New Release Report 8/2/11: Fountains of Wayne Return and More!
by MJ on Aug 2, 2011 • 9:30 am 5 CommentsOne thing the sky is definitely not full of this week is CD releases.
The past couple of weeks have been pretty quiet. Last week’s release schedule got a little smaller thanks to the mysterious disappearance of Odd Future member Frank Ocean’s album, and this week is another fairly blah affair.
Thank goodness there’s Fountains of Wayne to give us a musical glass of water in this desert of a release schedule (strained metaphors anyone?) Sky Full of Holes is the power-pop band’s first album in four years, and is highly anticipated by those of us who appreciate the fine art of songwriting. Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger are among the best out there at that particular profession.
Arguably the week’s most anticipated release is a re-release. This year’s Grammy winner for Album of the Year-Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs-gets retooled with two new songs (one featuring Talking Heads maestro David Byrne) and a DVD documentary. Re-releasing an album over half a million people already own with two new tracks? How indie!
Elsewhere, jam band favorites O.A.R. return with a new album called King (and I’m sure a bunch of dreadlocked, barefoot white kids with hacky sacks are wicked excited), as does pop singer/songwriter Mat (one T only) Kearney. His third studio album is called Young Love, and it’s the story of Mat and his since-departed full head of hair. I kid, of course. There are also new albums from country superstar Trace Adkins (Proud to Be Here), teenage YouTube phenom/Ellen DeGeneres (?) discovery Greyson Chance (his first full album), rock and roll troubadour John Hiatt, and bluesy guitarist Keb’ Mo’, whose The Reflection is certainly the most star-studded album coming out this week. It’s packed with guest appearances from the likes of india.arie, Dave Koz and Vince Gill.
If you dig on Japanese metal, you also might want to check out the latest album from Dir En Grey, entitled Dum Spiro Spero, which we featured in.
Make sure you check out Pause and Play for a complete list of current and upcoming releases.
5 comments
Drew says:
Aug 2, 2011
*cough* Watchthethrone *cough* 🙂
blerd says:
Aug 2, 2011
That’s next week, homie!
Drew says:
Aug 2, 2011
Oh, hell. I thought I heard August 2nd. Ah well.
blerd says:
Aug 2, 2011
The date has been bounced around a little. iTunes is August 8th, and I think physical configurations hit on the 12th.
Greg says:
Aug 2, 2011
I thought the exact same thing about “Watch the Throne” actually. Guess they faked everyone out there. Personally, I don’t think it’s been _that_ bad a week for new releases. I’ve already heard at least two records out today that I’ve really liked (“Dum Spiro Spero” and “Mariachi El Bronx II”), albeit for completely different reasons. And hey! An unnecessary re-release of an album that wasn’t very good to begin with! WHOO! But yeah, things have been slower.