Be Here Now: New Album Releases Snapshot Review 12-3-13

wait till you get to the Bobby Fuller cover!!!

Driving And Dreaming EP – Marshall Crenshaw – Four songs and not bad at all  the guitar solo on the title track is a thing of deep beauty and the song keeps shifting gear from deep pop to sideslip jazz and back But the highlight is Marshall’s cover of Bobby Fuller’s “Never To Be Forgotten” two tracks later. On Spotify, so I guess even the great can’t fight technology – A-

Britney Jean – Britney Spears  – Britney is the story of the 21st century where a powerful woman is medicated into a zombie and trotted out like a performing flea. In the past she has managed to still release cutting edge EDM but those days are now over and this is 2010 repeated but though very poorly. From the woman who recorded “Piece Of Me”, the blackout never ends – C-

Days Of Gold – Jake Owens – Generic country boy has nothing to add to the conversation – C-

The Sound Of Music (Music From The NBC Television Event) – Various Artists  – In theory, this looks like a disaster but having heard the album, including a handful of songs left off the movie, it will probably be not that bad. But the songs were left off for a reason and Carrie Underwood as Maria doesn’t improve one single song and neither does the gifted Audra MacDonald who under sings “Climb Every Mountain” mostly because she couldn’t take the comparisons with the movie version – C

Call Me Crazy But… Sevyn Streeter – Her lucky number? This might not break her, but it is a hot and sweaty r&b seven songs that is right right there – B+

Drive All Night EP – Glen Hansard – Recorded with Eddie Vedder and Jake Clemons for a charity album, the Bruce cover is proof that Glen is just plain not good enough – C

Bare Bones EP – The Civil Wars – Alternate versions and acoustic versions (i thought they all were) and here is hoping they reform – B+

Christmas With Love – Leona Lewis – As divas goes, she won’t make it, and this is is useless as you can get, except for the girl group “One More Sleep” which is really good – C

Live At Rome Olympic Stadium – Muse – I caught the tour at MSG and thought it was very good, but I don’t think the album is very necessary at all – C

We Own The Night EP – Jim Jones  – I guess Vampire Life 3 wasn’t enough, he wanted to give us more of the exact same thing – C+

What the… Black Flag – 22 songs in 44 minutes, so I guess they mean it – C+

Shifting Gears – Nancy Sinatra – Frank’s little girl covers some standards and why not? – C+

Life, Love And Hope – Boston –  A real ringer this one, but Boston always took their time and did it right and this is an excellent prog rock pop which never allows it’s power to get in the way of its perfectionism . “Last Day Of School” is a must hear- A-