Atlantic Goes for the Gold with New Grammy Compilation

To cap off a relatively all-over-the-place year in pop music for 2013, January 26 sees the 56th annual Grammy Awards, broadcast live as always from Los Angeles’ Staples Center. The competition is particularly heavy with nominations for rappers, both veterans (Jay-Z) and upstarts (Kendrick Lamar, indie sensations Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, who continue to self-release their work without a major label behind them), but there’s a little something for everyone on the 2014 Grammy Nominees album, due January 21 from Atlantic Records.

The 18 tracks herein span dozens of categories and genres. Do you like R&B-flavored pop? Justin Timberlake, nominated for seven awards this year, offers “Mirrors,” a shimmering ballad off his 20/20 Experience double album, while future Super Bowl halftime performer Bruno Mars brings “Locked Out of Heaven” – the best Police song Sting never wrote – and Robin Thicke is represented by the year’s biggest chart hit, “Blurred Lines.” New Zealand’s iconoclastic Lorde, a Record of the Year and Song of the Year nominee at only 17, offers her inescapable “Royals,” while Daft Punk (who will perform with Stevie Wonder at the telecast) satisfy all ages with “Get Lucky,” a killer disco track bolstered by an immediately recognizable guitar riff from CHIC’s Nile Rodgers.

Other key tracks include “Brave,” from singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles’ The Blessed Unrest (a surprise nominee for Album of the Year), Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ uplifting tolerance anthem “Same Love,” the excellent “Just Give Me a Reason” by pop survivor P!nk and Nate Ruess of fun., and “Merry Go Round,” a criminally underrated track by country singer Kacey Musgraves. (Her Same Trailer Different Park is up for Best Country Album, “Merry Go Round” is up for Best Country Song and Musgraves herself contends for a Best New Artist trophy.)

For the full track list, as well as a breakdown of nominations surrounding each song, hit the jump.

Grammy Time: Music’s Biggest Night Honored with Annual Compilation

We’re just a few weeks from the 55th Annual Grammy Awards – or as I like to call it, “how many times can my music geek friends and I make cutting jokes on the Internet?” – and, as is customary, next week will see the release of a compilation of Grammy-nominated songs for your perusal.

The 22-track compilation, distributed this year by EMI, has quite the cross-section of cuts from what is a rather diverse year for the awards ceremony. Altogether, six different artists – Dan Auerbach of the indie-blues group The Black Keys, power-pop upstarts Fun., folk phenom Mumford & Sons, rising rapper/R&B singer Frank Ocean and 21st century hip-hop statesmen Jay-Z and Kanye West – are all tied for most nominations this year, with six apiece. A host of current stars and future greats are up for the most prominent awards, including Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Jack White Australian singer/songwriter Gotye, R&B crooner Miguel and more.

2013 Grammy Nominees also includes a track by last year’s champion Adele (who took home six trophies for her 2011 smash 21 and is nominated for Best Pop Solo Performance for her Live At The Royal Albert Hall CD/DVD) and one from the one and only Boss, Bruce Springsteen, who is not only a three-time nominee this year but will receive the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences’ prestigious MusiCares Person of the Year Award at a ceremony held the night before the Grammys telecast.

Get your copy of the CD January 22 and watch the awards at 8 p.m. on Sunday, February 10 on CBS. Pre-order links and a detailed summary of each track’s Grammy nominations are after the jump.

Release Round-Up: Week of November 16

Bruce Springsteen, The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story (Columbia/Legacy)

Bruuuuuuuuce celebrates one of his most acclaimed albums in a big way. Darkness will be augmented with two discs’ worth of outtakes and three(!) DVDs, including the new making-of documentary The Promise. (The outtakes are available as their own double-disc set as well.) (Official site)

Jimi Hendrix, West Coast Seattle Boy: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology / BBC Sessions / Live at Woodstock / Blues / Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (Experience Hendrix/Legacy)

The latest chapter of the Hendrix reissue campaign from Sony includes a new box set of rare and unreleased material (available on CD or vinyl) that features a neat overview of Hendrix’s early days as a sideman with other rock and soul acts. (A single-disc compilation will feature the best of the outtakes, and will also be sold as a double-disc set with the new documentary DVD from the box.) The same date will see CD/DVD versions of BBC Sessions and Blues alongside new reissues of Hendrix’s Woodstock set and collector-favorite Christmas EP.

Billy Joel, The Hits (Columbia/Legacy)

The Piano Man’s first-ever single-disc compilation – geared to entice casual fans into partaking in next year’s Billy Joel catalogue blitz – is a very straightforward (and very debatable) release, but one that’s worth buying, especially if you like Billy Joel. (Note: it is this writer’s opinion that it is easy to like Billy Joel. Results may vary.) (Amazon)

The Stooges, Have Some Fun: Live at Ungano’s / 1970: The Complete Fun House Sessions (Elektra/Rhino Handmade)

Orders begin shipping this week on two new Stooges sets: an unreleased live show from 197o and the reissue of the out-of-print seven-disc box set version of The Stooges.

Bee Gees, Mythology (Rhino)

This four-disc box set, featuring an overview of all of the Gibbs (including Andy) and including three unreleased tracks, was supposed to come out last holiday season. Better late than never? (Amazon)

Some Compilation House-Cleaning

Just so everyone’s on the same page (yours truly included), we present a few updated track lists for some upcoming compilations for your perusal.

When Pink’s Greatest Hits…So Far!!! and Nelly Furtado’s The Best Of were announced back in October, the track lists were either partial or based upon import track lists. In the interest of clarity, we give you standard and deluxe domestic track lists for both titles, each due November 12. (This writer is still bummed that Pink’s take on “Whataya Want from Me,” the hit song she co-wrote for Adam Lambert, will be an import-only track. Thank goodness for indie record stores.)

Have at them after the jump.

Get the Party Started! Pink to Release First Compilation

Not all tunes at The Second Disc headquarters are vintage cuts. Matter of fact, one of the neatest compilations from a modern pop artist was just announced yesterday: Greatest Hits…So Far!!!, the first compilation by pop singer Pink.

Emerging from a short-lived R&B group called Choice, Pink was given a solo contract on LaFace Records in 2000, the age of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Much to her resentment, she was quickly labeled as an edgier version of those singers. Undeterred, her sophomore album M!ssundaztood (2001) began a long string of pop records full of dance-rock anthems and deeply personal ballads. Or, in the case of songs like 2008’s No. 1 hit “So What,” her music can be both; it was written in the aftermath of her separation from motocross racer Carey Hart. (Interestingly, he appeared in the accompanying music video. Twice as interestingly, they since reunited.)

A new single, “Raise Your Glass,” was released to radio yesterday and will feature on the compilation. What remains to be seen is how exact the circulating track list is. The official press release shows a track list with only “Raise Your Glass” and as-yet undetermined new track as the bonuses, but an Australian press release posted to Pink’s official site lists a total of 20 tracks (to yet to be determined), including “Raise Your Glass” and the other new tune, three additional, previously released singles and a cover of American Idol finalist Adam Lambert’s hit single “Whataya Want from Me,” which Pink co-wrote.

Amazon has pre-order listings for a standard and deluxe edition with a DVD. The U.S. track list for both discs can be read after the jump.