Country star Tim McGraw will release his next album, featuring a pair of duets with wife Faith Hill, on March 27.
“Let It Go” (Curb Records) will be the follow-up to 2004’s “Live Like You Were Dying.” McGraw is backed by his touring band, the Dancehall Doctors, marking the group’s third appearance on his recordings. Hill […]
After playing Frogger around the release-date calendar for months, Mos Def’s third disc is damned to that post-Christmas week where releases go to die. And true to the timing, it’s one of the season’s most disappointing frustrations. The bright spot is a burner: “Dollar Day (Surprise Surprise)” is a scorching indictment of the nonresponse […]
Through defiantly, stubbornly and unapologetically wearing their love for the greats on their sleeves, the members of Sloan have earned their group a hip enough reputation over 15 years. If at times cliched and a wee too Beatles-y, their largely power-pop albums are always clever and varied (thanks to a band full of songwriters), […]
The title of the Holmes Brothers’ first offering since 2004’s “Simple Truths” might well serve also as a description of their musical vibe. The new album is a deft blend of gospel, R&B, blues, soul and country — an amalgam easily achieved by Wendell and Sherman Holmes and Poppy Dixon, and virtually unattainable for […]
What results when the studio nerds behind releases by Jennifer Lopez, Natasha Bedingfield and Michael Jackson, just to name a few, get together and make their own indie album? In the case of Shitake Monkey, one of the surprise hits of the year. Johnny Rodeo, Electric Pete and Chuck Brody are more bemused than bitter […]
On its first full-length release, this mellow alt-rock outfit from Portland, Ore., fleshes out its laid-back gloom with hushed samples and electronics. The band creates a set of chilling crescendos that veer from frozen loneliness to hopeless arena grandeur, with lyrics like “Blue light and giant space/You stare and stare” (”Arithmatik”). Standout “Movies of […]
The wait for this Lox member’s second solo album has been longer than anticipated. The follow-up to 2002’s gold “A Gangster & a P” was first delayed by an eight-month incarceration for assault, then by internal label battles. Luckily, “Time Is Money” rises above the delay and finds Styles P in sharp-tongued, swinging form. […]
Following 2004’s excellent “Thug Matrimony” is no easy task, and it’s perhaps wise that Trick Daddy waited two years and change to pop out his next joint. On “Back by Thug Demand,” the Miami MC crafts a tight 12-song, three-skit set whose sonic ambitions build into a soulful, old-school party mode on such […]
Some music merchandisers are alarmed by an accelerated decline in R&B sales — the broad category that also includes rap and hip-hop, Billboard magazine reports.
With the exception of new age, the smallest genre tracked by Nielsen SoundScan, R&B and rap suffered the biggest declines in 2006 of all styles of music.
R&B, with album scans of […]
On his 1995 Epic debut, “What Mattered Most,” Herndon proved to be a master interpreter of a great song. And on his new album, which spans country, pop, gospel and soul, Herndon taps into the songwriting power of some of Nashville’s best tunesmiths, including Keith Urban, Radney Foster, Tim Nichols, Marcus Hummon and Beth […]
One of the top-selling pop groups of the chronological 1960s, the Four Seasons avoided the cultural ’60s until the decade was just about over. “The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette” was a belated (recorded mid-1968) attempt to embrace the concept album and achieve parity with their old rivals the Beach Boys (who had surpassed almost […]
Lynn “Fuzzy” Taylor displays his rich gospel/R&B pedigree on his impressive debut project “Glad to Be.” A former member of renowned gospel troubadours the Highway QC’s (led by his father Spencer Taylor), backup vocalist with ’90s rappers Salt-N-Pepa and nephew of late ’70s R&B superstar Johnnie Taylor, Fuzzy was clearly paying attention to the notable […]
After eight albums and a 15-year career that has turned his name into a synonym for elegance and songcraft, it seems that for Ron Sexsmith, the key to a good record lies in the sequencing and tempo changes. That’s what makes “Time Being” one of his best albums in years: Knowing when the sleepy […]
With more than 30 million records sold worldwide, it’s easy to forget that pop-jazz phenomenon Norah Jones has released only two albums in her career. “Thinking of You,” the first single from third set “Not Too Late” (out January 30), is a slow, bluesy love song that sounds just like her other nostalgic, low-key ballads. […]
