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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: New Music

  • New Releases of the Week 10/6/09: Backstreet Boys,KISS & More!

    This week’s a little lighter on the superstar action than the two or three weeks that preceded it, but there’s still a heavy flow of new music finding it’s way into stores and online outlets. Here’s a quick snapshot of some of the highlights…

    Backstreet Boys “This is Us”: You’ve gotta give BSB credit for sticktoitiveness. It’s been a good six or seven years since their sell-by date, and yet they just keep plugging along. “This is Us” is their sixth album over on these shores, and it’s being touted as a return to dance-pop after a couple albums of adult contemporary (and very sleepy) balladry. They’ve reunited with their original producer Max Martin, along with Redone, who’s the producer behind Lady GaGa. First single “Straight Through My Heart” didn’t do anything for me, and BSB have generally never been my cup of tea, but I give ’em props for still trying when everyone else of their ilk has folded.

    Michael Buble “Crazy Love”: Here’s a one-two punch for the housewives. The latest album from the Canadian crooner (which releases on Friday) features his standard mix of standards and contemporary love songs. Among the familiar titles here-“Georgia on My Mind” and a redo of Billy Vera’s classic “At This Moment” (you know, the “Family Ties” song). Buble himself wrote two songs, including first single “Haven’t Met You Yet”, and the album also features an appearance by The Dap-Kings of Sharon Jones (and Amy Winehouse) fame. Unfortunately, I can’t think of Michael Buble anymore without remembering the camera phone pics that popped up on the ‘Net last year and saying to myself “I’ve seen this dude’s butt”.

    Mike Doughty “Sad Man Happy Man”: Yes, folks. I have a man-crush on Mike Doughty. The singer-songwriter and former leader of Soul Coughing is one of rock’s more interesting characters and a genuinely nice guy to boot. Oh, yeah. He also makes good music. His new album, “Sad Man Happy Man” is a worthy follow-up to 2008’s excellent “Golden Delicious”, and also briefly reunites Doughty with David Kahne, who did some production work for Soul Coughing back in the day and is probably best known for producing Sublime’s breakthrough album (did you hear that they’re back together…why??). He also has one of the more interesting blogs of any popular musician.

    KISS “Sonic Boom”: That hissing sound you heard was a million dudes in their late thirties and early forties pissing themselves when they found out that KISS was touring and releasing an album. Gene Simmons and Co., who will probably (finally) get inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame next year, are back with “Sonic Boom”, an album that will be sold only in Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores. It’s the band’s first album in over a decade, and you get new songs, some remade classics, and a live DVD. It’s the next best thing to being there, I guess.

    Meshell Ndegeocello “Devil’s Halo”: I must say, I kinda have a crush on Meshell too. She’s been rocking my world for 16 years now and has yet to release an album that’s been less than stellar. She’s changed her sound up on just about all of her albums, going from funk to jazz to hip-hop to folk and back again. This album has a pretty strong pop/rock flavor, and is probably the most guitar-centric of her career. I reviewed it for Popdose. Have a look-see, why don’t you?

    Also in stores today: albums by Blake Lewis, Roseanne Cash, Brandi Carlile, Vic Chesnutt, Toby Keith, and…Lita Ford??

    Get your full list of the week’s new releases here!

  • New Release of the Week: Jay-Z’s “Blueprint 3”

    One thing that you can definitely say is that Jay-Z knows how to make an event. “The Blueprint 3” has been shifting producers and release dates for the better part of a year. Originally scheduled to be Hova’s last release on Def Jam, Jay eventually bought the rights to the album and it will be released on his own Roc Nation label. Of course, the title represents Jay’s 2001 classic “The Blueprint” (arguably his best album) and “Blueprint2” (which was way too long but had some good spots), so expectations are high for this record. I haven’t exactly been bowled over by the two singles so far (“D.O.A.” and “Run This Town”), but they haven’t been bad, either. So I give this one a 50/50 chance of being good. Producers include the usual suspects: Kanye, Timbaland, The Neptunes, while guests include current “it” boy Drake and alternative rock outfit MGMT. This album had a September 11th release date (8 years to the day after the release of the first “Blueprint”), but due to leaks, Jay has moved the album up so it comes out on the more traditional Tuesday. That means it’s in stores now, so what are you waiting for?

  • New Release of the Week 6/16/09: George Harrison

    Harrison

    It’s about time that the Quiet Beatle was rewarded with a compilation that was worthy of the thirty-odd good years of music he gave us. For the longest time, the only hits album Harrison had was “The Best of George Harrison”, and that cut off somewhere in the mid-Seventies. Today, that changes. “Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison” contains not only Seventies classics like “My Sweet Lord” and “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)”, but adds in Eighties favorites like “Got My Mind Set on You” and “All Those Years Ago”, and tosses in a few tracks from the Harrison-founded Concert for Bangladesh. Don’t know why it took so long for something like this to (pardon the pun) come together, but George fans can now rejoice. If only they’d thrown in a couple of Traveling Wilburys songs. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers.

    Here’s some other stuff hitting record store racks (real and virtual) today.

    Jonas Brothers Lines, Vines & Trying Times: I bet you guys were expecting this to be the new release of the week, eh? Well, I try to slot albums I actually have a chance at buying in that space (which is why The Black Eyed Peas didn’t make it in last week), and I can’t say that you’ll ever catch me buying a Jonas Brothers CD. Not that they need any help, mind you. Aside from it’s cutesly rhyme-y title and the threat of a “darker” Jonas Brothers, this album contains a cameo from the rapper Common. I hope he got paid a LOT of money to destroy his own career.

    Don Henley The Very Best of Don Henley: The last Don Henley hits compilation came out in late 1995. Since then, Don’s released exactly ONE studio album. So the point of this album is…so we can hear “Taking You Home” alongside “The Boys of Summer” and “Dirty Laundry”? This album comes in a regular 14-track version as well as a deluxe 20-track version, which contains four extra tracks as well as a DVD containing six videos. I still don’t get why anyone would want this. If you have the last Henley comp, “Actual Miles”, you can get his one other studio album, “Inside Job”, for less than five bucks used. Oh, the mysteries of the music business…

    Michael Buble Michael Buble Meets Madison Square Garden: In lieu of a new studio album, fans of the standards-crooning Canadian can feast on this CD/DVD combo, which features Buble adapting his smoove pipes to songs ranging from Billy Paul’s “Me & Mrs. Jones” to Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, from one of his sellout dates at the World’s Most Famous Arena. Thank God for concerts, because no one’s going there to see the sports teams anymore.

    Will Downing Classique: Speaking of smoove, Downing has been one of R&B’s more consistent balladeers, picking up the slack after the loss of legends like Barry White and Luther Vandross. He was diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder that briefly confined him to a wheelchair (is it me or do male R&B singers have shitty luck?), but now he’s back and still as romantic as ever. Unlike his normally covers-heavy albums, “Classique” contains mostly original and self-written songs.

    A complete list of this week’s releases can be found here.