"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." —Berthold Auerbach
New Music From Cee Lo Green, Soft Moon, Tracey Thorn, etc.
Road Tunes: New releases for the week of October 30, 2012
Web2Carz Senior Writer
Published: October 30th, 2012
H
urricane Sandy has landed on the East Coast, leaving millions without power and killing upwards of 16 people. But whether you're stranded in lower Manhattan, stuck in the outlying areas with no power, or out of harm's way and simply posting fake pictures of sharks in New Jersey on Facebook, you're bound to be wondering what this week's new releases are. And that's why we're here to tell you.
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Cee Lo Green / Cee Lo's Magic Moment (Elektra) THEY SAY: Christmas album from former Goodie Mob/current X-Factor judge Cee Lo Green. WE SAY: Lest you thought that there could be no bigger sellout than being a judge on a TV talent show, Cee Lo Green is here to show you how it's done. The singer, who had a monster hit in 2011 with his off-color hit, "Fuck You," isn't likely to offend anyone with this selection of holiday standards like, "The Christmas Song," "Run, Rudolph, Run," and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (which features fellow X-Factor judge Christina Aguilera). |
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The Soft Moon / Zeros (Captured Tracks) THEY SAY: Second album from San Francisco-based band The Soft Moon, a modern band with a decidedly retro sound. WE SAY: It would be easy to write off The Soft Moon as just another band ripping off the post-punk aesthetic of the early 1980s rather than coming up with anything new, but to their credit, they do the whole Joy Division/early Cure/Bauhaus/Siouxsie sound better than anyone since those bands themselves. |
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Tracey Thorn / Tinsel and Lights (Merge) THEY SAY: Christmas album from Everything But the Girl singer Tracey Thorn. WE SAY: While she's taken the slightly more respectable approach of avoiding traditional Christmas songs in favor of Christmas songs by "hipper" artists like The White Stripes, Ron Sexsmith, and Sufjan Stevens, Tracey Thorn's Christmas album is still a Christmas album. Which means even if it was great, it's an album you'd never, ever listen to any other time of year. And it's not great. |
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The Velvet Underground / The Velvet Underground and Nico (45th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (Polydor) THEY SAY: Anniversary edition of The Velvet Underground's debut album. WE SAY: For super-fans and completists only, this "super deluxe edition" features 6 discs. There's the stere and mono mixes of the album, Nico's Chelsea Girl album, the infamous Scepter Studio sessions, and various live recordings. Most VU fans will already own all this material in some form or other, and neophytes needn't bother. Like most of these "super deluxe editions" this is an overblown, mostly unnecessary, affair. |
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The Velvet Underground / The Verve-MGM Albums (Box Set) (Sundazed) THEY SAY: Box set featuring The Velvet Underground's first three albums, plus Nico's Chelsea Girl, and an additional "lost" VU album, 1969. WE SAY: If you don't own any VU albums on vinyl, you should. And this box set is the perfect place to begin. |
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Neil Young & Crazy Horse / Psychedelic Pill (Reprise) THEY SAY: New album from Neil Young & Crazy Horse, and Neil Young's 35th studio release. WE SAY: Only an artist as self-assured and unafraid of risk-taking as Neil Young would open an album with a 31-minute-long song. But then, only Neil Young could pull it off. And it doesn't hurt when you've got Crazy Horse providing the backing groove for Neil's brilliantly minimal guitar solos. Psychedelic Pill finds Neil & Crazy Horse's sounding as loose and as swingin' as ever. Despite it's few sonic nods to the psychedelic rock era, this is the Crazy Horse you've always loved. For anyone who thought that Neil Young was an artist past his prime, Psychedelic Pill should set them straight. |
