Tuesday, September 18, 2012

September 18 Releases, 2012

By: Carolyn Menyes, Managing Editor

For reasons unknown, the record industry decided to dump all of the year's most anticipated releases in September and October. Not that I'm minding now, but it did make for a dull summer. Can we just talk about that for a second? Like, when Kidz Bop 22 goes to No. 3 on the Billboard Charts, you know it's been a bad few months for new music. Sigh...

Luckily, this week is making up for it, and there's almost too much to consider. But, allow me to skim over the Sept. 18 releases that make the music nerd in me the most excited.

First, there's the long-anticipated fourth studio album from Las Vegas alt-dudes The Killers. Though their last studio album, Day and Age, was critically and financially unsuccessful, there are high hopes for Battle Born. The lead single, "Runaways," is synth-y, Springsteen-y and epic in all the right ways. The rest of the album tends to follow suit and shows The Killers returning to the Sam's Town era sonically. After many fans weren't so keen on their last release, I can assure you, Battle Born is everything a Killers fan would want from their first album in four years.

However, The Killers aren't the alternative band with the biggest break between albums to release something this week. That reward would have to go to Ben Folds Five, who put out their first album in 13 years, The Sound of the Life of the Mind.  The boppy, driving sound of Ben Folds' backing band distinguishes this from Folds' solo work from the past several years and, like The Killers, is quite welcome. The piano rock group put together a decent compilation of bitter, slow songs and upbeat poppy numbers. Regardless of the album's consistency, it's nice to have these '90s mainstays back.

The indie lover in me was most excited to find out Grizzly Bear's Shields dropped this week. After the brilliance of 2009's Veckitamest, it was hard to imagine what steps da Bearz could take next. The answer, I suppose, is a mostly solid follow-up. There's no "Two Weeks" or "Foreground" here, but Shields is distinctly Grizzly Bear, so therefore, it is distinctly awesome.

Other than those more rocky releases, the world gave us Carly Rae Jepsen's sophomore album Kiss, which features this little-known song entitled "Call Me Maybe." P!nk blew us with The Truth About Love. And, unfortunately, Kreayshawn is doing things. She released Something 'Bout Kreay. Gucci, gucci.

Stay tuned to Drop It Like It's Hot for more saucy album releases. Coming up: we got Green Day, Mumford & Sons and more! YAY!

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