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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  

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