Just a couple quick notes. Work today was spent doing one of my least favorite chores - employee evaluations (our fiscal year ended June 30). I spent all day trying to come up with different ways to say "efficiently."
Suzanne Vega Beauty & Crime I've had a few chances to hear this disc already and while it's got Vega's trademark sultry whisper, nothing from it has really caught my attention just yet. Then again, Vega's music tends to sneak up on you rather than hit you over the head. It's been six years since she released her last album, the very strong Songs in Red and Gray and, vibe-wise at least, Beauty seems to pick up right where that disc left off. Hopefully the new one will grow on me like that disc did. You can hear the the new album for yourself over at MSN all this week.
Teddy Thompson Up Front and Down Low The son of Richard & Linda Thompson has put out two discs before this new one and is still less known for his music than for his being the son of Richard & Linda Thompson. For his third album he's dropped his own stuff (or at least most of it - one of his songs did make it) and has released a disc of cry-in-your-beer country standards that puts his voice front-and-center, and he nails that old-time Nashville sound. It helps that he's picked some really good old artists to cover (Ernest Tubb, George Jones) and some really good musicians to help him out (Tiff Merritt, Iris DeMent, his dad). It might not be the disc that finally gets him recognition (it's a little too county for alt radio, way too country for country radio), but it sure does sound real purty. He's got a few songs streaming over at myspace.
This week's list:
- SPOON Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
- RYAN ADAMS Easy Tiger
- THE WHITE STRIPES Icky Thump
- WILCO Sky Blue Sky
- SUZANNE VEGA Beauty & Crime
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Live in Dublin
- TEDDY THOMPSON Up Front and Down Low
- KIM RICHEY Chinese Boxes
- THE NATIONAL Boxer
- ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. Yours To Keep
- VOXTROT Voxtrot
- AU REVOIR SIMONE The Bird of Music
- PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer's Block
- THE CLIENTELE God Save the Clientele
- FEIST The Reminder
- IMMACULATE MACHINE Fables
- THE POLYPHONIC SPREE The Fragile Army
- RUFUS WAINWRIGHT Release the Stars
- GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Ongiara
- THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
- ROSIE THOMAS These Friends of Mine
- LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III Strange Weirdos
- TRAVIS The Boy With No Name
- THE ROSEBUDS Night of the Furies
- STEVE FORBERT Strange Names & New Sensations
- WARREN ZEVON Preludes
- BRIGHT EYES Cassadaga
- MY MORNING JACKET Okonokos
- FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE Traffic and Weather
- SON VOLT Search
Dropping off the list this week:
- RICHARD THOMPSON Sweet Warrior
- WHEAT Everyday I Said a Prayer for Kathy and Made a One Inch Square
Good additions. I'm hoping to see Teddy Thompson on July 28 at the Tin Angel.
Posted by: Jay | 2007.07.21 at 05:08 PM