Brandon's Buzz

Jerry Reed — “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot”
(from The Essential Jerry Reed) —

We all have those songs that, no matter what is happening or how crappy our mood, always make us chuckle and make the world go away, if only for a fleeting moment. And this is one of mine.

George Michael — “Jesus to a Child” (from Older) —

True story: last night, A and I tore up our local liquor store in search of the makings of a perfect margarita — I recently picked up one of those cool-ass Ninja blenders at Sam’s Club, and I had been dying to put to the test the claims of the frighteningly excitable infomercial hosts that this machine was literally made for flawlessly frothy frozen drinks — and while we were walking the aisles and deciding which tequila would be accompanying us home, the store’s PA system played, in rapid fire succession, bang-bang-bang: my favorite Dire Straits song, my favorite John Mayer song, and this, one of my three favorite George Michael songs. I instantly commenced singing along with George, out loud, right there in the store before God and urryone — bad habit, that — and was again blown away by the bittersweet simplicity of this glorious masterstroke of a tune. (And holy God, that gorgeous video, one of the five best clips I’ve seen in the whole of my life!) Absolutely transcendent, even fourteen years after the fact. (Incidentally, we went with Cuervo — Jose, you really are a friend of mine — and the margaritas were not short of magnificent.)

Nothing major out there this week as August arrives in earnest, but a couple of midlist sleepers pop up on the new release wall, and the artists behind them are absolutely the real deal. Dig in:

• A’ll be pleased as punch to learn that his current heroine Lady GaGa is back this week with The Remix, a collection of ten extended dance and club mixes of her hit singles.

 

• Indie rock icons Arcade Fire return with their latest, The Suburbs.

 

• Still talkin’ to angels: two decades past the release of their mega-platinum debut, The Black Crowes are back with Croweology,
  a double-length acoustic celebration of their survival.

 

• One of my all-time favorite foreign chicks is the delightfully odd
  Katie Melua, who takes a bit of a left turn this week, teaming up with Madonna’s old crony William Orbit for her fourth album, The House.

 

• I find him whiny, shallow, and painfully pretentious, but his music obviously strikes a chord with someone, and for that person, John Vesely — who records under the name of Secondhand Serenade — offers up his latest effort, Hear Me Now.

 

• And finally: he first gained national attention in 2006 as one of the contestants in CBS’ ill-fated Idol knockoff Rock Star: INXS, which
  sought to find a new lead singer for the venerable Australian band.
  (The time-stopping cover of R.E.M.’s classic smash “Losing My Religion” that he crafted for the series remains one of the most chilling and compelling pieces of television that I have ever witnessed.) Now, four years later, the blisteringly brilliant Ryan Star steps into the spotlight as a true recording artist with his hotly-anticipated major label debut 11:59.

Tasmin Archer — “One More Good Night With the Boys”
(from Bloom) —

If the conversation at any future gathering ever veers toward Brit chicks who should have become much bigger stars stateside, Tasmin’s name had better be the first one to come flying from your mouth. A brilliant melange of Seal and Sade (the artists to whom she has most often been compared over the years), possessing the innately crystalline beauty of her music combined with the omnipresent social conscience of his, the astonishing Archer threw a continuing series of bold swings throughout the ’90s (taking swipes at industry, commerce, and religion; doing Elvis Costello better than Elvis Costello; proving definitively that pop music doesn’t have to be by necessity an intellectual wasteland), and with this gorgeous glimpse at masculinity in the modern world, she ended up topping even her own elegant ambitions. A total triumph.

Lee Brice — “Love Like Crazy” (from Love Like Crazy) —

Brice co-wrote Garth Brooks’ record-shattering comeback smash “More Than a Memory” three years ago, and now he’s flying solo with a hit of his own, one of those God-‘n’-grace, hope-‘n’-humility anthems that crunchy radio just loves to churn out with effective regularity. (I say effective ’cause, damn if these inspirational, get-out-there-and-win-one-for-the-Gipper spectacles don’t get me where I live every single time.)

If you missed any of last week’s tunes, a quick recap:

MONDAY: Julia Fordham — “East West” (from Collection) —

TUESDAY: Tori Amos — “Jackie’s Strength”
(from From the Choirgirl Hotel) —

WEDNESDAY: Sugarland — “Stuck Like Glue”
(from The Incredible Machine) —

THURSDAY: Semisonic — “Gone to the Movies”
(from Feeling Strangely Fine) —

FRIDAY: David Mead — “World of a King”
(from The Luxury of Time) —

SATURDAY: Res — “They-Say Vision” (from How I Do) —

SUNDAY: Bette Midler — “All I Need to Know” (from No Frills) —

Bette Midler — “All I Need to Know” (from No Frills) —

Years after the Divine Miss M tackled this chestnut, Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville reworked a couple of its verses, renamed it
“Don’t Know Much,” and won a boatload of Grammys (and reignited both of their careers, natch) with the resulting smash. But I’ll go ahead and cop to the fact that I’ve always preferred Midler’s rawer, more organic take on this material: stripped entirely of the attention-stealing bells and whistles that had marked her music to that point, Bette crawls inside these words and finds the naked power pulsing beneath them. An unjustly ignored classic.

Res — “They-Say Vision” (from How I Do) —

My beloved and I watched the most wretchedly depressing documentary about the Mormon church (and, specifically, about their significant role in toppling California’s notorious Proposition 8, which okayed amending the state’s constitution to abolish same-sex marriage in 2008) last evening, and I was happily reminded of this daring li’l ditty, a minor hit from the spring of 2002 which encouraged freaks of all stripes to fly their flags loudly and proudly.

David Mead — “World of a King” (from The Luxury of Time) —

An irresistibly yummy slice of nonsensical power pop
from one of the great unsung talents of the last decade.

Semisonic — “Gone to the Movies” (from Feeling Strangely Fine) —

The remarkable Dan Wilson — a virtuosic model of detached restraint here — dares, in haunting and profound fashion, to explore the possibility that there exists a single shattering moment when true love fades for good. Somehow, you just know the sight of a beat up, broken down car is gonna break this dude’s heart for the rest of his sorry days.

Slim pickin’s on the new release wall this week, there’s no two ways around it. Let’s be careful out there:

• The legendary Tom Jones returns to his gospel roots
  on his latest record, Praise and Blame.

 

• Recording under the moniker of Owl City, a kid called Adam Young created a sensation at pop radio earlier in the year with his monster left-field smash “Fireflies,” and while we patiently await the next OC record, Young satiates our burning curiosity in the meantime with
  An Airplane Carried Me to Bed, a collection of tunes he composed and recorded four years ago under the name of Sky Sailing.

 

• That woeful fool Clay Aiken supplements his latest covers record
  with a companion DVD entitled Tried and True Live!.

 

• The fabulous Natalie Merchant pops up this week
  with an exclusive session, which features an
  amazing acoustic reading of her 1998 hit “Break Your Heart,”
  as well as a fun rendition of The Wizard of Oz‘s classic standard
  “If I Only Had a Brain.”

 

• Finally, my single favorite pop culture wordsmith ever — Rolling Stone‘s blisteringly brilliant music critic Rob Sheffield — follows up his shattering 2008 memoir Love is a Mix Tape with a hilarious new chronicle of having spent his adolescence selling his soul to FM radio, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man’s Quest
  for True Love and a Cooler Haircut.

Sugarland — “Stuck Like Glue” (from The Incredible Machine) —

Well, won’t this be the litmus test of the summer: their last album, 2008’s middling Love on the Inside, was a wondrous disappointment, and they’ve watched a non-trivial measure of their crossover thunder get pilfered outright by those sneaky Petes known as Lady Antebellum. So those magnificent mavericks Sugarland have responded the only way they know how: by putting their not-so-secret weapon — tha’d be Jennifer Nettles’ knockout pipes (and her inimitably infallible way of vocally surfing the crests of her melodies) — on full, glorious display in the wickedly catchy lead single from their forthcoming fourth album (due in October). But is country radio gonna take the bait on a song that is not at all country? (Wait ’til you get a load of Nettles’ Rastafarian-style rap, which comprises Glue‘s bridge; it’ll freakin’ blow yer mine!)
Time will tell.