Album Reviews

Yael Naim. Yael Naim album

Yael Naim is the second studio album by Yael Naim. It contains the hit single “New Soul”.
In Naim’s birth country of France her self-titled album was released on October 22, 2007. On iTunes the album was available as a digital download world-wide but did not gain much popularity until February 2008 when Apple ads with her song New Soul started to broadcast.

In the United States and Canada the album was released in stores on March 18, 2008. Mostly because of the popularity of the song New Soul it debuted at #15 in Canada and #55 in the United States.
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The Lodger was formed inside the mind of Ben Siddall inside the squalor of an LS6 bedsit.

After 3 sold-out limited 7s (”Many Thanks For Your Honest Opinion” Dance to the Radio, “Watching” Double Dragon, “Let Her Go” Angular Records) and touring around the UK and Europe with bands such as The Long Blondes and The Research, the group released their debut album “Grown-Ups”, produced by Alan Smyth and James Ford, in June 2007 on Angular Records in the UK, Slumberland Records in the US, Fabtone in Japan and Speak N Spell in Australia.

Critical acclaim for the album followed, particularly on the blogs; the band have featured heavily on the elbo.ws charts since the release along with heavy rotation on US college radio and other stations worldwide.
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Mudhoney. The Lucky Ones

The Lucky Ones is the ninth album by the band Mudhoney. It was released on May 20, 2008.

Mudhoney have never really received the respect they deserve over the years. To the uninformed, Nirvana were the grunge band that started it all, but trace the lineage back, and right at the start of that poorly monikered genre were Mudhoney.
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Islands. Arm’s Way

Arm’s Way is the second studio album by Montreal-based Indie band, Islands. It is scheduled for release on May 20, 2008 on CD and download. The album’s title is a play on the words “harm’s way”. The album leaked online on April 11, 2008.

Arm’s Way finds Islands setting sail distinctly away from the indie-yelping that characterized their debut, Return to the Sea. The Montreal band spends most of their sophomore effort shifting gears between various styles, opening up with a string of songs featuring spaghetti western guitars and ominous lyrics.

In the middle of the album, though, Islands turn to blissful ‘80s pop for inspiration, and in channeling The Cure and The Cars, they really hit their stride. “Kids Don’t Know Shit” and “Life in Jail” are two of the album’s best, and the latter features a classic Nick T. lyrical non-sequitur: “If you want to be a shark / you better learn to stay awake.” Though Arm’s Way is a resounding success when it’s joyful, the album hits a high note with a darker song. “I Feel Evil Creeping In” is a slow, haunting expression of diary-only darkness, including the confession, “My blood is dirty / and I like it.”
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Lupe Fiasco. The Cool

Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool, commonly referred to as simply The Cool, is the second studio album by Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco, released on December 18, 2007. The Cool is a loose concept album, based on a song and its titular character from his debut album Food & Liquor of the same name. The album features production from Soundtrakk, Unkle, and Patrick Stump, among others. Guest appearances include, but are not limited to, GemStones, Snoop Dogg, and Matthew Santos. The album debuted at #15, moved a spot up to #14 on the Billboard 200 in its second week.

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Duffy. Rockferry album.

Meet the cool Daffy’s album - Rockferry! Rockferry is the debut album due to be released by Welsh singer Duffy on the 3rd March 2008.

The Rockferry album has generally received positive reviews from critics. The Observer, for example, gave the album a 5 out of 5, describing it as ‘a fantastic album of burning blue soul’ and drawing comparisons to Amy Winehouse and The Supremes.

On its first day of release in the UK the album sold 60,000 copies, outselling the rest of the top 10 combined and setting it on course to become one of the fastest selling debuts ever. It sold 180,000 copies in the UK alone in its first week, and consequently spent four weeks at the top spot. Despite falling to number 2 in the charts after the release of REM’s Accelerate, it again rose to the top a week later. This makes a cumulative total of 5 weeks in the number 1 spot. It is estimated to have sold around 800,000 copies worldwide so far.
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German techno group Scooter have knocked Madonna off the number one spot in the UK album chart.
Jumping All Over the World, the group’s first UK album since 2002, went straight in as a new entry.

Madonna’s 4 Minutes, featuring Justin Timberlake, held onto the singles top spot for a fourth week.

Jumping All Over The World is a thirteenth studio album from the masters of avant-garde pop-trance, Scooter. Featuring all of the trademark stadium techno riffs and bizarre wordplay you’d come to expect from this German combo, the album is a must for fans of the group’s previous work. Includes the single ‘Jumping All Over The World’.

Tracks:

disc 1
1. Definition
2. Jumping All Over The World
3. Question Is What Is The Question
4. Enola Gay
5. Neverending Story
6. And No Matches
7. Cambodia
8. I’m Lonely
9. Whistling Dave
10. Marian [version]
11. Lighten Up The Sky
12. Hardcore Massive
13. Jump That Rock (1)
14. Greatest Difficulty
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If you’re looking for that rare album from the ’70s, Amazon’s “CreateSpace” service may have the answer for you.

The Amazon announced this week that it has teamed up with EMI Music and Sony BMG, two labels usually up for starting new trends in the digital age, to bring out-of-print albums back in full glory.

Amazon acquired CreateSpace, formerly known as CustomFlix, in July of 2005. The online service allows users to pick from select music and video content and have it burned to a custom CD or DVD.

Some of the vintage albums coming back for digital distribution include Joe Strummer’s “Earthquake Weather,” Grant Green’s “Carryin’ On,” and Henry Mancini’s “Hatari Soundtrack.”

Hudson Entertainment, a premier provider of entertainment content, announced today that it has signed a licensing and distribution agreement with Napster to further extend its digital music offerings.

The new deal with Napster will allow Hudson Entertainment’s music division to offer full-length music tracks from top independent music labels and artists through Napster’s on-demand music subscription service, which boasts more than 760,000 subscribers. Hudson Entertainment’s extensive catalog offers over 10,000 tracks from well known and up-and-coming artists across all music genres including Kirsten Proffit, Gene and Jezebel, Omar Torrez, Del Bombers, Cloud Eleven, Alan Smithee, Punsapaya, Alan Reid, The J Band, Paperback Hero, Denny Earnest, Lastonedone, Caution Cat, Conrizzle, and more.

This new partnership follows on the heels of Hudson’s recent announcement of a similar deal with eMusic, further strengthening its position as one of the largest digital music distributors in the US.

Madonna. Hard Candy. 2008.

Madonna attempts to reaffirm her position as the queen of pop and re-invention with her 11th studio album, “Hard Candy,” a tedious collection of dance-club anthems and repetitious hip-hop mixes.

The biggest disappointment with “Hard Candy” isn’t that it sounds bland when compared to everything in the current pop-dance genre; it’s that it makes dance-floor tracks sound like more work than fun. Derivative lyrics paired with overly produced club beats do not make for anything especially artistic or extraordinary. After a while, these songs just feel like a lot of fluff and filler. It’s painful to hear Madonna, who has always set trends and shocked listeners, struggle so much with finding a solid, or even interesting, direction. Even with the support of mega stars like The Neptunes, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and Pharrell Williams, she seems to fall flat.
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