbroken”: Show of hands-how many of you remember Katharine McPhee? She’s the chick that placed second to Taylor Hicks (and beat out Elliott Yamin and Chris Daughtry) on American Idol back in 2006. Of course, she wound up selling the least out of the four. This is probably because she gave off the vibe of a mature jazz/standards diva on the show and then wound up doing a complete 180 and making a Beyonce record. Still, one must admire the fact that she still has a major label contract (with legendary jazz label Verve, at that!). Her sophomore release will probably be a little more in line with what we heard from her on “Idol”.
Kanye West “Storytellers”: Is Kanye’s career over? This CD/DVD won’t tell us the answer because it was recorded at the beginning of 2009, a good nine months before Taylor-gate. I’m not sure what the purpose is of releasing this, since there was a point in time when it came on every half-hour on VH-1 and VH-1 Soul, but for those interested in hearing Kanye’s slightly unhinged ramblings, this one’s for you. Me, I’ll just wait until the next studio album.
(By the way-I don’t think Kanye’s career is over. You think the average Kanye West fan gives a fuck about Taylor Swift?)
Jackson 5/Michael Jackson: Reissue Campaign: The Jackson onslaught continues. Universal has remastered and re-released every Motown-era Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson solo album, with the exception of the first two, “Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5″ and “ABC”, which are still available in a two-fer package. Vinyl junkies can also rejoice, because these reissues are also available on wax. And if you know how difficult it is to find vinyl copies of some of these albums, you’ll truly appreciate the re-release. Personally, I’ll be picking up a few of these to fill a couple of holes in my collection.
Anyway, that should be more than enough to satisfy you music junkies. Get a full list of this week’s releases here.
Popularity: 20% [?]
New Releases 12/21-22/09: Mary J. & More!!!
I’m pushing this out a little earlier than usual for one reason:
Mary J. Blige’s “Stronger with Each Tear” is available on amazon Mp3 for $3.99 for today only! Four bucks for a Mary J. album-ANY Mary J. album-is a pretty good deal. I broke my longstanding embargo on buying digital for this, figuring you couldn’t beat the price. Although “Stronger” appears to be on the average side of Mary albums, hell…it’s only four bucks!!
Also out today (or tomorrow):
Didn’t buy Eminem’s “Relapse” yet? Want to embarrass yourself by buying the work of a past-his-prime rapper and giving it to your kid, whose probably already moved on to someone else? Well, knock yourself out. “Relapse: Refill” hits stores this week, and if what I’ve heard of the unreleased material is any indication of what the entire album sounds like, stay the hell away. When you haven’t had anything new to say in almost a decade, it’s probably time to hang it up, and the fact that Eminem is in his mid thirties and still slinging poop rhymes and gay-baiting means that, despite his considerable skill, it looks quite unlikely that I will ever pick up another Eminem album for the rest of his career.
The only other notable release is the “We Are Young Money” compilation from the Lil Wayne-led campaign. Weezy has already done his part for promotion by getting arrested late last week for marijuana possession. Artists appearing on this compilation include Drake, Nicki Minaj, Pleasure P, and Lloyd. In other words, yawn…
With that, we close up shop on new releases for 2009. January 2010 will bring new music from the likes of Peter Gabriel, Vampire Weekend and Ke$ha, as well as reissues from The Jackson 5 and Maxwell. As always, you can get a full list of this week’s releases here!
Popularity: 14% [?]
New Releases 12/15/09: Wrapping ‘09 Up with Some Soul
The release schedule has slowed to a trickle, so…I don’t have a lot to write about this week. That might make some of you happy. Anyway, here’s what’s coming out today.
Alicia Keys “The Element of Freedom”- Even when Alicia Keys does wrong, she does no wrong. Neither of the two singles released so far-”Doesn’t Mean Anything” and “Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart”-have exactly set the world on fire, but she still finds herself at the top of both the Pop & R&B charts with “Empire State of Mind”. A Jigga-less version of “Empire” appears on this album, in addition to a duet with Beyonce, meaning that Alicia has now joined the list of artists who have joined forces with both members of the Carter household.
Alicia’s a weird one for me. I like her, but she’s yet to make a studio album that I enjoy all the way through. She’s still prone to clumsy lyricism, for one. With that said, though, her good qualities outweigh the bad ones and I have no qualms adding this to my collection.
Robin Thicke “Sex Therapy”: This appears to be the John Legend “Evolver”-type album for Mr. Thicke, AKA the “Robin Thicke Sells Out” record. “Sex Therapy” includes guest appearances from the likes of Jay-Z (yet again), The Game, Snoop Dogg and annoying new female rapper Nicki Minaj. Now as someone who generally likes his R&B to be guest rapper-free, this concerns me. But the first single and title track is the “Let’s Get it On” of 2009, and I might be able to forgive having to sit through another record with the D-O-Double G if Robin gives us a couple more baby-makin’ anthems.
The only other release of note is “Lucy”, an EP by Julian Lennon and James Scott Cook. This is a charity record, benefiting several Lupus research foundations. The titular “Lucy” was a schoolmate of Julian’s. A drawing he made of her famously piqued Julian’s dad’s interest and resulted in the Beatles classic “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. Lucy passed away from lupus-related complications last year, so the song “Lucy” is, in part, a tribute to her. The album artwork also includes a reproduction of that original drawing-which I’m sure will be of special interest to Beatles fans. It’s Julian’s first music in something like a decade, it’s cheap, and it’s for a good cause. Pick it up, why don’t you?
For a full list of this week’s releases, be sure to check out Pause and Play .
Popularity: 2% [?]
First Listen: Billy Corgan’s “A Song for a Son”
I’ll admit. Billy Corgan gets on my nerves.
First, there was the fact that he just seemed like an obnoxious prima donna. Granted, “Siamese Dream” and “Mellon Collie” are classics, but Billy just came across as kind of an egotistical whiner-especially after firing D’arcy and James Iha and kind of outing them as not contributing very much to the Pumpkins sound. I was just weirded out by the fact that he fires the whole band and then rehires the unreliable heroin-addict drummer?
The last Pumpkins album was a moderate commercial success, although I gotta say that I was lukewarm on the album and VERY disappointed when I saw them live a couple months later. Now, Billy is promising to release 44 new songs over the period of 3 years free over the internet. I have to laugh, because Billy’s complaining about the state of the industry is kinda hypocritical given the fact that his ability to give away 44 free songs on the internet is largely due to the promotional machine that the music industry provides. It’s easy for him to make that statement because he doesn’t have to worry about making money.
Anyhow, this is about Billy’s new song “Song for a Son”. I wasn’t expecting much from it, but I like it way more than I initially thought I would.It’s a typical grandiose rocker, with traces of peak-era Elton John and Queen. His voice seems to have gotten less grating over time as well, which is a good thing. As Billy has reformed the Pumpkins with a COMPLETELY new lineup (and is now allegedly dating Jessica Simpson…shudder…), I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more from him in the months to come.
Get “A Song for a Son” here.
Popularity: 8% [?]
