Thanksgiving is next week, and this week, I’m thankful for music. Maybe you will be too after checking out some tracks from the most anticipated album releases of this week! (All albums released on Friday 11/17/17 unless otherwise noted.)
Pop
The Architect / Paloma Faith
Emotion. Empathy. Feeling. These human qualities, gentlemen, are for the weak. Paloma Faith’s video for “Crybaby” (above) features a dystopian society where children are trained to be emotionless government leaders according to this manifesto. In this disco-influenced song from The Architect, Faith reminds us that it’s okay to cry, baby: feelings aren’t a sign of weakness, as we have often been told to think. Yet, it is still upbeat and danceable, leaving us to wonder about where “Crybaby” fits into the full scope of the album. Enjoy it on its own for now, and then check out The Architect on Friday.
I Fall in Love Too Easily / Katharine McPhee
Although Katharine McPhee has been focused on acting for the past few years (check her out in Scorpion on CBS!), she is still the American Idol runner-up we first voted for back in 2006, and she proves it on I Fall in Love Too Easily. Her cover of the beloved jazz standard “Night and Day” (above) is as smooth as silk and may even rival the version done by Frank Sinatra! I Fall in Love Too Easily looks like it will be a full album of utter bliss.
Blue Lips [Lady Wood Phase II] / Tove Lo
Tove Lo’s music is incredibly sexually explicit, so a single like “Disco T*ts” is definitely not for everyone. Musically, this song features a heavy bass line accented with synth chords as Tove Lo pitches her voice up to a falsetto for the pre-chorus before slowing the vocal’s frequency down for the trendy spoken chorus. I won’t embed the track here, but you can find it and other new hits from the Swedish singer-songwriter on Blue Lips, out this Friday 11/17.
Country
The Rest of Our Life / Faith Hill & Tim McGraw
Faith Hill and Tim McGraw have been married since 1996 and are still going strong. Now, in their 21st year as husband and wife, they are releasing an album of duets bound to make even the most jaded of us believe in true love. “The Rest of Our Life” (above) sweetly and earnestly celebrates the two’s relationship, as they sing With you / I’ll stay young for the rest of my life, with you / We’ll stay young for the rest of our life in perfect harmony.
R&B/Soul
If All I Was Was Black / Mavis Staples
Stop! Before you do anything else, take a minute or four and listen to this track. “Little Bit” (above) from Mavis Staples’ most recent album, If All I Was Was Black, tackles the racial inequality in 2017 America. Take, for instance, the powerful line only 53 seconds in: Poor kid, they caught him / without his license / That ain’t why they shot him / they say he was fightin’ / So, that’s what we’re told / but we all know / that ain’t how the story goes. It’s impossible to tell from her voice, but Mavis Staples is 78 years old, and this his her sixteenth studio album. Staples’ father was close friends with Martin Luther King, Jr. Her family’s group The Staple Singers soundtracked the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 70s. She has lived through times like these before.
Hip-Hop
Radio Silence / Talib Kweli
In July of 2016, Jonathan Meadows threatened to kill his entire family. That same month, his 14-year-old daughter Bresha Meadows shot and killed her father. The Huffington Post quotes her attorney as saying, “[Bresha and her siblings] witnessed their father’s drinking and drug use lead to escalated beatings that would, at times, end with their mother being unconscious.” Meadows has been lauded as a hero by her family, as well as by many Americans including public figures such as Talib Kweli. “She’s My Hero” (above) is dedicated to Bresha, who the rapper says reminds him of his own daughter. With powerful tracks like this one, Kweli’s Radio Silence will be another thoughtful, provocative album from one of the best hip-hop artists of our time.
Revival / Eminem
“Walk on Water,” an emotional track from Eminem’s upcoming album Revival, features Beyoncé. Need I say more? (P.S. watch out for the twist ending…)
Rock
Fake Nudes / Barenaked Ladies
I will admit to you outright that I do not like the Barenaked Ladies, and had to listen to the releases from their album Fake Nudes many times in order to choose the one that I thought might go over best with Her Campus readers. That being said, “Canada Dry” (above) is a song that I am actually content to listen to more than once! It’s kind of a goofy, country-influenced tune with lots of nods to what one can assume is meant to be “Canadian Culture.” How many Canada references can you identify?
I Knew You When / Bob Seger
Bob Seger is another veteran of the music industry who has been driven to address the national tumult in America today. “Busload of Faith” (above) was originally written and performed by the late Lou Reed, but Seger’s adaptation gives the track a more heartland-rock vibe, reminiscent of his past hits “Old Time Rock and Roll” (1978) and “Night Moves” (1981). I Knew You When seems to be a letter to the American people, with a message that we may very well need to read.
Indie
Low in High School / Morrissey
Since the Smiths first burst onto the post-punk scene in 1982, Morrissey has been the vocalist to capture the ennui and melancholy often associated with modern youth. Low in High School, as one can tell by its title, does exactly this. “Spent the Day in Bed” (above) is intensely relatable, if a bit morose—but hey, everybody has days like that.
Rest / Charlotte Gainsbourg
An urgent bassline. Charlotte Gainsbourg’s whispery vocals. A young couple in white. “Deadly Valentine” (above) from the French chanteuse’s new album Rest is a recitation of marriage vows, not that one is able to tell by listening to the track. Gainsbourg interprets “until death do us part” as a mystical, unbreakable promise, and like any good wedding, this song is steeped in beauty and emotion.
Go forth and discover!
P.S. Here are all these songs as a Spotify playlist, in case you’re on the go and don’t have time for music videos:
https://open.spotify.com/user/17limeboto/playlist/4MQdiVnN3KRFifkoVq3MNF