Popular Music CDs for Adults
Hundreds of CDs are added to the Library's collection each month. Here are the most popular Music CDs for adults.
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OHIO PLAYERS (CD)
Grammy Award winning rockers The Black Keys release their twelfth studio album. The first single, Beautiful People (Stay High) was co-written by Beck and Dan "The Automator" Nakamura. There is also a collaboration with Noel Gallagher.
Format: Music CD
Availability: On order
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GLASGOW EYES (CD)
Marking 40 years of The Jesus And Mary Chain, this album was recorded at Mogwai's Castle of Doom studio in Glasgow, where Jim and William continued the creative process that resulted in their previous album, 2017's 'Damage and Joy', becoming their highest charting album in over twenty years. What emerged is a record that finds one of the UK's most influential groups embracing a productive second chapter, their maelstrom of melody, feedback and controlled chaos now informed more audibly by their love for Suicide and Kraftwerk and a fresh appreciation of the less disciplined attitudes found in jazz.
Format: Music CD
Availability: On order
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Javelin
It's hard to say where pop music would be if it weren't for love songs -– love has been most songwriters' favorite subject for centuries, but beyond the fact that almost everyone wants to be in love and is sad when they're not, there are only so many things to be said about the subject. Sufjan Stevens' 2023 album, Javelin, is that rarity, a collection of songs about love that feels like something you haven't heard before, both in its depth and complexity, and in the way it explores love in both its human and divine forms. Spiritual themes have often popped up in Stevens' songwriting since he enjoyed his breakthrough with 2003's Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State. On Javelin, he sings about the need for succor from the Lord with a quiet but fierce desire that mirrors the urgency with which he sings, "Will anybody ever love me?/For good reasons/Without grievance, not for sport," which appears to be a cry for affection from another human being. Stevens isn't singing about simple heartache on Javelin, he's speaking about the need for love that's as necessary to our existence as food and water, and the strong stage-whisper of his delivery makes his musings all the more powerful, as do the beautifully arranged and executed harmonies that add depth to the tracks. As he often does on his projects, Stevens played all the instruments himself on these ten songs (except for some additional guitar on "Shit Talk," performed by Bryce Dessner of the National), and listening to this music back to back with Greetings from Michigan shows how much Stevens has grown within his trademark style in two decades: His mix of folkie melodies and serialist structures is as distinct today as it was then, but he's learned how to use these tools with an agility that's dynamic and filled with unpretentious, naturalistic drama. The music dovetails with the lyrics so each amplifies the other, while the production is unobtrusive in its effects but superb in how it reinforces the emotional energy in the music. Javelin closes with a cover of Neil Young's "There's a World" and Stevens has adapted the song so successfully that it's difficult at first to tell he didn't write it, even as Young's words and ideas continue to shine through. Javelin is an album about the need to be loved, agape and philia, and Stevens shows that he can write about both without trivializing or minimizing the importance of either. That's a commendable achievement in any creative medium, and the fact that he's done so while creating some of the best music of his life makes this essential listening. ~ Mark Deming (syndetics)
Format: Music CD
Availability: All copies in use
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Space Funk 2: Afro Futurist Electro Funk in Space 1976-84
(syndetics)
Format: Music CD
Availability: All copies in use
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BLEACHERS (CD)
Bleachers return with their self-titled new album, via Dirty Hit. The album is Jack Antonoff's distinctly New Jersey take on the bizarre sensory contradictions of modern life, on his position in culture, and the things he cares about. Sonically, it's sad, it's joyful, it's music for driving on the highway to, for crying to and for dancing to at weddings. There's something reassuringly touchable and concrete about its sentiment: exist in crazy times but remember what counts.
Format: Music CD
Availability: On order
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Higher
Current ACM Entertainer of the Year Chris Stapleton releases his fifth studio album, which includes the single White Horse. (syndetics)
Format: Music CD
Availability: All copies in use
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THREE BELLS (CD)
A fifteen-song cycle that takes a journey to the center of the self. Ty's been on this kind of trip before, so he's souped up a vehicle that's all his own, a sophisticated machine to take us there this time. The conception of Three Bells arcs, rainbow-like, into a land nearly beyond songs but inside of them, Ty relentlessly pushes the walls further and further in his writing and playing to cast light into the opaquest depths.
Format: Music CD
Availability: On order
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Killers Of The Flower Moon: Soundtrack From The Apple Original Film
One of his last projects, this sees the late Robbie Robertson collaborating with director Martin Scorsese for the eleventh time. This emotional score is partly inspired by Robertson's childhood on the Six Nations Reserve. (syndetics)
Format: Music CD
Availability: All copies in use
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Barbie: The Album
As over-the-top and stuffed with star power as its namesake film, Barbie: The Album is a pop extravaganza that matches the 2023 global cinema phenomenon. Produced and curated by pop maestro Mark Ronson, the set features the talents of all your favorite early-2020s pop stars. Dua Lipa (starring as Mermaid Barbie in the movie) contributes an appropriately dancefloor-friendly disco throwback bop, "Dance the Night," which topped charts across the planet, while Charli XCX injects her hyperpop energy into "Speed Drive," which interpolates Toni Basil's cheerleader chant from "Mickey." Ava Max and Sam Smith add cheekiness and drama to the set with tracks that sound very much like Ava Max and Sam Smith (in the best way possible). Fans who have seen the movie will recognize Lizzo's "Pink," Ryan Gosling's showcase ballad "I'm Just Ken," and Billie Eilish's heartbreaking, self-aware "What Was I Made For?" And although Aqua themselves are not present here, "Barbie World" samples that '90s classic with tough verses traded between Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice. There's a genre for everyone as Karol G, Tame Impala, Dominic Fike, HAIM, the Kid LAROI, Khalid, PinkPantheress, and many more join forces to represent Barbies and Kens of all types. Barbie: The Album is a celebration as colorful and uplifting as the movie itself, and both are highly recommended. [For fans in search of Gosling's beachside acoustic take on "Push" and Brandi Carlile's cover of Indigo Girls' "Closer to Fine," the deluxe "Best Weekend Ever Edition" is the place to go.] ~ Neil Z. Yeung (syndetics)
Format: Music CD
Availability: All copies in use
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VISIONS (CD)
A vibrant and joyous twelve-song set that finds Norah Jones singing about feeling free, wanting to dance, making it right, and acceptance of what life brings. It's the yang to the yin that was Pick Me Up Off The Floor, Jones' last album of new original songs which was released in the pandemic lockdown of 2020, and foreshadowed many of the dark emotions of that period.
Format: Music CD
Availability: On order
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