If you need one last item for your holiday giftees, or you’re just looking for a respite from the now-ubiquitous holiday tunes, check out these new songs from some of our favorite musicians.
Bette Midler
“It’s the Girls”
Warner Bros.
The only surprising thing about this collection of cover songs of classic girl groups is that Bette Midler didn’t do this sooner.
The Grammy Award-winning singer and icon sounds like a kid in a candy store when she gets to play around with the vocal harmonies of classic girl groups like The Ronettes, The Andrew Sisters, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas and The Marvelettes, among others.
Classic big-band versions of pop standards like “Be My Baby” and “One Fine Day” are obvious highlights, but Midler also takes some welcome stylistic detours, like on her Hawaiian-tinged take on The Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman” and her folksie bluegrass version of The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love.”
Milder is at her best when the arrangements are stripped down. Her piano ballad rendition of TLC’s “Waterfalls” is stellar, as is her sultry renditions of The DeCastro Sisters’ “Teach Me Tonight” and The Shirelles’ “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.”
Fans of Midler or classic girl groups will squeal like teenyboppers if they get this album for the holidays.
David Guetta
“Listen”
Atlantic/Parlophone
Superstar DJ and producer David Guetta pulls out all the stops on his latest full-length album, utilizing more live instruments and an impressive lineup of guest vocalists and collaborators.
The opening track, “Dangerous,” featuring up-and-coming singer Sam Martin, starts out as top-shelf electro-pop before descending into a seriously funky hybrid of disco grooves and ambient atmospherics. U.K. singer Emeli Sandé brings some soulful power to the up-tempo dance track “What I Did For Love.” Ladysmith Black Mambazo brings some world-music flavor to the joyous “Life Me Up” and Nicki Minaj and Afrojack do likewise on Caribbean-styled “Hey Mama.” John Legend gives the tile track some classic piano-driven soul breakdowns between the driving choruses.
There’s also some finely crafted dance-pop anthems to be found to satisfy fans who want to stay on the dance floor all night, especially on tracks like “Goodbye Friend” and “Lovers on the Sun.”
If you are looking for a dance record that is a cut above what most other producers are churning out these day, definitely lend your ear to Guetta’s latest effort.
Mary J. Blige
“The London Sessions”
Capitol Records
For her 13th album, legendary R&B singer Mary J. Blige took some risks and wrote and recorded it in just 20 days in the United Kingdom, with producers and collaborators like Eg White, Emile Sandé, Naughty Boy and Sam Smith. And from the sound of things, it paid off big time.
It would be easy for someone with Blige’s track record of success to stay in her comfort zone of hip-hop-influenced R&B and neo-soul. But here, Blige takes the challenging and ultimately more adventurous road, and the result is some of her most brilliant moments in recent memory.
The album finds Blige exploring club-shaking Euro-pop on tracks like “Follow,” “Nobody But You” and “My Loving,” which are playful and breezy. Blige also cranks out some psychedelic funk on tracks like “Long Hard Look” and trippy house vibes on “Right Now.”
But “The London Sessions” really shines brightest and strikes the most resonant emotional chord when Blige digs deep on tracks driven by live instrumentation. The tracks seem to inspire Blige’s most soulful, confessional and compelling lyrics, especially on the soaring “Doubt,” the bluesy guitar-driven “Therapy,” the folksy “When You’re Gone” and, arguably the album’s finest moment, the emotionally raw melancholy of “Whole Damn Year.”
“The London Sessions” just might be one of Blige’s best albums to date. We hope she doesn’t let her passport expire.
XTRMST
“XTRMST”
Dimmak
XTRMST (pronounced “extremist”) is yet another side project from goth/punk band AFI’s lead vocalist Davey Havok and guitarist Jade Puget. XTRMST is the polar opposite of their other side project, the Depeche Mode-worshipping synthpop group Blaqk Audio. With XTRMST, the two are now cranking out short, efficient blasts of straight-edge hardcore that longtime fans might recognize as an early influence of AFI.
The snarling, rabid, relentless aggression of the music and limitations of the genre mean this album might be a little too much for casual fans to digest, considering the polished punk leanings of AFI’s last handful of albums. But “XTRMST” has some stylistic hallmarks from their other projects still lingering about that help this project to transcend the rigid confines of the straight-edge hardcore it wants so much to celebrate.
The musicianship, especially that of guitarist Puget, shines through. Technical finesse isn’t a hallmark of hardcore and Puget doesn’t have any interest in blunting his skills and progressive influences on the guitar for the sake of authenticity, which is one of the album’s saving graces, along with its relatively high-production values.
Hardcore recording usually boasts a lo-fi sound but “XTRMST” benefits from some relatively punchy and lush production, with the occasional electronic flourishes. Tracks like the title “Dirty Nails” and “Julietes” temper their ferocity with industrial-rock flourishes and soundscapes.
These AFI members definitely know how to keep thing interesting. If you appreciate the more aggressive roots of AFI’s sound, “XTRMST” is worth checking out.