News Roundup: 11/25/2009
November 25th, 2009 | 12:55 pm est |
Iconic R&B group Sade has a new album, Soldier of Love, prepped for release next year. The band, which features vocalist Sade Adu, is best known for such hit albums as 1985’s Diamond Life, 1992’s Love Deluxe and 2000’s Lover’s Rock. According to Sony labelmate Maxwell, the album is “monolithic.” Soldier of Love is slated to arrive on February 10, 2010. [Billboard.com]
Experimental composer/musician Glenn Branca wrote an editorial for the New York Times titled The End of Music in which he ponders whether new music is the same as old music. [NYTimes.com]
Famed musicologist HC Robbins Landon has died. Landon, who passed on November 20 at age 83, is perhaps best known for his series of books on composer Mozart. [Guardian.co.uk.]
Influential alt-rock band The Pixies performed two of the band’s classic cuts on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night. The bandmates, who are currently reunited in support of the career spanning box-set Minatour, performed the fan-chosen songs “Debaser” and “Hey.” [Stereogum.com]
Glad to hear that Sade is coming up with a new album — their recorded output has been sparser in recent years. And by the way, Sade’s last name is Adu, not Abu.
Wow, that article on the end of music is news? I dunno. It’s a tiny little article written from a really simplistic view point. It just seems like a guy wallowing in the self fulfilling prophecy of ‘we’ve made everything how can we make anymore?’
Music is still important in many ways and that article just doesn’t seem like news. Maybe there just wasn’t any good news today.
I just want to say that I love Sade. I’m thankful she’s back.
Nice sade is back! And the pixies anniversary tour is awesome, i saw some videos and downloaded thet free ep at their website it sounds really good! Frank black said that they are chances of release a new album next year, hope so! Next year will have many great albums, Joanna Newsom just finished her third effort at tokio, vampire weekend coming back, wow and many others, next year will be awesome, this year was a great surprise too.
Migrations – While I agree the Glenn Branca article hardly qualifies as news, and I don’t agree with his point of view, I for one would much rather read any kind of Glenn Branca-related article than the usual “music news” that Allmusic can come up with.
Yesterday it was Susan Boyle and Adam Lambert. Yikes. The Steve Vai beekeeper was worth a good laugh. That guy doing anything is funny, including playing the guitar. Seriously though, what a virtuoso!
The Sade album is the real headline.
I Don’t know if it was because of the bug or not, but suddenly Lady GaGa’s The Fame was changed. It is now a 4.5 stars record, it was 3.5. The review is also a new one. WTH happened to AMG ? It would be awesome if someone explained to us what is happening. I the rating was really upgraded than at least explain cause i’ve been complaining about some timeless recordings that are not rated 5 stars, and suddenly Lady GaGa gets a 4.5 ?! It’s not as good or consistent as Robyn’s Robyn or Roisin Murphy’s Overpowered, just cause Lady GaGa is big now, and everyone says she’s original and everything AMG upgrades her rating, so you guys dismiss her first, now that she’s the IT girl, she’s Superb ? If you guys rated her album a 4.5 back in the day, i would never complain, but why now ? Why the same songs which were dismiss as silly (eh, eh nothing else i can say), and not always good, are now close to be a pop masterpiece ? WTF is going on ?
Joan, here is some reading regarding AMG’s ratings:
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=32:amg/info_pages/a_faq_content.html
A 4 1/2 star album by Lady Gaga is not necessarily better than the albums you’ve mentioned from Robyn or Roison since their music is compared to their own output. The only exception is the 5 star album which is considered a “best-of” genre (which is why they are so rare for newer artists/albums until their impact is fully appreciated). I like the fluid nature of the ratings as I can search for newly annointed 5 star albums that may have been upgraded since I scoured this site many years ago.
Thanks for the update on your site, AMG – you are loved!
Long Comeback after almost 10 years. I think it would good chance for her in order to Comeback by her next video named “Soldier of Love”. I hope This music album would be as successful as the previous ones.
OMG, thank you very much Lester!! Now I understand! Thanks very much!! I also love when they upgrade the ratings! I was just shocked when i saw the Lady GaGa album with a 4.5, cause the site is having a bug (that’s what people are talking), i thought that because of the bug the rating was changed and maybe many other albums ratings were changed too, but now i know they only changed their mind and re-reviewed the album. I hope by the end of the decade many albums that are rated 4 or 4.5 finally go 5! The done that with the 90’s, although i would love to see some other 90’s album rated higher, but that’s ok, the reviews are awesome, they all have great points, at the end you kinda agree with them even though you wanted a 5 and they rated a 4.5 or a 4. They are the professionals so i hope they make great picks when upgrade some ratings!
Chris,
Are you kidding me? The Sade album is the only non-news item in the piece. After taking 10 years off, a gifted vocalist, yet unimaginative musical artist has made her follow up record. This is the sort of thing I’d think would be relegated to RSS feeds and mailing lists.
The Glenn Branca blog is very interesting to read. I may not always agree with his off-center outlook, but it’s always refreshing to read someone who has a completely new way of thinking about the musical form. I performed for him in St. Louis last year with his “Hallucination City” and it was blast. Between rehearsals he’d sip Rum and ruminate about the piece, hah!
Peeps..it is soooo swell to see some actual feedback and discussion on these pages… I have been checking the news here for many a year (I’m old-ish) and there were usually some semi-clever smart-ass comments and then that great stuff in Arabic/Ukrainian with a Congolese twist.. and I also think the news should be a little less “Us Magazine”y and more geared toward AMG people: WE know the difference between Mahogany Rush and Rush and/or Russian.(I hope)
and just for kicks here’s a Holiday Peace Wish.
if lady gaga’s review can be changed to a 4.5, then Dream Theater’s “Images and Words” and “Awake” should have been changed to a 5 star a LONG time ago.