By Danielle Capalbo, News staff
Lyman Woodard, Saturday Night Special:’ March 23
When organ maestro Lyman Woodard died last month, he left behind a legacy of populist jazz and funk that diversified the sonic complexion of Detroit:’ otherwise, the city Motown built. As members of the global jazz-funk flock pay homage to Woodard with musical tributes, Wax Poetics Records has resurrected his mid-’70s masterpiece, Saturday Night Special. Woodard’s work gets proper reissue treatment, on limited-edition pressings of 180-gram vinyl:’ a brilliant memorial to the man, his dexterity on the Hammond B3 and, in turn, the lesser known jazz-funk nuances that shaped Detroit’s musical history. Saturday Night Special will also be available digitally.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s Blitz!:’ March 31
You know what they say about the best laid plans. Originally slated for release April 13, It’s Blitz! leaked online more than a month early, so the Yeah Yeah Yeahs changed the release date for their third studio album to March 31. The record has been available digitally since March 9. As Boston Globe reporter James Reed pointed out, the title here is a bit misleading. An exclamation point would better have been slapped on the taut arrangements of Show Your Bones, released in 2006, or Karen O’s shrieks on now-classic cuts like ‘Date With the Night’ and ‘Rich.’ But not here. There are dance tracks, but mostly, Blitz! marks a return to the gorgeous, delicate sound immortalized on the single ‘Maps.”
Harlem Shakes, Technicolor Health:’ March 24
The Harlem Shakes took nearly three years to complement their 2007 EP, Burning Birthdays, with a debut full-length. Judging by infectious leaked tracks like ‘Sunlight,’ Technicolor Health will be well worth the wait. Though the band takes its name from a convulsive dance move, their indie-pop tracks are more smile-wide than shimmy-and-shake. Lexy Benaim’s voice exhilarates as much as his anthemic lyrics, like ‘I’m sick of holding onto nothing / when I’d rather hold your hips.’ And the fuzzy wash of harmonies on ‘Winter Water’ is enough to drown in, gladly. One listen through the pop-perfect single ‘Strictly Game,’ and you’ll fall irrevocably in line with its choral chant:’ ‘ ‘This will be a better year.’
