Caleb Johnson and Restless Bones were as good as I was expecting them to be, and Styx was also a pleasant surprise of great Classic Rock grappling with the issues of 2020. I had kind of counted them out since they didn’t seem too concerned following the 2016 election and Damn Yankees band friends Jack Blades and Ted Nugent are hardcore Republicans, but I guess Tommy Shaw is more in-tune with the feelings of the public than he appears. Maybe it’s because Chuck Panozzo came out as gay around 20 years ago. Plus, the album also sounded great and Lawrence Gowan was good on the keyboards, delivering the classic Styx sound, while Todd Sucherman did great on the drums.
There are possibly 5 MP3 releases I’m looking forward to this week, at least 3, I’m not sure if the last two will get MP3 releases or not.
Jennifer Nettles-Always Like New: A collection of covers of songs from musicals, including “Wait For It” from Hamilton. I mostly know Jennifer Nettles for singing a duet with Bon Jovi last year on the Deluxe Edition of the 2020 album. This album also features a duet with Seattle-area lesbian singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile on the song “It All Fades Away.” I’m not familiar with the song or the musical it’s from, but both singers are good, so it should be a good song and probably a pretty good album.
Anthony Ramos-Love And Lies: I know Anthony Ramos for playing John Laurent and Philip Hamilton in Hamilton and G-Team Officer Martinez in Godzilla; King of the Monsters, he also recently starred in “In The Heights.” This is an album of his own music and it’s already featured two good singles in “Say Less” and “Blessings,” so there should be more great music from Anthony Ramos on this album.
Doja Cat-Planet Her: A relative newcomer to the music scene, I first heard of her when she sang a song for the “Birds of Prey” soundtrack. She’s since collaborated with Saweetie and Ariana Grande on a pair of songs, and this album also features a collaboration with Ariana Grande called “I Don’t Do Drugs.” It’ll likely only be interesting for mature audiences, like most of her work, but she’s definitely good at thrilling mature audiences.
Possibly Queensryche-Deluxe Editions of Operation Mindcrime and Empire: In 1988, Queensryche released Operation; Mindcrime, making it multi-platinum after recording a music video for MTV after touring with Def Leppard and Metallica didn’t make it sell well. It’s a concept album about a young man who gets lured into a cult, gets brought out by a nun, then the nun is killed by the cult who pins the murder on the young man, who sadly is so addicted to the drugs and lies of the cult he can’t prove he didn’t do it until he is incarcerated in an asylum, declared criminally insane and forced to relive his memories of the event over and over. It features several hits like “I Don’t Believe In Love” and “Eyes Of A Stranger.” Empire was the album afterwards, which featured their hits “Silent Lucidity” and “Jet City Woman.” A deluxe edition like the CDs listed on Amazon.com would likely feature demos, outtakes and live performances, all delights for fans like me.
Possibly Miley Cyrus-Pride Show: Miley gave a Tweet saying “June 25th, Miley Pride Show” with a hashtag. It is also a streaming thing on Peacock, the xFinity/Comcast/MCA/Universal streaming service, but it does refer to a concert she gave earlier in the month covering not just her own material, but also covers of “Dancing Queen,” “Believe” by Cher, “True Colors” by Cyndi Lauper, “We Belong” by Pat Benatar and “Freedom” by George Michael. Little Big Town, The Brothers Osborne, Maren Morris and Mickey Guyton also all guested, so it would make a good MP3/Spotify release in my opinion, or at least a good playlist. I will probably watch it on Peacock since xFinity delivers my cable so I get it for free if it’s not an MP3 release and there might be YouTube videos. She also just released a cover of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” for the 30th Anniversary of the Black album with Elton John, Robert Trujillo and Chad Smith that is great by any standard.
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