FOXLight Music Releases w/o 8-24-09

Too many new music releases in the FOXLight this week to jibba-jabba, so let’s get to it!

Colbie Caillat’s second album is called, optimistically, Breakthrough, with tracks written with John Mayer and Kara DioGuardi.

American Classic is a return to standards thirty years after Stardust for Willie Nelson, and joining in is Norah Jones and Diana Krall.

Australian rockers Jet return for a charming third time with Shaka Rock.

Cheeky Brits the Arctic Monkeys put Queen of the Stone Age Josh Homme behind the boards for their third full-length, Humbug

Light is the latest from the one and only Hasidic Reggae superstar, Matisyahu

Imogen Heap’s third attempt at a breakthrough is the self-produced Ellipse

Also out this week…

On the R&B front: Queen Latifah’s schizophrenic half rapped/half sung Persona…Motown legend Smokey Robinson returns with Time Flies When You’re Having Fun, including a beautiful cover of Norah Jones’ Don’t Know Why…Former Destiny’s Child co-founder LeToya follows her platinum selling debut with Lady Love, and guesting is Ludacris and Estelle.

Hip Hop joints include: Latino rapper Pitbull’s latest, Rebelution…and Def Jam’s latest discovery Li’l Ru with 21 and Up.

Also some smooth jazz from sax-slinger Najee, Mind Over Matter…and arguably the founder of the smooth jazz format, George Benson returns to show us how it’s done with Songs and Stories, featuring the first new song written by Bill Withers in over 20 years.

And Rock, not to be outdone, includes: Rabbit, the latest from 90’s radio-rockers Collective SoulCarmine Appice’s Guitar Zeus: Conquering Heroes has Appice getting behind the drums for guitar slingers including Brian May, Slash, Leslie West, Neal Schon and Yngwie Malmsteen…and Cheap Trick seal up years of unabashed Beatle-worship with the ultimate tribute, Sgt. Pepper Live, as advertised, the seminal Beatles album performed track-by-track featuring the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, an Indian music ensemble, and original Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick twisting the knobs once again.

Oh, and an old woman in Brooklyn found a slew of unheard masters recorded in the 1940’s by none other than folk-hero Woody Guthrie, enough to fill 4 CDs, which are now cleaned-up and available in the boxed set My Dusty Road.

Whew! Ain’t that enough? No? OK, Radiohead also drop deluxe Collectors Edition remasters of Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail To The Thief, each with a second disc of period-specific rarities.

All right that’s it. Till next week, at least. I’m Rob Maurer, FOX News Talk.

Oh, and one more thing (what am I, Steve Jobs?), you can also get the FOXLight Podcast at http://feeds.foxnewsradio.com/thefoxlight