Artist: Ne-Yo

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 to the romancing. "Single" is a song that reaches out to all the lonely girls, Ne-Yo promising "I'll be your boyfriend til the song goes off", while the Stargate-produced "Miss Independent", lit up by neon synthesisers, suggests Smith isn't too concerned with his own machismo to test out flipping the traditional gender roles, serenading a girl who's a player in her own right: "Everything she got, you bet she bought it". The album is at its best with the central, two-song movement of "Why Does She Stay" and "Fade Into the Background"--the former, Ne-Yo questioning his own neglectful nature over a backdrop of shimmering keys, the latter a sombre piece that finds our narrator accepting the news his lover has found another with a rare, heart-rending magnanimity. --Louis Pattison
"FANTASTIC", 2008-11-07
This has to be one of the best albums I have bought in a long time. Every track is good usually there is always a couple of songs that don't do it for you but every track is great.

This is my first Neyo CD but not the last.

Artist: Kanye West

808s & Heartbreak sees Kanye West move somewhat controversially away from hip hop towards what he calls "pop art"--not the art movement championed by Andy Warhol, but his own artful pop music. This translates as Kanye dropping his rap shtick and picking up the Auto-Tune to help even out his singing voice, and trading his usual summery bounce for the brittle, wintry sound of the electronic Roland TR-808--the drum machine used in early hip hop and techno. Where previous Kanye albums have been about bling, 808s & Heartbreak is a paean to pain and misery. Prompted by the recent death of his mother, opening track "Welcome to Heartbreak" sets the album's key themes--lyrics about the emptiness of fame and wealth crooned over a desolate electronic backdrop. Things don't get much cheerier as Kanye continues to pour his heart out on songs like "Coldest Winter", "Street Lights" and the slow jam "Say You Will". High profile high guests like Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne and Herbie Hancock can't lift the gloom either, but the consistent aura of sadness that envelopes this unexpected album is ultimately what makes it so compelling. --Danny McKenna
A "Closer" for the hip hop generation, 2009-01-03
First and foremost, I'd like to express my exasperation at hearing or reading people moaning at some - currently successful - black artists (Kanye West being one of them), accusing them of having betrayed the so-called "original true spirit of hip hop". These, behaving like self-proclaimed guardians of some private temple, seem to forget that hip hop, like every other form of art, is a mean not an end.

I also recall the great Mos Def was once asked, a few years ago, what he thought of his peers parading in videos with lavish ladies and expensive cars instead of providing supposed conscious statements in their music. His answer has baffled me for years (and still does): he said that it was precisely this (i.e. the fact of seeing black people behaving that way in front of huge audiences of, say, MTV proportions) that was revolutionary, more than any kind of political contest. And so, whether you fancy it or not. I can't agree more, as it seems, more generally, that a black artist is, still nowadays, supposed to deliver what's expected of him: making "black music".

Sorry for that somewhat long introduction, but I thought those two distinct points could be helpful to fully understand what Kanye West's fourth album proper is all about, and what it aims to be. On the previous one, 2007's "Graduation", he already considerably extended his sonic palette (sampling Daft Punk or legendary german krautrockers, Can), yet after that, last summer he produced, in the form of his duet with the promising Estelle, the wonderful "American Boy", which can only be described as the single best musical mainstream moment of the year, all straightforward dancefloor power and heavy beat science upfront.

"8O8s & Heartbreak" is an altogether very different beast to both those releases; having recently both lost his mother and ended up a longtime relationship with his fiancee, Kanye West isn't exactly in a partying mood here, to say the least. Yet, and it's what makes this record so satisfying, he still manages to entertain while expressing his utter sadness and pouring his deepest doubts over every song featured. From the first few bars of "Say You Will", it's understood Kanye's probably unleashed his landmark piece of music this time: over a bleak, possibly new wavish rhythm synth, he croons in a desperate yet suggestive and seductive manner about the loss of his love. The much-publicized use of the auto-tune process, supposedly a limitation, in fact allows him more freedom than ever: some reviewer pointed out he's not Nas nor Guru (he actually barely raps on the whole LP, mind you), and heaven knows he ain't Marvin Gaye either, but if the spine-tingling lament that is "Heartless" or the broody hypnotic complaint the first single "Love Lockdown" manages to be fail to move you, then nothing ever will. On the only upbeat track, "Paranoid", Kanye West even delivers the most perfect slice of pop angst ever heard since, say, Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence" (yeah, that good). Perhaps only the quite blank "Robocop" is a relative failure, as every other song is a fascinating trip through this visionary artist's mind, even the somewhat rawer-sounding live freestyle "Pinocchio Story", that closes proceedings with an overwhelming tearjerking class.

Being very intimate, sounding entertaining at it and clearly conscious of what he does, somewhere between Kool & The Gang produced by New Order and the late and great Al Green stuck with The Neptunes in an elevator, Kanye West has achieved, minor weaknesses aside, a truly perfect pop album.

In a world that enjoys nothing as much as pigeonholing people of every kind (let alone artists), that alone is a triumph in itself.

TO ENJOY, CHERISH AND TREASURE...

Artist: Take That

Not just a re-release, 2007-12-30
Obviously all the TT fans from 10 years ago will have the greatest hits album but this gives you chance to have the greatest hits plus the additions of several live performances and also a previously unheard track 'today I lost you' classic Gary Barlow lead with great BVs by the rest of the fab 4. A must have for all TT fans.

Artist: Various Artists

Artist: Katherine Jenkins

Sacred Arias is Katherine Jenkins' last album in her deal for Universal before she moves to Warner for another six-album deal, and she has decided to go out with a bang--albeit a quiet one. While her previous outing, Rejoice, saw the Welsh mezzo-soprano striking out more than ever towards the world of pop, Sacred Arias, as the title suggests, sees her return to her religious-classical roots with comfortably familiar tunes like "Abide with Me", "Ave Maria", "Pie Jesu" and even "Silent Night". The mood on Sacred Arias is as refined and peaceful as you'd expect given the title, and though there's an abundance of well known material here, Jenkins also offers us the more obscure charms of "Missa Criolla", a dreamy version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and a soulful take on "Down in the River to Pray". Other classical pieces include "Panis Angelicus" and Barber's haunting vocal piece "Agnus Dei", which help make this a triumphant final flourish for both her and Universal. --Danny McKenna
Katherine Jenkins - Sacred Arias, 2008-12-12
I really looked forward to this album's release. It was worth the wait, I was not disappointed.

This album in my opinion, contains Katherine's best vocal to date. The vocal production is free and unhurried, giving the whole album a very relaxed feel. I really like all the repetoire chosen, my own personal favourites include: Goodall's "The Lord Is My Shepherd"; "Down to the River To Pray" "Ave Maria" and "May The Good Lord Bless You and Keep You".

I do agree that the choice of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", seems a little odd. However, while Katherine's version is not as definitive as k.d. lang or Jeff Buckley's version - it is still well sung.

I would definately recommend this album, to anyone considering purchasing it.

Artist: Various Artists

Fond memories...., 2008-12-28
Listening to this CD set brought back so many memories of my childhood. Not my music, but my parents!


As a small child I remember The Everley Brothers, Billy Fury, Elvis, Connie Francis, Brenda Lee and all of the others being played on our stereogram. It's music I grew up with, my father twirling me round while dancing with me. Even though I was only a small child I recognize most of the songs on this compilation, they've stood the test of time and sound just as great today as they did back then - pure nostalgia!

A double CD set with over 50 tracks, a great collection and a must buy for any fan of music from the 50's and 60's.

Artist: Take That

It's been a long ten years since Take That disbanded. Their recent reformation and world tour offered overwhelming evidence that, far from being forgotten, the post-Robbie quartet can still command hysterical amounts of goodwill and adoration. Beautiful World illustrates why this is so. Written in conjunction with songwriter/producer John Shanks (Ashlee Simpson, Anastacia, Alanis Morissette), the album is crammed full with the songwriting magic that made their rise to fame so meteoric in the first place. Far from being an exercise in nostalgia, the project moves the band in a slightly new direction. The four come across as more mature, more democratic (all members share songwriting credits on the album, rather than just Barlow), and even more adept at making epic pop that somehow avoids the cheese factor. Lead single "Patience" is a perfect example of how powerful and accessible their songs can be. It'd be a good contender for the album's peak moment if the rest of the tracks weren't so damn good too. With traditional Take That style songs (the immediately likeable "Reach Out", the brimming "Like I Never Loved You At All"), nicely punctuated up by incongruous outings like Ja...
Simply the best, 2008-05-24
Just how did they decide which song should be a single. With perhaps the exception of Wooden Boat, all of these songs could have been a single. All the lads take a turn at singing lead and all take credit for the combined work. A truly incredible feat, for the best selling band in the country to take 10 years off, not only come back but come back better. If this is a refection of what we are to expect in the future I can't wait for the next album

Artist: Ting Tings

The debut album by Salford's The Ting Tings comes hot on the heels of their No.1 single "That's Not My Name", a nugget of pop gold that comes on like a genetic splicing of Toni Basil's "Micky" and The Knack's "My Sharona". The bulk of We Started Nothing follows a similar formula, navigating a path between the smart, angular indie of CSS, Bonde Do Role, et al and the pop mainstream. Here and there, they pull it off perfectly: the stutter-rap of "Fruit Machine" sees vocalist Katie White leading on some poor sap with sultry charisma and lip-gloss sass, while the excellent "Shut Up and Let Me Go" is snappy dance-punk in the spirit of Blondie's "Rapture" or Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love". Elsewhere, they branch out with mixed results. "We Walk" builds from quiet flourishes of piano into a surprisingly steely manifesto: "Smash the rest up/Burn it down/Put us in the corner cause we're into ideas", sneers White. Rather less good is "Traffic Light", a light, jazzy number that employs a number of somewhat forced driving metaphors to describe a relationship hit the skids. Still, it's a debut with promise, and a string of good singles is nothing to be sniffed at. --Louis Pattison
Every 8 year old should have it!, 2008-10-20
First heard these early this year, about the same time as I saw the Kills. For me, they are a bit 'candy pop' but it's a great compromise when arguing with my 8 year old daughter about what music is going on the CD player. It's worth it just to catch her doing air guitar and miming the words....very badly! A fun Album.