Music Releases For June 26th, 2012

So a great set of albums set to hit shelves today folks.  Have you had the chance to preview any of them?  If not, some of the album have previews to check out before making the purchase.  I am thoroughly excited for a few of these albums (coughMMFcoughgojiracoughoffspringcough) and you should be too!  Anyways, check out the albums dropping today and some of the reviews accompanied with them:

"But therein lies the record’s beauty, and, really, that of the band in general. First-time listeners will likely find Worship a grind to get through, and even those with ears more acutely tuned to the band’s mind-melting, wall of noise style might not make it through the whole album in one listen. Fortunately, the release unlocks more answers and offers up more rewards with each additional listen. Beneath the cacophonous rumbling on the surface, the music is actually very lush and textured, even in its own spectacularly loud way. Worship, like Exploding Heart before it, is a grower, music that only truly reveals itself with time, attention, and lots of repeated listens." -Consequence of Sound

"Jackson takes 15 Ellington classics and, combining some into unique medleys (not to mention adding some quotations from other pieces), arranges them into 10 highly original tracks. He is clearly having himself a good time, just listen to the quotation at the end of "The Mooche/Black and Tan Fantasy" or the drum and bass coda at the end of "It Don't Mean a Thing." In the middle of Vieira's hot and sexy romp through "Perdido" he inserts a time bending "Satin Doll" piano solo. This is Ellington's music, but there is no escaping Jackson's aesthetic touch." -BlogCritic

"Everything culminates on the bluesy stomp of "Kiss", which stretches past the seven-minute mark and gives all of the players room to truly shine. Ultimately, Overexposed exposes every facet of this versatile outfit more clearly than ever before, whether its funk, pop, or rock. At the end of the day, Maroon 5 made a classic record here that'll get you moving…" -Artist Direct

"'NO' is not a bad album by any means. It displays Old Man Gloom performing the kind of hardcore-influenced sludge that they are so undeniably adept at, and this part of their musical persona rarely falters. The one thing that holds back this album from true greatness is that songs like 'Shuddering Earth' suffer from a disproportionate amount of ambient noodling, made all the ore disappointing by the knowledge that Old Man Gloom, as referenced by Seminar III, are incredibly good at crafting longer pieces of music. However, fortunately for fans new and old, this unfortunate misstep is greatly overshadowed by the fact that the parts of NO that contain real substance are just as good as anyone could have ever hoped for. We can only hope that NO will not be followed by yet another nearly decade-long break, and that Old Man Gloom will continue to astound for years to come, learning from their mistakes and bettering themselves with each new release." -Sputnik Music

"To say the six years between 2006's Welcome to the Drama Club and 2012's Invisible Stars were tough for Everclear is something of an understatement. Only one of the musicians who appeared on Drama Club remains -- that would be guitarist/singer Art Alexakis, who already was leading a rejiggered lineup in 2006 and now has a completely different crew on Invisible Stars. This is roughly the same group that appeared on Everclear's pair of 2011 releases of re-recorded hits for budget-line Cleopatra, a sure sign a group has skidded into a rough patch, and if they're not explicitly re-recording songs on Invisible Stars, they're certainly eager to evoke memories of the past by reworking hooks from "Everything to Everyone," "I Will Buy You a New Life," and "Wonderful." Of course, Alexakis has never hidden how he works with a limited palette -- he may have expanded sonic horizons on the two-part Songs from an American Movie back in 2000 but he retained allegiance to the same three chords and topics that brought him fame on Sparkle and Fade and So Much for the Afterglow -- so this isn't necessarily a fair criticism to level at this late date. What does count is that the hunger to return to the spotlight results in a looser, livelier record than Welcome to the Drama Club; he's so desperate for somebody to pay attention that his hooks are harder, bolder than before and the band rocks, albeit in the coolly restrained manner of seasoned hired hands. Whether this nostalgia -- so calculated that the prom queen of "Falling in a Good Way" pointedly enters high school in 1995, the year Everclear had their first big hit, "Santa Monica" (and this album's "Santa Ana Wind" certainly brings to mind that tune as well) -- has an audience in 2012 is almost beside the point; after many years in the wilderness, Alexakis has once again found the sound of Everclear on Invisible Stars." -All Music

"There are a few scatterbrained pieces of bliss on Days Go By, but The Offspring have proven that they need a boost before creating their next studio album. Whether it’s more re-written punk anthems or a complete revisiting of the past, they need something. The edgy and exciting punk stylings of The Offspring are there, but they’ve better put into a much better light before. For a band that has been revered since the 90’s for their quirky sense of humor, but respect for punk’s fundamentals, The Offspring have hit middle age with Days Go By. It’s going to be played frequently on the radio, that can’t be denied, but if you’ve been tracking these guys since day one, there’s no sense in blurring that vision of nostalgia any longer. The Offspring’s Days Go By is another unsettling look at a band whose bag of tricks is running dangerously low, so if you’re hoping for a return to the roots for this otherwise influential band, just remember: days go by, and so do The Offspring." -Sputnik Music 

(For a limited time, check out the whole album here)

"France's Gojira have established themselves as one of heavy metal's most wildly creative and cerebral forces. Their fifth studio album sustains their trademark blend of unfathomable heaviness, structural invention and ecological-cum-existential poetry while subtly enhancing its dramatic and emotional impact. As fans have come to expect, songs such as labyrinthine opener Explosia and the scabrous, melancholic trawl of Planned Obsolescence eschew metal cliches in favour of exhilarating percussive twists and turns, churning dissonance and deft flashes of melody. The uninitiated may detect shades of Killing Joke amid the epic, tectonic grind of Mouth of Kala and the skittering menace of the title track, but overall this is a ferociously original piece of work that reaches its electrifying zenith on The Gift of Guilt: six minutes of sledgehammer sorrow built from riffs that sound like warning shots fired from the planet's doomed and turbulent core. This is metal taken to a higher plane of brilliance." -The Guardian (UK)

"Having come to prominence as one of the more tuneful exponents of nu-metal at the dawn of the millennium, Linkin Park have spent much of the past decade steadily paddling away from the wreckage of the genre. Living Things builds on the experimentation of 2010's A Thousand Suns, with subtle electronica having largely replaced the abrasive guitars of yore, although they're still canny enough to throw in a decent number of big rock choruses, as on Burn it Down and Lost in the Echo. By refusing to play it safe, they'll further diminish their original fanbase, but such boldness is to be applauded." -The Guardian (UK)

"Challenger does not deserve to be ignored. Although it is not the most original piece of work to ever grace the earth, it is passionate, rock solid, and extremely impressive. I can’t think of much to detract from Challenger; if I had to single out one song as less impressive than others, it would have to be “Legacy”, but at the end of the day, Challenger is a monster of an album that will most definitely be in the running for album of the year at 2012’s end. Don’t miss out on this one." -Sputnik Music

"You know your record’s weird when the track featuring Yoko Ono comes as precious respite, but that’s how we’d describe ‘Do It!’, and – uh-oh – looks like you’ll need it, because here comes ‘Is David Bowie Dying?’’s monolithic dirge (with Neon Indian), chiming doom for the Thin White Duke before introducing a Can-like twist on the chorus. After all that, Erykah Badu’s scene-stealing cameo comes as some sort of blissful, cosmic slow-jam for the ages, but the record tails off with New Fumes’ shrug-worthy inclusion and a skit featuring Aaron Behrens of Ghostland Observatory, er, ‘fame’.

It all adds up to a deeply deranged and intermittently great listen, and serves as a decent stopgap ’til the band’s next album proper (maybe due this year). Now please – won’t someone shut that fucking wallpaper up?" -NME

"There are many moments when this album shines, particularly in the five tracks I discussed above. Other tracks have potential to be as great as the rest, but unfortunately fall short. I feel that they play it safe at times. For example, the tracks “Makes You Stronger” and “Run Away” have less of the grit and thickness than their preceding tracks have, and I was ready to move on before they were over. I enjoy certain parts of some tracks, but the structures of some of the songs caused my interest to fluctuate.

Despite the few misgivings that I have with What Doesn’t Kill Us, I thoroughly enjoyed this album. It’s been quite a while since I was able to listen to an album all the way through multiple times from the alt rock genre. I found this album to have qualities similar to Thousand Foot Krutch and possibly even Bullet For My Valentine at times. If you are looking for a fun, undemanding, easy-listening rock album that you can belt out the lyrics to, I recommend you give this a spin. It took me by surprise, and while I may not return to it on a regular basis, there are several tracks from it that earned a spot on my summer soundtrack." -The New Review

There are also two awesome DVD's being released this week as well:

(For a limited time, check out the full CD/DVD here)

So if you get the chance, make your way to your local record store or an online retailer to grab yourself some of these great titles!  I have already previewed a few of these albums and all I can say is... you're in for a treat.  Cheers!