Combine the most beloved, classic songs of the holiday season with the warm baritone of one of the most recognized voices in popular music, and fans will have reason to celebrate with James Taylor at Christmas. This 12-track collection features traditional and contemporary seasonal songs.
All hail the return of novelty music’s reigning king! Straight Outta Lynwood easily bests 2003’s Poodle Hat and shows that Yankovic does know what he does best. Part of the secret to Weird Al’s success is that he’s never been very weird at all, and very rarely are his satires in any way “biting”–or […]
It’s impossible to hear Andrea Bocelli singing Perry Como’s “It’s Impossible” without being overcome by a sense of utter enchantment. As the ripe-hearted have known since 1997’s Romanza, though, Bocelli’s French-perfume-like appeal generally lingers well beyond a single song, suffusing entire lovestruck evenings with its richness and warmth. And so it goes with Under […]
Smokey-voiced chanteuse Madeleine Peyroux’s third CD is a lovely collection of after-hours ruminations and should confirm her rise to fame. Credit producer Larry Klein for doing a bang-up job with the album’s sound: the elegant, pared-down arrangements are all brushed drums, acoustic guitars, and cool organ licks. But of course it’s Peyroux’s voice that […]
My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way has alternately described his band’s third album as “completely over the top” and “borderline psychotic.” But even those words can’t adequately prepare fans of the group’s 2004 platinum major-label debut, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, for the onslaught of twisted song suites, glam-rock cannon fire and drama-club theatrics […]
The long-awaited third record in the Bat Out of Hell trilogy, The Monster Is Loose, wears bombast, pretension, and pyrotechnics proudly on its album sleeve and across the bulging disc’s 14 tracks. More a pop orchestral mishmash than a well-defined rock opus, Bat III is dark, seemingly hopeless at times, and über dramatic. Oddly […]
J.J. Cale penned two of Eric Clapton’s career-defining solo hits, “Cocaine” and “After Midnight.” And since Clapton has often fashioned his persona in a WWJD manner (what would J.J. do?), this collaboration is long overdue. But despite the rather slick production and long list of guest backing musicians (including four bassists, four drummers, five […]
If the 9-year-old in your life hasn’t alerted you already, consider this your heads up: Not since Hilary Duff has Disney delivered the masses a tween sensation as hot as the double-life-leading Miss Hannah Montana. More important for speaker-blowing second- to seventh-graders and the parents forced to buy them CDs, though, no small-screen sensation […]
In choosing to cover the music of John Dowland (1563-1626), who is known as the “melancholy madrigalist” from his output of cheerful ditties like “Flow My Tears,” Police bandleader Sting has entered into a whole new realm of austere eeriness. Originally inspired by the gift of a lute, the rock superstar and activist sings […]
The Josh Groban phenomenon continues with Awake, his third studio album. Both of the extraordinary singer’s first two studio discs have been certified five times platinum, with his most recent, 2003’s Closer, charting #1 pop. His uplifting music rises ever higher on Awake.
To fake or not to fake: That is the question consumers must answer for themselves in assessing this feat of aural Photoshopping: an “imaginary concert” created by combining recently discovered soundboard tapes of Ray Charles’s vocals from a mid-’70s European show and newly recorded backing by the Count Basie Orchestra–the “ghost band,” still on […]
The first Christmas album from Rhonda Vincent, six-time International Bluegrass Music Association “Female Vocalist of the Year” and two-time Grammy® nominee. Among the songs featured are favorites “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Winter Wonderland,” “Oh Christmas Tree,” “Jingle Bells,” “Twelve Days of Christmas,” and many more. Vincent is supported by some of the finest […]
Like other country mainstays (Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, et al.), Dolly Parton found creative emancipation in freedom from the commercial airwaves, once the younger generation of artists began dominating country radio. The crossover slickness and calculation of some of her later country hits is nowhere in evidence on this trio of albums […]
Janet Jackson opens her much-hyped, post-wardrobe-malfunction return to the studio with the following proclamation: “I’ve covered a lot in my 20 years, and I’ve uncovered a lot in my 20 years.” There’s a pause, then a giggle. And then comes an honest breakdown of this disc’s DNA: “I want to have fun,” chimes Janet […]
