Five years can be a long time for a new Pop release but in Rufus Wainwright’s case this statistic is a little deceiving. Release the Stars was released in 2007 but he has not exactly been sitting waiting for inspiration since then. He successfully staged a note perfect recreation of the 1961 Judy Garland Carnegie Hall concert in London and New York, subsequently releasing it as a DVD and CD in 2009.
Rather than resting after that Rufus wrote and produced a highly successful opera, Prima Donna, which premiered at the Manchester international festival in 2010. At the same time as this he released an album All Days are Nights: Songs for Lulu, a sparse, ten track song cycle that was the rawest music he had ever produced. Add into this the death of his mother and the birth of his first child you can see that a five-year gap between mainstream albums doesn’t seen quite so long.
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From the initial off-time drums to the heavily distorted guitar refrain, ‘Airbag’ tells you that this is a different Radiohead to that which you heard on their previous album, The Bends. A very different Radiohead.
Iron Maiden have released a new live album.
To be honest this is something of a big deal. Even before a note has been heard, what I have in my hands is arguably the first important release from Van Halen in decades. No offence to Sammy and Gary, but Van Halen with Dave Lee Roth is really truly Van Halen in my book, and A Different Kind of Truth is the first album of new material since 1984.
