Eagles of Death Metal - Complexity
None of their albums has been a masterpiece. Yet every time Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme record together, at least one new track ends up on endless rotation in my house. On Peace, Love, Death Metal, it was throwaway biker anthem San Berdoo Sunburn. On Heart On, it was the Stonesy break-up ballad Now I'm a Fool. And from the forthcoming Zipper Down, the track destined to sucker me is . . . Well, not this one. You could play the first 30 seconds of Complexity back to back with Weird Al's lame Eat It and I doubt even their own mothers could tell them apart.
Janet Jackson - No Sleeep
After seven years away, Janet Jackson is set to return with a new album called either Unbreakable or Conversations in a Cafe. The first single from it is definitely called No Sleeep (pronounced, I think, as though someone just dropped a spider down your blouse halfway through). It is a by-the-numbers slow jam about two sexy sexers having the sexiest sex they've ever sexed. Yawn.
Parquet Courts - Pretty Girls
"Pretty girls are a waste of time because they're boring/ And they don't have to try." On this evidence, New York's Parquet Courts are to The Modern Lovers what Family Guy is to The Simpsons, or fey 1990s indie rockers Gene were to The Smiths. Which is to say, an entirely derivative knockoff who have borrowed someone else's shtick wholesale and repackaged it for a less discerning audience.
Leon Bridges - Twistin' & Groovin'
It's not often one gets to say "Here's a fresh new artist I stumbled upon listening to the Ronan Collins Show." Like the late Amy Winehouse, Leon Bridges's soul music is both accessible and authentic, brand new and unashamedly retro. Bridges plays the Longitude festival July 17th.
