David Banner - The Greatest Story Ever Told
Artist: David Banner Review: Much of David Banner's charm lies in his bulldozer flow, his political awareness and his innovative production skills: His xylophone-laden beat for Lil Wayne's "La La" was one of the best on Tha Carter III. But on his fifth album, Banner battles with his urge to bring standard-issue Dirty South chart-toppers and cred-building hardness: The Greatest Story Ever Told is long on brawling tracks like "9mm," which banks on overbearing rhymes about gunplay. There are also pop-wise club jams like... Rating: 2.5 Stars
Vanessa Hudgens - Identified
Artist: Vanessa Hudgens Review: History teaches us not to dismiss kiddie pop. Stevie Wonder was once Little Stevie Wonder, just as Lil Wayne was once little Lil Wayne, child gangsta rapper. And let's not forget ex-Mouseketeers Britney and Justin. Purists disdain teenybopper music as cynical pap, foisted on the young by Svengalis who lurk in the shadows, counting money. But bubblegum can be a great farm system, honing skills that pay dividends in later life. Lately, Disney's kiddie pop has been plenty profitable, with High... Rating: 3 Stars
De La Soul
Niedawno świętowali dwudziestolecie działalności muzycznej. Mają na koncie siedem świetnych albumów studyjnych, ogromny komercyjny sukces oraz status żywej legendy....
The Zutons, You Can Do Anything
The Zutons are, you'll be relieved to know, on fine form.
Cajun Dance Party, Colourful Life
Rather than being a masterpiece in itself, it's more a brief ? yet highly effective ? demonstration of genuine potential.
Kylie Minogue - X
Artist: Kylie Minogue Review: Kylie Minogue has never commanded the zeitgeist like Madonna or stalked a stage with the queenly cool of Beyoncé or hurtled across octaves like Mariah. But in a two-decade career, the pint-size Aussie has ruled the British and European charts by supplying nonstop fizzy fun — she's pop divadom's party planner in chief. Minogue's tenth album arrives on the heels of her battle with breast cancer; thankfully, the experience hasn't made her music discernibly deeper. X compiles... Rating: 3.5 Stars
Tricky - Knowle West Boy
Artist: Tricky Review: 2008 is shaping up as the Year Bristol Bounced Back. Earlier this year, the city's trip-hop lords Portishead released the superb album Third. Now comes the first record in five years from Tricky, who helped codify the foreboding Bristol sound along with Portishead and Massive Attack in the mid-Nineties. Tricky's hometown is much on his mind: The album title refers to the hardscrabble hood where he grew up, and he has called the album a homage to the Brit pop of his youth. You can hear the... Rating: 3.5 Stars
Dąbrowska Ania
Wierna w muzyce latom 60. i 70., choć nadal dążąca do artystycznego rozwoju i uciekająca przed jednoznaczną etykietką. Każda z trzech jej płyt pokazała Anię jako wrażliwą i bystrą obserwatorkę ludzkich zachowań....
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. ...
Hank Williams - Hank Williams Unreleased Recordings
Artist: Hank Williams Review: In 1951, if you were awake at 7:15 in the morning and your radio was within the long reach of Nashville's WSM-AM, you had Hank Williams with your farina, singing with his Drifting Cowboys and selling sacks of flour for his sponsor, Mother's Best. Williams wasn't in the WSM studio at that hour; he prerecorded the shows on days off from touring. But the 54 performances in this three-CD set pack a magical, concentrated immediacy that is, in its time and way, as electrifying as Johnny Cash's Sixties... Rating: 4.5 Stars
Operator Please, Yes Yes Vindictive
Operator Please have created some unashamedly sunny music.
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tounge
Artist: Jenny Lewis Review: This Rilo Kiley frontwoman is everything a mother could want in a daughter: She's bright, talented — and ready to slice 'n' dice anyone who's done Mom wrong. "In your honor, I'm going to cut that man in half," she wails in "Jack Killed Mom," an enigmatic domestic fable that segues from chugging rock to a revival-tent rave-up. Lewis is indie rock's most sharp-elbowed songwriter, a crafter of taut meditations on love, sex and politics that are full of violent emotions and, occasionally, plai... Rating: 4 Stars
Górniak Edyta
O Edycie mówi się dużo. O Edycie mówi się różnie. Jedno jest pewne: bez niej polska scena rozrywkowa byłaby o wiele uboższa....
An On Bast
Na świecie elektroniczna scena coraz bardziej się feminizuje, choć wśród tych naprawdę wyrazistych i znaczących postaci kobiece nazwiska są wciąż w mniejszości....
Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection (Deluxe Edition)
Artist: Elton John Review: Elton John was a lot of things — sideman, session man and flop, with a long tail of failed solo releases, including the 1969 LP Empty Sky — before 1970's Elton John made him an overnight star. He wasn't afraid to admit it. John packed a bonus scrapbook in the original lavish packaging of 1975's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy with bad-hair photos, comic music-press ads ("You've been warned! Elton John is 1968's great new talent") and other ample proof of his time, with... Rating: 4.5 Stars
Kayah
Zanim wydała debiutancką płytę, musiała przejść długą drogę artysty drugoplanowego. Dziś zajmuje niekwestionowane, czołowe miejsce gwiazdy pop na polskiej estradzie muzycznej....
REM, Accelerate
We should be thankful, and not a little amazed.
Tricky
Świat usłyszał o Trickym w 1991 roku, gdy światło dzienne ujrzał kultowy debiut Massive Attack "Blue Lines". Kilka lat później był już w pełni samodzielnym artystą ? jednym z najbardziej wyrazistych na triphopowej scenie. ...
The Roots
Słyną z używania w swoich produkcjach żywych instrumentów, mieszania rapu z funkiem, soulem i rockiem oraz z niesamowitej energii koncertowej....
Fela Kuti - Logos Baby
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
Arthur Russell - Love Is Overtaking Me
Artist: Arthur Russell Review: Arthur Russell was the secret link between New York music scenes of the Seventies and Eighties — an experimental composer, a pathbreaking disco producer, a rocker in Talking Heads' orbit, a wildly original singer. His downfall, though, was a perfectionism that kept him from finishing his recordings. Culled from his ample archives, this set collects unheard pop songs from 1973 to 1991, a year before his death from AIDS-related complications. Russell's lighter-than-air voice, murmuring about... Rating: 3.5 Stars