This week, rock band Linkin Park released their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns. The results are, sad to say, not pretty; since 2007's Minutes to Midnight, the California rap-metal band has become more of an angsty Depeche Mode-lite with U2 aspirations and a guaranteed spot on every soundtrack to a Transformers film. Maybe it's the middle school nostalgia talking, but they were something else when they first burst onto the scene a decade ago. Chester Bennington, the throaty lead singer,
Archives for September 16, 2010
Funky Town Grooves Digs Up Treasure from Brick, Full Force and More
Here's a look at the upcoming slate from the R&B reissuers at Funky Town Grooves. September 30 will see three new titles added to the label's discography. First, there's a two-fer from jazz-funk hitmakers Brick, best known for 1976's "Dazz," a U.S. Top 5 hit. This set will put the band's last two albums for Bang Records - Summer Heat (1981), which included the band's last big hit, the Top 10 R&B single "Sweat (Till You Get Wet)," and After 5 (1982) - onto one remastered CD. Next up, we
A Very Strange Circle is Completed: New John Spencer Blues Explosion Reissues from Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory concludes its exhaustive series of reissues with a pair of expansive editions of Orange (1994) and Acme (1998). The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion became one of the most unusual alt-rock bands of the '90s because they were bizarrely unique. In a review of their 2010 compilation Dirty Shirt Rock N' Roll: The First Ten Years (which kicked off this whole reissue campaign), Pitchfork called their music "highly crafted and gloriously messy, heavily conceptual but still visceral, serious
Three from the Hard Rock Archives
As if there weren't enough catalogue options on everyone's plates, here come three more hard-rock reissues - one from Jethro Tull and two from Rainbow. EMI/Capitol is releasing a deluxe edition of Jethro Tull's sophomore LP Stand Up (1969). The first album of JT's in which Ian Anderson had total control over the musical direction was thus a departure from the band's bluesy debut, This Was, opting instead for more of a folk sound. This set will be an expanded three-disc set with a bonus live
Take That! Robbie Williams to Be Compiled Once More (UPDATED 9/16)
Virgin has released the cover art for a new compilation by Robbie Williams, the consummate U.K. pop star. The two-disc set, In and Out of Consciousness: The Greatest Hits 1990-2010, the final entry on Williams' longtime contract with EMI, will compile 39 tracks from throughout his long career, including two brand new ones: "Shame" and "Heart and I," both co-written by Gary Barlow, who was a member with Williams in the British boy band sensation Take That. (Williams will follow this release, it's