Soundgarden - King Animal This is Soundgarden's first album of completely new material since 1996's Down on the Upside. The good news: King Animal is better than Down on the Upside. The bad news: it isn't as good as Superunknown, but then not many albums are. The best songs are on the first half of the album. Favorite songs: A Thousand Days Before, By Crooked Steps, Non-State Actor.
Dwight Yoakam - 3 Pears After being apart for 11 years, Dwight Yoakam comes home to Warner Brothers and releases his first album since his 2007 tribute to Buck Owens [Dwight Sings Buck]. 3 Pears has lots of LOUD guitars, standard weepers, and a song with goofy-assed lyrics about jellyfish, peanut butter kisses and giraffes. Favorite songs: Take Hold of My Hand, It's Never Alright, A Heart Like Mine, Long Way to Go.
Dwight Yoakam - 3 Pears After being apart for 11 years, Dwight Yoakam comes home to Warner Brothers and releases his first album since his 2007 tribute to Buck Owens [Dwight Sings Buck]. 3 Pears has lots of LOUD guitars, standard weepers, and a song with goofy-assed lyrics about jellyfish, peanut butter kisses and giraffes. Favorite songs: Take Hold of My Hand, It's Never Alright, A Heart Like Mine, Long Way to Go.
Mumford & Sons - Babel The wait between 2009's Sigh No More and Babel has been worth it. Who knew that I would like a group of English folk revivalists? These guys are loud, fiery, ballsy, and full of energy. One thing they are NOT is "boring" [Fleet Foxes, call your office...].
Spectrum Road - Spectrum Road This is probably as close to jazz that I will get. One hesitates to use the term "supergroup," but this one is close. Jack Bruce [Cream], Vernon Reid [Living Color], John Medeski [Medeski, Martin & Wood], and Cindy Blackman-Santana come together to pay tribute to end expand on the music of Tony Williams' Lifetime. The bulk of the material presented here is from Lifetime's catalog, with a couple of originals and one Scottish traditional song thrown in for good measure. These guys are no mere tribute band.
Ian Anderson - Thick as a Brick 2 Ian Anderson [Jethro Tull's guiding light] answers the musical question that nobody but a hardcore Tull fan would ask - whatever happened to Gerald Bostock? For those who don't know, "Gerald Bostock" was a 8-year old boy who wrote an epic poem about the trials of growing up that became the lyrics to Jethro Tull's 1972 concept album Thick as a Brick. Well, not really...Gerald Bostock was really Ian Anderson, and TAAB was a parody of concept albums then en vogue in the early 1970s. Unlike the 1972 work, TAAB 2 wasn't recorded as a single, 40-minute song. The arrangements are leaner, less cluttered, but still well-executed. TAAB 2 shows five different things that could have happened to Gerald Bostock - he could have been a greedy banker, a soldier fighting in Afghanistan, a shopkeeper, a homeless man, or a preacher.
Mark Knopfler - Privateering After over thirty years in the business, Mark Knopfler released his first double album of studio material. If you like what you've heard from MK since he gave up Dire Straits, you get more of the same here. Oddly enough, this album was not released in the US. I had to get it as an import.
ZZ Top - La Futura It's been a long time since ZZ Top released anything new. La Futura has been heralded as ZZ Top's return to their roots. That's a true statement - the synthesizers of the Eliminator years are gone, as are the beat-box, dub experiments that ruined XXX. La Futura isn't Tres Hombres, but it's the best thing they've done since Rhythmeen.
Bob Dylan – Tempest It wasn't "the best Dylan release since Blood on the Tracks," but Tempest does continue the musical winning streak Dylan started in 1997 with Time Out of Mind. Favorite songs: Pay In Blood, Early Roman Kings, Narrow Way.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Psychedelic Pill He toured three times with Crosby, Stills & Nash [2000, 2002, 2006]. He made a sequel to an album he never released [Chrome Dreams II]. He made an album-long ode to cars [Fork in the Road]. He devoted an entire album to ranting against the Iraq War [Living With War].
Finally, he got around to making a great album [that I didn't think he
had in him] with Crazy Horse, and it's about damn time. Favorite songs: Walk Like a Giant, Psychedelic Pill, Twisted Road, She's Always Dancing.
Rush – Clockwork Angels A first in the history of Rush - a concept album. IMHO, it is far and away the best thing they've done since 1981's Moving Pictures. Some things do get better with age, like Rush. Favorite songs: Clockwork Angels, Seven Cities of Gold, The Wreckers, Headlong Flight.
Ry Cooder – Election Special This is Ry Cooder's contribution in kind to Barack Obama's re-election campaign. While I don't agree with the message, I do appreciate the art.
http://tonysmusicroom.blogspot.com/2012/08/ry-cooder-election-special.html
Things to look forward to in 2013 [assuming the Mayans are wrong]:
Black Sabbath - After 33 years, Black Sabbath are finally recording an album of new music with Ozzy Osbourne. The original four members [Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward] announced on 11/11/11 that they would reform, make an album and tour the world. Things haven't quite turned out that way. Tony Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma at this time last year, so plans had to be put on hold for him to recover. Bill Ward told the world he's having contractual problems with band management and hasn't gotten a contract he could sign. In 2012, the rest of the band played three shows with Ozzy's drummer, and from what I've heard of the shows Bill Ward hasn't been missed. Tony Iommi is recovering well and recording continues on the new Sabbath album. As yet untitled, it'll probably be out in April 2013.
Alice In Chains - These guys took everybody by surprise and released Black Gives Way to Blue in 2009 to rave reviews [including mine]. I wondered why it's been taking awhile for a follow-up, and last week I found my answer. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell had shoulder surgery and needed to recover. They started recording in 2011 and just finished not too long ago. I think it will be out before Spring 2013.
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell - They have a new album, "Old Yellow Moon," due out on Feb 26th.
Things to look forward to in 2013 [assuming the Mayans are wrong]:
Black Sabbath - After 33 years, Black Sabbath are finally recording an album of new music with Ozzy Osbourne. The original four members [Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward] announced on 11/11/11 that they would reform, make an album and tour the world. Things haven't quite turned out that way. Tony Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma at this time last year, so plans had to be put on hold for him to recover. Bill Ward told the world he's having contractual problems with band management and hasn't gotten a contract he could sign. In 2012, the rest of the band played three shows with Ozzy's drummer, and from what I've heard of the shows Bill Ward hasn't been missed. Tony Iommi is recovering well and recording continues on the new Sabbath album. As yet untitled, it'll probably be out in April 2013.
Alice In Chains - These guys took everybody by surprise and released Black Gives Way to Blue in 2009 to rave reviews [including mine]. I wondered why it's been taking awhile for a follow-up, and last week I found my answer. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell had shoulder surgery and needed to recover. They started recording in 2011 and just finished not too long ago. I think it will be out before Spring 2013.
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell - They have a new album, "Old Yellow Moon," due out on Feb 26th.
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