Hello, late October. What do you have for me? Yet another tantalizing sea of new releases? Well, I don’t mind if I do.
Shelby Lynne released her most recent album, Tears, Lies & Alibis only a year and a half ago. So what is she doing coming back so quickly? Hell if I know, but if her recent track record is any indication, the Grammy-winner’s new album, Revelation Road (her twelfth!) will be pretty damn awesome.
Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump has gotten a lot of attention recently for not only his new look (he appears to have dropped the weight equivalent of the other three Fall Out Boy members) but his new sound, which traverses a less rock terrain than the work he’s been most famously celebrated for. After testing the waters with an EP earlier this year, Stump’s full-length debut, Soul Punk, is hitting stores. It features, “This City”, a celebration of his Chicago hometown featuring Lupe Fiasco. Let’s hope Soul Punk isn’t a crushing disappointment like Fiasco’s Lasers was.
Y’all ready to condensate? Well, make sure you do so with The Ti…um, uh, The Original 7ven. Morris, Jimmy, Terry, Jellybean, Jesse, Monte and Jerome are back with their first album in 21 years. While I’m certainly excited for their album, I might move a mountain to catch these dudes in concert. No chance, they’ll be coming to Boston, huh?
While the 7ven bring the funk, you’ve got a few titles to choose from if you’re a fan of the softer side of R&B, too. Lalah Hathaway has been grinding hard for two decades now, and even though she doesn’t have pop recognition, she’s got a faithful group of fans and a strong catalog. Her sixth album, Where It All Begins, is sure to resonate with folks who appreciate mature songs being sung by a masterful voice. She’s certainly strong enough to stand independent of her lineage. Meanwhile, hardworking R&B everyman Joe is back with The Good, The Bad, The Sexy. If you tuned out a decade ago after his two huge hits “I Wanna Know” and “Stutter”, you’ve been missing out.
We’ve been trumpeting the return of the Nineties for quite some time, and this release date finds plenty of relics from the decade of excess. Perry Farrell has decided to reform Jane’s Addiction again, and they are releasing a new album entitled The Great Escape Artist. Dave Sitek (AKA the white dude from TV on the Radio) assisted in the studio. I like TVotR, but not so sure Sitek’s presence will entice me to listen to a Jane’s album again. Meanwhile, singer/actor/surfer Chris Isaak is returning with a new album called Beyond The Sun. Meanwhile, I’m checking Amazon to see if his hilarious TV show is available on DVD. Wrapping up our ’90s reminiscence is Everlast. The man’s got more lives than a cat, and the solo rapper-turned House of Pain rapper-turned acoustic bluesman-turned rapper again is back with Songs of the Ungrateful Living.
Finally, there are two somewhat weird names on the “Best Of” compilation roster this week-Matisyahu & Kelly Rowland. The Hasidic reggae musician and the Destiny’s Child vocalist don’t exactly have a shining roster of hits, so the fact that they both have volumes out on Sony’s Playlist series seems much more like contract fulfillment than a legitimate excuse for a hits compilation. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that both of these are skippable.
As ever, a full listing of this week’s releases can be found at Pauseandplay.com. Check them out!