It’s another quiet week on the music front…why do I feel like I’ve been doing nothing but repeating myself for the last three or four weeks? At any rate, unlike last week, there’s at least one release guaranteed to do big numbers, and that release is…drumroll please…
1) The Jonas Brothers “A Little Bit Longer”
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Honestly? I always got the Jonas Brothers and the Naked Brothers Band confused until the lead singer did a face plant at the American Music Awards last year and jumped right back up like a trouper. The only one of the brothers whose name I even know is Joe Jonas, because, well, how can you forget a name like Joe Jonas? If anyone else my age knows any more information than this about the New Jersey-based teen band, then you either a) have a teenage daughter or b) should be waiting for the feds to come in and seize your computer. Anyhow, this album has gotten surprisingly good reviews from the likes of Blender & Entertainment Weekly, and the brothers recently landed the cover of Rolling Stone. Not bad. Expect this album to lead next week’s chart by quite a large margin.
More new releases after the jump…
2) “American Mall” Original Soundtrack
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Disney can’t have all the fun, can it? After scoring smashes with the two “High School Musical” soundtracks, not to mention “Camp Rock” and “Hannah Montana”, MTV is airing it’s own teen-aimed movie called “American Mall”. Will the stars of this movie become the new Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens? Only time will tell,but given the network’s propensity to air things until you can recite them in your sleep, it wouldn’t surprise me if this one blew up just as big. It’s a good week to be a teenager, isn’t it?
3) New Kids on the Block “Greatest Hits (2008 edition)” and “Single-featuring Ne-Yo”
It’s also a good week to have been a teenager in the early Nineties, as the reunited boy band hits us with a one-two punch this week. Their new single (entitled, um, “Single”) hits digital music services this week (and features the ubiquitous Ne-Yo…hey, isn’t this guy’s album supposed to be out already??), while a reconstituted version of their “Greatest Hits” (originally released when Joe McIntyre and Jordan Knight were making their solo comebacks) adds the “Games” remix, the “Hangin’ Tough” album track (and radio hit) “My Favorite Girl” and solo tracks from McIntyre, Knight and Donnie Wahlberg. What’s that you say? You didn’t know Donnie Wahlberg recorded a solo song? Oh, you don’t know what you’re missing!! Check out the 1990 duet between Wahlberg and Japanese singer Seiko, entitled “The Right Combination”.
4) Kenny Loggins “Keep the Fire” (remastered w/new tracks) and “Vox Humana” (remastered w/new tracks)
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Apparently these soft-rock classics are being re-issued physically by noted re-release label Wounded Bird, although they’re still available through Loggins’ original label Columbia on digital services. At any rate, 1979’s “Keep the Fire” features Loggins’ best known non-soundtrack hit with “This is It” and boasts guest appearances from a pair of superstar Michaels-McDonald and Jackson, while 1985’s “Vox Humana” was the first album released following the smash success of “Footloose” and features a synth-rock take on Loggins’s signature song. Features the minor hits “Forever” and “I’ll Be There” (which features yet another soulful collaborator, El DeBarge). Because I love you, here’s a clip of the two performing the song together. Watch Kenny dance! Look at El’s hair!! Watch Dionne Warwick and Air Supply diss El by not mentioning his name!!
5) Extreme “Saudades de Rock”
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Experimental rock band Extreme got saddled with the pretty-boy balladeer tag after having two huge hits in 1991 with the acoustic harmony ballad “More Than Words” and the peppier, folky “Hole Hearted”. Despite this show in versatility, or maybe because of it, the Boston band (man, it’s a good week to be a New Englander, too) couldn’t figure out a way to have another pop hit, and they imploded several years later. Almost a decade after lead singer Gary Cherone’s phenomenally unsuccessful stint as the frontman for Van Halen, Extreme is back with most of it’s original members (well, the only two that matter are Cherone and powerhouse guitarist Nuno Bettencourt) and a brand new album.
Also arriving this week…P. Diddy jumps on the “neo-soul” train with the debut album from leather-lunged diva Janelle Monae, soul-blues legend Irma Thomas rounds up Norah Jones, Dr. John and several others for “Simply Grand”, David Sanborn (the father of a thousand smooth-jazz sax players) has his own guest-heavy new album with “Here & Gone” (on which guitarists Eric Clapton and Derek Trucks, as well as singer Joss Stone appear), there’s a new band out with the intriguing name of Tittsworth (which I’ll be saying to myself all day), and (I swear I just caught this out of the corner of my eye), there’s the soundtrack to a movie entitled “Beer for My Horses”, which stars Toby Keith. If anyone ever gets mad at me and decides that they’d like to torture me, tie me to a chair and force me to watch Toby Keith act. I think I’d rather gouge my own eyes out.
It seems weird to say “Happy Shopping!” after that last sentence. I guess I should change my closing line…
Oh! Check out the full list of this week’s new releases here
