Brandon's Buzz

It’s shaping up to be an insanely busy week for me, so the May 29 edition of Brandon’s Tips will be much shorter than usual. (A huge wave of relief washes over the land, no?) Good thing, then, that the music business generally goes fishin’ for the entire week following Memorial Day each year. ’07 is no exception: unless you’re a giant R. Kelly fan (and if you are, what are the odds you’re even reading this?), there are no major new releases to hunt down today. (And while some of you may be sad about that, I’m rather sanguine; after a wallet-buster like last week, even the most rabid among us need a break.)

There will be weeks like this from time to time, but if you are rarin’ to go music shopping, you can absolutely use this weeklong lull to check out some recent albums that may have inadvertently slipped by you. Trust me: all of what follows is worth a goodly chunk of your leisure time.

PETE YORN — Nightcrawler — this was released at the tail end of last summer to stunningly little fanfare (seriously, does his record company, Columbia, even know that he exists?), and across the board, radio continues to inexplicably shun him. Do what you must to rise above this madness: this isn’t as immediately catchy or compelling as his first two records (it really needs four or five good listens to take root), but it’s a terrific, slow-burn album, stuffed with melody and typically brilliant vocal work, and while it contains a duet with that goofy bitch Natalie Maines, it also contains “Ice Age,” only one of the most heartbreaking instant-classic love songs I’ve ever heard. Like, ever. (Bonus: unlike his comrade John Mayer, don’t you get the sense, as you’re listening to this man sing, that he would never give that ridiculous trollop Jessica Simpson so much as the time of day, much less anything else from his, umm, person? Reason #874 why I heart Pete.)

PATTY GRIFFIN — Children Running Through — a sensational return to form following 2004’s painfully depressing Impossible Dream. Griffin is a triumphant, uncompromising artist, no question, and she thankfully seems to be slowly re-learning what she mysteriously forgot after 1998’s Flaming Red (one of the true all-time classic albums): it’s okay to make a record populated with both sad and happy songs.

MARTINA McBRIDE — Waking Up Laughing — for an artist who has been known primarily as a singles artist, McBride swung for the fences with her eighth studio album and landed a homer. There are a couple of head-scratchers here (she really should leave the light-heartedness for someone who can pull it off with more aplomb), but led by the stellar smash “Anyway” and the certain future single “Everybody Does,” this is the effort that’ll carry her already-brilliant career to an even higher level.

JOSEPH ARTHUR & THE LONELY ASTRONAUTS — Let’s Just Be — much like Mr. Yorn above, you listen to this dude sing, and you get the immediate sense that he’s tiptoeing on the cusp of superstardom, just the right song away from exploding. Most of his songs (see “In the Sun,” which Michael Stipe and Chris Martin turned into a riveting duet last year) are fairly mellow, which makes this down-and-dirty album such a fascinating departure. Much like Wilco, he can be a bit too esoteric for his own good, but if you’re up for something radically different, you can’t go wrong here.

As we head into a jam-packed June, with new albums coming from Chris Cornell, my long-missing favorite Paula Cole, Bon Jovi, Paul McCartney, The White Stripes, and many others, why don’t we use this week’s playlist to look back at the highlights of ’07’s tumultuous spring. Though we’re leagues ahead of where we were last Memorial Day weekend, the year to here has been far from superlative. Still, we have received a trove of musical treasures so far; I know it’s early yet, but come December, any discussion of the year’s best songs will almost certainly have to include these.

1. “Grace Kelly” — Mika (from Life in Cartoon Motion) — not since “Are You Jimmy Ray?” a decade ago have four minutes of utter nonsense sounded this exciting and enjoyable

2. “Here It Comes Again” – Tracey Thorn (from Out of the Woods) — the brilliant Rob Sheffield once wrote in Rolling Stone that this woman could sing the shell off an M&M. No clue whether Everything But the Girl — the spectacular British duo of which Thorn was one invaluable half, and the woman who sang her ass off on the best single of the 1990s, the transcendent “Missing” — is broken up forever or simply on hiatus (let’s hope it’s the latter) — but while we wait for word, feel free to luxuriate in this gorgeous solo album’s multitude of charms.

3. “New Shoes” – Paolo Nutini (from These Streets) — if you can find the live version, so much the better; if you can’t, the original’s great, too. A fun, light-as-a-feather pop song, from a record that hasn’t gotten nearly the attention it deserves.

4. “Indiana” — Jon McLaughlin (from Indiana) — forget for a second (if you can) the fact that this kid is smokin’ hot. (That classic Midwestern blue-eyed boy next door look gets me goin’ ten times outta ten, honey.) He’s also got a stunning voice, and this quietly blistering take on unrequited love may just stand as the heartbreaker of the year.

5. “Secret Spell” — Tori Amos (from American Doll Posse) — so, I’ve listened to Posse six full times, more than enough to officially declare it a major disappointment. It’s such a rare, alien entity, not liking a new Tori album (and in fifteen years of adoring her, it’s only happened one other time — with 1999’s To Venus and Back — and I’ve since come around on that one, which lends me hope), but Amos seems so intent on building and maintaining the complex mythology behind this record that she must have run out of time and/or energy to nail the record itself. Of its 23 tracks — a number too high by at least ten — only this midtempo, R.E.M.-ish autobiographical beauty has a shot at still sounding fresh in five years.