The Greatest Story Ever Sold

In honor of Easter, our good friends (and acclaimed New York Times Op-Ed contributors) Sal and Tony of NYCD have amusing and informative things to say about some of this week's new CDs.

JENNIFER LOPEZ
A major release we forgot to mention is J-Lo's first all-Spanish language album... we don't remember the name of it. It's in Spanish. But in related news, there was a mass suicide at the Mall Of America, when 73 moviegoers drank liquid bleach during the closing credits of Monster-In-Law.

BRIGHT EYES - CASSADAGA. What can we say about Conor Oberst that is printable? Is it necessary to overhype every new artist that comes out? He's fine -- a harmless singer-songwriter with some good material and some real crap, too. We just can't buy into the hype, nor will we be seeing him at any one of his 219 nights at Town Hall.

GENESIS - REISSUES. Part of an ongoing reissue campaign to coincide with their semi-awaited reunion tour, five post-Gabriel LPs -- A TRICK OF THE TAIL, WIND & WUTHERING, ... AND THEN THERE WERE THREE, DUKE, and ABACAB -- get the SACD and DVD treatment. Each reissue features 5.1 Surround Sound, videos, and unreleased material. And, for those keeping track, these were the five records that the post-Gabriel lineup released that were worth your time.

LESLEY GORE - EVER SINCE. The first album in a mighty long time from a woman who once had a greatest hits album annotated by Tony, who cowrote the article in the Times with Sal. And Sal, like Tony, loves the early Lesley Gore stuff. And both Tony's dad and Sal's mother love them.

GRINDERMAN - GRINDERMAN. Nick Cave's new lineup featuring a few Bad Seeds is an in-your-face, gritty rock n' roll extravaganza. It's so dark that when it went to night school, it was marked absent. But seriously, lemon ices.


SLY & THE FAMILY STONE - COLLECTION (7 CD BOX SET). This has been promised for months, and even at this late date we don't know if it's going to show, but assuming it does, you're gonna want it. Their entire studio output from 1967-74, featuring such classics as STAND, THERE'S A RIOT GOIN' ON, and FRESH, not to mention the seminal and underrated debut, A WHOLE NEW THING, and everything else in between. Each set is individually numbered and newly remastered (four of the seven are remastered for the very first time), and all the discs feature anywhere from three to eight bonus tracks. This is STRICTLY LIMITED! The individual CDs get released on 4/24, or so they say. Either way, hop on it quick!!

Incidentally, I'm reviewing the above Sly reissues for Sound & Vision (AKA The Magazine Formerly Known as Stereo Review) and we'll post a link as soon as its up.