Alabama 3, Hits And Exit Wounds
A deadpan and brilliantly realised summary of that rare thing: a unique band.
Varius Manx
Piętnaście lat na scenie, dziewięć krążków, trzy wokalistki i Brylantowa Płyta to imponujący bilans jak na "Dziwnego kota bez ogona", w którego słodko-gorzkiej historii wciąż nie powiedziano ostatniego słowa....
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
Perfect
Socjalistyczne władze nie przepadały za Perfectem, którego refren "Chcemy być sobą" zmieniano na koncertach w "Chcemy bić ZOMO". Faktem jest, że teksty pisane przez Olewicza i Hołdysa niezbyt pochlebnie wyrażały się o sytuacji w Polsce......
Bryan Adams, 11
The whole of 11 will sound great blasted out amongst his better-known numbers.
The Smiths - The Sound of the Smiths
Artist: The Smiths Review: Overseen by Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr, this compilation emphasizes the compositional might behind the miserablism of England's most idiosyncratic and influential Eighties band. Sound traces the quartet's four-year evolution from savage tenderness to refined despair: Morrissey articulates both bleak romanticism and omni-deprecating humor, while Marr accompanies him with chiming, multilayered riffs. The Smiths often relegated their most emotionally detailed and musically divergent tracks... Rating: 5 Stars
Belle and Sebastian - The BBC Sessions
Artist: Belle and Sebastian Review: Fans of Belle and Sebastian's witty bookworm pop are an obsessive lot, and no doubt they'll snap up this cherry-picked collection of BBC recordings from 1996 to 2001. The draw for devotees is four rare songs from a 2001 session, including a hilarious fan letter to kindred indie-pop intellectuals the Go-Betweens ("Shoot the Sexual Athlete") and a kind of hushed farewell sung by Isobel Campbell, who left the group soon after ("Nothing in the Silence"). Otherwise, aside from a breezy glockenspiel... Rating: 3.5 Stars
Bregović Goran
Goran Bregović już dawno zrzucił maskę gwiazdy rocka i zajął się aranżowaniem swojej starej muzyki, na ciągle modne folkowe rytmy z Bałkanów....
Otis Redding - Live in London & Paris
Artist: Otis Redding Review: Otis Redding didn't simply "play concerts." The soul giant was a human Mount Vesuvius: He erupted. Redding was at the height of his fame in March 1967, when he played these two brief shows in London and Paris. (He would die in a plane crash in December that year.) And the audience's reaction is ecstatic — it's a fair bet that few of these Europeans had ever witnessed a spectacle quite like Redding and the all-star Stax house band, Booker T. and the MG's and the Mar-Key horns, tearing into... Rating: 4 Stars
James Hunter, The Hard Way
More blues, maybe? More twanging rock'n'roll, perchance?
Joe Higgs, Life Of Contradiction
A work of astonishing depths and bruised, aching humanity.
Lewis Leona
W dobie zalewu programów telewizyjnych produkujących "gwiazdy" nietrudno jest zostać laureatem jakiegoś show i nagrać sobie płytę. Na szczęście pochodne popularnego "Idola" wyławiają czasem prawdziwe perły....
Beck
Krytycy długo uważali, że Beck jest tylko człowiekiem jednego przeboju i zniknie ze sceny tak szybko, jak się na niej pojawił....
Michael McDonald, Soul Speak
On this evidence his voice still has more than enough authority to carry it off.
Tom Baxter, Skybound
You could do far, far worse than this generally lovely album.
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
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
Roy Orbison - The Soul of Rock and 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
The Doors - Live at the Matrix
Artist: The Doors Review: The Doors were still a club band in the late winter and spring of 1967 — not yet stars, not quite spectacle, reliant on blues and R&B covers to get through a whole evening on the bandstand. Stuck in a long limbo between the January release of their debut album, The Doors, and the summertime explosion of their second single, "Light My Fire," the group played discothèques in Los Angeles and New York and, during a legendary engagement that March, more than a dozen sets over five nights... Rating: 4 Stars
DeVotchKa - A Mad And Faithful Telling
Artist: DeVotchKa Review: DeVotchKa are best known for a) their hot sousaphonist who wraps her ax in Christmas lights, b) their quirky contributions to Little Miss Sunshine and c) their kinship with other world-music-minded acts (see Beirut, Yeasayer, the Ruby Suns). But what leader Nick Urata does on his big indie debut is pretty straightforward: make dance music and ballads with drama and kitsch. DeVotchKa's idea of dance rock is rooted in Mexican and Balkan folk as opposed to funk, as the instrumentation compli... Rating: 3 Stars
Joan As Police Woman, To Survive
Joan Wasser had plenty to do to equal the brilliance of her debut, but in To Survive, she has done just that.