Each week I will listen to and review/preview a handful of the more interesting music albums released that week. The genres I will mainly focus on are Rock, Pop, Indie, Hip-Hop, Rap, and Electronic.
The Grammy nominated, glam-skewing electropop music makers return with their fourth studio album.
This time around they stick close to the catchy electropop style we have embraced since their debut album while incorporating a throwback feel with Bee Gees and Elton John inspired disco flourishes peppered throughout the album.
The album opens with several buoyant and toe-tapping tracks including "Baby Come Home" and the first single off the album, "Only The Horses," whose playful melodies and catchy hooks lay the path for an enticing beginning to the disc.
Unfortunately the album does lose itself for two tracks in the middle of the album with the weird electroclash and house music track "Let's Have a Kiki" and the feedback heavy "Shady Love" with its discordant chorus that throws off the flow of the album substantially.
The last half of the album has a somewhat slower tempo and more somber feel overall, although that's not to say the songs are any less engaging. In fact, the track I found most enchanting of the album fits this bill with the tender homage "San Luis Obispo" with it tropical drumming and sweet guitar melody.
The entrancing "The Secret Life of Letters" has a more temperate chamber pop feel with its ethereal "ooh's" and its chamber pop instrumentation. While "Somewhere" is an ideal closing song that is both soothing enough where you don't mind letting the album end and engaging enough where you'll to listen to the album again.
Magic Hour ends up being a fantastic disc from the dance music creators where they exhibit more diverse musical tastes with some successful slower tempo tracks as well as some that have a heavier house and industrial electronica feel.
This album may not be their best release overall but its much more successful on many different levels including being less homogeneous than their last release, Night Work and easily stands shoulder to shoulder with their first two albums.
Score: 9/10 Song(s) to Sample:"Only The Horses" [sample it below], "San Luis Obispo" and "Self Control"
The multiple Grammy winning singer/songwriter from Connecticut hasn't been seen dating any famous actresses lately so he must have found the time to lay down his fifth studio album.
iTunes was streaming this album all of last week so you might have been able to hear a preview of it. For those that haven't, Mayer goes heavy in the blues and folk genres forgoing the pop flourishes that once helped his music appeal to mass audiences.
I found this album by Mayer, who has recently cancelled all live tour events due to health issues related to his throat, to be overly reliant on blues standards rather than using that type music as a building block in creating something that goes beyond a typical genre as he has done on his best albums.
Instead we get an overly morose album where even on his most accessible songs like "Love Is a Verb" he is left pleading "show me" that "love is a verb" rather than exclaiming that fact on a song that could have easily had a much different tone.
Born and Raised isn't a complete disappointment but it is a mediocre album at best. While on his best works Mayer shines in both his witty song writing and his playful melodies, this release doesn't showcase either of those abilities. Here's hoping he returns to form in both his health and his creativity on his next outing.
Score: 5/10 Song(s) to Sample: "Love Is a Verb" and "Walt Grace's Submarine Test, January 1967"
KimbraVows
The New Zealander who goes by the mononymous name of Kimbra is probably best known as the female vocaliston Gotye's ubiquitous "Somebody That I Used To Know" and today she releases her first solo studio album.
Well, this 13-track disc (with three bonus tracks if you purchase the MP3 version of the release) is already available if you are a Kiwi or an Aussie but the European and U.S. versions don't come out until today.
The music presented on this album is mostly soulful pop with Kimbra's sultry vocal style being the glue that holds the whole thing together. In fact, her vocals are constantly sublime over the duration of the album although her songwriting chops aren't able to achieve the same level of greatness yet.
A good example of this is the track "Two-Way Street" which Kimbra affects a gripping ethereal quality to her singing but the track which tries to incorporate string instruments, keyboards and even the odd xylophone comes across as forced melodically rather than the lush chamber pop feel it seems like she was aiming for.
Tracks like "Good Intent" where Kimbra's vocals take on a Nina
Simone-esque rasp and where she doesn't try to do to much with the
melodies is what really makes this album shine.
On the whole, Vows is a good debut where Kimbra's vocal talents far outshine her songwriting skills. It reminds me of a more downtempo version of a Zero 7 release but with less sweeping melodies. I could listen to her sing endlessly but I wouldn't mind seeing her get some song composition help on her next release.
Score: 7.5/10 Song(s) to Sample: "Good Intent" [sample it below] and "Settle Down"
The CultChoice of Weapon
The long standing post-punk quartet from the British Isles release their first studio album in five years and their ninth album overall.
After releasing their last album and being dropped from their label, the band had announced that they would not be producing anymore studio albums. Instead they released two EPs and went on tour to support those two releases. Well the band has obviously backed off that proclamation and instead satiates their fans with this 10-track release.
Frontman Ian Astbury, who just turned 50, starts to show his age a bit on this release with a more narrow vocal range and more introspective songs. This is not to say that the man has gotten soft--far from it--but there is a weariness to the music this time around with a greater feel that he is taking stock of his life.
They Cult will probably never be able to recapture the fun and energy of their early hit albums like Sonic Temple and their 1994 eponymous release but there are a handful of songs on Choice of Weapon that will appease their longtime fans like "Honey From A Knife" and "For The Animals." For non-fans, you'll be fine skipping this release altogether.
Score: 5.5/10 Song(s) to Sample: "Life > Death" and "For The Animals" [sample it below]
The indie rocking British quartet release their first full-length album in over four years. This review is based off of the standard version of the album although a deluxe version with four additional songs can also be had. As we have come to expect, the band once again relies on their staple of piano-driven songs although the melodies seem less lush and vivacious this time around. Just like on their last three albums, the entire band gets credit for writing each track from this release.
The general message of the album is a positive one. For example, on "You Are Young," Tom Chaplin sings, "Fearful child have faith in brighter days/Stay until this darkness fades away" with as much restrained emotion as he can muster on the melancholy opening a track.
If anything, this overly preachy and protective stance leads to some safe song choices that don't exhibit much life over the duration of the album. While the piano melodies do have a simple beauty to them, the album as a
whole lacks any vibrancy and the dull tracks end up sounding very
similar by the end of the album.
Strangeland ends up being a monotonous and utterly disappointing release from a band once voted as producing two of Britain's greatest albums of all-time according to the readers of Q Magazine. While all of their previous albums showed great growth in terms of the band's music, this album is a step backward and is easily one of the most disappointing releases so far this year.
Score:3/10 Song(s) to Sample: "Silenced by the Night" [sample it below]
The Silversun Pickups Neck of the Woods
The noise rocking quartet from Los Angeles debut their third full-length studio album after their last release, Swoon, ranked as high as #7 on the U.S. charts.
For those who are already aware of the band, let's just say the comparisons to The Smashing Pumpkins will surely be mentioned again after listening to this release with frontman Brian Aubert's vocal tenor still sounding very Billy Corgan-esque and the band still taking a big cue from the Pumpkins' distortion-heavy songwriting style.
However, while the style is similar to The Smashing Pumpkins, the music given to us on this release sounds fresh and original with more electronica cues, booming riffs, and even a more evolved vocal style. A good example of this is the already released first single "Bloody Mary" which has wonderfully layered overdubs of guitars that somehow comes off more soothing than frantic and has Aubert's vocals more seamlessly woven into the music rather than him just singing on top of the melodies like he did on their previous two albums.
Neck of the Woods is a more advanced and better constructed album than what they had released before that sweeps you along on a fun journey filled with pleasant surprises. While still not as good as The Smashing Pumpkins at their best, with this album they firmly move out from behind that shadow and create something wholly their own with great success.
Score:8/10 Song(s) to Sample: "Bloody Mary" [sample it below], "Make Believe" and "Simmer"
KarminHello
The duo best known for their YouTube-posted cover of Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now" (200 million hits!) release their debut studio album.
Of the engaged duo, Nick Noonan provides the instrumentation heavily influenced by both pop and R&B while Amy Heidemann provides vocals in either a modern pop or rap style.
Noonan's melodies have a bounciness to them that gives the album a fun attitude while Heidemann's vocals sound equally silky crooning both the singing and the rapping parts of the songs, frequently switching to and fro on individual tracks. However, while the band definitely has its own unique style, they seem to try too hard at being quirky and it comes across as forced on a few of the tracks ("Too Many Fish" is one example).
There is a lot to like on this album with the jauntily crafted songs and Heidemann's rare ability to switch styles on the fly but the inconsistencies from trying to be too unorthodox and the short duration of the disc (7-tracks running less than 25-minutes) loses it some points. It's an above average debut album where the duo's personalities shine through even if a couple of the tracks come off as dim.
Score: 6.5/10 Song(s) to Sample:"Brokenhearted" [sample it below] and "I Told You So
Programming Note: I'm out of town next week but reviews of new albums will be posted the following week.
The sexy singer/songwriter from Brooklyn teams up with uber-producer Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley & Broken Bells) on her fifth studio album.
Last year Ms. Jones assisted on Danger Mouse's fantastic album Rome (last year's best album) and Danger Mouse returns the favor by co-writing and composing on this 12-track release.
Whereas Rome was an homage to a throwback spaghetti Western soundtrack with moody and atmospheric set pieces, Little Broken Hearts has similar themes both in terms of melody and mood but with much more modern musical sensibilities in this post-breakup chamber pop album.
While the theme of the album does have darker overtones, Jones voice still has a vibrancy to it such that the songs never come across as sinister. On "Say Goodbye," Jones warbles, "It's alright, it's okay,/I don't need you anyway./You don't have to tell the truth,/Cause if you do I'll tell it too./(Oh, I'll tell it too)" but her light vocal tenor plus the buoyant guitar and keyboard accompaniment make the song a pleasant ditty rather than an overbearing rant.
Little Broken Hearts is one fantastic team-up with Jones' sparkling vocals and inviting songwriting and Danger Mouse's dynamic production work. The overall tone of album might be a dark one but Jones' music seems to shine brightest when collaborating with the Mouse.
Score: 8.5/10 Song(s) to Sample: "Say Goodbye" [sample it below], "After the Fall" and "All A Dream"
SantigoldMaster of My Make-Believe
The dub and electronica songstress finds time away from collaborating on the albums of artists like Beastie Boys, Basement Jaxx and Kanye West to release her sophomore studio album.
This time around Santigold takes us another aural journey pulling in sounds from a plethora of modern genres. The album opens with the aptly named "GO!" which sounds like a dub version of a The Go! Team song with its double-dutch style of vocals although the song isn't as tightly laid out as a typical The Go! Team song.
From there the album improves with the catchy "Disparate Youth" with its enchanting opening melody and a more subdued vocal style that is both distant and inviting. Another standout song is the laid back "This Isn't Our Parade" that slowly draws you in with its steady rhythm and casual steel drumming.
There are some questionable song choices as well where Santigold seems to try something different either in terms of instrumentation or of song construction but the results are a mixed bag. While the nonconforming track "Freak Like Me" will be able to win over
some converts despite its funky production work and trippy vocals there
are other tracks that prove to be more inaccessible.
Unfortunately, it's not a complete satisfying disc from the chanteuse with some inconsistency found on the disc. But when Santigold is on her game, the jams are sweeping and the catchiness of the beats is undeniable.
Score: 7/10 Song(s) to Sample: "Disparate Youth" [sample it below] and "This Isn't Our Parade"
Various ArtistsThe Music of Smash
For those unaware, Smash is musical TV show whose premise is the creation and staging of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe. The show features both original songs and covers of popular modern music.
Every song on the album save a cover of Michael Buble's "Haven't Met You Yet" by Nick Jonas features one or both of the leading ladies from the show, Katherine McPhee and Megan Hilty. I guess the songs sung on the show by the rest of the cast didn't cut the mustard.
On this 13-track album, the first eight songs are covers while the last five are the original songs from the faux Broadway show. The original music is the big draw for me with big Broadway-style melodies and smartly crafted lyrics like the sultry "History Is Made At Night."
The covers of popular songs are nothing special especially since it has been done on Glee already for three seasons and at least the Glee musical director is willing to play with the arrangements to create more memorable versions.
This album has some value if you enjoy the Broadway-style musical numbers but the majority of album is not that. If you want to hear Katherine McPhee sing covers of popular pop songs, then just watch the Americal Idol reruns they show on the weekends.
Score: 5/10 Song(s) to Sample: "Let Me Be Your Star" and "History Is Made At Night" [sample it below]
