Quality trumps quantity this week folks with regards to music releases. You will notice a shift in the holiday season where you'll get a few quick pushes in the early weeks of December. Everyone needs a break during the holidays. That includes bands, producers, distribution, album designers, tour managers, and even that roadie that yells "Check!" into the microphone. So it makes sense that rock/metal/punk releases tend to die down until the new year.
So here are a few of those releases that die hard fans will scoop up either for themselves or for a Xmas present with the tag "you HAVE to listen to this!" However you slice it, there are some good releases coming from the likes of Leonard Cohen, She & Him, Mary J Blige, Wu-Tang Clan, and of course AC/DC.
So be a doll and show some love to these artists by purchasing their work at your local record store, online retailer, or trusted digital source. Cheers and happy Tuesday!
(Leonard Cohen - Live In Dublin)
Musically, the Canadian born Cohen combines blues, jazz and folk along with strains of European and gypsy styles for a unique, elegant and diverse mix that makes the perfect foundation for his words and presentation. He is also generous with the spotlight, giving extended time to his world class musicians (string instrument virtuoso Javier Mas is particularly impressive) longtime partner Sharon Robinson and the Webb sisters whose angelic voices mesh as one. The only non-Cohen composition is a closing cover of “Save the Last Dance for Me,” played with all the bittersweet melancholy often obscured in other versions. It caps off a remarkably vivacious and career encompassing evening that sets a new standard for capturing icons like Cohen who rely on restrained intricacies in texture and nuance to communicate their art. -American Songwriter
(She & Him - Classics)
She & Him aren’t trying to surprise anyone with these covers; there’s no off-the wall instrumental experimentation, no dramatic shift in lyrics. Instead, Classics is charming and sleepy in a '60s samba sort of way, filled with whispering percussion, light electric guitar solos, and string arrangements worthy of the silver screen.
Even though they're working with dated lyricism by 2014’s standards, saccharine lines like "When you’re strolling through the wherezis, you need a whozis to lean upon" don’t sound contrived or silly in She & Him's hands. "Funny, each time I fall in love," Deschanel sings on Bing Crosby’s hit, "It’s always you." If Classics proves anything, it’s that these songs stick around for a reason. -Pitchfork
(Mary J Blige - The London Sessions)
"The London Sessions" is best when Blige has room to be herself: surveying the damage and trying not just to cope, but to fight through. Her career is a chronicle of personal travail, and the catharsis of singing about it. Blige, unfiltered, has unmatched intensity. It's difficult to listen to "Whole Damn Year," co-written by Sande, and not flinch. "Spring punched me right in the stomach … summer came lookin' for blood... It took a whole damn year to repair my body," Blige sings as if reliving each psychic blow. -Chicago Tribune
(Wu Tang Clan - A Better Tomorrow)
Yet as purely enjoyable as much of Tomorrow is, embracing a nostalgia for their glorious mid-'90s heyday comes at a cost. 8 Diagrams may have split opinions, but that's often the price of seeking to evolve and progress. Tomorrow feels engineered to please fans who remember those good old days, and the result is a low-risk finale for one of hip-hop's most daring crews. The outright bad tracks are few (mainly the Dusty Springfield-sampling Preacher's Daughter), but middling cuts like Felt and Keep Watch are staunchly mediocre by their own high standards.
Still, for many fans, hearing their heroes back in form may be enough. Stacked against Wu-Tang Clan's legacy, Tomorrow is a solid, if unspectacular, coda to their incredible career. -USA Today
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