I realized this would make a good topic. Write your own reviews for CDs here, new and old, giving a rating if you desire.

great idea, cherub.

ive been pretty inactive over at rateyourmusic.com, a great site where you can rate and review your cds. ill probably upload a review of lavender diamond here and there soon, and also a review for ADP which I wrote for a youth club newsletter.

I used to be write music reviews for my highschool newspaper!

Now not so much, I mostly just remember things and then read them on the radio before I play songs.

yay! i was so fucking biased though, id only write reviews for albums i liked. didnt bother reviewing albums that the target readers listened to muahahahahaha.

here's a meanie review i wrote for a cranberries disc:


the cranberries - wake up and smell the coffee
"4 albums later, Cranberries return with Wake Up... Since their debut, Cranberries have churned out rather wishy washy albums carrying a small number of standouts. The problem is that the band never progress. They've just stayed the way they were back in Everybody Else... era. Only once have they tried to move in a quite different direction (ala To the Faithful Departed, like their earlier albums but rockier) but that proved an abysmal failure. Instead of correcting that wrong and giving out something worthwhile, they decided to play it safe henceforth Bury the Hatchet. Wake Up... continues that same trend. It is quite amazing that the Cranberries are still making music after the many chances they've had and blown to move in a different and exciting direction. As always with the band, they do churn out some standouts; Never Grow Old, Analyse, This Is The Day, title track and the great closer Chocolate Brown. The remaining tracks are essentially Cranberries-by-numbers or maybe it essentially is Cranberries and what everyone found so amazing about them in the first place turned out to be unfounded. My advice to them: Wait 6 or 7 years to bring out an album that's actually - wait for it - consistent and get a better lyricist (Dolores you used to be quite good but you're terrible now) or just give it up. "

4/10

I imagine that some of them might not have wanted to read what you would say about their favorite artist.

I believe that if you speak to the facts: musicianship, vocal qualities, songwriting, then people have a less of an issue about being upset.

Even still, it's still opinion and people will still disagree. There's actually nothing wrong with that, because we don't all agree and we never will.

I know that there are several of you that have opinions that are interesting to me.

I only reviewed good records, which tended not to be the EMO pap my peers liked.

I did several artists Heather Nova, Bjork, Sonic Youth, Goldfrapp (before the supernature explosion), etc.

I diiid... sheryl crow, liz phair, garbage, gwen stefani, kristin hersh, cat power, jenny lewis, tori amos. oooh and a kristin hersh concert review!

at one point, i was supposed to "recommend" artists like the magic numbers. aha!

hannah fury - through the gash

people say this is dark cabaret but i hear that term and i think dresden dolls. well, hannah fury's music could not be more far removed from dresden dolls' manic piano driven songs. fury's own music reminds me of gothic romances with werewolves, vampires and such. it's not scary. through the gash is actually a swoon of an album. like her debut, this is a collection of songs that are drenched in thick, THICK reverb. hannah fury's vocals wander around like a lover lost in a fog. and while songs like "status" employ some electronic effects to convey its doom and gloom atmosphere, most of the songs are just the piano, lots of echo and layers of voices. traces of kate bush are prominent in a song like "the apple", where in the trademark kate bush shifts of vocals are subtly used and sampling that seem to pop out of nowhere. most of the time, hannah fury finds her own sound, a mix of music box noises and romantic tragedies. some will say that this meanders a bit but they can't say it lacks mood.

"as soon as I'm left alone, the devil wanders into my soul..."

and so begins this collection of chilling and desolate songs. with piano replacing electric guitar and high, falsetto vocals replacing her melodic snarling, pj harvey no longer sounds angry or even in control of her situation; she sounds fragile, lost; bitter; scared, even. her pleads of "Come! Come!" on the album opener, demonstrates this idea of pj being a helpless little girl, with her pleads directed at someone (or something) that never responds. this theme of unrequited love continues in "Dear Darkness" and "Grow Grow Grow", with pj in the latter (or the narrator, if you will), requesting her 'Mommy' to teach her how to make the object of her desire return the same feelings (reinforcing the 'little girl' idea). when we get to 'when under ether', abortion - another recurrent theme in the album - is alluded to for the first time, and combined with the unrequited love theme (and also betrayal), powers the album through to its close. to support these combined themes, mountains appear as recurring motifs of death, specifically the "white chalk hills of Dover" (the same hills in Shakespeare's King Lear whereby the blinded Gloucester wishes to throw himself off of). in the title track, white chalk hills and Dover are explicitly referred to, providing the album with one of its many chilling moments: the narrator is so guilt-ridden from being pregnant that she wishes to kill herself and her unborn child. "Scratch my palms, there's blood on my hands" - in the world in which the album revolves, peace and harmony is corrupted, and the idea of children and love bring sadness rather than happiness. there is no resolve to unhappiness, other than death ("Before Departure") but even so, the narrator doesn't escape her bleak life. in the album's closer, its most chilling (and strongest) moment ("The Mountain"), we return to the ominous mountains, whereby the narrator appears to be trapped as some sort of ghoul (even further suggested by harvey's wordless howling that closes out the song), with betrayal and unhappiness still plaguing her. a bleak and somewhat terrifying note for the album to end on (naturally) but still remarkable: this bleak tale of isolation, betrayal et cetera is mind-blowing, ethereal brilliance. also, pj harvey doles out 2007's strongest, profound album yet in just half an hour. beat that.

****1/2

Charlotte Martin - Reproductions

charlotte martin is a great singer but she tends to oversing a lot, using some of her operatic training in parts where it's not needed. she does this a lot here. reproductions is her covers album. every artist ought to have one, right?
for the most part, martin nails every track reformation she tries her hand in. the sad melodies of "bizarre love triangle" and "constant craving" work well with her epic singing. some tracks suffer from the weird electro flourish she employs. "i am stretched out on your grave" is rendered flat because of it. fortunately, its last few moments of chaos salvage it. when the woman sings the songs made legendary by cocteau twins' liz fraser, the urge to dismiss becomes stronger. but actually, this is pleasant pop.

Charlotte Martin has a stronger voice than Liz Fraser, I cannot see how that would hinder a cover.

says who?
you?
bitch please

maybe he means physically stronger, that doesn't necessarily mean better

he meant it's better for him? which is so sad
liz fraser doesn't sound like anyone else
she's a singular presence on record
charlotte sounds a lot like, well other people
like kate bush but not as affecting
i like charlotte by the way... lol

No I meant opera singers have the best voices in the world in a lot of terms, range, power, etc. In musical terms, Opera singers are la creme de la creme.

In "FUB" terms, apparently not.

So quit the boring snydeness, your entire review is "better for me", only stated as though it were fact, so come down from your pedestal.

I like Liz Fraser by the way , haha.

i just won't accept that just because someone is opera trained automatically means they're better, even compared to someone who has such a powerful, extremely beautiful voice, who does not sound like anyone else, who gives any song she touches an air of majesty. and knowing myself, i think i better not accept that anytime soon because i know i'm right.

You're so provincial! How quaint.

first things first: sugababes haven't been good for years. Their 2003 album, Three, was the pinnacle of their career, flirting brilliantly between the pop/r&b bases covered by their first two albums and enforcing the electro-pop still prominent in their music today. Then they went downhill. Three's predeccesor, Taller in More Ways, was terribly inconsistent. There was some killer songs but overall, it was a disarray. Despite that, however, their trademark sound was still in place, with killer songs that were more growers than instant (the best kind). Fast forward one year, having lost their strongest member (Mutya Buena) and replacing her with a substandard imitation (Amelle something), a greatest hits is released with a couple of new songs. Not up there with the vintage years, sure, but they had their pleasures. Easy had a rousing chorus and Good to Be Gone was a standard but likeable electro-pop song. And they still sounded like Sugababes. Now, in 2007, we have their new album Change. One question comes to mind frequently: What the hell happened? Scrapping any semblance of what they used to be (an r&b/pop band with indie cred), the 'Babes have went full-throttle Since-U-Been-Gone-esque pop. Even the album's most "urban" moments sound forced. First single, About You Now, is likeable enough, but to put it plainly, the 'Babes sound bored (which applies to the entire album, really). The only part of the song that's even remotely emotionally resonant, is Heidi's bridge of "And there's no moving on, 'cause I know you're the one...". Denial and Surprise is the closest you'll get to what the Sugababes used to be, and probably are the album's most affecting moments. Then you have My Love is Pink, which sounds like Livin Joy's Dreamer rehashed. It sounds like the gayest song ever but it's fun. However, although the 'Babes have always had a large gay fanbase, one of the great things about the Sugababes was that they never had to play up to that fanbase i.e. crank out songs aimed specifically at them. This is not the case with My Love Is Pink, and that's actually one of the problems with the album: they no longer sound like they're making records for themselves. For all of its problems, Taller in More Ways was still a good but messy album, with some distinctive but not necessarily typical tracks. Change has none. It's too busy polishing itself and proferring everyone a whiff of its shiny, slick, soulless attitude. It has its pleasures (About You Now, Denial, My Love is Pink, Surprise) but four songs does not even a standard record make.

**

mozella - i will

i was hesitant to check this out because the way it was billed, it seemed like more of the urban soul that radio dj's bombard us with but this actually very likable and very well made. it is blue eyed soul but not in an annoying timberlake way and not in a Jojo way either. this girl has a rich voice but her delivery is pure rather than artificially soulful. it also helps that the songs themselves are dripping with introspection. there's more confessional rock going on than groovy soul, yet it maintains an ultra modern street savvy attitude that makes it sound kind of commercial. there are a lot of songs here that tend to blend to each other but not in a bland way but in a delicious, fluid way as if it's a soundtrack to a great romantic comedy set in new york. the best tracks here rival the best of the female singer songwriter boom of the nineties. the title track is especially simmering and "light years away" is affecting with its narration of a dissolving relationship.

mozella - light years away (mp3 download)

http://www.myspace.com/mozella

the coathangers - the coathangers

energy oozes from every musical pore. what this band does can easily come off as amateurish and juvenile but it's endlessly charming and enjoyable. the vocals are manic and jokey. the lyrics are hilarious. the melodies are very catchy. the ramshackle, unpolished production is ruthlessly effective, suggesting that they just made this in the garage and clearly, they had fun doing it. cheesy organs, barely played right guitars, drumkit tinkering, it's all something out of k records dreamhouse or those twee pop grrrls from the nineties. only now, a spice of karen o is apparent and a liz phair flare for playful profanity is at play. a suprisingly sturdy funhouse of bitchy fun.

http://www.myspace.com/fuckthecoathangers

redlight - I downloaded About You Now, listened to the clips of the rest of the album, and wasn't interested.

Mutya's solo album is supposedly bad, do you have it? (I have Song 4 Mutya cause I read it was the only good song. It is a good song.)

I've only heard it once but Song 4 Mutya sinks everything else on the album. Who knows why she didn't pursue the vein of that song for an entire album.

I still dislike Change intensely. It's such a mediocre effort.

Scout Niblett - This Fool Can Die Now

emma louise niblett, with her jaded, cynical voice, returns with an album that just proves how she's slowly getting into her very own masterpiece. the production is very similar to kidnapped by neptune. it's airier, more polished and more accessible, definitely more accessible, with the addition of strings making some parts quite sadder sounding. "elizabeth (black hearted queen)" would have been a spare guitar track if not for these weeping sounds. there's also a countrier, alt folkier feel to this album which suits niblett's gin soaked, cat power-esque vocals to a t. the guitars are drenched in reverb as if you're hearing her play in some ghost town joint. the songs also benefit with the pairing with bonnie "prince" billy, adding a romantic tone to the otherwise plainly somber melodies. this fool can die now is softer than her other releases and before you start complaining that maybe she's lost her edge, there are still some noisy drum kit playing and some rocking moments, all bluesy and reminding me of thalia zedek's days with Come. this is a maturing work, a steady effort and worth an applause.

mp3
Do You Want to Be Buried With My People [feat. Bonnie "Prince" Billy]
River of No Return [feat. Bonnie "Prince" Billy]
Comfort You [feat. Bonnie "Prince" Billy]

Shawn Colvin - These Four Walls
True, Shawn Colvin's music is very predictable but that's only because she has always put out consistently decent records. Her voice too has never faltered or failed to be pleasant to the ears. These Four Walls is more of the same which is not to put down this exceptional work. Some songs are clear standouts. "Tuff Kid" is reminiscent of "get out of this house" (from a few small repairs). The title track is effectively depressing. "Even Here We Are" is similar to Patty Griffin's subtle moments. There are few unexpected kinks, not enough to call it a departure but enough to attract some new listeners.

These Four Walls (mp3)

http://www.myspace.com/shawncolvinmusic

thanks for still posting here waa

most of us are too lazy

thanks
no one reads them but thanks anyway

I tend to read the ones where I have already heard of the artist, unfortunately I haven't heard of the ones you review mostly (lol of course I should go out and listen to them, but laziness again...)

St. Vincent - Marry Me
This surprised me a lot. There was a lot of hype surrounding St. Vincent. A lot of it is vague, typical for indie critic nerd written drooling. I had no idea what she actually sounded like. There were comparisons to Tori Amos, Nellie Mckay, PJ Harvey, Kate Bush, Feist and about a dozen other female artists. I finally checked out her work and I still don't know who she sounds like. In her EP, it was easier. She seemed to be channeling PJ Harvey via Nellie Mckay. This 11 song experimentation is more similar to Kate Bush. She has the whole art pop down pat but she's nowhere near as dramatic. Actually, the Kate Bush comparison is apt because Kate's musical compass is similarly unpredictable. I really should stop trying to compare these artists to each other. I just know that a lot of people wanting to check out a new artist will want to know these things.

St. Vincent's songs are very intriguing. She sounds a little european in some songs then she'll veer off to broadway territory then settle into a dreamy, acoustic number. It's easy to know why a lot of people heralded her as another female to watch. The album is very much a grower. It's impossible to get tired of. She tries on a lot of genres and succeeds in twisting each into her own. Meanwhile, it's harder to fall in love with her music. Her songs don't crackle and pop. There are hardly no standouts since they all sound so different. Two of my favorite tracks though are show stoppers. "Paris is Burning" is carnivalesque soundtrip and "All my Stars Aligned" is a moody number complete with twinkling piano lines. This is an album to listen to for a long time, over and over again, trying to pinpoint just what makes it so enjoyable. It might just really be her sexy voice which really reminds me of My Brightest Diamond. Oh God, There I go again...

Paris is Burning (mp3)
Myspace

this is my first in this thread its cool I mean it rocks I'm so indasisive. ps turanchulas rule.

Just for your gutter brain information. If you knew how to wash a bomber jacket maybe you would get one. Arm & Hammer thy=en you put the detergent in the washer before the clothes it has a special bubbly thing that it does your all dumb.

lucky, you're a moron


KT Tunstall - Drastic Fantastic

What happened? Okay, not much. KT Tunstall is still pretty much the singer songwriter she was in her debut. Her songs are still polished. Her music is overall, very pleasant, very accessible, kind of clean and well produced. What is noticeable though is how much less introspective this album is. Her debut for all its supposed hits and poppiness is kind of mellow and therefore much lovelier. This is almost radio hit after radio hit. You just know the studio was breathing down her neck saying "make a hit, make a hit" and she ends up coming up with generic songs. It's like what happened with Sheryl Crow. Let's see what she has here. "Saving my face" is kind of good and grand, big in sound but not annoying. "Hold on" is hugely irritating. "Paper Aeroplane" is great but that's an older song found in her demo album. "Beauty of Uncertainty" is a subtly sublime moment, oceanic and swooning. Her voice remains the versatile instrument it is, the really bright spot here. Whether she actually has more involvement with the song selections here and the writing and arrangements is unknown to me but I wish she trusted in her songwriting more and let it speak for itself, instead of getting caught up with upping the ante. The results are still quite listenable and you better believe that I will listen to this before I listen to Leona Lewis or some shit like that but she's more than this. I hope it makes enough money for her to get a third record out.

^ At first I wasn't too crazy about KT when she came out-not really sure why-but I actually have really enjoyed listening to her lately. Her songs are really catchy, I agree, and she has a really warm, pleasant tome to her voice I like.

when I was in Nevada I made a necklace it was a rout66 ludlow black and white strap thang hooked with a rectange magnifing glass for readin with a creem frame she used it agaist me (I went in with my pops to the poker tables cleared all the locals on the river then told the remaining two we were going to the same party there like you know each other they got so pissed but I got the cash.) I'm decorating my apartment using my bomber jacket as a model. I'm considering putting the figurines in the hallway.ps getting my first bookcasewas a very special experience .

I know longer consider gilysound peoples power effetive altough I,m planning another visit. there like a dead car freshener. they've been down graded from Charmen.

that is it
i will officially put you in ignore

alright bye. youknow that egg shell is too dark. swiss coffee my personal pref. plus the blueberry pitbull is very scary she acts like she likes you then she bites yuoo. hillers . I got this new job I'm supposed to translate documents for the incarnation society can't wait till it starts.

Siobhan Donaghy - Revolution in me

I loved "Overload". That first hit by Sugababes. This debut solo album by one of its former members is kind of like that song but without its minimalist electro style. This is more Kate Bush meets Garbage meets modern dance, hip hop. Whatever it is, it's better than what her former girl group is up to right now. The first five songs are infectious without being silly romps. While "Dialect" is more ambitious sonic wise than one would ever expect from an ex sugababe. The title track too (which reminds me music for David Lynch movies) intriguingly mixes electronic pop and moody r'n'b. Her voice too while not perfect and far from distinctive is very appealing. If this girl falls into the trap of ex girl band members, at least she can tell herself that she followed her musical compass and it brought her to less commercial territory, more substantial places that her former group could only dream of reaching.

Nice review, although I find it a bit weird you dont find her voice distinctive. I mean it's not incredibly unique, but I'd say it's pretty distinct.

it's a technically good voice. it's not weird and great like kate's or bjork's. you know what i mean? i mean, it's a good voice and she can hit the notes but she kind of sounds like mutya even.

I wasnt saying it was distinct in that it was technically good (which it is), or even near comparable to Bush/Björk/whomever. But I just think it's kind of special, more than many (especially mutya! euch)

I really like her voice live, listen to it here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=M6o6zfYMN94

velocette - fourfold remedy

Most of the time, sweet and sad is a winning combination. Velocette's debut champions this format to great effect. The grooves are light and there are some noisier, busier, kind of shoegazey moments but for the most part, the group keeps it airy and moody. The melodies are kept serene while a haze of guitars build up over them. Sarah Bleach's voice maintains an angelic glow through out the ten tracks. The whole thing just feels like a cool, mellow party in outer space or something. Lounge pop that doesn't annoy or make you fall to sleep, Fourfold Remedy is the best kind of sweet and sad there is in pop music.

For lovers of Ivy and other female fronted indie pop bands.

velocette myspace

----------------------

The first post-Greatest Hits record is a tricky proposition for any act, but particularly so for a manufactured pop group, whose shelf lives seldom exceed a couple of albums. Girls Aloud are no exception, indeed they have more to live up to than most. 2006's hits package The Sound of Girls Aloud was a surprise Christmas bestseller, their first number one album in the UK, and with the infectious Something Kinda Ooh! It gave them one of the defining hits of their career. However, their last studio album Chemistry stalled in the charts, and now Tangled Up is their first to contain no well-known cover versions, the chart fortunes of their previous records having being reversed to varying degrees of success by the release of timely renditions of The Pointer Sisters' Jump, The Pretenders' I'll Stand By You and Dee C.Lee's See The Day.

Taster single Sexy! No No No… is one of the most daring songs they've yet released. A pounding electro-punk number with an extended vocodered intro and a chorus which, while catchy, could hardly be described as danceable, it eased into the UK top five, but had a relatively short stay on the charts and didn't seem to bode well. However, as seems to be something of a pattern with Girls Aloud albums, second single and album opener Call The Shots is the real revelation. By far the most subtle single of their careers it's an elegant electro-pop ballad delivered with a restraint and maturity to rival groups of twice their age. Writing team Xenomania may have been working behind the pop scenes since long before Girls Aloud were formed, but they remain adept at crafting lyrics to suit the group, all of whom are still just in their early twenties. The line "I won't cry because I've stumbled through this far" says more about the confusion, naiveté and bruised wisdom of youth at the precipice of maturity than a thousand Britney Spears ballads.

Elsewhere Tangled Up is a short, sharp and tight collection of some of the most exciting music in a particularly exciting career. Girls Aloud albums always come brimming with ideas, but while they could previously leave the overall collection as something of a mishmash, here they succeed as a perfectly constructed whole without becoming a tedious homogeny. More than this though, it's a considerable artistic step forwards, with the sugar rush of songs such as Love Machine and Something Kinda Ooh toned down somewhat in favour of a more aloof, knowing sexiness. Not that the Girls aren't having fun. Close To Love stops around two thirds in as they yell warnings such as "Guy with the terrible hair, back off!" and Fling boasts a manic shout-along chorus assuring a prospective lover that "It's just a bit of ding-a-ling baby!"

Elsewhere, Black Jacks sounds like a lost Ace Of Base classic, I Can't Speak French achieves the kind of effortlessly sultry cool which the Sugababes have spent a career striving for, and Girl Overboard is like an aggressive, relentless cousin to their previous career highlight The Show.

However, the song that, alongside, Call The Shots may come to define this album and indeed may be their greatest recorded achievement to date is closer Crocodile Tears. It's easy to overlook the vocal accomplishments of Girls Aloud, despite their talent-show beginnings they can be difficult to distinguish as individual singers and are often seen by critics as little more than an attractive blank canvas for the wild pop experiments of their production team. However Crocodile Tears cuts through their tabloid notoriety and occasionally cartoonish images with astonishingly intelligent vocal performances. The lyrics tread a familiar path of heartbreak, but lines such as "Why on earth did you leave me?" are delivered not with anger or pain, but in a resigned, almost bored sounding whisper. And herein lies the genius of Tangled Up. Girls Aloud have grown up, and they're not shedding their clothes to prove it. They've been through the first flush of love and despair and come out as we all do. A little more bruised, a little more wise and a lot more interesting.

****1/2
(from allmusic.com)

you write for allmusic now?

oui, ever since you turned into an arsehole.

::kiss::

Im sorry you paid so much for my space in reguards to the orgin well lets just say I made poly very mad one day and she knew how to get back at me "muffy" it was kindaq ajoke they were playing on me but damn it really turned into something we all know it. the size of a tongue in a mouth is all I can give you the way the lirics are set up sorry plus I'm in the founders club so I can't realy say you own it. Its like all the people from Xing they don't know what it like to be the founding father clueless they are they be taking it over and over until the day they die always looking trying to find the starting point.

Operator Please - Yes, Yes! Vindictive
Best to listen to this album without any prior opinions about the band, their ages, anything about them. All I know about Operator Please is that they were featured in a lot of blogs, raving about their mature sound and their apparently young ages. I don't know their exact ages but apparently, they're young enough to get such a shock from Americans.
Youth and Rock, seemingly a major WTF these days.
Not for me. But that doesn't downgrade the delicious pop rock of their debut album.

Yes, Yes! Vindictive! has a very interesting, not exactly groundbreaking sound. Building on the versatility and powerhouse presence of the female vocalist, the fierceness of the guitars (reminded me of Pixies at times), the band piles on the propulsion and the racing melodies and busy tempos, adding the offbeat sound of a fiddle and bone shattering drums.

They do sound mature. A lot of young people these days who want to try their hand at alt rock will go to the Lo-Fi route, even the twee route and some of them succeed too. I admire this Aussies for coming up with something that taps on the tough nerve set by Throwing Muses and Pixies. Their more innocent, poppier, catchier tunes are also quite nice, reminding me of another set of younger people like Eisley and The Like. This is a fine, accomplished first effort. If they don't suddenly become big in the US, it's only because their music may not be very accessible to some of the Rihanna, Britney fans.

http://www.myspace.com/operatorplease

Sunshine State - Sunshine State

The name of this duo alone promise cheery music. Sunshine State is the perfect duo of vocalist Aleza and acoustic guitarist James Bryan. What they do are sweet, fun, chirpy, just plain appealing music. Acoustic songs with a very modern approach to lyricism. Aleza's delivery is especially striking. It's pristine, very pure and very girly which will just melt your heart. Hearing her sprint through musical tales of lovers coming together, people racing through day jobs, loving drugdealers, crushes, one night stands, mini breakups, her gleeful stance is wonderful and kind of inspiring. This is almost twee, if twee wasn't wimpy because this confection is not wimpy. It's just really really peppy. And enjoyable too. Their cover of "Nothing Compares 2 U" is a little pretty flower. "The Crush" reminds me of Ivy. "Day Job" is entirely their own, a super perky sugar high. "One Night Stand" is also another unique composition, insightful but never strays from the catchy formula they've managed to latch into. The 12 songs here are unbelievably catchy, with choruses that seem almost manufactured in a major label studio or something. But nah, Sunshine State are just two people coming together and having a lot of fun through music. It sounds corny but it says so in their myspace. It must be true!!! heh.

http://www.myspace.com/wearesunshinestate

Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree

While not as haunting as the debut, Seventh Tree still marks some sort of a return to form for Goldfrapp. The two albums worth of electro pop experience seems to have gotten them sick of the genre. So what do they do? Yes, go folky.

The folky backbones of these songs would disappoint those who thought Alison was this mistress of dance pop but for those who loved her initial incarnation would relate more to the character she portrays here.

When I say folk, I don't mean Joanna Newsom or Nina Nastasia or Marissa Nadler. The electronic influence is still mighty strong in these tracks but they only serve as flourishes and thank God, without the clubby grooves, we get to the core of Goldfrapp's power easily which is Alison's steely but sweet vocals, a sexy addiction. The standout track for me is oddly enough the most upbeat. "Caravan Girl" is a halting, anthemic number. Instead of conquering the dancefloor, the song takes on seventies folk rock. It's loud and consuming, shimmering and inspiring.

Warm and friendly, earthy yet still a bit dreamy, this fourth album is a strong entry for best of 2008.

Cat Power - Jukebox

I knew it. I so knew it. The moment someone becomes famous and her album charts pretty well in Billboard, people will turn away. Ugh, the mentality is poisonous. Jukebox is actually a stronger collection that The Greatest. It's sexier too. There's a darker vibe here, giving Chan Marshall the role of the beautiful stranger in the back of the bar. It's a role she nails perfectly. The pep of her last album is replaced with a smoky haze that is entirely her own, perfected since her first album. The whole thing actually sounds like a continuation of the last track in The Greatest. It has the danger, the stomp, like a woozy revolution for love.

The thing is I've never heard a lot of the originals of the songs she covers here but that didn't stop me from loving The Covers Record, did it? What the woman has is that voice, which is strong here, not very haunting but very strong. There's an undeniable sensuality here in her delivery which for sure she's acquired since having a turnaround in her life and getting off drugs. She sounds livelier, less narcotized, looser, hotter. She lends these songs a soft, honeyed quality as opposed to her earlier schtick of making them sound heavy and melancholic. It's different but man, it does sound nice proving it fits her both ways.

Marshall's deserved grip on herself is not without sacrifices. Her cover of her own "Metal Heart" is certainly not as good as the one in Moon Pix but it has its charms. The song surprisingly stands solid to revision. It works as a bluesy lament. But the arrangement for her cover of "Blue" leaves the soul of the song limp. It sounds happy but it doesn't feel right. That just may be the Joni fan in me though. The rest of the album is Cat Power in top form, spiritually. She's game and ready to play.