Each week Playlist’s Glenn Peoples looks at exclusive and featured tracks from the iTunes Music Store and other online music services. Check out these tracks for the week of April 4th.
The best of the current iTunes exclusives is probably Aimee Mann’s “iTunes Originals” album. For it, Aimee recorded exclusive acoustic versions of five tracks including the ‘Til Tuesday hit “Voices Carry.”
Billy Idol is back with a new album — a very rockin’ album, believe it or not — and for iTunes has has “Sessions@AOL,” a seven-song EP with new songs and even old classics like “White Wedding” and “Rebel Yell.”
Producers have once again mined the vaults of Verve Records, this time to create Verve Remixed 3. A special version is currently available that has an iTunes-only Diplo remix of “Popcorn.” (Diplo is known these days as the boyfriend/producer for the mega-hot M.I.A.)
Another Beck single are available exclusively at iTunes: “Venom Confection” E-Pro mixes that contains “Ghost Range” (E-Pro Remix by Homerlife) with “Venom Confection” (E-Pro Remix by Green, Music and Gold).
Another iTunes exclusives is Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon by the Silk Road Ensemble and Yo-Yo Ma. The iTunes version contains a bonus interview in which Yo-Yo talks about the history of the Silk Road project.
In iTunes’ pre-release section are George Strait’s “You’ll Be There,” India Arie’s “Purify Me” (from “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”), “Please” by Toni Braxton, “Shakin’ My Cage” by Aerosmith’s Joe Perry (going solo for the first time in a long time), “For the Nasty” by Q-Tip featuring Busta Rhymes, and “Incomplete” by the reunited Backstreet Boys.
The free download of the week is one of the best yet: “One Evening” by Feist. The Paris-based Canadian (full name: Leslie Feist) will see her debut album released in America soon. It’s already a hit in France, and she recently won a Juno Award in Canada. One listen to the sultry “One Evening” will make a strong impression.
Rhapsody has an exclusive Kelly Clarkson EP, Rolling Stone Original. The three tracks, recorded live, are the current hit “Since U Been Gone,” “Because of You” and “Hear Me.” Two songs are upbeat and rocking. “Since U Been Gone” has shades of Pat Benetar and Quarterflash, “Hear Me” borrows from nu-metal’s sonic oomph. The other is a piano ballad, a.k.a. typical “American Idol” fare.
Rhapsody also has an exclusive on the Riton Re-rub Remix of New Order’s new single, “Krafty.”
Rhapsody just added the Talking Heads’ classic live album, Stop Making Sense. The Mama Mia! cast album is another new addition, and Rhapsody’s John Coltrane catalog got bigger with the addition of Ole Coltrane. Two “greatest hits” comps also new to Rhapsody are Johnny Cash’s The Man In Black: His Greatest Hits and Whitney Houston’s The Greatest Hits.
Both Rhapsody and Sony’s Connect have added John Mellancamp’s American Fool and Uh-Huh. Also new to connet are two Yes albums, Close to the Edge and Time and a Word. You can never have enough Yes in your arsenal.
Connect has an exclusive for the hip crowd, the two-song “Jimmy Kimmel Live” EP by Louis XIV. The songs are “Finding Out True Love Is Blind” and “Louis XIV.”
But the best exclusive music at Connect are some sets recorded at the recent Vice/Kemado Records/Connect SXSW party. Up-and-coming British band Bloc Party has a six-song EP available. The much-talked-about The Go! Team have a seven-song EP that includes one new song. Diamond Nights has a seven-song EP, and CheeseBurger has a six-song EP.
MSN Music has added Green Day’s “American Idiot” single that has two non-album tracks: “Shoplifter” and “Governator.” They’ve also added “Beverly Hills,” the new single from Weezer’s upcoming album. And with Ray Charles being so popular these days, it’s good that MSN Music added Rhino’s Ray Charles.