New Music "Picks of the Week!"

I attended the American Music Awards in Los Angeles last week... well, sort of.  I was able to crash a couple AMA pre-parties (Thank you, Melissa!), but wasn't able to score credentials to the big show.  I was, however, able to be part of the small crowd that was allowed to witness the pre-show AMA taping of Hot Chelle Rae performing a couple of their songs outside the Nokia Theatre.  (You can audition their latest hit at the bottom of this page.)

Just as the AMA's big winners this year were women (Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, Adele...), I too seemed to have leaned a bit toward the female voices in songs I've added to my iPod this month.  Here's what I feel are a few of the best new releases over the past few weeks

"VIDEO GAMES"-LANA DEL REY

The first time I listened to "Video Games" from Lana Del Rey, I was waiting for this slow, lazy, mournful torch song to kick-in.  Well, it doesn't.  It ends as it begins.  And you know what?  That's okay.  But before you hit "play," be sure to listen with the headsets on and your eyes closed as this haunting ballad is sure to conjure up lots of imagery.





 "WE ALL GO BACK TO WHERE WE BELONG"-R.E.M.

To my ears, REM's swan-song single "We All Go Back To Where We Belong" sounds as if the track was written and scored by Burt Bacharach and could have easily been a hit in the 1960's for Dionne Warwick.  So later, when I picked up a recent edition of Rolling Stone and read a review that referenced the same Bacharach connection, I felt vindicated.  Now, it's not the band's best effort, but when you take into account they're using these three-minutes to say "Goodbye," you kind of want to hang on a little longer.




 "GAMES PEOPLE PLAY"-LISSIE

Nashville guitarist Joe South first put "Games People Play" inside Billboard's top-20 in 1969 and those lyrics have been covered countless times over the past 40-years by acts from Mel Torme and Jerry Lee Lewis to Hank Williams Jr. and James Taylor.  Blue-eyed soul singer Lissie gives the protest-song a rootsy revival which makes it an easy listen.  It's one of five-tracks of covers from her recently-released EP Covered Up In Flowers.




 "GONNA GET OVER YOU"-SARA BAREILLES

"I'm gonna get over you. I'll be alright, just not to-night." Know that feeling.  That's the punch-line from "Gonna Get Over You," the latest pop-perfect hit single from Sara Bareilles which features broken-hearted lyrics set to an upbeat backdrop.  It's not as effervescent as "Uncharted," but still worth $1.29.




 "TALLULAH"-COMPANY OF THIEVES

Here's a funky, horn-driven piece of soul that sounds as if Lily Allen accidentally booked a recording session with Tower of Power.  "Tallulah" from the Chicago-based threesome Company of Thieves is my feel-good track of the month and should have your head a-bobbin' and your foot a-tappin' before the track comes to a quick stop.  By-the-way, the little girl with the big voice is Genevieve Schatz who said the song was inspired after a drive through the abandoned town of Tallulah, Louisiana shortly after Katrina.  She said she noticed lots of ivy vines completely engulfing the structures as if Mother Nature was taking the buildings back and saying, "We'll start over here!" She added, "There is life in the process of death.  I just really enjoyed that, and wanted to celebrate it in a very New Orleans, Motown, some type of soulful fashion. So we paired these lyrics with this fun horn section to make an upbeat dance song."

Here are a couple others I've added over the past several weeks that you just may want to keep as your own.

"SET FIRE TO THE RAIN-ADELE

"I LIKE IT LIKE THAT"-HOT CHELLE RAE

"DON'T MOVE"-PHANTOGRAM