New Music Monday: Madonna, Luke Bryan, Enslaved, and More!

Happy Monday music maniacs! Like new stuff? Great! You’ve come to the right place. Each week all sorts of audiolicious goodies are unleashed onto the masses and this is where they come to be judged. I’ll tell ya what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s a waste of your time. Thanks for stopping by!

The Big News!
Without question, the most importantest release of the week is the new Madonna cut, Rebel Heart. In fact this is an album that has been rumored, criticized, and leaked so much in the last few months, it really seems like the biggest release of the year. Like every Madonna album, people are hella excited about it, and it features a gaggle of great guest stars, including Nicki Minaj, and Mike Tyson. It’s received some mixed reviews, this ho-hum Rolling Stone review says that it could have been a “modern pop treasure” but ends up “a diamond struggling to escape the rough” full of “over the top sex songs” and self-referential nonsense. Slant, in a largely positive review, awarded the record three and a half stars despite it’s being “all over the map, not just musically, but lyrically and vocally.”

Metal Mania
Man of Much Metal on the new record from Norway’s masters Enslaved: “Progressive rock and metal, ambient, post-rock, jazz and a whole host of other ideas collide in what can only be described as some of the most fascinating and rewarding heavy metal currently being created anywhere in the world. Album number thirteen, ‘In Times’ is no different.”

Spring Break Rules!!
Country music dude Luke Bryan always releases something for spring break. This year it’s some sort of compilation of his most memorable stupid songs.

Punk Bats 1000
Canada’s punk icons Cancer Bats return with their fifth record, and first since 2012, Searching for Zero. NME applauds the record with an 8/10 review claiming that the band has “push themselves to punishing extremes” and produced “their most complete, most important album yet”. Can’t wait to hear it!

My Recommendation
WIll Butler from Arcade Fire unveils his debut solo record this week. It’s called Policy. I’m interested, but I also agree with everything said about Arcade Fire in the first paragraph of this Consequence of Sound review, so I’m not hopeful. I wish they were just a band of kids instead of a really important band of artists.  Also, I watched this video, which is really, really annoying.

Next Week
Next week is big! Tune in same new music time, same new music channel for stuff from Modest Mouse, Awolnation, and more!!!