Give Me A Moment

The Killers announced a new greatest hits package called Direct Hits. Two new tunes will be featured including a collaboration with M83 called Shot At The Night, which musically sounds exactly like what you'd expect from these two neo-New Wavers.



As retro and anthemic both artists are, I'd say they played it safe here. Bonus new tunes on greatest hits compilations tend to be rehashed demos that never found a home on a previous release so I'm underwhelmed but not surprised. It certainly sounds like a nearly unfinished outtake from their most recent album Battle Born, which has been one of my guilty pleasures for most of the year.

Direct Hits is out November 11 just in time for the holidays. More info here.

Official Site | iTunes

It's A Beautiful Thing When Pigs Fly

I've lost my kids to the Top 40. We should start a support group. I tried. I sung The Beatles at bedtime. Their first concerts were Guster and Matthew Sweet. They were raised on Justin Roberts. Ah well. Perhaps this is inevitable for all teens and pre-teens. I do recall a few moments of Top 40 radio obsession when I was their age.

Regardless, I still believe it's our duty to start their appreciation of the good stuff at a young age. NoiseTrade is doing their part with a free download of Sandra Boynton's Frog Trouble. It may be country, but it features contributions by Too Poppy favorites Ben Folds, Fountains of Wayne, and Ryan Adams. Get that Barney tape out of your car and start educating the new generation!

Download free at NoiseTrade

Yuletide Carols

Here in Iowa the temperature dropped about 40 degrees in the past 24 hours - par for the course this time of year. Good or bad, it reminds me we're perilously close to the holidays. Hear Music embraces that by releasing Holidays Rule on All Hallows' Eve -er - Eve, a new holiday compilation featuring Paul McCartney with a smoooooth version of The Christmas Song and The Shins' version of McCartney's holiday standard Wonderful Christmastime. Fun, Rufus Wainwright, Fruit Bats, and others also contribute to what sounds like a very eclectic yet deferential album that could very well soundtrack the Too Poppy household this holiday season.

Amazon MP3 | Samples | McCartney Stream

Surrender To The Void

Nice to see The Beatles fully embracing this iTunes thing. Today they released a new compilation of their most "powerful" rock songs called Tomorrow Never Knows. Not surprisingly it includes some of my favorites...

Revolution | Paperback Writer | And Your Bird Can Sing | Helter Skelter | Savoy Truffle | I'm Down | I've Got A Feeling | Back In The USSR | You Can't Do That | It's All Too Much | She Said, She Said | Hey Bulldog | Tomorrow Never Knows | The End

iTunes Exclusive

What Do I Do With All These Voices?

Ben Folds is going to release a career retrospective (back in my day they were called greatest hits), which will include several new tunes from Ben Folds FIVE, the first recorded in 11 years! NBC recently revealed House, which is quite nice despite sounding at times a bit like the classic HBO theme song. Stereogum has the exclusive Tell Me What I Did. Its more raucous and snarky feel is a good contrast to the adult contemporary vibes of House. Stereogum has also posted the entire tracklist, which has pretty much every tune you'd expect and then some.

Hey, BFF, how about a new long player, eh?!

The 3-CD box set comes out October 11. Pre-order The Best Imitation of Myself here. Perfect name, btw.

Things Have Been Dark For Too Long

INXS - yes ... INXS - has released a new greatest hits package and it's now just seeing the light of day here in the US. This one is a bit different though because they've cajoled other artists to cover or otherwise guest on the tunes. Of course when your original lead singer has been dead for 14 years and you've been forced to subject fans to an American Idolesque reality show to replace him, I guess you need to get creative. Most interesting to me: Ben Harper doing Never Tear Us Apart and Tricky with Meditate. Fair warning, though ... John Mayer is on the album.

Amazon MP3
AOL Stream

Video for new version of Don't Change ...



I'll stick with the brilliant originals. Michael Hutchence is irreplaceable.

Kinda Catchy

Out now is a new compilation featuring the genius of the original psychedelic madman Syd Barrett - cleverly titled An Introduction to Syd Barrett. Fellow Pink Floydian David Gilmour served as the executive producer of the album, which includes 18 tunes from Syd's solo days as well as the early Pink Floyd days. Check out the video for Here I Go on Facebook.

iTunes (includes the 20-minute instrumental Rhamadan)
Amazon MP3

Yes

If last Tuesday was Super Tuesday, yesterday certainly could be considered its faithful sidekick.

The stellar new album from Guster called Easy Wonderful was finally released. Guster was quite generous in previewing many of the tunes via downloads, videos, and streams, yet it's great to finally hear it all put together. After one full listen, I'll go out on a limb and say I think it's their best since Lost and Gone Forever - or at a minimum it's their Too Poppiest!
iTunes / Amazon.com MP3

The superdupergroup of Joseph Arthur, Ben Harper, and Dhani Harrison - collectively known as Fistful of Mercy - dropped their new full-length As I Call You Down yesterday as well. The iTunes reviewers are expressing widely divergent views on the album. Check it out for yourself.
iTunes / Amazon.com MP3

Finally, most of John Lennon's catalog has been remastered and rereleased to commemorate what would have been his 70th birthday on October 9. There's never been a better time to fully explore the genius of solo Lennon. Check out the new compilation Power to the People, the questionable "Stripped Down" version of Double Fantasy, and the Signature Box, a new box set featuring the vast majority of his music.
iTunes / Amazon.com MP3

The Memory of Late Nights

Squeeze has taken a cue right from the pages of Highlights Magazine for their newest album Spot the Difference due out tomorrow. Yes, the band is asking you to spot the difference between these new recordings and their classic, original counterparts. I think the point is to prove to the masses that they've still got it and I'll give them points for creativity, but this collection seems to be for the hard-core fans only. How about a greatest hits package instead?

Their North American tour has pretty much come and gone. It would've been a blast to see them with Cheap Trick or The English Beat. Let's hope this is the start of another phase of their glorious career.

Amazon.com MP3
iTunes

Where Were You While We Were Getting High?

It's nice to see a post about Oasis by a legitimate website that doesn't succumb to mockery. With the exception of a few tunes Oasis was never cool enough for us in the U.S., but they were a significant force elsewhere. Now is your chance to revisit their singles with the release of Time Flies...1994-2008. Popdose gives credit where credit is due.

iTunes
Amazon.com MP3

Say It Loud and Sing It Proud

Oasis has announced all the details about the new complete compilation of singles called Time Flies...1994-2009 including double CD, DVD, CD box set, and vinyl box set. Nice for collectors but I already have the music. I would be tempted if the set included b-sides too, some of which rivaled the singles and album tracks in quality especially in their heyday.

Out June 14. Pre-order here and enter for a chance to win autographed artwork.

Oasis at iTunes, Amazon.com

Come Trip on a Stereo Song

It's a curious holdover from the music industry's past that we still call best-of compilations "greatest hits." The tunes included on the new greatest hits compilation from Apples in Stereo could hardly be called hits by traditional standards, yet here we are with the cheekily-titled #1 Hits Explosion - out tomorrow. Methinks the band understands the irony.

Regardless, this is probably the right dose for casual fans of the group, or at least a manageable introduction. All Music Guide says "the collection focuses mostly on the ultra-hooky, power pop-influenced side of the band." If that doesn't scream Too Poppy I don't know what else does.





By the way, if you sign up for their official mailing list you'll get a free MP3! Who doesn't love free? Go here.

Just Repeat This Again and Again and Again

Blur is releasing a 25-track "career-spanning collection" called Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur on July 28. Don't let anyone tell you it's a greatest hits compilation. No sir, it's much more than that.

Disc 1
1. Beetlebum
2. Girls & Boys
3. For Tomorrow
4. Coffee & TV
5. Out of Time
6. Blue Jeans
7. Song 2
8. Bugman
9. He Thought of Cars
10. Death of a Party
11. The Universal
12. Sing
13. This Is A Low

Disc 2
1. Tender
2. She's So High
3. Chemical World
4. Good Song
5. Parklife
6. Advert
7. Popscene
8. Stereotypes
9. Trimm Trabb
10. Badhead
11. Strange News From Another Star
12. Battery In Your Leg

Way2Poppy will be thrilled. He's the biggest Blur fan I know.

The band will be hitting the European festival circuit this summer. Might as well make a few extra bucks selling another compilation. Blur has always been hit or miss for me. I liked their first three albums - the brit-poppiest of the bunch - but they never captured my interest much after that.

via Paste

Full of Inner Light

Out June 16, a full-career retrospective of George Harrison.

All the tracks on Let It Roll will be digitally remastered and assembled in deluxe packaging with rare and unseen photographs. The album will also be released digitally. According to the press release, Harrison’s solo hits “My Sweet Lord,” “Isn’t It A Pity,” “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)” and “Got My Mind Set On You” will all be included on the set, and you can assume the collection’s namesake track, All Things Must Pass‘ “Let It Roll,” will also make the cut. Three of Harrison’s most popular songs that he penned for the Beatles are also on the track list: “Something,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Here Comes The Sun” from Harrison’s 1971 Concert For Bangladesh from New York’s Madison Square Garden. The full track list is expected to be announced soon.

Pure quality.

Don't You?

Sarah McLachlan is releasing her greatest hits package just in time for the holidays! It's called Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan on October 7 and as is typical these days, it actually includes two new songs.

Tracklist:
1. Vox
2. The Path Of Thorns (Terms)
3. Into The Fire
4. Possession
5. Hold On
6. Good Enough
7. Building A Mystery
8. Sweet Surrender
9. Adia
10. Angel
11. I Will Remember You
12. Fallen
13. Stupid
14. World On Fire
15. Don't Give Up On Us - New Song
16. U want me 2 - New Song

A nice if not predictable selection of tunes (Sarah handpicked them herself.) The video for U want me 2 debuted yesterday exclusively on Amazon.com. It's fairly typical post-Fumbling Sarah, which isn't to be critical, but it is certainly rich with mainstream AC appeal.

She just revealed that she has separated from her bandmate husband after 11 years of marriage and 2 kids. Sadly I am not available. I suppose a compilation closes that chapter so she can start anew. We'll see where it takes her. She still has one of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous voices in all of music - which really comes alive in concert.

Pre-order standard version here
Pre-order deluxe version here (includes more classics and an expanded booklet)
Official site
HerSpace

Is This Everything You Wanted to Be?

The Charlatans (UK) continue their resurgence with the release of The Best of BBC Session 1999-2006 on 7/14. It's probably a safe bet we US fans won't see a domestic release, but it's easy enough to get our hands on imports these days.

Tracklist:

Disc 1
Forever
Mark Radcliffe - 15/10/99

A Man Needs To Be Told
Impossible
Jo Whiley 19/11/2001

Forever
I Don’t Care Where You Live
Senses
My Beautiful Friend
The Blind Stagger
A House Is Not A Home
Shepherds Bush Empire 24/4/00

Love is the Key
Judas
I Just Can’t Get Over Losing You
A Man Needs to Be Told
Impossible
Wake Up
You’re So Pretty, We’re So Pretty
Birmingham Academy 29/10/01

Disc 2
Feel The Pressure
Dead Love
High Up Your Tree
Mark Radcliffe 15/06/2004

Blackened Blue Eyes
City of the Dead
Janice Long: 19/04/2006

Blackened Blue Eyes
Jo Whiley 19/11/2001

NYC (There’s No Need To Stop)
For Your Entertainment
Tellin’ Stories
Feelin’ Holy
North Country Boy
Can’t Get Out Of Bed
One To Another
The Only One I Know
How High
Weirdo
Sproston Green
BBC Radio Wales In Concer 29/07/2006

That last half of Disc 2 looks particularly inviting for a fan like me who's been around since Some Friendly. Sweet.

By the way, the new album You Cross My Path is killer - a return to an earlier sound but decidedly modern.

Speaks to Me of Comfort

I've really softened on Sarah McLachlan these past few years. Hmm, ok, maybe that's not the best turn of a phrase. Fumbling Towards Ecstasy remains a favorite album of mine and a creative zenith of her career (with Surfacing being a worthy commercial high point). Her last studio album had its moments (Stupid, Train Wreck,) but didn't really grab me like her previous work.

Nonetheless, I will likely pick up her upcoming compilation Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff, Vol. 2, an uninspired title to match some of the lackluster covers and duets featured on the album. For example, ten years ago I never would have imagined that Marilyn Manson's actress girlfriend's version of the Beatles' Blackbird would blow away Sarah's, but indeed, Evan Rachel Wood's stunning cover from Across the Universe is a high point of the movie and soundtrack. Many of the tunes are available elsewhere, but I guess it's nice to have it all in one place for us completists. If anything, though, the compilation is worth it for her version of Rainbow Connection alone, just because it's such a damn fine tune. Nevermind - found the link for that one too!

Pre-order here (due for release next week)
Sample here

---

lyric source

Whatever Makes You Happy

If you're turned off by the hype machine and haven't listened to any Radiohead since Creep, well, good news. Pitchfork is reporting that a greatest hits compilation will be released this spring. Personally, listening to The Bends and OK Computer back-to-back is all the greatest hits you need, but I know some many are partial to their post-melodic work from Kid A through In Rainbows.

Gimme Some New Shit

Meet The Eels (best of) and Useless Trinkets (b-sides, et al.) were finally released yesterday.

Read more here. Sample tracks here. Read a review here. Watch a video below.

Download Meet the Eels here. Download Useless Trinkets here.

You're welcome.


Previously...