Buzz Blog
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to hear Cee Lo Green covering a Buddy Holly tune? Yeah, me neither. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love to hear it; it just crossed my mind. Green is joined by the likes of Fionna Apple, Paul McCartney, The Black Keys and more on a tribute called Rave on Buddy Holly. I haven’t given it a listen, but it looks like my cohort Dan Nailen just gave it three and a half stars, so you’re probably going to want to check this one out.
Jolie Holland has a blues-filled croon that can calm the hyperactive, that can seduce the icy and can drop lovers from great heights. But on first listen to her new album, Pint of Blood, she just doesn’t capture it in the same way she did on albums like Escondida and Living & The Dead. And I really, really wanted to love this album. So, of course, it deserves some more listening love. So far, the jazzy rendition of Littlest Bird is a winner, though.
After releasing two mini-CDs, Shabazz Palaces has arrived in full force. Their electronically driven hip-hop sound is fully rendered, just as the veil that covered the frontman’s identity has been dropped. And it’s former Digable Planets member Ishmael Butler, who is fronting this Sup Pop-backed band. Black Up is trance-like at times, seductive at others, but doesn’t forget how to bounce.
In another Sup Pop release, Handsome Furs—the husband/wife duo out of Montreal—are dropping their third album today, with Sound Kapital. It is a synthy, noisy album that is hot and ready for summer.
Rounding out this week’s selections, Thievery Corporation shows their wickedly masterful electronic touch on Culture of Fear. All other creators of electronic music must worship at the steps of this DC-based production duo’s temple of sound, for these veterans are masters of their domain. Lush and vivid, with funky guitar riffs, soaring vocals and minimalistic hip-hop beats (and a smattering of whatever else they could find), every time this album ends, I can’t help myself and just keep hitting “Play.”
