Welcome to On The Shelf, Idolator’s weekly look at new releases hitting the shelves of record stores and digital-music outlets every Tuesday. This week brings a fairly heavy slate of brand-new albums; after the jump, we give a once-over to new albums from Rihanna, Big & Rich, Paul McCartney, Poison, and T-Pain.
Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad
The artist: Barbados cover girl with a seemingly tireless album-release schedule.
The sound: Crunchy, futuristic radio-pop.
The first in line: Chart followers looking for another track to add to their “Summer Jams Of ’07″ playlist.
Big & Rich, Between Raising Hell And Amazing Grace
The artist: Country duo that’s just finding out about this hot trend called “crunk.”
The sound: A ride around Nashville that picks up AC/DC and Wyclef along the way.
The first in line: Good old boys, the bad girls who love to ride ‘em, and curious John Legend aficionados.
Paul McCartney, Memory Almost Full
The artist: Former Beatle plunging into the digital/Starbucks era.
The sound: One of the songs is titled “Ever Present Past”; that sort of sums up the feel of the album, 21st-century distribution methods aside.
The first in line: A harried vice-president with a latte jones.
Poison, Poison’d
The artist: Hard rock stalwarts who somehow managed to survive the Capitol-Virgin merger.
The sound: Lipstick-kissed covers of Bowie, Kiss, and The Cars.
The first in line: Rocklahoma road-trippers.
T-Pain, Epiphany
The artist: Drank-buyin’, stripper-lovin’ flirt.
The sound: Vocodered, airy R & B.
The first in line: VIP-room DJs looking for post-last-call fodder.
On The CD Front [Pause & Play]
New Poison?!?! Woohoo, I am so there.
Umm, I mean….dammit, there is no way to get out of this with my dignity intact, is there? I may as well admit to loving The Gilmore Girls while I’m at it.
New Shellac and new Dream Theater drop tomorrow as well.
Both are totally awesome and yes, I know that it is not normal to love both bands equally.
Somehow that Poison record totally slipped off my radar. I am kinda petrified at the thought of them doing Bowie. Mostly because Brett Michaels can barely sing and the rest of the band can’t harmonize. Remember Talk Dirty to Me and I Want Action? Both those choruses were sung in UNISON!
The first in line: Chart followers looking for another track to add to their “Summer Jams Of ’07″ playlist.
Goddamn, am I that transparent?!
Which one would you put on Summer 07, “Umbrella” or “Shut Up and Drive”? I’m polling my wife later…
@dennisobell: ‘Polling my wife?’ Surely, you didn’t think this would go unnoticed.
@blackmailismylife: Dammit! Nailed…