Metallica Death Magnetic Release: 2008-09-16
Call Death Magnetic Kirk Hammett's revenge. Famously browbeaten into accepting Lars Ulrich and producers Bob Rock's dictum that guitar solos were "dated" and thereby verboten for 2003's St. Anger — a fraught recording chronicled on the 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster — Metallica's lead guitarist dominates this 2008 sequel, playing with an euphoric fury not heard in years, if not de......more »
Colby O'donis Colby O Release: 2008-09-16
Akon's claim that Colby O'Donis is the Kon Live label's "secret weapon" oversells this teen R&B singer with the pin-up face along with his pleasant, puppy-love debut. Besides cool crooner Colby's excessive use of the world "girl" in the boy band style, his voice is limited, or at the very least not challenged as it glides over one slick R&B production after another, all......more »
Jessica Simpson Do You Know Release: 2008-09-09
Over the course of four albums in nearly ten years, the public at large has proven largely indifferent to Jessica Simpson the pop singer, stringing her along with a handful of charting singles but never quite giving her a big, undeniable pop hit, the kind that would justify her celebrity. Given that anemic track record, why wouldn't a good ol' Texas girl like Jessica leave the city for the country......more »
New Kids On The Block Block Release: 2008-09-02
The problem facing New Kids on the Block on their 2008 reunion The Block is the same one they had on their last album, 1994's Face the Music: the quintet are no longer kids and don't quite know how to be adults. That dilemma drove them apart back in 1994, as the group stumbled away from their clumsy stab at hip-hop on Face the Music, remembered chiefly for embarrassments like "Dirty Dawg"......more »
Slipknot All Hope Is Gone Release: 2008-08-26
There comes a time in every band's life where they take off the masks and grow up — then again, maybe not, as Slipknot have managed to dig deeper without ever shedding their grotesque veils. They're still wearing disguises but they have shed producer Rick Rubin, the metal legend who produced 2004's Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses, giving the nonet just the slightest hint of broader horizons beyond t......more »
Verve Forth Release: 2008-08-26
Something happens when the Verve are together that none of them experience when they are apart. Individually, the Verve are all highly-accomplished players. Singer Richard Ashcroft has been called the greatest singer in the world by no less a peer than Coldplay s Chris Martin. Liverpool-born Simon Jones s dub-informed bass takes the Verve s music far beyond rock and into space and dub; Peter Salis......more »
Karina First Love Release: 2008-08-19
Teens across the U.S. are not the only ones picking up on the message of "16 @ War," the debut single by Karina, New York City's newest 16-year old star. A timely song of independence and admiration, it was written and produced by fellow Def Jam label mates The-Dream and Tricky Stewart, the same duo responsible for Rihanna's "Umbrella" and Madonna's "Me Against the Music.&......more »
Staind The Illusion Of Progress Release: 2008-08-19
Staind seem to sneer at the very notion of forward movement on the title of their sixth album, The Illusion of Progress, and that disdain very well may be a Freudian slip, as the Jacksonville, FL, rock band stubbornly refuses to evolve over the course of a decade. If anything, with each album their aggression erodes and the angst of frontman Aaron Lewis mellows into a mild grumpiness that surfaces......more »
Donavon Frankenreiter Pass It Around Release: 2008-08-19
On Donavon Frankenreiter's third album, the former surfer and FOJ (friend of Jack, as in Jack Johnson) delivers another solid serving of laid-back sandy singer/songwriter soul. This time out there is less energy and funk than on 2006's Move by Yourself, and also fewer memorable songs. It feels like a bit of a backslide from that album's ambition and drive, but still results in a perfectly fine rec......more »
Duhks Fast Paced World Release: 2008-08-19
In a fast-paced world, hipster string bands can't afford to get into a rut. There is no hipper string band than the Duhks, and for their fourth album they have, in their own words, "invented a new sound." It's not a completely original sound, but it's new for them, and originality in pop music is overrated anyway. What we get on Fast Paced World is a bracing mixture of blues, rock, hot j......more »
