This week is like a new music explosion. Seriously- between Guns n’ Roses’ (really Axl Rose and bunch of other dudes- but not Slash) 17 year journey to create Chinese Democracy, to The Killers‘ highly anticipated Day & Age, this week is like one giant candy store for music fans. Ludacris, Coldplay, Kanye West, Barry Manilow and Trace Adkins all have new releases dropping this week.

West’s album, 808’s Heartbreak,  is…a really huge departure from his past work. Do you love the older Kanye?

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You may not dig the new one. The album is on Auto-Tune overload. Hey Kanye, Heidi Montag called and she wants her special effects back. Kanye actually has talent, so I’m not so sure why he felt the need to mess with every single song on the album. But, I digress. You may totally love it, and if so, right on. I do like “Love Lockdown“. The drums are very cool, and if you saw his MTV VMA performance you know how great the song sounds live.

Ludacris’ latest, Theater of The Mind, was originally supposed to be a musical movie. I got a bit lost in the scene changes, but the album has touches of classic Luda. The beats and bass definitely hit hard on a few of these tracks. Check out “One More Drink“- it’s kind of like Luda meets Ice Cube’s “Today was a Good Day”, and you can’t help but laugh at some of the lyrics.

Trace Adkins’ latest effort, X (that means 10, for his 10th album, not for on a scale of 1 to 10), has been getting rave reviews from country music sites to main stream music media. Barry Manilow’s, The Greatest Songs of the Eighties, follows in line with his other decade cover compilations. It’s interesting that he thinks “Right Here Waiting” is one of the top songs of the 80s. I could probably think of 1,000 songs that were “better” than that particular song, but I’m not in charge of his selections.

And last, but not least, Coldplay released a follow up EP to their mega-hit Viva la Vida called Prospket’s March. It’s got classic Coldplay sound. A few of the songs are remakes of originals on Vida. Is it just me or does Coldplay make you see things in pretty colors too?

Enjoy this music week! It’s rare to have so many major bands drop at the same time.

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