Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Despite being late with the New Releases this week, I haven't had a lot of time to take a look at the list. I'm not going to insult your intelligence and tell you this week's list is good or bad, deep or shallow. I will tell you there about two titles of interest to me.
Before we get to those, it looks like some of the bigger names on this week's release schedule are crooner Michael Bublé and country star Toby Keith. I'm passing those up, as well as new music from Brandi Carlile. Has-been boy band Backstreet Boys are back with a new record this week. I glanced at one review headline and that reviewer wasn't a fan, but kicking the Backstreet Boys is easy sport these days. We've also got a set of deluxe edition Jesus Lizard albums, remastered and expanded. With that, here's what I'm buying…
Morphine
At Your Service
Morphine spent the best years of their too-brief career with the Rykodisc, who now releases a 2-CD anthology of rarities, live cuts, outtakes, and previously unreleased material from the Boston-based trio.
Before I can tell you how happy I am about this collection, here's a writing lesson. Never — I'm using the word never — put a modifier or qualifier in front of the word unique. Unique stands alone. Whatever unique is describing — a person, place, thing, state of being — is like nothing else. That's what it means. Something can't be very unique. How unlike something else can something be than to be like nothing else? Something can't be kind of unique. It's either unlike everything else or it's not. Unique stands alone. I dance you through this dance so I can say so did Morphine. They stood alone. They were unique. They still are.
Mark Sandman died 10 years ago, and in the intervening years a small amount of the material he left behind has seen release. The Night was a posthumous album the band was soon to release. There's been a live bootleg release. There's a 2-CD collection called Sandbox, which collects Sandman music with his various bands including Treat Her Right and Morphine. There was a greatest hits package. Now there's At Your Service. I got my copy yesterday and haven't listened to it in its entirety yet, but so far I'm reveling in the comfort of listening to the only band that ever sounded like this. I wouldn't suggest At Your Service as your starting point, but you are politely commanded to give Morphine a listen.
Built to Spill
There Is No Enemy
I recently told the story of how I discovered Built to Spill. Since that discovery, I've relished the musical magic of albums that came before Keep it Like a Secret and fell deeply in awe of You In Reverse. Doug Martsch returns with the followup this week, There is No Enemy. I got an advance of this late last week and have listened to it from beginning to end once and have picked my way through it a time or two since.
I like what I've heard so far. It has the familiar BTS sound. I haven't gotten to explore the songs or textures carefully enough to tell you about the ways they've expanded, evolved, or changed. The basic blueprints of previous BTS albums are evident: Martsch has a distinctive voice that sounds like a cross between Shannon Hoon and Neil Young and he's a fantastic guitar player. The ballad "Life's a Dream" has been the first song to emerge from the pack for me. Each time I listen to the album, it rises above the rest. I'm sure others will, too, in time. We'll come back to this one. In the meantime, Mark Saleski has the goods on it.
Here's the full rundown:
Air
Love 2
Michael Bublé
Crazy Love
Built to Spill
There Is No Enemy
Brandi Carlile
Give Up the Ghost
Toby Keith
American Ride
Osso
Run Rabbit Run
Tokio Hotel
Humanoid
Kurt Vile
Childish Prodigy
Brian Auger
Definitely What!/Open
Backstreet Boys
This Is Us
Backstreet Boys
This Is Us [Bonus DVD]
Bad Lieutenant
Never Cry Another Tear
Lou Barlow
Goodnight Unknown
Black Hollies
Softly Towards the Light
Karl Blau
Zebra
Blue Collar Comedy Tour
The Best of Blue Collar Comedy
Luke Bryan
Doin' My Thing
Joe Budden
Escape Route
D.L. Byron
This Day and Age
Califone
All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
Rosanne Cash
The List
Exene Cervenka
Somewhere Gone
Riccardo Chailly
Mendelssohn Discoveries
Sarah Chang
Bruch, Brahms: Violin Concertos
Ray Charles
The Spirit of Christmas [Remastered] [Bonus Track]
The Clientele
Bonfires on the Heath
Joe Cocker
Live at Woodstock
John Coltrane
Side Steps
DJ Spooky
The Secret Song [Bonus DVD]
Betty Davis
Is It Love or Desire
Betty Davis
Nasty Gal
Dead Man's Bones
Dead Man's Bones
John Denver
Unplugged in the U.S.S.R.
Joyce DiDonato
Rossini: Colbran, the Muse
Amy Dickson
Amy Dickson plays Glass, Tavener & Nyman
Mike Doughty
Sad Man Happy Man
Gustavo Dudamel
Discoveries
The Dutchess & the Duke
Sunset/Sunrise
Eddie & the Hot Rods
The Singles Collection
Tinsley Ellis
Speak No Evil
Bill Engvall
Aged and Confused
Evangelista
Prince of Truth
Everclear
In a Different Light
Fat Joe
Jealous Ones Still Envy (J.O.S.E. 2)
Orenda Fink
Ask the Night
Lita Ford
Wicked Wonderland
Gogol Bordello
Live from Axis Mundi
Gossip
Music for Men
Vince Guaraldi
The Definitive Vince Guaraldi
Calvin Harris
Ready for the Weekend
Grant Hart
Hot Wax
Headlights
Wildlife
Hockey
Mind Chaos
HORSE the Band
Desperate Living
Shafiq Husayn
Shafiq En' A-Free-Ka
The Jesus Lizard
Down [Deluxe Remastered Reissue]Goat [Deluxe Remastered Reissue]Head [Deluxe Remastered Reissue]Liar [Deluxe Remastered Reissue]
King Tubby & The Dynamites
Sound System International
Lake
Let's Build a Roof
Blake Lewis
Heartbreak on Vinyl
Lights
The Listening
Lucero
1372 Overton Park
Dean Martin
My Kind of Christmas
Mayday Parade
Anywhere But Here
Eugene Mirman
God Is a Twelve Year Old Boy with Asperger's
Mission of Burma
The Sound the Speed the Light
Morphine
At Your Service
The Mountain Goats
Life of the World to Come
Music Go Music
Expressions
Me'Shell Ndegéocello
Devil's Halo
Noah and The Whale
The First Days of Spring
Nick Oliveri
Death Acoustic
