Rkives by Rilo Kiley

Rilo Kiley’s final album of original songs is a surprisingly strong collection of unreleased songs, B-Sides and artifacts from a band that called it quits nearly 6 years ago.

Join WNRN’s Electric CD of the Month and we will handpick a new CD for you every month.

Listen all month for deeper tracks from Rilo Kiley’s RKives and become a member of WNRN’s Electric CD of the Month Club.

Ghost on Ghost by Iron and Wine.

Sam Beam continues to build a wide, diverse sound melding folk, rock, Motown and jazz rhythms and harmonies.

New insights and intimate truths inside Sam Beam’s expanding musical pallette. Listen and discover why Iron and Wine’s Ghost on Ghost is May’s Acoustic CD of the Month.

Become a member of WNRN’s Acoustic CD of the Month Club and get a new handpicked CD in the mail every month.

The Next Day by David Bowie.

For his 66th birthday, David Bowie had a gift for the world. “Where Are We Now?” was released to hear & see. Bowie’s first album in 10 years, The Next Day, would come out in the spring. The album had been in the works for 2 years with longtime producer Tony Visconti who also worked on Space Oddity, Young Americans and Scary Monsters.

Expectations for The Next Day are larger than life because David Bowie sets a high bar for music, style & substance. There is immediacy to the production style, with layering that is current, but not flashy. There are shades of his past personas, but, more importantly, solid songs.

“I’d Rather Be High” & “(You Will) Set The World on Fire” set out to rock and tackle social issues. On the funkier side of things, there are “Boss of Me” and the risqué “Dirty Boys”. Slow things down on the Bowie ballad “Heat” and check out the video for “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” with Tilda Swinton as David Bowie’s wife and possible alter ego.

You can become a member of the Electric or Acoustic CD of the Months Clubs and receive a new CD in the mail every month here.

WNRN’s Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month for April is English activist and musician, Billy Bragg’s, first studio album in five years called Tooth and Nail.

For 30 years Billy Bragg has combined punk energy with social conscience creating a body of political & personal musical history over a dozen albums. Tooth and Nail reflects inward on the heart of this middle aged protest singer.

Join WNRN’s Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month and we will handpick a new CD for you every month. This month, it’s the unflinching glimpse into Billy Bragg’s mindset, Tooth and Nail.
Listen and discover why Billy Bragg’s Tooth and Nail is April’s Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month.

Johnny Marr’s The Messenger is WNRN’s CD of the Month for March.

 

 

Hidden behind his guitar for 30 years Johnny Marr is finally letting his voice ring out on The Messenger. Not the big brash crooner that Morrissey is, but he has an emotive voice – tone and timbre of an elder statesman of rock and roll.

Marr has spent time with many musicians, but rather than building a full band for his first solo album The Messenger finds Marr on keyboards, synthesizers & bass. Only a few people were entrusted with making his vision a reality including his daughter Sonny on harmony vocals and his guitarist son Nile who performs as Man Made.

Highlights on The Messenger include The 60s style Doo Wop of “European Me” that sounds like a missing track from The Smiths Strangeways, Here We Come. “Upstarts”, with its insistent and upbeat guitar hook, the gritty punk vibrato of “Sun and Moon”. With the album wrapping up with the disco infused “Word Starts Attack” that gives way to an atomic shredding guitar solo.

 

You can become a member of the CD of the Month Club by making your pledge of support.

 

Listen to WNRN for deeper tracks from Johnny Marr’s The Messenger all month long.

WNRN’s Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month for March is the second album from the young neo-soul and R&B singer from Boston, Jesse Dee, called “On My Mind / In My Heart”.

With a compellingly rough-edged tenor, Jesse Dee delivers classic ‘70s Stax or Muscle Shoals sound with his soulful original repertoire. Listen and discover why Jesse Dee’s On My Mind In My Heart is March’s Acoustic Sunrise CD ofthe Month.