Summer Forcast
jamie on May 27th, 2005
So, it’s been a full week since my last blog entry…am I getting lazy, or just that busy? Well, truth is a bit of both- I’ve been crazy busy this week with work-related stuff, leaving little time to actually listen to anything that came out this week (which includes stuff from Audioslave, Sleater-Kinney, Nikka Costa, Stephen Malkmus, and The Wallflowers). God thing it’s a long weekend, and I’ll have time to catch up on al this new stuff.
NEXT WEEK, however, I’ll stop whatever I’m doing on Tuesday to listen to the new Better Than Ezra album Before The Robots and the Maximo Park spinner A Certain Tiger, both of which I have been (very patiently) waiting for for a couple of months now.
SPEAKING OF FUTURE RELEASES…Let me stop to take a look at some of the stuff that should be gracing my iPod this summer:
May 31
Better Than Ezra - Before The Robots: They could have done better, in my opinion, than to lead off the new album with A Lifetime (which appeared on Closer). The song is nothing less than what I’d expect from Kevin Griffin and crew, but it doesn’t even sound like it’s been re-recorded, just subtly remixed. But I heard a tiny bit of Overcome on tv, and now I’ve even more excited about the new disc. This release is going to end up in permanant rotation all summer long, if not longer… or forever.
Maximo Park - A Certain Tiger: The first single Aply Some Pressure blew me away. The second Graffiti kinda threw me at first, but then realy grew on me after hearing it live. Now, I can’t wait for the rest of this album. They are the crest of the new wave of Brit rock coming into the US, and I’m ready to be swept away.
Oasis - Don’t Belive The Truth: Only the second most over-hyped album coming out of the UK this summer, it won’t dissapoint. The band’s multi-songwriter approach gives the album plenty of flavor, with each unit of the band contributing to each other’s songs like a good stew. Big tours plans in volve a spin through the US, so the usual antics of the brothers Gallagher are no doubt to make headlines all summer long.
June 7
Whew! What a week for new music this is going to be- it might even make up for the lack of releases in March…maybe.
Coldplay - X&Y: *The* most over-hyped album of the summer, I’m already tired of the over-played single Speed of Sound- but who knows, I’ll probably end up liking hte rest of the album. Coldplay always turns out well-crafted music, so be sure it will at least contribute to the general good of the music-listening public. What’s with the “secret decoder album cover” though? I mean, album art is neat, doing something different is cool, and I love concept art- but a “secret message” come on now…
Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business: When I first saw the Black Eyed Peas on an MTV college tour with Wycleff Jean, they were some pretty angry young men (on stage at least- after their performance, they were friendly and welcomed their fans, even dancing and joking with them). Five years later, Elephunk totally changed my view of them. Blending and bending the hip-hop genre at will, and with an uplifting view towards the world, Elephunk shot the group into the mainstream, even landing them on an iPod commercial (the modern standard for commercial sucess). If the first single is an indication, this album is sure to carry on that sucess.
Annie - Anniemal: Annie makes “pop” music- for whatever that means. Her sound is techno-future-poppy beats and production with thin vocals that belay a sense of sadness in even the most bubble-gum pop of songs- without being depressing. Enough contradictions for ya? Yeah, I can’t explain it either, but it’s addictive. She reaches into your head with catchy little bits that lodge themselves there, only to surface at unexpected times, making you crave more. Maybe it’s subliminal messaging realized, or not. Either way, this is a great album!
White Stripes Get Behind Me Satan: The White Stripes surprise me at every bend in the road. Just when I thought the garage-noise sound had all been done before, they breathed new life into it with 2001’s White blood Cells. So it’s with curious anticipation that I’ll wait for Ge Behind Me Satan. The first single, Blue Orchid is a screamer, and subliminally forces me to turn up the volume every time I hear it.
June 14
Embrace - Out Of Nothing: What? You’ve not heard of Embrace? Yeah, I’m not surprised. It seems that the UK has been able to keep one it’s best bands a secret from us Americans. Two albums under their hat, Embrace are poised to break through here now. The release ofthe US single Ashes went pretty much unnoticed, but in the weeks to come, hopefuly the marketin g masters over at Virgin will get the ball rolling.
Foo Fighters - In Your Honor: Dave Grohl. Double Disc- One electric, one acoustic. Get it, love it. ‘Nuff Said.
Stevie Wonder - A Time 2 Love: Stevie Wonder is an american institution. He is pure genius, with a heart of gold. His music is geneuine, and positive, and truly amazing. The first single What the Fuss is killer- funky, synth-driven, socially consciensious, and yet positive (and featuring Prince on guitar). Only a week after the single’s release, I found no less than five remixes of this track- signifying the mass appeal of Wonder’s music. He can blend styles with such transparency that not only does the public eat up the songs, but hip-hop producers salviate at every delectibly sample-friendly note.
John Hiatt - Master Of Disaster: John Hiatt lives in Nashville… but he’s a Hoosier! (Just had to get that off my chest). Singer-songwriter John Hiatt has more than 20 albums to his name! I didn’t even know who he was until an ex-girlfriend introduced me to him a decade ago. Today, I hear him everywhere- in the grocery store, in movie soundtracks, on the radio (I heard BB King and Eric Clapton doing Riding With The King just the other day).
June 21
Jamiroquai - : Album 7 from the UK’s fast-driving funk master Jay Kay will most likely go unnoticed in the US, as were his past 3. It seems that while Kay was busy buying Lambourghini’s after the sucess of 1996’s Travelling Without Moving, American’s lost interest. Only “Canned Heat”, from the 1999 folow-up Synkronized even made the radio here. But in his native UK, he’s still “top of the pops”, and the new single from this album- Feels Just LIke It Should is dynamite! I’ll be listening, even if the rest of the country ignores it.
Sometime In June
Outkast - 10 The Hard Way: Everything I’ve read says this will come our way June 10th, but their site mentions nothing of it- so who knows? What I do know, is that it’ll be a hard thing to match their previous double -disc release, in popularity OR quality. Already, reports claim the duo are feeling the anxiety of trying to live up to their past work.
July 12
Kayne West - Late Registration: “All I want is for you to pronounce my name / It’s Kanye but some of my plastic still says ‘Kayne’” spits West on the leaked single Diamonds Are Forever. I don’t think there will be many in this world who will mispronounce the producer/rapper’s name any longer. The sucess of his solo debut The College Dropout has ensured that. While not a fan of that album myself, I immediately dug into Diamonds, with it’s haunting samples of Shirley Bassey doing the theme to the 1971 Bond flick, and FAT beat. I hope the rest of the album is as good.
July 26:
Jason Mraz - Mr. A-Z: I loved 2002’s Waiting For My Rocket To Come. In fact, it took up a residency in my CD player for almost three months straight. But then I moved on. A year later, he’s all over the radio, and it didn’t take long to wear out on me. So, here we are, 3 years later, and Mr. A-Z is just around the corner- I should be really excited for somethign new from this singer-songwriter. I’ve heard Wordplay, and wasn’t impressed- but I’ve also heard his duet with Raul Midon, and was inpressed, so it could go either way. I don’t think this new album will live up to what Waiting… was, but will ceratinly hold a gem or two.
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