New shit!

I dunno - what else are you gonna call a post like this? I went last weekend and picked up three of what are likely to be among the top albums of 2008: The Black Crowes’ Warpaint, The Raconteurs’ Consolers of the Lonely, and REM’s Accelerate.

I mention this in that it’s not an every day occurrence that I go out and get not just one, but three new releases. I also found myself surprised that, after three or four listens each, my favorite of the three is Warpaint. I say surprised because I don’t think I’ve owned a Black Crowes album since their debut nearly 20 years ago. I had really lost interest in the band, but I’m playing Warpaint over and over and absolutely getting off on the 70s-era Stones-like country/blues/rock. Is this what I’ve been missing these last several years?

The Raconteurs album I’m still not sure about. Coming so (relatively) close on the heels of Icky Thump, I find I’m comparing Consolers of the Lonely to that album rather than to the Raconteurs’ debut. In that face-off, Consolers doesn’t do so well. But on its own and as a Raconteurs’ disk, it stands up well enough.

The only thing that disappointed me about Accelerate is, after all the hype about REM returning to a guitar-driven album, I expected a sequel to Monster, which is not only my favorite REM album, but also one of my all-time favorite albums. Accelerate does rock, in a shockingly concise manner; 11 songs in somewhere around 35 minutes. That’s punk style, baby!

The songs I’ve pulled for tonight’s post are not the singles from these respective albums – they’re just the tracks that I’ve enjoyed the most after my initial couple of listenings. Other songs may grow on me later, but for now it’s these.

“Oh Josephine” is the track from Warpaint that’s getting all the attention because it’s "a pretty ballad, blah, blah, blah.” I much prefer the song just before that one: “Walk Believer Walk.” That is just a gritty, grimy, greasy blues song and damn if it doesn’t make me want to call in sick to work tomorrow so I can stay up all night drinking whiskey.

The other two songs, “I’m Gonna DJ” and “Consolers of the Lonely,” are just a couple I found that I liked and were catchy enough that I wanted to immediately hear them again.

Consolers of the Lonely.mp3 file removed at label's request
Walk Believer Walk.mp3 The Black Crowes
I’m Gonna DJ.mp3 REM

Buy Consolers of the Lonely, Buy Accelerate, Buy Warpaint. Do it now.

Labels: new stuff, rock

posted by aikin @ 9:04 PM