Brandon's Buzz

A pair of hotly anticipated comeback efforts, and another suffocating attack of acute Taylor-Swift-itis, punctuate this week’s new releases. Jump with care:

An out and proud lesbian with a gorgeously husky voice that is deeper than most men’s makes for the least likely pop star in modern music history. And yet that Canadian spitfire k.d. lang has defied all the odds, having put together a career replete with both critical and commercial success, and this week, to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of her recording debut, lang stops to reflect with the new double-disc set Recollection. Pretty much everything that needs to be here is — the radio hits “Constant Craving” and “Miss Chatelaine”; her smashing duets with Roy Orbison (“Crying”) and Tony Bennett (“Moonglow”); and her triumphant covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” Joni Mitchell’s “Help Me,” and Chris Isaak’s “Western Stars” — and for the truly devoted, there’s also a deluxe four-disc set which contains a bonus CD of live performances and DVD with music videos.

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November kicks off with a bang, as country’s hottest-selling lass is back with her hotly-anticipated third album, which has her working with some eyebrow-raising collaborators. Dig in:

 

Pop music’s venerable Now series is back this week with a pair of new entries, as recent radio hits from A’s beloved Black Eyed Peas (their record-breaking number one smash “I Gotta Feeling”), Jordin Sparks (the terrific “Battlefield”), Katy Perry (“Waking Up in Vegas,” a guilty pleasure if I ever heard one), Michael Franti and Spearhead (their cheeky top 40 breakthrough “Say Hey (I Love You)”), and others punctuate Now That’s What I Call Music, Vol. 32; and a fascinating cross-section of unforgettable club smashes from the past three decades turn up on Now That’s What I Call Dance Classics!, including any number of one hit wonders from the likes of The Weather Girls (“It’s Raining Men,” with the amazing Martha Wash blowing the roof off the joint), CeCe Peniston (“Finally”), Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock (their oft-sampled touchstone “It Takes Two”), and others. This is all well and good, mind you, and will probably find its way into my collection, since I have a profound weakness for this kind of thing. But please don’t tell me I’m the only one who is shattered by the Now folks’ decision to omit Everything But the Girl’s legendary 1996 monster hit “Missing” from this tracklist. Gotta tell you, guys: Todd Terry’s brilliant decision to lay down a furiously insistent house beat just beneath Tracey Thorn’s abominably sexy croon made for what I call a dance classic every damn day o’ the week. Recognize.

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