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New Releases For The Week Of September 23, 2007
Edited by Jonathan Cohen
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Rascally Rabbits
Rascal Flatts' fifth studio album, "Still Feels Good," arrives this week via Lyric Street, and there's no doubt the date has been circled on many music industry calendars for months. After all, its predecessor, "Me and My Gang," scored the biggest first-week sales tally of 2006 when it moved 722,000 copies that April. Only four country acts have had bigger first weeks: Tim McGraw, Garth Brooks (twice), Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks.
Rascal Flatts is also one of the biggest success stories of the new century. But if "Still Feels Good" doesn't perform as well as past records, it won't be for a lack of focus and effort. Unlike previous albums, the band and producer Dann Huff dedicated a substantial amount of time to the new project.
"We didn't want to reinvent the wheel, because if something's not broken we didn't feel the need to fix it," group member Jay DeMarcus says. "But particularly when it comes to songs that the three of us write, we write whatever's in our heart at that moment. We've got a bluegrass tune that we've written for a bonus cut that is definitely different than anything we've done."
Among the notable new tunes are "Winner At a Losing Game," which conjures '70s country rock, and "She Goes All," which features actor/singer Jamie Foxx. Elsewhere, "Bob That Head" is a country-meets-rock-meets-rap tune, while Rascal Flatts turns tender on "Better Now," "Help Me Remember" and "It's Not Supposed To Go Like That."
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Foo For All
"It has always been my dream to mix Steely Dan with No Means No," Dave Grohl says of the eclectic sound of the sixth Foo Fighters album, "Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace," due this week via RCA. "If anybody is going to do it, I'd love to be that guy."
Indeed, the 12-song set may throw some fans for a loop, as tracks like "Let It Die" and "Erase/Replace" make drastic stylistic shifts in a matter of seconds. "There's four-piece rock band sh*t, but then there are songs where the middle sections turn into this mass orchestrated swarm and ridiculous time signatures," Grohl says of the new material.
Among the rockers sure to sizzle in arenas this fall are opener/first single "The Pretender" ("It's a stomping Foo Fighters uptempo song, with a little bit of Chuck Berry in it") and "Cheer Up Boys, Your Makeup Is Running."
At the other end of the spectrum, "The Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners" finds Grohl and guest guitarist Kaki King flexing their fingerpicking. "This song is almost banjo-picking style with hammer-ons and pull-offs," Grohl says. "I showed it to her once and she shredded it 10 times better than I've ever played it."
Throughout the album, there are numerous left-field musical references to "Band on the Run"-era Paul McCartney, the Eagles and other softer-rocking relics of the '70s. "There will be times when you hear it and you'll go, 'Wait a second. Was that Bread?' It's a trip," Grohl says.
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Will's World
When Interscope Geffen A&M chairman Jimmy Iovine suggested the idea of a solo album earlier this year, Black Eyed Peas leader will.i.am was caught off guard "I'm thinking, 'Why would I do a solo project?'" he recalls. "I could just do an album with the Black Eyed Peas. It's a band full of solo artists. I knew whatever I did had to be more than just a solo album."
As he began working on "Songs About Girls," will.i.am (real name William Adams) had a solid idea of what he did-and didn't-want to be as a solo artist. "I wanted to be a producer, a songwriter and a vocalist and a rapper -- [to] wear all the hats," he says. And even though he has an extensive, Grammy Award-nominated production résumé that includes Mary J. Blige, Justin Timberlake and Peas singer Fergie, he didn't want "Songs About Girls" to be a standard producer's kind of album.
"I didn't want to go to all these people and say, 'You want to do a song with me?' and such and such," he says. "I didn't want to do a solo record that's not really a solo record, just me with a whole bunch of people on it. I wanted it to be a real solo attempt, a project with a continuous theme that was connected all the way through."
The storyline -- which tracks an up-and-coming hip-hop producer's relationship with a girlfriend -- was inspired by real events, specifically a seven-year relationship that began about the same time as the Black Eyed Peas in 1995.
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'Dog' Day Afternoon
Iron & Wine offers up its most eclectic and adventurous music to date on "The Shepherd's Dog," due this week via Sub Pop. First single "Boy With a Coin," which is marked by hand claps and Sam Beam's multi-tracked vocals, has been spinning at college radio since July.
Beam says he was aiming to make a "more playful" record this time around, and that spirit is felt on tracks like the jaunty, piano-infused opener "Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car," the summer-friendly "Lovesong of the Buzzard" and the drumless West African highlife of "House by the Sea."
The artist's lyrics also take a turn for the surreal on the sitar-inflected "White Tooth Man," which references postmen crying while opening the mail, people being trampled in a Christmas parade and others who get sick after eating a meal in a strip club.
Members of Calexico guest on "Wolves (Song of the Shepherd's Dog)," which would have been right at home on the two groups' collaborative EP, "In the Reins." Elsewhere, "The Devil Never Sleeps" incorporates saloon piano and a down-home country feel, while Beam's electric guitar is the primary component of "Carousel."
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Additional titles hitting stores this week include:
High-profile R&B releases from Chaka Khan ("Funk This," Burgundy), Jagged Edge ("Baby Makin' Project," Island Def Jam), Jill Scott ("Real Thing: Words And Sounds Vol. 3," Hidden Beach), Keyshia Cole ("Just Like You," Geffen) and Bettye LaVette ("The Scene of the Crime," Anti-).
A new studio album from singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell ("Shine," Hear Music) and an album featuring interpretations of her music by Herbie Hancock ("River: The Joni Letters," Verve).
A live DVD from Pearl Jam, "Immagine In Cornice" (Monkeywrench/Rhino), chronicling five Italian shows from the fall of 2006.
Actress/singer Queen Latifah's "Trav'lin Light" (Verve).
New albums from singer/songwriters Melissa Etheridge ("The Awakening," Island Def Jam), Steve Earle ("Washington Square Serenade," New West) and Nellie McKay ("Obligatory Villagers," Hungry Mouse).
Indie singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart's "Smoky Rolls Down Thunder Canyon" (XL).
New albums from indie rock outfits Stars ("In Our Bedroom After the War," Arts & Crafts) and matt pond PA ("Last Light," Altitude).
Trumpeter Chris Botti's "Italia" (Columbia)
Pianist Jim Brickman's "Homecoming" (Savoy).
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James Blunt spent the better part of 2006 living and working in Ibiza, Spain, one of the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. Known for its nonstop summer dance parties, Ibiza is not the first destination that comes to mind when thinking of the mellow British singer/songwriter.
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Reba McEntire is surrounded by stars on "Reba Duets," due this week via MCA. The song selection process was a mix of suggestions by McEntire, input from her duet partners and, in some cases, songs that were specifically written for the project.
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Add to the challenge that Manilow decided to include unplugged renditions of some of his own best-loved hits from the decade.
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Gloria Estefan revisits the Cuban music of her roots on "90 Millas," her debut album for Sony BMG's Burgundy Records.
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