Heroes And Thieves

Vanessa Carlton announced her arrival on the music scene 5 years ago with her breakthrough hit A Thousand Miles. Alongside the likes of Michelle Branch and Avril Lavigne , Vanessa received high praise for revitalizing pop music by bringing back the writer-instrumentalist-vocalist formula.An amazing pianist and lyricist though she is , Vanessa has never got commercial success since her debut album Be Not Nobody, which did well thanks the Grammy nominated A Thousand Miles.Her sophomore album Harmonium went almost unnoticed because of a perceived lack of commitment from her record label.She severed ties with A&M Records and soon hooked up with rap mogul Irv Gotti's infamous Murder Inc. label. Her first offering under Gotti's label,Heroes and Thieves , is her best yet.

I've picked out a select few from the 11-track album.

• Nolita Fairytale-Her ode to New York city.A very feel-good song with a great vibe.Its also the lead single of the album.Great video too.
• Hands On Me-2nd single.Very radio-friendly.I love the orchestra and the arrangements.
• Come Undone-Shows off her songwriting prowess here.She goes ,"I've seen myself in a thousand faces strung out on life's path.I'd add up what you mean to me but i cannot do the math."
• Heroes And Thieves-Very strong.Her vocal weakness is slightly exposed though.
• Home-Its only Vanessa and her piano on this song.Very raw and organic.The piano solo towards the end of the song is brilliant.
• More Than This-This song is what separates her completely from her peers.Great improvisation and production.Nice arrangements too.

On the whole, a wonderfully crafted album with a lot of commercial appeal.Hopefully Murder Inc. does a good job with the promotion.My Rating: 8.5/10

Download These:

• A Thousand Miles
• Rinse
• White Houses
• Unsung
  
• San Francisco
• Twilight

Carnival Ride

I'd definitely say Carrie Underwood is the best thing to come out of American Idol since its debut winner Kelly Clarkson.Barely 5 months after winning Idol , she released her debut album Some Hearts.Critics gave the album mixed reviews but the fuel from Idol drove it to astonishing heights in the financial sector(It sold more than 6 million copies in the US alone). She also won numerous awards and shattered countless records in the process.Would she fall into the dreaded sophomore slump??

Carnival Ride, propelled by the lead single So Small , actually does not live up to the hype and expectation built by her vast legion of fans. Apart from a few tracks , all are very predictable and forgettable.Rather than showing off her own style and range,Carrie clearly tries taking the safe route.However,the album does have its positives in the opening track Flat On The Floor and the fun-filled Last Name.Both are really high-tempo and truly showcase the range in her vocals.There are far too many ballads on the album, which can get pretty tiring after a few spins.The album will still end up selling millions of copies,thanks to her amazing fan base. As a Carrie Underwood fan myself , i can only pray that album #3 can do justice to what she truly could be! My Rating: 6/10

Download This: Flat On The Floor , Last Name , I Told You So , I Know You Won't
Try These: Martina Mcbride ,Kelly Clarkson , Reba McEntire

Stand Still,Look Pretty

When I first heard that Michelle Branch was hooking up with her band's backup vocalist , I really didn't know what to expect. Michelle has had an amazingly successful career as a solo artist,going platinum with both of her albums The Spirit Room and Hotel Paper.Legendary guitarist Carlos Santana took notice and featured her as a guest vocalist in his album Shaman.Michelle won a Grammy for that collaboration(The Game Of Love). All this time,her touring partner/friend Jessica Harp stuck to her famous friend and never once showed signs of unrest or jealousy. Then the announcement was made.....and the rest as they say.. is history.
Blending Michelle’s pop-rock sensibility with Jessica’s country-folk style, Stand Still,Look Pretty had a bit of everything.Michelle's genre crossover from pop to country went off without a hitch. The duo wrote every track on the album excluding Patty Griffins' One More Girl and Leave The Pieces.Their soaring harmonies often lift their contemporary country sound over the conventional country-pop crossover formula.
My favorites from the album:

1. Leave The Pieces - The best song on the album in my opinion.Very catchy chorus and a nice guitar hook.
2. Tennessee - Jessica sings lead on this song. Overflows with emotion.
3. My Oh My - This is the crowd-pleaser on the album.Also the most "country" song on here.Cheesy lyrics.
4. One More Girl - I've never heard the original but this version is just beyond comparison!
5. Rain - Michelle's time to sing lead.The least "country" song and also the most reminiscent of Michelle's Hotel Paper days.
6. Crazy People - A fun song with typical country styled nonsensical lyrics.
   

Michelle and Jessica suit each others voices very well in throughout the CD and I really think they are the best female country duo to have come out in a long time. Sadly, for Wreckers fans , the duo have announced the break-up of the band and are currently concentrating on solo projects. Crazy people!

Download These:Leave The Pieces, Different Truck,Same Loser(Live) , Tennessee
Try These: Sheryl Crow,Little Big Town,Dixie Chicks,Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift,all but 16 years of age, released her debut self-titled album at the fall of 2006.A year later, she finally gets the spotlight with a Grammy nomination,multiple top 10 singles and #1 multi-platinum album. Although her voice isn't as strong as her fame may suggest,she oozes with attitude and has a fine songwriting gift.
When i first listened to her album I was immediately reminded of pop-country star Michelle Branch. Michelle too had started her career at a tender age with similar songwriting style(all about teenage angst and love) and high energy vocals. In fact Michelle happens to be one of Taylor's influences as a budding star.
You can tell that Taylor Swift cares about the integrity of the music, and not just making money with the Nashville machine(For those who didn't know , country musicians are usually the highest paid musicians in the industry). The album in my opinion was overproduced. But i suppose that's how the industry works nowadays with producers taking no chances with young artists' debuts.
Album highlights include:

• Tim McGraw
• Teardrops On My Guitar
• The Outside
• Our Song

My Rating: 8.5/10

If you liked this,try these!!

• Michelle Branch
• Miranda Lambert
• Kellie Pickler
  

Beauty And The Beast

No,this ain't something about the Disney movie of the same name."Beauty And The Beast" in metal terminology means a band fronted by a female vocalist. While Beauty refers to the crooner,The Beast of course would refer to the heavy guitars and drums.
Lacuna Coil,an Italian six-piece Gothic-metal band,got their much-needed breakthrough with the release of Comalies in 2003.The band's credentials as a metal powerhouse finally began to fall into place.The album had several big hits including Heaven's A Lie,To Myself I Turned and Daylight Dancer. Under pressure to release a successful follow-up,the band's frontwoman ,Christina Scabbia, leads the band into a completely new dimension of Goth rock.
The band's latest offering tries with some success, to be everything to everyone.And that is precisely the reason Karmacode has won over the critics and fans alike. Karmacode,i felt, is somewhat of an experimental album, since quite a few new ingredients are sprinkled on here and there.But the band's basic sound is still here, with crunchy guitar riffs and frontwoman Scabbia's impressive, lucid voice.
A few of the 13 tracks on the album are listed below:

• Fragile- The band kick the album off abruptly with a menacing bass line and distorted guitar riff.Very catchy chorus.
• Our Truth-Everything about this song is amazing.Easily the best song on the album.
• Within Me-A dark ballad which reminded me of Coil's older albums.No experiments here.
• Fragments Of Faith-Great arrangements.Harmonies done really well.
• Enjoy The Silence-This happens to be a cover of some old band.
  
• In Visible Light- Violin dominated.Great new sound.
  

Taken as a whole, this album's overall tempo is much slower in comparison to the bands previous works.Lyrically the album comes good, matching or outshining their previous work.My rating: 8/10


Download These:Our Truth,Within Me,Enjoy The Silence
Similar Artists:Evanescence,Nightwish,Cradle Of Filth

Scottish Delight!

Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall burst onto the public scene three years ago with her gritty debut album Eye To The Telescope, a brilliant mesh of heartfelt folk-pop, electric blues, and alternative-rock. I remember listening to the album for the first time nearly two years ago(thanks to my Worldspace),and instantly falling in love with KT's voice. Suddenly I See and Black Horse And The Cherry Tree were her first hits en route to sold-out shows,Grammy-nominations and the fattest paycheck of her long hard career. I've had to wait two full years for her next offering,Drastic Fantastic,but i can truly say it was well woth the wait.
While "Eye To The Telescope" was oozing with cool, "Drastic Fantastic" is oozing with confidence.It definately shows the artist's development as a writer,musician and vocalist.The most significant difference i found in the music as compared to her debut was the instrumentation and production.While the first CD was more organic and acoustic, the second is super-slick with more layers and sounds.
The 11-track album is as follows:

1. Little Favours-A song about teen lust(I think).Very catchy.Very different from anything on Eye To the Telescope.
2. If Only-A cheesy song about a boyfriend who thought she was a good-for-nothing.Very well produced.
3. White Bird-If anything came close to sounding similar to the first album , I thought this would be it.Very acoustic.
4. Funnyman-A bit of electronica in here.Loved it for the chorus.
5. Hold On-I fell in love with this song on first listen for innumerable reasons.It brought back memories of Black Horse And The Cherry Tree.My personal favorite on the album.
6. Hopeless-Another favorite.Really well produced and recorded.
7. I Don't Want U Now-Nothing spectacular here.Not bad in any way either.
8. Saving My Face- This song literally means saving her face.Anti-plastic surgery takes centre-stage here.
9. Beauty Of Uncertainty-One of the few ballads on the album.Kinda boring.
10. Someday Soon-Jazz-infected.Nice lyrics.
11. Paper Aeroplane-Very organic and raw.Nice finish to a great album.

If you've heard her debut,you'll wholeheartedly agree with her for naming the sophomore effort Drastic Fantastic, because those are the two words which are closest to describing the growth she has gone through. On the whole, a solid effort from the Scottish lass. 8/10.

Taking The Long Way

What would be the three words most closely associated with the Dixie Chicks???
Controversy,Platinum and Grammy i suppose!! Every move the Chicks have made the headlines for some reason or another.It's been said too many times about too many people, but for once it's true: the Dixie Chicks are one of a kind. Since exploding onto the national country music scene several years ago, the Texas trio has won millions of fans and an avalanche of awards and critical acclaim. Blending bluegrass skills, pop accessibility, rock beats and stone country music with a brash attitude, the Chicks have created a fresh new sound that's instantly recognizable and always engaging.They have more Grammy awards and Platinum selling albums than any other female band in history.
Lead vocalist Natalie Maines' tells us that the backlash they received from the Bush episode inspired them to write and record Taking The Long Way.(Atlast Bush has been put to good use!!!).In this new offering,the Chicks put rock before country , something they have never done before.

I chose to review this album because ..um..well..its the most amazing thing I've heard in ages!!!The controversy and the Chicks' reaction to it are the themes of the opening tracks of the album. The 14-track album opens with the title-track Taking The Long Way which is loosely based on the "incident". Easy Silence ,the next track, is about Maines' partner who affords to give her peace and comfort in the midst of turmoil. The next song on the album is the most powerful and autobiographical material the Chicks have probably ever written. Not Ready Yo Make Nice won Grammys for Song Of The Year,Record Of The Year.Enough said.The next two songs Everybody Knows and Bitter End are the most country oriented songs on the album,with Martie Maguire and Emily Robison prominent on the fiddle and banjo respectively. Lullaby and Lubbock Or Leave It are old-school Chicks styled songs. I really liked Lubbock for its meaningless lyrics with a very catchy guitar riff.Other notable tracks include Silent House,Favorite Year,Voice In My Head and the closing track I Hope. Silent House incidentally features another Bush hater Sheryl Crow. There is no filler on this 14-track album.In a nutshell, i can only describe this album as GENIUS.Though the album took a commercial toll thanks to the "incident", it is a clear winner with the critics. I rate it 10/10.One for the ages!!