How I Hear It: Music to look forward to

Several album releases in upcoming months worth keeping an eye out for

Posted on Sept. 28, 2011, at 10:20 p.m.

New albums are always coming out. Some of them are great. Others suck.

I decided to wade through the garbage and come up with a short list of albums that I am looking forward to that have an expected release date before the end of 2011.

Here are my most anticipated late fall and early winter music releases in chronological order:

1. Joe Jonas – Fastlife (Oct. 11, 2011)

I’m kidding, but this is happening and it is a shame.

2. Noel Gallagher – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (Oct. 17, 2011)

Gallagher, formerly of the legendary British rock band Oasis, left the group after he got in a fight with his brother Liam, Oasis’ lead singer, backstage before a performance at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris in Aug. 2009.

The rest of the band decided to continue making music under the name “Beady Eye,” leaving Gallagher alone. Given absolute creative control, he started work on his first solo album post-Oasis, “High Flying Birds.”

“”I’m relieved that I don’t have to explain the sounds to anybody,” Gallagher said in an interview with SPIN. “I don’t have to endlessly say, ‘Okay, what I’m talking about is… ragtime music!’ I don’t have to say, ‘No, this is how you play it!’”

Gallagher has confidence in his new songs, claiming they are comparable to classic Oasis hits.

“Whether 10 years from now we’re still talking about those new songs in the same breath as ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger,’ well… only time will tell, won’t it,” he said.

3. Justice – Audio, Video, Disco (Oct. 25, 2011)

The French electro house duo are set to release their second album, hoping to avoid the sophomore slump. Based on the self-titled lead single, a deterioration of any kind is highly unlikely.

The song is still electronic-sounding and structured like the house songs from their first album, but there is something more band-oriented about it. Guitars, drums and piano are more clearly heard and sound organic.

This makes for a refreshing change and in my opinion, this album will trump their debut.

4. Angels and Airwaves – Love: Part Two (Nov. 11, 2011)

Angels and Airwaves began as a side-project of blink-182 lead singer Tom Delonge, but has evolved into much more than that.

The 2006 debut record, “We Don’t Need To Whisper,” made it clear that Delonge had been listening to Pink Floyd and U2, as the album blended spacey atmospherics with the pop-punk of blink-182 for a unique and excellent sound.

Angels and Airwaves have released two other albums since then: “I-Empire” in 2007 and “Love” in 2010, both of which showed an evolution of the drifting and extraterrestrial brand of rock.

As evidenced by the title, “Love: Part Two” is a continuation of the previous album, so the feel is expected to be similar to “Love,” which is just fine. “Love” was a fantastic album and I expect no less from its sequel.

5. Childish Gambino – Camp (Nov. 15, 2011)

Donald Glover is a modern Renaissance man, starring in the hit NBC show “Community” as ex-high school football star Troy Barnes and rapping under the name Childish Gambino.

While rap may be what he does on the side, Glover takes it seriously and the product shows that.

Over the past few years, Childish Gambino has released several mixtapes and EPs on his website for free. The songs received a great deal of buzz for their catchy, unique beats and clever lyricism.

A sample of his poetic genius: “I am running this bi—, you are just a dog walker.”

Childish Gambino released the single “Bonfire” on Sept. 20 and it reached No. 63 on the iTunes chart that same day.

6. R.E.M. – Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011 (Nov. 15, 2011)

If you don’t know that R.E.M. retired, then come out from under the rock that you live beneath.

To give closure to fans and themselves, R.E.M. announced the release of a definitive greatest hits album. This is the first R.E.M. collection to feature songs from all of their albums that were released on different record labels, meaning hits like “The One I Love” and “Everybody Hurts” will appear together on one collection for the first time.

The two-disc collection also features three new songs that the band worked on during the sessions for their last album, “Collapse Into Now.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 28th, 2011, 10:20 pm. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.