Hollywood Tonight
presents
All Music Guides
New Music Releases
Week of 05 19 2009
Here are AMG's picks for this week's most noteworthy new releases. For
more information, click through on a specific album or just visit the New
Releases page on AMG's site:
AMG
Tori Amos
Abnormally Attracted to Sin
Universal Republic
After the high conceptualism that lorded over 2005's The Beekeeper and 2007's American Doll Posse, singer and songwriter Tori Amos has decided to return to the relatively simple songs-as-songs approach on Abnormally Attracted to Sin. Those recordings, fine though they may have been, stretched the artist's reputation and the patience of her fans to the breaking point. The scope of this set in comparison with the previous two offerings seems more like a retrenchment than anything else. Not that there's anything at all wrong with that. There are songs on Abnormally Attracted to Sin that are as strong as anything she's written.
Contemporary Singer/Songwriter, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock
Busta Rhymes
Back on My B.S.
Universal Motown
Following up his troubled 2006 release The Big Bang, Back on My B.S. -- or B.O.M.B.S. -- is guided by the "return to form" template, sometimes to a fault. "Give Em What They Askin For" is an exercise in yelling, kicking, and screaming "I'm back" as loud as you can, and while fans will likely cheer, Busta and producer Ron Brownz are just preaching to the converted and should have left this hookless monster on a mixtape.
Hardcore Rap, East Coast Rap
Jarvis Cocker
Further Complications
Rough Trade
Perhaps it was inevitable that Jarvis Cocker would find no peace in domesticity. It may have treated him well for a brief period, resulting in the quite brilliant mature pop of his 2006 solo debut, but no other pop star has been as singularly sex-obsessed as Jarvis, so it was just a matter of time before his attentions wandered elsewhere...and so they have on his wildly depraved second album, Further Complications. Right from the start with the thumping "Angela," Jarvis has flesh on the mind, just as he did during the days of His 'n' Hers with its songs about sisters, virginity, and fetishes, but where those songs were underscored by the vague melancholy of somebody who has only glimpsed his fantasy and frets that he will never see it again, the songs here pulsate with perversion, a middle-aged man making damn sure that he's going to get with a tight 23-year-old bod y yet again; it's the sound of a fetishist turned sexual omnivore.
Indie Rock, Britpop, Alternative Pop/Rock, Hard Rock
Eminem
Relapse
Aftermath/Interscope
Eminem placed himself in exile shortly after Encore wound down, a seclusion initially designed as creative down-time but which soon descended into darkness fueled by another failed marriage to his wife Kim and the death of his best friend Proof, culminating in years of drug addiction. Em none too subtly refers to that addiction with the title of Relapse, his first album in five years, but that relapse also refers to Marshall Mathers reviving Slim Shady and returning to rap. Relapse is designed to grab attention, to stand as evidence that Eminem remains a musical force and, of course, a provocateur spinning out violent fantasies and baiting celebrities. Strive as he might to make an impact in the world at large, Relapse is the sound of severe isolation, the product of too many years of Eminem playing king in his castle in a dilapidated Detroit, subsisting on p ills, nachos, torture porn, and E! Daily News.
Hardcore Rap
Iron & Wine
Around the Well
Sub Pop
Named after a lyric from "The Trapeze Swinger," Around the Well collects two discs' worth of B-sides, rarities, soundtrack inclusions, and discarded tracks from the Iron & Wine catalog. Such compilations can be tricky to assemble, but Around the Well is both comprehensive and conveniently presented, with each disc representing the two amorphous halves of Iron & Wine's career.
Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Indie Rock, Lo-Fi
Method Man/Redman
Blackout! Vol. 2
Def Jam
With each having individual obligations all over the place, it took ten years for Method Man and Redman to record a follow-up to 1999's beloved Blackout!, but one listen and you'd think it had only been ten days. Interplay during the intro proves that none of the chemistry is lost, then the slow-grinding "I'm Dope Ni**a" declares that happy and horribly high days are here again, with mentions of Club Nouveau plus Tango & Cash putting a date stamp on the duo.
Hardcore Rap, East Coast Rap
John Luther Adams
John Luther Adams: The place we began
Cold Blue Music
Contemporary Music for Electronics & Tape
Artango
Métropole / Un soir
Virgin Classics
Contemporary Chamber Music
Au Revoir Simone
Still Night, Still Light
Our Secret
Indie Pop, Indie Electronic, Dream Pop
The Beach Boys
Summer Love Songs
Capitol
AM Pop, Surf, Early Pop/Rock, Sunshine Pop, Pop/Rock
Ed Bruce
The Tennessean/Cowboys and Dreamers
Hux
Outlaw Country, Progressive Country, Traditional Country
Johnny Burnette
Johnny Burnette and More Kings of Rockabilly
Primo
Rockabilly, Rock & Roll
CIV
The Complete Discography
Equal Vision
Punk Revival, Alternative Pop/Rock
CKY
Carver City
Roadrunner
Alternative Metal, Post-Grunge
Carbon Leaf
Nothing Rhymes with Woman
Vanguard
Jam Bands, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Roots Rock
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
The Firstborn Is Dead
Mute
Post-Punk, Alternative Pop/Rock
Nick Cave
From Her to Eternity [Bonus Tracks/Bonus DVD]
Mute
Post-Punk, Alternative Pop/Rock
Nick Cave
Kicking Against the Pricks [Bonus Tracks/Bonus DVD]
Mute
Alternative Pop/Rock
Nick Cave
Your Funeral...My Trial [Bonus Tracks/Bonus DVD]
Mute
Post-Punk, Alternative Pop/Rock
Kenny Chesney
Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
BNA
Contemporary Country, Neo-Traditionalist Country, New Traditionalist
Eric Clapton/Steve Winwood
Live from Madison Square Garden
Reprise/Duck
Blues-Rock, Modern Electric Blues, Album Rock, Pop/Rock
Dane Cook
Isolated Incident
Comedy Central
Observational Humor, Standup Comedy
The Curious Mystery
Rotting Slowly
K
Neo-Psychedelia, Indie Rock
The Datsuns
Head Stunts
Cooking Vinyl
Garage Punk, Hard Rock
Drama
Gangsta Grillz: The Album, Vol 2
AMG/Grand Hustle/Atlantic
Hardcore Rap, Gangsta Rap
Drop Nineteens
Delaware
Cherry Red
Shoegaze, Alternative Pop/Rock
Dusty Rhodes and the River Band
Palace and Stage
Side One Dummy
American Trad Rock, Alternative Country-Rock
Emerson String Quartet
Intimate Letters
Deutsche Grammophon
Modern Chamber Music
Family Force 5
Dance or Die with a Vengeance
Transparent
Rap-Rock, Rap-Metal, Alternative Pop/Rock
The Field
Yesterday and Today
Kompakt/Anti
Ambient Techno, Experimental Techno, Techno
Jim Ford
Big Mouth USA: The Unissued Paramount Album
Bear Family
Singer/Songwriter, Country-Rock, Pub Rock
Johnny Griffin
The Best of Johnny Griffin
Riverside
Hard Bop
Headless Heroes
The Silence of Love
Headless Heroes
Indie Pop
Hot Chip
A Bugged Out Mix
New State
Indie Electronic, Indie Rock, Alternative Dance
Mat Kearney
City of Black and White
Aware/Columbia/Inpop
Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock
Lenny Kravitz
Let Love Rule [20th Anniversary Edition]
Virgin
Album Rock, American Trad Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Pop/Rock, Rock & Roll
Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard
'Em Are I
Rough Trade
Alternative Folk, Anti-Folk
Frank London/Lorin Sklamberg
Tsuker-Zis
Tzadik
Jewish Music
Joe Lovano Us Five
Folk Art
Blue Note
Post-Bop
Jason Lytle
Yours Truly, The Commuter
Anti
Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Indie Rock
Steve Martin
The Crow: New Songs for the Five-String Banjo
Rounder
Contemporary Bluegrass, Progressive Bluegrass
Susanna Malkki
Michael Jarrell: Cassandre
Kairos
Contemporary Opera
The Oak Ridge Boys
The Boys Are Back
Spring Hill
Country-Pop, Country-Rock
Original TV Soundtrack
True Blood [Original TV Soundtrack]
Elektra
Swamp Blues, Neo-Traditionalist Country, Alternative Country-Rock, Indie Rock, Soundtracks, New Orleans R&B, Alternative Pop/Rock, Country-Rock
U.S. (United Soul)
U.S. Music with Funkadelic
Westbound
Funk
Passion Pit
Manners
Columbia/French Kiss
Indie Electronic, Indie Pop
Roberto Juan Rodriguez
Timba Talmud
Tzadik
Jewish Music, Avant-Garde Jazz, Hebrew, Son, Rhumba, Klezmer, Latin Folk, Mambo, New York Salsa, Salsa, World Fusion
Savath & Savalas
La Llama
Stones Throw
Post-Rock/Experimental, Downtempo, Indie Electronic
Polly Scattergood
Polly Scattergood
Mute
Indie Rock, Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock
Settle
At Home We Are Tourists
Epitaph
Emo-Pop, Punk-Pop
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Hyaena [Bonus Tracks]
Polydor/Universal
College Rock, Post-Punk, Alternative Pop/Rock, Dance-Rock
Siouxsie & Banshees
Kiss in the Dreamhouse [Bonus Tracks]
Polydor/Universal
College Rock, Post-Punk, Goth Rock
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Nocturne
Polydor/Universal
Post-Punk, Alternative Pop/Rock, College Rock, Punk
Siouxsie and the Banshees
Tinderbox [Bonus Tracks]
Polydor/Universal
College Rock, Post-Punk, Alternative Pop/Rock, Dance-Rock
Wadada Leo Smith & Jack DeJohnette
America
Tzadik
Avant-Garde Jazz, Modern Free
Ruben Studdard
Love Is
Hickory/19
Adult Contemporary R&B, Contemporary R&B
The Tractors
Trade Union
Koch
Neo-Traditionalist Country, Contemporary Country, Roots Rock, Country-Rock
Pat Travers
Travelin' Blues
Blues Bureau
Blues-Rock
John Vanderslice
Romanian Names
Dead Oceans
Indie Rock, Alternative Singer/Songwriter
Kate Voegele
A Fine Mess
Myspace/Interscope
Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Contemporary Singer/Songwriter
The Warlocks
The Mirror Explodes
Tee Pee
Indie Rock, Neo-Psychedelia
Faron Young
Here's Faron Young/Occasional Wife
Hux
Nashville Sound/Countrypolitan, Country-Pop, Traditional Country
Hermas Zopoula
Espoir
Asthmatic Kitty
Afro-Pop
John Zorn
Alhambra Love Songs
Tzadik
Contemporary Jazz, Jazz-Pop
