Idolator
Welcome to this week's installment of "On the Shelf," our Monday look at selected new releases hitting stores on Tuesday. We've already gone over tomorrow's releases from The Killers and Evanescence; after the jump, we give new albums by Beck, The Decemberists, Sleepy Brown, and Chris Young a once-over.
Beck, The Information
The artist: Everybody's favorite sample-happy Scientologist.
The sound: Cut and paste beats n' irony ... oh, and then there's the song where he channels Eddie Vedder
The first in line: This guy.
The Decemberists, The Crane Wife
The artist: Grandiose yarn-spinners making the jump from Kill Rock Stars to Capitol.
The sound: Ever wonder what it would sound like if an issue of McSweeney's was turned into music?
The first in line: Grups who'll buy a copy of Boys And Girls In America at the same time, so as to keep their major-indie purchasing ratio at 1:1.
Sleepy Brown, Mr. Brown
The artist: Big Boi protege who sang the hook for OutKast's "The Way You Move."
The sound: Neptunes-produced velvety soul recalling the best moments of LA and Babyface.
The first in line: Anyone whose favorite song of the last 20 years is "Rock Steady" by The Whispers.
Chris Young, Chris Young
The artist: Stubbly Tennessee-born winner of USA's Nashville Star.
The sound: Super-straightforward ballads and drinking songs driven by Young's understated baritone.
The first in line: Young's 25,000+ MySpace friends; people who got sucked into Nashville Star because they forgot to change the channel after Monday Night RAW.
On the CD Front [Pause and Play]
Comments
That Sleepy Brown disc "recalls the best moments" of no one. The Whispers reference is offmark, since that song had something resembling a hook. Instead, if you thought that Pharrell's "Frontin'" was the finest R&B track of the decade, then be sure to pick up "Mr. Brown" tomorrow.
ooh, that is a low blow.
Haha... these are times when I wish I had some kind of programming acumen. How excellent would an iTunes plugin be that was able to calculate a "indie:major" ratio!? It would bring indier than thou to a new plateu.
I don't get it. Am I not supposed to like "Phrontin'"? I love that song-even Jay's lazy rap, which sounds like it was done while he was on the phone with someone else, and had to keep switching between calls.
BTW, I just realized I misspelled "Phrontin'" but I'm sticking with it.
I think the problem with "Frontin'" and most of the Pharrell "I'm going to sing with the high voice now" catalog is that once you get past the novelty of the falsetto, there's rarely a song there. Jay Z can make the lazy bit work, but the song itself was made to be played at low volumes in the lobby of a dental group.
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