Image Credit: Frederick Breedon/Getty ImagesWelcome to a special all-country edition of Extended Play, the occasional feature here on the Music Mix where we rescue reviews that wouldn’t fit in the magazine, and release them back into the wild. It’s like a wildlife safari, but on the internet. And with record reviews instead of giraffes. Also, you don’t have to ride in a jeep to enjoy it. It’s really not like a safari at all.
This week: Danny Gokey, My Best Days; Blake Shelton, Hillbilly Bone; Easton Corbin, Easton Corbin.
On April Smith’s 2005 debut CD, loveletterbombs, the Jersey Shore native revealed an intriguingly skewed lyrical sensibility and a penchant for winsome pop, gifts too easily swaddled by generic rock arrangements. On her new, self-released LP, Songs From a Sinking Ship, the Lollapalooza vet makes a great leap forward by taking a step back…to the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s. Backed by the crack ensemble the Great Picture Show, Smith throws herself headlong into piano-and-horns saloon ballads like the aching “Can’t Say No,” or the relentless clap-along boogie of the album’s standout track, “Colors.” What keeps all of this from descending into dewy-eyed faux nostalgia, however, is the singer’s thoroughly modern ‘tude: In the doo-wopish “Drop Dead Gorgeous” she breezily dismisses a vapid hottie with razored zingers (“You’re so enchanting when your mouth is closed/With a mouth like that, who needs politics and prose?”) And on the creamy, string-laden “Stop Wondering” she snarls at a departed lover, “Bitch, please — I’ve got better things to do.” April, please. You may have better things to do than this, but we don’t know what they are. (Songs From a Sinking Ship is available from Feb. 23 at aprilsmithmusic.com.)
Check out this rousing YouTube clip from the tutu-clad singer below.
Welcome to Extended Play, an occasional feature where we review CDs we couldn’t squeeze into the magazine—even though many of us really are quite excellent squeezers. This week: the newie from NOLA outfit Galactic.
Galactic
YA-KA-MAY
Funk (ANTI-)
Can we describe this collection from the New Orleans quintet without using the word “gumbo”? Probably not. The funkateers have infused YA-KA-MAY with an abundance of varied flavors as they skillfully back a wide range of NOLA musicians, from legendary artists such as singer Irma Thomas and producer-composer Allen Toussaint, to young rappers Katey Red and Sissy Nobby, who both feature on the energetic, clattering, “Katey vs. Nobby.” The result is an often very tasty musical, uh, stew. B+—Clark Collis
DOWNLOAD THESE: The Rebirth Brass Band-assisted “Boe Money” and the slinky Irma Thomas showcase “Heart of Steel”
Welcome to Extended Play, an often-as-possible feature on the Music Mix which allows us to review deserving albums for which cruel fate has denied the chance to dwell within our printed pages. Weep not, for they have found a home at last.
Welcome to Extended Play, a recurring feature on this here Music Mix wherein we review albums that for one reason or another didn’t make the magazine. It’s important for us to emphasize that this is not a judgment against these albums, simply a tragic reality in a world where paper is worth its weight in gold. (Note: That statement about the monetary value of paper is not factually true.)
This week: The Fame soundtrack, and Honor Society’s Fashionably Late.
Welcome to Extended Play, a delightfully unpredictable feature on the Music Mix wherein, from time to time, we review new releases that we did not have room for in the print magazine. (Not because we don’t love them!) This week, we take on a trio of mind-expanding albums by Yo La Tengo (pictured, left), Circulatory System, and Os Mutantes. Intriguingly, each of these bands makes music that might plausibly be described at times as “Beatlesque” — and each one is dropping a brand-new record in this most Beatlesque of weeks. Coincidence? You decide…
Welcome to Extended Play, a slightly more sporadic than originally intended feature here on the Music Mix where we review albums that didn’t fit into the magazine. It’s not that we want you to think less of these albums. We just want you to think more about vampires.
This week, David Nail, I’m About to Come Alive, and Robert Glasper, Double-Booked.
Welcome to Extended Play, an occasional feature here on the Music Mix intended to give you a chance to read even more reviews of what’s coming out this week, so you can be a better-informed listener and also wow your friends. We are nothing if not in favor of you enhancing your social life.
This week, Brooke White, High Hopes and Heartbreak.
Welcome to Extended Play in which we review the albums we couldn't quite fit into the magazine, even when we used a crowbar (though, in retrospect, that was kind of dumb thing to try.) This week: a pair of releases masterminded by longtime R.E.M. associate Scott McCaughey.
Young Fresh Fellows I Think This Is Rock (Yep Roc)
The Minus 5 Killingsworth Country-rock (Yep Roc)
My mother was right! You wait ages for an album from R.E.M. "fifth member" Scott McCaughey and then two come along at once. Actually, she was only half correct. The singer-songwriter put out a CD just last year with Peter Buck and the Dream Syndicate's Steve Wynn under the name of The Baseball Project. But that hasn't stopped him releasing an album today from each of his two regular-ish bands, The Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus 5. The Fellows' I Think This Is was produced by Brit cult fave Robyn Hitchcock and muscular, psychedelically-inclined, retro-rockers like "Betty Let The Good Times Crawl" and "YOUR Mexican Restaurant" are nicely reminiscent of Hitchcock's band The Soft Boys. The Minus 5's Killingsworth is a more country-oriented set that boasts the talents of both Buck and Decemberists drummer John Moen. It is also features a number of quite beautiful and, at times, bleakly amusing laments. Opener "Dark Hand of Contagion" compares a well-planned wedding day to "a German occupation" while the collection's third track is the loveliest-sounding song called "The Disembowelers" you're ever likely to hear.
I Think This Is B- Download This: "Betty Let The Good Times Crawl"
Killingsworth B Download This: "Dark Hand of Contagion"