Brandon's Buzz

October opens with a much less crowded slate than the past couple of weeks have offered us, and I’m fine with that, because I am still swimming upstream trying to get caught up with all of September’s new music. Take a look:

She is a Scottish lass who tore across the pond four years ago with a pair of rollicking, ridiculously infectious radio smashes, “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” and “Suddenly I See,” and just as quickly hit rough waters: a stunning sophomore effort, released a year later, failed wholly to connect here in the States, and it seemed as though she was done before she had even gotten started. But don’t count out the staggeringly talented KT Tunstall just yet: she’s back in action with her third album, Tiger Suit, on which she adventurously dares to weave flashes of electronica into what is an already well-established folk-rock — think modern-day Bonnie Raitt — vibe. (Also of note: Amazon is pushing an exclusive deluxe edition of Suit which contains a behind-the-scenes documentary, How to Make a Tiger Suit.)

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Miranda Lambert — “That’s the Way That the World Goes ‘Round”
(from Revolution) —

Covering an old John Prine chestnut with the kind of fearless ferocity which tends to jolt the folks in Nashville plumb out of their jalopies, the magnificent Miss Miranda — at last, the celebrated star she has long deserved to be — splits the difference between Courtney Love and Loretta Lynn with riveting, raw brilliance by putting front and center the graceful grit which has always marked her best music.