wowowowow

Kylie, X

Set the scene: i've never listened to an entire kylie album before. i have Ultimate Kylie which is basically a singles collection. my favorite tracks are, 'breathe' / 'did it again' from the deconstruction era, and the singles from Body Language (perhaps cos they were written with my heroines Emiliana Torrini and Karen Poole).

The journey: I wasn't really expecting much from X. Judging from afar as a non-fan I feel like deconstruction showed promise, light years went retrograde, and since then shes been clawing slowly back up to credibility. fever gave good singles but most importnantly gave us iconic images courtesy of will baker and Body language tightrope walked image was flawless, singles a little quirky for the mainstream. bring in xenomania and scissor sisters for two new greatest hits releases and who know which direction she would head next.

2 hearts: not knowing what to expect or indeed expecting much to like from kylie's latest, made me feel kinda unecessarily deflated that 2 hearts wasnt more amazing. but what did i want it to be? im not sure? i saw a lazy goldfrappian song replacing elector blips with guitars and it left me and the charts cold.

x: so entering X is unsignposted territory who knew where it would take us... and the verdict is: i really really like it. im stil surprised by that myself.

'i wanted to write a song called cosmic' is almost a microcosm of the entire album. she has taken that step back and evaluated what worked, what didnt, what she is admired for, the electro dance, the quirky pop expermients the heartfelt ballads, so that X seems to echo so much of her past that it feels truly like it wraps up all those strange falsestarts and misdirections of this huge pop career and points full focus on kylie.

'Like a drug' and 'In your arms' (and later 'Im the one') are to my ear, full of that specific fever dance style that Kylie perfected herself, but as potential singles they are kinda light and sub 'i believe in you' tracks that as the kylie show deomstrated would make lovely ballads as well as dance tracks but here seem to be a bit likefever rejects, fan pleasers maybe? (im the one , yes michaelangelo saves it, but i find the chorus to be weak and needy love me love me...)

'Speakerphone' is the bloodshy and avant track which channels so much of Uffies 'pop the glock' that its practically an illegal homage. kylie does it better. its less harsh more listenable and a nice quirky track that my subconcious, apparently, had been hoping for. i love this track anyway.

'Sensistised' is another ace track, chocolateesque its has a nice hook and breathy backing, its sexual kylie.

Checking the album credits its nice to see my quirky miss poole providing some nice co-writes with minogue herself. i feel like karen poole truly gets the dark erotic pop that i think kylie wants to create. i hear karen all over 'chocolate' and 'red blooded woman' and i always imagined she demo'd them for kylie and it was like she held a mirror up to kylie herself, and karen was both left huming in the backing track and aped in the lead vocals. here they give us some sublime tracks. 'heart beat rock' is solid filler, its another Uffie style track; probably written to make speakerphone less of a standout, but also a nice lead into Nu-Di-Ty later) 'Nu-di-ty' is probaly the dividing track i like it but its experimental nature can make it feel a bit too try hard. but i like my kylie avant garde i have now decided. also this dynamic duo provide 'no more rain' kylies new over the rainbow unapologetically hopeful cure-all, a little bit like pink elephants and lemonade... mm?

Most importantly they give us 'WoW' the best song on the album, its just huge. i hear B*witched echos for me early on i so have to find the track it reminds me of to prove it. (i think its rev it up?! or maybe 'never giving up') regardless this should be the big single from this album?

'all i see' and 'stars' are perhaps filler for me, but they are solid tracks and echo so much of kylies past that u suddenly find yourself having spent a pleasent 45minutes in the presence of kylie herself in all her incarnations. i think no matter what type of kylie fan you are there must be so much to love on here that shes really pulled it off. this is a perfect album and for those future generations, to whom kylie will once again mean boomerang and not much else, asking with wondering eyes what kylie was, what did she sound like, and why was she so revered, X will, for me, be the only response.

changeback

Sugababes, Change

As my busy jobhunting/freshersweek draws to a close I've been listening to no new music and very little music at all...except this new album which is currently a bit disappointing.

While many people might concede that this one will be a bit of a grower, what that really means is that the Change the girls have opted for drags them over into easy listening territory rather than focusing on the great production theyve had in the past.

The Xenomania tracks: 'Never Gonna Dance Again' and 'My Love Is Pink' feel very lightweight especially compared to the high-octane stuff their giving to Girl's Aloud. In fact that opninon almost taints the tracks -theyre certainly not ace rejects.

The second half of the album slows way down with some mediocare ballads. Lyrically everything is on form and there are some catchy lines... but ultimatly the flaw of this album is the production, with so many tinny vocals overlayed on scratchy drum beats... if this turned out to be a demo version i wouldnt be surprised but its not... these are the 12 tracks theyre gonna be flogging to death over the next 6months of promotion.

I can't help drawing comparisons to My Decemeber, that album I love, but i agree they're is little that will work as a single... but here we have the single potentials already picked out 'Change' a great song out just before christmas and then its likely the Xenomania track out next spring. This is trouble bcause the singles will be overplayed on radio and get skipped and the bad tracks will get skipped and ill be skipping along to my faveourite track 'Denial' for the foreseeable future.

lets get the job done

Darren Hayes, 'How To Build A Time Machine',
This Delicate Thing We've Made

I took me a while to count how many songs this reminds me of...but for now ill claim it an instant classic.

It opens a la 'Pi' Mister Hayes iterates the quantum design. The deep voice in the chorus, around 1.55, reminds me of the sound of 'Sat In You Lap' also mirroring it thematically; detailing a thirst for knowledge.

2.57 sounds like Bjork, i wanna say 'big time sensuality' cos its a title that springs to mind. The strings hit you in the fourth minute and sound like a million Kate songs - this is no bad thing.

Each time i listen i hear new things, 'calling my dad' got me last time, then i noticed that although running down the halls, should echo 'running down that hill' it's much more frenzied almost an homage to 'hounds of love'. Its in the trees its coming.

This is my current favourite. Buy the album. I'm focusing on Disc one only and each song gives me too much to write a coherent review. So lets just say i love it.

Friday Review: M.I.A - Kala

M.I.A, KalaThis album is out early in Japan, and it just goes to show how this girl is potentially the first universally recognised underground popstar. Well shes possibly about to get overblown to ginormous proportions once you all hear this album. In one week its become one of my favourites of this year.

We open with 'Bamboo Banga' a world sweeping intro telling us that "M.I.A is coming back with power power." and this is far from pop-hyperbole. The next track 'Bird Flu' for me is generic M.I.A in all her genre defying ways.

"A protocol to be a Rocawear model? It didn't really drop that way my legs hit the
hurdle. A protocol to be a rocker on a label? It didn't really drop that way our
beats were too evil "

'Boyz' is now the most infectious song I've ever heard, until that is you pass onto new -Timbaland produced- single 'Jimmy'. It's like a Bollywood Abba, or M.I.A meets Madonna's 'Hung Up', except its better and refers to a genocide tour in Darfur. I can so see Earth Mother Madge trying to ape this politically conscious sound.

'Hussel' is a huge sounding track, and leads into the middle of the album, with some more of that world sound unique to M.I.A, ('Mango Pickle Downriver' is a slice of life narrative but isn't great for repeated listens? and '$20' is the sheer noisiest thing here) Things get amazing again at 'World Town' "Hands up Guns out, represent that world town" but I love this mainly cos it seeps into the mellow 'The Turn'. 'World Town' also borrows the gun reload sample that makes a triumphant return on outstanding track 'Paper Planes' which is along with 'Jimmy' an outstanding track.

To round of the album you have this Timbaland track thats good but happily fades in comparison to this album...

Pre-Saturday Review: Insomniatic

Aly & Aj, Insomniatic


Releasing this sister-act in the UK would encourage me to give their album more plays than it already has... but increasingly the songs have sold them to me.

First Single 'Potential Breakup Song' has a double chorus and aggressive verses so its perfect, like early Britney - or current Britney cos who knows what that sounds like- but these guys have their own hair, i think.

I don't see why they don't release all tracks simultaneously in all regions now, its a bit of a mystery. International broadcasts are available now via youtube et al, so worldwide promotion needn't mean penciling in a three month tour of Europe. Just sending this song to The Box would guarantee it gets aired 6 times an hour surely?

Would radio 1 touch it? maybe not, but who listens to radio anymore?

So one track in and were already rooting for these girls to be big pop players and ranting about why pop doesn't succeed these days... job done there are a few dodgy tracks... 'Division' an ode to graduation -with the aid of long division?- grates on me, but then theres my favourite tracks 'Like Woah' and 'Like It Or Leave It' which channel some Sugababes with a long talky -MC lyte- chorus. The later half of the album drags a little but most of the album sits firmly in the pop-rock mould a la Kelly Clarkson, but its much better vocally than say Avril, and altogether much more enjoyable than much of pops recent output.

Pre-Saturday Review: M.I.A / Kala

M.I.A, Kala

This album is out early in Japan, and it just goes to show how this girl is potentially the first universally recognised underground popstar. I was a bit apprehensive about this album, i only like odd moments from Arular. M.I.A has stated this album is the more feminine accompaniment to her last album and for me that works so much better...

Here i do like the aggressive overlaid tracks they feel urgent and unrepentant that u will sit up and listen if not necessarily dance.

My favourite track is 'The Turn' its a much more mellow track than i was expecting and follows brilliantly from the epic sound of 'World Town'. However, it looks like the Timbaland tracks will be providing the singles promotion and that's no bad thing really, 'Boys' was a great lead-in and if his latest muse: Madonna comes up with anything as leftfield as second single 'Jimmy' then she's got another hit album this winter.

Saturday Review: Amerie / Because I Love It

Amerie, Because I Love It

I wanted to review something new but suddenly Amerie's album has been given a second life. Its the perfect album for cycling around Osaka on a deathly humid afternoon, its lazy and luscious, as predicted by weather woman Amerie on the intro track 'Forecast'. If your weather isn't so hot then take heed that the sun will come out...

Amerie's vocals tend to sway dangerously close to both hushed and shrill often in the same lyric, but its a nice change to have a pop/ r'n'b album that isn't displaying its vocals upfront and enhanced instead keeping things more smooth soulful, intertwining the vocal with the production. I think that none of the songs have the immediacy of 'One Thing' but as an album its pretty cohesive with all the songs gel nicely with one another, without the need to reinvent on every track.

This could have the disadvantage of making the tracks indistinguishable but each song is crafted around a decent hook and this makes it a perfect singalong pop album, even if it isn't gonna push things forward to much. New Single is 'Gotta Work' and its the biggest sound on the recoord but theres still a few tracks hidden amongst this that could make this album a mainstay all summer.

Saturday Review: 'Sexy! No No No...'

Girl's Aloud, 'Sexy! No No No...'

There's only one story dominating today's world of pop...

The after school rush has seemingly put a halt to popjustice's forum, as Girls Aloud fans: decide where this ranks in the Aloud cannon, madly try to decipher the lyrics, and figure out where Sarah Harding sings on this track.

After only 17 plays and counting here's my view already.

This song isn't as immediate as most of the Girl's previous tracks, seemingly because the vocals are so layered, and covered by an immense wall of sound, that its hard to figure out the lyrics. I wonder if this is where the title comes from with the 'No No No' being the most easily singalong able part... along with the sexy! at 1.27 and the intermittant woo woos- although for me they slip in and out between listens.

While this may seem to be its flaw, its also wherein lies its charm. Every time i listen i hear different lines and different aspects of the song. Critically there is no hook. Its catchy and draws you in but its as radical as 'Sexyback', and beats hands down 'Biology' for daring to break the pop mould in ways only wet dreamed about.

The Girls, and perhaps here more importantly their producers: the oft lauded Xenomania, deserve full respect this time for this track. Too often our love of pop hyperbole heralds Xenomania as the stardust that can make any pop dud sparkle, but here they truly prove their inventive worth.

Maybe my copy isnt the full single, because the structure seems like we could go ten more rounds of this. Not long past the 3minute mark the song cuts out leaving us wanting more. Maybe thats its beauty, it does feel like both promo wise and possibly on the album that this is the 3minute foreplay leading into a fresh sound that seems to revel in the harder and darker themes that we've only glimpsed from the Girls before.

(To get your *illegal* copy, to use before you buy it officially on Sept 3rd, check the post below)

Saturday Review: Good Girl Gone Bad

Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad

This weekend looks set to end Rihanna's run as the UK number one with 'Umbrella' the first single to be taken from this album. If i was marketing her id have 'Don't Stop the Music' all ready to hit the shops tomorrow. Cos with a little help from a Michael Jackson sample she could make it another 8 weeks at the top and prove herself the star of the summer- as if shes not already.

On first, listen the sixth track 'Hate that I love you' looks like it heralds the dying fall of the album- although this duet with Ne-yo just screams 'huge in America'. Recently though even this track is growing on me. Rumours abound that she will pull a Miss Furtado style releasing of different tracks in different locales. so hopefully we wont ever have to see this on the singles chart.

There's a run of single worthy tracks to open the album, 'Breakin' Dishes' and 'Don't stop the music' are both better than rumoured next single 'shut up and drive.' But I like this track too its just not quite Rihanna enough for me, although she flaunts that killer hair in her video. I don't like the last section of the video where she rocks out. Its far too contrived a la Beyonce's whole last album to be a crossover with rockier fans.

Once you get over the Ne-yo shaped hump in the middle of the album there is still plenty to admire. I can't help wishing her people had been blessed with the foresight of how successful 'Umbrella' would be and to have given us a whole album in the same vein as Madonna gave us Confessions... one unending beat after the other. As it stands the opening hits u with full force and tapers of towards the end with some quite quirky tracks, about looking in the mirror 'Questions existing' and buying furniture 'Lemme get that'. She pulls off this pop quirkiness quite well though, with two of her best tracks being abut throwing dishes at a man and loving her umbrella, needless to say shes done good.

If she plays it like Nelly she'll still be flogging this album this time next summer and deservedly so. One final note of concern...

Its nice to have a popstar not miming and both singing live and dancing, however judging by her Live earth Tokyo performance she's got to the top of her game a little to fast and she could really do with improving her live performances, her backing singers carry her far to much. Her good material can only go so far.

Saturday Review: Ghosts

Siobhan Donaghy, Ghosts

While everything and more has already been said about this album, I feel like it needs to be reviewed properly before I can stop willing it to succeed chart wise, and can just consider it as one of my albums. So far from being unbiased this review is more of my own discovery of Siobhan's music.
The final track, 'Ghost' is perhaps my favourite song even though it was the first Siobhan track id ever really listened too. I remember seeing the video for 'Overrated' and thought the song was OK, but her second single 'Twist of Fate' I vividly remember panning to my friends, because she had the audacity to rhyme say with itself.

can you

find the words to say

that i hate you

its not an easy thing to say

Yet on hearing 'Ghost' and still hearing good things about her first album so many moons later I got my copy and played it all spring. It lacks the epic scope that i feel Ghosts has but lyrically I think they compliment each other so well. they have a unique style whereby sometimes u can listen intently and recognise some semblance of meaning. but the metonymic slide u get when getting lost in her over layered vocals means u drift off and pick up the significance of different lines each time. so in a sense this review is my penance for stalling her career last time mocking her lyrics.

Healing Heart forgive this Hurt of mine.

'Don't Give It Up' starts with a mild electronic wailing, it sounds like a poltergeist transmission going from feedback to clarity and out of focus again as the relentless throb of the beat kicks in. Clear vocals tell us that something other this way comes, with a sense of impending terror, and slowly these are replaced almost with a second voice of a protecting angel that softens the warning from the first vocal. The chorus sweeps up and around uniting us all, by reminding us we all have scars in our own way. Ultimately i believe the theme of the entire piece is calling for nothing less than the uniting of all humanity. urging us to not give it up or mess it up, to understand and to empathise that there always lies a bond between us as humans even if their seems to be a hemorrhage between our own heart and mind. At 2.42 we get our first breaking through the clouds moment of the album.

Didn't we make it nearly, for everything that i hold dearly

This feeling doesn't last as were back down to Earth for 'So You Say'. A song brimming with bitterness lyrically is sung so beautifully its hard to see it as the dark song it is, until accompanied by the video perhaps. Its a song about conflict each line says one thing and corrects itself: don't say a thing about me, say that you can live without me. The grey area trying to sort wrong from right and the alternating chorus / verse, soft / harsh structure works to reflect this with the final minute rousing us but trailing off mid flight.

'There's a Place' is a beautiful song, but this close into the start of the album it feels too light. Its sung in the highest whisper with none of the added low textures of the previous two songs until 2.45 when we hit the middle eight.

From this height we get dropped... 'Sometimes' opens with a sound of a back peddling atomic bomb, reminds me of Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow- not the Klaxons version. Its most clear here but i think it shows up somewhere on most songs on the album. The lyrics of the song are deceptively minimal barely half a dozen couplets it has the backwards sound meeting some whistling melodies, and its lyrically charged with self doubt from feeling alone in a relationship...

my friends all adore you and say I'm losing the plot

how can i grumble when i got what i got ...

only sometimes.

'12 Bar Acid Blues' is similarly pop sounding as 'Sometimes' but in an entirely new style. I think its the song most likened to Revolution in Me and potentially the lyrics are downright bad, but, here they showcase a nicely comical side to Siobhan's work... Ive eaten fish and I'm feeling sick i can only hope ill be landing quick, this side actually reminds me of Kate Bush more than the 'eccentric' pieces later on the album, for some reason this song reminds me of the didgeridoo and wobble board of Rolf Harris from his work on Bush's 'The Dreaming'.

'Make It Right' brings us back to the main thread of the album its a deliciously self critical song that shows the ego at work. A future self is trying to cast doubt on the stoicism of the past but often ends up criticising out 'Adam' yet again.

why pacify just punish me...don't let me take this liberty

The sounds promised in 'Don't Give it Up' here return. Let it be a warning its here to stay relentlessly till we fade out in 5 songs and almost 20Min's time. Where back in that limbo space lost in the storm n only occasionally witnessing that sublime moment of reaching the eye of the storm.

Back with myslf again

all my fears just like a ball and chain

and i know although i am alone

im at home here with my selfish pain

Siobhan's embraces this other persona that's only previously peeked through. colder and bolder, shes closer to the truth, marking this as a truly epiphanic song, a moment of clarity where the veil of propriety has been lifted and although being honest is grueling and selfish its never felt more true and more human. Because...

Lost is where she feels at ease...its written in a code she cant read and it haunts her

...Were straight into 'Goldfish'. at 1.00 we get the closest to sometimes to hearing our backwards bomb...but its trace is echoed all over. Another chorus takes us into the dizzy heights... lift a barrier, people comfort her, through the wasteland deep within her mind, referencing T.S.Eliots 'Wasteland' a landscape of alienation. Here once again Siobhan's mid-epiphany conjuring up what it feels like to be confronted and forced to contend with the bad within us...

she will fight it out

till her strength gives out

should she float like a goldfish in a bowl

she doesn't see it out her solitary world

Channeling her dark side again 'Medevac' calls for help. a medical evacuation from that sense of desperation. An homage to Bush's 'Running up that hill' in both tune and content. Bush wished for a feminist revision, by highlighting the uphill struggle and desiring god to swap our gendered fates. Here, recalling her producer Sanger's drug addiction, Siobhan metaphorically takes his place with her empathy for his unimaginable situation. The bridge and the wailing chorus make this possibly my other favourite.

if only you could wrap me up after all that I've said i wish somebody cared

if only u would fix me up like a ship in the night I'm losing the fight

~

help me out here cos I'm strung out i cant go back there or ill burn out

medic, medevac me up

I've credit for you to blow out the dark

I love the ambiguity: is the medic our dealer or our saviour. we've got the bitter 'dark' that our private hell needing a hand to hold in order to guide us...but is this our problem prior or during addiction?... to concoct me up good i wish somebody would. a good decent fix, a drug or a cure.

so wake up hope its dark n lonesome

i can hardly hardly get over my eyes

it ain't lonely I'm homely

'Halcyon Days' continues the same theme but with a much more calmer interpretation- a melodic homage to Massive Attacks 'Teardrop'. its a Serene almost domestic scene. this time were needing help to stand up in his home, the aching unknown. savouring the stream of consciousness, our epiphany, our halcyon days, we find nothing can be lost from our minds.

in the stream of purest though nothings lost that cant be caught

As the song and the album ends we hear Siobhan complete Kate Bush's intent, Shes swapped places with Sanger. she's left her numb selfish body and transcended through the human power of empathy...

if only could id make a deal with god

and id get him to swap our places

Siobhan's voice becomes masculine and deep and the song winds down, its tender... to behold. She evidently shares the demonic possession she's witnessed and helps by burying it and sharing its grief.

As we hit the silence though... we hear the chiming of 'Ghost', a seemingly nonsensical excercise in the 'purest thought'. Akin to Woolf's stream of consciousness, it is utilised to understand the human condition neatly tying together threads from the previous songs.

swore under an oath to war yeah

fuel full fat her glass of milk warm sitting here sitting in bed

Our bomb sound is now reversed in the rewinding track. It now meets its impact, and this moment in space and contemplation is forced to move on. I hope to more of the same.

Listen to medevac on Siobhans Myspace from where i took these photos.

Saturday Review: My December

Kelly Clarkson, My December

By now you will have already made up your mind wether this album is one to sync to your ipod or relegate to the bottom of your CD stockpile. I am still enjoying liking it and so every review I read that tends to use a negative comment i psuedoviolently react too. This comes not just from the outright negative ones, but even from the reviews that are most enthusiastic and positive, of which there has been plenty; not that popjustice or perez would care to acknowledge them.

In one instance, a critic caustically snipes at the contrast between this potentially high selling summer album, and the wintry title itself. Ironically people seem to think pop should only be high selling, immediate, epitomise that summertime feelgood essence and go some way to represent the modern zeitgeist. The best of it does. Just becuase Kelly spends her summer in grief and pain over her lost loves ('Sober' / 'Never Again' / 'Judas' and many more) doesnt mean she cant provide us with a pinnacle to define this present moment. ('Irvine' does this for me sounding like the wonderful Feist.) This summer is truly her December, and the title shows that she will probably laugh, love and perhaps even be a little bit more pop one day, but for now shes not quite pop enough.

While this album might not in actual fact be too far removed from Breakaway, it almost certainly marks a stepping stone further away from that era of Clarkson's creative life. So while Clarksons lyrical heartbreak may heal, her creative journey taken on board this year is looking to be a one way ride.

Eschewing the genius of Scandanavian Songwriting from Max Martin and his ilk, Kelly wrote the tracks herself. (Although 'One Minute' is a co-write that on the album is evidently from the pen of Kara Dioguardi.) Things escalated when it was revealed Kelly turned down $10million Clive Davis dollars to replace 5 album tracks with guarenteed pop hits. From there, a cancelled tour, a fired manager, limited airplay and promotion, and this week... a number one album by the looks of things.

This album ensures that even when Clarkson's ready to give us happiness, like Alanis 'Queen of Pain' before her, we wont be listening out for that from her. From Kelly i predict this kind of human frailty played out in song will become her trademark. While there are a few sour grapes that Max Martin songs will have to find a new idol to sing them -how about Leona Lewis?- these songs will still get made, so pop fans needn't despair. Yes we may grieve that they lack Kelly's vocals but this album proves Kelly is sticking around, and its about time people aacept that her voice deserves to sing what it wants. Had she stuck to Davis' plan surely she was only ever one bad chart position from being relegated while a younger ingenue takes her place as first in line in the hit song queue.

This is still pop, and while not summery, in your face, or particularly of the moment, it most definatly is a decent product from an unmanufactured pop idol.