Usually at the beginning of each quarter I list what albums are coming out chronologically, instead, this time I am counting down the ten albums I am most looking forward to listen to this fall. Then the rest I sorted by release date. If you are interested in pre-ordering the record from Amazon, click the album name (or the album cover where available). Click the artist name to be taken to their iTunes page to grab their current work. And as always, all dates subject to change.
1. Battle Studies – John Mayer (November 17): When I get around to making the Greatest Albums of the 00’s list, you could make an argument for any of his first three albums to land near the top of the list. Hopefully he goes four for four with Battle Studies.
2. Kamaal the Abstract – Q-Tip (September 15): This should have been on the Most Anticipated Albums of Spring 2002, but the album got shelved by Arista. The record takes the jazz samples of A Tribe Called Quest to the extreme of live instrumentation and even sees Tip sing long before Andre 3000 or Kanye with production from the late J Dilla.
3. Draw the Line – David Gray (September 22): Even though he hasn’t gotten the mainstream following after striking it big with Babylon, Gray has put out consistently good music since. And from the signs of the first single Fugitive, it looks to continue.
4. Everything Comes and Goes – Michelle Branch (November 10): Branch started off her career by making what may end up being the greatest pop album of the decade. Like many other artists this decade, she went country with her duo The Wreckers. Now back with her first solo album in six years, it sounds like she will continue straddling the pop / rock / country fence.
5. Kiss and Tell – Selena Gomez and The Scene (September 29): Just kidding, making sure you are paying attention. But seriously, their first single is disturbingly catchy. Don’t tell Chris Hansen I said that though please.
6. The Seventh Seal – Rakim (September 22): Another rap album that has been taking too long to be released. I have been anxiously waiting for this album ever since Dr. Dre signed him to his Aftermath label back in 2000. He left three years later to sign with Dreamworks that folded shortly after. Hopefully there are no more snags between now and the 22nd.
7. I and Love and You – The Avett Brothers (September 29): I was first introduced to the band when Friday Night Lights used it as the soundtrack to the Landy/Tyra coupling. Now with a Rick Rubin produced, they are posed to be the breakout rock act of the year.
8. Play On – Carrie Underwood (November 3): Unlike #5, this is no joke. Her debut was the guiltiest of guilty pleasures and the follow was exactly what you expect, save the last track Wheel that pushed her boundaries outward. From the sound of the first single Cowboy Cassanova she might be pushing further with the song co-written by Mike Elizondo, one of Dr. Dre’s co-producers.
9. Man on the Moon: The End of Day – Kid Cudi (September 15): Consider me skeptic about a five act rap concept album, the recent three acts from Green Day was heavy-handed. But Make Her Say may go down as the best hip-hop track of year. And bonus points for being from Cleveland.
10. How I Got Over – The Roots (October 20): You would think after agreeing to be Jimmy Fallon’s house band, The Roots would rest on their laurels, but just a year after releasing their last album comes a new one.
Here are some other albums you can expect to drop sometime before Christmas. If I missed anything, let me know in the comments or tell me what fall release you are looking forward to:
Quote of the Week: You can feed him in his wife beater onesy. (Tara – Sons of Anarchy)
Song of the Week: Welcome Daddy (Ashlee’s amended lyrics version) – The Sisters of ZBZ (Greek)
Big News of the Week: Politicians Behaving Badly: The week started off with the lames patrician bickering ever over Barack Obama’s speech to the nation’s children. Shouldn’t be something that all presidents to? But of course the religious nut jobs were all up in arms just like the liberal communists were back when the original Bush did. Sometime a speech to kids is just a speech to kids. But watching the speech, someone should have told Obama he was talking to a bunch of ten year olds because he sounded like he was giving one of his stump speeches. Granted he only has two gears of speaking, the stump speech and his bored out of his mind delivery.
That wasn’t the only speech Obama gave this week as he took yet another bite of primetime to pitch his health care plan. And like most addresses to Congress, the only reason to watch is to watch the unintentional comedy of the Congressmen like who gets caught sleeping because let’s face it, these addresses never actually say anything new. And the one on Wednesday didn’t disappoint. Usually the highlight is the parties trying to out cheer/boo each other at certain lines, but one Republican congressman went so far as to shout “You lie!” after Obama said his health care plan wouldn’t cover illegal immigrants. Classic. This overshadowed another Congressman who had in his lap a “What Bill?” sign. We are inching closer to the good old political days of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton which I am all for.
Coalition Links of the Week: It premieres and it sucked. We mean that in the best way possible when it comes to The Vampire Diaries. (TV Fanatic)
George's funeral, a married Alex and Izzie; BuzzSugar gets a peek at the upcoming sixth season of Grey's Anantomy. (BuzzSugar)
This week, Sandie interviewed Stana Katic who plays Detective Kate Beckett on Castle. (Daemon's TV)
Vance breaks down the new Fall 2009 TV shows and why he is or isn't going to watch. (Tapeworthy)
With your favorite season premieres just around the corner, we shared our Top 5 most anticipated new comedies and dramas. (The TV Addict)
Tool Academy: I am not sure who wins the Moron of the Week Award, the “Special” Tool for blurting out, “Okay, I (explicative deleted) her” in front of his girlfriend, all the other Tools and the entire VH1 viewing public, the Dancing Tool who tried to explain just how much he loves his girlfriend by saying that he is dating her and doesn’t even have a Asian fetish (and then continue to keep digging after that comment), or the Redneck Tool for bursting a condom on his head. And that still didn’t hurt as much as the beating he got from his girlfriend. Naturally the Rednecks would react as if they are on Springer. But after the “Special” Tool confesses comes the most bizarre segment ever where almost all the guys there started confession their infidelities one after other. You can stream current episodes over at vh1.com. You can also download Tool Academy on iTunes.
Greek: Here is where I usually start off the review with “Holy (insert a favorite character’s name here) sighting!” But who do I go with Dr. Harold Abbot or Dwayne Wayne? Although I am not ready for Dwayne Wayne to have a twenty year old daughter. I wonder if Whitley is the mother. You can stream current episodes on Hulu.
Leverage: Having Eliot just happening to be at the drop spot to keep Parker from being assassinated was a lame plot point, but I will forgive the show simply because the slo-mo lunge with the flowing hair was absurdly cheesy in a funny kind of way. You can stream current episodes over at tnt.tv. You can also download Leverage on iTunes.
Free Download of the Week: Community (Amazon Video on Demand): Community may not be the best new show or even the funniest new comedy of the fall season (that goes to Modern Family), but you can check out the first episode of the show before it airs.
Deal of the Week: Fall TV Event: $20-$30 (Rescue Me, Chuck (Blu-Ray), Mad Men, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip)
Video of the Week: One of the great things about Hulu is they occasionally add criminally underwatched show (Arrested Development remains one of the most watched show on the site). Thanks to the recent partnership with ABC, here is another show many of you didn’t watch the first time around but should check it out now: The Knights of Prosperity which recently ranked in at #21 on The 100 Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s. All thirteen episodes are available to stream, here is the first one. If enough people check it on Hulu, maybe we will be lucky enough to get the show in DVD for. Now if only NBC would do the same for Ed (#4) and I will be a happy camper which actually came from the same producers of Knights of Prosperity.
Next Week Pick of the Week: Survivor: Samoa: The granddaddy of reality show is back for its nineteenth and it looks like this will be a bells and whistles free season, they are even dumping Exile Island this go around. As for a preseason pick, I would go with John. He is a rocket scientist for goodness sake (granted the last one didn’t last long).
I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Dark Blue, Eliza Dushku, Community, Saturday Night Live, Lock n Loaded, The Real L Word: Los Angeles, Mike Epps, and Jay Leno.
- Dark Blue is doing another online live chat with fans. This time Omari Hardwick will be chatting with fans Tuesday September 15 at 2 P.M. EST over at TNT.tv.
- This coming Sunday, Eliza Dushku will be interviewed by film students on Life After Film School on Fox Movie Channel at 7:30.
- Also airing this Sunday is a pair of documentaries on the National Geographic Channel. First up at 9:00 is The Girl Who Cried Blood (Scooter’s note: ewww, I hate blood) followed by The World’s Smallest Girl.
- The final three Straight A’s have been released by the Greendale Community College. Below are air conditioning (and as someone who went without some in his dormroom, it is a big draw) and Awesome New Friends. Head over to NBC.com for the last A: A lot of Class.
- Saturday Night Live has announced its first month of guests. Megan Fox (can we please end the Megan Fox era sooner than later) teams up with U2 for the opener 9/26. 10/3 is pretty much skippable with Ryan Reynolds and Lady Gaga. Drew Barrymore returns 10/10 for the sixth time (to quote Seth Myers - really?) to introduce Regina Specktor. Lastly Gerard Butler headlines 10/17 what should be the best of the first batch of episodes especially if they do a skit that follows the 300 warriors that didn’t make the cut and Sharkira shakes her hips. I tend not to be a fan of forced synergy, but shouldn’t NBC Universal have one of the stars of their movie Couples Retreat host with the movie coming out October 9. Not to mention Vince Vaughn, Jason Bateman, Jon Favreau or Kristen Bell would have made a better show than the first three hosts they have lined up.
- A bunch of new coming out of Showtime. The network is getting into the reality game with the six episodes Lock n Load that takes a look at a gun shop in Englewood, Colorado starting October 21 at 8:00. Then there is The Real L World: Los Angeles which is a unscripted version of their former lesbian show which will air sometime in 2010. Mike Epps (Next Friday) get a stand up special Under Rated… Never Faded & X-Rated airing October 3 at 10:40.
- Fans of Battlestar Galactica may want to check out next Tuesday’s all new Warehouse 13 as Michael Hogan guest stars in the episode. Here is a preview:
- The Jay Leno Show takes root at the 10:00 hour starting Monday with Jerry Seinfeld and Jay-Z. Jay recently announced a bunch new corrisponance to his show which now includes D.L. Hughley, Mikey Day, Rachael Harris, Jim Norton, Dan Finnerty, The Dan Band, Liz Feldman, Brian Unger, Nick Thune, Owen Benjamin, Marina Franklin, Sebastian Maniscalco and Ross Mathews. For those that have patroned your local movie theater lately, you may have seen an ad for the show during the previews and here is an extended version:
Before he spent even one day in retirement, Jay-Z predicted he would eventually come back to rap when he said, “When I come back like Jordan wearing the 4-5.” The problem was when Hova finally did make his return with Kingdom Come, he wasn’t wearing a Bulls uniform, he had already skipped to the Wizards phase of his career. And the follow up wasn’t that much better. For his third stab at a comeback, is drawing up another Blueprint, the first of which came out exactly eight years ago today, the same day the Twin Towers fell.
Apparently the new Blueprint for Jigga is indie music (which we can probably thank the newly emo-loving Kanye West who produced half the album), the album even open up with a guest spot from one half of the alternative group Empire of the Sun on What We Talkin’ About. The album is then bookended with a guest electro artist Mr. Hudson on Young Forever that borders 80’s new wave cheesedom.
And Jay-Z really needs to avoid songs about age (remember how he tried to convince us that 30 is the new 20?) because it only emphasizes how old he is in a genre based on youth. And by including next big things Drake and Kid Cudi on a couple songs, it is hard not to think of Jay playing the part of Mathew McConaughey in Dazed & Confused. The multiple Frank Sinatra references do not help either. Which is a silly comparison anyway, Sinatra was a triple threat, Jay-Z is barely a single threat anymore.
The Blueprint 3 can best be summed up by the first unofficial single D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune). You get really excited at the concept and if anyone can put a death nail in the vastly over abused studio, technique, it is Jay Hova. But when you actually heard the song you wanted to like it more than you actually did. The lyrics don’t actually kill Auto-Tune, it is at best a flesh wound. And the lame hook is amplified considering he is the third act this year to lift the Steam chorus behind Wale and Kristinia Debarge.
What Jay does have going for him on The Blueprint 3 is his best post-retirement song Run This Town featuring Rihanna and Kanye (well it is either that or Brooklyn (Go Hard)). It has his most adventurous flow in recent memory but still not as tongue twisting as when he spit over Timbaland beats on the original Blueprint albums. Sadly though there really is only one more song of note on the set, the Alicia Keys assisted Empire State of Mind. Maybe it is time Jay-Z complete his Jordan prophesies and begrudgingly resigns to the front office position for a crappy NBA team. On the bright side he will have time to lower his handicap like MJ.
Jay-Z drops his latest Blueprint tomorrow (except in the places where you can already buy it which kind of defeats the special release date, but anyways, look for a review tomorrow). In the first official single Run This Town, Jay spits, “Please follow the leader. So Eric B. we are microphone fiend.” This of course is a reference to the classic Eric B and Rakim track. Odd that Jay shout outs Eric B in the song, even though it is Rakim that is the Microphone Fiend. But here is the other track Jay mentions from the seminal rap duo. And if we are lucky, we may see the long awaited Rakim solo album actually released October 20.
– John Mayer (November 17): When I get around to making the Greatest Albums of the 00’s list, you could make an argument for any of his first three albums to land near the top of the list. Hopefully he goes four for four with Battle Studies.
2. Kamaal the Abstract – Q-Tip (September 15): This should have been on the Most Anticipated Albums of Spring 2002, but the album got shelved by Arista. The record takes the jazz samples of A Tribe Called Quest to the extreme of live instrumentation and even sees Tip sing long before Andre 3000 or Kanye with production from the late J Dilla.
3. Draw the Line – David Gray (September 22): Even though he hasn’t gotten the mainstream following after striking it big with Babylon, Gray has put out consistently good music since. And from the signs of the first single Fugitive, it looks to continue.
– Michelle Branch (November 10): Branch started off her career by making what may end up being the greatest pop album of the decade. Like many other artists this decade, she went country with her duo The Wreckers. Now back with her first solo album in six years, it sounds like she will continue straddling the pop / rock / country fence.
– Selena Gomez and The Scene (September 29): Just kidding, making sure you are paying attention. But seriously, their first single is disturbingly catchy. Don’t tell Chris Hansen I said that though please.
6. The Seventh Seal – Rakim (September 22): Another rap album that has been taking too long to be released. I have been anxiously waiting for this album ever since Dr. Dre signed him to his Aftermath label back in 2000. He left three years later to sign with Dreamworks that folded shortly after. Hopefully there are no more snags between now and the 22nd.
– The Avett Brothers (September 29): I was first introduced to the band when Friday Night Lights used it as the soundtrack to the Landy/Tyra coupling. Now with a Rick Rubin produced, they are posed to be the breakout rock act of the year.
8. Play On – Carrie Underwood (November 3): Unlike #5, this is no joke. Her debut was the guiltiest of guilty pleasures and the follow was exactly what you expect, save the last track Wheel that pushed her boundaries outward. From the sound of the first single Cowboy Cassanova she might be pushing further with the song co-written by Mike Elizondo, one of Dr. Dre’s co-producers.
9. Man on the Moon: The End of Day – Kid Cudi (September 15): Consider me skeptic about a five act rap concept album, the recent three acts from Green Day was heavy-handed. But Make Her Say may go down as the best hip-hop track of year. And bonus points for being from Cleveland.
– The Roots (October 20): You would think after agreeing to be Jimmy Fallon’s house band, The Roots would rest on their laurels, but just a year after releasing their last album comes a new one.
– Muse
- Drake
– Pearl Jam
– Wale
– Monsters of Folk
– Sean “Diddy” Combs
– Alice in Chains
– Paramore
– Mariah Carey
– Foreigner
(Box Set)
– Switchfoot
– Joe Budden
– Daniel Johnston
– Joe Perry
- Lights
– Bob Dylan
– Shakira
– Brian McKnight
– Five for Fighting
– Clipse
– The Swell Session
– Train
– Sting
- Kings of Leon
– R.E.M.
– 50 Cent
– Amerie
– Norah Jones
(Amazon Video on Demand): Community may not be the best new show or even the funniest new comedy of the fall season (that goes to Modern Family), but you can check out the first episode of the show before it airs.
(Rescue Me, Chuck (Blu-Ray), Mad Men, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip)
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