New Music Tuesday

Once again, it's Tuesday (well early Wednesday morning, technically) and time for new album releases. This wasn't a huge week for indie releases, but some great mainstream, contemporary stuff came out.

Norah Jones - ...Featuring
This album comes almost a year to the date after her previous release, The Fall, which saw her veer away from her jazz roots and delve into more of a roots sound. This new album is not made up of newly recorded material, but compiles numerous recordings that Miss Jones has done over the years with other artists. The album features "Here We Go Again," recorded with Ray Charles before his death, which won a Grammy back in 2005. Also on the album is "Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John," recorded with Belle & Sebastian and included on their album Belle & Sebastian Write About Love released just a few weeks ago.
"Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John"

The Pipettes - Earth vs. The Pipettes
This is the second album from the cheeky British girl group and comes after a bit of a line-up change. The band has a bit of an old-school sound, trying to recreate the sounds Phil Spector created with some of his girls groups back in the 1960s, while giving a modern edge. I haven't had the chance to hear much of the new album yet, but I hope that they've held onto the harmonized sound and somewhat racy lyrics present on the first album. I'm not crazy about the first single from the album, I hope the rest of it is better.

"Sex"

Yael Naim - She Was a Boy
This Paris-born Israeli singer first gained some prominence when her song, "New Soul," was used the commercial for the first Macbook Air. I loved the song as soon as I first heard. The album, self-titled, contained some pleasant surprises, including a cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic." It's a great cover, I never thought I'd like that song. Well, she's back with a new album, which holds to her interesting mix of French and Israeli styles, unfortunately, though, there are no songs on this album in either French or Hebrew, which is what I loved about her last album.

"Toxic"



Girl Talk - All Day
This is the latest album from the mash-up master. It presents the same thing that his previous albums have offered, a fun mix of popular new songs and old songs you didn't know you had forgotten. Already, fans have crowd-sourced the names of almost of all the songs he used on the album's Wikipedia page. The album is available as a free download from his record label, Illegal Art. The download from the site is extremely slow, so I suggest using one of the mirror links provided on the page.

Other Releases
The Pipettes - Joy to the World
Walk the Moon - I Want! I Want!
Stereolab - Not Music
Rihanna - Loud