New Music Releases!

Your choices this week? How about new tunes from Tony Bennett, Pearl Jam, Tori Amos and Gavin DeGraw.

Tony Bennett “Duets II”

DUETS II is the follow-up to Tony Bennett’s multi-platinum CD, DUETS, which was released in conjunction with Tony’s 80th birthday in 2006. DUETS won three Grammy Awards and was the singer’s best selling album to date.

Now the legendary performer celebrates a milestone 85th birthday with the release of DUETS II. The singer has completed recording with Lady Gaga and Aretha Franklin, adding to a celebrated list of artists previously announced including Amy Winehouse, Michael Buble, Norah Jones, John Mayer, Queen Latifah, Carrie Underwood and many others. Lady Gaga joined Tony for a rendition of the Richard Rodgers song, “The Lady Is A Tramp” and Bennett and Franklin collaborated on the Alan and Marilyn Bergman classic, “How Do You Keep The Music Playing.”

Phil Ramone produced the original DUETS as well as DUETS II.

BackstageOL was first to feature the single with Winehouse, to read that article click here.

Pearl Jam “Twenty”

In honor of Pearl Jam’s twentieth anniversary, award-winning director and music journalist Cameron Crowe created a definitive portrait of the seminal band carved from over 1,200 hours of rarely and never-before-seen footage, plus 24 hours of recently shot concert and interview footage. PEARL JAM TWENTY chronicles the years leading up to the band’s formation, the chaos that ensued soon-after their rise to mega-stardom, their step back from center stage, and the creation of a work culture that would sustain them.

Part concert film, part insider hang, part testimonial to the power of music and uncompromising artists, the film celebrates the freedom that allowed Pearl Jam a way to make music without losing sight of what mattered most to them their fans and the music fans that they themselves had always been. PEARL JAM TWENTY features interviews with original band members Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, drummer Matt Cameron, and friend and Soundgarden singer/guitarist Chris Cornell, as well as archival performance and interview footage of Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam, Temple of the Dog, Kurt Cobain and Neil Young.

To accompany the film, Pearl Jam is also releasing a “Pearl Jam Twenty” soundtrack. The soundtrack includes 29 rare and unreleased tracks on 2 CDs, hand-picked by Cameron Crowe with his original liner notes and never-before-seen photos in a 36-page booklet. It is packaged in a hard bound book.

Tori Amos “Night of Hunters”

First off, Tori Amos is a MAJOR force in music. She is one artist with a hardcore following. There is no doubt this release will also have huge success, but it is interesting to note the “difference” in this album versus a “typical” new music collection.

Amos marks her debut album for Deutsche Grammophon, the world’s most celebrated classical music record label with Night of Hunters.

The iconic, platinum-selling singer-songwriter continues her legacy of ground-breaking recordings with this 21st century song cycle inspired by select classical pieces spanning the last 400 years.

With “Night of Hunters”, Amos carries on the classical tradition of variations on a theme: taking inspiration from classical forms to create a bold new work while paying tribute to the mastery of the original compositions.

On “Night of Hunters”, which she wrote and produced, Amos comments “I have used the structure of a classical song cycle to tell an ongoing, modern story. The protagonist is a woman who finds herself in the dying embers of a relationship. In the course of one night she goes through an initiation of sorts that leads her to reinvent herself allowing the listener to follow her on a journey to explore complex musical and emotional subject matter.” “One of the main themes explored on this album is the hunter and the hunted and how both exist within us,” the singer explains.

Interesting.

Gavin DeGraw “Sweeter”

This is Gavin’s fourth studio album. The first single is “Not Over You” which was co-written by Ryan Tedder from One Republic.

DeGraw launched on to major fame off his 2003 debut album “Chariot” which went on to be certified platinum. Yes, that’s the one with the MONSTER single “I Don’t Want To Be.”

“Sweeter” is getting good reviews, plus it was just announced he will be hitting the road with American Idol alum David Cook.

You might also remember the recent headlines about DeGraw getting hospitalized after a night out in New York City. DeGraw recently described the night to MTV saying, “I happened to have a rough night in New York. But the whole night wasn’t rough. Actually for the most part, the night was amazing. I just had a rough couple of minutes at the end of it.”

He is looking at the glass half full.