Brandon's Buzz

October roars to a close with a huge list of necessary tuneage, including a must-own new album from one of the best bands going. Dig in:

The year’s most hotly-anticipated theatrical event lands this week when This Is It — a film culled from over one hundred hours of footage of Michael Jackson’s final days, footage recorded during rehearsals for what were to be Jackson’s farewell concerts — debuts on three thousand screens today. To accompany the film, which is expected to be an epic, record-shattering blockbuster, comes an identically-titled 2-CD soundtrack, which contains a collection of Michael’s best-loved classics, as well as the Paul Anka-penned title track, which was discovered in a box of tapes in one of Jackson’s vaults this past summer following his passing.

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If Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, Loretta Lynn, and Gene Simmons all tossed a bit of their DNA into a petri dish in an attempt to make a baby, you’ve gotta reckon the result wouldn’t end up markedly different from one Miranda Lambert, who has just made a blistering return to the spotlight with her third (and, by far, strongest) album, the spectacularly confident Revolution. Still brimming with that signature attitude that has set her remarkably apart from the pack ever since her brilliant debut four years ago, and yet refusing outright to fall headfirst into the redneck cliches that the music media seems so desperately to keep her boxed into, Lambert — who co-wrote eleven of the record’s fifteen tracks — makes damn sure she gets the laugh, and ends up with one of 2009’s most enjoyable album’s in the process.

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Another pretty low-key week in musicland, although what is perhaps this fall’s most anticipated film gets a soundtrack worthy of the buzz. Take a look:

• Country stalwart Tim McGraw is up with his tenth studio album, Southern Voice.

 

• Paul Oakenfold, Dallas Austin, The Neptunes, and others put their own spin on some of the most famous songs in music history in the brand new collection The Remix Suite, which mainly concentrates on
  Michael Jackson‘s early-’70s solo and group output.

 

• Snow Patrol spearheads the latest entry in the Late Night Tales series, to which they contribute a mellow cover of INXS’ late-’80s classic
  “New Sensation.”

 

• Those wacky New Zealanders Flight of the Conchords return with their sophomore effort, I Told You I Was Freaky.

 

• Another week, another Target exclusive: this one’s from that
  husky-voiced Brit Joss Stone, who is up with her fourth album,
  Colour Me Free.

 

• Four-time Grammy winner Lyle Lovett is up with his latest,
  Natural Forces.
• Sherry Ann is all agog over the return of MoZella, whose second album is the brand new Belle Isle.

 

• And finally, the week’s hottest-selling album will almost certainly be the soundtrack for the upcoming Twilight sequel New Moon, which contains exclusive new material from Death Cab for Cutie, Thom Yorke,
  The Killers, Bon Iver, and others.

We all get a week to catch our collective breaths following the end-of-September blowout and in preparation for the imminent holiday shopping onslaught. Behold:

She is nothing less than one of the finest singers in the history of the world, and to the betterment of everyone, the divine Linda Eder is back in the spotlight with her eleventh studio album, Soundtrack. A covers project, the album contains adventurous renditions of a handful of Eder’s favorite film tunes, including modern standards like “Everything I Do (I Do It for You)” (from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) and “Accidentally in Love” (from Shrek). But the undeniable standout track is a wildly bold take on last year’s Academy Award winner for Best Original Song, Once‘s “Falling Slowly.” If you, like me, can scarcely imagine anybody on the planet besides Glen and Marketa singing those words, just wait ’til you get a load of this.

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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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