New tunes for a new year
Here are three cool new album releases to check out in January. “The Boy Named If,” Elvis Costello: The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer is back with his 32nd fulllength offering in an impressive recording catalog that stretches back to such late ’70s classics as “My Aim Is True” and “This Year’s Model.” The singer-songwriter leads his Imposters backing band on the 13-track album, which follows 2020’s “Hey Clockface.” The album is available in multiple formats, including one that is accompanied with an 88-page hardback storybook edition — each one numbered and signed by Costello himself. The book features 13 illustrated short stories that share the same titles with the songs on the record. “The Boy Named If” is due out Friday. “Dominion,” Skillet: The Christian rock band has managed quite an impressive career, having released such platinum-plus-selling albums as 2006’s “Comatose” and scoring several hit singles. These Grammy-nominated Memphis rockers, known for such songs as “Whispers in the Dark,” “Hero” and “Awake and Alive,” are looking for more success with the release of this 11th studio effort, due out Friday.
“Breakthrough: The Exodus,” Ricky Dillard: After spending some time working on the Chicago house music scene in the late 1980s, Dillard went back to his musical roots and started a gospel choir, Ricky Dillard’s New Generation Chorale. Its 1990 debut, “Promise,” cracked the top 20 on the Billboard Gospel Albums chart and earned a Grammy nomination. “Amazing,” released in 2014, also earned a Grammy nomination. His latest release is due out Jan. 21.