Even the production, laden with synthesized strings and cooing female choruses, is wry on I'm Your Man, a definitive Leonard Cohen album. Though still touched with the tragic ("Take This Waltz," based on a Garcia Lorca poem), the album often achieves its high points by combining Cohen's world-weariness with black-humoured evocations of social and romantic ills and artistic quandaries. "I ...
Manufacturer: Columbia
Manufacturer: Deram/Polygram
This best-of is loaded with the usual smash suspects plus three new cuts--the sub-Mellancamp "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night", the Bed of Roses-style ballad single "Always", and a low-key remake of "Living On A Prayer" titled "Prayer '94". Love 'em or not, there's no denying the loyalty of the fans. --Jeff Bateman
Manufacturer: Mercury Records Ltd (London)
Manufacturer: Everything That Happens
You could never accuse Damon Albarn of resting on his laurels. Whether it's forming supergroups (The Good, The Bad & The Queen), working with cult animators (The Gorillaz) or making music with musicians from Mali, the former Blur frontman has nurtured a restless, questing spirit not normally encountered in Britop stars. As if to underline his diverse interests, he now turns his attention to ...
Manufacturer: XL
It's very likely that even if you haven't heard the contents of Radiohead's seventh album, you'll be aware of its existence. Released as a digital download by the band themselves before a CD release was even considered, In Rainbows was lauded for innovation before a note of music was heard. Luckily, the music matches the hype--it takes the best part of Radiohead's previous works and ...
Son of English folk-rock veterans Richard and Linda Thompson, Teddy Thompson has been blessed with a similar musical talent to his famous parents, yet his three albums to date have failed to break through into the mainstream. A Piece of What You Need however--his fourth album--has been helmed by Marius de Vries (Bjork, Madonna, Rufus Wainwright) and appears to have ‘commercial ...
Manufacturer: Universal
The pop world might be all cooing 'n' cross-eyed over this flamboyant elfin with extended tail-feathers, as if it were shaken suddenly from a slumber, but the arrival of such a character was in fact always inevitable. He's an unlikely but traceable amalgamation of random pop culture explosions from the past few years--two parts Paulo Nutini, one part Kemal from Big Brother, a dash of Daphne & ...
Manufacturer: Island
Joni Mitchell would go on from this 1971 recording to make more popular, more ambitious and more challenging albums, but she's never made a better one. Working with minimal accompaniment (Stephen Stills and James Taylor are two of the four sidemen), the Canadian songbird summoned an involving song cycle of romance found and lost. Though Blue is an uncommonly intimate representation, it's ...
Manufacturer: Reprise
Manufacturer: Inside
