Nizlopi, Make It Happen
Those who were turned off by the commercial success of The JCB Song may want to give Nizlopi another go.
Seal - Soul
Artist: Seal Review: Amy Winehouse, what hath thou wrought? In the wake of the Great Beehived One's world-beating success, it seems everyone is getting in touch with his or her retro-soul muse. The latest bandwagon-jumper is Seal — who, with megaproducer David Foster playing the part of Mark Ronson, has delivered a collection of classic-soul covers, dripping with melodrama and tricked out with swooping symphonic orchestration. Seal is a fine singer, whose flavorful tenor combines the smoothness of old-school... Rating: 2.5 Stars
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
The Replacements - Tim
Artist: The Replacements Review: Released in 1985, Tim caught a great American garage band stretching out, working Big Star pop and Fifties-style rock into a mix of punky abandon and regular-dude romanticism. This version — reissued along with three other 'Mats albums, none of which is quite as tuneful as Tim — brightens the sound and adds six bonus cuts, including a bare-bones version of "Here Comes a Regular," Paul Westerberg's moving acoustic ballad about directionless barflies. Rarely did Westerberg write so... Rating: 4 Stars
Foals - Antidotes
Artist: Foals Review: For their adventurous debut, this Oxford quintet recorded with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek; the schizophrenic result is both twenty-first-century Brit pop (see Bloc Party) and nuevo New York art rock (see Battles). On "Electric Bloom," the combination is magic: Interlocking guitars and glints of electro-metallic percussion swarm around intimations of disaster, with maybe the most compelling enunciation of the word "hospital" since the first Modern Lovers LP. Later, a metronomic guitar... Rating: 3.5 Stars
Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
Artist: Ladyhawke Review: For Phillips "Pip" Brown, the New Zealand-born singer-songwriter known as Ladyhawke, 1985 is not merely a year: It's a career choice. Ladyhawke — the name comes from a Matthew Broderick fantasy film released in, yep, 1985 — is a retro fetishist, slathering her songs in synthesizer fanfares and thudding drum machines that precisely evoke the mid-Eighties sound of Pat Benatar, Kim Wilde and the Top Gun soundtrack. Ladyhawke is a skillful craftswoman, and in songs like the grandiose... Rating: 2.5 Stars
Foals, Antidotes
Believe the hype, because there won't be a better British debut album this year.
The Roots
Słyną z używania w swoich produkcjach żywych instrumentów, mieszania rapu z funkiem, soulem i rockiem oraz z niesamowitej energii koncertowej....
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
Various Artists, Greensleeves Spring Sampler
With tunes this good, it's a welcome re-addition to Greensleeves' regular release roster.
Jazzie B, Presents School Days: Life Changing Tracks From The Trojan Archive
The charm of this compilation comes from its rosy glow of musical nostalgia.
Joan Baez - Day After Tomorrow
Artist: Joan Baez Review: "I believe in prophecy," Baez sings on her new album. For five decades, her ringing soprano has been a prophetic sound, summoning the earnestness and anger — and, a bit too often, the self-righteousness — of the folk revival that made her its poster child. For her 24th studio release, Baez has teamed up with Steve Earle, who produced the album and contributed three songs. It's a fruitful partnership: Earle's hard-won earthiness acts as a counterweight to Baez's ethereal tendencies,... Rating: 3 Stars
Katy Perry - One Of The Boys
Artist: Katy Perry Review: "I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf/While jacking off listening to Mozart," Katy Perry tells her metrosexual ex on "Ur So Gay." Risqué words, coming from the daughter of two Christian pastors who only let her listen to gospel tunes as a kid. Now 23, the L.A. singer bucks the WWJD'ers with a debut full of mall-punky, grrrl-power tunes produced by Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette) and Dr. Luke (Avril Lavigne). But her attention-grabbing doesn't feel very rebellious: On the New Wave-y club... Rating: 2 Stars
The Black Keys, Attack & Release
Attack & Release is a remarkably easy album to like.
Wild Beasts, Limbo, Panto
This is a fine debut, full of surprises.
Jonas Brothers - A Little Bit Longer
Artist: Jonas Brothers 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: 4 Stars
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
Ladytron, Velocifero
If there's any justice, Velocifero will catapult Ladytron out of their decade-long cult status into deserved commercial success.
Genesis - Genesis: 1970-1975
Artist: Genesis Review: At first, Genesis were five English ex-boarding-school mates playing complex songs about hogweed and Greek myth. They slimmed that audacity into platinum pop as members left: guitarist Anthony Phillips (1970), singer Peter Gabriel (1975) and guitarist Steve Hackett (1977). But bassist Mike Rutherford, keyboardist Tony Banks and drummer Phil Collins were never as compelling later as they were in the band that made the five LPs in this box. The country-cathedral air of 1970's Trespass and the... Rating: 4.5 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.
Pavement - Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition
Artist: Pavement Review: In 1997, these slacker romantics slowed things down and serenaded their fans, delivering an album short on noise and long on artfully dissonant ballads. Stephen Malkmus worked softy sentimentality even into his funniest lines, rhyming "quasar in the mist" with "kaiser has a cyst" ("Stereo"). With a second disc of bonus material — including classic B sides like the insanely catchy "Harness Your Hopes" and welcome ditties like "Destroy Mater Dei" — this reissue bonanza shows the Nineti... Rating: 4.5 Stars