This hasn’t been a great year for new releases, at least not so far. Upcoming albums from Ben Folds, Lana Del Rey, Adele and Rihanna might change that, or they might be too little too late.
At least one recent release, Ashley Monroe’s The Blade, has been a delightful standout.
I discovered Monroe as one third of Pistol Annies and really enjoyed her 2013 album Like a Rose, but The Blade puts her on a whole new level.
Lana Del Rey’s new album, Honeymoon comes out on September 18. This is exciting news for my daughter and me, both big fans of the mournful chanteuse.
It is less exciting for my wife, who finds Del Rey boring and annoying. As we remind her regularly… haters gonna hate.
While looking up Honeymoon‘s release date, I discovered that Del Rey released an 8-song EP titled Paradise in between her last two full-length albums. New music before the new music!
John Mellencamp released 1993’s Human Wheels 17 years into his successful career. It’s been 22 years since. I’m a casual Mellencamp fan at best, but from a distance I view this record as a turning point for him.
He had certainly released his share of hits before Human Wheels. In fact, the seven albums prior to this one went platinum, and five of them went 3x or 5x platinum. But the songwriting and production on this record was on a different level, or at least a level that more directly connected with me.
Here’s a track from the debut Traveling Wilburys album, a favorite album of mine.
‘Congratulations’ finds Bob Dylan in crooner mode, a combination that shouldn’t work but often does. According to the publishing credits on the album, Dylan wrote this song as well, which might explain why he got lead vocal duties over, say, Roy Orbison.
Rounding out my latest look at the Billboard charts is Fetty Wap, with his third appearance in the top 13.
Sadly, ‘679’ is just as bad as the other two.
I never feel as old as when I’m trying to make sense of the commercial success of songs like this. Do today’s kids really respond to this celebration of misogyny and the thug life?
