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New Releases For The Week Of July 01, 2007
Edited by Jonathan Cohen
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Two Sides Of T.I.
Atlanta rapper T.I. tries a little bit of everything on his new album, "T.I. vs. T.I.P.," due this week via Grand Hustle/Atlantic. The set features guest turns by Eminem, Nelly, Jay-Z and Busta Rhymes as well as production from Timbaland, Scott Storch, Mannie Fresh, Wyclef Jean and Just Blaze. On it, T.I. raps both as himself and as his alter ego, T.I.P.
"These are the things that T.I.P. does to keep T.I. from getting where T.I. thinks he can be ... The only person that can beat me is me," T.I. says. Among the most surprising songs is the Jean-produced "You Know What It Is"; the artists wrote eight songs during just three days of collaboration. The cut sports a dubby thump behind the sound of a gun being cocked, with T.I. boasting, "Had the album of the year, n***a / Grammy or not."
The album also features the Runners-produced club track "Don't You Wanna Be High" and "Tell 'Em I Said That," marked by a spiraling synth line and production by Danja Handz.
"I can never go pop -- the hood is in me," T.I. says. "I'm just going for a different audience than I usually target. It's not fair to me to keep talking about the same things. I've gone so far past the hood that I've got to talk about other things."
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Kelly's Turn
Kelly Rowland's new album, "Ms. Kelly," was originally due in 2006. "It was dragging too much," Rowland recalls of listening to what she terms the album's "first draft." "I tend to go for midtempos and ballads. But I thought, 'I've got to speed this up. I'm 25, not a homebody. I can still shake a tail feather.'"
Opening the album is Rowland's sassy and fun lead single "Like This," featuring Eve and sporting the production imprints of Polow Da Don and Sean Garrett. Underscoring the subtly assertive stance of its title, the album cohesively showcases Kelly Rowland, the maturing woman and singer/songwriter versus Kelly Rowland, former teen idol and founding member of Destiny's Child.
"I was searching on my first album and didn't know exactly what I wanted," she says. "I knew I loved alternative music, rock and R&B. I just wanted to fuse it all together." Thus, Rowland worked with a stable of producers that includes other marquee names like Tank (who duets with Rowland on the ultra-sexy "The Show"), Rockwilder, Billy Mann and Soulshock & Karlin. The album's only other guest is Snoop Dogg, who layers his languid flow over the '70s-vibed, good girls/bad boys-themed "Ghetto."
"This album is very personal," she declares. "What I wanted to say, what producers and writers I wanted to work with; it was everything coming from me. I found my way with this record."
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Life And Liberty
After scrapping the original May 29 release date, Velvet Revolver returns this week with its second RCA album, "Libertad." First single "She Builds Quick Machines" has already become a fast hit on Billboard's rock charts.
"RCA did a bunch of research on what the first single should be," bassist Duff McKagan says. "I'm pretty anti that stuff. The band had something they wanted to go with, but RCA just kept coming with it. So we decided, it's fine. It's a great f*ckin' rock song. It has a kick-ass guitar riff, a great chorus, a really big bridge and a great Slash solo."
McKagan is also high on "Last Fight," which he calls "a mid-tempo, really beautiful song; probably something you wouldn't expect from us," as well as "She Mine," described as "a fun pop ditty."
"I think 'Contraband' was a great record," he says of Velvet Revolver's 2004 debut. "It was the right one for us to make as our first record. But 'Libertad' really goes way beyond that musically. I don't think any of us could have made a better record at this point in our careers."
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Additional titles hitting stores this week include:
The soundtrack the OutKast member Andre 3000's cartoon series, "Class of 3000" (LaFace).
Rock outfit Silverstein's "Arrivals & Departures" (Victory).
A live CD/DVD set from rock act Queensryche, "Mindcrime at the Moore" (Rhino).
Warner Bros.' soundtrack to the new "Transformers" movie, featuring a new song from the Goo Goo Dolls.
The self-titled debut from rapper Collie Buddz (Columbia).
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The past two months haven't been too stellar for pop star Kelly Clarkson in the run-up to the release this week of her new RCA album, "My December." First came reports that she had to fight hard with label execs to release an album of entirely self-penned material, on the heels of her smash 2004 album "Breakaway," which featured a number of co-writes with experienced songwriters.
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Long-known for their relatively epic waits between studio releases, the Beastie Boys surprised fans this spring with the announcement that their new record would arrive a scant three years after 2004's "To the 5 Boroughs."
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Last year, Ryan Adams got bored on tour, recorded approximately 11 albums' worth of material on his laptop and then posted it on his Web site. He rapped, yodeled, rocked out and even mocked detractors.
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As standard bearers of the East Coast hardcore scene in the early 1980s, Bad Brains were partly responsible for helping the Beastie Boys first get into the recording studio.
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