If It's Too Loud...

A slower week, but one with some pretty impactful releases. Album of the Week : Artist : V. V. Lightbody Album : Bathing Peach Quick Description : Debut solo project from a Chicago-area singer-songwriter. Why You Should Listen : You wish Lucy Dacus would tone it down a bit? Overall Thoughts : This is an album that is a little hard to describe. It's kind of folky, but has some edge to it? The project of Vivian McConnell, she clearly has some great songwriting chops that make you pay attention from the first few notes, and this kind of came out of nowhere for me in terms of how much I liked it. If you like the folky stuff, or even the more contemplative singer-songwriter efforts of late, you should give this a listen. Recommendation : Best release of the week. Artist : The Carters Album : Everything is Love Quick Description : Surprise-yet-anticipated collaboration between Beyonce and Jay-Z. Why You Should Listen : Love it or hate it, this is what people will be tal...

The good news is that we're finally getting some good new releases again. The bad news is that they aren't so great... Editors - The Weight of Your Love : Editors started out as a British Interpol that I generally liked more than Interpol. They've somewhat branched away from that a bit, but that doesn't mean that they're still not great. The new album is quite good on the first few listens, and I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more press than it has. Jay-Z - Magna Carta Holy Grail : I talked about this a bit last week , and my initial thoughts pretty much hold. It's Jay-Z's best effort in some time, better than Yeezus (although it's trying to accomplish something very different), and probably Jay-Z's best work in years. Yes, it's funny to hear Jay-Z tell Miley Cyrus to "twerk it." The Mother Hips - Behind Beyond : A friend got me into the Mother Hips some time ago, and I've never loved what they do, but they defi...

Been waiting to say this for three weeks: magna Carta holy fail. — David D. (@DavidDTSS) July 4, 2013 If you have a Samsung phone, you might have been like me and stayed up until midnight last night to get first crack at one of the million copies of Jay-Z's new album Magna Carta Holy Grail . I tried for about a half hour and then went to bed, and tried for much of the day today and had no luck, even going back and forth with tech support. I did find one workaround, however, if you're looking for the album still: 1) If you've already installed the app, uninstall the app. 2) Redownload it - your Play store, if you're working from your phone, will list it as "Update" rather than "Install." 3) Enter the app as usual, download. The other weird thing, at least for me and others, was that the app will move the album into your music player of choice, but might not give you access to the mp3s. To get the mp3s, you need to hook your phone up to you...