Album Review: Robyn "Body Talk Pt. 1"

"I lost all my faith in science, so I put my faith in me." - Robyn, "Cry When You Get Older"

     EPs have grown in popularity the past year.  Lady Gaga's planned re-release of The Fame transformed into The Fame Monster EP, Drake launched his career with the So Far Gone EP before releasing a full-length album, and now Swedish underground pop artist Robyn is marketing her music in a brand new way with EPs.  Rather than release one full-length album, she's popping out three EPs.  If the first installment, Body Talk Pt. 1 is any indication, we have a lot to look forward to from Robyn.

     Robyn is virtually unchallenged in her niche as emo-pop's indie chick.  It's evident from the first track, "Don't Fucking Tell Me What To Do".  With almost any other artist, this song would sound like an unfinished demo, listing off things that are "killing me", from "these hours" to "my landlord".  Robyn pulls it off.

     Her strong point is her ability to make highly catchy and danceable tunes that at their heart, are tragic.  Songs like "Dancing On My Own" and "Cry When You Get Older" are the epitome of this.  "I'm in the corner watching you kiss her...I'm not the girl you're taking home/I keep dancing on my own," she sings amid drum machines and crisp synth lines in "Dancing".  Although the 8 track EP sags towards the end, this promising first in a trilogy of Body Talks is promising.

Rating: 8/10
Must download: "Dont Fucking Tell Me What To Do", "Dancing On My Own", "Cry When You Get Older"

Album Review: Eminem "Recovery"

"And to the fans, I’ll never let you down again, I’m back.  I promise to never go back on that promise, in fact, let’s be honest, that last Relapse CD was ehhhh." - Eminem, "Not Afraid"

     Even though Eminem was the top-selling artist of the 2000s (over 32 million albums sold), by the time his final release of the decade came out, Eminem seemed irrelevant.  Slim Shady seemed to realize that himself.  "I almost made a song dissing Lil Wayne.  It's like I was jealous of him 'cause of the attention he was getting.  I felt horrible about myself," he raps in "Talkin' 2 Myself".

     Luckily for us, Eminem has bounced back with Recovery, the most commercial record of his career.  Gone are the songs about killing his wife or themes of homophobia and misogyny.  Instead, the album is vulnerable and raw.   In the liner notes, Eminem dedicates the album to "anyone who's in a dark place tryin' 2 get out. keep your head up... it does get better!" That notion is fulfilled in the first single, "Not Afraid" which is essentially a hip-hop "Beautiful", a hold-hands-and-stick-it-to-the-man anthem.

     The record benefits from radio friendly duets including "Won't Back Down" with Pink and "No Love" with Lil Wayne.  The album's highlight however is the haunting "Love The Way You Lie" with Rihanna.  It's the best song Slim Shady has recorded since his milestone "Lose Yourself" in 2002.  Taking on the subject of domestic abuse, the album's second single can give a grown man chills.  Yeah, I'd say Eminem is back.

Rating: 8/10
Must download: "Not Afraid", "No Love", "Love The Way You Lie"

Album Review: Drake "Thank Me Later"

"Point the biggest skeptic out, I'll make him a believer.  It wouldn't be the first time I done it, throwin' hundreds when I should be be throwin' ones." - Drake, "Over"

     It's rare that an artist can rap about the trappings of fame, the pressures of hip-hop, and being played by Rihanna on their debut album, but it makes sense for Drake.  He's a rare artist.  Drake took his own path to a Lil Wayne approved record contract after starring on the Nogin show Degrassi and releasing his own mixtape.  For a genre that demands credibility, Drake seemed to be lacking, yet he now releases one of the year's most highly anticipated rap records.  Welcome to the future of hip-hop.

     Not only is Drake's path to the top unlikely, he's doing it with what amounts to an emo-rap record.  On Thank Me Later, he raps about being a "pawn" to Rihanna on "Fireworks" and about feeling alone and alienated in a crowd on "Over".  It's 808s & Heartbreak sans ice-cold auto-tune.

     Kanye's foray into emo-rap didn't work quite how he envisioned.  It was partly the auto-tune overkill, partly his outburts; but Drake is proving it isn't dead.  The bravado and ego of so many rap tracks is fine sometimes, but humility and honesty is appealing.  "Don't be fooled by the money, I'm still just young and unlucky," he raps on "Karaoke".  Still, Drake has plenty of confidence.  "My 15 minutes began an hour ago," he raps on "Fireworks".  Can't argue with that.

Rating: 8/10
Must download: "Fireworks", "Over", "Find Your Love"

Album Review: Christina Aguilera "Bionic"

"Mirror mirror on the wall, they say I'm stuck up, but I'm not at all.  Never mind I am.  It's not my fault I'm the s***." - Christina Aguilera, "Vanity"

     The pop landscape has changed dramatically since Christina Aguilera released her last studio album four years ago.  Fears that she wouldn't be relevant subsided when she started talking about the music she was making.  The album was entitled Bionic, she was working with M.I.A. and Sia, and then she unveiled the album cover that seemed to promise a landmark forward-thinking pop masterpiece.  Then we heard the music.

     Although songs like the title track and "Glam" fulfill that promise, most of the songs are Blackout b-sides like "Not Myself Tonight".  The album is filled by a bloated tracklist of pointless intros, pathetic attempts to be sexy, and songs about how awesome she is. 

     The cohesive feel of the record is interrupted by a pile of ballads dumped in the middle.  Although they don't fit cohesively into the flow of the album, songs like "Lift Me Up" and "I Am" are actually the highlights.  They remind you why Aguilera is a star in the first place - her voice.

Rating: 5/10
Must download: "Bionic", "Glam", "I Am"

Album Review: Lil Wayne "Rebirth"

Lil Wayne announced his intentions to release a rock album over a year ago.  Rappers trying to rock out is nothing new.  Run DMC broke into the mainstream in 1986 with Aerosmith on "Walk This Way" and the entire nu-metal genre of the turn of the century was a fusion of rock and rap.  At the beginning of 2009 however, with 808s & Heartbreak still red hot, Weezy's plans to record an album that wasn't straight up rap sounded exciting.

After being pushed back countless times, Wayne's rock album, Rebirth, is finally out.  A year of anticipation and hype from Wayne and his label gives the album extremely high expectations, and although its not a masterpiece, Rebirth delivers.

Album Review: Rihanna "Rated R"

Rihanna's fourth album, Rated R, is a concept album. The concept? F*** Chris Brown.

Rihanna has scored five No. 1 hits in as many years. She's a singles artist, not an album artist. With Rated R, she tries to reverse this. The album is coherent, displaying a dark brooding feel throughout. It's one part Blackout and one part 808s and Heartbreak.

Both "Wait Your Turn" and "Hard" are in-your-face cockstruts, a musical middle finger that shows that Rihanna will be stronger and better than before. "Brilliant, resilient, fan mail from 27 million," she sings in "Hard". They are a stark contrast to the "Stupid In Love" in which Rihanna blames herself for loving Brown. "I still love you but I just can't do this," she says.

Lead single "Russian Roulette" was a snoozer way to start the album campaign out, but it fits well in with the album as a whole. A creepy and confessional slow burner suicide song, "Roulette" finds the Barbadian singer at rock bottom. "I'm wondering if I will ever see another sunrise...It's too late to think of the value of my life." "Rude Boy" is much lighter, starting off with synth and a voice that sounds a lot like Chris Brown. The cutting parody finds Rihanna in control, letting her "rude boy" think he's in charge.

The album finishes strong with the haunting "Photographs" featuring Will.I.Am (sounds like the sequel to Cheryl Cole's "3 Words"), the Latin flavored "Te Amo", and the Justin Timberlake penned "Cold Case Love" (you can almost hear Timberlake's "Losing My Way" during the song) before Ri gives "The Last Song". The four songs are wildly divergent from each other musically, but still fit together perfectly.

While Chris Brown decided to mostly ignore his domestic abuse situation and his album tanks, Rihanna confronts it head on and the results are her best album to date.

Must download tracks: "Hard", "Te Amo", and "Cold Case Love"
Rating: 8/10

Album Review: Taylor Swift "Fearless: Platinum Edition"

Thumbing through the sleeve for Taylor Swift's Fearless: Platinum Edition is sort of like thumbing through your fifteen year old sister's journal. The confessional lyrics portray a hopeless romantic, a girl who wants nothing more than to fall in love with the man of her dreams and live happily ever after. And all the boys who broke her heart? Screw them.

Fearless has already been certified more than five times platinum. It debuted No. 1 on the Billboard album chart and notched up eleven weeks there, the longest run at the top in nearly ten years. Five tracks from the album have landed in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, and thirteen more appeared further down on the chart. Fearless? More like peer-less.

Swift's key to success is her crossover appeal. Her country base loves her, and she's got enough pop that mainstream radio plays her too. Swift, along with Carrie Underwood, is able to get consumers who usually don't buy or listen to country music, to take interest. The results are remarkable considering we are in a recession and the record industry is imploding. Her music, written all or in part by her, resonates with her listeners.

"Romeo save me, they're trying to tell me how to feel. This love is difficult, but its real," she protests in "Love Story". "When you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you're gonna believe them," she warns in "Fifteen". "If you can see that I'm the one who understands you...why can't you see you belong with me?" she wonders in "You Belong With Me". For anyone who has ever been in love, or thought you were, there is a lyric in Fearless that makes you stop and say, "Finally! Somebody knows what I'm going through!" I'm sure countless high school girls who in the past twelve months have felt like Swift was the only person who knew what they were going through. Its probably because she does.

Unlike the songs of teen stars of ten years ago, Swift's songs aren't Swedish tunes designed to go great with a synchronized dance routine, they're real. "Hey Stephen"...its about a guy named Stephen. In "Fifteen", Swift talks about a character named Abigail, singing, "Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind and we both cried." Her best friend? A girl named Abigail. It would sure suck to be the cheating boyfriend she sings about in "White Horse".

"You Belong With Me" might not have one of the best music videos of all time, but Fearless is one of the greatest albums by a teenager, and one of the best country crossover albums ever. The platinum edition packs in six new songs, all the album's music videos, and special features, just in time for Christmas so you can get your fifteen year old sister a copy...or one for yourself.

Rating: 9/10
Must download tracks: "Love Story", "White Horse", and "Forever & Always (Piano Version)"

Album Review: Kris Allen "Kris Allen"

Conway, Arkansas native and American Idol's eighth season winner, Kris Allen, will go down as one of the most underwhelming Idol winners. Its unfair really. His schlocky debut single "No Boundries", stalled at No. 13, but he didn't pick that song, and his album sold only 80,000 copies in its first week (compare that with runner-up Adam Lambert who shifted 198,000 copies in his first week).

Critics and A.I. fans have labeled Allen's self titled debut boring and bland, but its really not that bad. What's its missing is a lead single that dominates radio and drives consumers to the store. What would Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway been without "Since U Been Gone"? That's all Kris Allen is really missing.

Instead, Allen gets "Live Like We're Dying", written by Irish band The Script. Its fine, but its not exactly burning up the charts. "The Truth" wouldn't either, but its an extremely powerful ballad as Allen sings, "Trying to be perfect, trying not to let you down. Honesty is honestly the hardest thing for me right now".

"Written All Over My Face" is one of the highlights, and it would have fit in perfectly on Breakaway. Same with "Let It Rain" and "I Need To Know". All three are MOR pop songs that are well crafted and catchy. Once again, if only they had a strong lead single.

If only Allen wrote Kanye West's "Heartless". West's tune has seen several reincarnations, and Allen's is one of the best, dragging out the pain and emotion of the pop hit. In all honesty, I like his version better, and that's coming from a huge Kanye fan.

Keeping working Allen. You don't have to sell out, but you need at least one Max Martin song.

Rating: 7/10
Must download: "The Truth", "Written All Over My Face", and "Heartless"

Album Review: Lady Gaga "The Fame Monster"

What is The Fame Monster? First it was supposed to be a re-release of her debut album with a few new tracks. Instead of the regular two or three, it grew into eight new songs. Then it became a stand alone EP that could be purchased with The Fame if you wanted to. Now Lady Gaga is calling The Fame Monster her sophomore album.

Whatever it is, The Fame Monster is an incredibly coherent and dark pop document. Its a concept album about "monsters" in Stefani Germanotta's life, including sex, alcohol, love, death, and lonliness. Its eight songs are stronger together than its predecessor's 13.

Thumping lead single "Bad Romance" is a primal cousin to "Poker Face" with Gaga turning her name into a war chant. "Alejandro" is 2009's "La Isla Bonita", but much better. There's something tragic in the lyrics as Gaga sings about a girl who is, "not broken, she's just a baby," with a boyfriend who is, "like a dad" amid the colossal synth.

"Monster" chronicles meeting a boy at a club who's a monster. "He ate my heart," Gaga says in a robotic voice. The cadence of the verses keeps the title track interesting. "Speechless" proves that Lady Gaga can do non-dance songs. The slow burner channels early Elton John. Her collaboration with Beyonce, "Telephone", is a frantic dance track which allows each artist to remain true to her style while complimenting each other.

Lady Gaga doesn't seem like a real person. Half the time she seems like a creature from another planet who has come to save pop, but its hard to believe that she's a real person with a real life outside of her artistry. What The Fame Monster does is give a brief glimpse, however fleeting, of a real person underneath the fishnets and getups.

Rating: 9/10
Must download: "Monster", "Alejandro", and "Telephone"

Album Review: Annie "Don't Stop"

Norwegian singer Annie's sophomore album, Don't Stop has been through countless delays, track list make-overs, and tabloid fights with the Girls Aloud, but after sixteen months, it is about to see the light of day.

Annie is an artist with a unique position. She is melodic and electronic enough to gain the adoration of Popjustice while she has the credibility and indie sensibilities to be on Pitchfork's good side (Her 2004 single "Heartbeat" ranked No. 17 on their best of the decade list). Yes, she is a girl, and yes, she uses synthesizers, but for all intensive purposes, Annie is indie.

Indie is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days, even on this site. It can mean boys that wear tight pants, v-neck shirts, and eshew anything top 40. It can mean a particular sound. It really means an artist who is signed to independent label as opposed to a major one. All of these definitions have coalesced into a word that is for the 00s what "alternative" was to the 90s. Sure, she doesn't make music in a dumpster with her fingers bleeding, but her songwriting is very indie in its melody and structure, and, most importantly, she's not signed to a major label!

As one of the few pop acts to lay claim on the coveted "indie" word, Annie has put out an album Popjustice has called "a complete modern masterpiece". "Hey Annie" is a Scandinavian kumbaya with tribal drums and a choir of children calling out the singer's name as she sings, "it might take forever, we could grow and change together". Honestly, it's not half as corny as the lyrics suggest, its actually quiet good.

"My Love Is Better" is an electro-gem that sounds as if it were recovered from the 80s. "I Don't Like Your Band" finds Annie breaking up with a boy and using the whole it's not you, it's your band excuse. Current single "Song Reminds Me of You", produced by Richard X might be the sequel as Annie asks him how it feels to hear his songs on the radio while hating being reminded of him every time she hears his songs over a desperately danceable New Order-esque beat. The biggest downfall of the record is the songs that got cut from it, especially the epic and haunting "Antonio", a gender reversal of "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson.

In the end, it doesn't really matter what Popjustice or Pitchfork think. Screw the taste makers. You don't need their approval to like music this good.

Rating: 9/10

Must Download: Click to Preview
"Hey Annie"
"Song Reminds Me of You"
"Antonio"

Album Review: Kasabian "West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

The fact that you are reading this review on 17 Tracks is proof that Facebook advertising works. In September, my Facebook account began telling me that as a fan of Bloc Party, I would also like British rock band Kasabian. It took seeing the ad a few times before I decided to give the band a try.

"Fire" was the first song of theirs I heard. It was country tinged single that explodes into a massive chorus that I fell in love at first listen. The folk influenced sound was only one piece of the band's third album, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, which is named after one of England's first mental institutions for the poor (Think that's weird? The band is named after Linda Kasabian, Charles Manson's getaway driver).

The album was described by Sergio Pizzorno, lead guitar and songwriter for the band, as "a soundtrack to an imaginary movie". It would end up being a pretty trippy movie if it were ever made. Slightly schizophrenic and demented, it borrows from Oasis, Rolling Stones, and Franz Ferdinand all with reckless abandon.

Kasabian enlisted Dan the Automater, tunesmith behind some of Gorillaz early work, which gives the album a hard edged electronic sound. Opener "Underdog" is the flagship example of this, drowning in fuzzed out guitars and throbbing synth. "Vlad the Impaler" finds lead singer Tom Meighan declaring, "we are the last beatnicks" over a rocked out hip-hop beat and "Take Aim" is a fashionable Franz Ferdinand-esque track with plenty of indie swagger.

In the end, Kasabian doesn't really sound like Bloc Party, but, like Kele and the gang, Kasabian is a band that chose to take a step towards electronica in an attempt to update their sound for their third album. And like Bloc Party, they succeeded.

Rating: 9/10

Must Download: Click to Preview
"Underdog"
"Fire"
"Vlad the Impaler"

Album Review: Kid Cudi "Man on the Moon: The End of Day"

Kid Cudi first came to my attention with the highly infectious Crooker's remix of his debut single, "Day N Nite". A few months later, the rapper made waves on the blogosphere when he sampled a stripped down version of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" on the track "Make Her Say" featuring Kanye West and Common.

It wasn't until his third single dropped, the indie crossover track "Pursuit of Happiness" featuring MGMT, that I decided to look more closely at this Kanye West protege. Cudi's Man on the Moon: The End of Day is a hip-hop masterpiece, a College Dropout for 2009.

Divided into five acts, Cudi follows the trials and travails of the mysterious man on the moon. Whoever the man on the moon is (during opening track "In My Dreams", it sure sounds a hell of a lot like Barack Obama, but that's the only place on the album it does), he leads a depressing life. The aforementioned "Day N Night" is about a sleepless stoner and "Pursuit of Happiness" is a dead end with Cudi regretting drinking and smoking so much.

Sonically, the album is a mixture of hip-hop, indie rock, and electronica that are melded together to create an ambient and original sound. Courting so many different listeners can be a dangerous challenge but Cudi pulls it off.

"Alive" showcases Cudi's most laid back slurred raps, probably the funnest moment on the entire album. "I watch the sun collapse and tuck up in a clizzoud, I am the lone wolf I go where I wanna," he garbles at 2:51. Closing track "Up Up & Away" is another highlight, an optimistic close and happy ending for the man on the moon. The guitar heavy pop song is a carefree roll-your-windows-down life affirming anthem as Cudi raps, "'Cause in the end they'll judge me anyway so whatever."

We have judged Cudi, and you just made one of the best albums of the year

Rating: 9/10

Must Download: Click to preview
"Day N Nite"
"Pursuit of Happiness" feat. MGMT
"Up Up & Away"

Album Review: Jay-Z "The Blueprint 3"

In an attempt to be hipper than she really is, the artist formerly known as Hannah Montana name checked other musicians in her recent hit "Party In The USA". In every performance of the song, she has kept the line "...and the Britney song was on", but in another verse, Michael, Kanye, and Jay-Z have all been swapped in and out. One of these things is not like the others.

Jay-Z has never been an artist for 14 year old girls to be particularly interested in listening to. His biggest radio hits have always been songs he tacks on a few rap verses onto ("Heartbreaker" with Mariah, "Crazy In Love" with Beyonce, and "Umbrella" with Rihanna), but scoring radio hits has never been something Mr. Carter seemed too interested in. Until now.

At a time when auto-tune has reached the point of saturation, Mr. Carter claims that it has jumped the shark in "D.O.A.". "Get back to rap, you T-Paining too much," he chides. Sure, criticism of something like auto-tune, which has found its way onto Burger King commercials and Mariah Carey songs, is perfectly acceptable at this point in time, but it seems pretty gimmicky. It lights the blogs up and makes Jay seem like a trend setter less than a year after 808s & Heartbreak dropped.

Speaking of gimmicks, "Run This Town" owes it success to Jay's choice of collaboraters in a way that B-list pop stars like Keri Hilson use them, not "the new Sinatra". It was a smart business move to enlist Rihanna and Kanye West, two veterans to the top ten, but both of them? In the same song? It just seems like selling out instead.

Blueprint 3 has its share of tracks that justify Jay-Z's continued dominance of rap. There's "Empire State of Mind", a collaboration with Alicia Keys that celebrates his hometown New York City and "Reminder", a cocky reminder that Hova has now passed up Elvis in number one albums. "On To The Next One" is the second attempt by a Carter to recreate "A Milli" (after Beyonce's "Diva) and it does a pretty good job.

The album's hottest tracks however are"Off That" featuring up and coming Drake and the OutKast-esque "Venus Vs. Mars". "Off That" begins with Jay welcoming listening to the future, and that's a pretty accurate description of the slick Timbaland produced track. Other than that, Blueprint 3 isn't a groundbreaking manifesto the way its predecessor was. Rather, its the soundtrack to a bored rapper in his 40s resting on his laurels. Maybe #12 will be different.

Rating: 7/10
Must download: "Run This Town", "Off That", "Venus Vs. Mars"

Album Review
Britney Spears - Circus
7/10

The world has spent the past decade trying to make Britney Spears the new Madonna. At times, the passing of the torch seemed inevitable, but ten years after Miss Spears danced her way down the hallways dressed as a seductive schoolgirl and into America's collective heart, she seems to have more in common with the king of rock n' roll than the queen of pop. Like Elvis, Britney is just a sweet simple southern-born star whose swiveling hips have caused parents' faces to turn red. Both have become massive icons of their era and recorded some of the most memorable songs of their time (Obviously, Presley's body of work has had a much larger impact on popular music than Spears' ever could, but still...). Both have, at some point in their careers, walked the delicate line of being a squeaky clean sex symbol. The most striking similarity between the two is the way they have been used, abused, and manipulated by those around them. For Elvis, this resulted in death. Britney, during her darkest, "fat Elvis" days, seemed inches away from becoming a tragic figure herself. Major news outlets had obituaries written and were just waiting for the overdose or paparazzi car accident that would finally end the most gripping celebrity reality "show" the world has ever seen.

That said, Circus has more in common with Hard Candy than any Elvis record. It's packed with red hot dance songs, but has its share of filler and works better as a collection of singles than a cohesive album. "Womanizer", her biggest hit this decade and the record holder for biggest jump in chart history (#96 to #1 in a single week) is a slice of futuristic, cutting-edge electronica that Britney has come to be known for. Its extremely repetitious, not to the point that it grates on you, but just enough to lodge itself inside your head and refuse to leave. The title track is another surefire hit as Britney sings, "There's only two types of people in the world: the ones that entertain and the ones that observe. Well baby, I'm a put-on-a-show kind of girl." Oddly enough, the second of two pre-choruses is the best part of the entire song. It's probably because of the heavy breathing in the background.

While listening to Danja introduce the paparazzi-taunting "Kill The Lights", I wondered why no one thought of mocking the John McCain celebrity ad. "She's the biggest celebrity in the world, but, is she ready to lead?" It honestly would have made the song that much better. "If U Seek Amy" sounds like a Pink/Katy Perry reject, but somehow she pulls it off. "Love me, hate me, say what you want about me, all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if u seek Amy." If that doesn't make any sense, say it three times fast.

The album features three slower songs, only one of which is utterly awful ("My Baby"). The other two, "Out From Under" and "Unusual You", are some of the record's highlights. The ballad, "Out From Under", produced by Guy Sigsworth of Frou Frou fame, provides airy atmospheric orchestration for Britney to contemplate coming out from under all of life's problems. "I don't want to feel the pain. What good would it do me now?" she asks. The single best moment of the entire record however, comes on "Unusual You" as Spears laments, "Been so many things when I was someone else, boxer in the ring tryin' to defend myself". At that moment, she ceases to be Britney Spears the popstar and she's just Britney the person. Like everyone else, she's been hurt and felt like there was no one on her side, only with her, the entire world was watching.

Circus is no 1968 Comeback Special, but considering how far Spears fell and how quickly she has gotten back up, it works. With the cut-and-paste ability of iTunes, Britney fans can easily mix and match there favorite tracks and B-sides in the order they want to make their Circus just right. There are bonus tracks that are miles better than some of the songs that made the album, and it could afford to be reshuffled. Jive inexplicably added "Radar" from Blackout, so if you want, tack on "Toxic" and no one will mind. After two stellar coherent albums, Britney is back in the category of 'singles artist', but since we won't be finding her dead on her toilet with a jelly doughnut anytime soon, she has time to crank out her masterpiece eventually. Let's just hope it's before she turns 50.

Must download:
"Womanizer"

"Circus"

"Unusual You"

Album Review
Kanye West- 808s & Heartbreak
9/10

When the dust settles over 2008's musical landscape, 808s & Heartbreaks will be one of the year's most divisive records. Some will love it for its lack of rapping and use of auto-tune, while others will hate it for the same reasons. There is no denying that this is one of Kanye's , and in fact, hip-hop's, landmark albums. Mr. West has never been one to follow the prescribed method of how to do things, and 808s completely flies in the face of hip-hop's most entrenched cliches. It shouldn't, however, be praised for simply being different, but instead, for its merits as an album apart from all the buzz surrounding it and its creator.

West's decision to ditch rapping in favor of crooning was, a brilliant move. He's not a good singer by any stretch of the imagination, but he is able to convey emotion effortlessly. It's strangely reminiscent of the voice of a generation past, Bob Dylan. Dylan lacked a good voice as classically defined, but somehow managed to land #7 on Rolling Stone's list of greatest singers while Mariah Carey languished at #79. There is more to singing that hitting the high notes. There is no better example than the brooding "Welcome To The Heartbreak", the album's thesis. West laments his materialistic lifestyle singing, "My friend showed me pictures of his kids, and all I could show him were pictures of my cribs. He said his daughter got a brand-new report card, and all I got was a brand-new sportscar."

Rather than the triumphant cocky pop that was last year's "Stronger", West expresses his emotionally vulnerable side while contemplating love lost. "Coldest Winter" explains the pain the death of his mother has caused, while "Heartless" and "Love Lockdown" are bitter breakup songs. The album still boasts plenty of triumphant pop moments, such as the flourish of synth and xylophone as Kanye sings, "OK OK, you will never stop it now" as he rages against a domineering girlfriend on "Robocop". Lil Wayne's contribution on "See You In My Nightmare" takes the track from haunting to downright scary.

The album's final track, a live recording of "Pinocchio Story", is both 808s best and worst track. It displays his overconfidence as he warbles to a crowd of fans in Singapore, and the lyrics are somewhat lacking, but its arguably the most heartfelt Kanye has ever been. "There is no Gucci I could buy...there is no Louis Vuitton I could put on...to get my heart out of this hell." he sings. West's next studio album after Graduation was supposed to be called Good A** Job. If life had gone as he planned, that's what it would be called and what we would be listening to would sound a lot more like its predecessors. That's not what happened though. Kanye lost his mom, he broke up with his fiance, he felt pain. It derailed his plans and altered his art. The result is the most moving, emotionally bare, and unpretentious record of his career.

Must download:
"Welcome To The Heartbreak"
"Heartless"
"Robocop"

Album Review
Girls Aloud - Out Of Control
9/10

The idea of pop acts "maturing" has become synonymous with taking clothes off. Girls Aloud, never a group to follow the prescribed method, has managed to mature for their fifth studio album while looking more dressed than ever before. Credit must go to the genius songwriting/production team Xenomania, the catalyst behind the Girl's rise from reality television winners to the upper eschelons of British critical acclaim (Could the Spice Girls ever manage shout outs by Chris Martin or Kele Okerele? I think not) and commercial success (All 19 of their singles have gone top ten).

Lead single and most recent #1, "The Promise" opens the set and makes it seem like the Girls have jumped on board the Winehouse and Duffy led retro-express. Most attempts to capture the retro sound have fallen flat on their face, but "The Promise" is one of the few that succeeds. Xenomania's take on the Phil Spector wall of sound continues with "Rolling Back The Rivers In Time", but the Aloud refuse to sit around in Motown the entire album.

"The Loving Kind" and "Turn To Stone" revel in neo-disco, not the aggressive or club banging kind by any stretch of the imagination, but icy and aloof. "The Loving Kind", contributed by the Pet Shop Boys, goes where no Aloud mid-tempo ballad has gone before. While earlier attempts reeked of cheesiness and missed the mark, the Girls pull this one off. Telling the story of a girl, usually immune to crushes, falling hard for an indecisive guy, Nicola Roberts pleads "I'd do anything, sings songs that others sing, if I could change your mind and I'm not the loving kind". "Turn To Stone" plays like a sequel to their 2007 hit, "Call The Shots" with atmospheric synth sounding in the distance.

The New Order-esque "Untouchable" clocks in at 6:44 while soaring to epic heights and is the indisputable crown jewel of the record. Nadine Coyle hopes for the euphoric highs of love singing, "In my dreams it feels like we are never gonna fall, we're safe and sound. We're untouchable." as synthesizers blissfully pulse alongside gentle guitar riffs. This is disco with heart and a brain. The bridge is pure poetry as Coyle continues, "Without any meaning, we’re just skin and bone, like beautiful robots dancing alone".

"Love Is Pain", the last disco track of the album, is another highlight. "Revolution In The Head" is the closest the group has ever come to reggae while "In The Country" dabbles in drum n' bass. It could do without the random animal noises at the end. The bonus track, "We Wanna Party", would have been at home two or three albums ago, but feels out of place here. There is a reason its been relegated to 'bonus track' status.

Back in 2002, a British pop revolution of intelligent, innovative, and genre-defying tracks, spearheaded by Xenomania and Richard X seemed inevitable. Unfortunately, as Rachel Stevens disappeared into obscurity and Annie failed to make any major dent on the charts, those dreams were never realized. The one exception has been the Girls Aloud. When they first formed on UK's Popstars: The Rivals television show, no one had any reason they would be more than an inferior clone of the Spice Girls. When the inventive "Sound Of The Underground" topped the charts, no one had any reason to believe that the Aloud were more than a flash in the pan. Six years later, they're still around, and not only have they refused to break up to naively pursue solo careers, they have refuse to be nothing less than the most important girl group of the twenty-first century. Out Of Control is proof. The album is void of any and all campiness, something a lot of pop acts can't managed their entire career, and is a manifesto that the Aloud are on a mission to change the notion that 'pop' is a dirty word.

Must download:
"Turn To Stone"
"Untouchable"
"Love Is Pain"

Album Review
Intimacy - Bloc Party
9.5/10

When I think of the word intimacy, I think of some Marvin Gaye, some Luther Vandross, and a little Anita, to quote Mr. West. I don't think of Bloc Party. Regardless, that's what they titled their third album. Kele Okereke, lead singer, described this collection of some of their most hyperactive chaotic songs as a tragic breakup album. Despite these inconsistencies, Bloc Party managed to put together a coherent record.


"Ares" opens the album sounding more like a declaration of war than a requiem of unrequited love. The layered vocals contribute to the frenzied traffic jam of sounds which ends in the entire band dancing to the sound of sirens. So much has been said of "Mercury" that it's hard to separate it from the images of apes bent on world domination and Sister Spears in a blue air hostess uniform, but once you finally get through the blaring horns and remixed "mercury's in retrograde" shouts, you realize that it's a lot more personal than you originally thought. "When I saw you last night, I wanted to say, run away with me away from the cynics; That this could be the start of something truly real…But all that I could say was 'hey'.”

"You're not doing this alone" reassures a computerized voice on "Biko" to a lover lost to cancer. When Kele commands her "So toughen up...I need you to be strong for us," all of a sudden, he's saying this to the victim's heartbroken companion just as much to the victim herself. "Signs" is another gentle side of the album with a xylophone creating a lullaby-like atmosphere. It continues to tell the story of the death of the loved one in "Biko" but takes place after the grieving. "I could sleep forever these days because in my dreams I see you again...I see signs now all the time that you're not dead, you're sleeping."

The rest of the record follows in this vein of longingly looking back at what was lost and what went wrong. "One Month Off" tells of the fight that was the final straw ("I can be as cruel as you; fighting fire with firewood") and "Zephyrus" recounts the lament in it's aftermath ("Baby, I'm ashamed of the things I put you through"). All of the regret melts away in the gorgeous complexity and honesty of "Ion Squares" as Okereke promises that "I carry your heart here with me."

Intimacy is yet another classic in Bloc Party's tradition of guitar-driven, unabashedly British "indie" rock, albeit less guitar and more synth. It's a big step in a continuing effort to define their own sound apart from the countless other British act who wear the same kind of clothes and try to make the same kind of music as them. Ultimately, the album's success comes from its depth. On first listen, the only thing that sticks with you is the ear drum-assaulting first few tracks, but then you discover how truly intimate Intimacy really is. Contender for album of the year.

Must download:
"Ares"
"Talons"
"Biko"

Album Review
Perfect Symmetry - Keane

8/10

Britain's smallest big band is back for Perfect Symmetry. Keane moves from the epic Disney-esque sounds of their debut to a extremely danceable rock record that both ends the constant comparisons with Coldplay and hearkens to early years Killers and David Bowie.

"Spiralling", which kicks off the set, is still one of the best free downloads that 2008 has offered. The album mix of the song adds a few seconds of African percussion and a longer bridge but provides the same empowering lyrics asking you if you want to be a winner, an icon, famous, or even the president. And that's to say nothing of the infectious synth. The Girls Aloud should be green with envy. Second single, "The Lovers Are Losing" is this albums "All These Things I've Done" but falls short of providing a line as quotable as "I got soul but I'm not a soldier'.

The album's quirkiest moment is the hand-clapping "Better Than This", with it's roll-down-the-windows-as-you-drive-down-the-freeway chorus. Chaplin pulls off a falsetto perfectly. The title track delves back into Disneyland and you can practically see that monkey raise Simba in the air as Chaplin yearns, "This life is lived in perfect symmetry/What I do, that will be done to me". Think of it as a "Circle of Life" for the information age ("scrolling through the paragraphs, clicking through the photographs"). "Again And Again" follows and returns to 80's synth rock and is one of producer Stuart Price's (Madonna's Confessions On A Dancefloor, The Killer's Day & Age) contributions.

Clocking in at a tidy fifty minutes, Perfect Symmetry is the perfect template for what a irresistible electro-pop inspired rock album should sound like. Instead of yawning at another Keane release, Symmetry has caused critics and casual listeners to take note. Even the mushy ballads aren't that bad, though they do seem too tightly packed onto the end of the record, it would have worked better sprinkled throughout. Well done Keane.

Must download:

"Spiralling"

"Better Than This"

"Again And Again"

Album Review
Only By The Night - Kings of Leon
Rating: 7/10NME magazine called the Kings of Leon's latest offering growling, anthemic, and sophisticated. With the description of anthemic, it's inevitable that there will be comparisons to the mother of all epicness, U2. Sometimes these comparisons are valid; sometimes they are not. For the most part, the collection of three brothers and one cousin that make up the Kings of Leon deserve such praise for Only By The Night.

Night reaches heights that none of their records before have. "Closer" kicks off the album with haunting minimalist synthesizers aided by the dark brooding of frontman Caleb Followill (the song's about a vampire in love, a popular topic these days). Caleb sounds most like Bono on the growling "Closer" as he laments, "the crucified USA...all hell is surely on it's way". Lead single "Sex On Fire" is the highlight of the entire set. "Sex" sounds less southern than what the Kings usually churn out, in fact, it sounds downright British (which explains it's knocking off Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" and ruling the #1 spot for three weeks and running). "Use Somebody", the record's power ballad and most popular track on iTunes, suffers from sounding like a Nickleback rejects but luckily, Chad Krueger isn't singing. "Cold Desert" closes out with album with an annoying fake-outro and fails to inspire the kind of grandeur you'd come to expect as Followill grieves, "I'm too young to feel this old, nobody knows, nobody sees, nobody but me."

There will be many who wished the Followill's kept their beards and kept trying to be the southern Strokes, but Only By The Night is a bold move into international rock dominance. In a year of British invasion of the American charts and whispers of America in decline, it's comforting to know that a band from Tennessee can top the the British charts (even if they haven't a prayer of doing it in their own country).

Must download:
"Closer"
"Sex On Fire"
"Use Somebody"

Album Review
Fasciinatiion - The Faint

During the four years in between 2004's Wet From Birth to now, the Faint left their old label, the Conner Oberst created Saddle Creek, formed their own label, blank.wav, built their own recording studio, and crafted their most paranoid record yet. It continues in the "death by synthesizers" vein and the Faint remain one of the few bands that can get indie boys with tight pants onto the dance floor.

Lead single "The Geeks Were Right" sums it up in a B horror movie way, describing bulging eye balls we can only assume are in glass jars and egghead boys with white thin legs getting all the girls. Although parody, the rest of the album paints a distopian scene that isn't a far removed place in the future, but here and now. "Get Seduced", along with Duran Duran's music video for "Falling Down", the recent John McCain ads, and the mere existence of Perez Hilton, show both our society's obsession with and frustration over those who are obsessed with celebrity gossip (Spears is mentioned all but by name). "Sell us magazines about the stars and watch us stare into the void/What not to wear at the awards...We get seduced so easy." In addition to the song's social commentary, it explodes into a massive Benni Benassi inspired bridge.

Everyone from atheists to astronauts to popes to shamen to Buddha are referenced in "Machine In The Ghost". No matter who you ask about life greatest questions and problems, their answer is all the same, "I don't know". Not only can no one find answers, but no one is satisfied with what they see in the mirror. "Cover up with jewelry or pierce all the parts you've got if the packaging design can fix the contents" Todd Fink mocks on "Mirror Error". "Fulcrum And Lever" sounds like the best Linkin Park impression since Limp Bizkit but remains a trademark Faint track. The records most earnest song is "Forever Growing Centipedes". Electronic music often has a problem expressing softer emotions. After all, how are you supposed to be emotional with blips, bleeps, and a voice that sounds as if it's coming through a phone line? New Order mastered it on a few occasions and the Faint manage it on this track about searching for methods to live forever.

Like all good albums that bemoan the state of our society, Fasiinatiion ends with the anti-war "A Battle Hymn For Children". "We were taught that God prefers the USA...if it's true that God roots for the USA, is every bomb we drop in God's name?" Fink asks. Others' attempts at being anti-war this decade all come up short. Everyone wants to recreate the anger and passion of Vietnam War era protest rock and folk, but without a draft, these attempts come across as too contrived. The Faint's angle however, works. Rather than resorting to Bush-bashing, the look at the religious aspects of a Christian-Islamic conflict and wonder if an all loving God is really on any particular side or if He just wants peace.

All in all, the geeks were right. Though not as Orwellian as Orwell predicted, Fasciinatiion shows how living in our post-modern era can be downright frightening and of course, fasciinatiing.