New Music: June 2012

One of the main things I love about my job is that I get to look at all the gloriously new (and clean) material before it goes out on the shelves. My favorite thing to look at is the new cds, so I thought I'd share with you some of my favorite music that comes in each month. There's such a wide range of new material that comes in so here is just a taste of what Auckland Libraries has to offer for June 2012.

MTV Unplugged: A Live Album by Florence and the Machine

Florence and the Machine have released their version of MTV's Unplugged featuring songs from 2009's ‘Lungs’ and 2011's ‘Ceremonials’. The album also features 2 covers the first is a cover of Otis Redding’s 'Try a Little Tenderness' .The second is a cover with Josh Homme (lead singer of Queens of the Stone Age) of ‘Jackson’ made famous by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash.

Genre: Indie/Pop/Live
You might like if you enjoy: Mumford and Sons, Ladyhawke, Marina and the Diamonds
My favorite Songs: Drumming Song, Shake it Out, Try A Little Tenderness


Hell on Heels by Pistol Annies

Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley make up Pistol Annies a kick-ass country group from America. Lambert (who has a highly successful solo career) started the group last year and they released 'Hell on Heels' in August 2011. The album was only released digitally at first but even with only a small amount of promotion the album reached number 1 on the US country charts and has since been released in CD format. This album is a bunch of country girls singing about being country girls. In the words of Presley ‘the only thing that’s fake is the eyelashes’.

Genre: Country
You might like if you enjoy: Miranda Lambert, The Band Perry, Dixie Chicks
My favorite Songs: Hell on Heels, Taking Pills, Boys from the South, Bad Example

Strange Clouds by B.O.B
B.O.B. has bought out his second album Strange Clouds. This album has a ton of guest stars including Taylor Swift, Ryan Tedder (from OneRepublic). T.I., Nicki Minaj and Morgan Freeman. My favorite thing about it is you can hear in influences of the guest stars on each song so there’s a good amount of variety within the album. This album would be amazing for Summer but we’re in the Southern hemisphere so we get to rock out to this with the heaters on full blast. Even so, this is a pretty solid hip-hop album.

Genre: Hip Hop
You might like if you enjoy: Lupe Fiasco, Tiny Tempah, T.I.
My favorite Songs: Both of Us ft Taylor Swift, So Good, Never Let You Go ft Ryan Tedder

Believe by Justin Bieber

I know that most people over the age of 20 are rolling their eyes at me right now for having this on the list but I’ve put it here for 2 reasons:
1. Justin fits the criteria of my blog post by putting music out in June.
2. I’m scared his fans will come to my house and burn a giant purple hat on my lawn if I don’t.

This album is pretty much exactly what you would expect it to be but Justin's voice is better than on his previous albums My World and My World 2.0. I'll let you decide if 'The Biebs' is your cup of tea but it's actually not bad and I give him credit for co-writing most of the album. Just be aware: Album comes with moderate risk of catching ‘Bieber Fever’ but only if you don’t wear shoes in public.

Genre: Pop
You might like if you enjoy: One Direction, The Wanted, Selena Gomez
My favorite Songs: Boyfriend, Beauty and a Beat ft Nicki Minaj