Brandon's Buzz

It’s a little better out there this week than the last couple, but we’re still biding our time while we await the imminent monster that is next week. Consider this an appetizer:

It’s not always the case, frighteningly enough, but this year’s annual single-disc roundup of tunes that are vying for the Recording Academy’s highest honors, Grammy Nominees 2010, plays like a mixtape of the year’s strongest, most fascinating music. (Imagine that!) True, you have to sit through the likes of Black Eyed Peas and Beyonce, as well, not to mention subpar material from the typically dependable U2, Sugarland, Rascal Flatts, and Kelly Clarkson, but I say any album which can wrangle aural diamonds from Kings of Leon (the staggering “Use Somebody”), The Fray (“You Found Me,” putting Isaac Slade’s scary-good vocals on a riveting piano-based pedestal), Lady Antebellum (the revelatory “I Run to You”), and Dave Matthews Band (“You and Me,” a sweet fare-thee-well to a fallen comrade-in-arms) onto the very same slice of musical real estate is mighty fine by me.

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Thanksgiving week is an unusually muted affair this year: this is typically the “official” kickoff of the holiday shopping season, and so the record companies generally wait until this week to unleash their biggest and most interesting firepower. But, because I’m decidedly not a Glambert, and because I find the year’s hottest British import just a step or two above a kitschy novelty, color me entirely underwhelmed by the latest slate of new releases. Dive in with caution:

• The decade’s most irritating strumpet Shakira is back with her latest, She Wolf.

 

• That human lightning rod Lady GaGa is back in action with
  The Fame Monster, an eight-song adjunct to her mega-selling debut.

 

• Urrybody’s favorite vegan Moby is back with a deluxe edition of his terrific album from last spring, Wait for Me.

 

• The pride of Barbados, the incredible Rihanna, is up with her fourth album, Rated R.

 

• The legendary Tom Waits returns with Glitter and Doom Live,
  a chronicle of his most recent tour.

 

• Anybody out there have any idea how that doofus Jimmy Wayne conned Daryl Hall and John Oates into helping him cover their classic Sara Smile, the title track from Wayne’s latest CD?

 

• Beyonce presents I Am…Yours: An Intimate Performance
  at Wynn Las Vegas, a fairly self-explanatory three-disc live effort which finds her covering 2Pac’s “California Love” and Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know.” (I’m really not kidding about that, Sherry Ann!)

 

• Her global coming out party is one of the most-viewed videoclips in YouTube history; let’s see if the much-heralded Susan Boyle can turn that recognition into record sales with her debut release,
  I Dreamed a Dream.

 

• Regular readers of the Buzz know that I had utterly no use for the ridiculous Adam Lambert and his screechy theatrics on last season’s “American Idol.” Still, if you’re kinda curious to hear what he sounds like on record, he offers up himself For Your Entertainment. Go with God,
  all you Glamberts.

 

• And last but absolutely not least: it’s Thanksgiving week in Austin, Texas, which means the return of that beloved annual tradition known as KGSR Broadcasts. This year’s double-disc edition (Vol. 17, if you’re keeping count) includes exclusive acoustic recordings from The Avett Brothers, Pete Yorn, Ben Harper, Tift Merritt, Ryan Adams, Raul Malo, and the incomparable Tori Amos.

As has become typical of late, between day job responsibilities and preparing for my radio show, I was so swamped last week that the record store report sadly fell to the bottom of the pile. (On that front, if you missed my blockbuster chat with the incredible Brett Claywell this past Tuesday night, be sure and check it out in the Buzz’s radio archive.) Hence, a super-sized doubleheader this week. The new release wall is hopping lately, kids. Get on board:

(PS: Full disclosure and all — A and I are initiating the brand new liquor cabinet this evening, so I’m writing this while sipping a Jack and Coke. Therefore, if something feels a bit… off… about the text contained herein, it might be because I am typing while tipsy.)

Despite being one of 2009’s most entrancing pieces of music, the risky, brilliant lead single “Dead Flowers” failed to take off at country radio last summer (which, sadly, I predicted in a Buzz post last May). And while it’s slowly climbing, I’m not sure how much better second single “White Liar” will ultimately fare in what is certain to be a Carrie-driven fall. Still, that magnificent spitfire Miranda Lambert has a whole passel of folks rooting for her success, and the fact that each of her first two albums are pushing platinum status despite minimal radio play means she must be doing something right. Don’t be afraid to dive in to her brand new third album, Revolution.

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