7 posts tagged “new album”

New albums from Beck, Maroon 5, Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis, the "Mamma Mia!" Soundtrack and others were among the new releases Tuesday.

Alternative rock singer-songwriter Beck released Modern Guilt. The record marks the artist's eighth studio album. It features two contributions from indie singer-songwriter Cat Power.

Maroon 5 reiussed their hit album It Won't Be Soon Before Long this week. The package includes a DVD featuring full concert footage shot in Montreal last year and four music videos. It also features five B-sides.

A live album that features the collaborative efforts of country and jazz icons Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis is also among the new releases. The album, Two Men with the Blues, features 10 tracks.

Mamma Mia! The Movie Soundtrack was also released. The soundtrack for the upcoming film features performances by cast members Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan and others. The soundtrack for the musical film is made up of entirely of the cast singing hits originally by Swedish pop group ABBA, including songs like "Dancing Queen," "Take a Chance on Me," "Super Trouper," and of course, "Mamma Mia!"

Other album releases:

April Wine - I Like to Rock: Live in London 1981

Beck - Modern Guilt

Jaydee Bixby - Cowboys and Cadillacs

Blind Guardian - Twist in the Myth

Brooklyn Zu - Chamber No. 9 Verse 32

Maria Callas - La Traviata

Maria Callas - Norma

Chromeo - Fancy Footwork/Fancier Footwork

Neil Diamond - The Thank You Australia Concert

Dirty Pretty Things - Romance at Short Notice

Dutchess and the Duke - She's the Dutchess He's the Duke

Bob Dylan - The Best of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour Vol. 2

Bob Dylan - 1978-1989: Both Ends of the Rainbow

The Fall - I Never Felt Better in My Life 1979-1982

G.Love and Special Sauce - Superhero Brother

Jean Grae - Jeanius

Steve Howe - Motif

Billy Joel - The Stranger (30th Anniversary Edition)

Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long (Deluxe Edition)

Matt Mays and El Torpedo - Terminal Romance

Del McCoury Band - Moneyland

The Melvins - Nude with Boots

Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis - Two Men with the Blues

Night Ranger - Hole in the Sun

Rikki Rocket - Glitter for the Soul

Various Artists - Country Sings Disney

We the Kings - We the Kings

Yaz - In Your Room (4CD boxed set)

Young Jeezy - Down South Slangin'

In the end, Nas dropped the controversial title slated for his new album. According to the hip-hop icon, his original choice (call it "the N word") for the now-untitled disc was getting the wrong kind of attention. And the focus really should be on the music, considering how consistently Nas has maintained critical acclaim, lyrical consciousness, and commercial appeal (his last full-length, "Hip Hop Is Dead," entered at No. 1).

His ninth full-length -- featuring productions by Stargate, Cool & Dre and DJ Green Lantern, and cameos from Chris Brown and the almighty Last Poets -- continues the winning streak. Killer single "Hero" boasts vocals by Keri Hilson and an insistent synth riff, but the standout is "Fried Chicken," a crackling cut infused with Southern soul and a hint of reggae, with a guest spot by Busta Rhymes, and knob-twiddling courtesy of recent Producer of the Year winner Mark Ronson. No prizes for guessing who Nas supports in the November election, though; Barack Obama looms large over the crisp beats of "Black President."

David Banner, on the other hand, downplays politics on "The Greatest Story Ever Told." The Mississippi rapper and producer serves up party jams, including "Shawty Say" featuring Lil Wayne, plus a side of GLOCK talk on "9mm." Still, Banner hasn't completely vanished into hip-hop fantasyland on his fifth full-length: On "Cadillac on 22's Part 2," he takes time to praise the Lord and pray for those less fortunate. With productions on Wayne's chart-topping Tha Carter III and RZA's new Bobby Digital release, he shows no signs of letting his productivity drop off. In a recent interview with Billboard, Banner said he has two more albums in the pipeline, including a companion disc for his Adult Swim series "That Crook'd 'Sipp."

Politics are rarely far from John Mellencamp's mind. Not only did he perform for both Clinton and Obama during the primaries, he also pointedly asked John McCain to stop playing "Pink Houses" and "Our Country" at rallies. Principled to the end, Mellencamp returns with one of the best records of his career: "Life Death Love and Freedom." Produced by another man who has come to define American music -- T Bone Burnett -- the disc leans heavily on blues and old-time country timbres, featuring stripped-down settings that showcase the Hoosier State favorite's weathered voice and blunt lyrics. Unlike a lot of modern albums, which come front-loaded with strong material then taper off, this one stays strong; don't skip Track 12, the disturbing vignette "County Fair."

In 1986, Randy Travis probably could have made a serious run for the White House. That was when his breakthrough "Storms of Life" made him the first country act to achieve multiplatinum sales status. And Travis remains one of the top 10 best-selling solo country acts of all time. After almost a decade spent making gospel discs, Travis returns to the genre he helped redefine with "Around the Bend," an 11-track traditional country set that includes his current radio staples "Dig Two Graves" and "Faith in You."

O.A.R. might be an acronym for Of a Revolution, but the popular jam band tends to be more closely associated with parties in the celebratory sense. Reflecting the breadth of their appeal, and disparate musical influences, their first studio album in three years is called "All Sides." Recorded in Los Angeles, and produced by Matt Wallace (Maroon 5, Blues Traveler), a few of the 13 selections will already be familiar to fans: A couple were included on their "Live From Madison Square Garden" album, while "This Town" and "What Is Mine" have been floating around official O.A.R. sites for a spell. Diehards will no doubt check out the rest of the new material at one (or more) of the 36 dates on their summerlong All Sides Tour.

Florida is always a hot spot, especially at election time. Luckily, right now, the fuss among music fans has nothing to do with polling places. Instead, it centers on young Jacksonville quintet Black Kids. After blowing up the blogosphere with their demos, the album "Partie Traumatic" lives up to the hype, doling out generous helpings of danceable rock. Freshness and enthusiasm abound on these 10 infectious tunes, even if singer Reggie Youngblood does sound suspiciously like the kid brother of Robert Smith from the Cure. Considering their almost maniacal glee, Black Kids don't necessarily sound like a group you'd want to trust with your car keys -- let alone running the country -- but they can be in charge of music all night long.

The Memphis rap group's latest album boasts appearances by Akon, Good Charlotte, DJ Unk, Lyfe Jennings, UGK, Al Kapone, Eightball, and MJG.

A couple of years ago it would have been easy to mistake the core members of Three 6 Mafia — Juicy J and DJ Paul — for rap stars. In 2005 they had their first pop hit, the sweeping and sinister “Stay Fly,” and in 2006 they won the Oscar for best original song, memorably performing “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” from “Hustle & Flow,” to an Academy Awards audience that didn’t seem quite sure if it was being punk’d: Who were these guys?

But Three 6 Mafia, from Memphis, had been making terrific, spooky albums for more than a decade, though it hadn’t had much success or recognition outside the South. After the Oscars Three 6 Mafia rode the wave of unlikely fame, excising an ancillary member, Crunchy Black, and moving to California to tape an MTV reality series, the occasionally amusing, more often uncomfortable “Adventures in Hollyhood.”

On that show Three 6 Mafia members were routinely portrayed as country folk not quite sure how to cope in the big city. And there is a slight residue of their “Hollyhood” days here, particularly “My Own Way,” a dismal team-up with ordinarily antic (but here gloomy) rock band Good Charlotte. But mostly, and thankfully, the group seems to have forgotten its brush with the limelight. Which is to say “Last 2 Walk,” its first album since the excellent “Most Known Unknown,” from 2005, sounds like vintage Three 6 Mafia: bruising production, gloriously foul-natured lyrics, single-minded focus on life’s pleasures — the humorously lewd “I’d Rather” and “Lolli Lolli (Pop That Body)” — all under a cloud of paranoia. “Play with your Playstation,” they warn, slightly absurdly, on “Playstation,” “Don’t play with me, boy.”

And yet, even when Three 6 Mafia menaces, it’s exuberant. Over the years it has learned to create minor key arrangements that bend in curious, exciting ways, seen here on “First 48” and “On Some Chrome,” a collaboration with UGK. (When Pimp C of UGK died in late 2007, he was in Los Angeles collaborating with Three 6 Mafia on tracks for this album.) Given the choices Juicy J and DJ Paul could have made — and for a time, did make — “Last 2 Walk” feels almost willfully obscure: in other words, right back where they belong

Nytimes.com

Review    by Thom Jurek

Brian Blade last led a recording session with his band Fellowship for Blue Note in 2000. In the interim he's become the busiest drummer in showbiz. Blade has been playing and touring with everyone from Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan to Kenny Garrett and Joshua Redman, and holding the drum chair in Wayne Shorter's fine quartet. Perceptual was an excellent sophomore outing by a sprawling, ambitious yet very focused septet. The Fellowship Band has played together during this time, at festivals all over the world, in New York and New Orleans clubs and halls. Seasons of Changes is the Verve debut of this unit, whose name is now Brian Blade & the Fellowship Band. The personnel from Perceptual all return, save for pedal steel guitarist Dave Easley, who hasn't been replaced. The nine tunes are all originals, written by either Blade or pianist Jon Cowherd (who co-produced the set the leader). The front line is comprised of guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, and saxophonists Myron Walden and Melvin Butler, with bassist Chris Thomas rounding out the rhythm section.

The musical range of this group is vast, as are the influences that inform its individual members, but as a unit they sound like no one else. Their long-term working relationship has paid off handsomely here; these tunes are all bravely voiced and beautifully articulated compositions of modern jazz. (The word "modern" should be translated to mean "in the 2000s era" rather than as an empty signifier that denotes type or subgenre in this context.) These selections have been molded by many different styles of music from the American vernacular: from folk and gospel to pop and soul standards, from country and blues to the spiritual jazz of Coltrane and Strata East, and even rock. But there is no mistaking what Seasons of Changes is. Something this ambitious yet earthy, so sophisticated, yet accessible to virtually any set of ears, could only be jazz.

Blade's "Rubylou's Lullaby" is a midtempo ballad that reflects the gentleness of evening in Rosenwinkel's open six-strings and outlined by Cowherd's piano. The rest of the band enters with a series of almost pastoral notes before the swinging in the drums walks a line between elegiac country music, and a shuffling piano line, and the gorgeous melody articulated by the horns with the pianist's soulful golden fills. There is nothing about this tune that hurries, yet it unfolds into a gorgeous romantic paean that manages to swing and contain some stellar breaks by Blade. The short solo by Cowherd is almost majestic. The pianist's "Return of the Prodigal Son" feels based more on the great painting by Rembrandt depicting the gospel story than it does on the text. Here, nicely flowing lines between the horns intersect with the piano's ostinati and evoke a sense of travel, finding an open space and just moving toward it. Rosenwinkel begins a solo that hints at some of the slightly chaotic blowing by Butler on the tenor, and held in place by the rhythm section, which begins to assert itself in earnest. The alto saxophone acts as a counterweight to the seeming chaos and translates between the two poles. It's not a battle but a dispute, where balances are tenderly kept for a little while, but as Cowherd's brief solo enters, a cappella, the sense of return, harmony, and forgiveness are voiced effusively in the ensemble's balanced sense of voice and harmony.

The title track, which is the longest thing here, is also the most ambitious. It begins with Cowherd (its composer) playing a simple yet almost melancholy progression. Bass clarinet by Walden, tenor saxophone, and Blade's tom-toms slowly rumble in this balladic dirge before his cymbal begins to start the pace. It's sectioned several times over, each section folding out of the last, and when the saxophones and Rosenwinkel decide to play as one, the theme becomes the lift-off point for a series of interlocking grooves that are almost like separate songs except for their seamless weave. This tune swings despite its many dynamic changes and time shifts. It is simply a transcendent composition and this band plays it like everything depends on it -- because it does. Rosenwinkel's style has evolved so much that he has become a truly original voice on the guitar, no matter which tone or effects he employs, nor the tempo, key, dynamic or groove. He's in the pocket, and his playing just sings.

The set closes with the slowly awakening power of Blade's "Omni" as the welcome home after the album's long journey through the soul. Clusters of layered chords by Cowherd enhance deep harmonic drones by the horns, while Thomas provides the root note on his bass and Blade's cymbals embellish it all. It is the opening of a deep river of song. Walden transforms it into a hearty blues wail as Rosenwinkel supports his sweet but inquisitive hollers on the horn, which reaches into the heavens. When he feels he's been heard, the tune shifts. It gradually brightens in shade and tone. Cowherd's simple piano solo offers the response as the ensemble surrounds him to bring it all back to the earth as Blade whispers through his cymbals and snare. Rosenwinkel and Thomas allow this new song to whisk its way through the entire band before disappearing into a rustling wind voiced by muted, bowed bass. There isn't a jazz record out there like this, and perhaps there won't be; this is the place where the argument stops: jazz is not only alive and well, it is on the verge of an entirely new adventure; Seasons of Changes is the aural proof of a new, exciting sound that offers new possibilities for jazz is in our midst. Brian Blade & the Fellowship Band are sounding its cry.
http://www.allmusic.com

Anyone who's written off P.O.D. as a hard rock also-ran in recent years will have to bring a new set of ears to this disc. The return of original guitarist Marcos Curiel after a four-year absence is momentous enough, but the 13-song set is also the San Diego quartet's most mature and ambitious outing to date. P.O.D. still brings the noise on such tracks as the opening "Addicted," the fierce "End of the World" and "God Forbid," which incorporates Helmet's Page Hamilton and swings like a sledgehammer. Those are made all the more effective by the cuts that chart a different course, including the slinky funk of "Kaliforn-Eye-A" (with Suicidal Tendencies' Mike Muir), the roots reggae-flavored "I'll Be Ready" (with the Marley Sisters) and the Spanish guitar-driven instrumental "Roman Empire."—Gary Graff

www.billboard.com

Los Angeles - Pieces of Ashlee Simpson are going to be all over the mall this spring.  
To coincide with the April release of her third studio album, Bittersweet World, the 22-year-old pop star is taking a cue from her shoe-fashioning sis and designing a line of tops for retailer Wet Seal, the teen-favorite clothier announced Thursday.   The collection, "inspired by Ashlee Simpson's personality, sense of style and album artwork," will launch in Wet Seal stores nationwide on April 22, according to the chain, which will also be rolling out the in-store and online promotional guns to tout both the album and the new shirts. "I was inspired by so many fun, wonderful things as I was recording Bittersweet World, and it's been great to carry through those inspirations into these new shirt designs," said Simpson. "I hope my fans love this album and rock out in these shirts!"
And just as you can pick up a Paul McCartney CD to go with your Starbucks latte, you'll be able to snag a Simpson disc along with a graphic tee and some skinny jeans.
"Ashlee is a role model for our girl, and her fun and flirty sense of style is an inspiration for the line," Wet Seal CEO Ed Thomas said. "The goal was to partner with an icon and deliver affordable fashion, and Ashlee is an ideal partner for this."
"Little Miss Obsessive," the first single off of Bittersweet World, was released digitally on March 11 and hit the airwaves a week later.

News from yahoo.

He has already been dubbed the David Beckham of the violin, but this moniker isn’t just about his looks, it’s also a reference to the sheer dedication and hard work since the age of nine that has resulted in David Garrett becoming one of the finest players of his generation. Like Mr Beckham he enjoys international success, with album sales and sold out concerts across the globe.
David Garrett personifies the word 'virtuoso’ , although he is just 26, he has been performing publicly since the age of ten with the Hamburg Philharmonic, then at twelve with the legendary Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern, he also became the youngest person to sign a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon.
He ran away from home in his teens to attend the Julliard School in New York, against his parent’s wishes, a rift that has still to be fully healed. Garrett is no ordinary Violinist, his raw talent has been honed by the finest teachers, including Itzhak Perlman at the Julliard. His life experiences have also given him the soul that makes his playing extraordinary. David plays not just with his fingers but with his heart.
David has already established himself in Europe, South America and Asia, with a series of sell out concerts, playing with top orchestras and conductors, including Sir Neville Marriner , Claudio Abbado and Zubin Mehta. Unusually for a violinist many of his fans are still at school and show an unprecedented level of enthusiasm at his concerts. Onstage David exudes charisma and showmanship, performing a mesmerising version of 'Duelling Banjos’ (from the movie Deliverance) as a guitar duet, 'Duelling Strings’, and his energetic show stopper, the 'Gypsy Dance’ by Csárdás. His rendition of Flight of the 'Bumble Bee’ has to be seen to be believed.His debut album for Universal Music 'Virtuoso’ reflects the tastes of a 26 year old who is clearly in love with melodies, no matter what musical genre they come from. Tracks include his own virtuoso interpretations of popular classics 'Carmen’, 'Paganini’, as well as romantic film themes, Morricone’s 'La Califfa’, Bernstein’s 'Somewhere’, and, as he considers himself one of the MTV generation, has created a brilliant symphonic reworking of the metal masters, Metallica’s 'Nothing Else Matters’. To further show his multifarious talents, David has composed three very different pieces for the album. 'Serenade’, a tale of heartbreak and woe, 'Toccata’, a violin take on a modern sound and 'Eliza’s Song’ a classic love song.
David is already enjoying phenomenal success in Germany with his album 'Virtuoso’ outselling such greats as Pavarotti and Bocelli in the Classical charts and hitting the top 30 of the pop charts. In South East Asia his album entered the pop charts at No.3 just behind Mika and Avril Lavigne and straight in at No.1 in their classical chart.
David played his first solo concert in the UK at The Barbican on February 14th, the date immediately sold out.
The old saying 'seeing is believing’ really does hold true when it comes to David Garrett.

The album 'Virtuoso’ will be released on March 24th through Universal Classics and Jazz