The last time U2 walked around the city streets of an American city, I Still Havn’t Found What I’m Looking For in Las Vegas, that felt epic. Three decades later, walking around the streets of New York City just seems mostly boring.
Selfish Love – Jessie Ware
I really dig this song by Jessie Ware, it gives me a very early Sade vibe to it.
Should I know who Ellia Sophia or JD Wilkes is? She kind of looks like Lili Simmons while he looks like Cochran from Survivor. Otherwise I am not sure while either gets a “starring” credit in ta Dan Auerbach music video.
Lift – Radiohead
Lift is off Radiohead’s OK Computer rerelease and the video feels like something out of the ninties (right down to the rectangular screen.
Two things that really stood out to this nineties child when giving a once over to the list of albums coming out this fall. First off we are getting dueling Gallagher albums! Okay, this would have been much more exciting if this were 1997 not 2017. And the other thing was an album being released by some guy named William Patrick Corgan. If you have not figured it out yet, that is Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan. Apparently he thought Deborah Gibsn's name change was not silly enough so he also added the middle name. In other ninties news, Beck is coming out with a fun album after his super depressing Album of the Year one, Wu-Tang Clan is back with an album anyone can buy, while U2 is also back to making people buying albums again. Oh, and Hootie of the Blowfish fame is still putting out country music while Primus is back with their original lineup since 1995. And of course Weezer is back with their bi-yearly release of disapointing tracks. In other artists you probably did not realize were still releasing music news, oh, hey, Barenaked Ladies, Boyz II Men, and Seal.
I spent so much time on the nineties because as usually I am mostly meh on current music. I have enjoyed what I have heard from the upcoming Jessie Ware album and Jillian Jaqcqueline and Carly Pearce are a breath of fresh air in country pop music along with Danielle Bradbery who put out a track I kind of like (though weird to release a song called Hello Summer on the first day of fall) but that is about it. I will give at least a Spotify stream to these albums. You can pre-order the albums by clicking the album title or go to their iTunes page by clicking on the artists name.
The prison industrial complex looks to be one of the bigger issues in the upcoming presidential election and one that it seems like both Democrats and Republicans should agree on. It a rights issues for the dems and the GOP should not like our tax dollars being wasted on nonviolent prisoners. President Obama just recently became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. But like most of what goes on in Washington, I would be shocked if anything actually gets done other than a few more states decriminalizing the wacky weed. I am not sure sure if the new U2 video is part of that movement as we seem Woody Harrelson's final day in prison which gets kind of creepy after being picked up by his real life daughter. It is probably good that the video cut off where it did.
Someone recently pointed out that the new Selena Gomez music music video was made for dirty old men. I think pretty much any red blooded American man can appreciate it, c'mon, it is not Fiona Apple Criminal type creepy or anything. Okay, close, but there is no seventies shag carpeting. (Sure I may just be talking myself into not being creepy for watching this somewhere between 100 and 1000 times.) The song itself is kind of boring. It sound like she went into a producer and said, "I want Lorde but sexier." Except I do not want a sexier version of Lorde. But at least the music video omits the unnecessary A$AP Rocky verse for multiple reasons.
Mumford and Sons dropped their new album without a music video saying they do not really like doing them but had come around and may end up filming a couple. Um, I am not sure transversing around Bonnaroo as Robin Hood, Maid Marianne(?), a chicken, and a wolf (natch) makes may not actually be better than no video at all. Like most people when the new album came out, I met it with a "huh?" and "why?" but after a couple listens I do not completely have The Wolf but still find their electric conversion unnecessary.
Goldmine - Kimbra
Is the Kimbra music video stop motion (live action stop motion is a weird concept)? At any rate it is freaky cool.
Earlier this week I posted my list of the 100 Greatest Songs from the Golden Age of Alternative Rock. The mid nineties was a time when the music business was so prosperous that even minimal effort could result in a Gold record. I doubt anyone outside of the Deal family could name a second song by The Breeders yet Last Splash still went platinum. I contributed to many of those RIAA certifications (R.I.P. BMG 10 albums for a penny deals that they kept letting you quit and renew for a new batch of albums).
1. Anna Begins – Counting Crows: Not only one of my favorite deep cuts from the era, but one of my favorite songs ever in the history of the world. “Every time she sneezes I believe it is love” meant everything to me in my youth. Still does.
2. The World Has Turned and Left Me Here – Weezer: The Blue Album had the most songs of any album on my list as every song is great. This is my favorite of the rest, just another great teenage anthem.
4. Warehouse – Dave Matthew Band: Record companies are usually good at releasing singles, but for some reasons the singles off of Dave Matthews Band albums are never my favorites. Ants Marching may be my fifth favorite song off their major label debut. The best is Warehouse which only get more epic when you hear it live. And thanks for the band’s penchant for releasing live albums, which will be easy to find because even though they always switch up set lists, there is always a good chance that this song will be represented.
5. Bad Habit – The Offspring: The ultimate road rage song. I probably listened to it way too much while learning to drive.
6. Immortality – Pearl Jam: No list is perfect and my own personal eyeballing of mine is there could have been a lot more Pearl Jam. It is probably after the success of the first album, they decided to step back from the spotlight not making music video or releasing proper singles leaving individual radio station to play their own favorites. Immortality is just the kind of mood I am in right now, but anything on those next two albums is worth checking out.
7. Let Me In – R.E.M.: Those first three R.E.M. albums from the nineties are worth checking out, this is probably the best track on their most fuzzed out album of the trio.
8. Happy Endings – Better than Ezra: I recently read an article where the lead singer suggested that they may have had Goo Goo Doll’s career had they been on a better record label and not one that went under. As a owner of all their albums sans their last I would have to agree as they made some of the best adult contemporary music of the past decade. You can hear them go down that root on songs like this.
9. Sad Songs and Waltzes – Cake: The band had a minor hit with their I Will Survive cover, another stand out on the same album was this Willie Nelson classic. The irony of course was during the alt-rock era, depressing songs were all the rage.
10. I'm the Ocean – Neil Young: The godfather of grunge hooked up with Pearl Jam and made an album which sounded exactly like you expected. This seven minute epic without a chorus is the highlight of the Mirror Ball album.
11. I Love You Mary Jane – Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill: When I first started working on my list I considered some more “alternative” rap song like Insane in the Brain. Instead I will include Cypress Hill’s awesomely weird collaboration with Sonic Youth for the Judgment Night Soundtrack where the two bonded over their love of the sticky icky. The song worked a lot better than their track with Pearl Jam.
12. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness – Smashing Pumpkins: In the of the alt-rock heyday, who would have expected the Smashing Pumpkins to start their double album with a sweet, well, melon collie, piano-based instrumental.
13. Sir Psycho Sexy – Red Hot Chili Peppers: The Peppers are weird to begin with, but this was easily their most bizarre track from Blood Sugar Sex Magic. The teenage version of myself loved the lady cop verse.
14. Slide Away – Oasis: That first album was brit-pop gold, this was definitely my favorite non-single.
15. The Wanderer – U2: Nirvana gets a lot of credit for the start of the alt-rock era, but with Achtung Baby, U2 was getting weird at the same time. They got even weirder on Zoorepa which ended with a country euro-trash song featuring Johnny Cash on vocals, a year before his carreer got resurrected with the American Recordings series.
16. Swing On This - Alice In Chains: Who would have guessed Alice in Chain would ever release a song that was actually danceable?
17. Pillar of Davidson – Live: There were plenty of epic songs on Throwing Copper, this song may have actually been the most epic.
18. Bogusflow – Beck: DGC Rarities vol. 1 was a must own by any alt-rock fan with plenty of rare gems. At the time, Beck was heading for one hit wonderdom and this drunken Bob Dylan type song was not going to help him out of that label but was awesome nonetheless. I am still waiting for vol. 2.
19. Mad Dog 20 / 20 – Teenage Fanclub: Fun fact: The first legal drink I ever bought was Mad Dog 20/20. I cannot confirm nor deny it is because of this song.
20. April 29, 1992 (Miami) – Sublime: Humorously the band actually got the date wrong in the actual lyrics song (April 26), legend has it that the take with the mistake was the best so they kept it.
21. Steven's Last Night In Town – Ben Folds Five: There were not many New Orleans inspired tracks during the alt rock era, but this one was really good.
22. Brother – Toad the Wet Sprocket: This was off their “rarities” album which was one of the few albums that was just as good as the “proper” albums in an artist discography.
23. Price to Pay – Blues Traveler: Just great storytelling in this song and of course plenty of harmonica.
24. Carrion – Fiona Apple: The big hits of this album were song of Fiona’s more angry songs; I also appreciate her more subtle songs like this one.
25. Nada – The Refreshments: In the introduction I mentioned how easy it was to get a Gold album, this is one of the few bands from the time that did not manage one and I am not sure why, I really enjoyed both of their albums. Maybe too southern and not enough alternative in their rock. And then too weird for the country crowd. Nada was a great way to end that first album.
Honorable Mentions
Shamrocks and Shenanigans (Butch Vig Mix) – House of Pain: Another rap song I considered for this list, but the Butch Vig version. Vig was fresh from producing Nevermind and a few years away from becoming a founding member of Garbage and gave an alt-rock bent to the song.
Iron Man – The Cardigans: I considered a couple songs by the band for this list but Lovefool was a bit too poppy and Been It just missed the cut (had I expanded the end date by a year, My Favorite Mistake would definitely made the list). But the album was much more weird and darker than you would expect from the group that brought you Lovefool, case in point this trippy cover of the Black Sabbath song.
Beyoncé changed the game late last year dropping a visual album out of nowhere on a Thursday night about a week before Christmas. But that change looks to be slow because most of the albums released early this year were announced at least a month in advance aside the new Kid Cudi album (which went as quickly as it came) and Skrillex whose new album drops today after just announcing it last week. Granted there are still plenty of names that are supposedly at work at a new album that could break the internet much like Mrs. Carter (considering they just teamed back up at SXSW, could a second Watch the Throne album be far behind) like Adele and Taylor Swift. Here are some albums that will not be air dropping out of nowhere over the next couple months since they already have hard release dates. Click in the artists name to be taken to their iTunes page and the album tile or cover art to pre-order on Amazon.
1. Sheezus – Lily Allen (May 5): Forget Yeezus, 2014 will be the year of Sheezus. After teasing new songs for the past four months, Lily Allen finally announced her comeback album which will feature the previously released Hard Out Here, Air Balloon, L8 CMMR, Out Time (as well as the Somewhere Only We Know cover on the Bonus Track Version). I am most interested in the title track, if it is half as good as her takedown of Window Shopper’s Window Shopper off her debut, it will be a great start for the new album.
2. Ghost Stories – Coldplay (May 19): The band has always been considered the poppier version of Radiohead, but it still came as a shock when their first new music was the non-pop song Midnight which sounded like Radiohead by way of Bon Iver. A week later the released a more conventional Magic but with its throbbing bass and drum machine mixed with Chris Martin not in falsetto, it still was one of the least Coldplay songs the band has ever recorded it. It should be interesting to hear what the rest of the album sound like, will they be pushing their limits even further or is the rest what we have come to expect from the band?
3. A Dotted Line – Nickel Creek (April 1): 2013 was the year of the reunion and that has seeped into 2014 with the first new album from the Afghan Whigs in sixteen years and Outkast headlining basically every festival this summer. I am more interested in the reunited Nickel Creek who will be putting out the first album in almost ten years. Where most reunion albums are just an excuse to go on a more profitable reunion tour, the album's first single Destination is as good as anything in the band’s library.
4. Supernova – Ray LaMontagne (May 6): Ray started out as the folk guy but on his last album he recruited a full band for a fuller sound and produced the album himself. The Pariah Dogs are sitting the new album out and benched himself when it came to production. Instead The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach is doing the producing the album and if first single, and title track, are indication, Ray is going for a seventies pop-rock vibe.
5. TBA – U2: This album should be higher on the list but it is becoming more and more unclear just when we are going to hear the first U2 album since 2009. When they dropped Invisible during the Super Bowl, a spring or summer released seemed inevitable, but after the song was met with a resounding, “eh” it was reported by Billboard that the album and tour would be pushed back to 2015 and they would go back into the studio with Ryan Tedder (ugg) and Paul Epworth (Adele). But that story was refuted by a spokesman for the band who said, “U2’s album is planned for this year, is still on track and touring plans haven’t been confirmed yet.” Though still no date, or even timeframe was given. So maybe there will be a U2 album this year, but maybe not until the holiday season. Maybe after all this gossip, maybe they will just end up Beyoncing the album just before Christmas.
Here is a list of more albums coming out this spring that will at the very least worth a spin on Spotify.
1. Sheezus – 
2. Ghost Stories – 
3. A Dotted Line – 
4. Supernova – 
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