|
|
New Releases For The Week Of March 23, 2008
Edited by Jonathan Cohen
|
The Circus Leaves Town
Given the radical changes that Panic at the Disco has made to its image during the course of the last year, it's hard not to read the lyrics to its new album's opening song as a pre-emptive strike against critics. "Oh, how it's been so long/we're so sorry we've been gone/we were busy writing songs/for you," bassist Jon Walker sings, by way of apology for the two-and-a-half-year lag between 2005's "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" and the new "Pretty. Odd.," due this week via Fueled by Ramen/Atlantic.
Then, he launches into lines meant to comfort fans who have no doubt noticed their favorite band now looks less like Queen and more like the Kinks: "You don't have to worry cause we're still the same band." Lyricist/guitarist Ryan Ross describes the song as "a lighthearted way to make an important statement."
But despite Ross' insistence that things in Panic-land are business as usual, the fact is, a number of things have changed since the band burst on the scene in 2005, resplendent in layers of makeup and surrounded by circus performers. The band shed one member (bassist Brent Wilson) and replaced him with Walker. The members traded their Hedi Slimane-style black suits for vests, cravats and floral patterns.
And perhaps most crucially, they toned down the bombastic, glammy sound of their first record, replacing it with a stripped-down approach that, at times, recalls the Beatles and Bright Eyes. Also gone: the exclamation point from its name. "Dropping the exclamation point was our way of drawing a line in the sand," Ross says. "We have a new record and we feel like a new band. We were all tired of it, and we went ahead and got rid of it."
|
|
As The Crows Fly
After flying high for a decade, Counting Crows reached a crossroads in late 2006, when singer Adam Duritz found himself in a downward spiral of rock star excess and overwhelming depression. Known as the emotive dreadlocked singer whose open-wound emotions fuel his creative ambitions in the studio and improvisational spirit onstage, Duritz was in bad shape. Not only was he unable or unwilling to seriously consider finishing the follow-up to 2002's "Hard Candy," but he questioned whether he wanted the band to continue at all.
"The writing got affected by the fact that I just hated the whole life," Duritz says. "It's just like, 'I'm tired of the record business.' I was tired of radio and the press and the degrading aspects of being famous. The entertainment industry is such a fucking cesspool. So I just, like, went on walkabout."
But at various times in the last year, including the initial sessions for what yielded the new Geffen album "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings," Duritz slowly emerged from a fog he blamed on various antidepressants. The semi-concept album, due this week, is divided between rock-driven songs and more acoustic-based material.
The former tracks find the band reunited with "Recovering the Satellites" producer Gil Norton (Pixies, Foo Fighters), while the latter songs were produced by Brian Deck (Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine). "I didn't really know what I was going to do with the band," Duritz says. "I knew I had a record I wanted to make really badly, that I had at least one last thing to say."
|
|
'Fun' House
Fred Schneider blames the 16-year gap between B-52's albums on a lack of proximity. "All our other records we basically wrote together in one place; now we all live in different parts of the country," Schneider says ahead of "Funplex," due this week via Astralwerks. "We'd get together when we could, but it was a slow process."
"Funplex," which follows 1992's "Good Stuff" and the two new songs which graced 1998's "Time Capsule: Songs For a Future Generation," was recorded with producer Steve Osborne (New Order, KT Tunstall) over two sessions earlier this year in upstate New York and Athens, Ga.
Despite the layoff, Schneider says writing the new material was a natural process. "Keith (Strickland) brought in music and Kate (Pierson), Cindy (Wilson) and I jammed on it," he explains. The sound, he says, is "sexed-up and hyper fun and danceable. It's a B-52's record." There's also a bit of social commentary on the title track and "Keep This Party Going," but Schneider says, "we don't hit people over the heads with it."
"We're just totally behind this record, and we think it's one of our best," Schneider notes. "There hasn't been a B-52's record out in a long time. We have to fill that void that we left."
|
|
 |
Additional titles hitting stores this week include:
The Raconteurs' second album, "Consolers of the Lonely" (Third Man/Warner Bros.), which was only announced a week ago.
Producer/artist Daniel Lanois' "Here Is What Is," featuring guest turns by the Band's Garth Hudson (Red Floor Records).
African musician Lionel Loueke's "Karibu" (Blue Note).
|
With the instant-classic video for "Sensual Seduction" as its lead-in, Snoop Dogg's new album, "Ego Trippin'," arrives this week Interscope. The 20-track set was executive-produced by QDT, which stands for DJ Quik, Snoop Dogg and Blackstreet's Teddy Riley.
More...
|
|
After dabbling in nearly every area of the music industry, Grammy Award-winning producer/musician and "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson is adding "solo album" to his already impressive resume, and he's bringing "Idol" colleague Paula Abdul along for the ride.
More...
|
|
After a three-month delay due to sample clearance issues, rapper Rick Ross is back this week with "Trilla" via Slip-N-Slide/Def Jam.
More...
|
|
After a guest turn on the Foo Fighters' last album plus score contributions to the films "Into the Wild" and "August Rush," guitarist Kaki King should move to the next level with "Dreaming of Revenge," due this week via Velour.
More...
|
|
Contact Us 
