Why new releases on a Monday this week? Does the holiday really impact sales?
My Chemical Romance, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
i’ve got high hopes for this one since I loved The Black Parade. I haven’t heard anything off it yet and I’m a little concerned that this will pale in comparison to its predecessor. Regardless, I’m picking it up.
Jay-Z, The Hits Collection Volume 1
I may wait a little bit on this one since I’m getting a lot of other stuff this week. The track listing looks solid, although five unreleased songs really isn’t enough to get me excited about the deluxe edition.
Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine: 2010 Remaster
This is a tough one. I already own this but I would love to hear it remastered, plus I can pick it up for eight bucks so this one is probably a go.
Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
I liked 808s and Heartbreak and this one is getting great reviews from all the usual suspects so I may end up picking this up instead of waiting until I see it used.
Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday
I could be wrong but this reeks of someone the publicity machine is trying to cram down the throats of The Kids.
I love this picture. It’s from the album Frances Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim and shows (from the left) arranger Claus Ogerman, Sinatra, and Jobim during the recording of the album. The first thing I noticed was that everyone is wearing a tie. I can count on my hand the number of times each year I wear a tie, but there’s something great about the past when men would wear ties whenever they went out. To me everyone looks like they’re exhausted but even then the ties stay on and give an air of professionalism to the whole thing.
The other thing is Sinatra’s expression along with his body language. I’ve read several accounts about how seriously he took the creation of the music on his albums and this picture sums it up perfectly. I get the vibe that he knows what he is aiming for and is struggling to express it to Jobim and Ogerman. The album itself is my favorite of Sinatra’s and seeing a picture like this makes me appreciate it all the more.
Years before Tommy Lee’s spinning drum kit, Keith Emerson did the same thing with his piano. As goofy as it sounds on paper, it is pretty impressive that he was able to keep playing as the thing spun around.
One other thing - is all the crap on his keyboard at the end of the clip just for show or does it actually have a purpose?
One of the things about the Sprint Center in Kansas City is that it shows me how out of touch I am about how popular acts are that go there. I saw today that Linkin Park is going to play there in January and I had no idea they were popular enough to play a 18,000+ capacity arena. This is nothing against them, I just never hear anything new from them on the radio so I figured they would play something like the Uptown Theatre (just checked, 1,700 capacity which is smaller than I thought). I had the same feeling when Muse played there - I know they’re popular but I didn’t think they were a headlining act. Kid Rock is playing there also, but I would chalk that up to a Kansas City thing like Jackyl’s popularity here.
No real point, it just seems like a good third of the rock acts that play the Sprint Center make me scratch my head in disbelief. For all I know they’re only selling a third of the place or they barricade certain sections off like when smaller acts play Starlight but it seems like whoever books them would have a good idea of how much they would sell.
Well you can certainly see that the Christmas season is coming with the holiday albums and compilations being released.
Jimi Hendrix, West Coast Seattle Boy
This is the sort of thing I would have been all over a few years back. It sounds like a great box set, containing some of the session work he did along with some alternate takes and rarities. Unfortunately I’m not into box sets that much any more. The session work sounds interesting but it’s the sort of thing that I would listen to once and never have any interest in again. I’ve never been a huge fan of alternate takes either unless they’re drastically different. I would rather just stick with the studio albums.
I also saw that new editions of the BBC Sessions and the Blues compilation are being released today. I own both of these in previous incarnations and while the BBC Sessions is really good, I’m not sure what the motivation was for re-releasing Blues (other than the obvious answer - money).
Billy Joel, The Hits
I checked out the track listing for this and I hate the last four songs on this (”A Matter of Trust”, “We Didn’t Start the Fire”, “I Go to Extremes”, “The River of Dreams”) so much that I literally got angry when I just saw the titles.
Kid Rock, Born Free
I’ll wait until I find it used. His albums are a mixed bag for me so I’ll wait and see on this. Is this being played on the radio? I have no idea.
Pink Martini, Joy to the World
Just when I think I’ll never buy another Christmas album, this comes out. I’m going to end up getting this because I know it’s going to be great. Featuring guest star Ari Shapiro? Even better.
Amazon recommended Annie Lennox’ Christmas Cornucopia along with this and I can’t imagine anything that would make me hate Christmas more than this would.
