Brandon's Buzz

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.

It’s October, which means the annual Christmas music boom is nigh. This season’s most anticipated new offering in that genre — the very first full-length holiday recording from the one and only Tori Amos — doesn’t arrive until mid-November, so until that time, we’ll have to occupy ourselves with Gold and Green, a collection of carols from those brilliant mavericks Sugarland. Five of these tracks appeared a couple of years ago in a Wal-Mart exclusive deluxe re-release of their second album, Enjoy the Ride, and now, Jennifer and Kristian have augmented that EP with their own renditions of “Silent Night,” “Maybe Baby,” and three others. (Also up this week in the holiday parade: sets from David Archuleta, Barry Manilow, and Bob Dylan.)

They remain the most commercially successful duo in pop music history, and their status as enduring pop culture icons — if you didn’t see the indie smash (500) Days of Summer earlier this year, you missed a hilarious musical sequence set to “You Make My Dreams,” which you can still recognize from note one, even some three decades hence — ensures that future generations will continue to find and fall in love with their unforgettable work. Toward that end comes Do What You Want,
Be Who You Are, a four-disc, 74-track boxed set celebrating The Music of Daryl Hall & John Oates. All the essential tracks are here, of course, from their stunning 1976 breakthrough “She’s Gone” straight up through their surprise 2002 comeback smash “Do It for Love,” but the true gems here are the rare demos, live recordings, and previously unreleased tunes which help flesh out the duo’s enormously successful discography. Trust me: if you were born too late to enjoy most of these classic songs the first time around, you’ll never get a better chance than this brilliant collection to find out what you missed.

Also noteworthy this week:

• Exclusive tracks from Parachute, The All-American Rejects, Owl City, and Jet, plus a duet between Adele and The Raconteurs, highlight the soundtrack for the CW’s reboot of 90210.

 

• Slice, the latest from John Ondrasik, better known as
  Five for Fighting.

 

• Just like last week’s new release from Jann Arden, Plain Jane, the latest record from the terrific Chantal Kreviazuk, is only available as an import from Canada. Get it the hell anyway.

names dropped with reckless abandon: Adele, Barry Manilow, Bob Dylan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Daryl Hall, David Archuleta, Five for Fighting, Glen Hansard, Hall and Oates, Jann Arden, Jennifer Nettles, Jet, John Oates, John Ondrasik, Kristian Bush, Linda Eder, Marketa Irglova, Owl City, Parachute, Sugarland, The All-American Rejects, The Raconteurs, Tori Amos