There is simply no way to sugarcoat it — it’s a pretty weak crop of new album releases we have submitted for your listening approval this week. With all due respect to the Silversun Pickups and John Doe, if the best we can do this spring are a band trying to revive nineties alternative rock, and the lead singer of a great eighties punk-rock band doing a country record — well, you get my drift.
Where is Eminem when we so desperately need him?
That said, let’s get to this week’s new offerings. There’s actually a fair amount of hipster buzz surrounding the Silversun Pickups, and I have to admit that for what they do, it’s actually done rather well. To say that this band worships at the altar of Smashing Pumpkins would be to understate things considerably. The good news is that on Swoon, they do it so well, you may just find yourself nostalgically pining for those old Birkenstocks of yours.
By contrast, former X-man John Doe eschews the straight-ahead punk of his most famous band, and heads straight towards the country with Country Club, a collaboration with Canadian roots rockers the Sadies, that is equal parts Nashville purdy and Bakersfield twangy.
Death Cab For Cutie are back this week with The Open Door EP, a companion piece to Narrow Stairs that includes four new songs, and an unreleased demo. Now here’s Pico with his latest jazz-tastic pick:
The Art Blakey of today could very well be trumpeter Derrick Gardner, but this hard bop bandleader doesn’t replace great players with other great players, he adds them, instead. As an encore to last years superb A Ride To The Other Side, Gardner expands his septet to an octet with the addition of the talented Brad Leali (alto sax) and Jason Marshall (baritone sax). With this format, the Prophets gain the layered richness of a big band with the nimbleness of a small combo. As before, the arrangements are top-notch, the songwriting is tight and the re-imagining of covers creative (including a slow and slinky version of Aretha Franklin’s hit “Natural Woman”). There’s nothing but inspired jazzy goodness oozing from Echoes Of Ethnicity.
Here are all of this week’s new album releases courtesy of All Music Guide:
John Doe & the Sadies
Country Club
Yep Roc
Alternative Country, Neo-Traditionalist Country
Grand Duchy
Petits Fours
Cooking Vinyl
Indie Rock
Metric
Fantasies
Metric/Last Gang
Indie Rock, New Wave/Post-Punk Revival
The Rakes
Klang
V2
New Wave/Post-Punk Revival, Indie Rock, Punk Revival
Silversun Pickups
Swoon
Dangerbird
Alternative Pop/Rock
Roy Ayers Ubiquity
He’s Coming
Verve
Soul-Jazz, Instrumental Pop
Gato Barbieri
Chapter Two: Hasta Siempre
Impulse!
Latin Jazz, World Fusion, Free Jazz
Beck
One Foot in the Grave [Expanded Edition]
Geffen/K/Iliad
Indie Rock, Lo-Fi, Alternative Pop/Rock
Tony Bennett/Bill Evans
The Complete Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Recordings
Fantasy
Standards, Ballads, Vocal Jazz, Modal Music, Show Tunes
Art Blakey
Soul Finger
Verve
Hard Bop
The Boy Least Likely To
The Law of the Playground
+1
Indie Pop
Bill Callahan
Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
Drag City
Indie Rock, Alternative Singer/Songwriter
Lars Danielsson
Tarantella
Act Music + Vision
Post-Bop, Modern Creative
Dennis DeYoung
One Hundred Years from Now
DEP
Adult Contemporary, Pop/Rock, Album Rock
Death Cab for Cutie
The Open Door EP
Atlantic
Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Alternative Pop/Rock
Arne Deforce
Morton Feldman: Patterns in a Chromatic Field
Aeon
Contemporary Chamber Music
Diamond Head
Am I Evil?: Anthology
Castle
New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Heavy Metal, Hard Rock
Dntel
Early Works for Me If It Works for You II
Plug Research
Indie Electronic, Indie Rock
Fastball
Little White Lies
Mega Force
Pop Underground, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Pop/Rock
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella in Hollywood
Verve
Vocal Jazz, Traditional Pop, Standards, Ballads, American Popular Song
Buddy Guy
The Definitive Buddy
Shout! Factory
Electric Blues, Modern Electric Chicago Blues, Electric Chicago Blues, Chicago Blues
The Handsome Family
Honey Moon
Carrot Top
Neo-Traditional Folk, Alternative Country, Alternative Country-Rock, Indie Rock
Alex Harvey/Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Live at the BBC
Spectrum Audio
Glam Rock, Hard Rock, Album Rock
Angela Hewitt
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier
Hyperion
Baroque Keyboard Music
The House of Love
Live at the BBC
Universal
Indie Pop, Alternative Pop/Rock, Noise Pop
Freddie Hubbard
The Artistry of Freddie Hubbard
Impulse!
Hard Bop
Ida Maria
Fortress Round My Heart
Mercury
Indie Pop, Alternative Singer/Songwriter
Joe Jackson
At the BBC
Spectrum
Pop/Rock, New Wave, Punk
Keith Jarrett
Treasure Island
Impulse!
Avant-Garde Jazz, Post-Bop, Standards
The Juan MacLean
The Future Will Come
Dfa
Left-Field House, Alternative Dance, Club/Dance, Neo-Electro
Life on Earth!
A Space Water Loop
Subliminal Sounds
Neo-Psychedelia
Medeski Martin & Wood
Radiolatians 2
Red Ink
Jam Bands, Post-Bop, Avant-Garde Jazz, Jazz-Funk, Modern Creative, Soul-Jazz
The Mission UK
Live and Last
Eyes Wide Shut
Alternative Pop/Rock, College Rock, Goth Rock, Dance-Rock
The Monks
Black Monk Time
Infinite Zero/American
Garage Rock, Rock & Roll
The Monks
The Early: 1964-1965
Light in the Attic
Garage Rock, Rock & Roll
Lee Morgan
Lee-Way
Blue Note
Hard Bop
Mud
Rock On/As You Like It [Bonus Tracks]
Glam/7T’s
Glitter, Glam Rock, Hard Rock
Willie Nile
Places I Have Never Been [Bonus Tracks]
River House
Roots Rock, Rock & Roll, Americana
Noisettes
Wild Young Hearts
Mercury UK
Garage Rock Revival, Indie Rock
Anne Sofie von Otter
Bach
Archiv Production
Baroque Vocal Music
Andre Previn
André Previn: An 80th Birthday Celebration
RCA Red Seal
Modern & Contemporary Orchestral & Chamber Music
Maurice Steger
Venezia 1625
Harmonia Mundi
Renaissance & Baroque Music for Recorder
Papercuts
You Can Have What You Want
Gnomonsong
Indie Pop
Pomegranates
Everybody, Come Outside!
Lujo
Indie Rock
Prefuse 73
Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian
Warp
Left-Field Hip-Hop, IDM, Glitch, Experimental Techno
Simon & Garfunkel
Live 1969
Columbia/Legacy
Folk-Rock, AM Pop, Folk-Pop
Siouxsie & Banshees
Kiss in the Dreamhouse [Bonus Tracks]
Polydor UK/Ume
College Rock, Post-Punk, Alternative Pop/Rock, Goth Rock
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Nocturne
Geffen
Post-Punk, Alternative Pop/Rock, College Rock, Punk
Jill Sobule
California Years
Pinko
Adult Alternative Pop/Rock
Sun City Girls
Napoleon and Josephine: Singles, Vol. 2
Abduction
Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Cowpunk, College Rock
Telepathe
Dance Mother
Iamsound
Indie Rock
Trick Pony
The Best of Trick Pony
Warner Bros.
Contemporary Country, Neo-Traditionalist Country
Various Artists
Honey and Wine: Another Gerry Goffin and Carole King Song Collection
Ace
Brill Building Pop, Teen Idol, Surf, Early Pop/Rock, AM Pop, Rock & Roll, Folk-Rock, Doo Wop
Various Artists
New Rubble, Vol. 4: Utopia Daydream
Past & Present
Indie Rock, Alternative Folk, Alternative Pop/Rock
Johnny Varro featuring Ken Peplowski
Two Legends of Jazz
Arbors
Mainstream Jazz
Phil Woods
The Children’s Suite
Jazzed Media
Post-Bop
Yonlu
A Society in Which No Tear Is Shed Is Inconceivably Mediocre
Luaka Bop
Indie Rock, Lo-Fi, Alternative Pop/Rock, Bossa Nova