Brandon's Buzz

If this website’s statistics are correct — and I have no reason to believe they aren’t, though I’ll confess I haven’t independently verified to be true what follows — then you are currently reading the Buzz’s one hundredth record store report. It’s very difficult to comprehend that I’ve written a hundred of these already, but they say time flies when you’re having fun, alas. Check out who’s helping us pass the century mark this week:

For their latest project, the brand new double-disc set Staring Down the Brilliant Dream, those marvelous mavericks Amy Ray and Emily Saliers — better known as the Indigo Girls — have combed through the recordings of all their live shows from the past four years and compiled a collection of thirty-one of their favorite performances and moments. A handful of Indigo classics — “Closer to Fine” and “Shame On You,” among them — are included, although the gals largely (and admirably) choose to bypass the obvious hits and dig deeper into their discography to fill out this album. The results, at times, are plainly electrifying: “Moment of Forgiveness” (a gem from their overlooked 2002 record Become You) shines as a stripped-down acoustic ballad; newer staples like “Get Out the Map” and “Kid Fears” remain fabulous; and the brilliant Brandi Carlile considerably livens up a cover of
Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.”

They have released two of the most fun, fascinating records of the last decade, but for some reason, even though they have become mega-selling superstars throughout Europe, Scissor Sisters — the randy electropop band led by the fabulously ambisexual Jake Shears, as worthy a successor to Boy George’s throne as has been produced in the past twenty years — remain something of a cult act here in America, a fact that they aim to change this week with the arrival of their third studio album, Night Work. They’re certainly stacking the deck with top-shelf talent: Kylie Minogue — another artist for whom stateside success has been doled out in stingy fits and starts — duets with Shears on “Any Which Way,” and former Culture Club MVP Helen Terry (whose powerful, goosebump-inducing backing vocals literally made such ’80s classics as “Miss Me Blind” and “Black Money”)
offers her enormous talents to “Whole New Way.”

Also noteworthy this week:

• Carrie Underwood made it popular as the title track of her terrific 2005 debut album, but the song “Some Hearts” was originally performed by the great Marshall Crenshaw, and my own personal favorite version comes from a titanic talent name of Kelly Levesque, who recorded the tune in 2001 for the America’s Sweethearts soundtrack. I’ve often wondered what became of Levesque, whose vivid voice was far too fine to stay hidden forever, and alas, she has resurfaced — alongside newcomer Tyler Hamilton — as one half of the new duo Due Voci, whose self-titled debut album is a tribute to the heralded hits of the legendary Diane Warren. (I know, I know, you’re probably thinking that tunes like “Because You Loved Me” and “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” and “Unbreak My Heart” were sung perfectly well the first time around, but you have to trust me when I tell you that I’ll take the lovely Levesque any damned way I can get her.)

 

• A more extensive version of Oasis‘ new greatest hits collection
  Time Flies…1994-2009 — this one a four-disc affair which includes a DVD of the music videos, as well as a bonus disc chronicling a 2009 concert in London — arrives in stores this week.

 

• Guest vocalists Robin Thicke and Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds help out legendary saxophonist Kenny G on his new album, Heart and Soul.

 

• He has written some of the most famous and indelible tunes in music history, a handful of which appear on Just Across the River, the latest album from Jimmy Webb. The guest list here is a veritable all-star lineup: Glen Campbell, Vince Gill, Michael McDonald, Billy Joel, and Jackson Browne all make cameos; the inimitable Lucinda Williams pops up on a revelatory cover of the classic “Galveston”; and Webb and Linda Ronstadt save the best for last with a riveting rendition of Art Garfunkel’s tender “All I Know,” one of my favorite songs ever.

 

• Speaking of Webb, one of his newer compositions — a sweeping story song called “Gauguin” — pops up on Paradise, the gorgeous new record from the glorious, God-sent Judy Collins.

 

• Finally, a pair of interesting iTunes exclusives arrive to help you close out your week in bizarro style:
  • the underrated (and fabulously soulful) James Morrison
    offers up an amazing acoustic reading of Michael Jackson’s
    Grammy-winning classic “Man in the Mirror” 
  • mix artist extraordinaire Jason Nevins — whose past work in this field truly is beyond reproach, it must be noted — dangerously messes with perfection with a pulsating, remarkably bizarre remix of Lady Antebellum‘s cross-format megasmash “Need You Now”  which quite literally needs to be heard to be believed.

names dropped with reckless abandon: Amy Ray, Art Garfunkel, Babyface, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Boy George, Brandi Carlile, Carrie Underwood, Culture Club, Diane Warren, Due Voci, Emily Saliers, Glen Campbell, Helen Terry, Indigo Girls, Jackson Browne, Jake Shears, James Morrison, Jason Nevins, Jimmy Webb, Judy Collins, Kelly Levesque, Kenny G, Kylie Minogue, Lady Antebellum, Linda Ronstadt, Lucinda Williams, Marshall Crenshaw, Michael Jackson, Michael McDonald, Oasis, Robin Thicke, Scissor Sisters, Tyler Hamilton, Vince Gill