New Music Reviews - 11/1/2011 - Florence + the Machine, Pyyramids, and Little Jackie

Florence + the Machine Ceremonials - After their debut album went on to sell more than four million copies and made Florence Welch a staple on top-40 radio stations, she and "the Machine" are back for their sophomore album.

To capitalize on the band's meteoric rise, this disc is available in both a standard edition and a deluxe edition for a few bucks more. Although I'm only reviewing the standard edition, the deluxe has a second disc that contains some demo songs as well as acoustic versions of three songs from this album.   The standard disc has 12 tracks total while the bonus disc from the deluxe version includes eight additional tracks. 

Overall, Ceremonials is a solid and respectable followup to their smash debut album, Lungs.  Florence uses her sultry and impassioned voice to maximum effect once again able to wring out heavy emotion from even the lightest lyrics.  Although there are less radio friendly jams on this disc, the quality of the music never waivers from their first album and fans of that disc will find plenty to love on this release with the band seemingly pouring everything they have into the individual tracks.

The soaring piano melodies compliment and make a nice counterpoint the vocal harmonies and rhythmic guitar work. However, the real standout on this album, just like on the last album, is the emotion-filled vocal work by Florence Welch who seems to hold nothing back as she takes us on a melodic journey with even greater zeal and grandeur.

Score: 8/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Only If For A Night" [sample it below] and "Spectrum"

Pyyramids Human Beings (LP) - This must be sultry female vocalist week!  Pop band OK Go recently left Capitol Records to form their own record label, Paracadute, and the first release off the label is this LP by Pyyramids.  This two person collaboration features vocals by former Lupe Fiasco backup vocalist Drea Smith and OK Go's bassist Tim Nordwind doing the majority of the instrumentation.  Smith's vocals offer a light version of what Florence Welch brings with equal steaminess albeit with a much lesser range.  The generally subdued melodies offer a downtempo pop feel to the songs that have a subtle but chic aura to them.   The LP has a very interesting a beguiling sound to it but the duo doesn't give us much range over the entire disc which works quite well over these five tracks (plus one remix) but I could see it being repetitive over a normal length album release.  As a debut disc, there's a lot to like on a couple of tracks but there's not enough variety for you to fall in love with the band at this point in their career. 

Score: 6.5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Perfect Picture" and "Human Beings"

Little Jackie Made4TV - To continue our there from this week, Little Jackie is a two person R&B group from the U.S. featuring the silky vocals by frontwoman Imani Coppola.  The band made a minor splash in the UK a few years back with their single "The World Should Revolve Around Me".  On their sophomore release, the duo mixes retro R&B jams with fun, and sometimes funny, lyrics.  Their sound is energetic and very danceable but the highlight for me were the cleverly written lyrics and how they seamlessly blended with the smooth and distinct  melodic jams they consistently produce over the length of the entire album.  I went into this album with zero expectations and it completely blew me out of the water.  I definitely enjoyed the faster tempo songs more than the slower tempo ones but, on the same token, there aren't any tracks that I outright hated or skipped over on my repeat listens.  And while Coppola's vocals aren't quite as sultry as the first two artists reviewed this week this was the album I found the most enjoyable.

Score: 9/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Take Back the World" [sample it below], "31 Flavors" and "Cock Block"




Dunner's going on vacation...  I will be attending a family reunion next week in (hopefully) sunny and fun Orlando, Florida.  So I will be taking the week off from reviewing any new albums but they will be returning the following week for your reading and listening pleasure.  Thanks for your patronage!