Home Read News Next Week in Music | Feb. 25-March 3, 2019 • 110 Releases...

Next Week in Music | Feb. 25-March 3, 2019 • 110 Releases Coming Your Way

All the albums that will be rocking your world next week. Or not.

2019-02-24

There are more than 110 albums, EPs and singles being released next week. Mark your calendars and pre-order your favourites — but don’t blame me if things change at the last minute:

TOP NEW ALBUMS

Bryan Adams
Shine a Light

Bryan Adams isn’t foolish enough to start fixing things that ain’t broke. So as you’d expect, the superstar singer-guitarist stays on brand with his 14th studio album Shine a Light, dishing up another clutch of guitar-drive pop-rock and romantic ballads — augmented with bits of heartland rock and country, along with an Ed Sheeran co-write, a J.Lo duet, an AC/DC knockoff and even an acoustic cover of Whiskey in the Jar. Based on the advance stream I’ve sampled, it’s another solid offering from one of music’s most dependable hitmakers. If you like that sort of thing.

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Hozier
Wasteland, Baby!

It’s been more than four years since Irish singer-songwriter Hozier vaunted to stardom seemingly overnight with his self-titled debut album and the ubiquitous single Take Me To Church. What will he do for an encore on Wasteland, Baby!? Well, we’ve already heard the gospel-flavoured single Nina Cried Power feat. Mavis Staples and the soulfully supple Movement and Almost (Sweet Music) — so it seems he’s off to a good start. So much for a wasteland, baby.

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Royal Trux
White Stuff

Singer Jennifer Herrema and her ex-husband guitarist Neil Hagerty haven’t released an album of new material in 19 years. And it might be longer than that before they repeat the process — if reports of their strained relationship prove to be true. So enjoy their reunion while it lasts. For what it’s worth, I definitely enjoy the album’s title cut, which rocks a little harder than they used to — while resurrecting the sleazy junkie vibe you expect. That’s the right stuff.

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Weezer
Weezer (The Black Album)

Barely a month after dropping the surprise Teal Album covers set — an outgrowth of their fan-prompted, ultra-faithful cover of Toto’s Africa — singer-guitarist Rivers Cuomo and co. return with their latest self-titled offering The Black Album, apparently a complement/answer to 2016’s White Album. At one point Cuomo said it might sound like “The Beach Boys gone bad,” but I can’t really hear it in the four tracks already available. Though based on songs like Zombie Bastards, Can’t Knock the Hustle and High as a Kite — not to mention that ‘Bring out the Gimp’ cover pic — Cuomo is in a wisecracking frame of mind. That’s usually a good sign.

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Hawksley Workman
Median Age Wasteland

For Median Age Wasteland his 16th studio album in just 20 years, ultra-prolific singer-guitarist Hawksley Workman enlisted Dears frontman Murray Lightburn — whose just-released solo album Hear Me Out is a gem, BTW — to serve as producer. And going by previews like Battlefords and Lazy, the disc leans a little more towards singer-songwriter sincerity than glam-slam audacity. Then again, it also features the trippy Flaming Lips-style number Stoners Never Dream, so all bets are off.