News Roundup: 10/22/2009
October 22nd, 2009 | 12:18 pm est |
Michael Bublé fended off the New Moon soundtrack to stay atop the Billboard 200 albums chart for another week. Buble’s Crazy Love sold 203,000 copies, marking his second-best sales week ever (his all-time best was 213,000 copies in 2007 for Call Me Irresponsible’s debut) and more than enough to keep New Moon’s 115,000 copies to second-best. Meanwhile, the Flaming Lips’ Embryonic also debuted strong at number eight, with nearly 32,000 copies sold, making it the band’s highest-charting album. At War with the Mystics sold 48,000 copies in 2006 but only made it to 11 on the chart. [Billboard.com]
Google is partnering with iLike and Lala on their new music service, which will be unveiled on October 28. The project, which has the backing of the four major music services, is rumored to be integrated into Google search and will allow users to stream songs directly from Google via iLike and Lala and pay to download them. [TechCrunch.com]
Lil Wayne pleaded guilty to felony gun possession stemming from his 2007 arrest after his first headlining concert in New York. Wayne was sentenced in a Manhattan court to one year in prison and must forfeit his passport. Wayne is expected to serve eight to ten months assuming good behavior. [VH1.com]
Check out the video for Fever Ray’s cover of Nick Cave and Anita Lane’s “Stranger Than Kindness,” a song that will appear on the upcoming deluxe edition of Fever Ray out in November. The clip was directed by Andreas Nilsson, who also helps make Karin Dreijer’s other group the Knife look so eerie. [VanityFair.com]
Ambitious post-post-punkers Field Music are back with a new song, “Measure,” and an upcoming double album of the same name that’s due in February. [Pitchfork.com]
Speaking of post-post-punkers, the Rakes have called it a day. [NME.com]
Idolator breaks down what Susan Boyle’s record-high Amazon preorders might really mean sales-wise. [Idolator.com]
It’s rare for a traditional pop crooner to crack the top 10 , let alone number 1 in Billboard. It’s refreshing to see someone like Michael Buble making such a splash in the commercial music scene. I am not really fond of male traditional pop singers who sound like Chet Baker or Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole, but I think much of Buble’s appeal may be his reinvention of recent pop music into lounge/jazz confections. He sounds still awfully like middle-period Sinatra. Susan Boyle’s phenomenal fame I still find surprising. Surely this means that her fans worldwide are clamoring for this talented lady’s album but I also wonder if she can sustain people’s fascination for her and her music. I would be curious to hear what her album has to offer, sonics-wise.
Reinvention? Yeah, Buble “reinvented” recent pop music in the same way that Pat Boone “reinvented” Chuck Berry tunes.
This is nothing but corporate backwash.
Whether it is ‘corporate backwash’ or not, I stand by my claim that he reinvents recent songs that were done differently, into a lounge-y/jazzy way. Some underrated singers similar to his style has done the same thing minus the big studio push and it’s a pity we don’t hear many of them as they probably does not have the well-oiled machinery that big labels have. Just for the record, let me clarify that despite being impressed by Buble’s ability to stay relevant in today’s music, I don’t particularly like his style, but I give him props for not exclusively singing old jazz standards/warhorses.
Hey Groucho - not offense if I came across all grumpy on you. Nothing personal, pal. You argue your position quite reasonably. And it’s not your fault that Buble’s interpretations aren’t as good as Cassandra Wilson’s.
Flaming Lips are awesome! I am glad they are finally coming up the way they should have long ago.
No offense taken, Jareth. I thought your point is really valid, just different with mine. I love Cassandra Wilson too especially post her M-Base phase. Like I said, I am not a fan of Buble at all (although I confess to owning his past albums that I have since sold online) and it comes to reinvention and song deconstruction, the new moon daughter wins hands-down.
hey you 2..get a room…;-)
it’s good to see the All Music News RoundDown getting some conversations going.. normally this site consists of just smart-aleck bean-eaters being snarky!