Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
It's crunch time.
Between now and Christmas, you can expect to see a ton of new releases by the biggest stars in music hitting the record store each and every Tuesday. Still, it's hard to imagine a week bigger — and more loaded with great new titles — than this one.
Whatever your particular taste in music, this week has got it all. You've got your returning legends, your critical favorites, and of course a fair number of those greatest hits and multi-disc compilations that always seem to pop out of the woodwork around this time of year.
Leading the charge is what may just be the most eagerly anticipated album of the year in Magic, Bruce Springsteen's return to the front lines of active rock and roll duty with the E Street Band. Not that it needed any help, but the set-up for this album has been nothing short of brilliant. First you had the "leak" of the lead-off single "Radio Nowhere," about a month ago on the internet. The fact that the song happens to be easily about the most rocking — and radio friendly — that Springsteen has done in something like a couple of decades hasn't hurt either.
Then about this time last week, all of the other tracks from Magic start finding their way online — and it turns out that most of these are pretty damn rocking as well. Then the album gets released commercially a week early on vinyl — allowing certain writers (including one particular Blogcritic) to write early, glowing reviews. Finally, Bruce and the E Street Band perform a triumphant concert before thousands of fans in New York City seen grinning ear to ear on nationwide TV on the Today Show.
As set-ups go, it just doesn't get much more masterful.
The thing is, the album delivers the goods. You'll be reading much more about Magic here on Blogcritics in the days ahead as the reviews start to roll in. For now, I'll just say that what you've already heard is pretty much all true. Magic rocks like nothing Springsteen has done in twenty years.
In another welcome return to form, John Fogerty is also back this week with the new Revival. If the title seems an odd choice, rest assured that it would appear to be absolutely intentional. With this album — and his return to Fantasy Records — John Fogerty seems to have all but declared his peace with the past on both that label, and with the music of his former band Creedence Clearwater Revival. As if to bring that point further home, Fogerty even has a track here called "Creedence Song," that contains the key line "you can't go wrong when your playing that…" — you guessed it.
There are also a number of greatest hits and career overview packages hitting stores this week. These include hits sets from the likes of Faith Hill, Chicago, and The Very Best Of Mick Jagger, covering his solo releases minus the Rolling Stones (which can only mean that it is anything but).
Probably the most ambitious of the career retrospectives is the Bob Dylan three-disc career overview Dylan. The compilation also comes in a single disc version and a deluxe boxed set, and covers everything from Dylan's early sixties years with the folkies, right up through last year's Modern Times. For the fan who already has everything, it represents a way of having many of those highlights together on one compilation, while for new fans it serves as a great introduction.
So as I've already noted, it's a busy week. A few of the other new release highlights you'll find in stores this week, include the new ones from eighties new wave stars Annie Lennox (sans Eurythmics) and Siouxsie Sioux (sans Banshees). Taking a break from his "Doors 2000" act, Ian Astbury also returns for another round with the Cult. PJ Harvey has what is being described as something like an album of dark soundscapes played on voice and piano in her new White Chalk album.
Dashboard Confessional return to a more acoustic-based sound on The Shade of Poison Trees, while Matchbox Twenty are back with Exile on Mainstream. Country fans can look for the aforementioned Faith Hill Hits collection, as well as new ones from Brooks & Dunn (Cowboy Town) and Merle Haggard (The Bluegrass Sessions). Hip hop fans are greeted this week with new albums from Peanut Butter Wolf, Boyz N da Hood, and Hurricane.
Here are all of this week's new CD releases courtesy of All Music Guide.
Dashboard Confessional
The Shade of Poison Trees
Vagrant
Emo, Indie Rock
Bob Dylan
Dylan (3CD Edition)
Columbia/Legacy
Album Rock, Folk-Rock, Political Folk, Singer/Songwriter, Country-Rock, Rock & Roll, Pop/Rock
John Fogerty
Revival
Fantasy
American Trad Rock, Americana, Roots Rock, Singer/Songwriter, Rock & Roll
PJ Harvey
White Chalk
Universal/Island
Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock
Bruce Springsteen
Magic
Sony
Heartland Rock, Album Rock, Singer/Songwriter, Rock & Roll
5 Browns
Browns in Blue
RCA Red Seal
Piano Ensemble Music
Ryan Bingham
Mescalito
Lost Highway
Americana, Country-Folk
Boyz N da Hood
Back Up N da Chevy
Bad Boy
Southern Rap, Gangsta Rap
Brooks & Dunn
Cowboy Town
Arista
Contemporary Country, New Traditionalist, Neo-Traditionalist Country
Peabo Bryson
Missing You
Peak
Adult Contemporary, Urban, Smooth Jazz
Cake
B-Sides and Rarities
Upbeat
Post-Grunge, Alternative Pop/Rock
J.J. Cale
Rewind: The Unreleased Recordings
Time Life
Pop/Rock, Singer/Songwriter, Country-Rock, Blues-Rock, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Adult Contemporary
Sarah Chang
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
EMI Classics
Baroque Violin Concertos
Chicago
The Best of Chicago: 40th Anniversary Edition
Rhino
Pop/Rock, Soft Rock, Pop, Adult Contemporary, Jazz-Rock
Clockcleaner
Babylon Rules
Load
Noise-Rock, Goth Rock, Punk
The Cult
Born into This
Roadrunner
Hard Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock
Karl Denson
Lunar Orbit
Bobby Ace
Crossover Jazz, Jazz-Pop, Urban, Smooth Jazz, Contemporary Jazz
Federation
It's Whateva
Reprise / Wea
West Coast Rap, Hardcore Rap
Felix da Housecat
Virgo Blaktro & the Movie Disco
Rude Photo/Nettwerk
Alternative Dance, Club/Dance, Left-Field House, Electronica
Frightened Rabbit
Sing the Greys
Fat Cat
Indie Rock
Eliza Gilkyson
Live from Austin, TX
New West
Contemporary Folk, Singer/Songwriter
Merle Haggard
The Bluegrass Sessions
McCoury
Bluegrass, Traditional Country
Mickey Hart & Zakir Hussain
Global Drum Project
Shout! Factory
Worldbeat, Ethnic Fusion
Richard Hawley
Lady's Bridge
Mute
Contemporary Singer/Songwriter, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Roots Rock, Pop, Rockabilly, Rock & Roll
Faith Hill
Hits
Warner Bros.
Contemporary Country, Country-Pop, Adult Contemporary
J. Holiday
Back of My Lac'
Music Line/Capitol
Urban
Hurricane
You Hear Me?
Asylum/Rap-A-Lot
Southern Rap, Hardcore Rap
Mick Jagger
The Very Best of Mick Jagger
WEA/Rhino
Pop/Rock, Rock & Roll, Dance-Rock
Japancakes
Giving Machines
Darla
Indie Rock, Experimental Rock, Post-Rock/Experimental
Annie Lennox
Songs of Mass Destruction
Arista/Sony BMG
Pop/Rock, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Adult Contemporary
Sondre Lerche
Dan in Real Life
Virgin/EMI
Indie Pop, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Film Music, Soundtracks
Darlene Love
It's Christmas, Of Course
Shout! Factory
Christmas, Holiday, Pop/Rock, R&B, Soul
Matchbox Twenty
Exile on Mainstream
Atlantic
American Trad Rock, Pop/Rock, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock
Mobius Band
Heaven
Misra
Indie Rock, Ambient Pop, Dream Pop
The Most Serene Republic
Population
Acs
Indie Rock, Post-Rock/Experimental
New York Polyphony
I Sing the Birth
Avie
Music for Vocal Ensemble
The 1900s
Cold & Kind
Parasol
Indie Pop, Chamber Pop
Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 5
Decca
Post-Romantic Piano Concertos
Washington Symphonic Brass
Burana in Brass
Warner Classics
Music for Brass Ensemble
Original Soundtrack
The Heartbreak Kid
Plan R
Soundtracks, Pop/Rock, Pop
Original Soundtrack
Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?
Atlantic / Wea
Soundtracks, Contemporary R&B, Urban
Over the Rhine
Snow Angels
Great Speckled
Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Vocal Jazz, Pop
Peanut Butter Wolf
2K8
STH
Underground Rap, Hip-Hop
The Pipettes
We Are the Pipettes (US Bonus Tracks)
Cherrytree/Interscope
Indie Pop
Chuck Prophet
Soap and Water
Yep Roc
Country-Rock, Americana, Alternative Country-Rock
John Ralston
Sorry Vampire
Vagrant
Indie Pop, Indie Rock
The Sadies
New Seasons
Yep Rock
Alternative Country-Rock, Neo-Psychedelia
Doug Sahm
Live from Austin, TX
New West
Tex-Mex, Roots Rock, Country-Rock, Blues-Rock, Americana, Progressive Country
Siouxsie
Mantaray
Universal
British Punk, Post-Punk, Goth Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock
Soulja Boy Tellem
Souljaboytellem.com
Interscope
Pop-Rap, Hardcore Rap
Robin Trower
Bridge of Sighs (Expanded Edition)
Chrysalis/Capitol
Hard Rock, Blues-Rock
Ike & Tina Turner
The Ike & Tina Turner Story 1960-1975
Time/Life WEA
R&B, Soul, Pop-Soul, Rock & Roll
Frankie Valli
Romancing the '60s
Motown
Adult Contemporary, Soft Rock, Pop/Rock
Various Artists
Heavy Metal (Box Set)
Rhino
New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Hair Metal, Heavy Metal, Hard Rock
We Are Wolves
Total Magique
Dare to Care
Indie Rock, Electro-Industrial
White Rainbow
Prism of Eternal Now
Marriage
Ambient, Neo-Psychedelia, Experimental Rock
