Review: Craig Finn's 'Clear Heart' Holds Steady With Superior Songwriting
January, 24, 2012 11:51 am | Comments On #album review, Chris Willman, Craig Finn, Hold Steady, music, reviewsBesides being one of America's greatest rock bands, the Hold Steady are the closest thing we have to a messy, rowdy, wordy, art-rock version of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
So it shouldn't be any surprise that frontman Craig Finn's first album under his own name, "Clear Heart, Full Eyes," is akin to one of Springsteen's "solo" albums -- stripping away the raucousness to reveal the haunted quality that's always been there beneath the hyper-literacy and celebrative, boozy band dynamics.
The advance spin on "Clear Heart" had Finn writing more autobiographically and...
Read MoreReview: Springsteen Does Another Political Fakeout With 'We Take Care of Our Own'
January, 19, 2012 10:27 am | Comments On #Bruce Springsteen, Chris Willman, E Street Band, music, reviews, Ronald Reagan, singles, We Take Care of Our Own, Wrecking BallBack in the mid-‘80s, Bruce Springsteen’s theme song might as well have been “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” as his not-very-gung-ho protest song “Born in the USA” got misappropriated for all sorts of unironically patriotic purposes, not least of all by Ronald Reagan.
With his new single, “We Take Care of Our Own,” Springsteen seems to be throwing up a gauntlet: Misunderstand me. Go on, I dare you.
Advance word about the artist’s upcoming album, “Wrecking Ball” (due out March 6), has touted the set as “his...
Read MoreThanks to Gaga and Adele, Music Business Finally Improves in 2011
December, 26, 2011 10:04 pm | Comments On #adele, album sales, Billboard, Black Keys, blake shelton, Blink-182, Bon Jovi, Brad Paisley, Chris Willman, Coldplay, Daughtry, Demi Lovato, Eric Church, Gym Class Heroes, Hot Chelle Rae, Justin Bieber, Lady GaGa, LMFAO, Luke Bryan, Martina McBride, Michael Buble, miranda lambert, music, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Scotty McCreery, Selena Gomez, soundScan, Taylor Swift, the Band Perry, Toby Keith, tour grosses, U2Among musicians, “flat” is a word you don’t want to hear. But to the industry, flat is truly music to everyone's ears.
Soundscan’s sales year doesn’t end until Jan. 1, but current year-to-year comparisons have album sales for 2011 ahead of comparable 2010 business.
OK, it's only by a whisker of 1 percent. But it is welcome news in an industry where album sales for 2010 were down 13 percent from 2009. And prior to that they'd been down an average of 8 percent every year through the 2000s, suggesting an incredible shrinking music business.
...
Review: Anthony Hamilton Gets 'Back to Love' With Musical, Sexual Humility
December, 13, 2011 8:55 am | Comments On #Al Green, album review, Anthony Hamilton, Babyface, Chris Willman, music, reviews, SoulMost other contemporary R&B is so about braggadocio that it’s the humility that makes Anthony Hamilton seem like a hero on his boldly modest new album, “Back to Love.”
“Woo,” the Babyface-coproduced first single, is as voraciously erotic as Hamilton gets -- which is to say, still pretty infused with a sense of morality even as he succumbs to temptation.
“Forgive me if I want to do wrong,” Hamilton growls, referring to himself as “a goody two-shoes” who breaks down in the face of a lust that “was beautiful, even biblical, just like Delilah.”
But...
Read MoreReview: Elvis Costello's 'Spinning Songbook' Almost Worth Head-Spinning Cost
December, 07, 2011 9:52 am | Comments On #album review, Bangles, Chris Willman, Elvis Costello, Matthew Weiner, music, reviews, Sandra Oh, Universal MusicTo borrow an opening line from Elvis Costello’s “Shipbuilding”: Is it worth it?
That’s the question hardcore fans are asking themselves as they weigh buying “The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook!!!,” an extravagant boxed set priced so super-extravagantly that Costello himself took to the web to urge his flock to skip it.
Calling the package a “beautifully designed compendium” and “vivid snapshot” of his 2011 tour, Costello wrote that he was nonetheless “unable to recommend this lovely item to you as the price appears to be either a...
Read MoreReview: Black Keys' Glam 'El Camino' Leaves Blues in the Dust
December, 06, 2011 9:09 am | Comments On #album review, Black Keys, Chris Willman, Cream, Danger Mouse, Gnarks Barkley, indie rock, Led Zeppelin, music, reviews, T. RexThe Black Keys have previously been known for a blues-based sound, which put their roots in the Mesozoic era, by modern standards. But with their stunning new “El Camino,” they hark back to a different epoch of dinosaur rock, sounding like… T. Rex.
That’s right, they’ve gone glam – gloriously. The two-piece outfit’s formerly stripped-down core sound has been thickened up into something much more akin to Led Zeppelin’s version of the blues, but with handclaps and female backing vocals.
If this is selling out, as a few of the fans from their early-2000s indie...
Read MoreReview: Amy Winehouse's 'Lioness' Opens Up An All-Too-Empty Vault
December, 05, 2011 8:09 pm | Comments On #album review, Amy Winehouse, Chris Willman, music, reviewsIf you were praying Amy Winehouse at least left behind a lot of great unreleased material when she left us last July, prepare to have your hopes dashed by her posthumous release, “Lioness: Hidden Treasures.” As it turns out, Winehouse’s vault couldn’t be much emptier if Geraldo Rivera were shining a flashlight into it on live television.
Only two of the 12 tracks on this odds ‘n’ ends collection post-date “Back to Black,” the 2006 triumph that still stands as one of the best albums of its decade. On neither of those two numbers does she actually sing both a verse and a chorus, making it...
Read MoreReview: Adele Bares It All in Candor-Filled 'Live at Albert Hall'
November, 29, 2011 10:47 am | Comments On #adele, Beyonce, Bonnie Raitt, Chris Willman, DVD, DVD review, music, reviewsDo you prefer to think of 2011’s top diva, Adele, as a lonely, wounded wallflower, brooding quietly, obsessively, and soulfully over her lost loves? Or as the brassy, ballsy best friend you can’t shut up?
You get your pick with the two-disc “Adele Live at the Royal Albert Hall,” depending on whether you favor the CD or DVD component of the combo-platter package.
If you put on the audio-only disc, you get a version of the concert that cuts out just about all the chatter and focuses on the purely musical aspects of Adele, the neo-soul tragedian. Load up the DVD, though, and you get an extra half-...
Read MoreReview: Beyonce's 'Live at Roseland' DVD is Almost Worth the Self-Worship
November, 29, 2011 7:34 am | Comments On #Beyonce, Chris Willman, Destiny's Child, DVD, music, reviewsNo one ever need organize a tribute concert for Beyoncé, since she’s done such a good job staging her own self-homage with “Beyoncé: Live at Roseland,” a concert DVD that also doubles as a self-directed episode of “This is Your Life.”
The second half of the program, shot during a four-night stand in August, is a nearly complete run-through of her most recent album, the possibly underrated “4.” Fan reaction to the record hasn’t been as enthusiastic as it was for Beyoncé’s earlier albums, which doesn’t stop her from introducing it (without any real...
Read MoreReview: Hot Chelle Rae Will Leave Grown-Ups Lukewarm With 'Whatever'
November, 28, 2011 6:24 pm | Comments On #album review, Allstar Weekend, American Music Awards, Chris Willman, Demi Lovato, Hot Chelle Rae, music, reviewsIf you were watching the American Music Awards and went “huh?” when Hot Chelle Rae got the award for New Artist of the Year, rest easy, because you probably won’t have to bone up on the band too much to stay current on the next set of Grammy winners.
The teen-targeted group proved it’s possible to win an AMA on the basis of one flop album, one double-platinum single, and four sets of cute hair, which should come as encouragement to aspiring one-hit wonders everywhere.
Hot Chelle Rae’s sophomore album, the not-encouragingly-titled “Whatever,” hits stores this week, and it’s...
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Description
Chris Willman has been a frequent contributor to TV Guide, New York magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, Billboard, Parade and other publications. In a long run at Entertainment Weekly, he penned more than 20 cover stories as a senior writer before becoming the magazine’s chief music critic. His recent essay about Bob Dylan for New York magazine was selected for the latest edition of De Capo's’ "Best Music Writing" book series. Advertising Age’s media columnist included Willman in a short list of “the entertainment world’s sharpest critics.”
His book "Rednecks & Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music" was praised by Stephen King, who said, “You won’t read a better book about American music this year — or, probably, a better one about American political thought.”
During his time at EW, meanwhile, he received the ultimate celebrity accolade from Kanye West, who famously blogged (in response to a B+ review), “Kill yourself, Chris Willman!” Failing to heed that advice, Willman has survived to live, live-blog, and grade another day.
