Having blanketed Sunday night’s Grammys telecast with ads and promotions (including heavily discounted prices on Grammy-nominated artists and exclusive promotions on recent and upcoming LPs by Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake), American retailer Target has partnered with a recent Grammy winner and an upstart rock group to expand and reissue two albums. Babel, the sophomore album by folk-rockers Mumford & Sons, and Night Visions, the studio debut by pop-rockers Imagine Dragons, have both been repackaged with retailer-exclusive content. The British-born Mumford & Sons have eked out quite the niche performing dusty, banjo and…
Grammy Time: Music’s Biggest Night Honored with Annual Compilation
We’re just a few weeks from the 55th Annual Grammy Awards – or as I like to call it, “how many times can my music geek friends and I make cutting jokes on the Internet?” – and, as is customary, next week will see the release of a compilation of Grammy-nominated songs for your perusal. The 22-track compilation, distributed this year by EMI, has quite the cross-section of cuts from what is a rather diverse year for the awards ceremony. Altogether, six different artists – Dan Auerbach of the indie-blues group The…
And the Tracks Are…: “2012 Grammy Nominees” Disc Due
With the 54th Annual Grammy Awards mere weeks away on February 13, it’s getting close to one of music’s most vaunted pre-Grammy traditions: the release of the annual Grammy nominees compilation. Due out January 24, 2012 Grammy Nominees compiles exactly the artists you’d expect, from multiple award nominees (British soul songstress Adele, pop acts Bruno Mars and Katy Perry, modern rock legends the Foo Fighters and country star Taylor Swift) to rising stars (rappers J. Cole and Nicki Minaj, alt-rockers Foster the People, dubstep artist/producer Skrillex). At 22 tracks from Maroon 5 and…
Release Round-Up: Week of October 24/25
It’s Tuesday, but most of the new music this week has already been out for a day. But assuming you were too busy to get out to the shops, here’s a look at what’s new. And there’s quite a bit! Various Artists, Phil Spector Presents The Philles Album Collection (Phil Spector Records/Legacy) Six of the first seven Philles albums presented in mono, along with a bonus disc of those delightfully out-there instrumental B-sides. Seriously, have you heard any of them? They’re crazy. In a good way, that is. Diana Ross & The Supremes,…
Mumford & Sons Go Back to “The Cave” for Expanded Album
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past year or so, Mumford & Sons isn’t the name of a trendy country boutique. It’s a rather great, roots-oriented band turning out some of the best, harmonically dense Americana-tinged rock on the scene right now. (Naturally, they’re not from around these parts, calling West London their home.) In the year since Mumford & Sons’ Sigh No More was released in the U.S., the quartet’s songs, namely “Little Lion Man” and “The Cave,” have become surprising crossover hits. Constant touring and promotion on…
