Christine Perfect, The Complete Blue Horizons Sessions
Although hardly essential, a very welcome listen.
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy and the Poor Boys
Artist: Creedence Clearwater Revival Review: Hailing from El Cerrito, California, Creedence Clearwater Revival should've logically been another hippie collective waving flowers in neighboring San Francisco. As these 40th-anniversary editions suggest, leader John Fogerty instead invented an alternate identity for his band based on its otherwise unremarkable 1968 debut album's rumbling reinvention of a rock oldie. His singing voice swollen with the exaggerated vowels and slurred consonants of shouting Southern bluesmen, Fogerty discovered... Rating: 4 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
Last Shadow Puppets, Age Of The Understatement
Turner and Kane shake off all those blatant copyists and stay at least three steps ahead of any competition. Wonderful?
Brett Dennen - Hope For The Hopeless
Artist: Brett Dennen Review: Brett Dennen was a hippie camp counselor before he became a John Mayer-approved troubadour on 2006's So Much More. So brace yourself for "Closer to You," where he admits to "wearing nothing but my birthday suit." That unsettling mental image aside, Dennen's third disc suggests he may soon give Dave Matthews a run for his tour grosses. "Make You Crazy" is a jubilant rave-up with Femi Kuti on vocals, while the quiet ballad "So Far From Me" is perfect for a dorm-room make-out. Dennen can be heavy-h... Rating: 3 Stars
Vedder Eddie
Jeżeli w latach 70 królem amerykańskiego rocka był Neil Young, lata 80 należały do Bruca Springsteena, to herosem kolejnej dekady został frontmen grupy Pearl Jam Eddie Vedder....
U2 - October
Artist: U2 Review: From the beginning, U2 aspired to profound ecstasy. But it took Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. a while to get there. Two of U2's first three albums are undeniable classics: 1980's precociously magnificent Boy for its proudly spiritual optimism in the thick of post-punk nihilism and for the Edge's reveille-treble guitar; 1983's War for its arena-rock muscle tone (honed over three years of touring) and the matured blend of soldier's ardor and pop wile in the singles "Sunday... Rating: 4 Stars
Dirty Pretty Things, Romance At Short Notice
The second offering from this band is a crisp, polished collection of tuneful japery and pithy urban commentary.
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.
Roy Orbison - The Soul of Rock & Roll
Artist: Roy Orbison Review: Roy Orbison was a superhero of song. Unassuming in appearance, he became someone extraordinary when his weeping tenor took flight, rising from deep, dark places on anguished ballads like "Only the Lonely" and "Crying." Orbison rebuilt the stark balladry of Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" as a jukebox opera house, expanded rock's arrangement limitations, and opened a door to Phil Spector and Freddie Mercury alike. This 107-track box captures Orbison's Fifties rockabilly beginnings on its first... Rating: 5 Stars
Gonzales Jose
Wzrastająca w ostatnich latach popularność folku pokazuje, że mimo wszechobecnej wysoko rozwiniętej technologii w XXI wieku ludzie dalej poszukują w muzyce prostoty, szczerości i emocjonalności. ...
Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends
Artist: Tobacco Review: Tobacco's Tom Fec just made one of the year's best stoner-rock records — only it's powered by synths, hip-hop beats and vocoders instead of guitars. Moonlighting from his electronic psych-rock band Black Moth Super Rainbow, Fec crafts spectacular, Air-style instrumentals ("Pink Goo") and expertly spins reedy Mellotrons into indelible hooks ("Hawker Boat"). Bonus points for lyrics that get lost in pot-smoke profundity: "Honey Bunches of Oats is the greatest cereal ever." Rating: 3.5 Stars
Powderfinger - Dream Days At The Hotel Existence
Artist: Powderfinger Review: "I was bored listening to the same chords," Powderfinger's Bernard Fanning sings in "Lost and Running." He doesn't mean it. The Australian band, together since the mid-Nineties, spiritually hails from an older intersection: mid-Eighties U2 and (no shock, given Powderfinger's name) the fuzz-toned Seventies of Neil Young's Crazy Horse. The best songs here do not stray far. Dirty-guitar shriek and burnt jangle fortify Fanning's earnest romanticism in "Head Up in the Clouds" and "Long Way to Go."... Rating: 3 Stars
Tom Baxter, Skybound
You could do far, far worse than this generally lovely album.
White Denim, Workout Holiday
On this evidence alone, all signs point to a bright future.
Kowalska Kasia
Wielokrotnie nagradzana wokalistka i autorka tekstów - kobieca twarz polskiego, melodyjnego rocka lat 90....
Nickelback - Dark Horse
Artist: Nickelback Review: What's a poor rock band to do when your last album sold 8 million copies at a time when nobody buys CDs anymore? You can hire a guy who produced AC/DC, Def Leppard and Shania Twain albums that sold even more. On Dark Horse, "Mutt" Lange lightens Nickelback's dreary post-grunge plod, applying guitar shimmer to prom ballads and detonating big beats under frat-party shouts and raplike vocal parts. Lyrics revel in dorkitude, hair-metal style: "No class/No taste/No shirt/'N shitfaced." The two... Rating: 3.5 Stars
Feist scoops up 1,2,3,4,5 Canadian music awards (Reuters)
Reuters - Feist dominated Canada's music
awards on Sunday, scooping up five Junos for a year in which
the singer-songwriter shot to international stardom when Apple
Inc. used her single "1234" in iPod TV ads.
Mattafix, Rhythm & Hymns
This has its share of pop hooks, but attempts to square this with Mattafix's world music sympathies don?t always come off.
Kimya Dawson - Alphabutt
Artist: Kimya Dawson Review: Solo and as half of Moldy Peaches, Dawson has applied child-like wisdom and humor to adult issues like crack, romantic love, and the Iraq war. So it makes peculiar sense that she'd follow the freak success of the Juno soundtrack, which featured her on seven tracks, with a set of genuine kids songs. (She also recently became a mom.) But by the time she's halfway through the scatological title track — "C is for cat butt, D is for doo-doo" — it's clear this ain't Nickelodeon. Some songs... Rating: 3 Stars
Cage The Elephant, Cage The Elephant
If you want to release some good time rock 'n' roll, listen to this album.