The Lonely Goatherd Blog And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats - Matthew 25:32
Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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To explicitly state the obvious, these external links go to interesting and provocative websites, but they speak for themselves. I don't necessarily agree with anything they say - especially that no-goodnik Richard Marcus.
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All original content on MoreThings.com copyright 2008 Albert Barger or the respective authors
July 24, 2007
New Album Releases, 7-24-2007: Prince Rogers Nelson, The Simpsons soundtrack, Hanson The main important new album this week is Planet Earth from Prince Rogers Nelson. The most interesting thing about this project was the huge giveaway - 3 million free copies of the album with copies of the Sunday, July 15, 2007 edition of English newspaper The Mail. Analysts have suggested that he's making a lot more from giving away 3 million copies than he did by selling 80,000 English copies of his last album. So not only is this a MUCH more effective way of sticking it to The Man than by writing "slave" on his face, he's managing to make money doing it AND putting his album into millions of hands. That's pretty groovy. Also, despite the big English giveaway, the album is the current #2 seller at Amazon.
Then there's the actual album. Planet Earth is, frankly, mediocre. From most acts, I would consider this maybe halfway decent. There are several pretty good songs here, but there's nothing here demanding space on the next Prince hits album. This is a lot better than the awful 90s symbol albums, such as Emancipation. These are mostly decent songs with competent professional melodies. This is not as good as 3121 though. There is certainly no song as catchy or memorable as "The Word."
This week also marks the release of the long awaited movie of the Simpsons, and an original soundtrack album by Hans Zimmer. I don't know if this music will amount to anything memorable, but I'm certainly substantially entertained by just titles like "Why Does Everything I Whip Leave Me?" I might also have high hopes for a composition called "Release the Hounds."
I've never particularly owned a Hanson album, but I guess I do feel some pangs of sympathy for a band of real musicians working hard at playing and songwriting year after year. They seem to get lumped in with the teen-pop likes of Britney Spears because of one big fluke pop hit. They're back this week with The Walk, and will doubtless be playing a bazillion small clubs to back it up. I've seen pretty good reviews for the album. It might actually be worth a listen.
Here's the complete list of this week's major new releases, courtesy AMG:
Manic Street Preachers Send Away the Tigers Sony/BMG Britpop, Alternative Pop/Rock
Prince Planet Earth NPG Funk, Pop/Rock, Urban, Dance-Pop
Sum 41 Underclass Hero Island Punk-Pop, Punk Revival
Tegan and Sara The Con Sire Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Indie Rock, Emo
UNKLE War Stories TBC Trip-Hop, Electronica
Marc Anthony El Cantante Norte Salsa, Tropical, Latin Dance, Latin Pop
Chet Atkins The Essential Chet Atkins [Legacy] RCA Nashville/Legacy Finger-Picked Guitar, Country Boogie, Instrumental Country, Nashville Sound/Countrypolitan, Country-Pop, Traditional Country
Bobby Bare Bobby Bare Sings Lullabys, Legends and Lies (And More) RLG Legacy Country-Folk, Progressive Country, Traditional Country
Camp Lo Black Hollywood Traffic Ent. East Coast Rap, Hip-Hop
Johnny Cash The Great Lost Performance Island Traditional Country, Country Gospel
Billy Ray Cyrus Home at Last Disney Contemporary Country, Country-Pop
The Doors Live in Boston '70 Rhino Hard Rock, Rock & Roll
Evans Blue The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends Hollywood Alternative Pop/Rock, Hard Rock
Freekey Zekey Book of Ezekiel Diplomatic Man/Asylum Hardcore Rap, Gangsta Rap
Garbage Absolute Garbage [Deluxe Edition] Geffen Alternative Dance, Alternative Pop/Rock
Stephane Ginsburgh Morton Feldman: For Bunita Marcus Sub Rosa Contemporary Music for Piano
Hanson The Walk Cooking Vinyl Adult Alternative Pop/Rock
Corey Harris Zion Crossroads Telarc Acoustic Blues, Contemporary Blues, Modern Acoustic Blues, Modern Delta Blues, Folk-Blues, Delta Blues, Electric Blues, African Folk, Roots Reggae, Ska
Peter Himmelman The Pigeons Couldn't Sleep Metal Blade Contemporary Singer/Songwriter, Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Pop/Rock
Waylon Jennings The Essential Waylon Jennings [2007] RCA Nashville/Legacy Outlaw Country, Country-Folk, Progressive Country, Traditional Country
Waylon Jennings & the Waymore Blues Band Never Say Die: The Complete Final Concert [2CD/1DVD] Legacy Outlaw Country, Progressive Country, Traditional Country
Juliette and the Licks Four on the Floor Hassle Punk Revival, Alternative Pop/Rock
Erich Kunzel Masters and Commanders Telarc Film Music
Helen Jane Long Porcelain Warner Classics Contemporary Chamber Music
The Lovemakers Misery Loves Company Red Eye Indie Rock, Alternative Dance
Joanna MacGregor Donnacha Dennehy: Elastic Harmonic NMC Contemporary Chamber Music
Marmoset Florist Fired Secretly Canadian Indie Rock
Tracy Nelson You'll Never Be a Stranger at My Door Memphis Contemporary Blues
Tempera Quartet Sibelius: Voces Intimae - String Quartets 1890-1922 Bis Modern String Quartets
Original Soundtrack The Simpsons Movie Adrenaline Original Score, Film Music
Preservation Hall Jazz Band Made in New Orleans: The Hurricane Sessions [CD/DVD] Preservation Hall Dixieland Revival, New Orleans Jazz, Dixieland
Riders in the Sky Public Cowboy #1: A Centennial Salute to the Music of Gene Autry Rounder Cowboy, Traditional Country, Western Swing Revival
Robbers on High Street Grand Animals New Line Indie Rock
Saturday Looks Good to Me Cold Colors Polyvinyl Indie Pop, Chamber Pop, Indie Rock, Twee Pop, Lo-Fi
Sebadoh The Freed Man Domino Indie Rock, Lo-Fi, Alternative Pop/Rock
Brian Setzer & The Nashvillains Red Hot & Live! Surfdog Rockabilly Revival, Retro-Rock, Roots Rock
Silverchair Young Modern [CD/DVD] Eleven Post-Grunge, Aussie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock
Squeeze 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Squeeze Universal New Wave, College Rock, Pop/Rock, Power Pop
Billy Bob Thornton Beautiful Door New Door Americana, Roots Rock, Country-Rock, Singer/Songwriter
Tiny Vipers Hands Across the Void Sub Pop Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Indie Rock
John Vanderslice Emerald City Barsuk Indie Rock, Alternative Singer/Songwriter, Pop Underground
Christian Wallumrod Ensemble The Zoo Is Far ECM Modern Composition, Avant-Garde, Classical Crossover
Eberhard Webber Stages of a Long Journey ECM Continental Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz, Chamber Jazz, Modern Creative
Yeah Yeah Yeahs Is Is Fontana Interscope Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Garage Punk
