Brandon's Buzz

A pair of hotly anticipated comeback efforts, and another suffocating attack of acute Taylor-Swift-itis, punctuate this week’s new releases. Jump with care:

An out and proud lesbian with a gorgeously husky voice that is deeper than most men’s makes for the least likely pop star in modern music history. And yet that Canadian spitfire k.d. lang has defied all the odds, having put together a career replete with both critical and commercial success, and this week, to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of her recording debut, lang stops to reflect with the new double-disc set Recollection. Pretty much everything that needs to be here is — the radio hits “Constant Craving” and “Miss Chatelaine”; her smashing duets with Roy Orbison (“Crying”) and Tony Bennett (“Moonglow”); and her triumphant covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” Joni Mitchell’s “Help Me,” and Chris Isaak’s “Western Stars” — and for the truly devoted, there’s also a deluxe four-disc set which contains a bonus CD of live performances and DVD with music videos.

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Last week’s new release slate was an absolute barn-burner. This week’s: yeah, not so much. Dig in:

• Previously released tunes from Joshua Radin and The Swell Season,
  as well as a new duet from Rachael Yamagata and Semisonic’s Dan Wilson, highlight the soundtrack for the new weepie Dear John.

 

• Mega-selling rapper Lil Wayne takes a stab at hard rock with his long-awaited latest, Rebirth.

 

• ’90s sensation Michael Bolton is back this week with a
  Target exclusive, a collection of hits and favorites recorded
  Live at the Royal Albert Hall.

 

• While his brothers take a brief break from the biz, Nick Jonas and his new band The Administration are up with a side project, Who I Am.

 

• Finally, Sherry Ann insisted that I not fail to mention (as if I would!)
  Almost Everything I Wish I’d Said the Last Time I Saw You, the new album from “One Tree Hill” regular Mike Grubbs and his band Wakey!Wakey!

Straight up, I have utterly no idea in hell how this one got past me for months, since Amazon claims that it was released last November — can that really be true?! — but at least I’m all up to speed now: while doing my record shopping last week, I ran across a double-disc deluxe edition re-release of one of 2009’s most spectacular albums – The Fray‘s crisply compelling self-titled sophomore effort – and, for God and everybody, standing right there in the middle of Best Buy’s pop/rock section, I let out an audible squeal of joy so loudly unmistakable, I can scarcely believe the store staff didn’t have to come resuscitate me with smelling salts.

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I’m gonna do this quickly because I am bone-tired and it’s quite late, and in general, the more time I spend trying to wrap my mind around the Academy’s often-baffling choices, the more intensely frustrated I become.

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My beloved A brought this to my attention and insisted that I bring it to yours. Hence:

“…I’d go ahead and proclaim [“Use Somebody”] the instant front-runner [for Song of the Year], but since everything seems to be breaking in Taylor Swift’s (whose ability to sing I still strongly question, no matter how wide-ranging and accessible her abilities as a songwriter undeniably are) favor lately — I’m stunned that little heifer didn’t win the Nobel Peace Prize last month! — she seems like the one to beat.”

— me, assessing Taylor Swift’s odds in this year’s Grammy race, in an instant-reaction nominations live blog last December.

“Taylor Swift, whose trophies now require a warehouse, is up for best female vocalist in pop and country. The crossover sensation may be able to write a tune, but she sure can’t carry one, as her live performances over the past year have demonstrated.”

— USA Today music critic Edna Gundersen, summing up this year’s Grammy race in a column earlier this week.

January roars to a close with a ferocious cross-section of great new music to choose from, including what may stand as the two most-anticipated sophomore outings of the new year. Take a look:

Even though it has sold well over one million copies (largely on the strength of her name and of residual goodwill toward her), and even though it’s loaded with drive-time-friendly fare (most prominently, the shockingly frisky “Million Dollar Bill”), pop radio has largely failed to take the bait on the divine Whitney Houston‘s underrated latest album I Look to You. But this week brings a reminder that once upon a magical time, she was the queen of pop music, as Arista marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of her sterling thirteen-times-platinum debut with a deluxe edition re-release. Newly added to the record are a trio of dance remixes, a remarkable a capella take on Houston’s classic “How Will I Know,” and a live version of “Greatest Love of All.” Also included: a DVD featuring the album’s four music videos, new interviews with Houston and Arista’s founder Clive Davis, and a rare clip of Houston’s national debut on The Merv Griffin Show.

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It’s a little better out there this week than the last couple, but we’re still biding our time while we await the imminent monster that is next week. Consider this an appetizer:

It’s not always the case, frighteningly enough, but this year’s annual single-disc roundup of tunes that are vying for the Recording Academy’s highest honors, Grammy Nominees 2010, plays like a mixtape of the year’s strongest, most fascinating music. (Imagine that!) True, you have to sit through the likes of Black Eyed Peas and Beyonce, as well, not to mention subpar material from the typically dependable U2, Sugarland, Rascal Flatts, and Kelly Clarkson, but I say any album which can wrangle aural diamonds from Kings of Leon (the staggering “Use Somebody”), The Fray (“You Found Me,” putting Isaac Slade’s scary-good vocals on a riveting piano-based pedestal), Lady Antebellum (the revelatory “I Run to You”), and Dave Matthews Band (“You and Me,” a sweet fare-thee-well to a fallen comrade-in-arms) onto the very same slice of musical real estate is mighty fine by me.

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“…and she’s a bi-ITCH!”

— the hilariously irascible Joan Rivers, mocking the fact that actress Demi Moore will immediately correct you if you pronounce her name as DIMM-ee (instead of dim-MEEE) to her face, on The Joy Behar Show.

Another low-key week on tap, although with a new Patty Griffin record due at the end of the month, take heed: the new release wall won’t be this slow and dull forever. Dive in:

• Remixes of recent radio smashes from Black Eyed Peas, Mariah Carey, Rihanna, David Guetta, and others highlight Total Club Hits, Vol. 4,
  the latest from those canny geniuses at Thrive Records.

 

• Contra, the second record from rising cult band Vampire Weekend.

 

• Those DIY wunderkinds OK Go are back with their latest effort,
  Of the Blue Colour of the Sky.

 

• Acclaimed singer/songwriter Freedy Johnston returns with
  Rain on the City, his first album in nearly a decade.

 

• Rain or Shine, a four-disc live collection from A’s favorite road dogs O.A.R.

 

• And finally, Sherry Ann’s reason for living this week: a new Jason Mraz track has somehow or other found its way onto the original motion picture soundtrack for the new Josh Duhamel flick When in Rome.