Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Happy Thanksgiving/Music Releases of 11/27/2020

 

               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.

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