Although this week's list of new album releases is a bit shorter than we have seen in recent weeks, it is by no means less noteworthy.
In this week's batch of potential stocking stuffers, we have the studio return after twenty eight years of one of the best selling rock acts ever. While in another much talked about "comeback," a certain dance-pop princess attempts to shake off the dust from her MTV Video Music Awards disaster, with her own return to active duty after four years of... well, whatever you would call that non-stop party.
On to the new releases...
The Eagles once famously said that "hell would freeze over" before they would ever make another album. Well, with this week's arrival of Long Road Out Of Eden, the devil might want to consider ordering a new pair of leg warmers. The double CD package is the first from the celebrated Southern California urban pop-rock cowboys since 1979's The Long Run, and features a brand spanking new set of original songs.
Long Road Out Of Eden follows several years of reunion tours, so the boys should be sounding well-rested and ready to return to the platinum ranks of their glory years in the seventies here. On a side note, the album is "officially" only available through one of those "exclusive" deals with big-box retailers (conflicting reports have it either through Best Buy or Wal-Mart), although Amazon already has a few used copies for sale.
Meanwhile, the new one from Britney Spears arrives in stores this week. Blackout is a rather ironic album title. Some might say it describes her own mental state for the past several years, while others would say in show business there is no such thing as bad publicity. Britney's own handlers might beg to differ with that viewpoint.
Seen by many as a make or break proposition, Blackout arrives following years of negative publicity for the once innocent pop princess — from embarrassing episodes of public drunkenness, to her custody battles, to her recent flameout on the MTV Video Music Awards. For the once bright career of Britney, many will be watching this release very closely.
Leading off this week's soundtracks is Anton Corbijn's Control, a biopic about the life of Joy Division's Ian Curtis. The soundtrack features music from the surviving members of Joy Division, as well as music that influenced Curtis by such artists as Roxy Music and Iggy Pop. In a related move, Rhino is also reissuing a number of Joy Division titles in new deluxe editions, including Closer, Still, and Unknown Pleasures.
Article comments
1 - Donald Gibson
The Eagles album is at Walmart, $11.99 (shipping, handling, and intra-band hatred not included)
-Donald
2 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Are Eagles still Endangered Species, or can we shoot them now? And what is this nonsense on their TV commmercials about them being "America's greatest band"?
3 - Mat Brewster
Wasn't there a relatively recent Eagles album called Hell Freezes Over? Didn't they do this schtick already? Or am I delusional?
4 - Pico
Long Road Out Of Eden is sold at Wal-Marts.
And Eagles jokes aside, it really is a good record.
5 - Tom Johnson
I'm gonna abide The Dude. "Come on, man. I had a rough night and I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man!" I've now used this twice. I never thought it would be in danger of being worn out.
6 - Christopher Rose
Anybody know what is there about the Joy Division re-releases that makes them collectors editions?
7 - Mark Saleski
i saw those collector's edition entries on my list but haven't seen anything explaining what the deal is. (p.s. can't stand Joy Division)
8 - Tom Johnson
I feel about Joy Division about how I feel about the Eagles ("Interzone," however, made for killer cover material for Warrior Soul) but here are the details anyway:
Unknown Pleasures:
CD Two: Live At The Factory
1. "Dead Souls"
2. "The Only Mistake"
3. "Insight"
4. "Candidate"
5. "Wilderness"
6. "She's Lost Control"
7. "Shadowplay"
8. "Disorder"
9. "Interzone"
10. "Atrocity Exhibition"
11. "Novelty"
12. "Transmission"
Closer:
CD Two: Live at ULU
1. "Dead Souls"
2. "Glass"
3. "A Means To An End"
4. "Twenty Four Hours"
5. "Passover"
6. "Insight"
7. "Colony"
8. "These Days"
9. "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
10. "Isolation"
11. "The Eternal"
12. "Digital"
Still:
Disc two: Live at High Wycombe Town Hall
1. "The Sound of Music"
2. "A Means to an End"
3. "Colony"
4. "Twenty Four Hours"
5. "Isolation"
6. "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
7. "Disorder"
8. "Atrocity Exhibition"
9. "Isolation" (sound check)
10. "The Eternal" (sound check)
11. "Ice Age" (sound check)
12. "Disorder" (sound check)
13. "The Sound of Music" (sound check)
14. "A Means to an End" (sound check)
9 - Christopher Rose
Do you mean they both died in the early 80s? ;-)
10 - Pico
Hey Christopher, you're in the wrong thread. Here ya' go:
The White Stripes Ate My Brain
(sorry, couldn't resist ;&) )
11 - Christopher Rose
Er, thanks for that, Pico.
Would you like to learn how to format a link properly? I think you would. Follow this link and then you will know how to format a link. We don't put a url inside a url, we put a title. I fixed yours for ya! :-0
12 - Pico
I know how to, I was lazy. But even so, I couldn't have come up with a title that creative. Thanks for the edit :&)
13 - Glen Boyd
To clarify the whole Hell Freezes Over thing:
Yes, the Eagles did release a live album with that title a couple years back. However, the original quote referred to the Eagles ever making another STUDIO album...which they just have, hence my re-usage.
And for the record, I've never liked the Eagles either. But in this column, it's my job to report the news and all that...
But I've never owned an album by them and have no plans to start now. Ditto for Britney.
-Glen
14 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Take it easy, Glen, take it easy -- don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy (and yes I know that was written by Jackson Browne).
Crack newspaperman that you are, I know you never lost sight of your objectivity at any time, unlike, say, me -- all the time. I've been known to go into a blind rage at the mere mention of the Eagles, a Henley or Frey (though James Gang Walsh will suit me fine), without regard to byline).
15 - Mat Brewster
I liked the Eagles once...for about two weeks...when I was 13...then I met a girl.
Thanks for clearing up the Hell thing. I knew they did something, and remember seeing the long haired dude sing something high on VH1 but what it was and when was a little blurry.
16 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Mat: was it a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin' down to take a look at you? And by any chance were you standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona?
17 - Glen Boyd
And was she just a girl or a witchy woman?
-Glen
18 - Donald Gibson
There's gonna be a heartache tonight, a heartache tonight, I know...
-Donald
19 - Glen Boyd
Oops he did it again...(in the interest of equal time)...
-Glen
20 - El Bicho
"Didn't they do this schtick already? Or am I delusional?"
Those aren't mutually exclusive.
And how about a mention for The Kinks? That three-disc set sounds interesting with the live DVD, although I could have sworn they had some good songs in the '60s.
21 - Donald Gibson
If you're gonna go that route, I'm pretty sure that, like the Eagles, Ms. Spears is well aquainted with a Tequila Sunrise.
-Donald
22 - Glen Boyd
Actually Donald, I understand that Brit's preferred poison is vodka. Its the thought that counts though, right?
-Glen
23 - Mat Brewster
Oh lord, what did I start? Stop already, just stop it.
This reminds me of a time I was with a girl (not in a flatbed ford, but something old and enormous) and she played the Eagles Greatest hits over and over. I didn't have the heart to tell her to stop, but I nearly threw myself overboard.
And yes you could have said that there was going to be heartache tonight.