New Music Monday: Prince, Lucinda Williams, Lady Antebellum, Gerard Way, and More!

Mornin’ music maniacs! You looking for some new stuff? Great! Cuz you’ve stumbled into the perfect piece of harmony on the internet – New Music Monday, the most “to the moon Alice!” column at 8CN. Each week all sorts of sonic distractions are released for public consumption and this is where it all comes 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

It’s Prince week in the music industry this week due to the fact that His Royal Badness is releasing a pair of records, one a solo record and the second with his touring band 3rdEyeGirl, his first new material since 2010. Art Official Age, the proper Prince album, has been called “a slick, seductive electro-funk sci-fi concept album with a synthetic ambience evoking classic Eighties Prince pop” while Plectrumelectrum has been hailed as containing “more than a whiff of Hendrix“. Sounds delish!

Country Insurgency

Wildly popular country trio Lady Antebellum return with their second release in two years, the highly anticipated 747. The airplane reference in the title has made it easy for writers to post headlines like “Lady Antebellum soaring to a New Sound with 747” and other such tripe. One of the dudes in the band told Billboard: “We wanted to sound a lot bigger and a little more in your face than records in the past”. So if you’ve always wanted Lady Antebellum in your face your prayers have been answered.

Alt-country queen Lucinda Williams, she of the lengthy Grammy nominee list, returns with her first release since 2011, Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone.

Oh Hey, That Guys Still Around. Good For That Guy, I Guess

Gerard Way, the guy that either sang or played drums or, well, I don’t remember, he was in My Chemical Romance, I know that, steps back into the spotlight with his debut solo record, Hesitant Alien. It’s a Britpop album! Whoa, what a change of pace! He told Rolling Stone that he wants to “reboot Britpop in America”! And the cover looks like an Adam Ant record! Wow! I’m totally still not interested!

Hardcore Don’t Die

New York based punk legends Sick of It All are nearing their thirtieth anniversary. Their eleventh effot, The Last Act of Defiance, comes out this week.

My Recommendation

For the first time in the history of this column I am not excited about a new release for this week. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some things I’d like to hear, and I might even buy the new Prince since everyone’s talking about it, but I’m just not crazy stupid about anything coming out this week. Next week, however, I’m all giddy about because the new ‘Allo Darlin’ record is being released. If you don’t know, ‘Allo Darlin’ is a London based indie-pop quartet that absolutely blew everyone away with their 2012 release, Europe. I’m so excited about this new release that I’m going to post something from Europe here, and then another song from the new record in the next section.