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
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
Snow Patrol are frequently compared to Coldplay in the press, which seems strange as they write far better songs and do not appear to be quite so self-hating, nor as rich. Their delightfully dour little pop songs do touch on the melancholic side of things, but the lyrics are wonderfully slice-of-life descriptions. Singer/lyricist Gary Lightbody gives a shout-out to Sufjan Stevens when on the ...
Manufacturer: Polydor
Anyone familiar with cultish comedy series Flight of the Conchords will be aware of the wonderful songs that the hapless New Zealand duo Bret and Jemaine concoct for each episode. Tackling all genres, from hip hop and soul to glam rock, the duo create highly original and well-produced tracks that typically satirise the very genre they're imitating. This album collects together many of the ...
Manufacturer: Warner
Manufacturer: U.M.T.V.
It's never too long between Paul "The Modfather" Weller albums. Yet the starlet's prolific solo output over the last decade or so hasn't often reached the artistic heights of his work with The Jam or The Style Council. While consistent enough, recent projects have been marred by a certain complacency - a tendency to settle for the middle ground instead of the soaring, surprising heights of ...
Manufacturer: Rhino
The idea of Free/Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers taking the place of Freddie Mercury for a new Queen album is an odd one indeed. Where Mercury was flamboyant and knowing, Rodgers--who toured with Brian May and Roger Taylor in 2005--is way more weighty and grizzled. The resultant album, The Cosmos Rocks, sounds literally like Queen's gregarious musicality has been filtered through the ...
