It's difficult not to like Danish six-piece Alphabeat. Their retro-fuelled `wonky pop' is pure optimistic fun of the kind that only po-faced too-cool-for-schoolers could possibly diss. This Is Alphabeat, their UK debut, is a version of their platinum-selling Danish release Alphabeat, minus some of the cheesier moments and with three brand new tracks produced by Mike Spencer (Kylie, ...
Manufacturer: Copenhagen Records/EMI
Manufacturer: Real World
Joel and Ethan Coen have long established themselves as film stylists without peer: from Blood Simple to Fargo, their movies have never been less than fascinating, and there has never been any question that their films could not have been made by anyone else. In T-Bone Burnett, the producer of the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, they have finally met their match: ...
Manufacturer: Mercury Records Ltd (London)
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: EMI
Manufacturer: Classic FM
The two-disc retrospective The Essential Leonard Cohen traces the Canadian bard's musical maturity from poet and novelist who sang a little, to multidimensional artist whose oracular vocals and increasingly rich arrangements are every bit as compelling as his verse. Even when Cohen came to prominence through the 1960s songcraft of "Suzanne" and "Bird on a Wire", the "folksinger" tag never ...
Manufacturer: Columbia Records
Cute, curly-headed diva Beth Rowley won many hearts with her charming Violets EP. Born in Peru and raised in the English West Country, Rowley has been mentored by Carleen Anderson and now follows up on the success of that EP with Little Dreamer, an album that continues her sweetly old fashioned, Motown-esque blend of blues, gospel, soul and jazz--all peppered with a classic ...
Manufacturer: Universal
Amy MacDonald is that proverbial old head on young shoulders, a Scottish singer-songwriter who, despite her tender 19 years, writes songs with the grace, wisdom and proficiency of one with a score more on the clock. As influenced by The Libertines as any venerable old folk hand, the eleven songs on This Is the Life combine a traditional, acoustic folk-rock sound with a youthful spirit and ...
Portishead's Third has been a long time coming, the result of a lengthy creative topor following 1997's dark, distinctly underrated album Portishead. Importantly, though, they've shaken it. While the core trio of Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow, and Adrian Utley remains, this is quite a different band to Portishead's 90s incarnation: gone is the slo-mo turntable scratching and smoky jazz ...
