The Friday Refrain: What's New In Music

Oh my goodness, it's one of those days where you feel like you're pushing the air around you just to walk down the hallway. So let's dip into the coolness of:

Friday's New Music

Jazz great John Coltrane is in the headlines with a "lost album:" Both Directions At Once. Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills & Nash released a bunch of demos and such on Over The Years. Animated band Gorillaz are back again with The Now Now. Pop phenom of 2010 Florence + The Machine bring back the power vocals for High As Hope. And leader of My Morning Jacket, Jim James released Uniform Distortion. In Miracle Land is the newest release of The Vines one of the early oughts' The ___ bands. And Drake has finally released Scorpions. A personal favorite from last year, Red Baraat, bring their funky world style back with Sound The People.

Should I bother?

•  Drake: It's 90 minutes long and 25 songs so if you want to dive into a movie length album, go for it. It's got some good Drake songs in it though
• John Coltrane: this is amazing to listen to. Like taking a time machine and peeking into the studio.
• Graham Nash: If you're a fan, you should definitely check this out. I believe I also read that the liner notes on this are also to be noted.
• Florence + The Machine: It is as I expected it would sound.
• Gorillaz: I don't think that Gorillaz has been able to recapture that quirky earworm quality of their earlier work, but like the last album I found this one to be interesting enough to want to listen to again.
• Jim James: Seriously, today is one of those "If you're a fan of then try it" days because I'm goign to say it again here. Except that new guitar tone really caught me off guard.

Well there you are my friends - another refrain come and gone. Check back later for my To Listen 5 where I'll delve deep into the releases and retrieve things you should probably give a listen. Happy Listening!