Listen Up! AKA New Music Tuesday

Pork here.

What’s shaking, AKA Listeners?

You’ll read enough about Beyonce’s I Am Sasha Fierce in your newspaper and/or on just about any other site you’ll visit today, so I’m relieving myself of all Beyonce duties and focusing more on some releases that I’m actually excited about. After hearing 5 of its tracks, I Am Sasha Fierce leaves me not only unexcited, but also uninterested. Sorry, B.

Much more worthy of your eartime this week is Safe Trip Home by Dido. This is her third time around with a full length album and when I first read that she’d be working with Jon Brion, who is responsible for producing some of my all time favorite albums by Aimee Mann, Rufus Wainwright and Fiona Apple, I was surprised and elated. Upon hearing the results of their collaboration, I’m almost overwhelmed. In the span of just three albums Dido has managed to become a voice that can cut through the thickest of my mental preoccupations and reduce me to the most vulnerable of states. The subtle swells in Jon Brion’s production and multiple instrumentations are simply stunning when paired with Dido’s fragile-yet-firm vocals.

Both parties seem to be masters in restraint and demonstrate these strengths while painting some of the most beautiful scenes I've encountered this year. One listen to “It Comes And It Goes” and this should be apparent to even the most passive of listeners.

Slow and steady is how “Don’t Believe In Love” is delivered and that’s also how it hits. As a first single, it may lack the initial impact felt by “Here With Me” or “White Flag,” but upon repeated listens, it’s weight is slowly revealed . . . and felt. Once opened, Dido slips you some “Quiet Times” and proves yet again that she can slam you to the floor with the softest of blows. (Listen to it today in our Music Player.) Beauty through simplicity. This album has so much of both. It also has some “additional keyboards/ambience” by Brian Eno, so . . . you can guess what’s going on here.

Sometimes haunting. Sometimes embracing. Often both. In times like these, which seem to be the craziest, it’s music like this that’s necessary to heal you up a bit. It will soothe your soul in the same way that the madness riles it up.

A few weeks back I mentioned that Travis was my second favorite Scottish collective without taking a minute to mention who beats them out. No, it’s not Del Amitri (though I do enjoy them some). It’s not The Proclaimers. Nope, not Snow Patrol or Cocteau Twins (although brilliant as can be). Well, surprise, surprise! It’s none other than Belle and Sebastian. Nothing moved me more than If You’re Feeling Sinister in 1997 and I have been devoted ever since. I had only moved to New York City one month before being instructed by a friend of mine to immediately go to my nearest record store (at that point the HMV on 86th and Lexington) and buy this ground(and heart) breaking album. Er, cassette actually. Shut up. Let’s just say that I’ll never forget listening to it for the first time and desperately trying to keep up with where the music was taking my mind. Places I’d never been. Things I’d never seen. Friends I’d never met. Love I’d never felt. Let me be that friend to you now and urge you to own If You’re Feeling Sinister, which isn’t what’s even on today’s release schedule, but responsible for what would make me obsess about this particular release 11 years later. A collection of their BBC sessions is obviously what makes up The BBC Sessions (1996-2001) and hearing these performances laid out in such a way is more than a treat for fans like us who don’t get regular access to such amazing performances often. B-sides and rarities abound in these live takes that will leave you as numbed as their studio counterparts.

And then blah, blah, blah...something about David Cook.
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(Take a little time and enjoy . . . ) The List. All new releases for today, Tuesday November 18, 2008. After the jump!

Belle and Sebastian – The BBC Sessions (1996-2001)
Beyonce – I Am Sasha Fierce
The Black Keys – Live at the Crystal Ballroom (DVD)
Chris Botti – Live In Boston
Bring Me The Horizon – Suicide Season
The Byrds – The Notorious Byrd Brothers
David Cook – David Cook
De La Soul – De La Sous Is Dead
Dido – Safe Trip Home
The Doors – Live at The Matrix 1967
False Icons – God Complex (produced by Al Jourgensen)
Foo Fighters – Live at Wembley Stadium (DVD)
Sammy Hagar – Cosmic Universal Fashion
Il Divo – The Promise
Ricky Martin – 17
Paul McCartney – The Space Within Us (Blu-ray)
Mudvayne – The New Game
Nickelback – Dark Horse
Danny O’Keefe – In Time
Luciano Pavarotti – Life in Seven Arias (DVD)
Shontelle – Shontelligence
The Who – The Who at Kilburn 1977 (DVD)

and today’s the day for all you Madonna fans to prepare for 2009 by getting your official 2009 Madonna calendar. Now you know.

All New Music Releases - November 18th, 2008