New Music Update!

2014 is already bringing good musical news. Two exciting updates:

First: Foster The People has announced their sophomore album Supermodel, to be released March 18. It is available for pre-order right now, and their first single "Coming Of Age" (free download with pre-orders) is out. Here's the promotional video (with the full song), which you should watch because it's pretty neat (a time lapse video of the painting of a gigantic wall mural, which is the album's cover):

The song is great. Foster The People is one of the bands I've been most excited to hear from again, and I'm really excited that 2014 is going to be the year. The song has everything that Torches had, but it's not duplicative. It makes me remember why I fell in love with this band.

Second: Broken Bells, who will be releasing their second full album next month, continue to give us snippets of their new material. Hot on the heels of their album's lead single "Holding On For Life," the band has shared a second single, the album's title track. "After The Disco" picks up right where "Holding On For Life" leaves off, with a throwback synth-drum rhythm and James Mercer's vexing falsetto cutting over the top. It's cool. Check it out.

But as if that weren't enough, Broken Bells has given us a third new song in a "Take Away Show" for La Blogothèque. Blogothèque recruits interesting acts to perform their music live in unorthodox locations (check out this one and this one to get a sense of how they work). This one is a song called "The Changing Lights" in a piano shop in Paris.

So, that's fun. Two very exciting albums are headed our way in the coming weeks and months, and I'm thrilled by what I am hearing of each so far. 2014 promised to please, and so far it does not disappoint.

Fleetwood Mac Regains Christine McVie

Good news everyone!

Christine McVie, beloved member of Fleetwood Mac, appears to be set to rejoin the band after announcing her retirement about fifteen years ago. While she had remained open to helping the band write and record music, she had elected to stop touring with them in order to spend more time at home with her family.  Now it seems that she will be rejoining her bandmates in a fuller capacity.

In addition, McVie's ex-husband John McVie, who late last year was diagnosed with cancer, seems to be doing well, according to Stevie Nicks. He has received treatment and surgery, and has been able to perform a few shows. Hopefully that trend will continue.

Details on both news items here.

2013 YEAR IN REVIEW

Greetings fellow music lovers! Sorry this post is coming a day later than I intended. This is my year-end post about all the music that was released in 2013. What I liked, what I didn't like, and my favorite songs and albums of the year. Of course, I didn't listen to everything, and these opinions are highly liable to change in the future. But for now, here's my recap of 2013.

This post is long. Read it all, read it in bits, skim through it, stop reading right now and regret having ever clicked the link, it's your call.

For a year which promised so many huge releases, and which came with so many high expectations, 2013 had the potential to be more than a little disappointing. But it wasn't. Here's how it shook out.