Thought For Your Entertainment was a little gay? Well, honey: you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Get ready for Adam Lambert: Round Two! The American Idol runner-up’s sophomore effort, Trespassing, contains a who’s-who of fabulously upbeat collaborators, from Chic’s Nile Rodgers to Bruno Mars to Pharrell Williams. The album has been beset by delays, and singles have been slow to catch fire, so the first week sales here will be a good barometer of how faithful Adam’s fans are.
Adam is the shining (glittering) light atop a small Christmas tree of new releases this week. Next up? Beach House and Best Coast get all indie on that ass. The former band, a dream-pop outfit from Baltimore by way of France, is releasing their fourth effort, entitled Bloom, while L.A.’s Best Coast tries to successfully snap the sophomore jinx with the Jon Brion-produced The Only Place. Brion’s involvement guarantees that I will be giving this at least a cursory listen.
Moving down the line, and staying in California: Jack Black is a Hollywood star these days, but rock fans have not forgotten that he is 1/2 of Tenacious D along with Kyle Gass. Rise of the Fenix is their first real album in over a decade, since their self-titled debut. Some of you may remember 2006’s The Pick of Destiny, which was more of a movie soundtrack than an actual album.
It may seem as though Willie Nelson releases an album every six months, and that would be because…well, he releases a new album pretty much every six months. Aren’t potheads supposed to be lazy? The country icon returns with Heroes, an album with a guest list that includes Kris Kristofferson, Jamey Johnson, Sheryl Crow, and fellow not-lazy-at-all stoner Snoop Dogg.
As for the best of the rest, if you didn’t read about the 20th anniversary reissue of Pantera’s classic Vulgar Display of Power in our Metal Monday segment yesterday, what the hell are you waiting for? The legendary hard rocking classic now comes with a 1992 DVD of a fiery live performance. That chestnut is joined on the release schedule by the debut album from M.I.A. protege Rye Rye. Put her in a room with Rihanna (affectionally nicknamed Rih-Rih) and watch confusion ensue. Also, Carlos Santana ditches the Rob Thomas collaborations and makes an old-school sounding album with his touring band called Shape Shifter, while Lisa Marie Presley (you might remember her? Daughter of the King of Rock ‘n Roll, ex-wife of the King of Pop?) is back after a lengthy absence with the T-Bone Burnett produced Storm & Grace, an album that is sure to contain lyrics that people will be poring over for subtext.
Reissues: Nothing much beyond the previously mentioned Pantera release…does the world need yet another Aerosmith comp? Well, guess what? You’re getting one-courtesy of Universal Music’s Icon series. You’ll know that the industry is officially in the shitter when these redundancies stop getting released.
WTF Release of the Week: For lack of a truly embarrassing release, I’m going to have to slot Glee: The Music-Season 3: The Graduation Album in this space. Has this ship sailed yet?
Pause and Play, y’all. Get your new release info (well, whatever you can’t find here) from these folks.