Hi everyone, I’m posting this on
Wednesday as I imagine we’ll all have plans tomorrow to celebrate, whether with
a small group or by ourselves, because it’s important to have gratitude in
these hard times. I’m thankful for my
parents, my brother and sister-in-law, my aunt, uncle, cousins and their now
two-year-old daughter, the video games I’ve played during this time and the
music I’ve listened to as well, discovering many new and exciting songs as well
as good songs to cry with and let depression out. I’m thankful there are at least four canon to
semi-canon lesbian couples in mass media, Korra and Asami in Avatar; Legend of
Korra, Blake and Yang in RWBY, Edelgard and Byleth in Fire Emblem; Three Houses
and Adora/She-ra and Catra in She-ra and the Princesses of Power, and I’m
thankful people like me across the country are working to separate the Christian
God from the homophobic image right wing politicians have stapled onto Him. I’m also thankful the election ended in favor
of compassion rather than tyranny and subjugation.
Here’s a brief review of last
week’s releases. Josh Groban had some
great vocals and great duets, while Jimi Hendrix brought his typical
hard-rocking guitar flair, so both of their albums were great and I would
highly recommend them depending on your tastes.
Iron Maiden had a pretty good album, but Bruce Dickinson’s voice seems
to have aged. I wouldn’t mind this save
that Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Halford have been singing longer than Bruce and
still sound every bit as awesome as they did back in decades past, while
Bruce’s voice is starting to lack his typical bombast. Elvis’ release was pretty typical of what to
expect from Elvis Presley in the late 60s, fun Pop-Rock that you can dance to,
highly recommended if you enjoy that.
UFO’s album was good, solid hard rock and very enjoyable, though it’s
still strange to imagine them playing in cities I mostly know as the homes of
Minor League Baseball Teams. I didn’t
hear enough of Larkin Poe’s release to get a solid opinion on it, the perils of
shuffle right there. Eric Clapton’s
release, which I was immensely looking forward to, wasn’t in Spotify for some
reason, so I’ll have to buy the tracks which look the most appealing on my own
time based on my budget. There was also
a new single from Michael Schenker, who looks like he’ll be celebrating the 40th
Anniversary of the Michael Schenker group with a new album with original MSG
singer Graham Bonnet, as well as a charity single called Guitarists against
COVID featuring Bruce Kulick (who played for KISS when Ace Frehley began his
solo career) and Joel Hoekstra, and Joel Hoekstra started his solo career back
up with a great new single for his band Joel Hoekstra’s 13.
This
week has a pair of good-looking releases that each released a single last week,
too:
Miley
Cyrus-Plastic Hearts: It’s not surprising this album is on my Christmas
List. Miley’s duet with Dua Lipa was
good, and I look forward to hearing her duet with Billy Idol and Joan
Jett. This album also features covers of
Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” and The Cranberries “Zombie,” and produced the
catchy song “Midnight Sky,” which also has a remixed version on the album with
guest vocals by Stevie Nicks, who sang the famous song “Landslide” for
Fleetwood Mac. Thus far, the music’s
been catchy and driving and I look forward to more.
Mary
Lambert-Happy Holigays: Remember “Same Love” by Seattle-area rapper Macklemore
back in 2012 and the woman’s voice singing “I Can’t Change, even if I tried,
even if I wanted to?” Mary Lambert is
that voice and she’s releasing a Christmas EP.
This will feature classics “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,”
“What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” and “Ave Maria,” as well as originals,
like the single last week, “Seasonal Depression,” which dealt with how
difficult it is to celebrate our Holidays apart like this (it gets even harder
when you read Facebook posts from your relatives where they outright state they
don’t care/don’t believe COVID-19 exists).
But there are ways around it as the song details, so I highly recommend
it.
