New releases, Tuesday, December 22

There’s been next to nothing coming out these last few weeks. Nobody wants to try and get people to pay attention to new music when there’s the holidays with which to compete. Thus, I’ve not really had anything on which to focus.

This week is much of the same. There’s the soundtrack to the new film, Nine, which has gotten all sorts of Golden Globe nominations. This is despite the fact that I’ve heard it’s pretty much a series of music videos without much of a plot, even by the standards of the musical genre. Nicole Kidman acquitted herself fairly well in Moulin Rouge, but I don’t necessarily buy her as a singer.

I can heartily recommend the State of the Art box set, which tells the story of German classical label Deutsche Grammophon. It’s both a book and a six-CD set that follows the label’s history from its formation 111 years ago, up to the present day. The yellow label is always a guarantee of quality when browsing the record stacks, and I wish I had the $100 necessary to pick this up.