Every month, WNRN picks the best of what’s new. You can join WNRN’s Acoustic or Electric CD of the month. All members will receive a new CD in the mail every month. Everyone else can download them here!
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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.
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.
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.
Johnny Marr’s The Messenger is WNRN’s CD of the Month for March.
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.
Listen all month for tracks from the refreshing, retro soul sounds of Jesse Dee’s “On My Mind / In My Heart” only on Independent Music Radio – WNRN
The Acoustic Sunrise CD-of-the-month band, The Lone Bellow, stops by WNRN for a chat with Melissa and plays a few songs.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
WNRN’s Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month for February is the self-titled debut from three southerners who came together in New York to form The Lone Bellow.
Their debut CD features three part harmonies on songs infused with the sounds of old gospel and country music. The powerful, passionate music is catchy and easy to sing along with.
Listen all month for tracks from WNRN’s Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month for February – the self-titled debut from the Lone Bellow.
You can join the CD of the Month Club now to receive a copy of a new CD in the mail every month!
The Longest Day by Barnaby Bright.
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Django Django by Django Django!
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The Modern Rock CD of the month for December is ZZ Ward’s “Til the Casket Drops.”
“People often complain that there’s no one original around anymore. Til the Casket Drops introduces the most original voice and sound in a decade, and it’s bound to be a landmark for Ward. It’s all about to go up in flames so get a front row seat now because she’s going to be one of the biggest stars in the world soon.” -Rick Florino, Artist Direct
The Acoustic Sunrise CD of the month for December is “Buddy and Jim” by Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale.
“Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale are two of the pioneers of Americana. Their solo recordings, songwriting, studio session work and live performances (as front men and musical directors) have made them treasures of the roots and country music scene. In an unexpected moment of inspiration, the two have collaborated to make a true duets record, trading licks and verses for one of the most inspired and fun albums of 2012.” -Stasia Lanier, KSUT.
The Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month for November is “Wreck and Ruin” by Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson.
“Wreck & Ruin otherwise picks up right where 2008′s Rattlin’ Bones left off, with the married couple layering intricate vocal harmonies over some casual, mostly acoustic country-rock.”-Jonathan Keefe, Slant Magazine.
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WNRN’s CD of the month for November is Blak and Blu by Gary Clark Jr.
“On his major-label debut, Clark establishes himself as both a torch carrier and a fire starter, stripping the blues down to its core and rebuilding those elements into one of the most bracing rock records of the year.”-Kyle Anderson, Entertainment Weekly
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Our Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month for October is Babel by Mumford and Sons.
WNRN’s CD of the Month for October is the new solo album from Death Cab for Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard, Former Lives.
The recently single Death Cab for Cutie frontman (he split from wife Zooey Deschanel last year) sheds his band to work out some ideas that’ve been rattling around in his head for years. That makes for a sometimes disjointed album, encompassing everything from Western twang to mariachi horns to Aimee Mann duets, but Gibbard has put his stamp on it all. His earnest songwriting — ”a bird with a broken wing,” ”the five-alarm fire that rages inside my heart,” etc. — still skews saccharine, but more often than not, Former Lives is lovely.
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Our Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month for September is Carpenter by The Avett Brothers.
From NPR.org:
The Avett Brothers’ style of alternately frenetic and swoony, frequently bluegrass-infused folk-rock has penetrated the public consciousness to the point where Seth and Scott Avett appear to be on the brink of superstardom. Peers such as Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers have already broken through in a big way, and neither band packs the Avetts’ knack for wrapping catchy music around a poignant center. The North Carolina group’s 2009 breakthrough, I and Love and You, was a crowd-pleaser in part because it speaks to universal truths; it reaches for more than mere infectiousness or agreeability, and finds what it was looking for.
The Carpenter, out Sept. 11, continues on that journey, dispensing cheerily hook-filled anthems (the gorgeous single “Live and Die,” the charming kiss-off jam “I Never Knew You”) amid more introspective looks at mortality, devotion and a desire to “live the life I’m given” (to borrow a few words from the album-opening ballad “The Once and Future Carpenter”). Informed in part by the struggles of bassist Bob Crawford, whose 2-year-old daughter is battling a brain tumor, The Carpenter carries serious thematic weight — fully half its songs address death in some way or another. But there’s still an appealing sense of lightness to it, whether in the lilting “Down With the Shine,” the churning rocker “Pretty Girl From Michigan” (the latest in a long line of The Avett Brothers’ “Pretty Girl From [Place]” songs), and playfully stompy rave-ups like the 97-second “Geraldine.”
Make your pledge for Carpenter or join the CD of the Month Club now!
WNRN’s CD of the Month for September is Beacon by Two Door Cinema Club
WNRN’s Rock CD of the Month is Passion Pit-Gossamer
WNRN’s Acoustic Sunrise CD of the month is Jimmy Cliff- Rebirth.
A mix of original songs and a few well-chosen covers, Rebirth doesn’t flip the script as much as play to strengths. When you’ve been in the game as long as Cliff has, there’s little use in attempting to draw him out of his comfort zone. Instead, Armstrong creates an atmosphere for the reggae legend to settle in, get comfortable, and thrive. Recorded live in studio without so much as an overdub in sight, the record harkens back to the spirited Jamaican vibes popularized and largely perfected on albums like The Harder They Come and Another Cycle. (Bray)
