Will Dailey & The Rivals - S/T

Will Dailey & The Rivals - Boston singer/songwriter has quietly expanded his Boston base over the past decade, moving from solo gigs at acoustic-friendly folk clubs to regional clubs with his band The Rivals... engaging new project comes on the heels of his ambitious 2009 Torrent project, a pair of releases that culled songs from quarterly song postings on the web // Release: Will Dailey & The Rivals (September 20, Universal Republic) // Sounds like: while Dailey's songs can be stripped down to their indie folk undies, his passion for punchy, melodic 70's rock (a la The Raspberries or Badfinger), Costello-styled 80's new wave propulsion and the SoCal Laurel Canyon jangle of Roger McGuinn and the Byrds rings loudly throughout...These are AM radio songs reimagined for modern times, bearing sharp hooks large enough to hang your hat on...

Quote: "Some songs are immediately personal, some are friends stories, stories of places I’ve been, ideas and some songs I don’t even understand until I am done with them; then they make all the sense in the world. Every song is an indicator." What we like: the aptly named "How Good It Feels" is a summery 3-minute mash-up of Beach Boys harmonies, "Telstar" nostalgia and riff-rock with the edges sanded down to a smooth finish..."Out On the Floor" takes a bright acoustic strum and shoots it full of impossible-to-resist harmonied choruses and a melodic line that lingers long after the chords fade...Dailey has soaked up the best from his elders' vinyl collection, but songs like "Big Bright Sun" prove he's well-equipped to rise above any nostalgic reveling...these are tracks you want to experience live and loud, where the sonic kick hits your chest and the sing-song choruses get shouted back to the stage...

Will Dailey & The Rivals - "How Good It Feels" (from Will Dailey & The Rivals)

Will Dailey & The Rivals - "Big Bright Sun" (from Will Dailey & The Rivals)

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Tony Bennett - Duets II

Tony Bennett - The big 85th birthday bash doesn't officially happen until Sunday night (with a gala featuring Elton John and Alec Baldwin), but the ageless and iconic crooner has again tapped some of pop's biggest names for this star-studded seventeen-track duets album produced by the legendary Phil Ramone...// Release: Duets II (September 20, Columbia) // Sounds like: the hoopla surrounding the tracks with Amy Winehouse (her last completed studio performance) and the likes of Lady Ga-Ga have overshadowed the bulk of fine performances here including sumptuously produced turns from Norah Jones, long-time Bennett fan k.d. lang, Michael Buble, John Mayer, Josh Groban, Mariah Carey and Sheryl Crow...(watch the Norah and Amy videos after the jump)...

Quote: "I've just always love him and getting the chance to sing with him is a big deal for me. It's nice to sing this song with someone like him, who speaks the language (of jazz) so well." -- Norah Jones // What we like: unlike the phoned-in performances on the Sinatra duet albums, there's some real energy and emotion on display as these artists join Bennett in the studio for some pages from the great American songbook...Crow's lovely handling of "The Girl I Love" is surprisingly graceful while Tony's amusing verbal sparring with John Mayer adds a light touch to "One More For the Road"..it's heartbreaking to hear Bennett launch into "Body and Soul" with Amy Winehouse with the line "my heart is sad and lonely" and then hear her touching response -- you can practically feel the damage of the past few years in her voice, like a ravaged Billie Holiday near her own weary end...

Tony Bennett & Norah Jones - "Speak Low" (from Duets II)

Tony Bennett & Sheryl Crow - "The Girl I Love" (from Duets II)

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Kathryn Calder - Bright and Vivid

Kathryn Calder - While last year's solo debut from the Victoria, BC-based member of acclaimed and revolving Canadian band The New Pornographers was a fairly stripped affair -- and lyrically steeped in the memory of her late mother -- Calder's latest is a 180 turn that reflects the album's title. With husband and producer Colin Stewart at her side, Calder has taken a bold and unpredictable "kitchen sink" approach to her songs, creating endless layers of intricate sounds that occasionally leave her voice simply another element in the mix // Release: Bright and Vivid (October 25) // Sounds like: what first may sound like a fog of sonic clutter and echoing feedback eventually is revealed, over additional listens, as a maze of intricate and precise patterns...synth-beats, off-kilter guitar riffs and a colorful tapestry of instruments give B+V a glossy 80's Brit-pop sheen but with a smart contemporary edge...

Quote: "When your husband is the producer, it means that we can spend a whole bunch of time doing a whole bunch of weird things to the songs... I didn't want it to be alienating or anything, for fans of the first record." // What we like: the sweet melodic hooks of songs like "Five More Years" and "Who Are You" have some sharp edges to boot, even if you sometimes strain to catch all the elaborate details...the lovely "Turn A Light On" has more of her Mother's more restrained folk/pop appeal, the rich melodic sweep of the chorus delivering a welcome respite to much of the album's buzzier busy-ness..."Younger Than We've Ever Been"'s quirky, twisting melody -- delivered in Calder's honey-and-lemon vocals -- and the prog/pomp scope of the dramatic punch-to-caress "New Frame of Mind" are like dreamy chamber pop songs taken to a larger, symphonic stage...

 

Kathryn Calder - "Turn A Light On" (from Bright and Vivid)

Kathryn Calder - "Five More Years" (from Bright and Vivid)

Stream the album at NPR. More DC on Kathryn Calder here.

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Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto

Coldplay - Fifth studio album in just over a decade finds the U.K. band once again skillfully maneuvering through majestic rock anthems, hook-laden pop melodies and just enough artsy cred to keep the indie hip gatekeepers interested -- of course, selling nearly 3 million of their last album in the U.S. didn't hurt...working with famed composer/instrumentalist and producer Brian Eno -- who's helped raise the creative bar for U2 over the years -- the Chris Martin-led outfit doesn't so much reinvent as they do sonically shape-shift// Release: Mylo Xyloto (October 25, Capitol) // Sounds like: we've seen other bands phone in creatively at this point in their careers but Coldplay still feels like they have something to prove and -- with Eno's prodding -- give MX a discernable urgency...like the best albums, this is truly an album rather than a collection of songs, with XXL thematic scope and a desire to take us places we haven't gone before...guitarist (and co-founder) Jonny Buckland's wide-screen dominance with some muscular yet agile textural riffs gives the album a definitive spark while Eno's ambient intros and segues help offset the heat with some chilly electronics...

Quote: "The hope is for the record to be free from any musical kind of box. It very much comes from the Brian Eno professorship of, 'Go anywhere. As long as it's you guys, you can go anywhere...We've been together long enough that I know how everyone else is feeling, and it makes me excited when I feel the others are excited..." Chris Martin // What we like: Who would have thought that a song named "Charlie Brown" would be an ambitious new high point for the band? A galloping drive spurred on by Buckland's staccato lines are balanced by Martin's remarkably restrained vocals -- one of the best, most memorable riffs we've heard in years...listen carefully and you'll hear the fan multitude singing along with the chorus of new latest single "Paradise", a massive song that makes you long for a turntable and a pair of equally massive speakers..."Major Minus" turns things upside down with some minor chord acousticism while "Up In Flames" shows that Martin and band still know their way around a moody, ticking-time ballad...

 

Coldplay - "Paradise" (from Mylo Xyloto)

Coldplay - "Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall" (from Mylo Xyloto)

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Honeyhoney - Billy Jack

Honeyhoney - Suzanne Santo and Ben Jaffe may call L.A. home, but the indie roots music, gritty alt-country fervor and Laurel Canyon folk/pop of their excellent sophomore album sound like they may be equally at home in the clubs of Nashville or Austin...70's California country/rock a la Buffalo Springfield and Gram Parsons gets dusted off for a hip reworking...Raymond Richards (Local Natives) produced // Release: Billy Jack (October 24, Lost Highway) // Sounds like: Retro-hued Americana with a modern, ballsy alt-pop irreverence...nothing shy or plaintive here as the mostly acoustic backdrop of fiddles, banjos and guitars are simply the stepping stone for Santo's remarkably ear-grabbing vocal dynamics...

Quote: "The album is made of a lot of stories, a lot of lives. We're very different, but those differences are what makes it. I've had a lot of different times in my personal life that kinda leveled me as a person. That's why this record is the way it is. It's made of guts: what's happening on the inside, the notion of us being really independent, being on our own. That's a big reality." - Suzanne Santo // What we like: Lead single "Turn That Finger Around" pretty much had us at the hello of the first 12 bars, even before a word had been sung or the track had really dug in...the track shimmies and shimmers with some revved up alt-country sturm and twang as Santos' vocals ride the steel strings with both insistence and soulfulness...the tight harmonies on display in the piano ballad "L.A. River"...the tear-in-your-beer country waltz "Angel of Death"...the stark, bluesy banjo lines of "Ohio"...

Honeyhoney - "Ohio" (from Billy Jack)

Honeyhoney - "Turn That Finger Around" (from Billy Jack)

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I Break Horses - Hearts

I Break Horses - A self-described "control freak" and hypochondriac who even admits to a phobia of her own heartbeat, Swedish songwriter Maria Lindén fatefully met up with her fellow Horse-man (and lyricist) Fredrik Balck at an online medical forum... obsession, affliction and what Lindén calls "man/machine conflict" are running themes in the dense, shoe-gazed electronica that's at the heart (so to speak) of their impressive debut...what keeps it interesting for us is how the lush melodies manage to radiate warmth despite the cool, hi-tech instrumental backing // Release: Hearts (October 18, Bella Union) // Sounds like: bleak lyrical themes hide in the shadows of Hearts' often majestic, heavily layered blanket of synth-driven melodic art/pop...like trying to discern images through a deep, drifting fog, Lindén's ethereal voice bobs on the crest of immense washes of synth ambience and a symphony of dazzling mechanics...

Quote: "When writing music I do think of images, and I could describe the album as a soundtrack to all my favorite movies onscreen and in my head...People have talked a lot about the shoegaze thing, but that just one fragment really." - Maria Lindén // What we like: "Pulse" ebbs and flows with a heavenly Cocteau Twins-styled aura, twinkling electronics and rumbling bass lines coloring the reverbed backdrop for Lindén's sweeping vocals...the perfectly titled "Winter Beats" slowly constructs around a swirl of synth keys and a beat that sounds like it's emanating from a frozen drum head...

 

I Break Horses - "Pulse" (from Hearts)

I Break Horses - "Winter Beats" (from Hearts)

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Colleen Brown - Dirt

Colleen Brown - A strikingly diverse collection of vibrant, colorful (sm)art-pop from this Canadian singer and multi-instrumentalist deftly balances classic songwriter appeal with some inspired and energized -- and dare we say just plain fun -- tunecraft ...Brown says that the title of her new third album, the follow-up to her exquisite Foot In Heart in 2007, is utilized as a concept for both "dishing the dirt" on a personal and human story-telling level as well as the organic theme of growing in the soil, of the "authentic" and "honest" aspects of the natural world, taking creative risks and finding one's own voice..."I'm open to whatever comes out when inspiration strikes", she tells DC // Release: Dirt (October 25, Canada) // Sounds like: Brown's background in theatre and dance, cover bands and her current rock-trio side project all help set the stage for Dirt's wide-ranging array of spirited, twisting, turning melodies, punchy rhythmic thrust and richly distinctive vocals reminiscent of Joni Mitchell in her Court and Spark days...

Quote: "Things were simpler when I kept my head buried. I clung to friends and lovers; I distracted myself with vices, work, my daily to-do’s, drama and conquests of all sorts. Willfully ignorant and naïve, I was piling up expectations so high, and holding on to that ledge so tightly! But the winds of change were knocking me about, and I got so tired of holding on. It hurt to hold on! So I had to let go- fingers pried stubbornly, one by one, from the ledge, an unknown drop below… the freefall. In letting go I’ve begun to know my friends, and love, and living in a very different way." -- Colleen Brown on the song "Ignorance Prayer" // What we like: Jazzy R+B, disco beats, spiky rock riffs, cabaret intimacy and indie alt/pop all meld into a delightful and unpredictable mix -- you literally can't wait to hear what's coming next...the exhilarating "Happy Love Song" tosses in some brassy horn charts, strutting bass line and insistent guitar groove behind Brown's soaring, soulful vocals..."Strangers Know Better" is a showstopper of enormous dramatic power, a prime example of what Brown describes to us as her preference of "songcraft over soundscape"...

Colleen Brown - "Happy Love Song" (from Dirt)

Colleen Brown - "Strangers Know Better" (from Dirt)

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The Deep Dark Woods - The Place I Left Behind

The Deep Dark Woods - We're not sure just how much hometown Saskatoon, Saskatchewan plays into their sound, but we're guessing that this amiable, unpretentious and quietly disarming "Canadiana" folk/rock is probably in the water up there...2009 album Winter Hours proved a breakthrough, winning awards and receiving major critical praise...confident new self-produced project is layered with experimentation in sound and instrumentation that enriches rather than distracts... // Release: The Place I Left Behind  (US: October 18, Sugar Hill) // Sounds like: scruffy, acoustic-driven songs seem cut from the same stylistic whole cloth of classic outfits like The Band, a traditionalist base updated but never abandoned...dark themes and an overall tone of melancholy don't weigh on the music -- they simply serve as inspiration to the murder ballads, prairie laments and earthy roots rock hymns...

Quote: "Nowadays you don't hear a lot of emotion in people's vocals anymore and like Waylon and Bob Dylan, good grief! Those guys can really weep it out, you know what I mean? So I like people who can make you hurt just by their singing."- Ryan Boldt of DDW // What we like: lead single "West Side Street" is a timeless, roots neo-classic, starkly produced and spacious with ringing guitars, Garth Hudson-styled organ fills and shambling harmonied charm...their version of Bruce Springsteen's "Factory" is just about everything you hoped it might be: honest, true and deeply affecting, respectful of the original but with their own personal stamp..."The Banks of the Leopold Canal" has become one of our favorite songs of the year, a stunning, richly adorned track that sounds like a Big Pink outtake...

The Deep Dark Woods - "The Banks of the Leopold Canal" (from The Place I Left Behind)

The Deep Dark Woods - "Back Alley Blues" (from The Place I Left Behind)

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Ebba Forsberg - Falling, Folding, Flipping, Feeling

Ebba Forsberg - First new English album in five years from the Swedish songwriter who quietly, determinedly creates some of the deepest and most affectingly personal music you will hear this or any year...Like Fiona Apple, Forsberg transcended the Lilith Fair female songwriter empowerment bandwagon of the mid-90's with her excellent, enigmatic debut Been There, her sole U.S. release...Produced by Andreas Dahlbäck, these ten new songs of opaque lyrical imagery and meticulously crafted melodic structure reflect, she says, ”upon the agony of and longing for love as well as the longing of living life at its fullest while working on the art of letting go”... // Release: Falling, Folding, Flipping, Feeling (October 19, EBOTH in Sweden; US: TBA) // Sounds like: Forsberg's voice is the sound of a tear forming, a heartbreaking tone of cool, dark melancholy engulfed in an atmosphere of reverbed guitar echoes and piano shadings...More stylistically varied than her last eponymous 2006 release, FFFF surrounds her world weary vocals with a mostly subdued, empathetic musical backing, you can practically feel the space between the notes in these shadowy hymns and bleak ballads of emotional turmoil...

Quote:  “Life has always driven me to the core of feeling and music is one of the art forms of life that allows me to touch the raw. The art of music is for me to constantly try and find my notion in every expression. I need to be touched to touch as I need to touch to be touched so to speak." What we like: Guitarist Anders Pettersson adds delicious counterpoint to the warm blankets of keyboards in"Perfect Slumbers", the twisting, turning piano lines and loping bass lines slowly spinning behind Forsberg's soft-as-a-whisper vocals...The delicate acoustic folk underpinnings of "Shanti" build and rise to a stunning, lightly held release, a Moorish, gypsy-styled mood piece that effortlessly moves from one perfectly chosen chord to the next...

Ebba Forsberg - "Perfect Slumber" (from Falling, Folding, Flipping, Feeling)

Ebba Forsberg - "Shanti" (from Falling, Folding, Flipping, Feeling)

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Chris Isaak - Beyond the Sun

Chris Isaak - In a 2000 interview, the legendary Sam Phillips commented "I don't keep up with the business like I used to, but I love to listen to Chris Isaak. He’s very talented, and his music is so damned honest. It’s incredible". Now Isaak repays the compliment with a self-produced 25-track tribute to Phillips and the music of the Sun Studio (including a few of his own newly penned songs)  // Release: Beyond the Sun (October 18, Vanguard) // Sounds like: Recording mostly at the original Sun Studio, Isaak and his band recreate the Sun sound while subtly putting his own indelible stamp on these classic tunes...Isaak says "it's the most fun I ever had making a record" -- and you can feel that in the finished tracks...

Quote: "I do strongly believe (Sam Phillips) is a bonafide genius, one of those guys who looks and sees how things are going to be, only he is fifty or a hundred years ahead of his time.  He found Elvis.  He found Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Orbison, and Jerry Lee.  He recorded Howlin’ Wolf and BB King!" // What we like: the fact that Isaak doesn't try to try to simply recreate the tracks note for note but instead looks to capture the loose energy that must have been in those rooms decades ago...his own three-chord boogie "Live It Up" stand up well amidst the vintage tracks...the mellow croon on "Can't Help Falling In Love" and "Now Or Never" makes you understand why Phillips was enamored with Isaak's neo-rockabilly style...

 

Chris Isaak - "Livin' It Up" (from Beyond the Sun)

Chris Isaak - Beyond the Sun Sampler

(Can't Help Falling in Love, Ring of Fire, Now or Never, I Walk the Line)

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Washington - I Believe You Liar

Perhaps it was the fact that Australian Megan Washington -- known simply by her surname --  nabbed two 2010 Aria awards for Best Female Artist and Breakthrough Artist. Maybe it was the platinum success Down Under. But for whatever reason the planets seem to have alligned for the Melbourne-based 25-year-old singer/songwriter as last year's debut full-length I Believe You Liar, a brilliant and diverse album of art-pop magic finally hits the U.S. shores on October 11. Starting with a handful of songs from three prior EP's released since 2008 and then adding in new songs to round out the track list, Liar careens easily from the darkly eclectic to bright and shiny jumbles of infectious hooks. And the U.S. version, admittedly late to the party, still gets to score a fresh remix from Michael Brauer (Coldplay) along with two new tracks including single "Holy Moses" (surreal video below)...

Washington's keen sense of wordplay, bordering at times on quirky, is balanced nicely by both a solid melodic foundation and a rambunctious, witty attitude. Self-described as "minimalist elegance", her songs are confident and assured, not the navel-gazing, mumbled musings of "deep" introspection but smartly conceived and playfully, skillfully executed productions that strut with panache. We're particularly fond of the 80's girl-group "I get shakin' when you shake it" sassy come on romp "Sundays Best" or Phil Spector-ish "Cement" as well as the staggered synth-keys rapture of "How to Tame Lions". The explosively dramatic title track, however, is what ultimately sealed the deal: a majestic, orchestrated ballad of epic dimension (in every sense of the word).

Washington -"How to Tame Lions" (from I Believe You Liar)

Washington - "I Believe You Liar" (from I Believe You Liar)

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Markéta Irglová - Anar

Markéta Irglová - The Oscar-winning success of the modern movie musical Once with her Swell Season mate Glen Hansard plus the solid reception to the duo's subsequent works set the stage for the new solo outing for this 23-year-old Czech-born songwriter...Irglová expands upon the nuanced piano/guitar acoustic pop sound of Swell Season for her new project, drawing, she says, upon a varied stylistic palette influenced by classic American R+B, adventurous alt/art-rock and even Broadway showtunes...one additional output from the album sessions: Irglova married engineer Tim Iseler...album title is Persian for "pomegranite" // Release: Anar (October 11, ANTI-) // Sounds like: the production scope may be somewhat bigger but what hasn't changed -- happily -- is Irglová's tender, vulnerable vocals and classically-trained piano skills...this is still graceful and mostly delicate chamber pop, finespun and intricately woven songs that resonate long after the closing notes fade...

Quote: "I started writing the songs when I moved to New York. I didn’t really have anything to do; the Swell Season weren’t touring and I was kind of looking into a year off. And I realized if I wanted to continue making music I just had to create the circumstances for myself. So I just started writing more intensely and in a more committed way than I ever had before.” What we like: "Go Back" shifts from introspective ballad into a formidable, soulful midtempo track driven by a richly textured horn section and a backing "girl group" chorus...Irglová taps into her own brand of ethereal soulfulness on "Your Company", her airy vibrato serving as the song's lead instrument...a dense cascade of vocal harmonies highlight another ballad highlight: "Divine Timing"...

Marketa Irglova - "Your Company" (from Anar)

Marketa Irglova - "Divine Timing" from Anar)

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The Rifles - Freedom Run

The Rifles - Lots of bands wear their musical lineage proudly on their sleeves but few do so as prominently as these Brit-pop rockers. Third studio full-length since their 2006 debut is a bristling amalgam of rough and tumble Jam/Clash-styled new wave/punk and hooky classic music hall songcraft recalling everything from The Kinks to Oasis...Band members have come and gone but founders Joel Stoker and Lucas Crowther continue to crank out brilliant retro-tinged rock as the creative nucleus // Release: Freedom Run (October 11, Nettwerk -- Out now digitally) // Sounds like: there may be nothing new under the sun when it comes to this particular style of jangling, high-energy, harmonied -- and distinctively English --  pop with a sharp rock edge, but few bands make it sound quite so glorious and basic simultaneously...

Quote: "...as good a guitar/pop set you'll hear all year: bright harmonies, brighter guitars, string stabs, handclaps and every songwriter trick in the book" - NME // What we like: only a curmudgeonly hipster critic could dismiss the propelled and wickedly catchy "Coming Home" -- the piano line smacking up against the wall of guitars is pure heaven...the busker-y strums of "Everline" evolve into a Rubber Soul-ish bit of Beatle choruses, harmonicas and a whip-smart back beat...DC preview track "Tangled Up In Love" gives us a little Del Amitri-meets-Oasis buzz, strings and lush vocal layers making room for the perfect short-n-sweet guitar solo. Veteran producer Chris Potter, who worked with the Verve on their string-soaked hit "Bittersweet Symphony", does a similar wide-screen production here...

The Rifles - "Coming Home" (from Freedom Run)

The Rifles -"Tangled Up In Love" (from Freedom Run)

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Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers - Gift Horse

Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers - New England roots rockers have been plying their specific journeyman musical trade for a decade, building a loyal and ever-growing fan base while maturing both personally and artistically...Kellogg's proudly mainstream songs are, more often than not, addressing subjects like family, friends and the power of roots and region, a proud father whose worries about societal and political issues have a small town blue collar grounding // Release: Gift Horse (October 11, Vanguard) // Sounds like: Kellogg's music is a deft combination of arena-sized riff rock and reflective, personal songwriter appeal, a 21st century version of melodic, muscular anthems pioneered by the likes of Petty, Mellencamp, Seger and Springsteen (with a nod to U2, too)...the big question, says Kellogg: "Is it OK to be the guy next door and rock & roll?" 

Quote: "They say you get one shot, but I don’t believe that for a second. You get as many shots as you’re willing to hang in there and go for. We’ve learned a lot, and that’s worth something to me. I’m trying to focus on the things that are real and within my grasp: the people who come to our shows and listen to the music, my kids and my wife and my friends.” // What we like: what Kellogg's music might lack in hipster irony, arty pretense and intellectual drama is outweighed by a keen sense of melody, the knowledge that a perfectly placed power chord is worth its weight in gold and the ability to connect with an audience..."Roots and Wings" has an undeniable force, Edge-styled guitar lines galloping next to a sturdy 4/4 beat and Kellogg's brusk vocal chorus...

Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers - "Roots and Wings" (from Gift Horse)

Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers - "Gravity" (from Gift Horse)

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Peter Gabriel - New Blood

Peter Gabriel - "No guitars. No drum kit." The succinct self-description of the new orchestral project from one of rock's most innovative and respected visionaries hints at what's in store with the follow up of sorts to his 2010 covers album Scratch My Back. Arranger John Metcalfe is again on hand for the symphonic transformation, this time tackling Gabriel's own repertoire of songs that reach back to his 1977 solo debut...a concert DVD New Blood Live arrives October 25 // Release: New Blood (October 11, Real World) // Sounds like: As former frontman for once-progressive art-rockers Genesis and then for more than 30 years as a groundbreaking solo performer, Gabriel is no stranger to the dramatic -- a quality that not suprisingly serves him well here...some may argue that the treatment gives the project an overly cerebral tone  -- Gabriel describes it as "all adult and serious" -- but it's a revelation to hear these songs in a completely different context...

Quote: "We really felt as if we'd come up with something that we hadn't heard before. And what we really didn't want to do was the usual thing of having a rock band with an orchestra, so we took away the guitars, drums and bass and just worked with the colours of the orchestra." // What we like: Metcalfe and Gabriel keep the grandiosity factor in check even as the music moves to the larger stage, even big and busy productions like "Intruder" and "Red Rain" keep the use of space in perspective and Gabriel's voice firmly in the spotlight...we can quibble with the use of Ane Brun's tentative warble on "Don't Give Up" and "Mercy Street" but there's something oddly affecting in the simple phrasing and tone of Gabriel's daughter Melanie on "Downside Up", a track that originally appeared on the 2000 album OVO...

Peter Gabriel - "Downside Up" (with Melanie Gabriel) (from New Blood)

Peter Gabriel - "Red Rain" (from New Blood)

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Joe Henry - Reverie

Joe Henry - Twelfth album from the critically acclaimed songwriter, musician and producer may be an acoustic effort, but don't let that color your preconception: this is a self-described "raw and raucous and messy affair" with a swift, measured and powerful punch...“I knew it should be stripped and lean but not demur, sonically speaking; in black and white, but not without red blood in its veins," says Henry // Release: Reverie (October 11, ANTI-) // Sounds like: a traveling roadhouse band of whisky-and-sweat-soaked players, conjuring deep soul and slurred blues in a controlled but careening fevered folk dream...a stylistic sibling to early Tom Waits-ian shouts, growls and rimshot backbeats thanks, in part, to Reverie guests and Waits veterans Marc Ribot on guitar and Patrick Warren on a wicked pump organ...

Quote: "I am not convinced that any song exists without some knowing nod in its direction. And so with Reverie I am nodding, then –to time, but also to all the love, hope, despair, and revelation that stands naked inside its weather.” // What we like: the loose, sprawling energy of Reverie is exemplified in songs "Sticks and Stones", a New-Orleans-styled ramble that jumps and dives around the vocals from Henry and Jean McClain...the intense, high-strung rocker "Strung"...the subdued, hidden-in-shadows ballad "Piano Furnace" featuring vocals from Lisa Hannigan, who worked with Henry on her latest Passenger...

Joe Henry - "Sticks and Stones" (from Reverie)

Joe Henry - "Odetta" (from Reverie)

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'Janie Jones' - Soundtrack (featuring Abigail Breslin & Alessandro Nivola)

Janie Jones - Actors Alessandro Nivola and Abigail Breslin play self-destructive rock star father and rediscovered 13-year-old daughter in this music-heavy film based on a true story opening in limited release October 28. Soundtrack album features eight surprisingly good songs sung by the two leads, written by fine Irish songwriter Gemma Hayes (for Breslin's character Janie Jones), who was dating the film's director David M. Rosenthal at the time, and Eef Barzelay of Clem Snide (for Nivola's Ethan Brand) who also handled the film's score...who knew Little Miss Sunshine could sing? Breslin says she's interested in pursuing a musical career on the side // Release: Janie Jones Soundtrack (October 11, Nettwerk) // Sounds like: The film's few rock band tracks are jettisoned in favor of Hayes and Barzelay's straightforward mix of acoustic folk/pop songs...Nivola and Breslin, with only a few weeks of training, both rise to the occasion...while it's clear Breslin's teen charm carries her through -- and she pulls it off handily -- Nivola sounds like a natural...

Quote: "I had a specific idea of the music in my head but wasn't sure who would be exactly right to work with.  I knew a little bit about Clem Snide but wasn't sure until she sent me some of his tracks. I was blown away and immediately started to listen to as much of his music as possible. On top of that, he had written score for film before and there was the opportunity to have a strong thread between Ethan's songs and the tone of the score." - Director David M. Rosenthal // What we like: Album opener "Hurricane" is pure Gemma Hayes bliss, with lush layers of acoustic guitar and Breslin's pleading vocal...Nivola turns "All At Once" into a polished folk gem -- a remarkable performance...Hayes' own "Waiting For You", William Fitzsimmons' hushed "Even Now" and Patrick Watson's "The Great Escape" flesh out the soundtrack nicely...

Abigail Breslin - "Hurricane" (from Janie Jones Soundtrack)

Alessandro Nivola - "All At Once" (from Janie Jones Soundtrack)

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Crooked Still - Friends of Fall

Crooked Still - Freewheeling Boston acoustic ensemble celebrates their ten year anniversary and impending hiatus with this seven track collection that includes a handful of new songs as well as covers from Paul Simon, The Beatles and John Hartford...each member of the acclaimed string band chose one song to arrange and direct the band // Release: Friends of Fall (October 11, Signature Sounds) // Sounds like: Many have tried to mix a fresh contemporary outlook with traditional instruments and authentic bluegrass and Americana but few have succeeded to the extent that Crooked Still has...When Aoife O'Donovan sings "It'll end too soon if it ends at all" we realize just how much we'll miss them as they go their separate ways (hopefully for just a while) following an October/November tour...

Quote: The music is not just 'alternative bluegrass' or whatever people used to call it. It's at another level now: artful, but still grounded in that funky, string band thing." -- Brittany Haas of Crooked Still // What we like: the adaptation of Wendell Berry's poem "The Peace of Wild Things" is a marvel, O'Donovan's eiderdown-soft vocals and a gradually building melange of strings suddenly breaking free into the intricate, energized "Dayblind"...Paul Simon's classic pop hymn "American Tune" takes on a whole new feel as a simple banjo line sets the tone for the sweeping melody to come...

Crooked Still - "American Tune" (from Friends of Fall EP)

Crooked Still - "The Peace of Wild Things/Dayblind" (from Friends of Fall)

Stream the full Friends of Fall EP here.

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Ben Folds - The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective

Ben Folds - Acerbic, witty and someone who can unleash a wickedly catchy melody like a pitcher wields a knuckler, the piano/alt-pop prankster closes an era with this generous 61-track, 3-CD career retrospective. But he also opens a familiar door with his former "Five" mates Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee (now heading up the band Hotel Lights) with three newly recorded tracks and hints that a new BFF album may be in the works // Release: The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective (October 11, Sony) // What you get: a disc of well known Folds/Five tracks including "Brick" and new song "House" (also available as a single CD), a disc of 21 live tracks from 1997 to 2011 and a third disc of rarities and a pair of fresh cuts including "Stumbling Home Winter Blues" and a new studio cover of Robert Sledge's "Tell Me What I Did"...and did we mention the snazzy booklet and web access for five more songs?

Quote: “This is the album I will submit for the next Voyager to be launched into space. It’s my best shot at an honest assessment of where I was in each period of my career. In the end we tried to put together a collection of the unrepeatable, each recording hopefully representing a moment that was somehow otherwise beyond my ability." // What we like: The raucous new version of "Tell Me What I Did" sounds like bottled mayhem with signature choral harmonies and zippy synth lines..."House" is classic Folds balladry...all in all, a fine overview and reminder that Folds may still have a few surprises left up his sleeve...Full box tracklisting below:

Ben Folds Five - "House" (from The Best Imitation of Myself)

Ben Folds Five - "Tell Me What I Did" (from The Best Imitation of Myself)

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Sophie Milman - In the Moonlight

Sophie Milman - After three critically-acclaimed albums of lush jazz/pop standards, twenty-six-year-old Russian-born Toronto-based vocalist headed to New York with producer Matt Pierson for her first "string-centric" album of orchestrated confections, the follow up to 2009's Take Love Easy...NPR has praised her "classic jazz voice that evokes smoky lounges, softly clinking glasses and the cool of the night.// Release: In the Moonlight (September 27, E1) // Sounds like: though clearly tapping into a more traditionally romantic style, Milman offers up intimate cabaret jazz fare on a larger production stage that will appeal to fans of Diana Krall and Melody Gardot...(watch the EPK "making of" video after the jump)...

Quote: "The way this record is different is I think the scope of it. I have strings, every instrument imaginable soloing and guesting and lending colors. It was extremely exciting and made it feel way bigger than anything I've ever done." // What we like: Moonlight is what we call a dress up record, an album that transports the listener to an imaginary space and time, of silk and tuxes, patent leather and sweet perfume, martinis shaken not stirred..."Do It Again" exemplifies Milman's understated, seductive warm/cool singing style, neither a note or wisp of hair out of place...the phrasing and effortless swing of "Oh Look At Me Now" play easily off Kevin Hayes' subtle piano shadings...

Sophie Milman - "Do It Again" (from In the Moonlight)

Sophie Milman - "Oh Look At Me Now" (from In the Moonlight)

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