New Music

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/04/2013 (4917 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

50 CENT FEAT. KENDRICK LAMAR

We Up (Interscope)

For those keeping score, this is the fifth promo single from 50’s still-as-yet-unreleased Street King Immortal album. Featuring man of the moment Kendrick Lamar, this mellow head-nodder has potential, but in the end it’s a fairly standard issue brag track. Yes, we’re all very impressed with the stones around your neck and the spikes on your Louboutins. Three stars

 

ASHANTI

Never Should Have (eOne)

Ashanti was once considered R&B royalty, but kind of fell off the map in the mid-00s. Teasing her long-delayed fifth album — allegedly due out in June — this meandering mid-tempo groover about a love that wasn’t meant to be never quite takes off and features some oddly placed marching-band percussion. If she wants a comeback, she’s going to have to do better than this. Two and a half stars

 

ARIANA GRANDE FEAT. MAC MILLER

The Way (Universal Republic)

Sporting some uncannily Mariah Carey-like vocals, Nickelodeon actress-turned-singer Ariana Grande teams up with hipster rapper Mac Miller for a cutesy relationship track that uses the piano line from Brenda Russell’s A Little Bit of Love (which was also sampled in, and is probably best known from Big Pun’s Still Not a Player). The sort of pleasant if not forgettable stuff you’d expect to hear in the waiting room of a children’s dental office. Three and stars

— Reviewed by Steve Adams

 

POP & ROCK

 

Raine Maida

We All Get Lighter (Coalition/Warner Records)

WE might as well get it out right at the front. Canadian singer/songwriter and front person for post-grunge superstars Our Lady Peace has lost his voice. Well, not literally, but those familiar with his chaotic nasal tootle from his popular OLP tracks may be shocked to hear the singer’s much more agreeable lower register throughout his second full-length solo album’s eight tracks.

We All Get Lighter is a testament to an artist’s ability to grow and even get better at what he does. Maida has traded his rockist moves for a more honest and convincing way of getting his music across. The album, while rather short in length, is a subtle anthology of hushed tracks that are a blend of ambient folk/electronica etudes and poignant, poetic ballads. Lyrically, Maida delivers his best work to date and approaches some heavy topics (mental instability, regret, loss, familial bonds, civil disobedience) with the kind of aptitude one would expect him to articulate after all his years in the music business.

By wearing his emotions on his proverbial sleeve here and creating a more mature sound while shedding bits of his more overt commercial rock radio sound, perhaps Maida is indeed getting lighter — and better at what he does. If OLP turned your crank in any fashion, there should be an opening in your soul for the new, more mature Maida. If not, it’s truly your loss. Three and a half stars

DOWNLOAD THIS: How To Kill A Man

— Jeff Monk

 

Eric Clapton

Old Sock (Bushbranch/Surfdog)

ARTISTS of Eric Clapton’s stature enjoy many fruits courtesy of their careers. In Slowhand’s case, releasing albums of diminishing wattage seems to suit his situation just fine. If there ever were a reason for an artist to terminate recording studio albums, Old Sock is that reason. It’s not an awful album. The musicianship is top-notch, with cool cats like Willie Weeks, J.J. Cale, Steve Winwood, Jim Keltner and a certain Paul McCartney on board to keep things venerable enough. Album opener Further on Down the Road sets the table for the few cod reggae numbers on the album. Clapton is excellent at reggae music, as it suits his tranquil style these days. You don’t have to break a sweat and any guitar solo on offer sounds like a charmer in the context of the loping, island beat.

Clapton also tries to pull a Bob Dylan by covering songs from the Great American songbook. Where Dylan makes his versions sound mysterious and spooky, Clapton toddles too easily through tracks like All Of Me and the too obvious Goodnight Irene.

Clapton fans from a certain era will eat this tasty pablum up with a plastic spoon. If you are expecting electric guitar pyrotechnics or even the sound of some newfangled hot blues, slip into another sock. Two and a half stars

DOWNLOAD THIS: Angel

— Jeff Monk

 

COUNTRY

Ashley Monroe

Like a Rose (WB/Warner)

IF you’ve been yearning for the days when Tammy Wynette ruled the country airwaves, you’re in luck. At 26 years old, Ashley Monroe has an old soul. One third of the Pistol Annies, Monroe has worked with the likes of Jack White and recorded with Train (current single Bruises).

Producer Vince Gill surrounds Monroe’s beautiful voice with fiddles and pedal steel and took an old school approach in the studio with no second vocal takes contributing to the recording’s authentic seventies country sound.

Like a Rose, co-written with Guy Clark, and Used are both semi-autobiographical. You Got Me is about addiction. Blake Shelton joins her on You Ain’t Dolly (And You Ain’t Porter). Although the songs may sound like they’re from another era, the lyrical content is a bit more risqué as on one track, where Monroe asks for “weed Instead of roses.”

Like a Rose smells much like its namesake. Three and a half stars

DOWNLOAD THIS: You Got Me

— Bruce Leperre

 

JAZZ

Cameron Wallis

Calling Dexter (Mupoh Music)

MONTREAL saxophonist Cameron Wallis, a former Winnipegger, knows how to handle a ballad.

On Calling Dexter, his debut disc leading a quartet, the multi-reedist highlights that skill on his own 402 E. 116th St., an homage to Duke Ellington arranger and composer Billy Strayhorn, and the standard Young at Heart.

The title track is a nicely crafted paean to tenor saxophone great Dexter Gordon on which Wallis cites the opening bass line from Gordon’s Devilette.

The 10 tracks on the CD, five of them Wallis compositions, were recorded in the style of classic jazz albums, with no editing. What you hear is what was played on the studio floor — a tasty jazz album with some great piano playing by Andre White. Three and a half stars

DOWNLOAD THIS: 3

— Chris Smith