Category: Pop Music

Friday New Releases – March 24th

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Are you ready for Friday New Releases?  There are an absolute abundance of records today.  So many to choose from and where the heck do you begin.  I have more I want to hear than I have any week this year.  It is going to be busy non-stop music week.  I hope there is something for you.  The ones I want are in Blue and I can’t wait to get started!!!!

  • 61olilqtlgl-_ac_us160_  Colton Dixon – Identity – (Sparrow):  Colton Dixon has finally returned with a new album.  Colton is a Christian artist and he is a former American Idol Alum, but don’t let any of that scare you away.  He is an amazing talent.  This album is broken up into three parts about the spiritual journey of your Body, Mind & Spirit and should be very interesting.

  • 170x170bb-19  James Blunt – The Afterlove – (Atlantic Records UK):  The fifth studio album from James Blunt drops today.  I have followed him since the beginning even after hearing “You’re Beautiful” way too many times.  He always delivers stellar songs and he has a unique voice that I enjoy over and over.

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Friday New Releases – March 17th

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Happy Friday.  What are you in the mood to hear today?  You have a lot of variety and can listen to blues, rock, christian worship, classical pop, pop, alternative, metal and movie scores.  There are even a couple of 80’s bands back (Depeche Mode and Greg Kihn).  Whatever you like, let me know what floats your boat.  Mine are highlighted in Blue.

  • 170x170bb-22  Gary Clark Jr. – Live North America 2016 – (Warner Bros. Records):  This is probably the best one on the list.  Gary Clark Jr. live doesn’t get much better. If you haven’t heard him before, you are missing out.  He is a helluva a guitar player. He is blues, rock, soul, r&b and blends it all nicely together.  Listen to the video below and you will be like..DAMN!!! This man is awesome!!.

  • 170x170bb-3  Elevation Worship – There is a Cloud – (Elevation Church):  This church is just down the road from us and they do a great live show every year at the Spectrum Center that always sells out.  We have seen them several times at church (when we go) and they are amazing.  If you like Worship music, this is one of the better, more talented groups out there.

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Friday New Releases – March 10th

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Happy Friday!  I hope there are some new releases here that you might like.  There is not a whole lot coming out, but a few will be on my list to listen to during the week.  I will highlight those in Blue.  You will see something from the Jerry Garcia Band for you Deadheads and if you liked Soft Cell from the 80’s there is a greatest hits package from Marc Almond.  There is an album by the great country artist Marty Stuart that actually might be worth a listen, but isn’t first up on my list.  I will eventually get to that one.

  • 170x170bb-16  Chickenfoot – Best + Live – (Chickenfoot LLC & Entertainment One): I am not sure how you have a Best of album after only 2 studio albums, but Chickenfoot seems to think they need one.  I am thinking it is a contractual obligation they have to fulfil.  I will be glad for the Live songs and the one new single “Divine Termination”.  No matter what, when you have Sammy, Joe, Chad & Michael together, you are in for a good time.

  • 170x170bb-43  Bush – Black and White Rainbows – (Zuma Rock Records):  Bush is still going strong.  This is the first album for Gavin Rossdale since his well publicized divorce from Gwen Stefani.  It will be interesting to see how that impacted his song writing for this album.  Can’t wait to hear this one regardless of that fact.

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Maroon 5 – Deep Dive Playlist

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I didn’t know what to listen to the other day, so I hit shuffle on my whole library.  An old Maroon 5 song came up and I really loved that song.  It wasn’t one of their hits, but it was just as good.  It got me thinking about all their songs.

Maroon 5 is more than the songs you hear on the radio.  Their albums are usually great all the way through. I love it when a band’s non-singles are just as good as their radio hits, if not even better.  As a result of this one song randomly popping up on my shuffle, I decided to dive deep into their albums and put together a playlist of the Deep Cuts.  It is what I like to call Deep Dive Playlist.

I have only done two others so far since I started the blog.  One for Def Leppard and one for Bon Jovi.  I hope you enjoy this one as much as people seem to enjoy the other ones.  Here is my Deep Dive Playlist for Maroon 5.  They are not being ranked, they are only a playlist. I love them all.

“How” off the album ‘Hands All  Over Me’: “How” was the song I mentioned that popped up in my shuffle and the inspiration for this deep dive playlist.  It is more of a ballad than a pure dance song and I love Adam’s voice in this song.  Come to think of it, I love Adam’s voice.  How a man can get that high is beyond me, but his voice is so unique and so recognizable the minute you hear it.

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Ed Sheeran – ÷ (Divide) – Album Review

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Ed Sheeran’s album came out on Friday and my oldest daughter couldn’t be happier.  She has been streaming the album almost non-stop since.  I am sure I will have to go out and get her the vinyl real soon which I am okay with because I would listen to it as well.

Sheeran’s new album is called Divide (÷) and is his third album in his young career.  Ed isn’t like all the other pop artist on the radio.  He actually writes his songs and plays his instruments as well.  I would even go as far as saying he is a musician and not just a prop for someone else’s songs.

The album has been breaking Spotify streaming records and is getting a lot of press.  As a result, going into this record I had pretty high expectations.  His first single, “Shape of You” is outstanding and has been blowing up the charts.  It is a pop, dance song about new love and the song currently is still my favorite song on the album, but some others are catching up as I keep hitting repeat on the album myself.

The album opens with “Eraser” and has Ed Sheeran doing a little rapping which comes as no surprise since he has done it before and he is a huge hip hop fan.  The song talks about his struggles with fame which he doesn’t expect you to feel sorry for him.  I could imagine how hard fame really can be and understand the way he feels.  It would be hard to have success so fast and all sense of privacy being stripped away.  The song is great start to the album.

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My Sunday Song – “You Keep Me Hanging On” by Kim Wilde

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My Sunday Song #29 is the song “You Keep Me Hanging On” by Kim Wilde.  It is hard to believe my wife has only one more week after this one.  How time flies.  Now I have to actually think of songs again!  I will now turn it over to my wife to explain the special meaning behind this song and maybe why the Kim Wilde version over the Supremes (which drops the “g” on Hanging)???…Enjoy!

“You Keep Me Hangin’ On” is a 1966 song written and composed by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland. It was a Billboard Hot 100 hit in late 1966 for the American Motown group The Supremes. Over the years, various artists have covered this song; however, my absolute favorite is Kim Wilde’s version. Wilde released “You Keep Me Hanging On” on her album Another Step in 1986. This song became the biggest hit of Wilde’s career.

In researching this song for My Sunday Song, I discovered that Reba McEntire covered the song in 1995 for her twenty second studio album, Starting Over. I am a HUGE Reba fan and while I am sure I have or had this CD, I do not recall her covering this song. Perhaps I heard it and loved Wilde’s version so much more that I just blocked it out. I will try to locate Reba’s version of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”. I’m curious now!

Traveling back to 1986 when Wilde released “You Keep Me Hanging On”. I was in high school going into my senior year and music was EVERYTHING! Music was my way of making sense of everything going on around me and this song was no exception. I would sing this song “loud and proud” and “over and over”. Now, I read the lyrics and this song could be applicable to so many things. Maybe you want to be set free from a relationship, which is likely the first thing many people would think about when listening to this song, but what about being set free from addictions, bad habits, anxiety, depression, self-destructive behaviors, sin, or anything that is keeping you from living the life you deserve. You try to break free from these things only to go back to them.

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Friday New Releases – February 17th

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Happy Friday.  Welcome to the end of another long work week and hopefully something released today will fit your needs.  Not much out this week, but a couple to look forward to for me.  They are highlighted in Blue.

  • 170x170bb-78  Alison Krauss – Windy City – (Hokker, Inc):  Hard to believe that this is her first solo release in 18 years.  Sadly it is only a covers album and not original material.  I will take what I can get from this bluegrass/country superstar.

  • 170x170bb-28  Ryan Adams – Prisoner – (PaxAmericana Recordings):  Ryan hasn’t waited 18 years for his next solo release.  He has only waited about 3 years.  For him, this is his 16th studio album.  That seems crazy, but he does put out a lot of albums as he averages about 1 album a year.  I am sure it will be interesting as his usually are.

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Michael Bolton – ‘Songs of Cinema’ – Album Review

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Now before I get into the album review, let me preface this with that I am a fan of Michael Bolton’s earlier work starting with his 1983 release ‘Michael Bolton’ which had “Fool’s Game” up until ‘Time, Love & Tenderness’ in 1991.  After that it started to go down hill for me as he was doing way too many covers.  More covers than originals, which is disappointing.  He was also getting further and further from his original rock roots (listen to his early releases and you will hear what I am talking about).

Several months back, I heard Michael was signing with Frontiers Records Srl and I was actually excited to hear that as Frontiers is a great record label and they are a ROCK record label.  They have brought back many bands of my youth and signed them including Night Ranger and Stryper and now Michael Bolton.

Imagine my utter disappointment when I heard the new Michael Bolton album was a cover album of movie songs called ‘Songs of Cinema’.  Wow!!  It is just what I wanted (heavy, heavy sarcasm)!  I told myself going into it, I would keep an open mind and give it a solid listen…which I feel I did for about 30 seconds.

What songs did he cover?  I will tell you.

It starts off with “When A Man Loves A Woman”. Hasn’t he done that one before? Why yes he has, but this one is different…it is the 2017 Version.  Oh yeah, that is right…I am supposed to keep an open mind.  I am sorry, but I can’t. That ship has sailed.  When the first song is a rehash of an old song that you have already covered, you lost me.  The original one he did back in 1991 was so much better.

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Train – A Girl A Bottle A Boat – Album Review

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Train has found a niche in the pop world.  They bring a fun, summer song feel to their albums and are firmly fitted in the Adult Contemporary world.  They have found their formula and they are sticking to it.  However, they are starting to show signs of a disease called BonJovitis.  What is BonJovitis?  Well here is the clinical definition:

BonJovitis – a disease caused by repeating the same song formula without ever changing anything other than the words. It causes dull, lifeless and completely uninspiring albums and puts your fans and listeners to sleep.  Ultimately the disease will cause your album sales to drop and fans to leave and search elsewhere for music.  (See Bon Jovi as a perfect example).

All their albums are starting to sound the same, but it isn’t as bad for me as how Bon Jovi does it.  If you are a regular reader of my site, you know Train holds a special place in my families heart.  That is the only reason they don’t have full blown BonJovitis in my eyes…YET!!!

All joking aside, Train has delivered another solid album.  I even think the album cover is actually quite beautiful.  It has the ocean, a beautiful girl, a boat and the American flag.  I don’t see a bottle though.

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Friday New Releases – February 3rd

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The year is already flying by as we are now in February in what seems like a blink of the eye. I am still getting through all of last week’s releases so luckily there are only 2 I find intriguing this week. They are highlighted in Blue.

  • 170x170bb-10  Black Star Riders – Heavy Fire – (Nuclear Blast):  Black Star Riders returns with their third album.  The band is basically Thin Lizzy but they are not using the name.  Not sure why, but regardless, I love the new material.  The first two albums were great and I feel they are just getting warmed up.  High hopes for the new release.

  • 71wxshqv-8l-_sx522_  Judas Priest – Turbo (30th Anniversary 3CD set) – (Sony Legacy):  Wow!  30 years since the release of Turbo.  I am looking forward to revisiting this classic Judas Priest album and eager to hear what special they might have added to this addition.  Here is the original video to “Turbo Lover” and the video was awful…sorry.

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