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Showing posts with label pop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pop. Show all posts

20 October 2008

[2008] Gemma Hayes - The Hollow of Morning (Mp3 Download)










After the failed attempt to break through into the mainstream with her radio-friendly second album, The Hollow Of Morning sees Gemma Hayes reverting back to the lo-fi guitar sound of her Mercury Music Prize nominated debut. The first release through her self-titled, self-funded label, this is obviously the record Hayes wants to make. Produced by Night On My Side's David Odlum and featuring My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields on guitar, its back-to-basics approach is unlikely to yield any hit singles, but by abandoning any notions of commercial success, Hayes has been given a new lease of life. On first listen, only the crunching rock of "Out Of Our Hands" and the California sun-soaked guitar-pop of "Don't Forget" stand out but Hayes' records have a habit of appearing rather nondescript at first only to unfold after further plays to reveal an almost dreamlike quality, and this is no exception. Stripped-down opener "This Is What You Do" is an intimate acoustic number filled with melancholic harmonies; the atmospheric "Home" combines layered guitars with distorted vocals; and the epic "At Constant Speed" effortlessly switches from a wistful ballad to a synth-driven pop song. There are occasions when the presence of an obvious hook or chorus wouldn't go amiss such as on the aimless "Chasing Dragons." But Hayes' secret weapon, her gorgeous Irish-lilted voice, often comes to the rescue, transforming a mediocre song into something worth listening to and a good song into something special. At just ten tracks long, one of them an instrumental, The Hollow Of Morning never outstays its welcome but after a three year absence, some fans may feel a little short-changed at its 36 minute running time. But it's very rare that one of those 36 minutes is wasted. Hayes is unlikely to be challenging for the Mercury Music Prize again, but those who appreciated her innovative debut will find much to like here. review by Jon O'Brien at allmusic.com

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Posted by alhuraibi at 5:14 PM 0 comments  

18 October 2008

[2007] Mika - Life In Cartoon Motion (Mp3 Download)










Mika's vivid, aptly named debut album, Life in Cartoon Motion, borrows and builds on the glittery, glamorous, and not-so-secretly sentimental musical territory carved out by Elton John and Freddie Mercury, or more recently, Rufus Wainwright and the Scissor Sisters. Fortunately, his name-dropping, shape-shifting pop is usually good, and genuine, enough to come across as eloquent homage rather than blatant thievery or a tired rehash. Mika's singles are his most charming moments, especially the instant sunshine of "Grace Kelly," which crams tap-dancing rhythms, filmic dialogue, Elton's pianos, Freddie's vocal harmonies, and Brian May's guitars into just over three minutes. "Relax (Take It Easy)" is in the same vein of hypnotic, danceable melancholy as the Scissor Sisters' reworking of "Comfortably Numb," albeit less showy, while "Billy Brown"'s brass arrangement, flowing melody, and soft-shoe rhythms give it the feel of an unusually witty show tune about pre-life crises and living in the closet. As Life in Cartoon Motion unfolds, it reveals more of Mika's musical identity, both for better and worse. His classical piano training gives the album an appealing fluidity, especially on "Any Other World," and lilting, Afro-pop-inspired guitars and harmonies pop up here and there, most effectively on "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)." However, while Life in Cartoon Motion has lots of enthusiasm and creativity, it doesn't have a lot of nuance. On songs like "Lollipop" and "Love Today," Mika straddles the line between adorable and annoying. And as the overly long, overwrought "Erase" shows, he also doesn't have quite the masterful touch with gentler songs that his influences possess. As admirable as Life in Cartoon Motion's eclecticism is, it could use more focus -- something that songs like the jaunty breakup song "Stuck in the Middle" and angry rocker "Ring Ring" suggest Mika is developing. While more restraint could've taken the album from good to great, its Technicolor, everything-at-once, borderline overdone feel makes it a fitting portrait of Mika as a young artist. review by Heather Phares at allmusic.com

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Posted by alhuraibi at 3:05 PM 0 comments  

[2008] Madonna - Hard Candy (Mp3 Download)










All through her career, it has been impossible to divorce Madonna's music from her image, as they feed off each other to the point where it's hard to tell which came first, the concept or the songs. Glancing at the aggressively ugly cover to Hard Candy -- its blistering pinks and assaultive leather suggesting cheap bottom-barrel porno -- it's hard not to wish that this is the one time Madge broke from tradition, offering music that wasn't quite as garish as her graphics. That is not the case. Hard Candy is all brutal hard edges and blaring primary colors, a relentlessly mercenary collection of cold beats and chilly innuendo. Sex has always been a driving force for Madonna, but she's never been as ruthlessly pornographic as she is here, not even when she cut Erotica as a companion to her softcore coffee table book Sex back in 1992. For all of its carnality, Erotica was coy, belonging to the classic burlesque teasing tradition, but Hard Candy is utterly modern, a steely sex album for the age of Cialis. This new millennium is also an era when Top 40 has pretty much ceased to exist and a pop artist as sharp as Madonna knows this, so she has abandoned the idea of a big crossover hit -- the kind that Erotica courted with such gorgeous, shimmering adult contemporary ballads as "Rain" and "Bad Girl" -- and pitches Hard Candy directly toward her core audience of club-conscious, fashion-forward trendsetters. 

This is a smart play, as this is the audience that has always consisted of Madonna loyalists, and it's also is a savvy way to negotiate the explosion of niches in 2008, but there are problems in her execution. Madonna relies on the Neptunes and the pair of Timbaland and Justin Timberlake for most of her modern makeover -- a good idea in theory as they are some of the biggest hitmakers of the decade, but the productions they've constructed here sound a couple years old at best and at worst feel like they're dressing Madonna in Nelly Furtado's promiscuous hand-me-downs. Sometimes this can result in reasonably appealing grooves -- "Candy Shop" captures Pharrell Williams' flair for slim, sleek grooves, "Dance 2night" conjures Timberlake's Off the Wall obsession nicely, and the icy heartbreak of "Miles Away" is a worthy successor to "What Goes Around Comes Around" -- but this also points out the album's main flaw: the track comes before the song. Madonna's greatness has always hinged on how she channeled dance trends into pop songs, placing equal emphasis on sound and melody, which provided a neat way to sneak underground club trends into the mainstream. Here, she cedes melodic hooks to rhythmic hooks -- witness the clanging, cluttered "4 Minutes," where she's drowned out by Timbaland's farting four-note synth -- which might not have been so bad if the tracks were fresher and if the whole enterprise didn't feel quite so joylessly mechanical. Madonna doesn't even sound desperate to sit atop current trends; rather, she's following them because she's expected to do so. There's a palpable sense of disinterest here, as if she just handed the reigns over to Pharrell and Timba-Lake, trusting them to polish up this piece of stale candy. Maybe she's not into the music; maybe she's just running out this last album for Warner before she moves onto the greener pastures of Live Nation -- either way, Hard Candy is a rare thing: a lifeless Madonna album. review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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Posted by alhuraibi at 2:10 PM 0 comments  

17 October 2008

[2006] Nelly Furtado - Loose (Mp3 Download)










If Nelly Furtado's nearly impenetrable 2003 sophomore effort, Folklore, proved anything, it was that this modern-day singer/songwriter is smart and ambitious yet doesn't quite have a handle on those very qualities. Dabbling in worldbeat and chronicling the perils of immediate success, she indulged herself without a care for the audience -- and the audience responded in kind, as the album barely cracked the Billboard Top 40, spawned no hits, and sold about a quarter of what her Grammy-winning debut did. Clearly a rethink of some sort was in order for her next album, and 2006's Loose, delivered about three years later, certainly does present a different Nelly Furtado: one who is glammed up, sexed up, and ready for the dancefloor. Borrowing liberally from Gwen Stefani's ghetto fabulous makeover and a little bit from Justin Timberlake's sleek retro-'80s moves on Justified, Furtado now has a sound that's straight 2006; with hooks that feel as comfortable as bumper music on MTV as they do as background on cell phone commercials or as ringtones, she can blend into the hyper-saturated media culture of 2006, a move that may alienate fans who were won over by how her debut, Whoa, Nelly!, sounded like nothing else in 2000. No matter how club-friendly Loose is -- even its quieter moments, like the closing "All Good Things (Come to an End)" (co-written in part by Coldplay's Chris Martin), feel like ideal soundtracks to chill-out moments -- ultimately Furtado did not get a swan-styled makeover, where her original personality has been chiseled and chipped away so only a vestige of her remains. Remember, Furtado is nothing if not smart, and she smartly picked Timbaland, one of the very best producers in modern music, as her main collaborator for Loose. 

Timbaland helmed all but two of the 12 main tracks here -- the album weighs in at 13 songs, but one is a Spanish version of the Juanes duet "Te Busque" -- and he gives much of this music a bracing feel, dense with old-school synths, subtle sample collages, bone-crunching bass, cascading vocal hooks, and beats that sound so heavy it takes careful listening to realize how nimble they are. Nowhere is this more evident than on the killer opening triptych of "Afraid," "Maneater," and "Promiscuous," three songs that trumpet Furtado's makeover and make it seem pretty convincing, too -- particularly on "Maneater" with its circular, minor-key bass and "Promiscuous" with its chorus that sounds like vintage Prince. This is Timbaland at his best, and the only weak link is Furtado; no matter how she growls on "Maneater" or murmurs on "Promiscuous" -- no matter how much she sings about sex, period -- she just doesn't sound sexy. She sounds as if she's striving to be sexy, which doesn't generate much carnal heat, but it ultimately doesn't matter much since on all the heavy dance songs, of which there are a bunch, she's mixed into the background on Timbaland's production, functioning as another instrument, which helps the music work as just a stylish wall of sound. Furtado doesn't fight against Timbaland's mix, which proves her smarts more than anything on the showy Folklore; there's a reason why she chose Timbaland as a collaborator, and she lets him shine for the first half of the record, as they get the party rolling. Then on the second half of the record, the old Nelly starts to show through. She gets to play the world traveler with "No Hay Igual," where she deftly blends reggaeton and M.I.A., along with the smooth Latin pop ballad "Te Busque." Her words gradually come to the forefront, as on "Say It Right" -- a dark meditative piece that would have fit on her previous records if it didn't have a Timbaland production -- or on the sweetly ruminative "In God's Hands," and then on "Wait for You," which has Indian-influenced hooks and a melody reminiscent of "I'm Like a Bird," both strands are pulled together in a haunting fashion. 

It's on this final stretch of the album that the Furtado and Timbaland pairing seems like a genuine collaboration, staying true to the Nelly of her first two albums, but given an adventurous production that helps open her songs up. Unlike the music on Folklore, the idiosyncrasies intrigue instead of frustrate, and deliver on the promise of her debut, when it seemed like Furtado could do anything. That said, the music on the second half isn't nearly as immediate or addictive as "Maneater" and "Promiscuous," two singles that were already deserved hits (in the U.K. and U.S., respectively) when Loose was released. The genius on these two songs is down to Timbaland, who not only crafts the sound but vocally overshadows Nelly's mumbled raps on the latter. But Furtado is smart enough to let him dominate here, since she knows that Timbaland has revitalized Nelly Furtado both creatively and commercially with Loose, so it's only appropriate that he hogs the spotlight on its two best moments. review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine at allmusic.com

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Posted by alhuraibi at 6:58 PM 0 comments  

15 October 2008

[2006] Original Broadway Cast - Spring Awakening (Mp3 Download)










Lyricist/librettist Steve Sater, who adapted Frank Wedekind's controversial 1891 play Spring Awakening into a musical along with composer Duncan Sheik, cites the shootings at Columbine as an inspiration to take on the story of adolescent explorations into sex and identity at a German secondary school. It's a telling corollary, since he and Sheik have created a work that exists in a fantasy world containing elements of both the late 19th century and the early 21st. In his liner notes to the original Broadway cast album, Sater reveals that Sheik, a pop/rock singer/songwriter, had problems with the standard conceit in musicals in which characters burst into song in the middle of scenes; Sater's solution was to suggest that the songs could "[function] as interior monologues." This compromise makes for a score unlike most others in musical theater. Although the songs are still to a certain extent imbedded in dramatic scenes and are expressive of character, they also stand apart from the story and complement it. Sater's fearless use of anachronism makes no requirement that the music sound anything like Germany in the 1890s or that the lyrics reflect that era. On the contrary, this is rock-based music with lyrics written in the vernacular of American high school students of the 2000s. "...I cried out -- like, in Latin: 'This is so not life at all," goes a line in the hard rocking "The Bitch of Living," and there are enough obscenities, some even in the song titles, to get the album a "parental advisory/explicit content" sticker.But there is more going on here than just Goethe-meets-Green Day (or, to be more precise, Wedekind-meets-Weezer). The play, which Sater calls a "Symbolist masterpiece," was not produced for 18 years due to its sexual content, and Sater has retained that in a tale full of hormonal torment, suicidal urges, and adult repression. Meanwhile, much of the symbolism survives in the songs, which can be highly poetic in describing the characters' feelings. "From the beginning, we conceived Spring Awakening as both a piece of musical theater and a pop/rock album," Sater notes, and the cast album is, as a result, in some ways a sequel to the 2001 Sheik album Phantom Moon, on which Sater also collaborated, with a bunch of talented, expressive young singers substituting for Sheik. As such, the rock songs never really rock all the way through, and the ballads have a quality of recitative -- if these are interior monologues, they also indulge in a rambling stream-of-consciousness. As such, Spring Awakening does not work as well as a rock musical as Rent because it is not committed to rock as a form. At the same time, it will read as "rock" by musical theater fans who will need only the sound of an electric guitar and the sight of performers holding microphones to classify it as such. The best audience for it may well be the real-life counterparts of the teenagers making their first discoveries about life and love on the stage, an audience largely lost to Broadway as of 2006 (except for Wicked) who could respond to Spring Awakening for the same reason audiences always respond to a piece of popular entertainment, because it reflects back at them something of themselves. review by William Ruhlmann at allmusic.com

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Posted by alhuraibi at 3:16 PM 2 comments  

[2007] Original Soundtrack - Once (Mp3 Download)










The starring roles in Once, the little movie that could by writer/director John Carney, stars the Frames' Glen Hansard and Czech singer and songwriter Markéta Irglová. The songs, representing those of the character Guy, and his collaborator Girl, are made up of simple and attractive acoustic pop, full of guitars, piano, a small drum kit and electric bass, with some supplemental instruments. Sung by one, the other, or the pair, they offer a sweet and moving little soundtrack to this quirky film that offers no easy answers and asks plenty of questions. Interestingly enough, Hansard and Irglová are real life musical partners. They recorded an album together in 2006 called Swell Season. Five of these 13 tunes originally appeared on that set issued in the United States on the Overcoat label. For the film, additional recording on the original material and the supplemental songs written specifically for the cinematic project were done in a studio in Ireland. While the film has garnered a sizeable audience for such a small budget project, the soundtrack may have a more difficult time. It's not because the songs are so personal, but because they are so small in and of themselves. Fans of the Frames may score copies, and those who are charmed by the film might like the music enough to be curious, but it's one of those recordings you have to be specifically in the mood for. The wispy nature of much of this material makes for an intimate listen and one that is as skeletal yet elegant as the film itself. review by Thom Jurek at allmusic.com

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Posted by alhuraibi at 2:56 PM 0 comments  

14 October 2008

[2007] James Blunt - All The Lost Souls (Mp3 Download)










For as big a hit as it was, "You're Beautiful" wasn't necessarily representative of what kind of a singer/songwriter James Blunt is. It wasn't necessarily inaccurate, but it was misleading, suggesting that all this tremulously tuneful singer/songwriter wants to do is be sensitive -- that he aimed himself squarely at the middle of the road, crafting gentle music for housewives. That's not quite the case, as his 2007 sophomore effort, All the Lost Souls, makes plain. Surely, Blunt is wholly mainstream, a slicker, spirited variation on David Gray's elegantly upscale folk-pop, but he's not crassly commercial, deciding to disregard the path toward stultifying adult contemporary -- a path that "You're Beautiful" certainly pointed toward -- but he's also choosing to not write happy, harmless pop like Daniel Powter, still dwelling on moody, introspective midtempos. In other words, he still adheres to the Gray template the second time around, but he opens things up slightly with some spacey textures reminiscent of Coldplay and a heavy dose of classic popcraft, learned equally from Elton John, David Bowie, and Paul McCartney. Oddly, the sum total of these influences turns Blunt into the heir to that forgotten strain of wimpy, wispy songwriter-driven British pop of the '70s embodied by such once-stars as Al Stewart, Leo Sayer, and Gilbert O'Sullivan. The ghost of Gilbert echoes throughout "One of the Brightest Stars," and while this allusion is quite likely inadvertent, it also doesn't seem to be a coincidence that the opening song (and first single) on All the Lost Souls is a song that celebrates "1973," because much of this album feels like it could have been recorded and released during that mid-'70s heyday of sensitive pop. The main difference is not the clean, modern production with its slight digital flourishes -- things that push the rhythms forward on "Give Me Some Love," one of the livelier moments here -- but that Blunt isn't some quivering bedsit bard; he's the babe who enthusiastically shed his clothes in the "You're Beautiful" video, somebody whose confidence infuses his brokenhearted laments and makes them feel not quite so melancholy. This makes All the Lost Souls soothing, not haunting, and it also removes many of the quirks that distinguished '70s albums by McCartney, O'Sullivan, Sayer, and Elton, so this won't quite seduce that kind of pop fan (although this may hold more interest for them than they might initially think), nor will it win over anybody who can't quite get past the garbled, strangled soul affections of his voice, which remains his greatest liability -- but it will seduce anybody already won over by his 2005 debut, Back to Bedlam, since it's a tighter, more assured record than that. But chances are, they were seduced by Blunt already. review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine at allmusic.com

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Posted by alhuraibi at 2:53 PM 0 comments  

[2007] Avril Lavigne - The Best Damn Thing (Mp3 Download)










Well, that awkward goth phase didn't last long! With all the impatience of an ADD-riddled teen rebel, Avril Lavigne ditched the gloomy façade of her sophomore Under My Skin and dove back into the well-scrubbed mosh pit for her third album, The Best Damn Thing. Frankly, the change in pace comes as a bit of a relief. The serious Avril on Under My Skin never felt genuine — the shift from the exuberance of "Sk8er Boi" to the meandering ruminations of "Don't Tell Me" and "My Happy Ending" seemed sudden and forced, a misguided attempt to prove that Lavigne was a serious songwriter — so as soon as The Best Damn Thing opens with the bright bubblegum blast of "Girlfriend" and its cheerleader chant, everything within Avril's world seems right again. If anything, this third album feels even more adolescent than her aggressively catchy-n-shallow debut, Let Go, perhaps because this is an album where Avril is allowed to run wild. She can curse, spit, and strut to her heart's content, she can taunt her rivals and steal their boyfriends, then bitch out the boy for not understanding her once he belongs to her. She impatiently rushes through the power ballads — there are only three of them, all impeccable melodic anthems designed to keep the crossover adult audience Let Go won, all better than their equivalents on Under My Skin — because she can't wait to get back and raise hell like the spoiled brat that she's thrilled to be. Avril swears like she's just discovered profanity, cheerfully spitting out four-letter words (and their compounds) with glee, but everything she does here she does with unrestrained glee. She truly believes she's the best damn thing you've ever seen, she knows it's all about her — or, as she shouts on "I Don't Have to Try," "I wear the pants!" — and if you don't agree, she knows you're wrong and you can go to hell (actually, she'd probably say something a lot stronger). This sense of entitlement will surely rankle anybody who's just a little bit older than Avril's 22 years, who will also find that the perennial Lavigne complaint holds: she ain't no punk, she's a brat that any grizzled old punk will want to beat with a baseball bat. (How do you know if you're one of the old guys? If you recognize the chorus of "Girlfriend" as a total lift from the Rubinoos' "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," you're an old guy, even if you're 20.) But The Best Damn Thing wasn't made for them, nor was it made with any sense (or even regard) for the past: it was made to exist totally in the moment, in a time when a moment speeds by faster than light. And, frankly, that's what good about The Best Damn Thing: it's as exuberant, irreverent, and exciting as any other bubblegum pop, defiantly silly and shallow, but also deliriously hooky. If Lavigne didn't have the hooks — if neither "Girlfriend" nor the title track weren't driven by cheerleader chants, if "Everything Back But You" didn't snarl like prime Green Day, if "I Can Do Better" didn't soar on its chorus — her snotty attitude would be unbearable, but these are terrific, addictive pop songs that are harder and tougher yet feel fresher and lighter than her big hits from Let Go. True, this is far from deep, but Under My Skin proved that a deep Avril is a dull Avril. The Best Damn Thing, in contrast, builds on every one of her bratty strengths, which makes for ridiculously catchy pop — the kind of music that provides a soundtrack for teens and guilty pleasures for everyone else. review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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Posted by alhuraibi at 2:21 PM 0 comments  

10 October 2008

[2008] Jack Johnson - Sleep Through The Static (Mp3 Download)










Much of the press surrounding the release of Sleep Through the Static recounted Jack Johnson's claim that he gave all his peppy pop tunes over to the Curious George soundtrack and how that, combined with personal losses -- including the death of his cousin Danny Riley, to whom the album is dedicated -- led the surfing singer/songwriter into darker territory for his fifth album. To a certain extent, all of that is true, as the album does open with an atypically stark, moody number in "All at Once" and there are some darker sentiments lurking within the 14 songs here, but it takes some close listening to find the sorrow flowing through some of the words. Some very close listening, really, as Johnson's sand-brushed, gentle voice doesn't command attention. His voice lulls and soothes, so it takes concentrated effort to hear beyond his tone and hear what he's actually saying. Then again, the meaning of Johnson's music doesn't matter as much as the mellow mood, a feeling that he's sustained throughout his albums and doesn't change here. Johnson may use more electric guitars than acoustics on Sleep Through the Static, but he's strumming them like acoustics and his overall aesthetic has not changed at all: he's still a laid-back guy singing songs that roll so easy they glide into the background. No matter what instrument he's playing or what he's singing about, his music still feels the same, which is enough to satisfy his fans but not to win him many new ones. Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine at allmusic.com

Track List
03. Hope
04. Angel
05. Enemy
09. Adrift
10. Go On

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Posted by alhuraibi at 5:06 PM 0 comments  

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