Music Blogs

As you may have surmised, part of my job in compiling this much-loved weekly blog comes in anticipating which new releases are the ones most likely to excite the entire world, sell the most copies, and/or have the best covers!

Just a few weeks ago, I scratched my head, looked at a then-current release list, and determined that--in the absence of any surefire blockbuster-sellers like Mariah Carey, Bruce Springsteen, or Alicia Keys--new albums by Animal Collective, Andrew Bird and even Antony & the Johnsons would likely be among the week's biggest winners! And as a special bonus, they all started with "A"!

Heck--I was right! And even Antony & the Johnsons entered the charts at No. 65! Who could have imagined this three years ago?

Some would say it's an indicator that independent music is finally taking its rightful place as a sales leader! Others would say it's an indicator that sales have gone so far down the tubes that only indie artists with loyal followings--which is to say not Hoobastank--actually sell records anymore!

All I know is, any week where Morrissey has the biggest new release is OK by me!

Morrissey: Years Of Refusal (Attack/Lost Highway)  When it comes to contemporary pop albums featuring infants and toddlers with facial decorations, it's Morrissey and Lil Wayne all the way! Arriving with his best album in several years, a fine cover illustration and title, and more than a few songs that suggest the glories reached in his former band the Smiths, he simply hasn't lost it! Best track to these ears--the ones that my thumbs are now pointing to--is "It's Not Your Birthday Anymore," which aside from bearing a catchy tune, features the snazzy lyric "there's no need to be kind to you," a sentiment that in contemporary songcraft is rarely expressed and, when you come right down to it, encapsulates all that is unique about the man. That and the fact that he once featured cows mooing on an album!

Annie Lennox: The Annie Lennox Collection (CD/DVD) (Sony)  Well, if you haven't figured it out, here's what's happening: Record companies introduced CDs back in the '80s and a generation of vinyl buyers started buying their collections all over again on CD! Then they got old! Meanwhile, a younger generation of cassette and CD buyers--who watched a lot of MTV--also started getting old, sloppy, and sentimental! And now that their elders have stopped buying music entirely, it's their turn to step up to the plate and relive their past! So why not pick up this package, which features a worldwide superstar admittedly past her commercial peak, an entire batch of great video clips, and two brand new recordings as well? And it is a quality package, any way you look at it--but it's also a reminder that the next generation coming up probably won't be able to be serviced with a similar package in a few years because nobody has distinguished careers anymore--just short term peaks! Then they vanish into oblivion! It's kind of cool!

Various Artists: Dark Was The Night (4AD)  A stellar and comprehensive collection of exclusive tracks put together by Aaron & Bryce Dessner of the National to benefit the Red Hot Organization--a charity devoted to raising AIDS awareness--this 2CD set features 31 tracks by what would appear to be the hippest artists imaginable. Not to bore you with a simple list, but featured here among many others are Bon Iver, Iron & Wine, Feist, Arcade Fire, Spoon, My Morning Jacket, Andrew Bird and just about every indie-rock senstion of note emerging in the past few years. Plus Yo La Tengo! Now more than ever, in a playlist-driven world, this set seems made to order in terms of quality content, a great cause, and offering a way to figure out if Yeasayer and Beirut are as hip as they're supposed to be! Buy this and it'll be OK to be mean for a few minutes--you've earned it!

Al Kooper: 50/50 (Sony Legacy)  Al Kooper is a skilled musician who's had a hand in some of the biggest and best albums in pop history--Highway 61 Revisited, Let It Bleed, and The Who Sell Out among them--but more importantly has a vastly impressive recording catalog of his own. A former member of New York's Blues Project and the founder of Blood Sweat & Tears--whose Child Is Father To The Man album, the only one featuring Kooper, is one of the finest pop records ever--Kooper released a string of excellent albums beginning with 1968's I Stand Alone, and most of them can be sampled here. A 50-track digital only release, the set is artfully sequenced and without a single moment of filler. I would suggest you find all his albums--especially 1969's You Never Know Who Your Friends Are, which approaches the BS&T album in its greatness--but in the meantime, check out this collection for a taste of this artist's fab greatness. It's easier to file than ever!

Charlie Wilson: Uncle Charlie (Jive)  It would be the height of crassness to actually use another human's opinion as the basis for one's own review, but as one consumer review on Amazon astutely asked, "Is Charlie still a funkateer or a modern day R&B mackdaddy?" And that indeed appears to be the question with this new release by former Gap Band dude Wilson, who oozes charisma, class, and at times, the very mackdaddiness of which that reviewer spoke! Featuring guest appearances by T-Pain and Jamie Foxx, a fine single in "There Goes My Baby," and some welcome flashes of funk, this collection is healthy, positive in spirit, and in its way, quite classy. Perhaps you'd like it!

Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3: Goodnight Oslo (Yep Roc)  The highly credible, long-lived and still pretty good career of Robyn Hitchcock proceeds according to plan: His combo the Venus 3 includes Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Bill Rieflin, guests include the Decemberists' Colin Meloy, and the batch of songs he's assembled are even sturdier than usual. His friendship with director Jonathan Demme, documented in the latter's excellent concert film a while back, has continued and resulted in the appearance of "Up To Our Nex," heard here, popping up in the soundtrack to Demme's well-reviewed Rachel Getting Married film. Hey, considering how long the dude has been around, he's quite good!

Steve Kilbey: Painkiller (Second Motion)  In a week in which some of the hottest new releases are by such '80s notables as Morrissey, Annie Lennox and Robyn Hitchcock, it's worth mentioning that the latest album by the Church's Steve Kilbey--his first solo set in seven years--is out and surprisingly groovy. Mind you, he's rarely been less than groovy, but as career trajectories go, he came from the fringes with the Church, entered the mainstream in one blinding flash in the '80s with "Under The Milky Way," then gradually, methodically, headed toward the fringes once more. The music here swirls, as you might expect if you're familiar with his work, but there are melodies that catch your attention, rhythms that pulsate, and some fairly biting lyrics popping up that will remind you of his artistic worthiness, if that's slipped your mind. Do check this out.

Soft Machine: Drop (Moonjune) Fans of this pioneering, much-loved British band will be thrilled with the unexpected release of this disc, a live set recorded in Germany in 1971, as it captured that brief sliver in the band's history when departed drummer Robert Wyatt's replacement, Phil Howard, joined the band and raised its overall energy level absurdly high. A continuous slab of cacophonous playing--10 tracks running together consecutively--the music is powerful and at times oddly nerve-racking, as Howard's free-jazzy drum pounding is a jarring complement to that portion of  Soft Machine's music which dwelled in soothing drones and precise song structures. Familiarity with this material, which surfaced in the band's third, fourth and fifth albums (Howard played on only half of the latter), will make this fascinating listening for fans of the band regardless. Highly recommended.

N.A.S.A.: Spirit Of Apollo (Anti) In the same manner that the Dark Was The Night compilation brings together just about anybody who is anybody, this bouncing set has a guest list like you wouldn't believe, including Tom Waits, Karen O, the ghost of Ol' Dirty Bastard, Kool Keith, David Byrne, Chuck D, Kanye West, Santogold and countless others. But the 17 tracks here have been put together by one pair--Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon, calling themselves N.A.S.A.--and the overall effect is less a personality circus and more a complete, multi-rhythmic work that radiates personality on a track-by-track level. Intricate but always surprisingly accessible, this is a "wave of the future" kind of thing, if you're keeping track! Some people are!

Thursday: Common Existence (Epitath)  That pretty much sums it up!