The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email.
TODAY'S FEATURED NEW RELEASES AND FREE DOWNLOAD:
It’s hard to be Robbie Williams. A gigantic star all over the world, he's ignored in the U.S. (where he currently lives — in Los Angeles — with actress Ayda Field. Sorry, boys). So here comes Reality Killed the Video Star (out digitally today, on CD 11/17), his 8th studio album, and the speculation starts again: will this be Williams' rocketship to American stardom or another one-way trip to Planet Oblivion? Sure, he's got a stateside cult following, but boy band refugee Williams deserves a Justin Timberlake-size audience. The good news? Reality's the best thing Williams has done since his U.S. debut compilation, The Ego Has Landed. Produced by Trevor Horn — the former Buggles main man — Reality, a pun on Horn's "Video Killed the Radio Star," plays to Williams' strengths from start to finish. First single "Bodies" (FREE DOWNLOAD OF FRED FALKE EXTENDED REMIX HERE) layers monk-ish chanting over an Art of Noise robot groove. "Blasphemy" is a theatrical ballad that sounds like Williams' audition for the roadshow of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. And "Starstruck" confronts Robbie's lack of U.S. commercial respect head on. As longtime fans we're used to our fellow citizens' deaf spot, but the reality is we'd like it to change.
Tori Amos used to be a "Cornflake Girl" (to quote a hit title), and sometimes she’s been just a flake —From the Choirgirl Hotel anyone? But as an interpreter of others' songs she’s been damn near peerless. Her take on Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"? Inspired. Covering Eminem on Strange Little Girls? Ballsy. And now the woman who suckled a piglet at her breast in the booklet for Boys for Pele brings us a juicy Christmas morsel called Midwinter Graces. This being Amos, a straight-up holiday album won't do. She mixes obscure traditional tunes like the Victorian "Candle: Coventry Carol" with seasonally-inspired originals such as "A Silent Night with You." It’s a gift from a "Snow Angel," to quote an Amos original, that’ll sound just as delightful long after the holidays have passed.
On her debut The Bridge Melanie Fiona, the Toronto-based child of Guyanese parents, layers Motown-flavored R&B over sharp-edged lyrics that mix the bitter with the sweet in finger-snapping harmony. The results? 12 potential singles as catchy as a Raphael Saadiq retro jam with extra-added hip-hop attitude. First single "Give It to Me Right" anchors the hook from The Zombies' "Time of the Season" to a non-stop plea for slamming sex. "Bang Bang" is even more lascivious, wherein Fiona wants to "introduce ya to my Lucy" to a beat that can only be called shagalicious. And when you treat her bad, you better "Walk On By," a tune that channels Mavis Staples' earthy soul squeals in a tale of hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-woman-scorned. Perhaps that’s Fiona's way of warning you that The Bridge is one that you won’t want to burn.
MUSIC NEWS:
Susan Boyle will perform the song that changed her life ("I Dreamed a Dream") on tonight's "Dancing With the Stars." She is also scheduled to perform live on NBC's "Today" show on November 23, the day her debut album, also titled I Dreamed a Dream, is released.
Britney Spears made her Australian concert debut last Friday, and (surprise!), a whirlwind media frenzy surrounded it.
Aussie media has made a big deal about her partial lip-synching and how
fans have stormed out of the concert because of it. Apparently, Britney
is "extremely upset" over the controversy.
Hot Chip have announced a release date of February 10, 2010 for their next album, One Life Stand.
Swedish Electro-pop trio Miike Snow will be touring the U.S. next spring. Two of the band's members, Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, have written and produced songs for Britney Spears (winning a Grammy for "Toxic"), Madonna and Kylie Minogue, among others, under the name Bloodshy & Avant.
Green Day's well-reviewed musical, American Idiot, based on their 2004 album, now winding down a successful run at California's Berkeley Repertory Theater, is confirmed to open on Broadway. No date or theater has been announced yet.
A threesome of compilations in ten years is a bit much, but since Britney Spears is high on "3" these days we’ll give her a pass, especially when The Singles Collection includes that hot track and 16 more of Spears’ single releases. (The single CD version is released today; a deluxe box set — pictured — will be released November 23).
If it’s change you want out of Washington, D.C., Obama’s not the only brother who’ll make you say 'Yes We Can.' Rapper Wale's (pr. wah-LAY) debut joint Attention Deficit — on Mark Ronson’s label — finally drops after years of well-regarded "mixtapes."
Snow Patrol's the band mainstream alternative didn't know it was waiting for. Their super-catchy arena anthems ("Hands Open," "Chasing Cars," etc.) are collected on the two-disc best-of Up to Now, as well as lesser known tunes from 1998 up through their 2003 breakthrough "Run."
Mini Viva: "I Wish" From the Xenomania production powerhouse comes the frothy duo of Frankee Connolly and Britt Love. “I Wish” is Euro-pop and proud, with an L.A.-set video that adds extra digital color to the land of Hollywood dreams.
Massive Attack: "United Snakes" A sinister tune from 2006 gets a high-tech new video from Massive Attack. Black-and-white geometric shapes morph into menacing configurations on this creepy, provocative clip with vocals from 3D.
Jamie Cullum: "Don’t Stop the Music" The jazzy Brit makes a sexy swing of this Rihanna track, while his baby grand piano, over-stimulated by Cullum’s “jazz hands,” experiences an explosive climax of its own. From new album The Pursuit, due in February.
Pixie Lott: "Cry Me Out" The latest U.K. thrush advises her ex to cry her out of his system in this gorgeous black-and-white homage to ‘30s Hollywood glamour, complete with an Esther Williams synchronized-swimming segment.
The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email. TODAY'S NEW RELEASES:
Last week, Glee graduated from sleeper hit to full-blown phenomenon, thanks to a ringing endorsement from Rolling Stone (“it’s Liza with a ‘Z’ meets Carrie.”) and the show’s cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” earning gold status in digital sales. Surely platinum glory awaits with Glee: The Music, Volume 1, the soundtrack we’ve been impatiently awaiting. Do the numbers hold their own sans choreography? If we said ‘No,’ would that keep you from buying it? Didn’t think so… Just brace yourself for Kristin Chenoweth’s monolithic rendition of Heart’s “Alone," and have tissues ready for "Take a Bow," which grinds Rihanna’s original into dust.
Smarting from the industry redtape that prevented her third album, Because I Love It, from getting a proper U.S. release, Amerie returns with In Love & War, her hotly anticipated Def Jam debut, which delivers on the hype and then some. It blasts off with not one but four rockin’ club bangers — “Tell Me You Love Me,” “Heard ‘Em All,” “Dangerous” and “Higher” — that suggest this former Army brat’s been playing that Santigold album on permanent repeat. Even when the tempo slows down for radio readymades like “More Than Love” (featuring Fabolous), In Love & War still sounds as sweet and tasty as a box of Good & Plenty.
Last June, Broadway heartthrob Cheyenne Jackson and cabaret icon Michael Feinstein performed a series of shows together at Feinstein's at Loews Regency, in celebration of the renowned venue's 10th anniversary season. Now comes The Power of Two, a new album based on that intimate engagement. Sure, you’ve heard these show tunes and standards (“So in Love,” “A Foggy Day,” “Old Devil Moon”) a million times, but they're as classy and timeless as an Armani suit, and what knocks it out of the park is Jackson’s flipped rendition of “Someone to Watch Over Me,” complete with same-sex pronouns. Our favorite Gershwin tune just got better!
It wouldn’t be fall without new sounds from American Idol alumni, would
it? While you await Adam Lambert’s debut (out Nov. 23), appease your
ears with Carrie Underwood’s third album, Play On, which finds the Okie
from Muskogee maintaining that note-perfect balance between pop and
country.
Serena Ryder is back on the scene with her third album, Is It O.K. If the Canadian singer-songwriter’s first two efforts garnered mucho Alanis Morissette comparisons, her gruff pipes now bear a striking resemblance to Melissa Etheridge.
In a clear bid to dominate holiday gift lists, Beyoncé will release I Am...Yours: An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas in a double CD/DVD package on November 23, the same day a deluxe edition of I Am...Sasha Fierce, which will include "Video Phone (Extended Remix)" with Lady Gaga, streets. The music video for "Video Phone," which will also feature Lady Gaga, debuts Thursday on MTV. The Las Vegas concert will air as a one-hour special on ABC on Thanksgiving.
Ellie Goulding: “Under the Sheets” This très
Brit pop newbie makes like Agent Smith stuck in a Baz Luhrmann production in the first clip from her forthcoming debut, which touts production from Mark Ronson and U.K. dubstep guru Burial.
Basement Jaxx feat. Lightspeed Champion: “My Turn” As if we couldn’t get more worked up about the new Basement Jaxx album, here comes a pastel-crazy fantasia, featuring a chorus of adorably destructive bears who swipe the spotlight from… uh… the dude who’s singing.
Tegan & Sara: “Hell” The first video from their new album, Sainthood, starts out bright and cheeky. Until that turquoise-wrapped thing appears in the mirror. Is that the Gimp from Pulp Fiction, or the typewriter from Naked Lunch? Disturbing stuff…
Madonna & Lady Gaga on SNL (dress rehearsal version) One could (easily) argue that this skit was unsalvageable, but at least the twin divas hit their marks and don’t flub their lines in this pre-show run-through. The definitive take, perhaps, though the joke’s still pretty lame.
The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email. FEATURED ARTISTS AND FREE DOWNLOADS:
Canadian quartet Dragonette are snotty emo electro-punks. And by that we mean that on their second release Fixin to Thrill they wield their synths and scratchy funk guitar and bippity-boppity bass for crunchy musical nuggets of New Wave-inspired rudeness. The cooing Karen O-esque siren Martina Sobrara does have a nasty way with words. "When you wake up I'm gonna punch you out" from "Stupid Grin" is nearly a love lyric from her wicked tongue, with "Get on the floor, don't make a fuss, just do it" her idea of foreplay. And we’d much rather hear her defend a family member's Las Vegas wedding in "Pick Up the Phone" (FREE DOWNLOAD OF RICHARD X RADIO MIX HERE) or slap a brother down in "Liar" than listen to another guy-whiner in guyliner.
Here’s a group to add to your short list of cold-climate European bohemians: The Asteroids Galaxy Tour from Denmark. Fruit, their debut, is a languorous stroll through what XTC once called "funk pop-a-roll." Producer and multi-instrumentalist Lars Iversen keeps the bright tunes fresh and sparkling. And singer Mette Lindberg's like a drunk, precocious 5-year-old, slurring through up-tempo R&B ("The Sun Ain’t Shining No More") (FREE DOWNLOAD HERE) and happy '60s pop ("Sunshine Coolin'") with the same wide-eyed enthusiasm.
So, you star in an indie Irish film about falling in love, you write songs in character for the film, and then, while the cameras are rolling, you actually fall in love. And for your efforts you get what? If you’re The Swell Season — Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová — you win an Academy Award® for Best Song from Once ("Falling Slowly") and an appreciative new audience. Then, while touring the world, you break up under the strain of your newfound success and re-emerge on the other side of fame with Strict Joy, the best work of your career. The Swell Season's soft-spoken drama thrives on contradiction. And a fresh split is the mother lode of inspiration — from the mystical Van Morrison soul flourishes of opener "Low Rising" to the spiritual Grateful Dead folk of "Love That Conquers" these are honest, scathing, beautiful songs that would bring Oscar® gold to any film.
MUSIC NEWS:
Tweetie bird: Elizabeth Taylor took to her Twitter page and unleashed
an avalanche of tweets (we're having so much fun picturing her doing
this) raving about Michael Jackson's This Is It, which opens worldwide tonight.
She calls it "the single most brilliant piece of filmmaking I have ever
seen" and that it should be "nominated in every category conceivable."
Dolly Parton finally has the record to complement her big hair, big boobs and big talent — Dolly, a four disc box set retrospective of the self-proclaimed Backwoods Barbie from her early country hits ("Jolene") to her pop crossovers ("Here You Come Again").
R.E.M.'s Live at the Olympia — recorded in 2007 from five nights in Dublin in prep for Accelerate — is a welcome addition to their catalogue, with old favorites from the dawn of alt-rock ("Wolves, Lower") to songs still-in-progress ("Houston").
All of 29 now, indie-rock twins Tegan and Sara have thrilled audiences since '99. Their latest, Sainthood, is harder-edged than their last release, The Con, with bigger hooks and much heavier guitar.
She’s a megastar now, but Lady Gaga didn’t do it by herself. Her collaborator Space Cowboy is sure to follow in his employer's footsteps with the club crazy Digital Rock Star, featuring "I Came 2 Party."
Marina & the Diamonds: "Mowgli's Road" Welsh-born Marina Diamandis is part woman, part construction paper creature with super-flexibility on this jaunty single from her forthcoming debut Family Jewels.
Groove Armada: "I Won’t Kneel" From their forthcoming 2010 release Black Light, the English electro duo offer a mid-tempo I-want-you-back-but-I-ain’t-begging crowd-pleaser, featuring the 80s-licious vocals of a Groove Armada discovery, Saint Savior.
Cinema Bizarre & Space Cowboy: "I Came 2 Party" Lady Gaga collaborator Space Cowboy teams with German New Wave revivalists Cinema Bizarre for a freaky costume party that gets stranger by the second. Just in time to inspire your Halloween get-ups!
N’dambi: "Can’t Hardly Wait" Erykah Badu, watch your 'fro, 'cause Dallas-born N’dambi’s here to re-fire the neo-soul revival. In this clip, N’dambi strings along two gorgeous men at a photo shoot before leaving with the photographer.
The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email. FEATURED NEW RELEASES:
The fall is shaping up to be a golden age of girl power. The Three Divas (Babs, Madge, Mimi) released albums on the same day with the chart champion being — ta-da! — Mecha-Streisand. Now that the big guns have fired it's time for three divas-in-training to get their shots. Kristina Train, a New York-born, Savannah-raised singer, brings a warm contralto and dramatic shadings to her debut Spilt Milk. She’s a striking vocalist in the Dusty Springfield tradition, with splashes of Bonnie Raitt’s grit and Norah Jones' serene composure. It's fitting that Train's debut is coming out now, because it’s a truly autumnal work — full of dusky yearnings ("Don’t Remember"), amber reminiscences ("I Can’t But Help") and the type of sexy come-ons that get us through the short days with the erotic promise of long, cold nights ("No Man’s Land"). Stream the entire album here.
Florence Welch is a screamer. The leader of the U.K.’s piercing Florence + The Machine wields her shrieking/caterwauling/orgasmically theatrical voice as a divining rod of truth on the debut Lungs (out digitally since July, on CD today). Whether channeling a Gregorian chorus on "Drumming Song" or playing the soul chanteuse on a bonus track remake of Candi Staton's "You Got The Love," Welch is an undeniable force. Sometimes scary ("Kiss With a Fist"), sometimes alluring ("Cosmic Love") and often unhinged (the rollicking opener "Dog Days Are Over"), you’ll either love her or hate her. Indifference is not an option.
When Joss Stone released her first record,The Soul Sessions, at all of 16 you'd have been right to ask: what does a pasty-faced Brit teen know about soul? Quite a bit, it turned out; it was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic. Her fourth album Colour Me Free!— written and recorded in a week — is a growth-spurt of raw, unadulterated power. Having lived a little in the last six years, Stone imbues her tales of big loves and heartbreaks with more grit, more attitude and more oomph than singers twice her age. There’s a also a healthy dose of rebellion as she references the public spats with her soon-to-be-former record label, EMI, on "Free Me," a neo-soul version of Aretha's "Respect." "Parallel Lines" gets bluesy with Stevie Wonder's Synclavier riff from "Higher Ground." Through it all she testifies and represents like the blue-eyed soul sister she was born to be.
MUSIC NEWS:
U2 will stream their entire Rose Bowl concert, part of the worldwide 360º Tour, live on YouTube this Sunday. The show's sold-out crowd of 96,000 will break the stadium's attendance record.
An electro quartet from Sweden, Little Dragon's minimalist whimsy paved the way for Lykke Li's pop-friendly simplicity. Their sophomore release Machine Dreams is still chill and evocative — check out "Blinking Pigs" (FREE DOWNLOAD HERE) — but with extra pop beats.
Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe of Kings of Convenience are the Simon and Garfunkel of Norway. Vibe to the soft-rock ruminations on their third release Declaration of Dependence.
Detroit white girl MoZella releases her second album — and Motown debut — Belle Isle, 12 tracks of mellow, hip-hop infused pop and soul.
The voice of Yaz (or Yazoo, depending on where you live) collects her solo riches on the import-only Best of 25 Years Revisited.
It's a "Love
Resurrection" of pop and soul from the extraordinary Alison Moyet, who
should be better known on this side of the pond. The deluxe 2-disc edition includes 11 new interpretations of her
favorite songs recorded with her current band.
Alicia Keys: "Doesn’t Mean Anything" Another mid-tempo soul burner from Ms. Keys takes place in a New York penthouse that morphs into a desert wasteland where Alicia looks for her lost love. Must be a metaphor or something.
Florence + The Machine: "You've Got the Love" This soulful remake of the Candi Staton tune lets the red-headed spitfire Florence Welch ride a sparkling disco half-moon in an ass-revealing nightie. If only we were all so lucky.
Little Boots: "Earthquake" On a London rooftop, synth-mistress Victoria Hesketh aka Little Boots plays her Casio SK5 under a fake moon while galaxies explode and expand above her.
Calvin Harris: "Flashback" Here’s a Scottish version of The Hangover, wherein the electro dandy from Dumfries recreates a highland club fling with three lovelies and a host of telling Polaroids.
The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email.
FEATURED ARTISTS AND FREE DOWNLOADS:
Tina Turner is drama. Not just her life, made so vivid in the bio-pic What's Love Got to Do With It, but her legs-for-days, mini-skirt shimmying rough-and-tumble live shows and that force-of-nature rock and soul voice. And you can witness that drama in all its glory with Tina Live(out October 20), the CD/DVD of her 2008 50th Anniversary Concert Tour, featuring 80 minutes of classic Turner, from a smoking "River Deep, Mountain High" through a Rolling Stones medley and a show-closing "Proud Mary" that would force a rock diva half her age to gasp for breath. If there were a Mount Rushmore of singers, Turner would be there in stone. Luckily, her idea of 'rock' isn’t the sedimentary kind; it moves, shakes and keeps on going long after our tired legs have given out.
On their debut Conditions (out today), the Melbourne quartet The Temper Trap reach for the skies. Mashing soulful vocals with rousing choruses and arena-ready alt-rock, singer Dougy Mandagi — an Indonesian boy who relocated to Australia — yearns like nobody's business on the Bronski-Beat-meets-Coldplay "Sweet Disposition" and unleashes his feral yowl on the Radiohead-raving "Rest." When they slow it down — as on the optimistic "Down River" (FREE DOWNLOAD HERE) — they share a childish naiveté with groups like MGMT. The secret? A rafter-shaking falsetto equal parts sexy and salubrious, and as sincere and stirring as the great men of soul.
Big boys need love, too. Or at least sex, if you're the corpulent Minnesotan fleshpot born Sean Tillmann, but better known as Har Mar Superstar. On his fourth release Dark Touches (out today), this love child of Ron Jeremy and Peaches makes erotic pop from an R&B take on electro. To call him 'carnal' would be an understatement; he’s ravenous. On "I Got Next," featuring vocals from The Bird and The Bee’s Inara George, he's a horny satyr who wants "to taste your applesauce." Single "Tall Boy" (FREE DOWNLOAD HERE), originally written for Britney Spears, is as tumescent as Justin Timberlake on Viagra. And "Almond Joy" is an extended metaphor for all things oral, especially those delicious bits that come with nuts.
MUSIC NEWS:
Lady Gaga will release The Fame Monster, her debut album packaged with eight new tracks, including the official version of the recently leaked "Bad Romance," on November 24. Gaga plans a solo tour in place of the now-canceled shows with Kanye West. No word if President Obama is signing on as her opening act.
Bell Horses' debut This Loves Last Time,
a collaboration between electronica artist Xian Hawkins and
singer-songwriter Jenny Owen Youngs, bridges the gap between the
dream-pop of Cocteau Twins and the soft pop smarts of The Sundays.
Thanks to "You Make My Dreams Come True," featured in the morning-after love dance that Joseph Gordon-Levitt does in (500) Days of Summer, the timing's perfect for the Hall & Oates box set, Do What You Want, Be What You Are: The Music of Daryl Hall & John Oates, all you need and more of the top-selling pop-rock duo.
Once a folkie, always a folkie? Not so for Erin McKeown, who continues to break out of the folk-singer ghetto on her poppy eighth release Hundred of Lions.
Har Mar Superstar: "Tall Boy" This clip has our Featured Artist in a silver spacesuit, scantily clad babes in a sexy slo-mo pillow fight and Alia Shawkat (Whip It) and Eva Mendes looking out of this world.
Sugarland: "Keep You" Here’s a real heartbreaker from the country duo's massive Love on the Inside, the kind of simple ballad that’s passionate and wrenching. Singer Jennifer Nettles bids farewell to her no-good boyfriend by cutting off her golden tresses and letting loose with this melancholy kiss off.
Datarock: "The Pretender" The red-tracksuit-loving Norwegian electro duo get freaky in an Oslo version of Costco that sells things like Human Meat, cans of Beans There Done That and, yes, those Datarock jumpsuits in bulk.
Robbie Williams: "Bodies" Williams goes Outback in this desert-set clip where he motorcycles across great plains of dirt, runs out of gas, gets a ride from a hottie in an off-road convertible and ends up at an airplane hangar dancing on the wing of a plane. Whatever. The man looks damn fine!
The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email.
TODAY'S FEATURED ARTISTS AND FREE DOWNLOADS:
Available digitally since August, The xx's self-titled debut finally gets its U.S. CD release today. The South London boys and girls of this foursome burrow deep within a minimal electronic atmosphere of stark beauty. Think New Order slowed down and obsessed by love’s ambiguities. Vocalists Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim trade lines in a sensual dialogue. "Can I make it better with the lights turned on?" Croft coos on the sultry "Shelter." "Don’t think that I’m pushing you away / when you’re the one that I’ve kept closest," Sim counters on the sinister "Crystalised." And the slinky single "Basic Space" (FREE DOWNLOAD HERE) is a breathy sex song that will keep the indie nation horizontal until the first snowfall.
Little did French electro duo Air know what they were about to start when they released Moon Safari and the international hit "Sexy Boy" in 1998. Since then, the French electro movement has included Phoenix, Justice, Yelle and Mr. Oizo, to mention only a few. But the originators — Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel — are back withLove 2, their best since they took us to the moon, and the first on which they handle all the vocals themselves. They mix soft funk forays like "Love" and "Night Hunter" with the icy New Wave hauteur of "Missing the Light of the Day" and the sinister, punkish "Be a Bee." More proof that there’s nothing better than l'amour. DOWNLOAD FREE ALBUM MEDLEY HERE.
San Diego-based singer-songwriter Greg Laswell's career has been like a slow-burning secret. From his Vanguard Records debut Through Toledo on to 2008's Three Flights from Alto Nido, music programmers have featured his tracks on Smallville, Grey's Anatomy, True Blood and others. His anonymity may still be safe on his latest EP, Covers, which has five songs from Echo and The Bunnymen, Morphine, Mazzy Star, Kristen Hersh and Kate Bush. Yet one listen to his straightforward reading of "The Killing Moon" or the haunting simplicity of "Your Ghost" (FREE DOWNLOAD HERE) and you’re going to want to tell all your friends.
A previously unheard song from The Jackson 5 has been released on iTunes today, and it's also streaming at the band's site. It will be included on the album I Want You Back! Unreleased Masters, out November 10.
The most important name in electronic music is Kraftwerk. If you don’t
know why, here’s where you get schooled: The Catalogue, remastered
versions of 8 seminal albums from 1974's Autobahn to 2003's Tour De
France. Released individually today, the full boxed set streets November 17.
Brandi Carlile releases her third album, Give Up the Ghost, a mixture of absolute torch 'n' twang to make kd lang proud.
Gossip's Music for Men finally gets released on CD in the U.S. (it's been available digitally for a couple of months), and we couldn’t let another opportunity pass to declare it's one of the best of 2009.
Trip-hop forefathers Massive Attack release the roiling, brooding EP Splitting the Atom, four tunes featuring Elbow's Guy Garvey, TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe and more. A full-length is due early 2010.
Röyksopp & Fever Ray: "This Must Be It" The Norwegian electro duo and The Knife’s frosty chanteuse Karin Dreijer Andersson (dba Fever Ray) take a synth-fueled joy ride through a Mad Max-like world on Röyksopp's latest single from Junior. Alejandro Sanz and Alicia Keys: "Looking For Paradise" Hell's Kitchen’s hip-hop poet duets with the sexy, low-key Spanish balladeer on this rollicking acoustic joint from Sanz's forthcomingParaíso Express.
Various Artists: "Beds Are Burning" Kofi Annan introduces this star-studded remake of Midnight Oil's hit to benefit awareness for the Global Humanitarian Forum for climate reform in Copenhagen on December 7. International artists — who sing from a series of wall posters — include Serena Ryder, Duran Duran, Marion Cotillard, Fergie and many more. Download the mp3 for free on their site. Ultra Naté featuring DJ King Tutt: "Faster, Faster Pussycat (Let's Go!)" A freaky club diva and an anonymous figure in tight black vinyl exhort us to "get on and ride / Do it tonight" while a Matrix-type motherboard overloads with techno rhythm. So what are you waiting for? Get on and ride.
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