Tag: review
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Well, well, well — it’s finally happened! Kelly Clarkson has finally made a long-awaited Christmas album! And it just might be the best Christmas album since Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas. In other words, it’s nothing short of iconic and it’s quite possibly the best Christmas album released by any artist during the past 19 years.…
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I loved Avril Lavigne’s first two albums, 2002’s Let Go and 2004’s Under My Skin. Still love ’em. But, if I’m being brutally honest, I thought her next two albums, 2007’s The Best Damn Thing and 2011’s Goodbye Lullaby, were just plain terrible. Fucking awful, even. I gave them both a fair shot and listened…
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Tina Arena’s career is an interesting one. She is of Italian descent and hails from Australia, where she was a child star prior to becoming a major singing sensation as an adult, but since 2008 she’s been based out of Paris. Just over a decade ago, Tina released a couple of French singles for the…
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Pop singer/songwriter Gavin Turek has just unleashed a rather original — and fantastic — mixtape. It’s called I Love You Giorgio (Re)mixtape and it finds her cleverly adding vocals to some of electronic pioneer Giorgio Moroder’s greatest instrumentals, including “Utopia Me Giorgio,” “Lost Angeles,” “Chase” and others. She wrote her own original lyrics and melodies…
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This review was originally published on Otaku. I’m running it here because it was recently released here in the States. VAMPS — known as VAMPS (JPN) here in the States for Trademark reasons — is a Japanese hard rock/metal group formed in 2008 by vocalist/rhythm guitarist HYDE of L’Arc~en~Ciel fame and lead guitarist Kazuhito “K.A.Z”…
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I was pretty surprised when I heard that the electro duo Phantogram was releasing a new EP. I suppose it’s because their last release, 2011’s superb Nightlife, was also an EP, so I’d been hoping that they would be releasing a full-length album in the near future. To that end, I really do not know…
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If the name Tyler Ward sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve heard some of his covers. He’s a veritable Youtube sensation, having done spectacular covers of everything from Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” to Katy Perry’s “E.T.” to Jessie J’s “Price Tag.” To give you an idea of just how viral many of his covers…
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On November 29, 2013, Britney Spears will drop her eighth studio album, the highly anticipated Britney Jean. “Perfume” is the second single from the album, following September’s divisive single “Work Bitch,” which seemed to be hated more than it was loved (at least among people I know). Well, fans who thought “Work Bitch” was too…
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It’s not uncommon for critics — and fans — to disagree about an album, but I can’t remember the last time one was as divisive as ARTPOP. It seems to be the *love it or hate it* album of the year. Yes, even more so than Arcade Fire’s Reflektor, which has certainly generated an awful…
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Following the release of their much-loved eponymous debut, Cults’ vocalist Madeline Follin and multi-instrumentalist Brian Oblivion broke up, ending a four year relationship. Fortunately, they were grateful for their fans, and all of the accolades they had received from critics, and so they decided to continue making music together. Much like listening to The Civil…
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Recorded in their native Sweden, The Sounds fifth album, Weekend, was produced, engineered and mixed by Alex Newport (At the Drive-In, Mars Volta, Bloc Party, Death Cab For Cutie, City & Colour) and mastered by Howie Weinberg, who has previously mastered such iconic albums as Beastie Boys’ Licence to Ill and Nirvana’s Nevermind. It’s hard…
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Although they do collaborate with other artists on their albums, SPC ECO — pronounced space echo, dig? — are essentially a father-daughter duo consisting of singer/lyricist Rose Berlin and multi-instrumentalist/producer Dean Garcia, the latter of which spent quite a bit of time in the limelight back in the ’90’s as one half of the critically-acclaimed…
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“What a waste of time / Precious little time / I’ll waste some of yours, babe / If you waste some of mine,” Eliza sings over lovely piano as the first song on her sophomore album, In Your Hands, begins. While the piano continues throughout the track, the beat — produced by Paloma Faith hitmaker…
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Kill Devil Hill really caught me by surprise. Especially since they’re on Century Media Records. You see, I honestly thought this type of melodic metal was dead. At least aside from Frontiers Records, who’ve ignored all of my E-mails requesting to be added to their press list, which is really a shame because I love…
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Most people reading this review will probably have no idea who Sam Sparro is. Perhaps you’re one of them. Well, Sam Sparro wrote a little song called “Black & Gold,” which appeared on his debut album, which was released in 2008, and it quickly became one of the biggest pop songs of all-time. Not so…
