New Music Tuesday

Whenever there are CD releases that I am excited about I will feature a New Music Tuesdays! segment on the blog. One of the things that I enjoy most about being obsessed with music and supporting the artists that I believe in is going to buy their CD's when they are released. Through this blog I hope to share some of these moments with you. It's been a great month for music! Monica, Erykah Badu, and Usher all released solid CD's. Here are my favorites from March:


Monica's album Still Standing is a mixture of classic Monica of the past and classy Monica of the future. Gone are the hood hit attempts such as "Every Time The Beat Drops" from her poorly received album The Makings of Me but present are slow groove R&B gems such as the Polow Da Don produced and Ester Dean penned "Here I Stand," the Stargate produced "Believing in Me," and the Missy produced and Denise William's sampled "Everything to Me." Monica's CD is everything I wanted it to be and more.



Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh) is an instant classic. The album takes you on a journey from start to finish and is truly solid effort. Highlights include "Window Seat," "Take Me Away (get munny)," the J Dilla produced "Love," the Eddie Kendricks "Intimate Friends" sampled "Fall In Love (Your Funeral," and the epic "Out My Mind, Just In Time."



I purposely didn't listen to the leaked material off Usher's latest Raymond v Raymond (other than the singles "Daddy's Home," "Little Freak," and the unreleased Neptunes production "Ceritifed" which I am upset didn't make the cut). Instead, I waited until I popped the CD into my CD player to reserve judgement. While I read the liner notes and thank you notes I was plesently suprised by Usher deliver another solid release. I enjoyed Usher's previous effort Here I Stand but due to the album not being well received commercially I thought that Usher would either try too hard or that his new material would fail to live up to the expectation of his fans that he would come hard this time around. Well Usher served up a electric mix of slow jams, uptempo club tracks, and melodic R&B grooves. Highlights include "Little Freak (Featuring Nicki Minaj), "There Goes My Baby," "OMG," "Guilty," "Mars Vs. Venus," "Okay," and "Making Love (Into The Night)."

Support good music! If you haven't picked these up do so ASAP!