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Pop Rock Nation

Category: Releases

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  • New Releases 11/23/09: A Day Late & A Few Dollars Short

    I knew that this week’s new releases had been moved up a day to 11/23/09, but I wanted to let the AMA posts stay on the front page for a while, so I’m technically hitting you guys up a day late. Forgive me. Anyway, this is Thanksgiving week, Black Friday is upon us, so the heavy artillery is coming out. Here’s what’s up with this week’s releases.

    Rihanna “Rated R”: Rihanna’s been all over the press pimping this record, from Diane Sawyer interviews to award show performances. This is her first album since officially becoming a superstar, and also her first album since the Chris Brown assault back in February. This marks the introduction of a tougher, angrier Rihanna, as evidenced by the album’s “Parental Advisory” sticker. I’ve been unimpressed by the three singles I’ve heard so far, which is usually a bad sign, but I bought the album anyway. I hope to have it reviewed later in the week. We’ll see if I wasted my money. Guests here include Slash, Young Jeezy and will.i.am (also not a good sign).

    Susan Boyle “I Dreamed a Dream”: Ms. Boyle caused an internet sensation earlier this year due to her appearance on Simon Cowell’s “Britain’s Got Talent”. An unassuming country woman from England, Boyle has a voice like an angel. She was quickly scooped up to a record contract and her debut album has broken pre-order records on Amazon.com. This will be the Josh Groban “Noel” of 2009. Never underestimate the dollar of the over-40 customer. These are the folks who don’t think that music should be free.

    Lady GaGa “The Fame: Monster”: 2009’s breakout artist is re-releasing her debut album with a whopping EIGHT new tracks. Now, folks. Where I come from? Eight tracks is an album. Thankfully, GaGa is doing right by her fans and is releasing those eight tracks a la carte in addition to as a part of her wildly successful “Fame” LP, which includes the hit singles “Just Dance”, “Paparazzi”, “Lovegame” and the super-ubiquitous “Poker Face”.

    Shakira “She Wolf”: I gotta admit, Shaki’s half-ass performance of “Give it Up to Me” at the AMAs officially turned me off of buying this record. And I actually really like the disco-infused title track. My issue isn’t so much with Shakira turning towards dance/pop, but that “Give it Up to Me” is a completely uncreative collaboration with Timbaland and Lil Wayne designed to make a hit, and it appears that Shakira totally phoned it in. The rest of the album contains collaborations with The Neptunes (which could feasibly be interesting, given Shakira’s offbeat lyricism) and a second partnership with Wyclef Jean, who saved her last album from Flop City with “Hips Don’t Lie”.

    Boyz II Men “Love”: Here’s some laziness I can forgive. The pre-eminent R&B group of the past 20 years is releasing their THIRD consecutive album of covers (actually, it’s their third out of four, but the one non-covers album was only released overseas and through BIIM’s website). I can forgive this because, quite frankly, the last couple of albums of BIIM-written material were pretty mediocre. On “Love”, the trio goes straight for adult contemporary radio with covers of “I Can’t Make You Love Me” (one of my favorite songs of all time), Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now”, and…”Iris” by The Goo Goo Dolls? I gotta hear this one.

    Also in stores and online this week: Beyonce releases her first live album, “I Am: Yours”, featuring a performance at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas. She also releases another damn “deluxe” version of “I Am: Sasha Fierce”, featuring two new songs. Birdman takes some time off from tonguing down his “son” Lil Wayne to release “Pricele$$” in what will be yet another fruitless attempt to gain even a fraction of his protege’s success. Regis & Joy Philbin join the holiday fray with their album “Just You, Just Me” and hope to get some of that Susan Boyle money. Also in stores: future one-hit wonder Jay Sean, neo-soul stalwart Angie Stone and the debut album by the guy who made an ass of himself on network TV two nights ago and thus doesn’t warrant a featured spot in this column, Adam Lambert.

    A full list of this week’s releases can be found here. Happy Shopping!

  • New Releases 11/17/09: Super Tuesday, Part 1

    The closer we get to Thanksgiving, the bigger the releases get. There’s a whole shitload of new albums coming out today. Here are the highlights.

    John Mayer-“Battle Studies”: “Continuum” was the album that made even people who don’t like John Mayer like John Mayer. Think what you want about the guy personally (and he does come off as an insufferable douche on occasion), the guy has not made a bad album yet. That said, I’m approaching “Battle Studies” with trepidation. First single “Who Says” was just OK, and my man GG tells me that the album is super-slow. I read another review that suggests that JM has gone back to his cheezy “Wonderland” subject material. At any rate, this is the album I’m most looking forward to this week. We’ll see if I wind up disappointed.

    Them Crooked Vultures-“Them Crooked Vultures”: All hail the latest rock ‘n roll supergroup! This band features Queens of the Stone Age singer Josh Homme, legendary Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and Nirvana/Foo Fighters/Probot/Queens of the Stone Age drummer Dave Grohl. I swear, Grohl has more jobs than a Jamaican. Early reports are suggesting this might be one of the best rock albums of the year. Although I like QOTSA, Foo Fighters and Led Zep individually, is there something wrong with me because I’m not especially excited about this one?

    Norah Jones “The Fall”: This is allegedly the album on which Norah Snorah puts the piano down and picks up her gee-tar. This album was on my to-buy list as recently as last night. But then I thought some, and I realized that I haven’t gone back to any Norah albums for repeated listens since the first one. I love Norah…her interviews and side projects suggest much less of a stuffshirt than her albums do. I’m just not sure I need another album of hers.

    50 Cent “Before I Self Destruct”: So…50’s new album was released on iTunes last week, but those sales are being held over to be included with the physical sales from this week to create the first week number. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened (sales for Michael Jackson’s “Bad” weren’t tabulated after the album’s first week either), but it DOES suggest that the notoriously confident Fiddy is feeling some heat. I can’t imagine his new album (which is buzz-free and has been delayed for the better part of the year) outselling John Mayer even with two weeks of sales. Given my complete dislike of anything Curtis Jackson-related, I’ll be staying far, far away from this one.

    Rakim “The Seventh Seal”: The long-awaited new album from the Greatest Rapper Alive (fuck Lil Wayne and anyone else who dares to put themselves in this spot) has been ten years in the making. While I’m sure Ra’s rhyme skills have eroded with time, the man at half speed is still better than 95% of the emcees out there. The big variable here is going to be the production. Rakim hasn’t always had the best ear for picking out beats, and if lyrics were all that mattered in hip-hop, I’d probably enjoy listening to a lot more Canibus records. Anyway, I’m sure hip-hop junkies in my age group are jizzing in their pants over this one.

    But wait, there’s more!!

    British pop star Leona Lewis follows up her #1 hit “Bleeding Love” (and being snuffed in the face at an autograph signing) with her sophomore release “Echo”/ “Idol” winner Kris Allen gets ready to set the record for worst-selling debut album by an “American Idol” winner with his self-titled effort/ Janet Jackson takes a break from blaming Dr. Conrad Murray for her brother’s death with a new “Number Ones” collection (I’m a little disgusted that JJ only decides to talk about her brother’s death when she has a new album to promote)/ Katy Perry assumes people give a fuck about her as a live performer with a new “MTV Unplugged” set/ Paul McCartney releases his 9832405th live album/ Boyz II Men release their third consecutive album of covers with “Love”, this time strolling directly into the adult contemporary market with versions of hits by Journey and Bonnie Raitt/ teenage Usher discovery Justin Bieber releases his debut album today/ UK megastar Robbie Williams returns to American shores for the first time in half a decade/ R&B group Pretty Ricky replaces it’s lead singer Pleasure P. and forge on with a new album, and finally, future one-hit wonder OneRepublic returns with the follow up to their debut album, which produced the hit Timbaland-assisted single “Apologize”.

    (catches breath)

    Now is that a lot of stuff or what?

  • Usher’s “Raymond vs. Raymond” Gets It’s Wig Pushed…Up??

    It’s commonplace in the music industry for an album to be announced and then pushed back for weeks, if not months, if not…well, you get the picture. So, it’s always a surprise when an album gets pushed forward, especially in the competitive holiday market.

    Usher’s “Raymond vs. Raymond” was originally scheduled for a December release, then got bumped into early 2010, and just got bumped back up to a December 21st release. He’ll be competing against high-profile December releases from the likes of Mary J. Blige, Jamie Foxx and Chris Brown with this album, his sixth studio album.

    First single “Papers” is already #2 on the U.S. R&B singles chart, and the rumors are that this is an intensely personal effort, something I’m kind of on the fence about. Considering the trajectory of Usher’s career and the “stories” behind his albums, I wonder if Usher is merely creating drama to sell records? Well, whether the drama is real or manufactured, the proof will be in how good the album is, and now we’ll get to find out before 2009 draws to a close.