Who’s the hottest group in country music right now? That’s right-Lady Antebellum. The co-ed trio is coming off of the huge success of Need You Now-the Grammy-winning song and album and they can pretty much do no wrong right now. Their third album, Own The Night, is more or less guaranteed to be one of this year’s biggest sellers. It’ll definitely be worth checking out whether Lady A can challenge Lil Wayne and Lady GaGa for the best selling sales week of the year-I think they’ll fall short, but I’ve certainly been wrong before.
Switching gears from pop/country for a bit, it’s a huge week for rock music releases. Over the past several years, dudes (and chicks) with loud guitars have fallen by the commercial wayside in favor of cowboy-hatted country artists, rappers, indie rockers and pop icons. This week’s release schedule brings the RAWK with a vengeance. We start with Anthrax’s new album, Worship Music. The New York metal giants are releasing their first album with lead vocalist Joey Belladonna in twenty-one frickin’ years. They’re also on the Big 4 bill this week at Yankee Stadium-an event that our own Nick will be live blogging. They’re joined on the release schedule by Bush, who are back after a nine year break with The Sea of Memories. There are also new albums from shock-rock pioneer (and recent R&R HOF inductee) Alice Cooper and Staind, who are returning after a brief hiatus which saw lead singer Aaron Lewis go the country route successfully in the past year.
Even if you like your rock in different flavors, this week’s got releases for you. I’m still attempting to figure out exactly what “post-rock” is…if you ask me, it just seems like a younger version of prog-rock. At any rate, whenever the term is mentioned, the band Mogwai is brought up as an example. They’ve got a new EP out called Earth Division, and we’ll have a review up for you shortly. Jam band-ish folks will get a kick out of the new albums by Umphrey’s McGee and Primus, who are returning with Green Naugahyde, their first studio album since 1999. Power-pop fans should get into The Old Magic, the new album from Nick Lowe, and prog metal fans will be open for Dream Theater’s new album, A Dramatic Turn of Events.
Neil Finn is a solo artist, he records with his brother Tim, and is a founding member of Crowded House. As if that wasn’t enough, he’s releasing a new project as a member of Pajama Club. Their self-titled debut album is out today, as is a new album from electro act Ladytron. New Orleans horn player Trombone Shorty has built up quite a following over the years, and the famous fans he’s amassed return the favor by appearing on his new album, For True. Guests include Lenny Kravitz, Warren Haynes, Kid Rock and The Rebirth Brass Band.
As always, make sure you check out Pause and Play for a complete listing of this week’s releases.