Archive for ‘November, 2006’

U2: U218 Singles

Classic rock legend U2 recently released U218 Singles, its third definitive “Best Of” CD, which features famous singles spanning a career 27 years in the making. With only two new songs on the album (featuring “The Saints are Coming,” a masterful remake of a Skids song featuring Green Day and the extremely radio friendly “Window in the Skies,”) U2 fans might want to sit this one out.

SNOOP DOGG: Tha Blue Carpet Treatment

The gun-toting, glassy-eyed gangsta once known as Snoop Dogg has recently become that glassy-eyed dude responsible for making kids giggle every time they hear words ending in “-izzle.” Thank God he gets back to business with Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, an album that redefines Snoop as the Crippin’ ghetto philosopher, blazing chronic and leading scholar on subjects from black and brown unity (“Vato”) to women’s studies (“A Bitch I Knew”).

AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF THE DEAD: So Divided

On the only mildly good track on the Trail of Dead’s new album So Divided (despite the horrible two-minute bridge that sounds as if it were written by composer Basil Poledouris), singer Conrad Keely says: “I had a band / I had a song / I had a vision / Where’s my vision gone?” Funny he should be so cognizant of his dearth of inspiration and still have the gall to put out an album, especially one as bad as this.

JAY-Z: Kingdom Come

From platinum success to his own movie-documentary, Jay-Z’s reputation in the hip-hop world has grown larger than life. When he retired in 2003, he seemed to be the brightest star in an industry plagued by cheesy hooks and melodramatic beef. However, Jay-Z still appeared on songs, commercials and magazine covers, and in early 2006, he finally announced a full comeback album.

BRAND NEW: The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me

If 2003′s Deja Entendu was Brand New wearing its heart on its sleeve, the Long Island quartet’s major label debut, The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me, is a testament to that heart being shredded, stomped on and left to wither. A dark, sexy album, Devil takes the best parts of Deja and makes them even better, with a heavier, more morose sound that clearly demonstrates the band’s new maturity.