music news

I have lately been listening a lot more to podcasts than to new music. I downloaded a couple of new releases -- Shakira's new album and Norah Jones' new album, for instance -- but they were just plain bad or didn't hold my interest very long, respectively. But here is a new album I found that I can't stop listening to.

"Bible Belt" by Diane Birch


The music is keyboard and piano-driven soul, with a little bit of blues and pop and country and folk and R&B and everything, and even some greats horns and string sections. At first listen the album is very retro and reminds me a lot of Carole King's album "Tapestry". However there is, in listening to it more, a lot of Cat Power. But it is all the good parts of Cat Power (the great rhythm section, the brass, alternating piano and Wurlitzer keyboard, and the soulful singing) without any of the bad (the meandering and repetitive solo guitar parts and the alcoholic angst). The cheerful songs are super cheerful, and the sad and lonely songs even end up sounding hopeful.

Here is the great music video for the album's single: "Nothing But a Miracle"

And here is a behind-the-scenes, "get to know this up and coming artist" type of
promo video.

Three more pieces of exciting music news (for me, at least):

1) Gorillaz finally have a new full-length album coming out! I hadn't heard about it today but it is coming out on March 9th and has an even larger all-star cast of special guests. There is plenty of hype elsewhere on the internet if you need more information, but the album has a great cover, and here is the great first single: "Stylo"

2) Christina Aguilera finally has a new album coming out, which the good news. The bad news is that the only information we have about it is its title, which is "Bionic". In a post-Kanye West, "808s & Heartbreaks" pop music landscape, it terrifies me that the most naturally talented singer of the last decade is naming her album after a word that means "half-human, half-machine". Is there anyone who needs AutoTune less than Christina? Hopefully it is a false alarm and it is some stupid concept for the lead single and video rather than a new, electronic aesthetic...

3) Joanna Newsom's LONG-awaited new album ("Ys", which I have listened to 4,500 times, came out in fall of 2006) is going to be released on February 23rd. It is called "Have One On Me" and the news just came out that it is going to be a TRIPLE ALBUM. THREE DISCS. That is more Joanna than I have ever had at one time and could double her career's entire musical output so far. I can't WAIT. In annoying news, however, Joanna is still going out with Andy Samberg. Has there ever been a more unbalanced couple, creatively and artistically? Joanna creates 16-minute epic poem-songs with a harp and a full orchestra; Andy's greatest achievement so far is "Dick in a Box". How long must this go on??