It's hard to imagine someone even younger than 19-year-old Laura Marling making a splash on the music scene, but 16-year-old Australian singer Gabriella Cilmi is doing a pretty good job. Having smashed apart stereotypes of innocence with her killer single "(There's Nothing) Sweet About Me", Cilmi (pronounced "Chill Me") now offers a debut that's not only lyrically and emotionally mature, but ...
Manufacturer: Universal
Seventh Tree unveils an Alison Goldfrapp quite different to the one we saw on her career highpoint to date, 2005's Supernature. Whereas that album was grandiose, glammy, and almost aggressive in its brash, thrusting sexuality, Goldfrapp's fourth album is no less sensual, but rather more subtle in its approach. Recorded with longtime collaborator Will Gregory out in rural Somerset, ...
Manufacturer: EMI
Manufacturer: Virgin TV
The story of Swedish producer/DJ Jonas Erik Altberg's--a.k.a Basshunter--rise to fame makes for some compelling reading. He started out making tunes on basic equipment in his bedroom and putting them out via the Internet. After releasing his debut album through his home page, he watched it chart all over Europe. Altberg then managed to get into the Dutch Top 40 with a single ("Boten Anna"), ...
Manufacturer: MOS
Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant and bluegrass crooner Alison Krauss may not be the likeliest of musical combinations. But on this welcome collaboration album, they work beautifully together, wringing a kind of magic from other people's songs. The key to the album is its versatility. Between them, Krauss and Plant can handle a vast repertoire on their own, and here they take on the lot, from ...
Manufacturer: Decca
Manufacturer: Follow That Dream
For a few years now Brooklyn's TV on the Radio's obtuse but powerful art-rock has been consistently acclaimed by critics and peers without quite entering mainstream consciousness, a state of affairs the release of Dear Science is about to change for good. On their third studio set, their best and most cohesive album to date, the five mad scientists that make up TVOTR (no exaggeration--the ...
Manufacturer: 4ad
What fun! This soundtrack of the film adaptation of the Broadway musical overflows with glossy, ol' fashioned '60s-style pep. It won't win any awards for innovation, but it may well be one of the most feel-good releases of the year. While not quite as super-energetic as the original Broadway cast, the new crew ain't too shabby: Nikki Blonsky delivers as Tracy Turnblad and Zac Efron (High School ...
What Highway to Hell has that Back in Black doesn't is Bon Scott, AC / DC's original lead singer who died just months after this album was released. Scott had a rusty, raspy, scream of a voice, like he might break into a coughing fit at any moment. In other words, on crunchy, hook-heavy metal classics like the title track and on "Get It Hot" which is more roadhouse rock than metal, ...
Manufacturer: Sony
