The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

Well here’s a song that keeps getting better each time I hear it.  It’s a Scandinavian tag team effort from Norway’s Röyksopp and Sweden’s Robyn – “The Girl and the Robot”.  A beautiful and slick piece of pop from last year’s Junior album.

You can view the official video here, since I can’t embed it.

You really can’t go wrong with anything Stevie Wonder released from 1971 through 1976, and this is but one example why.  Enjoy the sheer joy and songwriting brilliance of “Summer Soft” from his classic 1976 double album, Songs in the Key of Life.

Johnny Maestro, who died yesterday at the age of 70, made a name for himself as the lead singer of the Crests.  As music lovers know, the Crests scored a major hit in 1958 with “16 Candles”.  A few years later, Maestro left the group and eventually became the frontman for a group called (appropriately enough) Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge.  Their biggest hit came in 1968 with a cover of a 5th Dimension tune, “The Worst That Could Happen”.  Here it is:

Man, I take a short break from updating the site and, just like that, I’m buried under a pile of new music releases.  Not to mention, of course, the Beatles remasters.  So with no big preamble, let’s get right into it…

Ace Frehley – Anomaly (Brooklyn Born Records)

Peter Criss couldn’t do it, Paul Stanley almost did it, and who the hell knows what Gene Simmons was trying to do.  I’m speaking, of course, about original Kiss members putting out a solo album this decade that even approached their best work from previous decades.  So how does the Spaceman fare on his first release since George Bush Sr. was president?  Pretty decently, by and large.  Sure the album art is…well, it sucks.  It’s just bad.  But who even notices such things anymore?

The music’s the thing, and Ace acquits himself rather nicely over the course of a dozen tracks.  “Foxy & Free” kicks things off, and it’s as intense a slab of hard rock as you’re likely to hear this year.  Frehley intimated in interviews promoting Anomaly that he purposely was trying for the vibe of his outstanding 1978 solo record.  I can hear that in places, but mostly this album is another serving of the tuneful, meat and potatoes hard rock Frehley churned out in the ’80s with Frehley’s Comet.  That’s not a bad thing, mind you, but what surprised me was how Ace managed to stretch his formula out a bit – witness the Middle Eastern (OK, Led Zep Middle Eastern) flavor of “Genghis Khan”, the starkly confessional and heartfelt lyrics on “A Little Below the Angels”, and the laid back philosophizing and relaxed arrangement of “It’s a Great Life.”

Ace is indeed back, and I told you so.

Muse – The Resistance (Warner Bros.)

Depeche Muse anyone?  Now look, I’m all about bands trying out new sounds and taking their music in new directions.  The problem with this album is that for the most part Matthew Bellamy and friends don’t sound like they’re sure what direction they want to go, and as a result it has twice the indulgence of Black Holes and Revelations with half the impact.  Kicking the album off with “Uprising”, an electronica Gary Glitter anthem for the 21st century, was a bold move and I can dig it even with Bellamy’s cockamamie populist conspiracy lyrics weighing it down.

…keep digging New release roundup (Ace Frehley, Muse, and more…)

Yes that’s right, that Britney Spears.  I scoff at just about every recorded utterance her name’s ever been attached to, but damn if this isn’t one of the most infectious pop songs of the decade.  Of course Britney’s vocals are hardly what sells the song – that accolade goes to the crack production job by the Swedish duo of Bloodshy & Avant.  Whoever the hell they are.

So yeah, here’s the first and last really good song from Britney Spears, 2004′s “Toxic”.

That’s right, Randy Newman.  The guy from that Family Guy episode singing about apples.  Trust me on this one people – put that out of your mind for a few minutes, and forget about how weird Newman looks when he sings.  Just clear your head and enjoy one of the most beautiful ballads ever written – “Marie”.  This is a live performance from 1979, although the song first appeared on Newman’s classic 1974 album, Good Old Boys.

While Band on the Run gets the most acclaim of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles work, the album I keep coming back to is 1982′s Tug of War.  The songs, which were all very good to start with, get that extra push thanks to producer George Martin, who along with Ringo Starr makes a cameo in this video for “Take It Away”.

The “Take It Away” single cracked the Top 10 Stateside, and the album went platinum and earned a Grammy nomination.  If you even think you like Macca, this is an essential release.