Tax Day Special and Opinions on TV on the Radio & Britney Spears

The Sound Opinions Tax Day Special: Jim and Greg provide the perfect soundtrack to help listeners beat their tax day blues. Plus, reviews of TV on the Radio and Britney Spears.

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Femme Fatale Britney Spears

Femme Fatale

Britney Spears isn't a schoolgirl anymore. Seven albums in, she's now a record industry veteran, which begs the question: is she over? Her latest album Femme Fatale debuted at #1, but with only 276,000 copies sold. That's nothing compared to artists like Taylor Swift and Eminem. And, as Jim and Greg add, where does Britney fit in these days when you have Katy Perry on one end of the pop spectrum and Lady Gaga on the other? They also wonder where she fits in on her own album, which has 28 songwriters and 13 producers. It's a well-oiled machine, and a very well-produced one, but Britney is almost incidental. Jim calls Femme Fatale soulless and gives it a Trash It rating. Greg doesn't argue with this, but recommends listeners Burn It just to hear the top notch production.

Tax Day Special

No matter what bracket you are in, no one likes paying taxes. Nothing makes things more tolerable, though, than great music. So Jim and Greg have compiled the perfect playlist for Tax Day:

Greg

  • T. Bone Burnett, "Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend"
  • Fenton Robinson, "Somebody Loan Me a Dime"
  • Wu-Tang Clan, "C.R.E.A.M."
  • Barrett Strong, The Beatles, Flying Lizard: "Money (That’s What I Want)"

Jim

  • The Beatles, "Taxman"
  • The Kinks, "Sunny Afternoon"
  • Johnny Cash, "After Taxes"
  • ABBA, "Money, Money, Money"

Nine Types of Light TV on the Radio

Nine Types of Light (Deluxe Version)

After taking a small hiatus and dabbling in film projects, TV on the Radio is back with its fourth album. The Brooklyn  art rockers are one of the best bands to come out in the last decade, according to Jim and Greg. Nine Types of Light is a more optimistic, ballad-heavy album, which normally Greg wouldn't say is the kind of record for him. But it's so layered and substantive that he says definitely Buy It. Jim puts them up there with Radiohead, and compares the subtle rhythms on this release to that on King of Limbs. He also praises the singing. Nine Types of Light gets two types of Buy Its.

Dear Listeners,

For more than 15 years, Sound Opinions was a production of WBEZ, Chicago's public radio station. Now that the show is independent, we're inviting you to join the band and lend a hand! We need your support more than ever because now we have to do all the behind-the-scenes work that WBEZ handled before (like buying insurance and paying for podcast hosting, ugh). Plus, we have some exciting ideas we'd like to try now that there's no one to tell us no!