Well, Eminem has come out with yet another album.  I believe that this is his seventh studio album and it is another success! I actually had no clue that he has come out with so many albums until recently, but it does make sense. He has been a stable artist and has continued (minus a 3-year hiatus between 2006-2009) to have a presence in the music world ever since I started listening to music; this is something I will commend him for because he is not someone who went big and then went home.

Recovery, which followed Relapse and was originally going to be called Relapse II, was released on June 18, 2010. The production of this album took place from 2007 to 2010 and was handled by several record producers. In an interview Eminem explained that the album was more “emotionally driven” than the first Relapse record. There are many mixed feelings about the album. Some say that it was a failed attempt at rapping  with feeling about his recovery from the depression, drugs, and more.  Others say that he has done a great job. One thing is for sure, this album is a whole lot better than Relapse. Even he will admit that! In Relapse, Eminem was definitely trying so hard, while in this one, there is less of a sense of desperation.

This album has a sole focus on the rapper himself. Rather than bringing others into the subjects, he raps about his problems and his life.  In this album there are rants about suicidal depression and paranoid love. There is anger and remorse, and passion and self-loathing. There is a lot of emotion in this album, but many say that even though that this is a comeback from Relapse, they doubt that this 37 year old “new Shady” is any different than the old one.

If you are only looking to sneak a preview of the album, check out the hit single “Not Afraid”. It is probably the best song on the album, according to critics. However, it is not up to the reviewers and the critics to decide if you like the album, so take a few moments to check it out some time!

Looking for a unique way to discover new music? I stumbled upon Musicovery.com and was immediately swept in by its innovative and effective design.

Musicovery is a music bank, organized in a way that you might not have seen before. Are you familiar with political compasses? They tell you just how far left or right you fall on the economic scale, but also whether you tend to fall on the libertarian side or the authoritarian side. What’s this got to do with music? On Musicovery, you “pick” your music by moving the cursor on two distinctive “musical” compasses. On the y-scale on one is tempo (how fast or slow the beat of the song is), while on its respective x-scale is the “danceability” of the song. The other compass is based on mood. Place your cursor either on the dark or positive side (on the horizontal axis) and either the energetic or calm side (on the vertical axis). Seems cool, right? But that’s not all.

You can also select from which decade(s) and genres you would like to hear. Sick of the 90s music? Choose the 60s. Musicovery has music from twenty different genres, from jazz to latino to pop to folk music. If there’s a certain type you don’t like, you can quickly uncheck its box. Conversely, if you specifically like only one genre, you can choose to uncheck all genres with a single click, then select your favorite genre with another click.

When you first pick a song, or rather, define a type of song to which you might want to listen, a network of other songs you might like appears on the screen. Unfortunately, the ability to select these other songs and play them directly is restricted to premium account members. Premium account members also get to experience the Web site without ads and in Hi-Fi quality. What’s the charge? Premium account members pay $4 per month, not bad for what Musicovery has to offer.

Even if you don’t want to pay for premium, Musicovery.com is worth a visit. You’ll enjoy the unique style of its presentation of music.

Albums are constantly being released; it’s hard to keep up. On April 27 alone, we saw notable releases, such as Mary Chapin Carpenter‘s Age of Miracles, Melissa Etheridge‘s Fearless Love, Peter Frampton‘s Thank You Mr. Churchill, Jim Brickman‘s Never Alone, Daddy Yankee‘s Daddy Yankee Mundial, Miranda Cosgrove‘s Sparks Fly, and Tonic‘s album Tonic, hit the stores along with another dozen or so others. It’s impossible to keep up with all of the new releases, and still difficult to even keep up with the artists that you already know.

I hate when I miss the release of a new albums of one of my favorite artists. (Though, can I really call them a favorite if I shamefully overlooked the release date of their new album?) This year, I’ve decided to look ahead by checking out the forthcoming release lists. Certainly, you could check one of your favorite artist’s home page to see when their next release is, but what I found to be more efficient is to simply check out lists of Upcoming Releases such as the one provided on metacritic.com. With a list in chronological order by release date, you quickly can check an upcoming month to see if there is album that you would be interested in picking up shortly after its release.

Alternately, if you scan the list and see an artist that you know a friend of yours likes, this could make a great gift if he or she isn’t on top of buying it right away. For example, Keane‘s Night Train will make the perfect gift for one of my friends, and now I know to look out for it starting on May 11. Other albums I’m interested in include Macy Gray‘s The Sellout to be released on May 18 and Jack Johnson‘s To the Sea on June 1. Did you know Christina Aguilera‘s new album Bionic will be released on June 8? Other big albums, such as Beyoncé‘s currently-unnamed one, are also slated to be released this year. Bring on the music, 2010.

Thesixtyone.com is my new preference for listening to music over Grooveshark. While I do love using Grooveshark and being able to have the ability to check out pretty much any song I ever could imagine and then being able to save those songs on to a playlist, I rarely use Grooveshark to break out from my typical music and find new stuff. This is where thesixtyone comes into play.

Being sick of the same old stuff, I discovered thesixtyone and started on my musical adventure. The interface of the site just recently changed, so I still am getting used to it, but it is actually pretty fun to use. All you really need when you are using this website is the album or the band, and then you have a few menus that pull out when you hover over areas that allow you to navigate. These toolbars allow you to skip the song, save the song to a playlist, “heart” the song, and more. There are a few things about this interface that I do not enjoy, such as how last time you could simply “save” songs while now you have to save them to playlists that have a maximum capacity of 10 songs. Another odd thing about this interface is that you cannot look at a list of songs to chose from; while you can search for a particular artist, you cannot see a list of the top X songs or so and choose from there.

The cool thing about thesixtyone is that it is a place for new artists, and then it is the listeners who decide what’s good. The more hearts and saves a song gets, the more popular it becomes, and the more well known the artist becomes. They claim to be “nurturing a growing ecosystem where talented folks can sell songs and merchandise directly to their fans.” On thesixtyone artists can make at least $7 per album and are paid every 30 days– that’s  a lot of money in comparison to the standard $1-2 per album.

They’re named after Highway 61– “The road by which people left their homes to take their music to the world.”

When it comes to keeping up with what is new and fresh in music, I find the radio is not the only place you can use.  You need to have reliable sources that can give you the best scoop on what to listen to.  I’m going to list some of my ideas and let you decide for yourself.

First, your public library is a good start.  Going through their music to find new albums, or just stuff that is new to you, is a great place to discover things.  You can skim a few magazines like Rolling Stone or Spin, but if you can get a hold of Paste, or other independent magazines you’ll get a better sampling of music.

I mentioned radio, which isn’t always bad, they just frontload a lot of over-hyped junk at times.  Try NPR online. You may not like talk radio, however, they do showcase a lot of up and coming bands that would otherwise not get any other radio play.

Find a critic that shares the same taste in music as you and keep up with what they review.  Even music blogs aren’t bad, but you have to be careful of heavy bias.  I like using Allmusic.com to get information about a band and see what influenced them.  The site is pretty easy to navigate and easy to get lost in for hours.

Finally, a local record store is a good place also.  I always give album advice to people when I go out: yes, I am that guy.  While you’re there pick up a compilation to hear some new stuff you might not have found before.  I stay away from tribute albums, since I want original material.

I hope this helps, and if you have suggestions, let me know.

As the warm weather escapes us, we look to the fall and then the dormancy of winter.  Well, don’t start hibernating just yet, jump on the ole Interweb and listen to some new singles from Pearl Jam, Weezer and Radiohead.

In anticipation of their new album Backspacer, out September 20, Pearl Jam sounds like they are in rare form.  Single “The Fixer” has had some strong reception from audiences this summer and is doing well on radio play.  Many speculate that this is a return to more alternative roots for the band.  It certainly sounds like their catchiest song in quite some time.

Weezer is back with a new album on October 27^th titled Raditude.  Their newest single “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” could’ve been found in a time capsule from the 1950s.  Although this isn’t the Weezer that I know and love, I will say that it is a good direction for the band, and anything is better than Make Believe.

Then we have Radiohead, who has been laying low since their release of In Rainbows. Their new song “These Are My Twisted Thoughts” has been making some waves on social networking sites.  This song could have been a B-side to any tune from In Rainbows, sounding spacey and deep as anything by Radiohead.  Does this mean a new album is on the horizon?  No one knows just yet, but you probably can expect to choose your own price before you can buy the physical copy.

With a plethora of mediocrity on the airwaves it is good to hear some groups are making quality music for people that enjoy quality music.  I’ll keep my ear to the ground. What are you listening to?  Let me know, I’ll give anything a once over.

Have you checked out Prince’s new website? It has been up for some time now, but it was launched officially on March 24th. The site gives fans access to his new albums, concert tickets, live performances, music videos and images, and a lot of other things that has not been given out to Prince’s fans until now. When you’re on the site and you have the bucks to spare for the website membership, you’ll be granted access to to Prince’s three new albums, Lotusflow3r, MPLSoUND and Elixir, an album by Bria Valente, Prince’s protegée.

To help make a buzz about the launch of his new site, Prince has performed in three venues with three different bands, on March 24 in Los Angeles, and on March 25 in The Tonight Show.

I liked Prince’s music in the past, especially those that were written during his Purple Rain days, but he somehow got lost in my list through time. Now he comes to my attention again with Lotusflow3r. I have checked out the site and sampled three songs, one from each album, ”Chocolate Box”, “Colonized Mind”, “All This Love”. Well, it seems that Prince knows that his golden years were those during the Purple Rain era; he’s trying to bring us back to those years with Lotusflow3r. The three songs are replete with the echoes of the past, the echoes of the 80s. I am not saying that the style he has now is outdated, it has a flavor of its own that most Prince fans could relish.

The new albums also show us (at least in the three songs I’ve sampled) what were not given much emphasis in the past– that Prince is a skilled guitarist.  Musicians would have lots to figure out in the guitar work in this album, things that could help spice up their own playing.

As to his  protegée, Bria Valente, well, she’s got potential, that’s the farthest I can say as of now. I need to listen more songs from the third album to be able to have more to say about her.

Eminem is one of the very few hiphop artists who changed my view of hiphop music; he made hiphop listenable. But it’s been almost four years since we last heard something worthwhile from Eminem, and I almost forgot about him. But now he has just announced that a new album is coming out. Relapse, his  first original studio album in over four years, will hit music stores in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2009. But fans will have a taste of what the album would be like as early as April 7th because the first single from the album and its accompanying video will be made available simultaneously on that date.

Eminem first announced the name of the new album in an interview on his Shade 45 satellite radio station last year, and since then fans have been anticipating its release. The release of “Crack a Bottle” from Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent heightened fans’ anticipation for the new album. “Crack a Bottle” has reached the number 1 spot in Billboard Hot 100. This is Eminem’s second time to have a number 1, the first was in 2002 with “Lose Yourself”. ‘Crack A Bottle” also has made a record for the highest opening week  sales for Nielsen SoundScan with more than 418,000 downloads. The track will be included in the new album.

But Relapse is not enough for Eminem because Relapse 2 is now being cooked. ”A lot of people were expecting Relapse to drop last year,” said Eminem. “I was one of them. Then Dre and I went back in the studio in September for a few days, and that turned into six months. We were on such a roll; we wound up with a ton of new music produced by Dre. Putting out Relapse 2 will let everyone get all of the best stuff.” Relapse 2 is expected to hit the market in the second half of 2009.

Even after leaving The Misfits, Doyle Frankenstein knew that he still would have music as a part of his life. The punk legend went on to form Kryst The Conqueror before his recent formation of the metal band Gorgeous Frankenstein. Doyle’s newfound metal home is steadily building a cult following of metalheads and punk fans alike. Although it is definitely a change of pace to go from punk to metal, for Doyle it isn’t really all that big of a challenge, as he is easily one of the greatest punk guitarists of all time.

Gorgeous Frankenstein recently released their self-titled debut and are touring nationally. With songs like  “Gorgeous Frankenstein” and “Made in Hell”, you can’t help but feel like Motley Crue was morphed with the Misfits and a little Black Sabbath as well. From catchy hooks to sing along choruses and the furious guitar stylings of Doyle, it is like audio candy to any music fan’s ears. They also have a new member, former Misfits drummer DR Chud.

Whether you like punk or metal it definitely is a group to watch out for and to even jam to. Look for them to invade a home or a club or even a basement near you.

Red, blue, green. Either I’m listening to the last track on In Rainbows, or Weezer has decided to add another color to their catalogue. If you selected number two, have a cookie. For anyone who lost hope in those sweater-wearing wunderkinds, have no fear, they have returned to claim their power pop throne.

“Troublemaker”, the opening track, will remind anyone of Pinkerton’s “The Good Life” with the bouncy riff and bad boy lyrics. Following is the opus “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)”. This epic has a quiet piano intro, reminiscent of “Across the Sea”, moves to a quasi-rap, and touches a few different styles in between. Next is “Pork and Beans”, the lead off single. With a sad sounding riff Rivers talks about getting old in the music business and that sometimes you have to do what you want to survive.

“Heartsongs” is a tune where Rivers sings about music that helped him during his formative years as a musician. “Everybody Get Dangerous” is more of a dance number, and “Dreamin’” could be a blend of “Holiday” and “Keep Fishin’”.

On “Thought I Knew” guitarist Brain Bell is given a spot to shine on vocals, while bassist Scott Shriner trades vocals with Rivers on “Cold Dark World” and drummer Pat Wilson trades spots with Rivers to sing on “Automatic”. This is a first for each member of the group to have a song to sing. The closer, “The Angel and the One”, is a ballad on par with “Only In Dreams”, thus closing a great album of new material.

If you loved The Blue Album and Pinkerton, stuck through The Green Album and Maladroit, and threw up over Make Believe, the phoenix has risen, and its color is Red.