SOUND BITES

No matter who you are, where you come from or what you're into, chances are there's something for you at Paul's Boutique . Coaxing a collective double take from the frat boys and rap aficionados alike upon its release a quarter century ago today, the Beastie Boys' second LP mostly threw away the immature, raucous bravado of their multi-platinum smash debut Licensed To Ill and went for a more worldly, exploratory approach. This is due largely to the revolutionary use of samples on this record; it was the infancy of the sampling era, and laws didn't exist yet to drive the cost of making a record like this into the stratosphere. For that reason, another record as sample-rich as Paul's Boutique will likely never be (legally) made again.

When you consider Tom Petty's stature in rock history, it's been getting more and more difficult over the course of his latter career to determine whether he still deserves as much praise as he gets or whether he's coasting off of Full Moon Fever and Wildflowers , two spectacular albums which are both at least two decades old. Looking at the five albums that followed Wildflowers , results are decidedly mixed; I'd wager not a single Petty fan would nominate The Last DJ or Highway Companion as the man's greatest achievement. As far as disappointments go, the one that came with 2010's Mojo was particularly stinging. That album was preceded by I Should Have Known It ; a fiery, legitimate career highlight, that song stirred up hopes of a return to greatness, Petty's first truly solid album in ages. Sadly, I Should Have Known It was a bit of a red herring; while the Heartbreakers were adventurous, the energy level doesn't come close to that song again fo...

(To view the original post in its entirety, click here .) Because it's boring as sin this time of year around here, and because I'm a total dork, I thought it might be fun to revisit my "What Are The Chances" post from New Year's Eve 2013, in which I haphazardly assigned percentage chances that certain artists would release new albums in 2014. Taking stock on it from here, it looks like everything is going according to plan, for the most part. Here, then, is an updated version of that post featuring both my original thoughts and new ones (in larger, italicized font) with the benefit of hindsight.

It's easy to dismiss "Weird Al" Yankovic as a novelty act, a harmless blip on music's radar that pops up every few years or so, raises a chuckle or two and disappears again. Then again, he's been at this for over thirty years now, so at what point do we have to concede that there just might be more to this than cheap laughs? Perhaps an in-depth investigation into Yankovic's career is counter-productive, as reading so much into the man and his music qualifies as taking it all too seriously by default. True enough, and it's not like he considers himself a serious artiste by any stretch, but a string of successful spoofs and smart satires has to count for more than a smile. Indeed, Yankovic has crafted himself a fair living off of his parodies, selling millions of records and raking in attention with each new addition to his discography. Mandatory Fun , his fourteenth studio album, was released this week; its accompanying videos have been wildly receive...