It's now twenty years since grunge emerged from then culturally isolated Seattle and Fleet Foxes, the eponymous debut album from the city's latest heroes, demonstrates just how much American independent rock has mutated in that time. The five young members of Fleet Foxes make up a very different sort of rock band, describing their own music as "baroque harmonic pop jams". Even that ...
Manufacturer: Bella Union
Yep--the artist formerly known as Hannah Montana is going it alone. Having conquered the teen market under her Hannah Montana moniker, 15-year-old Cyrus is now aiming for the adult world; or at least a slightly older audience. Breakout follows her dual-marketed Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus album, and differs from it in that she sounds a little more grown up, a little rougher ...
Manufacturer: Polydor Group
Manufacturer: Syco
It's right there; on the cover, the spine, or illuminating from your iPod screen. But it's hard to corroborate it in your mind. London singer-songwriter Adele's debut album is titled 19, referencing her age, and there are hints it's true--its themes are almost exclusively concerned with young love's highs and (mostly) lows and there's a clipped estuary English tide-mark to her voice, ...
Manufacturer: XL
Manufacturer: Universal
Manufacturer: Reprise
Manufacturer: Epic
So he's the acoustic-troubadour-James that isn't James Blunt. He's the other one--the one that looks a little like Chris Martin from a distance and who with those two vague affiliations was surely always pre-destined to sell an awful lot of records, even if he was equally condemned to relative anonymity by turning up too late to claim credit for his own image. And if he failed on debut album ...
If the mark of the skilful Lothario is the one who knows to always tell his lover what she wants to hear, surely Def Jam's R&B sensation Ne-Yo--aka Los Angeles singer-songwriter Shaffer Chimere Smith--is one of the greatest of them all. On third album Year of the Gentleman, Chimere channels his hitmaking talents into a suite of R&B songs that more respectful than rampant in their approach ...
Manufacturer: Mercury Records Ltd (London)
Manufacturer: SonyBMG
