The Sleeping Years, We're Becoming Islands One By One
Dale Grundle has written an album that is well paced and diverse enough to never quite cross the precarious line between gentle subtlety and dullness.
Mars Volta, The
Na początku był zespół At the Drive-In. Młodzi muzycy z El Paso w Teksasie, zafascynowani dokonaniami Pink Floyd, Fugazi i The Smiths, na początku lat dziewięćdziesiątych rozpoczęli poszukiwania swojej własnej drogi....
Ronson Mark
Mark Ronson ? brytyjski producent, założyciel Allido Records. Od małego karmiony różnymi stylami muzycznymi, wyrósł na poważanego artystę. Ma na koncie nagrodę Grammy i BRIT Award....
Randy Newman - Harps and Angels
Artist: Randy Newman Review: Randy Newman has earned a nice living in recent years as a film composer, but connoisseurs covet his Seventies work, when he emerged as one of the most cutting and empathic of American singer-songwriters. So his return to political-minded material on Harps and Angels is reason to wrap yourself in the flag and cheer. Newman works with piano, an orchestra and a Dixieland-style combo, using American musical tradition to amplify irony and yank heartstrings. The best moments echo classics like... Rating: 4 Stars
Kasprzycki Robert
W panteonie krakowskich poetów śpiewających tradycyjnie umiejscawiany jest gdzieś między Grzegorzem Turnauem a Maciejem Maleńczukiem....
Martina Topley-Bird
W połowie lat 90. jej hipnotyzujący, unikatowy głos za sprawą płyt Tricky'ego znali wszyscy fani trip-hopu. Dziś Martina Topley-Bird to w pełni samodzielna artystka, realizująca własną wizję muzyki. ...
A Fine Frenzy
Alison nie od razu obiera kurs na muzyczną karierę. Dopiero jako siedemnastolatka, zainspirowana twórczością zespołów takich jak Coldplay i Keane, rozpoczyna naukę gry na fortepianie. Pierwsze piosenki układa, grając wyłącznie dwoma palcami....
Various Artists - Everything that Happens Will Happen Today
Artist: Various Artists Review: David Byrne and Brian Eno retreated to pop's periphery years ago, but their influence is suddenly front and center. There are echoes of Byrne's old band, Talking Heads, in the avant-funk of LCD Soundsystem and other dance-rock bands, and you can hear the singer's workaday hysteria in the cadences of Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock. Coldplay sought producer Eno to help them make Viva la Vida, a record that recalls another album with Eno's mark, U2's The Joshua Tree.... Rating: 4 Stars
Shwayze - Shwayze
Artist: Shwayze Review: Cisco Adler, leader of Los Angeles sleaze rockers Whitestarr, is famous for his well-connected dad (producer Lou Adler), ex-girlfriends (like Mischa Barton) and his ballsy nude photo, which leaked online last year. His newest hobby is producing tracks (and an MTV reality show) for 22-year-old Malibu chill-hop rapper Shwayze, whose breezy flow is a hybrid of Young MC and Digable Planets' Butterfly. Adler's no beat master, and the tracks on Shwayze all sound like variations on thumb-strummed Jack... Rating: 2.5 Stars
John Matthias, Stories From The Watercooler
What Matthias conveys in electronically-tinged folk-rock feels more sad and reflective than seething or abstract.
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Friends, Solos Sessions & Encores
Solos Sessions and Encores gives us a perfect opportunity to reappraise the blistering talent of Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Paul Weller, 22 Dreams
In one fell swoop he's thrown off his dour image, ushering in a host of new fans by delivering the best solo album of his career.
Fela Kuti - Lagos Baby: 1963-1969
Artist: Fela Kuti Review: This set shows Afrobeat's chieftain before he became the most musically and politically radical musician in African history. Disc One, recorded shortly after Fela's college years in London, collects jazzy, percolating dance tunes that split the difference between Nigerian high-life lilt and the hotter sound of London calypso. The brassy ballroom jam "Bonfu (Short Skirt)," featuring Fela's early band Koola Lobitos, shows he was a skirt-chaser long before he married 27 women simultaneously. "Amaec... Rating: 3.5 Stars
George Strait - Troubadour
Artist: George Strait Review: Like a bottle of Heinz ketchup on a diner counter, a George Strait album is a reassuring product. At fifty-five, dude's spent his life making fairly low-bullshit, high-yield mainstream country: Since 1981's Strait Country, his LPs have gone platinum or better thirty-two times, and the four-CD anthology Strait Out of the Box has shifted 8 million units. That's a lot of Resistol cowboy hats, pardner (although thanks to his endorsement deal, Strait no doubt gets 'em free). Troubadour is... Rating: 3 Stars
Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
Artist: Tokyo Police Club Review: Many songs on this spiky Canadian quartet?s full-length debut are best appreciated with a Webster?s Unabridged Dictionary close at hand — especially with lines like ?Dead lovers salivate/Broken hearts tessellate.? Tokyo Police Club?s 2006 EP, A Lesson in Crime, earned them copious blog love and frequent comparisons to the Strokes, but Elephant Shell makes clear that the band?s ambitions are as much literary as musical. Singer-bassist David Monks? words pour out in clotted couplets... Rating: 3 Stars
Coma
Łódzka formacja rockowa, która przez pierwsze pięć lat istnienia, bez kontraktu z wytwórnią, gromadziła na koncertach 1,5 tysiąca fanów....
Wild Beasts, Limbo, Panto
This is a fine debut, full of surprises.
Tapes 'n Tapes - Walk It Off
Artist: Tapes 'n Tapes Review: It may strut its funky virtuosity like Prince, threaten to collapse in a drunken heap like the Replacements or rage like Hüsker Dü, but Minneapolis rock is always tuneful — an important comfort to folks freezing their nuts off most of the year. On the follow-up to their 2006 debut, The Loon, Minnesota's Tapes 'n Tapes hew to tradition, conjuring the Hüskers on "Le Ruse," a tirade on betrayal, with guitars and cymbals swarming like late-summer mosquitoes. Flaming Lips producer... Rating: 3 Stars
Spiritualized, Songs In A & E
Now, more than ever, Spiritualized are less about the trip into the outer limits and more about the frailty of love and mystery of individual existence.
Ladytron, Velocifero
If there's any justice, Velocifero will catapult Ladytron out of their decade-long cult status into deserved commercial success.
Nelly - Brass Knuckles
Artist: Nelly Review: Combining Will Smith's friendliness with St. Louis slang and a down-home drawl, Nelly has mastered his own brand of crossover appeal. On his fifth album, he mostly sticks to that pop-rap formula, cranking his distinctly melodic flow to hyper-speeds and playing the good-natured hedonist on cuts like "Party People." But when he tries to come off hard on a handful of Dirty South brawlers, he ends up sounding generic: "U Ain't Him" finds him rhyming about gunplay and warning no one in particular abo... Rating: 3 Stars