Music Reviews: New Albums, 2008

By Chris Moore:

I love to listen to new music. It has been a source of frustration for me for a long time that there is not a solid list easily available on the internet for new rock music. Yes, Rolling Stone offers music reviews for many new rock albums, but they also cover other genres. And they hardly ever seem to pay close enough attention to my favorite albums, just as they seem to pay too much attention to the new music I find less remarkable.

With this in mind, I hope that what follows will be a definitive list of new music albums from the songwriters I believe are worth your time. The songwriters I include on this list must have proven themselves in some manner, either by popularity or consistent quality of albums and new music. They must be songwriters who are concerned not only with making new music, but also good albums. This is not to say that all this new rock music will be excellent, and there may even be some albums that I have not enjoyed or, on rare occasion, not listened to yet. Please feel free to email me suggestions for albums to be included on this list.

New music reviews and Laptop Sessions are being added all the time, so please click on the “MUSIC REVIEW” and song title links wherever they appear!!

– NEW ALBUMS: 2008 –

Barenaked Ladies – Snacktime

Beck – Modern Guilt

“Modern Guilt”

Bryan Adams – 11

“I Ain’t Losin’ the Fight”

Coldplay – Viva La Vida

“Violet Hill”

Counting Crows – Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings

MUSIC REVIEW: (Moore)

“You Can’t Count on Me”

Elvis Costello –Momofuku

Jack Johnson – Sleep Through the Static

Jakob Dylan – Seeing Things

“Something Good This Way Comes”

Jeff Copperthite – Greenlight

MUSIC REVIEWS: (Fusco) – (Moore)

“Shadows of Your Dreams”
“Home”
“What Not To Do”
“Aware”

John Mayer – Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles

MUSIC REVIEW: (Moore)

Jordan Zevon – Insides Out

Levon Helm – Dirt Farmer

Masters of the Universe – Homestead’s Revenge

“Worlds Apart”
“These Streets”
“Evil Disappointment”
“Please Stay”
“Sober”
“Gonna Be There”

Mudcrutch – Mudcrutch

“Scare Easy”

Neil Diamond – Home Before Dark

The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely

R.E.M. – Accelerate

“Living Well is the Best Revenge”

Relient K – The Bird and the Bee Sides

Ringo Starr – Liverpool 8

MUSIC REVIEW: (Moore)

“Liverpool 8”

Sheryl Crow – Detours

MUSIC REVIEW: (Moore)

“Detours”

Weezer – Weezer (The Red Album)

“Thought I Knew”

– Re-Issues: 2008 –

Dennis Wilson – Pacific Ocean Blue

“You and I”

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Yes, the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs blog always comes out with new material, but you'll also want to check out our extensive archive of past posts. We have literally hundreds of great acoustic cover videos here on the blog. And, a great cover video is just as good today as it was a year ago. You could spend DAYS watching great cover song videos through our extensive archives!

During your search, make sure to watch out for specialty weeks of our cover videos, including "New Bands Week" and "Number Ones Week", where we played a full seven days of songs that hit Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. These weeks allowed the members of the Laptop Sessions to expand their horizons and play cover songs that they normally wouldn't have thought of. It's amazing how difficult it is to find a Number One song from the past twenty years that we actually like, much less would want to play as an acoustic cover.

Through these archives, you'll find our talent by how we turned many over-produced songs into acoustic versions. Eighties songs especially benefited from our efforts because they tended to have electronic sounds that make the songs sound very dated now. Our acoustic treatment to these cover songs showcases them as just "songs" and not "recordings". If a song's truly great, it'll stand up to our bare-bones acoustic style. But, even well-produced songs, like those from the Beach Boys and the Beatles, do well as acoustic versions here on the Laptop Sessions music video series. When we do an acoustic cover of one of these songs, say stripping-away layered harmonies, you can still hear how great the song is on its own. It's a unique take on all these classic songs- hear your favorites with a fresh sound! That's what we promise here on the Laptop Sessions Blog: great acoustic cover songs, superb video performances, and great music articles to tie it all together.