March brings us Spoon, South by Southwest and Wire’s ‘Silver/Lead’
Here are some of the best and highest-profile new releases in music, movies, TV and more on the horizon in March. As always, dates are subject to change without notice.
1. Spoon, “Hot Thoughts” (Matador). And suddenly it feels like 1996. Back in the middle of the Clinton administration, the first Spoon album, “Telephono,” was released on Matador Records. The band then departed for Elektra, a relationship that famously didn’t go so well. The band then turned its fortunes around like few before or since, making a string of albums for Merge (“Call the Doctor” in 2001 to “Transference” in 2010) that is one of strongest you’re likely to find by rock bands in the 21st century. Their last one, “They Want My Soul” (2014), appeared on the slightly mysterious Loma Vista. Three years later, we have “Hot Thoughts,” produced by Flaming Lips helmer Dave Fridmann. The first two singles — the title track and “Can I Sit Next to You?” — are spare, slinky and suave in the “I Turn My Camera On” tradition, but fuzzed up and hazy in Fridmann’s style. Welcome back. (March 17)
2. “Chicago Justice” (NBC). Dick Wolf cannot quit Chicago. This is the fourth(!) shared-world Chicago series from the mind of the man who gave us “Law and Order.” Starring Philip Winchester, Joelle Carter, Jon Seda and Carl “Apollo Creed” Weathers. The show will air regularly on Sundays. (March 1)
3. “Logan.” James Mangold directs Hugh Jackman in his final turn as the legendary Marvel Comics mutant Wolverine. Based loosely on the comic book miniseries “Old Man Logan” by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, “Logan” concerns an aged Wolverine in the post-apocalyptic future. Many mutants are dead; somehow Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier is still alive. (March 3)
4. The Magnetic Fields, “50 Song Memoir” (Nonesuch). Shades of his legendary “69 Love Songs” collection come in this five-CD box chronicling 50 years of frontman Stephin Merritt’s life to the tune of (sorry) one song per year. (March 3)
5. Ed Sheeran, “÷” (Atlantic). Wow, he was annoying on “Saturday Night Live,” but this new one (pronounced “divide”) includes such sure-to-be hits as “Castle on the Hill” and “Shape of You.” (March 3)
6. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, “One More Time With Feeling,” Blu-ray (Kobalt). Home video version of this absolutely haunting film, part musical performance, part meditation on the loss of his son. A total stunner. (March 3)