It never hurts to have a new album come out while you’re touring. John Mayer, whose Born And Raised World Tour 2013 starts in Philadelphia on Independence Day, will release Paradise Valley on August 13 through Columbia Records. Don Was once again works with the singer and guitarist on the new LP.
The first single, “Paper Doll”, is now available for purchase through digital retailers, and a teaser lyric video (with a questionable prancercise theme) has been released.
In Yeezy, we trust.
SPOTLIGHT RELEASE
Kanye West: Yeezus (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)
File Under: Hip Hop, Industrial
For a current music superstar, this may be the closest we’ll ever see an artist get to a true Black Album release. While multiple sources such as Rolling Stone and USA Today have been reporting for a couple of weeks now that the album releases this Tuesday (not to mention Kanye himself cryptically, at the time, tweeting only June 18), the album is not available for pre-order through the world’s largest music retailers: iTunes, Best Buy, Amazon, and Wal-Mart.
However, we did get two Kanye performances to close out the SNL season.
Kanye West: “Black Skinhead” (from SNL)
So far there has been wide critical acclaim for the album, and we do expect it to sell well. However, it will be interesting to see what fans’ opinions are as this album is one you’ll either love or hate.
Silverchair: Lullaby Rendtions Of Silverchair (CMH)
File Under: Rock, Children’s
A number of artists have had their music given the lullaby treatment (including the artist above). This week, Aussie rockers Silverchair take their turn.
Silverchair tracklist:
1. Tomorrow
2. If You Keep Losing Sleep
3. The Greatest View
4. Emotion Sickness
5. Freak
6. Anthem For The Year 2000
7. Pure Massacre
8. Israel’s Son
9. Across The Night
10. Ana’s Song (Open Fire)
11. Straight Lines
12. Miss You Love
Quasimoto: Yessir Whatever (Stones Throw)
File Under: Pop, Rock, Live, Concert
Madlib’s helium-voiced alterego releases his third full length.
To celebrate, Stones Throw is also releasing Further Instrumentals alongside it, which you can order from their webstore.
Various Artists: 20 Feet From Stardom: Music From The Motion Picture (Columbia)
File Under: Rock
A documentary about the lives of multiple singers who sang background on a number of top hits: Merry Clayton, Darlene Love, Claudia Lennear, Judith Hill, and Lisa Fischer. The film hit theatres last weekend, and the soundtrack comes to your music racks this week.
20 Feet From Stardom trailer:
Not quite as edgy as “You Rascal You,” Hanni El Khatib’s latest song, “Penny,” is catchy, pop fare, perfect for the summer. Hey, we’re not complaining!
Be sure to check out the full album, Head In The Dirt from the Innovative Leisure label. Also, they recently did a session for KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic performing the song, which you can watch here.
Another heavy catalog week, at least mostly what we’re spotlighting, although you can find some new releases from Andy Samberg’s Lonely Island project with a ton of guests, Harry Connick, Jr., and the Goo Goo Dolls.
SPOTLIGHT RELEASE
Various Artists: The Complete Motown Singles – Vol. 12A: 1972 (Hip-O Select)
File Under: R&B, Soul, Pop
After being on a hiatus for a while (apparently due to some legal clearance issues), the expansive look at the singles from Motown Records from 1959 to 1972 is winding down as its Detroit era was coming to an end. This five disc set includes some of the big names you’d expect such as the Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5, and The Temptations while also seeing some more obscure groups who recorded for the label such as The Devastating Affair, The Sisters Love, and The Courtship. View the full tracklist at Hip-O Select’s site.
Look for the final collection of the series (12B) to land later this year.
Paul McCartney And Wings: Rockshow (Eagle Rock Entertainment)
File Under: Pop, Rock, Live, Concert
We got the Wings Over America set to close out May, and now we get its visual counterpart covering Wings’ tour in the mid-70s, although it didn’t hit theatres until 1980. While not its first home release, the show has been cleaned up both visually and aurally so its presentation is as clean as we’ve seen yet.
It’s available in both Blu-Ray and DVD.
Trailer:
Iasos: Celestial Soul Portrait (Numero)
File Under: New Age
Numero presents its first foray into the New Age field with this collection of tracks from New Age forefather (as their PR company puts it). Strangely, Amazon is showing a release date of June 18, but we keep being told it is, in fact, out this week. Some fantastic chill out music.
Hans Zimmer: Man Of Steel OST (WaterTower Music)
File Under: Soundtrack, Score
A summer blockbuster wouldn’t be complete without an accompanying score or soundtrack. On this set, available in both a standard single disc edition with a red S logo and a deluxe edition with a silver S logo, we hear Zimmer reimagine the musical backdrop to Krypton’s most famous export. CNN highlighted his perspective on following John Williams’ footsteps back in April.
A limited edition vinyl edition will be released in August.
Black Sabbath: 13 (Universal Republic)
File Under: Rock, Metal
The metal gods release their latest album with more searing guitar work than you can shake a bat at. Best Buy is stocking an exclusive version that comes paired with a t-shirt.
Album preview:
The reverse of last week. This week we have some great new releases to celebrate. Fans of rock and metal will surely rejoice at the release of new Queens Of The Stone Age and Megadeth (which sees 3 exclusive bonus tracks via Best Buy), respectively.
SPOTLIGHT RELEASE
Pokey LaFarge: Pokey LaFarge (Third Man)
File Under: Americana, Country Blues
Lafarge, who already has a 45 under his belt for Third Man, releases his self-titled full length. As we noted on our Facebook page, this is a really top-notch release. We’re just sad we waited so long to listen to it given that we’ve had a digital advance for about a month now. The album is getting released on LP, CD, and digital with a different colored cover for each format.
Pokey Lafarge: “Central Time”
Quadron: Quadron (Epic)
File Under: Pop, Soul
Long ago, we highlighted the band’s brilliant lo-fi cover of Michael Jackson’s “Baby Be Mine.” Their star has been rising since the release of their first album with lead singer Coco getting some shine on the recent Great Gatsby soundtrack. The lead single, “Hey Love,” can be heard below.
Quadron: “Hey Love”
Ben Folds Five: Live (Sony/Legacy)
File Under: Pop, Rock, Live, Concert
Ben Folds Five reconvened over the last couple of years to release a new studio album, and they also got out on the road again. For as much as they’re loved for their live shows, this represents their first full-length live album with tracks culled from a number of shows from late 2012 and early 2013.
Really loving the album cover. Very classy. The full album is streaming over at The Wall Street Journal’s site.
George Benson: Inspiration: A Tribute To Nat King Cole (Concord)
File Under: Jazz, Covers
Legendary guitarist George Benson recounts his inspiration via Nat King Cole tunes on a project that originally was sourced via Kickstarter. Best Buy has an exclusive release of 2 bonus tracks, “Ramblin’ Rose” and “That Sunday That Summer.”
Legendary organist and songwriter/producer/artist Booker T. Jones returns back to Stax for Sound The Alarm. Collaborating with the Memphis legend are current artists such as Mayer Hawthorne, Anthony Hamilton, Gary Clark, Jr., Estelle, and son Ted Jones among others. Interestingly, Jones teams with Kori Withers, giving him the opportunity to produce the daughter of Bill for whom he produced on Bill’s debut album.
Take a five minute preview into the making of the album, due June 25th:
Stay tuned for more!
At the end of April, the acclaimed Rockabye Baby! series grew yet again with the arrival of the White Stripes getting the nod.
Coming June 18, add more rock to your little one’s anti-crying arsenal when Silverchair gets the nod. There has not been a more apt title in the series than “If You Keep Losing Sleep.”
Silverchair tracklist:
1. Tomorrow
2. If You Keep Losing Sleep
3. The Greatest View
4. Emotion Sickness
5. Freak
6. Anthem For The Year 2000
7. Pure Massacre
8. Israel’s Son
9. Across The Night
10. Ana’s Song (Open Fire)
11. Straight Lines
12. Miss You Love
Later this summer on July 9, Jay-Z will try to keep your little tike young forever with his addition to the series.
Jay-Z tracklist:
1. Empire State Of Mind
2. Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)
3. Izzo (H.O.V.A.)
4. Big Pimpin’
5. ’03 Bonnie & Clyde
6. I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)
7. Girls, Girls, Girls
8. Show Me What You Got
9. Can’t Knock The Hustle
10. Heart Of The City (Ain’t No Love)
11. Run This Town
12. Young Forever
If you’re looking for a show to see a rock and roll legend this summer, look no further than Sir Paul McCartney who routinely gives 3-hour shows. While tickets may be expensive, that’s an excellent value for your hard-earned money.
He’s got a handful of dates left for a leg of his US tour through the middle of June before a brief hiatus back to Europe and then a new leg starts up July 9 in Boston.
Full details are available on his official site.
This is mostly a catalog week. Not gonna lie.
SPOTLIGHT RELEASE
Paul McCartney And Wings: Wings Over America (Concord/MPL)
Standard Edition
Vinyl Edition
Deluxe Edition
Best Buy Exclusive Standard Version
File Under: Rock, Live, Concert
Continuing the excellent Archive Collection series from Sir Paul McCartney, Concord/MPL go for the raucous live album Wings Over America. It’s fitting that this is album seeing reissue since McCartney is touring this summer all over the world for his Out There tour.
As with previous releases in this series, there is a standard 2-CD, vinyl, and deluxe edition. The latter (most expensive option) contains a number of books as well as the Wings Over The World 75-minute documentary along with a bonus disc collecting 8 songs from his show at Cow Palace outside of San Francisco. Expect to pay big bucks as the suggested retail price is around $169.99.
Your best bang for your buck, though, from an audio standpoint is the Best Buy exclusive standard version with contains the Cow Palace bonus disc… all for the low price of $14.99 on release week.
Rolling stone is streaming the entire 2-CD Wings Over America set or you can view/listen to “Silly Love Songs” below.
Keep in mind that Rockshow, the full concert of this 1976 tour, releases on Blu-Ray and DVD on June 11.
Tony Bennett/Dave Brubeck Quartet: The White House Sessions, Live 1962 (Sony/Legacy)
File Under: Jazz, Live, Concert
Thought to be lost, this collection was unearthed a couple years ago. A very affordable set ($10) allows us to listen to a show from 50+ years ago.
Snow Patrol: Greatest Hits (Island)
File Under: Pop, Rock
Snow Patrol collects their biggest hits in this 14-track collection.
John Fogerty: Wrote A Song For Everyone (Vanguard)
File Under: Rock
The rock legend releases a collection of some of the most beloved songs he wrote performed with some of today’s most popular artists including Alan Jackson, Kid Rock, Zac Brown Band, Foo Fighters, My Morning Jacket, and Brad Paisley.
Alice In Chains: The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here (Virgin)
File Under: Rock
A revamped lineup for the grunge band convenes for their fifth album.
We apologize for getting this Tuesday’s releases up late. However, it’s not to be missed. One album in particular, we foresee being not only on our year-end best-of list, but many others as well.
SPOTLIGHT RELEASE
Willy Moon: Here’s Willy Moon (Interscope)
File Under: Pop, Dance
New Zealand-born Willy Moon’s debut hits a couple of years after he first started recording it. An interesting mix of dance, elements of dubstep, and throwbacks to nearly every decade since the 1950s are intertwined into a strong debut album. From what we’ve heard here, we’re looking forward to the rest of this young man’s career.
Of note, the US version contains an exclusive track (“Oh Nikki Darling”) not contained elsewhere. Meanwhile, the UK version has his cover of “Bang Bang” included (which first appeared on a 45 on Third Man Records)
Willy Moon: Yeah Yeah
Daft Punk: Random Access Memories (Columbia)
File Under: Dance, Electronic, Disco, Pop
It’s 2013, and an album heavily influenced by disco may be the album of the year (so far). The French group collaborated with everyone from Giorgio Morder and Paul Williams to Julian Casablancas (of The Strokes) to Pharrell Williams (of the Neptunes). Whether using the vocoder or doing strict instrumentals, there is a great groove present on this album.
The LP is a 180-gram 2-LP set beautifully donning a vintage late-1970s Columbia label, and the sound is gorgeous!
Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers: Get Lucky
Jamie Cullum: Momentum (Universal/Island)
File Under: Pop
Several years ago, Cullum wowed the music world with his throwback Twentysomething album. In 2013 he hopes to do the same with Momentum.
Darius Rucker: True Believers (10 Spot)
File Under: Country
Originally set for a January release this year, Darius Rucker continues his trip down the dusty country roads. The album features a duet with Sheryl Crow on “Love Without You.”
Tito Puente: Playlist: The Very Best Of (RCA)
File Under: Latin, Oldies
14 tracks from the legendary Puente are featured on this budget compilation. If you aren’t quite ready to jump into the multi-disc sets released a few years ago covering his 78s, this is an excellent compilation to add some Puente into your music collection.
Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa: Seesaw (J&R Adventures)
File Under: Soul, Rock
This is the second Beth Hart release in the US in the last two months (although Bang Bang Boom Boom saw a release in Europe in the fall of 2012). Additionally, this is the second album Bonamassa and Hart have done together to explore covers of songs from various genres.
Public Enemy: 25th Anniversary Vinyl Collection (Def Jam)
File Under: Hip-Hop
It’s technically just beyond their 25th anniversary from the release date of Yo! Bum Rush The Show, but it does coincide nicely with the group’s recent (and well-deserved) induction in the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Six total albums are presented in 180-gram vinyl and span 9 slabs of wax: Yo! Bum Rush The Show, It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, Fear Of A Black Planet, Apocalypse 91.. The Enemy Strickes Back, Muse Sick-N-Hour Message, and 1998′s He Got Game.