In the music industry, January is the time when everyone is rubbing sleep from their eyes, at least in terms of new releases. This month is typically a wasteland for new music, and 2012 is no exception, at least in terms of major releases. There is a sprinkling of albums hitting stores (and online outlets) this week so let’s take a look at some of the more interesting names…
Have you guys checked out our review of the new Guided By Voices album? Drew may have been a couple weeks early on the draw, but the seminal alt-rock band is back, sporting their classic lineup for the first time since 2004, with Let’s Go Eat The Factory.
Will it be the highest charting new album of the week? Doubtful. Not as long as there are Kidz Bop albums to be heart. Hearing young warblers massacre the hits of modern-day pop radio is always good for 50,000-75,000 scans in it’s debut week, and it seems as though they get more popular with each passing year-especially as the songs on pop radio get more and more explicit. The 21st edition of the series hits stores this week.
There’ll also be a fair amount of eyes on the first album in eighteen years by hardcore legends Biohazard. Although they had no major hits, they have always been highly regarded in their genre. Their new Reborn In Defiance is unquestionably one of the most anticipated reunion albums of the young year.
Remember back when Leona Lewis was a thing? The British singer was poised to be the next Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston following her #1 smash “Bleeding Love.” The minor hit “Better In Time” followed, and then her U.S. career flatlined with a vengeance. The Simon Cowell discovery returns this week with a new EP called Hurt, which signifies that an album will most likely follow later this year. There are also new albums this week from folk-rock mainstay Ani DiFranco, crab-core band Attack! Attack! (ridiculously incredulous review to follow soon), Circa Survive singer Anthony Green, and jazz multi-instrumentalist Jack DeJohnette, whose new album Sound Travels features Bruce Hornsby and Grammy-winner Esperanza Spalding.
As always, we get our new release news (mostly) from the good folks at Pause and Play, and you all should, too!!