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New Releases For The Week Of September 01, 2008
Edited by Jonathan Cohen
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Easy Jeezy
Young Jeezy balances commercial/ pop aspirations with core hip-hop sounds on his new Def Jam album "The Recession," getting a lift from DJ Toomp, Drumma Boy, Midnight Black and longtime collaborator Shawty Redd on this sonically enjoyable follow-up to 2006's "The Inspiration."
Previously criticized for strange rhymes and repeating lines, Jeezy delivers some great turns of phrase on songs like "Wordplay," where he answers claims of glorifying drug dealing with the couplet, "They want wordplay and I got bird play."
Considering Jeezy's admission that he's a bit uncomfortable making female-skewed songs, the blend manifests itself most clearly on "Taking It There," with Trey Songz crooning a romantic chorus.
While fans may gravitate more toward cuts like "Vacation" and "Yeah," "Taking It There" could wind up being the track Jeezy needs to cement himself as a mainstream artist and not just a favorite of rap aficionados.
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Back Around The Block
Led by the single "Summertime," which has sold more than 484,000 digital copies despite topping out at No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100, "The Block" (Interscope), the first New Kids on the Block album since 1994 has "a great '80s vibe that can be enjoyed by everyone," group member Jordan Knight says.
Making a new album was spurred on by bandmate Donnie Wahlberg, "who was the loudest and pushed the hardest in terms of getting going on the music. His excitement was really infectious," fellow NKOTB member Joey McIntyre says.
Among the contributors here are Bryan-Michael Cox, RedOne, Timbaland, Akon and the Pussycat Dolls. Ne-Yo guests on "Single," while one-time boy band rival New Edition lends a hand on "Full Service."
NKOTB begins an extensive reunion tour Sept. 18 in Toronto. "This is, I think, a classy show, and we want to make it a world class show," McIntyre says. But, he adds, "there's not gonna be any Ferris wheels or ... trapezes, not too many tricks. We're sticking to the basics. We're working with great lighting and sound and video, but as a stage, I think, it's simple."
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Oath Of Office
The biggest metalcore band in the land happens to be a Christian sextet that, for a second time, is primed to crash into the upper echelons of the Billboard 200. Due this week via Solid State/Tooth & Nail, "Lost in the Sound of Separation" follows 2006's "Define the Great Line," which has sold 366,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Without any significant radio play or mainstream push -- the band has never charted on a Billboard singles tally -- "Define" debuted at No. 2, the highest-ever showing for a Tooth & Nail act.
"I really have no idea," Underoath guitarist Tim McTague says of the band's success to date. "We write real songs for real people, and we don't really polish anything up or downplay anything to make anyone in any big office in any big corporation happy."
Throughout its 41 minutes, "Lost in the Sound of Separation" occasionally teeters on the precipice of unfamiliar territory. Vocalist Spencer Chamberlain trades his screams for sung parts on "Too Bright to See, Too Loud to Hear," and the sparse, electronic-based closer "Desolate Earth: The End Is Here" is largely instrumental except for a few lines.
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Sun, Sun, Sun, Here It Comes
After issuing his recent work on Rhino and Nonesuch, Beach Boys principal Brian Wilson returns to Capitol Records for the release this week of his next album, "That Lucky Old Sun."
"That Lucky Old Sun," which centers around the Southern California of Wilson's youth, was premiered last September at London's Royal Festival Hall. The work comprises 11 new songs plus four spoken narratives written by longtime collaborator Van Dyke Parks and a vocal excerpt.
It's Wilson's first new studio album since 2004's "Gettin' in Over My Head." Also that year, he completed work on the long-unfinished album "Smile," originally intended for release by the Beach Boys in the mid-1960s.
There's a stage-worthy veneer to the entire project as well as some frank autobiographical allusions -- "At 25 I turned out the light/'Cause I couldn't handle the glare in my tired eyes," Wilson sings at one point -- all affirming his reputation as one of the master pop craftsmen of our time.
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Additional titles hitting stores this week include:
Christian rock veteran Chris Tomlin's "Hello Love" (EMI/sixstepsrecords).
A best-of from the Chemical Brothers, "Brotherhood" (Astralwerks), featuring the first wide release of the "Electronic Battle Weapon" 12-inches.
A duets album from Olivia Newton-John, "A Celebration in Song" (Capitol), with guest turns from Keith Urban, Barry Gibb, Richard Marx and Delta Goodrem.
New albums from indie rock outfits Giant Sand ("Provisions," Yep Roc) and Apollo Sunshine ("Shall Noise Upon," Headless Heroes).
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A new Slipknot album means new masks, new outfits -- and new sonic sojourns. "All Hope Is Gone" doesn't disappoint in that regard.
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The Game has long threatened that "LAX" would be his last album, so perhaps that's why he recruited the wayward DMX to open it with one of his trademark prayers.
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While it was no big surprise that the Verve got back together last fall after a nine-year hiatus, what's simply stunning is the quality of its reunion album, "Forth," due this week on the band's On Your Own imprint in North America.
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It would be easy to assume that DragonForce plunges headlong into "Ultra Beatdown" (Roadrunner) because the tipping point for another U.S. breakthrough is nigh.
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