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Tag: New Music Page 1 of 2

Music/Poems

Are haikus getting old? Is there another form of poetry you would like to see music reviews in? Comment away.

mastodon live

Live At The Aragon – Mastodon
Crack The Skye in its
entirety, plus other
concert favourites

liam finn

Fomo – Liam Finn
Displaying usual
consistent quality with
added “spaciness”

eddie vedder

Ukulele Songs – Eddie Vedder
Pearl Jam front man jumps
on bandwagon. What have you
wrought, uke orchestra?!?

flaming lips stardeath etc

The Dark Side Of The Moon – The Flaming Lips & Stardeath And White Dwarfs
Pink Floyd opus by
way of Wayne Coyne’s musical
circus plus Peaches

kitty daisy and lewis

Smoking In Heaven – Kitty, Daisy & Lewis
As a child of the
nineties, musical siblings
recall Hanson bros

neon trees

Habits – Neon Trees
American alt-
rock band from Provo, Utah.
Good ole wiki, eh?

Rock Fight!

Two noteworthy music videos were released yesterday and they will battle it out on your computer screens in our new feature, Rock Fight! How exactly do pieces of film set to music battle you ask? By being watched sequentially and then voted on in the comments. Easy.

Our first combatants in the ring are The Beastie Boys featuring Santigold with Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win off their album Hot Sauce Committee Part Two.

Good stuff, Beasties! (FYI; Santigold’s album is here)

Taking them on in this titanic struggle is Rebecca Black with her new song, My Moment. She doesn’t have an album yet because she is such a fresh new artist, but I understand an ep is in the works, look for it coming to the library soon!

Nice one, Rebecca!

Now that you’ve sized up both contenders, vote for your favourite in the comments. Who will win the Rock Fight!?!

Some New Things To Hear

 

 

arctic monkeys

Suck It And See – The Arctic Monkeys
You shouldn’t take the
title literally, tastes like
plastic and cardboard

transformers

Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
How they resisted
temptation to include Pink
Floyd is beyond me

i see stars

The End Of The World Party – I See Stars
Someone’s primary
instrument is listed as
“screams” in liner notes

paloma faith

Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? – Paloma Faith
But, Paloma, you’re
beautiful. Does this mean you
don’t exist? #confused

lady antebellum

Need You Now – Lady Antebellum
“Antebellum” is
an architectural style.
The more you know, huh?

emily osment

Fight Or Flight – Emily Osment
Hannah Montana
franchise spawns another
teen pop sensation

New Music: International Edition

 

 

the kills

Blood Pressure – The Kills
Boy/Girl duo’s brand
new adventures in lo-fi
minimalism.

maston blood mountain

Blood Mountain – Mastodon
Mammoth species
lived from the Oligocene
through to Pleistocene.

lady gaga born this way

Born This Way – Lady Gaga
Temporarily
banned in Lebanon due to
controversial themes.

big time rush

BTR – Big Time Rush
Manufactured band
with a TV show. Is there
any other way?

panic at the disco

Vices & Virtues – Panic! At The Disco
Two members exit
and the punctuation mid
band name reappears.

glee 6

Glee, The Music: Volume Six
Placeholding series
of syllables, no further
insight to offer.

unkle

Where Did The Night Fall – Unkle
Unkle can always
be relied upon to make
great videos, see.

architecture is helsinki

Moment Bends – Architecture In Helsinki
Neoclassical
features adorn buildings of
Finland’s capital.

Coming soon, New Music: New Zealand Edition

Hot New Jams

 

 

glee warblers

Glee Presents: The Warblers
A cappella glee
club from a fictional school
down in Ohio

miranda cosgrove

Sparks Fly – Miranda Cosgrove
iCarly starlet
follows Hannah Montana
blueprint to success

fleet foxes

Helplessness Blues – Fleet Foxes
The follow up to
an eponymous debut,
released to acclaim

james blake

James Blake – James Blake
Dubstep goes Chillwave.
Electro goes Minimal.
Trip-hop, I suppose.

the wombats

This Modern Glitch – The Wombats
Marsupial-themed
cynics’ sophomore effort
adds some bpm

jennifer lopez

Love? – Jennifer Lopez
American Idol
judge capitalizes on
re-found relevance

bon jovi

Greatest Hits – Bon Jovi
Those old dudes that were
at the stadium last year
re-package, add four.

Major Flavours 2011 – DJ Sir-Vere
Hiatus over,
Sir-Vere again mixes, cuts
up and destroys tracks

The Music That Has Most Recently Arrived

nelly furtado

The Best Of – Nelly Furtado
Has she now – like a
bird – flown away? Or is this
a stop-gap album?

queen

Queen – Queen
How many dudes do
you know that rocked a mic stand
like this? Not many.

green day

Awesome As F**k – Green Day
Apparently their
live shows are more awesome than
most everything.

london sessions

London Sessions – LCD Soundsystem
I will miss you James
Murphy. Like, a whole lot. Is
this really goodbye?

angles

Angles – The Strokes
Former coolest band
in world returns from lengthy
hiatus to rock

britney spears

Femme Fatale – Britney Spears
Nico reference
excepting, it’s not really
that avant at all.

king of limbs

The King Of Limbs – Radiohead
All summaries pale
compared to animated
.gifs, see example.

plain white ts

Wonders Of The Younger – Plain White Ts
Essential wardrobe
items release another
album. Their sixth.

rumer

Seasons Of The Soul – Rumer
“I’d have these moods in
my soul that would come around
like seasons” – Rumer

chase&status

No More Idols – Chase & Status
Polished dubstep from
United Kingdom duo, plus
many, many guests.

elbow

Build A Rocket Boys! – Elbow
Well received alt-rock
featuring nostalgia as
the major motif.

chris brown f.a.m.e.

F.A.M.E. – Chris Brown
Forgiveness rhythm
and blues record? Fans are my
(his) everything.

Reviews As Haikus

kele

Kele – The Boxer

Bloc Party frontman
releases solo debut,
the indie kids dance.

moby

Moby – Go, the best of Moby

Outspoken vegan
makes enough singles to just-
-ify a best of.

stroke

Various Artists – Stroke: songs for Chris Knox

Tributes for legends
should all be as good as this.
Get well soon, Chris Knox.

marina and the diamonds

Marina and the Diamonds – The Family Jewels

“I’m from Ancient Greece”
– Marina Diamandis
That’s a weird claim, huh?

groove armada

Groove Armada – Black Light

It’s the “dark album”
hi-NRG synth-pop tunes
abound on their sixth

as i am

Alicia Keys – As I am : the super edition

What makes it super?
The DVD probably.
Soulful as usual.

basement jaxx

Basement Jaxx – Singles

Another dance group
collects songs and puts them on
a disc. Repackage.

sia

Sia – We are born

Sunshine pop from a
blonde-haired, blue-eyed lady from
the antipodes.

Nesian Mystik – 99AD

The Nesian Mystiks
return, Scribe shows up, so does
a guy called Wise. Chur.

 

Five New CDs

Rap veterans De La Soul took a look back upon their careers in 2003 and realised they had accumulated enough “hits” to seperate out the “greatest” ones onto a CD and make a nice sounding compilation out of it. Timeless was the aptly named result. Includes the fantastic; Me, Myself and I, Ring Ring Ring (Hey Hey Hey) and the fantastically named; Millie Pulled A Pistol On Santa

Progression Vol. 2 promises on the cover to be “A journey through the big room club sounds of 2009”. A quick google search sheds no light on what exactly big room clubs sound like, but as it’s a Ministry Of Sound compilation, big trance records are a good guess. Features remixes of tracks by Oliver Twizt, Juan Kidd, Cunnie Williams, MDX and other artists.

After looking through the liner notes of Bi-On-Ic, Christina Aguilera’s new album, I can inform you that she’s taken a leaf out of the Lady Gaga book of fashion. Has she been similarly influenced music-wise? Probably. The cover is pretty exciting, it’s a hologram that when tilted at the correct angle, makes her look like a robot. +1 for robots.

Local dubsters, Fat Freddy’s Drop have been to the UK recently. They played some shows and whatnot and now we have live documentation, Live at Roundhouse London. It only has six songs on it, but they are all well over 10 minutes long. So don’t be fooled looking at the tracklisting and thinking you’re getting “shortchanged” somehow.

Hey, remember Pluto? Their rhythm section formed a side project called Nightchoir, which has now turned into a middle project (that’s the opposite of side project, right?). Anyway, 24 Hours Of Night is what they’ve come up with and early reviews call it “staggeringly beautiful” a “focused vision” and “alt-country”. Pretty much sums it up for me.

Things For Listening

owl cityOwl City is a one man electro band, conjured up on sleepless nights by Adam Young in his parents’ basement. It includes a chart topping single (Fireflies) and a viral hit (Hello Seattle) and launched a successful world tour on the back of debut effort, Ocean Eyes. Maybe the next time you can’t sleep you should make an album instead of a midnight snack, clearly it pays dividends.

britneyOh man, Britney Spears’ singles are sooooo bangin’. I wish someone would have the foresight to compile them on a single disc that the library would buy and put in it’s YA collection so the hit parade could just keep on rollin’ from 1999 all the way to 2009. Oh wait, it looks as though The singles collection completely fits that bill. Well then.

Pixie Lott is a rising, young R&B/Pop star who gained label attention from the songs posted on her myspace, ala Lily Allen, which is a good example as she is not too disimilar in style. Turn It Up is an enthusiastic, infectious first effort that has all the teen pop fans talking.

vampire weekendVampire Weekend were already indie-famous on the strength of their first album, but now that Twilight fever has truly gripped the globe, they could be set for proper-famous given that they’ve aligned their personal brand so closely with the now ubiquitous, undead coffin-dwellers. If they were called RPattz Weekend they could be bigger than U2. Based on my sound (?) reasoning Contra should be massive, the sunshiney indie-pop songs within help though.

The Temper Trap are a Melbourne band with grand ambition. The songs on Conditions, their debut, are almost all big ballady melodramas designed for stadiums. If Muse, Coldplay, Keane, Snow Patrol and the like are the sorts of cats in your bag, pop these young upstarts in beside them. Ok?

And lastly, Katy Perry’s MTV Unplugged is here. It includes live, acoustic performances of seven of songs on the CD, on the DVD are the same seven songs, but with added visuals and an interview. A reminder to all of us who’ve forgotten that the “M” in MTV stands for music.

Andmoreagain

alicia keysAlicia Keys’ fourth, The Element Of Freedom comes our way with a bonus DVD of what the catalogue descibes as “intimate studio performances”. If you’ve ever enjoyed an Alicia Keys album, you’ll be pleased with this one too, easy electronic elegance from a deservedly familiar voice. Includes guest appearances from Jay-Z and Beyonce.

onerepublicOneRepublic are an American band who gamely attempt to marry the sounds of stadium rock to modern R&B. If those two sounds are the bride and groom, then slickness and polish are the best man and maid of honour, with moody ballads being the eventual offspring. To extend this already extended metaphor I will mention they honeymoon at the upper reaches of the charts. Waking Up is the album.

electronic 80sAnd finally, the pile of new music wouldn’t be complete without a 3CD compilation put together by Ministry Of Sound. Luckily then, Anthems : electronic 80s is here. Amongst it’s 68 mixed tracks are contributions from Kajagoogoo, Blancmange, A Flock Of Seagulls and other ridiculously named bands. Don’t worry, there’s some cool stuff on there.

Listen To These If You Please

Amerie may not have the chart topping success of contemporaries like Beyonce and Rihanna, but she is every bit their equal when it comes to making quality, post-2k R&B. Latest work Love & War continues her strong run of form, earning well-deserved critical plaudits. Also, her full name is Amerie Mi Marie Rogers, which is mildly amusing.

Ministry Of Sound have been busy compiling the dance music, putting it on 3CD sets, then releasing it in little boxes for many years now. Two new little 3CD boxes they’ve just put out are Anthems II, which includes tracks from 1983-2009 and The Annual 2010, which is what they suppose this year will sound like on the inside of dance clubs.

contemporaries

For Your Ears

jay zThe Blueprint 3 is actually Jay-Z’s fourth album in the Blueprint series (there was a confusing 2.1 released at some point) and his first post-unretirement. It continues in the same vein as it’s predecessors, radio hits mixed with more introspective tunes – mix in some guest spots and I guess you could say that’s the blueprint for the Blueprints. Hoho.

michael jacksonThis Is It : The Music That Inspired The Movie has arrived upon the catalogue. For Michael Jackson completists it has a bonus disc full (well three out of four tracks) of demo versions of songs, for other people it has a selection of his singles dating back to Jackson 5 days.

new moonContinuing with the music from movies theme; New Moon Soundtrack. A who’s who of indie rock singing about things loosely related to the acting output of a who’s who of people who pretend to be vampires, werewolves and the girls that love them. Grizzly Bear, Thom Yorke, Death Cab For Cutie and more.

The Time Of Our Lives is an EP by Miley Cyrus that was released exclusively at Wal-Mart to help promote her new clothing line. Eight songs including a live one featuring the Jonas Brothers. Well worth a look if Miley makes you smiley.

Mika returns with album number two, it’s called The Boy Who Knew Too Much. This is an ominous title. Who is this boy? What did he know? If I listen will I find out, or merely discover a dancey pop album destined for heavy rotation across the airwaves? Questions, but no answers. I remain suspicious.

Now That’s What I Call Music 31 is another of those collections of songs that someone calls music. Only this time it’s twice as big, because instead of just the one CD, there’s now two. Bonus! Features Beyonce, Ladyhawke, Kelly Clarkson and about a million others.

Gin Wigmore’s Holy Smoke debuted at number one, went gold it’s first week, and went platinum it’s second. Quite the success by anyone’s measure. If you don’t already have this, you can issue it from us. For free.

New CDs For You

Hey, what’s that on the catalogue? Oh my, it’s seven new CDs. What a treat huh?

pearl jamPearl Jam have been around for so long that there once was a time when I was too young to buy any of their albums. Their first album was called Ten and this, Backspacer, is their tenth album –  might this mean they’ve come full circle and this is their last? Who knows, but they’re still doing the grunge rock, sprinkled with emotive ballad thing anyway.

museMuse are a band who’ve always aimed for epic, and on The Resistance they’ve outdone themselves in that department. These are songs that only stadiums can contain, everything is an overblown symphony of massive guitar solos and pomp. So, you know, quite exciting and all that.

The Underground 2009 is a Ministry of Sound compilation, full of underground dance hits from the year past. Spread over a genrous 3 CDs are the likes of Armand Van Helden, Dizzee Rascal, Roots Manuva and others including the intriguingly named Zombie Disco Squad.

sean kingstonSean Kingston found chart success a couple of years ago with his dancehall and reggae flavoured hip hop, most unavoidably with mega-hit Beautiful Girls. On second album proper, Tomorrow, he looks for a repeat performance with more of the same polished, catchy, dancefloor and radio ready tunes.

kid cudiUnderground rapper Kid Cudi has delivered his much anticipated debut album Man on the moon : end of the day to critical acclaim and now it’s arrived here. It’s a highly conceptual affair, featuring five acts in which Cudi and guests including Kanye West, MGMT and Ratatat lay down some of the most futuristic hip hop imaginable.

tokio hotelI reviewed a Tokio Hotel album just a few weeks ago, if you picked it up and were all like “man, I just can’t get enough German Emo, this rules”, then I have some good news, Humanoid is it. It’s Tokio Hotel’s second English language release and it finds them adding sci-fi imagery and a slightly maturing sound to spice things up.

paramoreParamore became platinum selling stars after the release and subsequent success of Riot!, but it caused division amongst band members and they came close to breaking up. This tumult seems to have made Paramore stronger and tighter, because  Brand New Eyes is their best set of songs yet.

This week in new CDs

doomDoom is a masked rapper famous for being mysterious prolific and really, really good. He used to be known as MF Doom (and various other aliases), but dropped the MF, much like Diddy dropped the P from P. Diddy. Anyway, Born Like This is his latest. If you enjoy your hip hop old school and clever give this a listen, then delve deeper into his catalogue.

ginGin Wigmore is a local singer in the Amy Winehouse / Macy Gray mold of funny voiced songstresses. Her EP Gin: Extended Play went gold here this June and now arrives on our shelves. You’ve probably seen her videos and heard her on the radio, but if not pick this up if you like folksy pop.

ulcerateSticking with the local content, Ulcerate are New Zealand’s premier death metal oufit and they bring Everything is Fire to the table. It’s been lauded in the international growly vocals and pounding double kick pedalled drums community for being cerebral and forward thinking, though fans of loud noises will enjoy also.

liam finnLiam Finn pops back with Champagne in seashells, a wee five tracker recorded with Eliza Jane. It’s a nice follow up to I’ll be lightning and makes me look forward to his next full-length. More tasty pop-rock treats from our beardy pal.

tokio hotelGerman emo kids Tokio Hotel’s English language debut Scream serves up the sort of melodramatic rock now expected by the genre, the twist being that they (at the time of recording anyway) were all eligible for YA library cards. If your boat is floated by MCR etc. pick this up, as you’ll likely enjoy greatly.

Just two, but they’re good.

deadweatherJack White is a prolific man. If his bandmates aren’t ready to release any new material he simply forms a new band and presses on. Dead Weather being active band number three, with The White Stripes and The Raconteurs being the other two. Dead Weather is somewhat of a departure for White, who is banging the drums instead of strumming the guitar on this record. On Horehound, the bands debut, he shares vocal duties with Allison Mosshart (of the Kills), with Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age) and Jack Lawrence (Raconteurs and Greenhornes) rounding out the group. If you’ve ever enjoyed any of the above bands, or even just Rock music in general give Horehound a listen.

gossipThe Gossip emerged out of the Nu-Rave scene spearheaded by The Klaxons in 2006 with Standing In The Way Of Control and now return with their new long-player Music For Men. Lead by outspoken front-woman Beth Ditto, it’s more of the same adventurously aggressive, neon-coloured electro-pop.

Even More Metal

Metalheads rejoice! A whopping two-thirds of the new CDs this week feature loud guitars and shouty vocals. Beatles fans and Tiki Taane fans can also rejoice, but not quite as much.

masterofpuppetsMaster of Puppetsis considered by many as Metallica’s masterpiece and one of the, if not the greatest metal album of all time. Your parents may not consider it a masterpiece if you play it loud enough, and really, isn’t that the point?

andjusticeforallMetallica’s next album …And Justice For All, realeased in 1988 (so too old to have a YA card anymore) saw them break-through on MTV with the video for One. My first memory of Metallica was seeing One on Beavis and Butthead, which means I’m far too old to have a YA card anymore.

metallicaMetallica, or the Black Album as it is is commonly referred to due to the black cover, was the one that made Metallica into proper mainstream stars. It includes quite a few big hits like Enter Sandman and slow-dance favourite (at least if you go to bogan schools) Nothing Else Matters.

blizzardofozzBefore he was a tragic figure on a reality show Ozzy Osbourne cranked out a few top-notch metal albums, the fantastically titled Blizzard Of Ozz being the first of his solo efforts. A cornerstone of 80’s metal.

Diary Of A Madman came next for Ozzy Osbourne in 1981.  Building on his previous success, this classic album turned Ozzy into a star. Biting the heads off bats and other craziness would follow…

highwaytohellAC/DC are another classic metal band who operated in the 80s. Highway To  Hell was their best record to date and also their most well recieved to date. Includes the classic single Highway To Hell.

A couple of Beatles compilations have turned up, 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, also known as the Red and Blue albums respectively. These are pretty much the definitive Beatles compilations to seek out if you don’t feel like picking up the million or so albums they made.

Flux / Tiki by Tiki Taane has turned up. It’s a remix job for the Past, present, future album and includes a song called David Lange You Da Bomb!, which confused me initially until I realised that David Lange probably was our most rockin’ PM.

Even More Metal

Metal, Soundtracks, Local

kill-em-allMetallica are one of the biggest and longest tenured bands in metal and it all started here on Kill ‘Em All, their 1983 debut record. It’s also probably their fastest and rawest album, if you enjoyed the more recent Death Magnetic then this is right up your alley.

somewhere-back-in-timeSticking with metal for a while longer, there is a new Iron Maiden compilation out. Somewhere back in time : the best of 1980-1989 arguably finds the band at their peak. Includes Run to the Hills, Number of the Beast and other headbanging classics.

headstuntsThe Datsuns recently released album number four, Headstunts, and now it’s joined the YA collection. If you’ve ever enjoyed The Datsuns in the past, or are a fan of The White Stripes, The Libertines etc. then pick this one up.

Sate Of Mind are a local drum and bass group who’ve been making waves recently with Faster Than Light. It also comes with a bonus disc of remixes, so, bonus.

Transformers : revenge of the fallen : the album is the soundtrack to the newly released Transformers movie. Green Day, Nickleback, Linkin Park and other similar bands are featured.

Lastly, Hannah Montana : the movie also has a soundtrack that’s been added to the collection. If you’re a fan of Miley’s go out and pick this one up post haste.

metal, soundtracks, local

So Many CDs

12 new CDs this week, so here is a marathon post and a marathon playlist. Phew. empire-of-the-sun

If you’re a fan of MGMT and their work, have a listen to Empire Of The Sun’s really ace Walking On A Dream. Also they wear really silly costumes, which is always a nice bonus. the-rakes

The Rakes’ third album Klang is here. If you enjoy Interpol, The Strokes, Franz Ferdinand and all that sort of thing, then The Rakes are right up your alley. plain-white-ts

Punk Popsters Plain White T’s Big Bad World has arrived. I think they have a new one coming shortly, so get caught up with this beforehand… If you want to that is. pink-floyd

Released in 1973 Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon is one of those albums that always pops up in top 100 all time lists. Come get it from here if you can’t find it amongst your parents collection.

More CDs and playlist after the jump…

 

Read More

The Week In Music.

4 New CDs have arrived. If your fancy is tickled by any of them they can be found, as always, in the YA area.

Grace/WastelandsEx Libertines and Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty has re-emerged as a solo artist called Peter Doherty. The addition of the ‘r’ is supposed to make us take him seriously as a mature artist and on Grace/Wastelands he does indeed come off as serious and mature . . . at least comparitively so. A very good, if somewhat subdued, album.

dr-boondiggaAn album that is sure to be playing in cafes for the next 3 years is the new Fat Freddys Drop CD, Dr. Boondigga and the big BW. Who is this Dr. Boondigga? And what is a big BW? Answers inside, maybe.

Flying the flag for New Zealand rock are Midnight Youth with The Brave Don’t Run.  This is their debut and it could be the start of big things for them.

And lastly, a fantastic compilation called Simply The Best New Wave. 34 tracks across two discs and every one of them is a gem. Includes The Modern Lovers, The Cure, New Order, Blondie and other classic artists. HGHLY RCCD.

New YA CDs

The new music is coming in thick and fast these days. I’ve seldom seen it thicker or faster.

Keri Hilson is described by allmusic.com as a dynamic singer songwriter. These dynamic skills have been used to write songs for the likes of  Usher, Ludacris and Kelly Rowland, and now on her own album In A Perfect World.

Destroy all lines : dance floor anthems is a compilation for all you cats out there who like dancing to anthemic hits on floors. If that’s you then you’re in luck, because it’s a whopping two-disc affair.

Remember Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad? Yes, of course you do. Well, now I’d like to introduce you to Good Girl Gone Bad: The Remixes. A good stop-gap between Rihanna albums proper.

Platinum emo-poppers Paramore have a new live album entitled The Final Riot. All your favorite Paramore tunes being sung along to by an arena full of kids. Close your eyes and pretend you’re there.

Local Hip-Hopper Savage is back in time for New Zealand Music Month with Savage Island. I can only assume that this is a concept album based on some sort of Survivor type show hosted by Savage. At least I hope so …

21st Century Breakdown is the new, soon-to-be inescapably huge album from Green Day. It’s divided into three acts because they’re so big and important they transcend the regular album format. Golly!

 

may09

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