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Pop Rock Nation

Category: Releases

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  • 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!

  • 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 .

  • 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.