Rhino records has a promising sounding 3 CD Rickie Lee Jones box set, Duchess of Coolsville: An Anthology. This gives a pretty nice selection of 47 tracks, including some of every album, some groovy looking demos of her classics, and some nice rarities. Particularly, they rescued her outstanding cover of "Sunshine Superman" from the Party of Five soundtrack. I must, however, protest the lack of "Danny's All Star Joint" as well as her definitive interpretation of "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys." It has nearly everything else you really need from her, though. The $26 price tag at Amazon also seems more reasonable than most box sets.
There's a new Fountains of Wayne 2 disc set Out-of-State Plates, but note that it is mostly demos and leftovers from their previous three albums.
George Strait has a new album, Somewhere Down in Texas. Indications are that it sounds exactly like his previous 27 albums.
Megadeth has a hits album out with a bonus DVD, if you really need such a thing.
Here's the complete list of this week's major new album releases, courtesy AMG:
David Agler Ned Rorem: Miss Julie Albany
Contemporary Opera
Band of Bees Free the Bees EMI
Indie Pop, British Trad Rock, Neo-Psychedelia
Banjo & Sullivan Rob Zombie Presents...Banjo & Sullivan: The Ultimate Collection 1972-1978 Hip-O
Honky Tonk, Soundtracks
Bizarre Hannicap Circus Sanctuary
Hardcore Rap, Underground Rap
Bond Explosive [DualDisc] Decca
Classical Crossover
CKY An Answer Can Be Found Island
Alternative Metal, Alternative Pop/Rock, Post-Grunge, Punk Revival
James Carter Organ Trio Out of Nowhere Half Note
Contemporary Jazz, Post-Bop, Free Jazz, Soul-Jazz
Cassidy I'm a Hustla [DualDisc] J-Records
East Coast Rap, Pop-Rap
Bill Charlap Plays George Gershwin: The American Soul Blue Note
Hard Bop, Post-Bop
Rita Coolidge And So Is Love Concord
Soft Rock, Country-Rock, Adult Contemporary
The Fall The Complete Peel Sessions Castle Us
College Rock, Post-Punk, Indie Rock, British Punk, Punk, Alternative Pop/Rock
Article comments
1 - HW Saxton
Yow, WTF&*$@#!! It's a very weak week in
releases and re-issues,fo sho'.
2 - Tan The Man
Ya for George Strait.
3 - sungoddess
Anthony Hamilton's "Soulife" is quite good... consistent and well made.
4 - The Theory
it's telling when the only interesting releases this week are re-releases of Starflyer 59's first two albums, Silver and Gold.
5 - Scott
i'll be picking up a copy of that fountains of wayne disc...
and starflyer's silver and gold are being re-issued? I wonder if they got b-sides and such...may have to check those
6 - Mark Saleski
man, i'm still waitin' for the reissue of Girl At Her Volcano.
7 - BRICKLAYER
DARKEST HOUR! DAAARRRKKKEEESSSTTT HOOOUUURRR!!!
And the Dolly Parton comp.
8 - Shark
I'll take one Flora Purim, thank you very much!
PS: Big Al, just a small technical quibble: shouldn't that title be "new CD releases" or are you as old a *dawg as I am?
*new tricks and all that
9 - Tom Johnson
Album still stands. Were he calling them "records," then a title change would be warranted. As it is, "album" continues to refer to a collection of items in one package.
And as for nothing interesting this week, be sure and check my "Overlooked Alternatives" posting coming later today - there were actually quite a few very intriguing releases this week.
10 - Victor Plenty
"Record" is also right, being short for "recording," which a CD definitely is.
To be truly outdated, Al would have to specifically mention vinyl records. Or cassette tapes, 8-track cartridges, reel-to-reel tapes, reel-to-reel wires, wax cylinders, or paper rolls for player pianos.
All of these are recordings, so "record" remains the appropriate term, just as "album" remains correct for any medium including more than one or two songs with the same purchase.
For many years the recording industry inaccurately used "record" as a shorthand for "vinyl record" but there's no reason we should let ourselves be permanently handcuffed by the shortsightedness of their marketing drones.
For the record.
11 - JR
Bill Charlap for me.
12 - godoggo
Don't you think you're being a little hard on the K-Tel? Ever heard their Creedence record? All the hits with all the crappy guitar solos edited out!
(if anybody ever sees the reunited Adolscents, be sure to give the drummer shit about Gary Dave's Creedence album, which I lent to him when we were in high school, shortly before the little bastard decided to snub us all)
13 - The Theory
Scott--
Silver got re-released with the "She's The Queen" EP and Gold got "Le Vainequeur"
Plus, it sounds like they may have been remastered, though I won't swear to that.
I'd forgotten how amazing "Gold" is...
14 - Seyi
Hadn't heard anything about this guy until I read the 'people who got Soulife/Anthony Hamilton also got....' section of Amazon (quite handy if your genre preference is well defined). Like Anthony Hamilton, Raheem DeVaughn is talented but unlike Anthony Hamilton he can't be classed as 'Neo Soul' (a genre classification I think stifles a group of immensely talented artists).
Raheem DeVaughn is a Washington D.C. based artist who started skipping high school and joined a now defunct group when he realised music was it for him. He worked in Tower Records where he was influenced by listening to groups like Coldplay and Radiohead and Hip-Hop records but his early and major influences were his mother's soul/gospel/Prince albums and his noted jazz musician father Abdul Wadud.
I mentioned he's not Neo Soul. Just listen to 'Sweet Tooth' off debut Album 'The Love Experience' and you'll agree. Most of his songs are guitar driven as against the neo soul style of vocally driven renditions (my opinion) but he's vocally capable in his own right.
He gravitates between love songs of subtle suggestion like 'Ask yourself' and 'Breathe', to 'Cadillac' (as much of a tribute to Prince's style as you can get from an artist today), to soul inspired songs like his first single 'Guess who loves you more' offering himself to a recently exed 'object of his affection', to a socially conscious message on 'Until' (this song contains the classic sample from The Isley Brothers 'Footsteps in the dark', also used by Ice Cube on 'Twas a good day' and Usher on 'One day you'll be mine') but goes back to a style you know he has an affinity for on 'Is it possible' featuring Dwele. Still trying to decide on a favourite between 'Breathe' and 'You'...
In his own words 'If it were up to me, I would have done a completely socially-conscious record. And you know what? You still would be able to dance to it. I can’t be worried about what people are going to say. You gotta do what feels good. I think I can deliver that in a manner that fits today trends' He achieves all his aims and then some.