Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Once again we're a day late and a dollar short this week on our weekly New Album Releases column because once again AMG has totally played me out. I've started a miniseries within my daily Verse Chorus Verse column I'm calling 'What Would Tiny Tim Do?' and it's all about thankfulness and blessings. I'd be a lot more thankful at the moment if I'd gotten my New Release e-mail on time. I'd be thankful if I'd gotten one at all. What to do? Improvise.
I think I know why there hasn't been a list from AMG after scanning a few of the sites out there. It's thin this week, and I don't mean that in the sense of I'm an elitist and only like things that are cool. I mean the record labels seem to have dumped most of their hottest titles on us leading up to Black Friday and there weren't many held over for this first week of December. There will likely be an interesting title or two between now and Christmas, but this week is anorexic.
Here's what I've come up with so far:
An Evening With Il Divo-Live In Barcelona (CD/DVD)
Il Divo
I got pretty well creamed last week for trashing Adam Lambert. I wonder if this Simon Cowell-related product will inspire the same passion. Actually, I'm not going to trash Il Divo. I didn't know who or what they were. I've heard the name but had to look them up. They're signed to Cowell's label and are an international operatic pop band, in some fashion. If that's your thing, here's a live CD/DVD package from them.
The Best of Enya
Enya
This isn't the first Enya compilation to hit the market, but it is the first one to add her contributions from the Lord Of The Rings soundtrack to "Carribbean Blue" and "Orinoco Flow."
My take on Enya: lovely voice and pretty sounds, but it loses its effect after awhile. I haven't obsessed over each song from each album in her career. I'm casually familiar with a handful of them. They're pretty and pleasant and inoffensive. After listening to a few, I start to not be able to distinguish one song from the next. Maybe there's more there and I'd know that if I dug deeper. Maybe I know all I need to know.
Untitled
R. Kelly
R. Kelly is more famous to me for the way he's been lampooned on The Boondocks and by Dave Chappelle than his music. Well, that and I like to sing one line from "I Believe I Can Fly" to amuse and annoy my wife. The guy had a huge run of hits and was a major chart presence for quite some time. I don't know if he's still relevant in the pop/R&B world, but he's still releasing music.
Juvenile
Cocky and Confident
The joke pretty much writes itself here, doesn't it?
Britney Spears
The Singles Collection (CD/DVD)
She can't sing, the music is terrible, and millions of you bought her records anyway. The war is over and the good guys lost. The singles collection is a compromise proposition for those of you who liked a few of the hits on the radio but had too much self-respect to actually buy one of the albums.
