Music Review : Spring Update

courtesy of my blog: http://cjferrara.blogspot.com/

I've been pretty on target in my 2011 mission to find the best new albums of the year. Here Are My Previous Picks. (Click on each word for a different review) But, I've been a bit lax this past month, but in my defense, there's been a lot of crap released. I actually looked at the Billboard top 200 Albums, to check if I missed anything, and sheesh, there's a lot of crap out there. Here are some of the most recent good ones:

John Popper and the Duskray Troubadors. Imagine, if you will, that Blues in its purest form is good, and a lot of what we now call the blues is dumbed down, pop-ish crap. Now, if we take the preceding to be true, and imagine that the Blues was allowed to evolve, such that it incorporated other styles and influenced other musicians, without becoming Rock and Roll, or mainstream pop; then you'd get John Popper and the Duskray Troubadors. This album is amazingly bluesy and heartfelt, while still having a modern take on the songwriting. Popper's inhuman abilities on the harmonica notwithstanding, the band is tight, and the songs are catchy and emotional. I highly recommend it.

Robbie Robertson - How To Become Clairvoyant. The founding member of the Band has a new album out. And it's really good. I don't know if it's just that I listened to it right after a few other crappy selections, but Robertson shows that bells and whistles, synth sounds, and remixes are nothing, unless you have a great song. If you enjoy "The Weight," or any other songs from The Band, this will fit right into yoru collection. Robertson's singspeil style of vocals is surprisingly tuneful, and the hooks always make up for the almost spoken word delivery of many of the verses. It's a good album, check it out.

Steve Martin - Rare Bird Alert. Is it Comedy? Is it Bluegrass? What is it, exactly. It's a folk album that I'm choosing to compare to The Decemberists and Mumford & Sons. Fans of Steve Martin know that as hysterical as he is, he's also brilliantly intelligent and talented. This album shows his brilliance on the Banjo, AND his cleverness for lyric writing. Some of the songs ARE downright funny, he even remakes his classic, "King Tut," but humor is used to pepper some wonderful music. And no, it's not to hickish and bluegrassy. After all, Martin IS from L.A.