Two of the last decade’s biggest and most prolific acts release new music today, although I don’t see too many people purchasing both albums.
Many of you own Radiohead’s The King of Limbs already. After all, the Grammy-winning British band made the album available for purchase on their site a month or so ago. However, lots of folks owned Radiohead’s last album, In Rainbows, as well before it made it’s official physical debut at the top of 2008. And that album went on to sell nearly a million copies in it’s traditional format. So, chances are likely that Limbs will be similarly successful, although it’s gotten a bit less acclaim than it’s predecessor. Still, it’s Radiohead, and even if Thom Yorke farted on a record for 45 minutes, there’s a segment of the population who would run out and buy it.
A lot of folks feel like all Britney Spears does is fart on records. I have to say, I find her success somewhat confusing, since she seems to be an incredibly incidental part of her own success. I mean, come on. How many of you out there who’ll admit to buying Britney Spears records actually buy them because they’re by Britney Spears? She can’t sing. She can’t dance. She has yet to prove that she can write a song (a quality that usually rears it’s head by the time you’re 30 or so) and she’s gone from teenage vixen to upper class Po’ White Trash to complete cipher. She has yet to prove that she has any artistic talent or ambition whatsoever, but she still sells millions upon millions of records and tops the charts with an amazing regularity. I don’t get it. The bland emptiness of “Hold it Against Me” has made me even more confused, but then…if we all liked the same stuff, the world would be a very bland place indeed. Femme Fatale, her seventh studio album, is out today as well.
Elsewhere, there’s the debut by heralded hip-hop rookie Wiz Khalifa. This cat got a Rolling Stone and a Vibe cover before even releasing an album, although I don’t see or hear anything especially interesting about him. “Black & Yellow” was an OK song, and the guy doesn’t seem to have much of an artistic POV beyond loving weed. At least Snoop Dogg has the adorable/menacing conundrum working for him (as well as top-notch production that obscures the fact that he’s been rhyming about the same shit for the past twenty years). Wiz’s Rolling Papers will be competing with Britney and Radiohead for the #1 album slot, and wouldn’t ya know it, there’s also a new Snoop album coming out today, although I’m pretty sure no one gives a fuck at this point. Snoop is coming off two consecutive flop albums, and I’m pretty sure his new joint isn’t gonna reverse that trend.
Tons of bands who have flown under the radar lately are coming to reclaim their turf today. That list includes jazz instrumentalist Boney James (who was kind of a thing a decade or so ago…kinda like a grapefruit-league Kenny G.), Grammy winning brother trio Los Lonely Boys (remember “Heaven”?), gospel duo Mary Mary (who will probably ring up the week’s most surprising first-week number), The Sounds (who looked like they were going to be super-big seven or eight years ago and it just didn’t happen for them), pop-punkers Sum 41 (which includes the dude who married and then divorced/killed the career of Avril Lavigne) and Unwritten Law, and finally, the return of Whitesnake, the band responsible for some of the Eighties’ most iconic videos. David Coverdale’s looking (although not sounding) a little beat up these days, and if Tawny Kitaen were to writhe on top of a car these days, she’d either dent the car (wasn’t she in “Celebrity Fit Club”?) or fall off of it and break a hip. How about some vintage ‘Snake for the road, huh?
Get a wrap-up of this week’s reissue releases by checking out The Second Disc, and get a comprehensive listing of this week’s new albums (completely new joints as well as reissues) on Pause and Play.