Our thoughts and best wishes go out to all of those affected by the atrocious events of yesterday. Many of Popblerd’s writers (including me) live in Boston, and we are deeply saddened, but this city is tough and resilient, and will move forward.
Today brings forth a slew of new releases. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the heftier new release Tuesdays in recent memory (why do I feel like I’ve said this each of the past 3 or 4 Tuesdays?) At any rate, here are a few highlights.
Why do I feel like Fall Out Boy had the shortest breakup in history? The emo pioneers announced a hiatus barely 3 1/2 years ago. Pete Wentz engaged in a side project. It wasn’t successful. Patrick Stump released an excellent solo album. Unfortunately, it wasn’t successful. The other two guys did something else, I’m sure. Anyway, FOB’s new release is called Save Rock ‘n Roll (tongue planted firmly in cheek, I’m sure.) Unlike previous FOB albums, Save is pretty guest heavy-everyone from 2 Chainz (!) to Courtney Love (!!!!!) appears on it. It also sounds like Stump’s pop/R&B influences are coming a bit more to the fore on this album. I’m excited to give it a listen.
Major Lazer is a highly influential production duo, that used to consist of Diplo and Switch. Switch broke south a while back, but that hasn’t stopped Diplo from enjoying a pretty stellar run as a producer (most notably with Usher’s fantastic “Climax.”) So, there are more eyes on a Major Lazer album than at any time before. Free the Universe is expected to make a solid impact on the charts when it debuts next week, and it’s another album with a strong guest list (it’s certainly less strange than Fall Out Boy’s, for what that’s worth.) Applying vocals to this project? Bruno Mars, Wyclef Jean, Shaggy (!!) and Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, who has his own damn album coming out in three weeks. Busy man.
When exactly did The Flaming Lips become ubiquitous? With the exception of their one MTV hit “She Don’t Use Jelly,” Wayne Coyne and co. flew solidly under the radar for the ’90s. Then we landed in the 21st century, and all of a sudden the Lips were kind of an “it” band. We could probably attribute some of that to the blogosphere, Wayne’s way with a quip, and his habit of bouncing through the crowd at his shows in a giant translucent ball. We could also probably attribute that to “Do You Realize?” catching fire via advertisements and such. At any rate, the Lips have crossed the barrier into legendary status, and they are also releasing a new album today. The Terror doesn’t have features from 2 Chainz, Courtney Love, or any members of Vampire Weekend, in case you were wondering.
Other artists releasing albums today include:
Big Country (featuring new lead singer Mike Peters, formerly of The Alarm)
Sarah Brightman
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.
Steve Earle
Iron & Wine
Kid Cudi
Meat Puppets
Olly Murs
Shuggie Otis
Skid Row
Ugly Kid Joe
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Want the full list of new releases? Make sure you patronize the great site known as Pause and Play. They’ll hook ya up.
1 comment
Angela says:
Apr 16, 2013
Just wanting to send along thoughts, condolences, and good wishes to everyone in Boston. Glad to hear it seems the staff of this site is okay, hopefully all your loved ones are safe and sound, too.