Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Maybe it's the recent spate of backwards-glancing Bob Dylan projects—Chronicles, Vol. 1, Martin Scorsese's masterful No Direction Home, the recent Rolling Stone collection of interviews—or maybe it's the general feeling that the world is heading nowhere fast, but Dylan's 44th studio effort Modern Times might be the most upbeat feel-bad album of 2006. It's a melancholy record steeped in uncertainty and the wear of years, crafted by a man whose art has always kept reality at bay. Fusing blues, jazz, and rockabilly, Dylan continues along the same thematic wavelength previously heard on Time Out Of Mind and Love And Theft—morose, defiant, and, as always, lyrically oblique but somehow trenchant.....
Sleepy Jackson - Personality
I didnt interest myself with the sleepy jackson's first outting, as i couldnt really find a reason for it. On Personality, they seem to have added just that. although one could make comparatives of many iconic musicians from the 70s and beyond, this sounds very fresh and all their own. In a year where I'm still waiting for that one brilliant album to be released, I am very happy to have been given this. As it stands, even though there are a couple of tracks that fade away into white noise on the album, it is ranking very high for me right now. note a few key tracks, you needed more, devil was in my yard, god lead your soul, miles away, and how was i supposed to know.
Pulp - This Is Hardcore
Bespectacled Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker is a crooner from the old school, a frock-sleeved dandy who's not afraid to emote with exaggerated aplomb. And it's been tongue-in-cheek humorous, for most of his career, to hear the Brit turn that talent on sarcastic societal subjects, poking fun wherever he could. Things have changed this time around, though--Cocker hit 33 and began looking inward, for some of his darkest, most soul-baring work yet, all set to an elaborate quasi-cinematic score. As the CD booklet itself says, "It's OK to grow up. Just as long as you don't grow old." Maturity may not be encouraged in show business, but it sounds very appropriate here.
Suede - a new morning
Here's our advice. Rent this CD from your local library and use its embedded internet link to access most of the songs in their original, Tony "Beck" Hoffer-produced versions. Then take the £14 you would've wasted buying the damn thing and spend it on a rock of crack for the newly-clean Brett Anderson. If this what Suede sound like drugs-free, he'll thank you for it in the long run.
While Hoffer's work seems to have sparkled with grace and ambition, this hack-job (bish-bash-boshed out by uberproducer Stephen Street) takes all the bland, tawdry, white-bread bits from the past two Suede albums, butters them up with a smear of Bon Jovi balladeering, chews them into gloop with nicotine-stained, plastic dentures and... well, ends up flushing a once-great career straight down the in-at-number-16-out-the-next-week toilet.
'Positivity' you know and ignored; clumsy next single, 'Obsessions' you'll hate too much to ignore; 'Beautiful Loser' has gnat's nads where even 'Elephant Man' had mammoth marbles; 'Streetlife' is half-dead, 'Astrogirl' brain-dead and '...Morning' dead in the water. All the lyrics are, inevitably, shit. Only 'Lost In TV' and 'When The Rain Falls' rekindle any interest, but the former languishes in cliché while the latter flounders forlornly without the experimental, android emotion Hoffer's original production lent it.
'A New Yawning' it is, then; lacking any trace of the ambition Suede desperately needed to conjure. You caught this bus 10 years ago. The route is still running, but you've already moved on.
While Hoffer's work seems to have sparkled with grace and ambition, this hack-job (bish-bash-boshed out by uberproducer Stephen Street) takes all the bland, tawdry, white-bread bits from the past two Suede albums, butters them up with a smear of Bon Jovi balladeering, chews them into gloop with nicotine-stained, plastic dentures and... well, ends up flushing a once-great career straight down the in-at-number-16-out-the-next-week toilet.
'Positivity' you know and ignored; clumsy next single, 'Obsessions' you'll hate too much to ignore; 'Beautiful Loser' has gnat's nads where even 'Elephant Man' had mammoth marbles; 'Streetlife' is half-dead, 'Astrogirl' brain-dead and '...Morning' dead in the water. All the lyrics are, inevitably, shit. Only 'Lost In TV' and 'When The Rain Falls' rekindle any interest, but the former languishes in cliché while the latter flounders forlornly without the experimental, android emotion Hoffer's original production lent it.
'A New Yawning' it is, then; lacking any trace of the ambition Suede desperately needed to conjure. You caught this bus 10 years ago. The route is still running, but you've already moved on.
Charlatans - Forever: The Singles
Rarely has a band been so criminally underrated and taken for granted as Tim Burgess and co. After the apathetic public response to the tepid Simpatico- their most recent, and worst, album- this compilation reeks of contractual obligation. However, it serves an important purpose. People- yes, you!- must now come to realise that The Charlies are one of the greatest singles bands of their generation. It may sound an idle exaggeration, but the proof is here for all to see.
Nickelback - Far Away
My husband lefted me along time ago. I thought I was over him and when I heard this song I knew I still loved him. Pete if you ever see this I'm sorry for our past. I forgive you and I still love you. I know you will never come home, and that is OK the kid's and I are OK things will never be the same I kepted my promise I stayed true to our family even when you were not strong enough to stay. Your son and daughter love you. Till we see you again. This life or the nexted.
Tenacious D - Tenacious D
Hilarious, but no mere comedy record. Tenacious D -- the duo Jack Black (''High Fidelity'') and Kyle Gass -- attack acoustic guitars with a metal band's intensity, aided by Foo Fighter and fan Dave Grohl on drums, with the Dust Brothers producing. The D have a multitude of messages, most of them unprintable and having to do with wooing women, but also an overriding belief that the purpose of life is to create something aspiring to art, even if it is the magnificently detailed crud of Tenacious D-music. They're profane, bursting with rage and lust, and they deliver more laughs than anyone since Richard Pryor. In short, they are artists with a capital...
WHAM! - Last Christmas (1992)
Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway
On Kelly Clarkson's second album, the ex-cocktail waitress turned hitmaker embraces her rock side rather than the pop pageantry that put her on top of the American Idol heap. To that end, Clarkson recruited former Evanescence members Ben Moody and David Hodges to help write and produce, and on tracks such as "Because of You" and "Addicted," where the combination of a piano-led melody with roaring guitars rules, you'd swear you were listening to Amy Lee. Somehow, this style works for Clarkson: She comes off more Avril than Ashlee, especially on the album's best moment, the title track (which was, go figure, written by Lavigne). Unfortunately, Clarkson isn't ready to own this new sound. On the Max Martin-penned "Since U Been Gone," she conjures memories of Abba, and on "Hear Me," she channels Pat Benatar. You can't help but wonder: Who is the real Kelly Clarkson, and when will she stop wearing her big sister's hand-me-downs?
Sugababes - Three (2003)
There’s a lyric in the new Sugababes album that states “it’s about the music / not the face…” which is a lie if ever I heard one. Last night I watched about two minutes of Pop Idol and in those two minutes Pete Waterman made a fat girl cry because she didn’t look the part. Simon Cowell actually demonstrated a modicum of human emotion by not sticking the knife in, reminding people that the female contestant had been ill during the week, and then agreeing that she wasn’t good enough because of her dress, because she was out-performed, because she wasn’t good enough. Whether they meant her voice, face, girth, presence or posture is unclear.