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Tommy Castro
"The
Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue"
"Late Nights & Early Mornings"
Alligator
Records
A direct descendant from the
traveling bundled artist
packages of the '60s right down
to its retro "hatch show"-styled
cover art,
Tommy
Castro
and his band play host to a
relatively diverse assortment of
high-energy blues and soul acts.
The concept originated on the
yearly Legendary Rhythm & Blues
Cruise where such musical
collaborations are typical.
Castro's
concept was to take that concept
on the road, resulting in this
dozen-track live album
cherrypicked from various tour
stops. It's a rollicking, very
plugged-in affair, perhaps not
surprisingly geared toward some
of
Castro's
current crop of
Alligator
labelmates such as
Janiva
Magness,
guitarist
Michael Burks,
and ex-Little
Charlie & the Nightcats
frontman-gone-solo.
Britney Spears
"Femme Fatle"
Jive
Records
The aftermath of
Britney Spears’
2007 freak-out and
Blackout
wound up with her ceding control
of her personal and professional
life to her father and
producers, respectively, leaving
her as no more than a figurehead
of an enterprise. Of course,
Brit
Brit
had essentially been the face of
a carefully calibrated pop
machine for years, but every
element of that contraption
hinged on her persona, the songs
and the sound fitting her
evolution. Starting with
Blackout,
Britney
started to slip into the
background on her own records, a
progression that continued
unabated on
Circus
and finds some kind of
culmination on 2011’s
Femme
Fatale.
Essentially a cleaner, classier
remake of the gaudily dark.
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