New Music Monday: Nickelback, One Direction, Bryan Ferry, 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!

Okay, so there’s a new Nickelback record being released this week. I’m going to refrain from launching into some tirade about my personal opnion of the band and it’s music because it doesn’t matter, a lot of people are going to buy this record and the band is going to make a ton of money from it. Plus, this review from North West Music Scene calls it “the most stylistically diverse album yet” from the Canadian rockers.

The Other Big News

Boy band extraordinaire One Direction release their fourth album and second in two years, Four. Like the Nickelback record it’s gonna be a huge deal.

Legendary Legends

The Art of McCartney is a massive tribute to Paul McCartney (who may or may not be alive but definitely is ((not)) dead) featuring contributions from artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, Perry Farrell, Kiss, Billy Joel, Willie Nelson, The Cure, and Def Leppard. Okay, that’s not really that diverse, but it is an interesting collection.

Roxy Music is no more, but Bryan Ferry is still churning out rekkids! His latest is titled Avonmore, which is a very British title for a record, and features artists like Flea, Johnny Marr, Ronnie Spector, and Marcus Miller working with the ever so gracious frontman on his fourteenth release. Quoth the San Francisco Gate: “the 69 year old British pop icon returns to his signature sound, shifting the focus back to his elegantly restrained crooning and slow drip melodies.”

Bonus!
Lester Bangs talking about Bryan Ferry!

Orchestra Returnestra

Note that the latest Manchester Orchestra record, Hope, will be released in physical form this week. Previously released in September as a companion to their last album Cope, it features acoustic versions of the Cope songs.

My Recommendation

The new TV on the Radio record, Seeds, sounds like quite an undertaking. Following the death of bandmate Gerard Smith, the band has set out on their most ambitious record to date, and while every single TVOTR record has been a stroke of genius, this one seems different. It’s going to be something special and I can’t wait to hear it. From Consequence of Sound: “Seeds is the sound of the band’s remaining members working with the reality of their loss.”