Weekly New Music Releases

text Recommended for this week is the latest by Clipse, titled Hell Hath No Fury. After years of legal troubles, they’ve put out a hip-hop classic. There’s a fury and an anger here, the kind you feel when you’ve been held back too long, and you’re finally moving ahead. They rap from the streets, and it shows in their lyrics: Their delivery is angry and desperate, even when they’re rhyming about living it up and enjoying their loot. Clipse delivers so much force and such great rhyming, that their street stories will even make sense to people who’ve never left the suburbs.

If you’re looking to get into the season, there’s at least one Christmas album that you won’t feel like silly buying. Songs for Christmas brings the eclectic sound of Sufjan Stevens to the holidays. Sufjan Stevens has released a Christmas EP each year since 2001, and this CD compiles all of them. The feel of the songs vary, from celebratory to slightly sad — a lot like Christmas time.

Joanna Newsom Ys Joanna Newsom’s latest is simply titled Ys, but the music onit is anything but simple. It has five extended suites filled with Newsom’s unique arrangements and voice. Strange and beautiful, Ys is difficult to describe and even harder to pigeonhole. She’s become a darling of the indie music scene for a reason, though — pick up this album and you’ll understand why.