Amy Winehouse - Lioness: Hidden Treasures

Amy Winehouse - Following the tragic passing of Amy Winehouse, this new 12-track memorial collection includes previously unreleased outtakes, interesting covers and alternate versions from the sessions of her two studio albums -- Frank and Back To Black -- as well as a couple of new songs recorded for what was to be her "comeback" third long player // Release: Lioness: Hidden Treasures (December 6, Island/Universal) // Sounds like: it's sad that four years after the release of the 2.5 million-selling Back To Black that there wasn't more new material to be included in this collection - 2/3 of the songs were recorded in 2006 or earlier -- but that's not to say that Lioness doesn't offer some fascinating (and exceptionally good) material to the Winehouse catalog...includes Amy's last studio recording: the classic "Body and Soul" recorded for Tony Bennett's Duets II album...Trivia: 80's Canadian pop/rock singer (and photographer) Bryan Adams befriended Winehouse, invited her to stay at his Caribbean home and shot the album's cover (along with the pics included here)...

Quote: "When I listened back you would hear some of the conversations in between — that was emotional. It has been hard, but it has also been an amazing thing. Amy was a gifted girl. I believe she has left something beyond her years. She has put a body of work together that will inspire an unborn generation. I'm blessed to be part of that process, to have known that person and to continue her legacy with this album." - Producer Salaam Remi // What we like: to say that listening to Lioness is a bittersweet affair would be the understatement of the year..."Our Day Will Come", recorded nearly a decade ago when Winehouse was just 18 years old...her stunning interpretation of the Goffin/King chestnut "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" and Leon Russell's "A Song For You" remind us of what drew us to Amy in the first place...new song "Between the Sheets" continues the retro-styled doo-wop and R+B with a rolling bass line and nostalgic 60's production..."Had she survived, Winehouse might have had new insights into private turmoil, and a voice with eloquent scars. Lioness is just the scraps of what might have been." -- John Pareles, The NY TIMES

Amy Winehouse - "A Song for You" (from Lioness: Hidden Treasures)

Amy Winehouse - "Tears Dry" (from Lioness: Hidden Treasures)

Our streams are for sampling only -- please support the Amy Winehouse Foundation by purchasing the album.

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Glass Pear - 'Glass Pear'

Glass Pear - Welsh indie singer/songwriter Yestyn Griffiths returns with a new self-titled full-length, the follow up to his 2010 EP Sweet America and 2009 full length debut Streets of Love...numerous Greys Anatomy-styled TV placements -- and heart-on-sleeve lyricism -- have solidified his "sensitive dude" appeal...Trivia Bit: Griffiths is also the brother of platinum-selling alt/pop-stress Jem // Release: Glass Pear (December 5 U.K.) // Sounds like: what we've described before as "calmly studied folk/pop, smoothing any rough edges or troubling intensity with a soothing lyrical disposition and velvety production" remains pretty much intact on this new collection...where America was a more stripped and simple affair these new songs are painted with bolder colors and broader brush strokes...there's a reason Griffiths uses "Beach Boys" as a tag on his Soundcloud page -- we haven't heard quite so many effortlessly soaring falsettos in quite a while...

Quote: "I have a belief that a song is really good if it still sounds beautiful when its stripped back to just voice and one primary instrument. Once you have a song like that, of course you can produce it in many different styles." // What we like: the Coldplay-ish splendor of "Oxygen"...the evolution of opener "One Day Soon" from mellow acoustic ballad to rhythmic up-tempo number indicates that we're in for something a bit different this time around...the piano-driven kick of "Dizzy" is, well, dizzying in its ear-catching effervescence...what Griffiths occasionally lacks in lyrical depth (see: "Dizzy") is usually offset by his easy way around a memorable melody...

Glass Pear - "One Day Soon" (from Glass Pear)

Glass Pear - "Oxygen" (from Glass Pear)

Stream the full Glass Pear album (and buy) here...

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Great Aunt Ida - Nuclearization

Great Aunt Ida is one Ida Nilson, a Toronto songwriter who returned to the studio this year after a five year hiatus and now delivers Nuclearization, her third album of modest, melodic (sm)art/pop arriving up north December 6 (US TBD). With her girlish, low-voltage vocals and simple straightforward way with a song, it takes a minute or two to settle in on Nilson's particular ingratiating appeal -- what may on the surface appear as slightly twee and precious gets more interesting and detailed the further in you go, even in the course of a single song. Nilson and co-producer Dave Draves (Kathleen Edwards) find interesting ways to dress up the rather basic song structures with some decorative orchestral touches but it is Nuclearization's effortless simplicity that makes you notice the lovely piano twists and turns of "Easy Street" or the simmering tension and lonesome pedal steel embelishments of "Balloons."

Great Aunt Ida - "Easy Street" (from Nuclearization)

Great Aunt Ida - "Balloons" (from Nuclearization)

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Martha Berner & The Significant Others - Fool's Fantasy

Martha Berner & The Significant Others - Long overdue second album from Chicago singer/songwriter -- her first new full-length since 2005 -- finds the indie folk/rocker with a new band and a diverse sound spanning rough and tumble bar-stool rock, Americana and nearly jammy blues workouts in addition to her more sensitive acoustic moments // Release: Fool's Fantasy (December 6) // Sounds like: Significant Other guitarist Scott Fritz also wore the producer's hat for the project, bringing a fuller band sound and some blistering guitar leads...much of Berner's Fantasy is anchored in gritty Grace Potter-styled roots rock but tracks like "Some Stay A While" resonate with a folky, laid back ease...

Quote: "Scott Fritz and I waited tables together in the west loop when he moved here from New York City to develop his own studio and work as a music producer. Things took off for him at the studio and he was able to quit working in the restaurant. But a year or so later I needed a band for a gig I had booked and I dropped him a line. At the time, my ideal, long-term plan was for Scott to play with me live long enough to really get him inside the songs, not just technically, but energetically, emotionally. If that went well, my hope was to have him produce the new album..." // What we like: with Hammond B-3 fills and Fritz's smoldering guitar weaving in and out of a rock solid back beat, "Brave" pulls no punches as it struts with a funky swagger...Berner's vocals have drawn comparisons to Natalie Merchant -- check out the nice touches on "Some Stay A While" -- and it's intriguing to hear those elements meshed with the southern rock kick of "Cry"...

Martha Berner & The Significant Others - "Some Stay A While" (from Fool's Fantasy)

Martha Berner & The Significant Others - "Brave" (from Fool's Fantasy)

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The Black Keys - El Camino

The Black Keys - Recent Nashville transplants have pretty much redefined and carried the torch for raw, driving and back to basics rock and roll for a decade -- so when Key-man Dan Auerbach says the follow up to 2010's Grammy winning, million-selling Brothers is "raw, driving and back to basics" you know you're in for a white knuckle, tops-down ride...Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton, who co-produced the band's 2008 Attack and Release, is again riding shotgun here // Release: El Camino (December 6, Nonesuch) // Sounds like: when you're all about the minimalist approach you'd better have some consistently great songs -- and El Camino again reconfirms Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney's innate ability to thread a serious melodic hook into The Keys' arsenal of pummeling, majestic guitar riffs and 12-cylinder rhythmic thrust...

Quote: “I've never been into guitar solos. I really like when every instrument in the band is a rhythm instrument. This record has a lot of that going on -- guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards all working together as a rhythm instrument. But unlike Brothers, which has more of these slower songs with an open feeling, [the new LP] is definitely fast." -- Dan Auerbach to Spin // What we like: Drawing on the blazing, off-kilter rockabilly of The Cramps and the heavy, sweaty punk bluster of The Clash, El Camino is a breathless blast of tightly channeled, fuzzed out and exhilarating rock and roll..."Lonely Boy" and "Gold In the Ceiling" careen headlong into a psyched-out Hell's Angels 60's soundtrack while "Sister" rolls with a killer, hemi-powered rhythm section and sing-a-long chorus and "Little Black Submarines" switches gears as a simple acoustic folk lament..."the most powerful, compelling rock album of the year" raves The Independent -- and who's to argue?

The Black Keys - "Sister" (from El Camino)

The Black Keys - "Lonely Boy" (from El Camino)

The Black Keys invite you to stream five songs from El Camino after the jump in return for your email address...

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more December 6 New Releases

Amy Winehouse - Lioness: Hidden Treasures DC
Chevelle - Hats Off to the Bull
Dia Frampton (The Voice) - RED 
Glass Pear - S/T DC
Great Aunt Ida - Nuclearize Me (CAN) DC
Martha Berner/Significant Others - Fool's Fantasy DC
Robin Thicke - Love After War
The Black Keys - El Camino DC  
The Cure - Bestival Live 2011
The Grip Weeds - Under the Influence of Christmas
The Roots - Undun