Today’s New Music Releases
Okay, so here we are! A Tuesday that will see some new CD’s appear in your local store that ARE ACTUALLY WORTH YOUR MONEY. Not all of this day’s new discs ARE ACTUALLY WORTH YOUR MONEY, but some of them are. Let me tell you which ones:
FOO FIGHTERS- ONE BY ONE
Dave Grohl is on his way to becoming the hardest-working man in show business. The musical multitasker somehow squeezed out the fourth Foo Fighters record in between drumming for Queens of the Stone Age, masterminding a punk-rock supergroup project called Probot and negotiating a truce with Courtney Love for the release of Nirvana’s greatest hits. Here, Grohl consistently puts forth straightforward, stripped-down rock that is neither ironic nor pandering–a fine line between Cheap Trick and cheap tricks. The sludged-out stoner rock of QOTSA infiltrates a couple of tracks, but it’s all about arena-sized hooks, whisper-to-a-scream song structures and the unmistakable feeling that Grohl rocks out because, well, it’s still fun. What a revolutionary concept! One By One is easily one of 2002’s best!
SANTANA- SHAMAN
With 1999’s “Supernatural” Carlos Santana bucked a 20-year commercial dry spell by enlisting a group of youthful guests to rejuvenate his hocus-pocus guitar playing. The result moved 25 million units and won him an armful of Grammys. So, is it any wonder the follow-up sticks closely to that winning blueprint? Rob Thomas has been replaced by the younger, sexier Michelle Branch on the first Latin-pop single, “The Game of Love.” The rest of the guest roster reads like an awards-show performance lineup: Dido (more on her in a moment), Placido Domingo, Musiq, Seal…the list goes on and on. The differences between collaborators can be jarring (like going from screamers P.O.D. to the quilted softness of Dido) and only leave about half of an album of pure mystic guitar playing for the old-school hippie fans. But even as Santana’s magic fingers sometimes struggle for a common thread here, they still do plenty of good work. The song with Dido (Feels Like Fire) is actually the first piece of new music from the British Babe since 1999. If this tune is any indication of where she is headed (musically), I hope we get more from her soon.
And then there are the rest of the new music releases for Tuesday, October 22, 2002:
* ALABAMA In The Mood: The Love Songs (RCA Country)
* ALAN JACKSON Far Off (Arista)
* CHARLI BALTIMORE Charli Baltimore (Def Jam)
* CHRIS ROBINSON New Earth Mud (Redline)
* DAVID BOWIE Best Of Bowie (EMI)
* FINCH What It Is To Burn (MCA)
* HEADSTONES The Oracle of Hi-Fi (Maple Music)
* HOBEX U Ready, Man? (True North)
* JACKASS OST Jackass OST (American/Universal)
* JOHN MELLENCAMP Box Set (Mercury)
* KEITH URBAN Keith Urban (Capitol)
* KENNY G Wishes (Arista)
* LYRIC Lyric (J Records)
* MS. JADE Girl Interrupted (Interscope)
* O-TOWN O2 (J Records)
* PAID IN FULL OST Paid In Full OST (Def Jam)
* PAVEMENT Slanted And Enchanted (Matador)
* PAVEMENT Slow Century (DVD) (Matador)
* RODDY FRAME Surf (True North)
* SONYA ISAACS Pictures Of Me (Hollywood)
* T.A.T.U. 200 km/hr In The Wrong Lane (Interscope)
* THE DONNAS Spend The Night (Atlantic)
* THICKE Cherry Blue Skies (Interscope)
* U2 Electrical Storm (CD Single) (Island)
* VARIOUS ARTISTS A Cellarful Of Motown (Motown)
* W.C. Ghetto Heisman (Def Jam)
* YOUSSOU N’DOUR Nothing’s In Vain (Nonesuch/Warner)
PS- Foooooooooooooooooooooo!
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