TV, movie, and music picks of the week: La Roux, Jodorowsky's Dune, The Strain and more!

July 29, 2014

Every week Apple adds tons of new media content on iTunes — music, books, movies and more. It's impossible to keep up with all of it, but it's not impossible to pick out the very best. Here they are! This week we've got the long-awaited sophomore album from La Roux, new soul from a 50 year veteran, the book upon which FX's new hit vampire TV series is based and much more!

Trouble In Paradise - La Roux

2009 seems like ages ago, and it is ages in pop music terms. But that's when the first, self-titled La Roux album debuted, and here's the sophomore effort. Elly Jackson, the voice and the face behind La Roux, returns for more infection electronic pop with a difference. Her ear-piercing falsetto is gone; her voice is more self-assured and more mature this time around, but the disco grooves and slick production are still in full effect (though Ben Langmaid, who produced and co-wrote songs on the first album, is no longer part of the project). Trouble In Paradise isn't a perfect album - some of the songs are uneven, and Jackson's vocals sometimes get a bit lost in the mix - but there are some standouts in the nine-track album that merit listening to over and over again, like Uptight Downtown, Sexotheque and Let Me Down Gently.

$7.99 - Download now

Thru Me Again - La Hell Gang

Stoner rock from Chile. That's my four-word review of La Hell Gang's latest effort, which trades the jangly Iggy and the Stooges-style garage band sound of Just What Is Real for a much more weed-soaked psychedelic shoegaze sound that, quite frankly, I like much better. La Hell Gang positions itself on this eight-track album as Chile's answer to The Horrors: Dense soundscapes full of droning guitars and meditative lyrics, creepy and foreboding and mysterious.

$7.99 - Download now

I Got More Soul - Bobby Patterson

Dallas' Bobby Patterson has been in the music business for more than half a century, working as a musician, producer, songwriter, promotion man, even label owner. His latest effort is I Got More Soul, a ten track opus that shows that even in his 70s, Bobby has more soul than most of us put together. His voice has held up amazingly well since he debuted in 1962, and he injects energy, fun and spirit into every track. Most of this is original material, with a couple of covers thrown in for good measure — a souled-up rendition of The Dirtbomb's "Your Love Belongs Under a Rock" that just works, and Sly & The Family Stone's "Poet."

$9.99 - Download now

Jodorowsky's Dune

Years before David Lynch (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet) directed his own version of Frank Herbert's classic science fiction story about the messiah of a desert planet, avant garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky seemed poised to make his own version. And in some ways, Jodorowsky seemed like a better fit — his ouevre returned over and over again to images of mysticism and religion (and blasphemy) — thematically, anyway, issues touched on in Dune. This documentary discusses Jodorowsky's outlandish vision for his movie, which never got off the ground: Soundtrack by Pink Floyd, starring Orson Welles and Salvador Dali. What could have been?

$4.99 - Download now

Silicon Valley - Season One

Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill) trades in his animation pen for live action in HBO's newest hit series lampooning the bizarre and sometimes inexplicable world of Silicon Valley, populated by social misfits, outcasts and the extremely wealthy. Richard, a struggling programmer who lives with his friends, finds himself in the midst of a fierce bidding war between tech superpowers over his web site's unique search algorithm.

$22.99 - Download now

The Strain - Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

FX's new vampire television show is garnering great reviews and good audiences. Now read the book trilogy upon which it's based! Pan's Labyrinth and Pacific Rim creator Guillermo Del Toro collaborated with Chuck Hogan to create the story of The Strain, about an ancient vampire who's come to the U.S. to infect the population and the CDC doctor who must foil his plot, despite conspiracies to keep him at bay.