It’s commonly understood that some of the biggest music
releases of the year don’t see light until just before the
holiday season. This year is no different. The struggling music
industry, preoccupied this summer with file-sharing programs and
new policies to throw at internet radio stations, have a slew of
especially high-profile releases lined up this season. With new
offerings by everyone from the Boredoms to Justin Timberlake,
hipsters, hip-hoppers and teenyboppers alike have plenty to look
forward to.
Post Rock/Experimental In October, Sigur Ros
will either floor listeners or amuse them with the
release of “( )” (Oct. 28), the enigmatic Icelandic
group’s third long-player. Singer Jonsi Birgisson sings all
of the new tracks in his own made-up language of Hopelandic,
encouraging fans to write their own lyrics into the album’s
blank liner notes. Though the tracks don’t officially have
names, they’ll consist of songs the band has been playing on
tour for over a year. Expect the meditative “Vaka,” and
the apocalyptic concert-closer “The Pop Song” to
bookend the album, which is reportedly divided into a slow half and
then a fast, more rocking half. The band has said in interviews
that the sound of “( )” is rawer than the
heavily-produced “Agaetis Byrjun,” which earned the
band international acclaim just two years ago. Reinforcing the
newfound correlation between post-rockers and idiosyncratic
punctuation, “Yanqui U.X.O.” (Nov. 11) from the renamed
Godspeed You! Black Emperor arrives in stores on the heels of
“( ).” This third LP from the Canadian group Emperor,
should provide the boys from Iceland with formidable competition.
Information is scarce on the latest antics of the Boredoms,
America’s favorite Japanese noise-core lunatics, but an album
of new music is set to come out before the end of the year. The
material will be similar in style to the music they showcased at
last year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties. The constantly
evolving band’s latest incarnation, dubbed the Vooredoms,
continues with the tribal rhythms they’ve experimented with
in the past, boasting a lineup consisting of three drummers and
Yamatsuka Eye on synths.
Good Old Rock Frontman John Reis and his Hot
Snakes bandmates spent this summer touring with a handful of
raucous punk tunes from their latest album “Suicide
Invoice,” but this fall Reis’ primary band, Rocket From
the Crypt, makes its own return with “Live from Camp
X-Ray” (Oct. 22). Contrary to its title, it is in fact a new
studio release from the veteran San Diego sextet, who have been
performing their blistering brand of rock music for over 10 years.
Though Stephen Malkmus’ second solo effort isn’t due
out until early next year, Matador Records hopes to keep fans
satiated with an expanded reissue of Pavement’s classic album
“Slanted and Enchanted” and the “Slow
Century” DVD (Oct. 22). The 48-track version of Slanted and
Enchanted contains, among other items, the entirety of the
“Watery, Domestic” EP and the band’s two 1992
Peel Sessions. After more than three years in limbo, the
ever-elusive “Slow Century” DVD ensures
Pavement’s music videos, which remain just as confounding as
Malkmus’ lyrics, be saved for posterity. A 90-minute
documentary and two live concerts are also included in the
double-DVD set. Singer-songwriter Badly Drawn Boy follows up his
work on the “About a Boy” soundtrack” with
“Have You Fed the Fish” (Oct. 22), recorded partially
in Los Angeles’ Cello Studios, inside the same room where the
Beach Boys recorded “Pet Sounds” decades before.
“Fish’s” sound will purportedly be somewhere in
between the slick studio polish of “About A Boy,” and
the acoustic naivete of BDB’s debut “The Hour of
Bewilderbeast.”
Hip-Hop The Roots’ oft-delayed
“Phrenology” (Oct. 29), most recently slated to
coincide with this summer’s Smokin’ Grooves tour,
reportedly bears a sound more “aggressive” than their
trademark jazzy grooves. The Philly group’s long-awaited
follow-up to the multi-platinum “Things Fall Apart” has
been in production for three years. Ahmir “?uestlove”
Thompson, Roots drummer and producer extraordinaire, has also been
working on a new Common album, tentatively scheduled for release
this December. Fellow Smokin’ Groovers Jurassic 5 soon drops
its second full-length “Power in Numbers” (Oct. 8) with
guest spots by Nelly Furtado, Big Daddy Kane and the UCLA jazz
program’s own Roberto Miranda. November continues the hip-hop
assault with a new album from Missy Elliott, whose new track,
“Work it,” blends an infectious beat with a few
backward-tracked rhymes. It doesn’t look as if Jay-Z’s
earlier proposition for a Pay-Per-View rhyme battle with Nas will
indeed come to fruition, so apparently they’ll settle for
SoundScan: Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse
(Nov. 5) and Nas’ “God’s Son” (Nov. 19) are
released within two weeks of each other.