With the myriad fall films headed our way, below are 14 movies to look forward to in the coming months.
Oct. 12: Argo: A strong indicator of a film's Oscar chances is the critical buzz it has coming out of the Toronto International Film Festival from mid-September. Argo has that kind of favourable enthusiasm. Ben Affleck directs and stars as a CIA operative who helps lead a crazy rescue operation of U.S. citizens in hiding at the Canadian ambassador’s home in Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis by pretending to be a Hollywood film crew. It also stars Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman.
Oct. 19: The Sessions: Another film that's enjoying a surge of post-Toronto adulation is The Sessions, the true story of Mark O'Brien, a man mostly confined to an iron lung who seeks love and the loss of his virginity. John Hawkes as O'Brien proves again he belongs in the elite actor category, even if he doesn't have the box office credentials—yet—to back it up. Helen Hunt, who doesn’t appear in many movies these days, makes the best of her screen time with her strongest role yet as the kindly sex therapist O’Brien hires. It’s a sweet, surprisingly funny film that doesn’t claw for easy empathy.
Oct. 26: Cloud Atlas: This adaptation of the previously thought unfilmmable genre-bending novel by David Mitchell left critics in Toronto alternately praising and damning this drama of cause-and-effect linking the fate of people through the centuries. It stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, and Hugo Weaving, with Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) and siblings Lana and Andy Wachowski (The Matrix trilogy) as co-writers and co-directors. Even if this highly ambitious film is flawed, as some contend, it would appear the whole is better than its parts.
Nov. 2:
Flight: Denzel Washington stars as an airline pilot who saves a flight from crashing, and whose life is subsequently turned upside down by the intense media scrutiny that follows. Robert Zemeckis gives up the ghost on his creepy performance-capture animation work and returns to live-action films. The trailers promise an intense drama with a great cast (including John Goodman, Don Cheadle, and Oscar winner Melissa Leo) and a message that offers relevant commentary on today’s media.
Wreck-It Ralph: As a classic video gaming enthusiast I acknowledge my bias for a film that celebrates the days of 8-bit gaming. More than that, I’m excited to see what the film’s talented voice cast, led by John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Sarah Silverman, and Jane Lynch, makes of the whimsical story of a video game baddie (Reilly), weary of his job as villain, who leaves the Donkey Kong-esque game in search of being a hero elsewhere in the arcade. McBrayer plays Wreck-It Ralph’s hero who goes in search of his former nemesis, and Silverman is one of the many colourful video game characters Ralph encounters as he hops from game to game.
Nov. 9: Skyfall: Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition) takes the directorial reins of the latest 007 feature and Daniel Craig returns as the deadly British super spy. While Skyfall leaves behind the unfinished plot threads of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, it continues the new Bourne-inspired gritty realism of the Craig-as-Bond films. Javier Bardem, who won an Oscar as the unstoppable killer in No Country for Old Men, is perfectly cast as Bond's new nemesis, Raoul Silva.
Nov. 16: Lincoln: The so-so trailer didn't convince me this is the historical epic I know Steven Spielberg is capable of, but knowing the all-star cast is crowned by Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th U.S. president provides hope there's much more guts and grit to this drama than the he trailer would suggest. Also worth noting: Tony Kushner, who won a Pulitzer for his play Angels in America, wrote Lincoln. He also was co-nominated for a screenplay Oscar for 2005’s tale of retribution and its price, Munich, which Spielberg also directed.
Nov. 21:
Life of Pi: Ang Lee stays in his art-house comfort zone for this anticipated adaptation of Yann Martel's bestselling 2001 fantasy adventure novel of an Indian teenager adrift on the Pacific Ocean in a lifeboat with an adult Bengal tiger. Early word on this 3-D film is strong, and the visuals and cinematography shown off in Life of Pi’s trailer only enhance my anticipation for the movie.
Silver Linings Playbook: Bradley Cooper recently left behind the world of The Hangover to show off some dramatic acting chops as a bestselling author who stole his popular work from someone else in Words. He continues this dramatic bent as a former teacher who, after being institutionalized, moves in with his parents and works to make amends with his ex-wife. Then another woman with problems of her own (Jennifer Lawrence) enters his life. Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Julia Stiles, and Chris Tucker also star, with David O. Russell, riding high off The Fighter, writing and directing. Russell has a history of films with damaged characters, and Silver Linings Playbook may be his best yet, considering it took top honours at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Nov. 23: Rust and Bone: Marion Cotillard (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises) and Matthias Schoenaerts star in this French drama about a single father who moves in with his sister, a killer whale trainer who experiences a horrific accident that ultimately brings the siblings closer together. The drama is winning raves; expect an Oscar nomination for Cotillard.
Dec. 7: Hyde Park on the Hudson: National treasure Bill Murray is receiving critical accolades for his take on Franklin D. Roosevelt in this quirky drama about the former president and his love affair with his distant cousin Margaret Suckley (Laura Linney). The film takes place in upstate New York with Queen Elizabeth and King George VI visiting FDR for a weekend. Olivia Williams plays Eleanor Roosevelt.
Dec. 14: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Finally, after years in limbo—decades, really—The Hobbit makes it to the big screen with Peter Jackson again shepherding the project, as well as directing and co-writing the screenplay, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved work. In addition to featuring some familiar actors from Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, including Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Andy Serkis as Gollum, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey also stars Martin Freeman (British version of The Office) as Bilbo Baggins, the hobbit who joins a team of dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) to reclaim treasure stolen by the terrifying dragon Smaug. Jackson said he is expanding The Hobbit to include other characters and stories from Tolkien’s work, and he recently announced that his film adaptation will be split into three movies.
Dec. 21: The Impossible: This gripping drama is the true story of a family's fight to survive the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Southeast Asia and its aftermath. The film stars Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor as a husband and wife, along with Tom Holland as the oldest of their sons.
Dec. 25: Django Unchained: There’s always high anticipation for a Quentin Tarantino film, and based on Django Unchained’s trailer this shouldn’t disappoint. Tarantino writes and directs this sure-to-be bloody-violent western of freed slave turned bounty hunter Django (Jamie Foxx) who, with help from his German mentor (Christoph Waltz), sets out to kill a gang of killers and then to rescue his wife from a ruthless Mississippi plantation owner. The film also stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Jonah Hill, Kerry Washington, RZA, and Don Johnson.
Audiobook lovers rejoice! The year 2012 looks to be filled with a wealth of literary treasures. Now that Groundhog Day is in the rearview mirror, let’s take a look at what lies ahead—aside from six more weeks of winter.
Just released on February 7 was Stay Awake, a new collection of short stories from Dan Chaon. Chaon’s last collection was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2001. Here he returns to the short form for the first time in eleven years after publishing two novels in the meantime.
On Valentine’s Day, readers will fall in love with a trio of books. Sophie Kinsella looks to continue her bestselling ways with I’ve Got Your Number, while Tatiana de Rosnay, author of Sarah’s Key and A Secret Kept, returns with The House I Loved. If you like a little horror with your romance, Anne Rice has the answer with The Wolf Gift.
Finishing out February, there’s Other People We Married on February 21 from Emma Straub, daughter of novelist Peter Straub and a powerful author in her own right. On the 28th, bestseller Jodi Picoult offers Lone Wolf, while Ramona Ausubel makes a conspicuous debut with No One Is Here Except All of Us, a fable of a Jewish village in Romania trying to persevere through the horrors of World War II.
Marilynne Robinson’s novel Gilead won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. On March 13 she turns her talents to non-fiction with When I Was a Child I Read Books, a collection of essays on a variety of themes. Going in the other direction, Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent for CNN, tries his hand at fiction in Monday Mornings, about a group of surgeons who confront their failures in weekly “Morbidity and Mortality” meetings.
Also in March, Lyndsay Faye follows up her Sherlock Holmes/Jack the Ripper pastiche with another work of historical crime fiction, The Gods of Gotham. Then, acclaimed writer Lionel Shriver (another National Book Award finalist) presents The New Republic, a novel about terrorism that she originally wrote in 1998 but shelved after the September 11 World Trade Center attacks.
April is the month for heavy hitters on the bestseller lists. First up, on the 3rd, is Mary Higgins Clark with The Lost Years. On the 10th, John Grisham eschews the courtroom for the baseball diamond in Calico Joe. Stephen King follows up 11/22/63 with the eighth installment in his Dark Tower series, The Wind Through the Keyhole, on the 24th. Also on that day, critical lightning rod Jonathan Franzen returns with his latest book of essays, Farther Away.
Further out on the horizon, there’s still plenty to look forward to: Deadlocked, a new Southern Vampire book from Charlaine Harris; Home, by Toni Morrison, a novel about racial inequality and the aftereffects of war; Bring Up the Bodies, the sequel to Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel; In One Person by venerable author John Irving; and Mortality, the final memoir by firebrand and critic Christopher Hitchens, who passed away in December.
Of course, this is just a small sampling of what awaits us in the world of audiobooks in 2012. What new and upcoming releases are you and your patrons most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments section below.
As we approach December, publications and blogs alike have started sharing their Best of 2011 lists. Here's a quick breakdown of the "best of" lists that I've encountered thus far. Have you found others? Share them with us in the comments section below!
CD
While Paste Magazinehas shared their 50 Best Albums of 2011 list, Billboard is leaving it in their readers' hands. From Best Newcomer to Most Anticipated Album of 2012, Billboard.com visitors can vote for the best and worst of 2011. Polls close on midnight on December 8, so submit your votes now. Then visit Billboard.com on December 12 to view poll winners.
DVD
Want to know what flicks are fresh? Rotten Tomatoes have organized their Top 100 Movies of 2011 based on their Tomatometer Scores. Films have to have 20 or more critic reviews to be eligible for ranking.
Meanwhile, MovieFone has put together a gallery of their best flicks of 2011 so far. The gallery currently contains 25 films. However, at the end of the year, they'll update it with their final top 50 picks.
Bridesmaids made both these lists, making the film's "consider us" Variety cover even more timely. I know I'm definitely hopeful that this breakthrough comedy shines during awards season.
50/50—based on the true story of Seth Rogen and his friend Will Reiser—is a touching yet hilarious buddy comedy that takes place during Reiser’s extensive cancer treatment. In the flick, Rogen essentially plays himself, but Reiser, who wrote the screenplay, is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
In What’s Your Number?, Anna Faris is a down-on-her-luck thirty-something who revisits all her past relationships in the hopes of finding true love—and not increasing her number of partners—with the help of Captain America, I mean, her neighbour, played by Chris Evans.
What’s funnier than competitive bird watching? Why, a movie about it starring Jack Black, Owen Wilson, and Steve Martin, of course! The Big Year, a comedybased on a nonfiction book about the 1998 Big Year bird watching competition, hits theatres October 14th.
Lastly, heist-comedy Tower Heist has quite the all-star cast and, even though it’s been in the works for over five years, the film is still as timely as ever. A group of employees at a Trump-esque apartment complex decide to steal $20 million from one of the residents when that Bernie Madoff-ish resident loses all their pension funds in a Ponzi scheme.
Off the Beaten Path
Martha Marcy May Marlene was the all the rage at this past Sundance Film Festival. This is writer-director Sean Durkin’s first feature, and many have labelled it “this year’s Winter’s Bone.” While Martha Marcy May Marlene does star John Hawkes, the female lead is not Jennifer Lawrence. Instead, Elizabeth Olsen, younger sister to Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, plays the title character who struggles to adapt to a normal life after she escapes a cult.
Are you ready for a mix of melodrama and horror? Then be sure to check out Antonio Banderas in The Skin I Live In. In director Pedro Almodóvar’s first film since Broken Embraces, “Banderas plays a plastic surgeon haunted by the deaths of his wife and daughter and obsessed with creating an indestructible synthetic skin.”¹ Elena Anaya plays his test subject, a woman he’s holding captive in his home.
Did Shakespeare really pen his famed plays? This is the question director Roland Emmerich addresses in Anonymous, which presents Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford (played by Rhys Ifans), as the true Bard. Initial reaction to this flick has been mixed with many questioning the directorial choice: “Roland Emmerich (2012, The Day After Tomorrow) and period drama go together like oil and water.”² However, as Metacritic explains, “if you like a good conspiracy theory and British costume dramas, this one might be right for you.”
Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner Like Crazy is an atypical love story. It isn’t about the first kiss or first intimate moment. It’s about an L.A. guy and a London lady who fall madly in love during college and then must navigate a long-distance relationship when her visa expires and she’s sent back to Britain. While some worry the premise may produce something corny and contrived, others are predicting it to be “a genuine and moving love story for a new generation.”² If the trailer is any indication, the stars of this film will certainly validate the initial praise.
Controversial director Lars Von Trier returns in November with Melancholia, a film about two sisters (Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg) who find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with the Earth. Dunst apparently hits it out of the park, which may be this film’s saving grace after Trier’s Cannes hullabaloo.
Family-Focused Features
It’s been 18 years since Free Willy, so we were definitely due for a heart-warming boy befriends/saves marine mammal feel-good family flick. And while Dolphin Tale doesn’t have a quintessential Michael Jackson jam as its theme song, it does outdo Free Willy in two ways: 1.) It’s based on a true story and 2.) It stars Winter, the actual dolphin the story is based on. It has faced some stiff-competition at the box office, squaring off against Lion King 3D, but the film has been well received by audiences and critics alike.
While some see Puss in Boots as merely an opportunity to further milk the Shrekfranchise, others see it as this fall’s most anticipated film. It has a family-friendly PG rating, the Shrek style of humour and offbeat fairy tale appeal, and Antonio Banderas teaming up with Desperado co-star Salma Hayek for an on-screen feline romance. Plus, it’s Puss. He pretty much made Shreks 2-4. Just watch the trailer:
The Muppets are returning. Yes, you read correctly. The Muppets are back, and in this re-launch, Jason Segal and Nicholas Stoller of Forgetting Sarah Marshall fame have penned a hilarious script replete with “all of the song and dance numbers, celebrity cameos, and offbeat Muppet humour fans have come to expect from Kermit and the rest of the gang.”³ In this adventure, Segel and Amy Adams team up with their Muppet friends to save the Muppet Theatre from being demolished by an oil tycoon.
Martin Scorsese is literally bringing the bestselling book The Invention of Hugo Cabret to life—it’s in 3D! Staring Hit Girl from Kick-Ass (Chloë Moretz) as well as Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Jude Law, Hugo is about a 12-year-old orphan who lives in the walls of a Paris train station in 1931 and, when he inherits an automaton from his late father, commences a wonderfully fantastical adventure. This film is quite the change of pace for Scorsese, “master of gritty urban dramas,” but he is a master nonetheless and books-to-film are all the rage, so why not? It may just surprise us all this holiday season.⁴
That wraps up part two of News & Views’ fall film preview. Now it’s your turn. What films are you, your library, and your patrons looking forward to most?
Temperatures and leaves may be falling, but the race for awards season is just heating up. Last week I detailed what albums you should look forward to this fall. In this preview, I tackle the topic of film. For part one, let’s discuss blockbusters and Oscar bait.
Entertaining Blockbusters
Two films already out in theatres begin this preview. One film, Contagion, which follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days, made News & Views’ list of top 25 films for 2011. The other, Drive, which is about Ryan Gosling driving cars, was relatively unknown until trailers started popping up in late summer. Both, though, are making quite the splash this fall. Listed in pretty much every fall preview—from Entertainment Weekly to Us Weekly—these two flicks have both received rave reviews and performed exceptionally well at the box office.
If a high-speed noir thriller about a driver named Driver can do really well, then why not a flick where Hugh Jackman trains real, live Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots? In Real Steel, director Shawn Levy takes us to the not-so-distant future where the sport of human boxing has been replaced with remote-controlled mechanized brawls. The story is truly about a father-son relationship, though, as robot controller Jackman works with his son, whose mother has just died, to turn an underdog robot into a champion. Every fall preview is pretty pumped about this flick even if the premise seems slightly silly. As iO9 puts it: “If you can take both ‘robot boxing’ and ‘father-son bonding over robot boxing’ seriously, this might be a fun romp.”
Not into Ryan Gosling (yeah right) or robots? There are plenty of other action-packed flicks to satiate your cravings this fall. Taylor Lautner breaks from his werewolf pack to star in Abduction, an actioner about ahigh school senior struggling to discover his true identity.
Justin Timberlake continues to not make music and instead headlines In Time, a trippy sci-fi thriller set in a future where humans cannot age past 25. To prevent overpopulation, people are only allowed to live one year after their 25th birthday. After that, they have to either earn or steal additional time. Guess who just inherited a century’s worth of time and a giant target on his back? J.T.
Like your action to be psychologically thrilling? Look no further than Dream House starring Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz. In this horror flick, a couple and their two young children move into a quaint New England home with a grisly past. Lots of folks have said the trailer (see below) reeks of spoilers, but film execs swear that’s not the actual plot twist.
Like your action in the form of boot-scootin’? Look no further than Footloose. No, we didn’t time travel back to 1984. Hollywood has remade the cult classic. Starring Julianne Hough and Kenny Wormald, this new Footloose has updated choreography and a more racially diverse cast. However, the rest of the story remains relatively the same. Call me a sceptic—or just a realist—but I don’t have much faith in this endeavour. Still, the music and choreography should at least be entertaining.
By now you either love or hate the Twilight series, so you’re either really excited for Breaking Dawn: Part 1 hitting theatres on November 18 or you’re quite miffed that there are not one, but two films remaining. Either way, this movie has three things that will pique interests across the board:
The star-crossed lovers have a human-vampire baby in what is sure to be a memorable birthing scene. (Think Alien.)
Awards Season Contenders
Awards season hits after fall, so traditionally autumn is laden with contenders. This season is no different as several heavy-hitting pictures step up to bat.
Remember how much everyone liked The Blind Side? Well, get ready to like Moneyball, another film based on a book based on a true story by Michael Lewis (who wrote The Blind Side). If that isn’t reason enough, Moneyball also combines two things America loves: baseball and underdog success. The film “centers on Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), who takes over as general manager of the cash-strapped Oakland Athletics baseball team and, through analysis and a new, nontraditional Sabermetric approach to scouting players, creates a competitive baseball team.”² Add Philip Seymour Hoffman and the comedic relief talents of Jonah Hill and you’ve got Oscar bait, my friends.
Ryan Gosling and George Clooney have teamed up—and it isn’t just to stand there and look pretty. They’re starring in a political thriller entitled Ides of March. “Besides directing, co-writing, and producing, Clooney plays Gov. Mike Morris, who is making a run for the Democratic presidential nomination…Gosling portrays his spokesman; Philip Seymour Hoffman his campaign manager. Paul Giamatti is a rival campaign manager,” summarizes the Denver Post.
Based on the book, My Week with Marilyn is the true story of Colin Clark, an assistant working on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl, who documents the tense interactions between his boss, Sir Laurence Olivier, and Marilyn Monroe. Oscar Nominee Michelle Williams—who Screen Rant applauds as “one of the most talented actresses working today”—plays the bombshell in all her platinum glory and is rumoured to be a knockout in the part.
In J. Edgar, Leonardo DiCaprio plays FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, sporting brown contacts to hide his baby blues and adorning prosthetic makeup to portray the man in his elderly years. Clint Eastwood directs and Dustin Lance Black (Milk) scripts this biopic, tracing Hoover’s life from his childhood in D.C. to his 50-year reign over the FBI. According to Us Weekly, the film “also examines his private life as an alleged closeted homosexual.”
If Ryan Gosling can put out two films this fall, then why can’t George Clooney? In The Descendants, he plays a Hawaiian land baron and father whose life is upended after his wife slips into a coma and he learns that she was having an affair. According to The Denver Post, “director-writer Alexander Payne understands pain and poignancy. And few directors move so seamlessly between those two moods.” And as proven in his acclaimed Sideways, he can ably walk the line between comedy and drama. Here, in his film The Descendants, he apparently does just that with great results.
That wraps up part one of News & Views’ fall film preview. Stay tuned for part two where we turn our sights on family flicks, comedies, and the offbeat and quirky. In the meantime, we’d love for you to share your thoughts. What films are you looking most forward to and why?
As the weather cools down, so do the sunny musical sensations of the summer. Last week we scoped out what audiobooks to look forward to this fall. Now, let’s set our sights on music.
The Much-Anticipated
No release is more anticipated than Blink-182’s. The pop-punk band that defined late ‘90s teen rock has reunited to release their first studio album in eight years. Entitled Neighborhoods, the album is self-produced and mixes the more mature approach to songwriting they took with their 2003 self-titled release with “tunes that hew closer to the band's origins,” according to Metacritic.
The only upcoming release that made as many fall previews as Blink-182’s Neighborhoods was that of legendary performer Tony Bennett. In a sequel to his 2006 Duets, Duets IIfeatures the 85-year-old crooner teaming up with everyone from Lady Gaga to Carrie Underwood to “reinterpret classics like ‘The Lady Is a Tramp’ and ‘It Had to Be You.’”³ The most anticipated track on the album—and one of the reasons the album itself is so highly anticipated—is Bennett’s duo with the late Amy Winehouse. The track “Body and Soul” was Winehouse’s final recording before her death this past July.
Landing eight years after Strays, new album The Great Escape Artistfrom alt-rock group Jane’s Addiction is only the band’s fourth studio album since 1988—which is one of the reasons this new release is so hotly anticipated. Another reason? TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek and bassist Chris Chaney have teamed up with original members Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro, and Stephen Perkins.
This fall will introduce us to music’s first app album as Björk releases her seventh full-length album, entitled Biophilia, October 11th. This truly multimedia album features an already available iPhone/iPad app that enables listeners to “explore each song’s themes through a constellation-filled universe.”⁴
So what albums are sure to burn up the charts? Well, there’s Drake’s Take Care. The Toronto rapper’s sophomore album made just about every fall preview list, most likely because his debut release has only been out for about a year and has performed amazingly well.
Avant-rock supergroup Coldplay, who could simply shatter dishes and somehow turn it into a number one single, will release their fifth studio album on October 25th. Entitled Mylo Xyloto (pronounced MY-lo ZY-letoe), the album is said to be something of a rock opera, and if their first single, the cheesy-named "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall,” is any indication, methinks this shall be a fine opera.
Kelly Clarkson returns stronger than ever before with her aptly named fifth studio album, Stronger. According to Clarkson (and the Atlantic), the album is “‘influenced by Prince, Tina Turner, Sheryl Crow, [and] Radiohead.’"
It’s been five years since Goth-rock band Evanescence released an album; lead singer Amy Lee is the only original member still with the group. On October 11, the band will release a self-titled album that apparently is more aggressive, both musically and lyrically.
In the realm of country, three albums are expected to perform very well on the country charts and quite possibly on the pop charts as well. Lady Antebellum’s Own the Night has already spawned a hit single, "Just a Kiss." Miranda Lambert’s fiery fourth album Four the Record features many guest spots, including one from husband and Billboard chart topper Blake Shelton. And LeAnn Rimes' Lady & Gentlemenfeatures famous country songs by men reinterpreted from a woman’s perspective.
Demi Lovato is proving there’s life after Disney with her third album, Unbroken. This is her first release since entering an Illinois treatment facility last October for self-mutilation and eating disorders. Her first single, “Skyscraper,” is already quickly climbing the digital songs chart.
Mary J. Blige adds to her already impressive catalogue with the release of My Life II...The Journey Continues, the sequel to her heartbreaking 1994 album. Expect this album to exude more maturity and hope than its predecessor: “‘On the first My Life album, we all were depressed and wanted to die,’ Blige told MTV News. ‘This one, we want to live and we understand with living, life still comes with challenges and triumphs and good times and bad times.’”⁵
Fresh Faces and Up-and-Comers
American Idol winner Scotty McCreery and runner-up Lauren Alaina will both release debut albums within the country genre. Both have teamed up with heavy-hitting producers—Scotty with Mark Bright (Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts) and Lauren with Byron Gallimore (Tim McGraw)—and both leave me wondering when Haley Reinhart is going to release her debut album.
When Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump decided to go solo, he really meant it. Not only does he explore “eclectic, post-emo avenues” and infuse R&B into his debut album, Soul Punk, but he also plays every instrument.¹ USA Today reports the album will be “a decidedly drastic change of pace from Fall Out Boy.”
Apparently, if there’s one thing you need to know about Dev—as proven in her 2010 single—it’s that she likes her beats fresh and her bass down low. First discovered by the production duo The Cataracs, Dev went on to sing the hook for the Far East Movement’s “Like a G6.” In her debut full-length album, Night the Sun Came Up, she infuses pop with dubstep to produce a dance-igniting playlist.
If we were in Europe, Martin Solveig wouldn’t be considered a “fresh face” as he’s “been flooding dance floors with his rock-infused brand of Big Beats for more than a decade.”² However, here in North America, he’s only made a splash recently with his major summer jam, “Hello,” featuring Dragonette. Thus, it’ll be interesting to see how his November release Smash will perform.
It’s no surprise that hip-hop rising star J. Cole—the first artist to sign to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label—has landed on fall music previews for Billboard, USA Today, Metacritic, and The Insider. We’ve been waiting more than two years for his debut to land. Cole World: The Sideline Story hits shelves September 27th and features guest appearances from Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Trey Songz, and Drake
Hipster Beats
The following albums shone brightly on numerous previews, convincing me that fall might just be the season of indie rock.
In The Whole Love, Chicago alt-country rockers Wilco escape suspicions of “dad-rock complacency”³ and offer a reinvigorated “culmination of the band’s twangy yet experimental discography.”⁵
Grammy-nominated and Canadian singer-songwriter Feist is “both a member of Broken Social Scene and a one-time collaborator with Elmo on Sesame Street.”⁶ If that isn’t reason enough to get excited about Metals, then perhaps this rave review from Spin will: "…[a] gorgeous collection of overtly poppy tunes, cinematic art-rock, and strummy ballads." And according to the Atlantic, “Happily, Leslie Feist's mercurial, lush voice remains at its deserved place—the center of the songs.”
Other highly anticipated indie albums? Florence + the Machine’s second album Ceremonials has been slated for release in the UK. No word on North America yet, much to my dismay.
St. Vincent follows up her successful 2009 Actor and her much-applauded track with Bon Iver on the Twilight: New Moonsoundtrack with Strange Mercy. In Girls’ Father, Son, Holy Ghost, “the San Francisco indie rockers go big…trying out genres ranging from soul to metal and even enlisting a gospel choir on several tracks.”⁴
Post-modern punk-poppers Los Campesinos! continue to entertain with Hello Sadness, and electronic-pop group M83’s Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is a double album that plays like a soundtrack to a big-budget, heart-rending, high speed film.
So there you have it: News & Views’ fall music preview. Now, it’s your turn. What fall releases are you and your patrons anticipating the most?
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