TOMORROW ON THE MORNING JOLT: GILLIAN, FLORENCE, IMELDA

Tomorrow on SiriusXM OutQ's The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick I'm bringing in some of my favorite albums of 2011, but the theme is that all of these records feature lead vocals by women.


Gillian Welch's The Harrow and The Harvest is definitely one of my favorites of the year. I'm not the only one who feels that way: Mojo magazine gave it a five out of five star rating. Whenever I listen to it, I find it odd that it's just her name on the cover: it seems that her and her partner David Rawlings are equally vital to the music.

Florence + The Machine's Ceremonials is an "epic" album.  That word gets overused these days, but everything -- the songs, the performances, the arrangements -- it's a work of art.

Imelda May's Mayhem came out in Europe last year, but in the U.S. this year. She is really talented: a great singer, very charismatic, great sense of style, and she writes great songs.   You may have heard her singing on Jeff Beck's recent albums Emotion & Commotion and Rock & Roll Party. In fact, if *I* wanted to have a rock and roll party, I'd never be able to afford Jeff Beck, but one day if I'm pretty successful, I might call on Imelda May and her great band to rock my party!

Other records I hope we'll get to: Shelby Lynne's Revelation Road, Allison Moorer's Crows (which actually came out last year), Joss Stone's LP4 and The Tedeschi Trucks Band's Revelator. (That band features married couple Derek Trucks of The Allman Brothers Band and singer-songwriter Susan Tedeschi.) And maybe I'll give another shout out to The Make Out, who have one of my favorite songs of 2011, "I Don't Want Anyone Who Wants Me."

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE "CEREMONIALS"

Other than Adele's 21 and Kanye West + Jay-Z's Watch The Throne, I can't think of any album that's been as eagerly anticipated by the 25 and over audience as Florence + The Machine's Ceremonials.  And I can't imagine that anyone is disappointed by it.  My only "problem" with the album is that when I listen to it on my iPod (yes, I listen to full albums on my iPod, it's not all about the mixes) is that when I get to "What The Water Gave Me" I keep hitting repeat.  I'm not a musician, but I feel jealous of the guy playing bass on the track (Mark Saunders, he's not a member of the band).  Actually it sounds like it would be a blast to be doing anything on this song.  Tom Monger, the Machine's harp player is always probably having a great time. The song is like a perfect combination of PJ Harvey's mystique and U2's swinging for the fences. That may not be the most creative way of putting it - I know they have been compared to both artists.

But Florence sings like a feral force of nature.  If Storm from The X-Men was a British singer, I imagine she'd sound something like Florence Welch. I have actually been around Ms. Welch twice (I was one of the camera people on this video, shot just days after their incredible performance on the MTV VMAs) and it is hard to imagine her wanting to headline arenas.  On the other hand, she has a great sense of high drama that plays so well to the bleachers. And, like Adele, she may not have a choice: Florence + The Machine may get so popular off of this album, they may have to start hitting the bigger venues.

I can't think of many singers since Annie Lennox who have been able to mix "art rock" (for lack of a better term) with soul music.  Florence was great when she sang as a part of a tribute to Aretha Franklin at the Grammys last year, and on songs like "Lover, Lover" and "No Light, No Light" show that she is as soulful as anyone.

Other than U2 and PJ Harvey, the other artist who the band (and it *is* a band) reminds me of is Arcade Fire. I don't know of that many bands that swing for the fences and raise the roof, with such interesting and not-typical rock arrangements as these two bands.  I happen to think Florence + The Machine write catchier songs though.

I don't spend too much time on No Expiration writing about and recommending really new artists.  Consider this an occasional exception to that.  This is worth your time.  Check Ceremonials out.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: VAMPIRE MUSIC!

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET, I go on the SIRIUS XM channel OutQ to talk about music on The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. Tomorrow, I'm talking about vampire music!  Because nothing says "summer" like pasty faced white kids dying their hair jet black, wearing all black, and avoiding the sun at all costs!  Ha ha, I kid!

First off is the new True Blood soundtrack.  I am a huge fan of the show, and I don't even have HBO! We watch it on DVD.  Anyway, with season 3 having just started, they've just released the season 2 box set and also the soundtrack. I have to express admiration here for the people who decide what songs make it to the show. They are really well chosen, they aren't done strictly as marketing, and it doesn't seem to matter what genre they are in, what era they are from, or if they are exclusive to the soundtrack. While I'm watching the show, I'm not distracted by the music, but I'm always amazed how it seems to fit, whether it's a song from the '50s like Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "Frenzy" or a newer song like Bob Dylan's "Beyond Here Lies Nothing" (used in the season finale, it was also that episode's title).  Jace Everett sings the show's theme song "Bad Things" - a choice of sheer genius by the producers, it was an already existing song. That song is available on Volume 1 and iTunes, but Everett returns this time with swamp blues dude C.C. Adcock (his self titled 1994 album is great by the way) with a cover of Howlin' Wolf 's "Evil." One of my favorite indie rock dudes, M. Ward, also covers Wolf with "Howlin' For My Baby." There are also great songs by Beck and eels.  I was actually disappointed with a Lucinda Williams/Elvis Costello song, and a Robbie Robertson song. But overall, it is a great listen.

This weekend the new Twilight film opens.  I haven't seen any of the films or read any of the books. About a year and a half ago, Larry and I discussed the original Twilight soundtrack, comparing it to The Crow films and soundtracks in the '90s. Twilight actually seems to have more legs, and is seen as a really important soundtrack to be on, three films in.  I see the soundtrack as more of a marketing thing - and I don't say that in a mean way, it's just true.  All the acts are probably familiar to hipper high school and college kids.  And the big names line up to be on the soundtrack: Muse makes their third Twilight appearance, plus Dead Weather, The Black Keys, Beck (him again!), Florence + The Machine and Cee Lo Green are all on the album, which is pretty solid, I must say.

Finally, The Cure just reissued a three CD deluxe edition of their classic album, Disintegration. Disc 1 is the album remastered (and it sounds great), disc 2 is demos and rehearsal versions (only for the obsessives, of which there are many) and disc 3 is all the songs on the album played live in concert.  I put Disintegration on my list of the best albums of all time, but of course it isn't for everybody.  But unless you need to hear every note Robert Smith has committed to tape (again, I realize many of you are out there) you really just need to listen to the main album. One misconception that people had, and maybe still have, about The Cure is that they are  a "wimpy" synthy band.  Not true: Smith is a badass guitar player, and Hendrix was a huge influence on him.  Check out "Fascination Street" from this album if you don't believe me. 

FLORENCE WORKING ON A NEW ALBUM

Last year, Larry Flick turned me on to a new artist/band called Florence & The Machine. Their debut, Lungs, was really cool.  He gave me the album, I ripped it to my computer, my wife listened and really got into it, which got me even more into it. Now she/they are working on a new album, which is going to be more dance music oriented.  Read more about it (and watch a video interview that reminds me of the news packages I used to produce for VH1) at Spinner.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2009

For those of you who are new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUSXM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. People love lists, and debating over them. So tomorrow, I'll be armed with some of my favorite albums of 2009. I'm sure Larry will bring some of his. Our tastes in the '09 definitely intersect at a few points, like Florence & The Machine and Muse. I think he tweeted asking listeners to request some of their favorites. My favorite album of the year is Bob Dylan's Together Through Life. But I'm sure we'll discuss The Cocktail Slippers' Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, N.A.S.A.'s The Spirit Of Apollo, Care Bears On Fire's Get Over It! and Miranda Lambert's Revolution.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: SOME VERY TALENTED LADIES

For those of you who are
new to No Expiration, every Wednesday morning at 9 am ET I go on the SIRIUSXM channel OutQ. I am a weekly contributor to The Morning Jolt with Larry Flick. Most weeks I bring a theme, and since "female singers," or "divas" seems to always go over well, I decided to go with that one again, particularly because there are lots of relevant
albums out right now.

First off is Larry's #1 favorite album of the year, Lungs, by Florence & The Machine. He's been talking about it for months, and I only just listened to it for the first time. It's a pretty powerful album. In some ways, Florence reminds me of Tori Amos, but I can't back that up with much, so I'll probably keep it to myself, as Larry is no fan of Tori! My wife Maria grabbed the CD from me, and she loves it. So, I'm glad to say that I like it also. I may even add this to my Best Of '09 series.

Leona Lewis has just released Echo. Larry and I disagreed about Leona last year, he thought she deserved the Record of the Year Grammy, last year, and I thought it rightfully went to Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. Sorry, Larry, I paid my NARAS dues and you forgot to pay yours! Larry felt that Leona's debut was an event on the level of Mariah Carey's debut. I disagreed with that - I almost think it is impossible for someone to dominate pop music the way Mariah did. (I also didn't think a Mariah-level-event would be a positive thing, anyway, as I don't like Mariah.) I did think Leona's "Bleeding Love" was a great pop song, and I don't hate on her because of it. I have only heard one new Leona song, "Happy," which I thought was really good. But she doesn't dodge comparassions to Mariah, that's for sure.

Norah Jones has been a favorite of mine since I heard her debut album, Come Away With Me, in 2002. I just got her new album, The Fall, tonight, and I think it's great. She broke up with her long time boyfriend/bass player Lee Alexander, which pretty much broke up her band. So she started working with new people, including producer Jaquire King, who worked on Tom Waits' classic Mule Variations. I think it is a really successful progression for her.

Finally, Joss Stone has just released Color Me Free!, which sees her fighting with her record label, which, sadly, doesn't usually end well for the artist. I got to interview her before her debut, 2003's The Soul Sessions EP when I worked for VH1. I think it's a good record but not a great one. She has so much talent, it's almost frustrating that she hasn't clicked with audiences in the way that she should. Maybe she needs a new record label. I hope they just don't slut her image up too much.

So call in if you want to weigh in! We'll probably do another week of female singers next month, when Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige and Shakira have released their new albums. Next week: crack. Um, I mean box sets. The Rolling Stones, Dolly Parton, Hall & Oates, AC/DC and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.