Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
DEPECHE MODE‘s Live in Berlin concert DVD directed by Anton Corbijn comes out November 17 on Columbia Records. The band was filmed on location at the o2 World Berlin during the band’s Delta Machine Tour in 2013 in support of their 13th studio album, Delta Machine. They played to over 2.4 million people in 32 countries on the tour. The deluxe version includes a DVD, two CDs, a second DVD with behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, an acoustic session, and a 5.1 mix Blu-ray CD version of Delta Machine. Pre-order here.
Listen, the new album from DAVID GUETTA, is out November 24 on Big Beat/Atlantic/Parlophone. Guetta told Billboard, “All I can say is that it’s completely song-based. There are featured artists of course, but none that you’d expect with me, and really it’s just completely different from anything I’ve done before.”
Groundbreaking rap collective WU-TANG CLAN has signed with Warner Bros. Records and will release a 20th anniversary album called A Better Tomorrow December 2. The group includes RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and Cappadonna.
Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings will release the SIMON & GARFUNKEL box set The Complete Albums Collection on November 24. It includes five studio albums newly remastered from first-generation analog sources, four live albums including the 1981 Central Park reunion concert, the soundtrack to The Graduate, and 1972’s 14x platinum selling Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits. Pre-order here.
OF MONTREAL winds up its current tour later this month, but starts a fresh run of dates in the South in January. The band has finished recording its new album Aureate Gloom, which comes out early next year as well.
ROD STEWART‘s five studio albums released between 1969 and 1974 are being re-released in a vinyl box set December 1 with exact reproductions of original artwork, pressed in 180-gram heavyweight audiophile vinyl, and contained in a rigid slipcase box.
PLACIDO DOMINGO‘s Encanto del Mar – Mediterranean Songs is out next week on Sony Classical, with songs from Italy, Spain, France, Sardinia, Corsica, Israel and Cyprus.
FLEETWOOD MAC has announced additional dates for its “On with the Show” tour, continuing into 2015 with all five members of the classic Rumours-era lineup. Details at the website.
JEFF BECK‘s Live In Tokyo DVD, Blu-ray, and digital video, with the legendary guitarist’s new band performing brand new material from his upcoming album as well as “Stratus,” “Led Boots,” “Big Block,” “A Day In The Life,” “Rollin’ and Tumblin'” and more, is out November 24, 2014.
Grammy-nominated and multi-platinum-selling Rostrum/Atlantic recording artist WIZ KHALIFA kicks off a new month-long tour October 24 on the strength of his third studio album, Blacc Hollywood, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart.
Next month High Moon Records releases two lost classics: lost 1977 album Two Sides to Every Story by GENE CLARK of The Byrds (voted #3 in the 2010 Uncut feature “Readers’ 50 Greatest Lost Albums”), and the first-ever official CD release of Black Beauty, the 1975 album from Arthur Lee’s legendary psychedelic rock band LOVE.
Fans of Guillermo del Toro’s vampire/horror series The Strain on FX know MIA MAESTRO as CDC biochemist “Nora Martinez.” Also a singer-songwriter, Maestro just released her bilingual debut album Si Agua, recorded in Iceland (after she had been invited to open for Emiliana Torrini) with collaborations from Damien Rice. The album offers “a romantic blend of Latin, American and European culture.”
CHER‘s “Dressed to Kill” tour, postponed because of the star’s illness, has been rescheduled and kicks off in November. Details at her website.
FARMER JASON, childrens’-music alter ego of Jason and the Scorchers frontman Jason Ringenberg, has won a Parents’ Choice Gold Award and starred in his own Emmy-winning PBS program. Now he has new holiday album out, Christmas on the Farm, 100% funded by fan contributions, with six originals and six holiday standards. “My goal with this recording is to not only entertain families during the Holiday Season but also to subtly teach children something about the rural connections to Christmas traditions,” says the man who just wants a “punk rock skunk” for Christmas and urges kids to “Eat Your Fruitcake” so it doesn’t clog up the landfills.
And speaking of Christmas albums, be sure to see our Holiday/Christmas album roundup announcing new albums from Idina Menzel, Earth Wind & Fire, Darius Rucker, Celtic Thunder, Anthony Hamilton and more.
ZAC BROWN BAND‘s first career anthology, Greatest Hits So Far…, comes out November 10 from Southern Ground and Atlantic Records. It includes the band’s 11 #1 Country singles. This weekend the band is hosting and headlining the 4th annual Southern Ground Music & Food Festival organized and curated by Brown himself in Charleston, SC. Pre-order the album here.
A new album from THE WATERBOYS, Modern Blues, comes out on Kobalt in January. The band’s 11th studio album is produced by Waterboys leader Mike Scott, mixed by Bob Clearmountain, and produced (a first for the band) in Nashville. A North American tour is in the works. Fresh to the ranks of the group are Memphis keyboard player “Brother” Paul Brown and David Hood, legendary bassist from the heyday of FAME studios and Muscle Shoals. “I’ve got the man who played on “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” on bass!” Scott laughs. “He and Paul had a huge impact on the sound.” Pre-order here.
