New Music Releases

It’s another Tuesday and that means NEW MUSIC RELEASES!

Take your pick from Gym Class Heroes (you could have won this album LAST WEEK here at BackstageOL!), GLEE!, R.E.M. and Drake.

Gym Class Heroes “The Papercut Chronicles II”

The first single from this album, “Stereo Hearts”, features Maroon 5’s Adam Levine and has already surpassed the first major hit for this band (“Cupid’s Chokehold”) on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

Drummer Matt McGinley told Billboard, “I feel like we have a really strong handful of singles that have yet to be released, and that’s a position we’ve never really found ourselves in before. When we have had radio success in the past, it tends to be a fluke. Maybe (‘Stereo Hearts’) is a fluke as well, but with this album I feel like we’re in a really good position and have a solid batch of songs that we feel have that same potential. As long as the fans are into the album as a whole, that’s what’s most important to us.”

If you are wondering if this a sequel (of sorts) to 2005’s “The Papercut Chronicles”, the answer is yes. Enjoy!

Drake “Take Care”

This album will be HUGE this week. Period.

Drake himself even called it recently in an interview saying, “This is really, in my opinion, my best project. Although people encourage me like, ‘Oh, do 11, 12 songs,’ I think there’s going to be probably 18 songs on it. It’s very reminiscent of ‘So Far Gone,’ but the production has stepped up like 10 notches. I feel like I’ve gotten better at rapping, so I’m really excited for people to hear the bars.”

This is the sophomore album from the Canadian rapper and it features collaborations and production from the likes of Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Andre 3000 and Stevie Wonder.

GLEE “The Music, The Christmas Album Volume 2”

This is an easy one to describe. You know the hit Fox television show GLEE? Well, this is the second collection of holiday tunes as sung by the cast.

Songs on this album include “Little Drummer Boy”, “Let It Snow”, “Santa Baby”, and “Do They Know It’s Christmas”.

R.E.M.: “Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982-2011”

Following the announcement in September that the band was breaking up after twenty years, comes this “greatest hits” collection.

Ok, maybe that isn’t a fair assessment. There are three new tunes on this album.

But- facts are facts. If you are a hardcore fan of the Athens, Georgia based band, you probably already own most of the tunes on this set. If you are not or (like me) have “lost” those older CD’s, you might want to consider shelling out the bucks for this.

It’s that good.