Album Review: Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea

Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

If you're looking for the sunny, optimistic girl who once belted, "Girl, put your records on..." you won't find her in The Sea. Bailey Rae's sophomore effort is a true reflection of her personal turmoil, namely the sudden death of her husband in 2008. This time around, the singer/songwriter has crafted an album that is not only lyrically emotional, but also an intricate weave of rock, jazz and varied instrumentation. Though the album is tinged with moments of sadness, there are a few upbeat ones as well. "Closer" "Paris Nights/New York Mornings" and "The Blackest Lily" are raucous, full-band celebrations. The Sea is a much more intimate look at a another side of the pop singer.

Album Review: Brad Paisley - American Saturday Night

After 10 years and 10 straight No. 1 singles, Brad Paisley has got it down: He knows what his fans want and he gives it to them. His well-crafted new album is no different. Paisley hits all the right notes, literally and figuratively, weighing in on skinny dippin', beer, fishing, technology, children and women, among other all-American topics. "Then," a multiweek No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, speaks to long-lasting love and adoration and may be this decade's "Amazed." The soulful "Oh Yeah, You're Gone," which features blues rocker (and co-writer) Robben Ford, is the album's pearl and shows a side of Paisley he's rarely revealed. There's plenty of his trademark humor here as well. On "The Pants" he gleefully hands out sage advice to a stubborn man: "It's not who wears the pants, it's who wears the skirt." ~Ken Tucker

[Via: Billboard.com]

Album Review: Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You

[Image via Flickr]

Rating: 3.0 out of 4 Stars

"Are you mine, are you mine, cause I stay here all the time..." those are the words echoed by Lily Allen, Britain's bad-girl on her latest album, It's Not Me, It's You. After Lily Allen burst onto the scene with her first album, Alright, Still, thanks in part to her MySpace page and the infectious song, Smile, Lily's back in the headlines once again.

Although she pulled a Britney Spears recently with her erratic behavior, her new album is fun yet catchy, and not for the faint of heart, as she's open and honest about relationships, society and family (parental advisory sticker included)!

On the song, I Could Say, it has an 80's Madonna pop-feel, as Allen sings "Since you've gone I've lost a chip on my shoulder, Since you've gone I feel like I've gotten older, And now you've gone it feels as if the whole wide world is my stage And now you've gone it's like I've been let out of my cage, " over synthesized beats. Allen's newest album seems more a mash-up between 80's music and all those 80's movies you've seen a thousand times where girl talks to guy, guy ignores girl, girl and guy end up together..cue cheesy music.

Much of Allen's newest album, although different from her previous album, succeeds for the most part due to her ability to channel club music from London through her Europeanesque sounds and catchy lyrics. All in all, It's Not Me, It's You that should go and pick-up Lily Allen's latest album.

Already picked up her latest album? If so, what did you think? Check-out the video below (Christian Karasiewicz).

Album Review: The Fray - The Fray

[Image via VideoMusicNmp3.com]

Rating: 3.5 out of 4 Stars

From the moment that The Fray burst onto the scene with that Patrick Dempsey hit from Grey's Anatomy, they were infectious! A little-known group at the time, The Fray became an instant overnight success with their unique and catchy lyrics. Some two years later, they have released their newest self-titled album, The Fray. By now, you've probably heard their first single if you've ever seen the television show Lost, for which they provide the theme music for in the song You Found Me.

While The Fray appeared to be original through their lyrics and radio-friendliness on their first album, from the first note on the song Syndicate off their newest album, they seem to rip-off another small-time artist, Mr. A-Z -- Jason Mraz. Despite this one minor misstep, The Fray gets right back on track where their previous album, How to Save A Life left off. My favorite songs from the new album are Syndicate, with their guitar riffs and drum combinations along with We Build Then We Break, which departs from the down-home feeling in favor of electronica (even if you're not a fan of electronica, beleive me it is a good different) and obviously You Found Me.

Combined with frontman, Isaac Slades booming voice, The Fray proves they are no one-hit wonder, hoping to ride the coattails of past artists that have failed along the way. The Fray is another entertaining album that should be on your iPod or in your CD player (Christian Karasiewicz). In case you haven't heard their newest track, here's a video from the Good Morning America performance along with a video from Jason Mraz -- did The Fray borrow from Mr. A-Z?

Album Review: Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream

[Image via Rolling Stone]

Rating: 2 out of 4 Stars

We're all working on a dream in life to be the best that we can be. As Bruce Springsteen once sang, "You can't start a fire, you can't start a fire without a spark." Sadly, in his latest album titled Working On A Dream, that spark that made Springsteen famous is sadly missing. Instead, we are left with what seems like a broken down Springsteen. While the album features a few good tracks in Working On A Dream -- which he performed at Super Bowl XLIII, an eight-minute version of Outlaw Pete, and the bonus track in The Wrestler from the recent Darren Aronofsky and Mickey Rourke flick, sadly, Springsteen's album sounds unpolished and unfinished.

Maybe it is the raspiness in his voice, or the fact that he seems to have channeled the feeling from The Wrestler, a movie about a 'one-trick pony' going through life. While we have come to expect more from The Boss, regressing back to what it is like not to be famous and to always be working, working on a dream seems to be his mantra in his newest album. Springsteen is definitely no one-trick pony though, and fans shouldn't expect anything less (Christian Karasiewicz).

Album Review: Estelle - Shine

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

For anyone who never warmed to Erykah Badu's Egyptology or still mourns Lauryn Hill's disappearance, help has arrived. Estelle offers a gritty alternative to R&B divadom's strutting fembots. On her American debut, this former U.K. record—store clerk boasts an all—star cast: executive producer John Legend, Will.i.am, Swizz Beatz, Kanye West and Cee—Lo, who duets on the Philly—soul "Pretty Please (Love Me)." But those Yanks don't dilute Shine's regional feel — this West London homegirl's perspective is etched in her husky singing, fleet—tongued rapping and wised—up lyrics. ("You ain't spending the night/After we're done here, it's back to the wife," she commands in "Wait a Minute.") The music encompasses rugged modern R&B, dancehall, Sarah Vaughan—style jazz vocalese and, on "No Substitute Love," a reggae—soul—hip—hop torch song. But the mood is always beatific, topped off by "American Boy," a treatise on Anglo—American relations where Estelle plays a cheeky sex—tourist. "Don't like his baggy jeans," she raps, "but I'ma like what's underneath them. (Jody Rosen)
[via Rollingstone.com]

Album Review: Radiohead - In Rainbows

These wily boys may have a secret album-title exchange program with Kelly Clarkson, but everything else about In Rainbows is typically hard-rocking Radiohead. Like every other Radiohead album except Kid A — still their most famous album, but they only made it once — In Rainbows has uptempo guitar songs and moody acoustic ballads, full of headphone-tweaking sound effects. All of it rocks; none of it sounds like any other band on earth; it delivers an emotional punch that proves all other rock stars owe us an apology.

In a brilliant move, Radiohead released In Rainbows via optional-pay download; I paid $5.27, in honor of my mom's birthday. Almost all the songs are already familiar to fans from live versions, but here they become expansive new creations. "Arpeggi" and "Bodysnatchers" ride on white-heat rhythm-guitar overdrive, while "House of Cards" is a fragile lovers-rock ballad closely resembling Dusty Springfield's (and the Byrds') "Going Back." "All I Need" has erotic pleading ("I'm an animal trapped in your hot car"), sad chimes in the "No Surprises" mode, and an ominoso synth-piano rumble.

On 2003's Hail to the Thief, Yorke's vocals were all punk rage, but here his voice has an R&B lilt that suits the songs' romantic directness. The end of "Videotape" is the only time the band dips back into dated glitch-blip electronics. Otherwise, the music is full of vividly collaborative sonic touches, from the Gary Numan synth-nightmare drones of "All I Need" and "House of Cards" to drummer Phil Selway's surprisingly deft way with his brushes and woodblocks. No wasted moments, no weak tracks: just primo Radiohead. Hell, I'm going back and tipping them another quarter just for the finger-cymbal solo on "Reckoner." (Rob Sheffield)

[via Rollingstone.com]

Album Review: Lil' Wayne - Tha Carter III

Here's the Rolling Stone album review that broke Lil Wayne to the mainstream as "The Greatest Rapper Alive".

Rating: 4 1/2 Stars out of 5

OK, it's true: he really is the best rapper alive. Lil Wayne made that claim on his last official CD, in 2005, and since then, he's unleashed an astonishing torrent of mixtapes, leaks and guest appearances to back up the boast. So his long-anticipated "legit" album follow-up feels a bit gratuitous. Still, Tha Carter III is useful as an exclamation point. It establishes beyond a doubt that the zeitgeist in 2008 belongs to one artist: a dreadlocked dadaist poet from New Orleans with a bad weed habit and a voice like a bullfrog. As Wayne croaks in the woozy "3Peat," "Get on my level/You can't get on my level/You will need a space shuttle/Or a ladder that's forever."



Wayne has taken the task of album-making seriously: This isn't a mixtape, it's a suite of songs, paced and sequenced for maxaqimum impact. He's collected sleek, powerful beats from top producers (Kanye West, Swizz Beatz), enlisted A-list guest stars (Jay-Z, T-Pain) and served up a range of textures and moods, from the elegiac Hurricane Katrina protest "Tie My Hands" to the bubblegum bumper "Lollipop," in which Weezy has a laugh at selling out by creating the most outrageously pumped-up sellout single in history. Thematically, Carter III is a victory lap. In the hilarious "Dr Carter," he boasts about resuscitating hip-hop: "As I put the light down his throat/I can only see flow/His blood's starting to flow/His lungs starting to grow."

As usual, Wayne's tumbling freestyle rhymes are full of imagination and surprise, but his voice itself is half the fun. He shouts, gasps, tries a Caribbean patois, sings snatches of "Umbrella" and "Irreplaceable," and impersonates E.T. He loves that brother-from-another-planet stuff —"I am a Martian," he raps —but it's clear he's also thinking about his worldly legacy. The album cover links Carter III to Biggie's Ready to Die and Nas' Illmatic, and he makes no bones about coveting a spot in hip-hop's pantheon. "Next time you mention Pac, Biggie or Jay-Z/Don't forget Weezy Baby," he advises on "Mr Carter." It's sound advice. (Jody Rosen)

Album Review: Adele - 19

In honor of the upcoming Grammy Awards--and so you can get better acquainted with why the nominees are nominees-- we're posting a few album reviews for your reading pleasure.



Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Like fellow crooners Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash, Adele Adkins polished her skills at the Brit School in south London — as good a finishing academy as American Idol. Her debut, which topped the British charts earlier this year, lacks the bad-girl brio of those grads, but it shows off a vocal instrument that smokes the competition.

Check out "Cold Shoulder," a lover's blues, produced by Winehouse's secret weapon, Mark Ronson: Over swirling strings and a snare pattern borrowed from James Brown's "Funky Drummer," Adele reads her man the riot act with a mix of Memphis-soul-mama swoops and cockney-street-punk stops. "Melt My Heart to Stone" and "Tired," co-written with veteran U.K. hit-maker Eg White, are retro-modern R&B exercises with similar charm. On more sparsely arranged numbers, though — including a measured cover of Bob Dylan's unlikely pop standard "Make You Feel My Love" — her marvelous technique can become cloying, and the boilerplate verses on her originals don't help. Here's hoping the girl's storytelling will one day be as interesting as her phrasing. (Will Hermes)

[Via Rollingstone.com]

Album Review: 808s and Heartbreak

Kanye West's newest album, 808's and Heartbreak





Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars



Over the past year, the Louis Vuitton Don, aka, Kanye West, had the biggest selling concert of the year with the Glow In the Dark Tour, not to mention, a #1 Billboard spot for Graduation along with a myriad of hit singles: (Stronger, The Good Life). As Kanye appeared to be getting stronger, his world around him seemed to crumble--but just for a little bit. The once impenetrable Kanye suffered two tremendous losses at the pinnacle of his success. With the untimely death of his mother, and the break-up with his fiancée, Alexis Phifer; one would expect Ye to buckle under the pressure. But Kanye doesn’t seem to have let that happen; instead, he's poured his heart and soul into his newest album, 808’s and Heartbreak.



Fans of Kanye’s earlier work might be in for a surprise. Heartbreak deviates from prior albums, choosing instead to focus more on life’s ups and downs over the past year. West chooses to forego the usual slowed down classics that he pioneered, and introduces the aptly titled Roland TR-808 into the mix, for which his album title references. Filled with 80’s beats and tribal drums, 808’s and Heartbreak demonstrates West’s growing up.



In particular, West croons on the title, Welcome to Heartbreak, “chased a good life my whole lifelong, looked back on my life and my life gone…where did I go wrong.” While 808’s and Heartbreak deviates from classic Kanye, it has its share of hits in singles like Heartless, RoboCop, Coldest Winter and Welcome To Heartbreak, not to mention Love Lockdown. While Kanye may have gotten rid of the arrogance that defined the Louis Vuitton Don in the past, he proves that he’s got classic beat-making locked down and that he hasn’t gone wrong anywhere despite shouldering these tremendous losses. (Christian Karasiewicz)

Album Review - The Pied Piper of R&B is Back!

by guest blogger: Darrell Alston

Fresh off a not-guilty verdict in his child pornography case, R. Kelly is set to drop 12 Play: 4th Quarter this fall. If you can get past his crazy and twisted personal life, you'll see that R. Kelly is a great performer/singer/songwriter. With the title, comes lofty expectations. Kelly's first solo album was also titled 12 Play, and produced numerous #1 hits including "Your Body's Callin'"; "Bump 'n' Grind"; one of my personal favorites, "It Seems Like You're Ready"; and the best song of 1993, "Sex Me".


So what can we expect from 12 Play: 4th Quarter? After listening to the first single, Hair Braider (yeah, that's the name of the song), I was a bit skeptical; but after listening to the album a couple of times, I've decided that 12 Play: 4th Quarter is almost a classic. This album gives you that 90s R&B feel, something that the game is missing right now. Honestly, I had lost faith in Kellz after that wack Double Up album--it was decent, but it lacked the vintage R. Kelly sound that us old-school fans are used to. 12 Play: 4th Quarter brings us just that. He'll romance you on "Whole Lotta Kisses"; He'll make love to you on "Go Low"; multiply on "Wanna Make a Baby"; and then deny the baby on "Might Be Mine". As a fan of R. Kelly, I was left impressed. Take a listen, and then tell me what you think.