Brandon's Buzz

October opens with a much less crowded slate than the past couple of weeks have offered us, and I’m fine with that, because I am still swimming upstream trying to get caught up with all of September’s new music. Take a look:

She is a Scottish lass who tore across the pond four years ago with a pair of rollicking, ridiculously infectious radio smashes, “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” and “Suddenly I See,” and just as quickly hit rough waters: a stunning sophomore effort, released a year later, failed wholly to connect here in the States, and it seemed as though she was done before she had even gotten started. But don’t count out the staggeringly talented KT Tunstall just yet: she’s back in action with her third album, Tiger Suit, on which she adventurously dares to weave flashes of electronica into what is an already well-established folk-rock — think modern-day Bonnie Raitt — vibe. (Also of note: Amazon is pushing an exclusive deluxe edition of Suit which contains a behind-the-scenes documentary, How to Make a Tiger Suit.)

The week’s biggest new release involves music, to be sure — and Academy Award-winning music, at that — but also some of the most gloriously rendered hand drawn visuals that Walt Disney’s company ever conjured. Knowing what we know now about their impenetrable domination of the arena, it’s difficult to imagine that there was ever a time when Disney wasn’t considered the lord of the manor when it came to filmed animation, but such was the case in the late ’80s before their surprise smash adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale The Little Mermaid had returned the company to prominence. But it was their gorgeously lyrical reimagining of Beauty and the Beast which truly re-cemented Disney’s status as Hollywood’s cartoon kings. A stunning (and spectacularly compelling) love story between an innocent, lovely young woman and an isolated, monstrous ogre (Paige O’Hara and Robby Benson, both doing bravura vocal work) which featured a brilliant series of Broadway-style show tunes from Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (dual Oscar winners for their awesome, wondrous work here), Beast was the first full-length animated feature to be nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award — and, if you ask me, it remains the undisputed jewel in Disney’s crown — and this week, blessedly, it returns to DVD for the first time in eight years, and makes its long-awaited Blu-ray debut with a whole host of documentaries and other special features, including the special extended edition of the film which played in IMAX theaters (and which Sherry Ann and I made a special trip to San Antonio just to enjoy!) in the spring of 2002.

Also noteworthy this week:

• His voice has been front and center on two of the year’s biggest hits — B.o.B’s “Nothin’ On You” and Travie McCoy’s “Billionaire” — and he currently has the number one single in the country with his debut smash “Just the Way You Are”; this week, budding superstar Bruno Mars unleashes his first album, Doo-Wops and Hooligans.

 

• Crunchy hitmaker Toby Keith is up with his latest record,
  Bullets in the Gun.

 

• That canny John Mayer is now bundling a bonus DVD of his recent appearance on VH1 Storytellers onto his 2009 album Battle Studies.

 

• Former American Idol runner-up David Archuleta is back with his sophomore effort, The Other Side of Down.

 

• Travis’ terrific frontman Fran Healy steps up to bat with his
  typically moody solo debut, Wreckorder.

 

• Cult favorite jam band Guster return with their latest album,
  Easy Wonderful.

 

• Rockers Finger Eleven present their sixth album, Life Turns Electric.
• In a massive project overseen by his widow Yoko Ono,
  John Lennon‘s entire solo oeuvre has been digitally remastered and re-released — many of them with extra, previously unreleased tracks — accompanied by a new single-disc best-of collection entitled
  Power to the People: The Hits.
• Bob Dylan’s classic tune “Forever Young” (which serves as the show’s theme song), as well as previously released material from the likes of Ray LaMontagne, Amos Lee, and The Swell Season, punctuate the soundtrack for NBC’s rising hit drama Parenthood.
• The run-up to October 19’s hotly-anticipated arrival of Kings of Leon‘s Come Around Sundown gets a little sweeter this week courtesy of your local Best Buy store, which this week unveils a budget-priced box set containing the band’s first three albums.
• Finally, noteworthy new additions to the iTunes music store include:
  • Live from Zurich, a new four-track concert EP from OneRepublic
  • “Wide Open,” another exclusive sneak peek at Sugarland‘s upcoming album, The Incredible Machine
  • Life is Good, a new live EP
    from Sherry Ann’s old fave Jason Mraz.

names dropped with reckless abandon: "American Idol", Alan Menken, Amos Lee, B.o.B., Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Bruno Mars, David Archuleta, Finger Eleven, Fran Healy, Guster, Hans Christian Andersen, Howard Ashman, Jason Mraz, John Lennon, John Mayer, Kings of Leon, KT Tunstall, OneRepublic, Paige O'Hara, Ray LaMontagne, Robby Benson, Sherry Ann, Sugarland, The Swell Season, Toby Keith, Travie McCoy, Travis, Walt Disney, Yoko Ono