Craig David has come a long way since his days as the darling of the garage music scene (remember that?). Hot Stuff marks a further shift away from that edgier sound to a more pure-pop style which he seems to be growing increasingly comfortable with.

If you think there’s a bit of an 80’s pop vibe to this tune, that’s because it borrows heavily from David Bowie’s Let’s Dance. Not to mention part of the video borrow’s heavily from MC Hammer. But we won’t talk about that.

Craig’s spent a few years in the musical wilderness, but Hot Stuff shows a sophistication and confidence that is refreshing to see. I thought Craig David’s career was on the decline, but based on this new single, he just might be back on form.

It’s got a great dance vibe, and a memorable, infectious chorus. And to be fair, Craig looks much smoother than he did back in his beanie hat days.

Verdict: Top notch stuff, hopefully it’ll bring Craig back to the top of the charts. But I’m always going to call this one Let’s Dance simply because of the chorus.

Should Timbaland stay strictly backstage? Read on and find out.

The Good

• “If you’re looking for introspective, intelligent rhymes, political statements, or social commentary, you won’t find any of that here. Let’s get it straight: the beats are the real stars of this album. You won’t find any memorable lyrics or in-depth storytelling here but if all you want to do is shake your ass, then Timbaland is one of the best in the biz.” [Ed Lau, EdEdition]
• “Actually, the only thing shocking here is the bending & mending of musical genres, & the outcome seems it will be very valuable in the future, giving him constant spins on all types of radio stations.” [Ges Miyashiro]
• “The self-confident “Shock Value” is hardly the big shocker it pretends to be but the record does hold plenty of exciting surprises that make this a very accomplished and entertaining effort.” [Arjan Writes]

The Bad

• “While solo Timbaland’s always been a mixed bag, Timbaland Presents Shock Value is more mediocre than it has any right to be, filled with overreaching pretense and phoned-in vacancy– either trying too hard, or not hard enough.” [Nate Patrin, Pitchfork Media]
• “this lumpen, bloated, boring album is as much of a let-down as any of Timbaland’s other “solo” works… how turgid, tuneless and unmemorable an album they’ve all had a hand in making” [Angus Baatey, Yahoo!]
• ““We on another level,” is the repeated refrain of ‘Hello’, one of the two bonus tracks; sadly, judging by the quality of Shock Value, it seems Timbaland’s content to let loose of a few rungs and wallow amongst the mediocre for a while. Another level, yes; the next level, fuck no.” [Mike Diver, Drowned In Sound]
• “As good as it is, the album’s full of annoyances: every track is introduced with omnipresent hip-hop phrases like “yeah baby” and “go ahead child”, and too many verses have that clicky noise in them, that sounds like you’re pulling your tongue against the top of your mouth.” [Kirsty Krampf, Fake DIY]
• “These craven bids for record company business are compounded by guff, over-filling 19 tracks. Mosley’s head-to-head with Elton John’s piano is more of a skit than a song. His run-in with MIA is a letdown.” [The Observer]
• “He’s really grasping at straws here, trying to be provocative with The Hives, One Republic, singing “don’t it sound good to you?” off key while the singer Elton John plays the piano on “2 Man Show,” and he even tries to make a Fallout Boy track that sounds like anything other than their usual whiny fare (and fails).” [Angelica LeMinh, Shotgun Reviews]

…And The Rest

• “Shock Value isn’t a perfect album, but it does possess various charms. Timbaland is still one of the most prolific producers ever, and more than a decade after his debut, he continues not only to dominate but also to innovate popular music.” [Norman Mayers, Prefix]
• “Shock Value would be less of a hot-and-cold affair with a couple more songs in the vein of Give It to Me.” [Andy Kellman, All Music Guide]

If you’ve written a review of Shock Value, let us know in the comments and we’ll add your link.

Positive Reviews

• Johnny Firecloud – “What makes their sixth studio album so good isn?t the fact that Grohl has found a way to take the signature Foo sound to a higher level. He has, but with the help of producer Gil Norton, (knob-turner for 1997?s double-platinum The Colour and the Shape) Grohl has also discovered how to break outside his own mold.”
• John Robinson – “On the last Foos album, “In Your Honour” rock and acoustic music were exiled to different discs. Here, a satisfactory compromise is brokered between the two: the excellent “Summer’s End” is easy on the ear, easier still on the brain, and sets him up in the radio-friendly ?Wonderwall? district one imagines is his spiritual home.”
• Simon T Diplock – “…it brilliantly captures a band on form, back on their toes, and remembering how to rock too. Wonderful.”
• John Murphy – “…this is another fine album from Grohl and company. Their ‘greatest hits’ collection, whenever that’s released, may well prove to be their finest release, but this is just fine to be going on with.”

Neutral Reviews

• Kyle Anderson at Spin – “It’s hard to criticize Grohl for his lack of innovation, because he’s never wanted to start a revolution. But at this point, Foo Fighters’ consistency has become predictability, and it threatens to trap them in the modern-rock ghetto, dangerously close to those guys in Hinder.”
• Ryan Deramos – “Fortunately, the album goes beyond standard Foo fare starting with the fifth track, the aptly titled “Come Alive.” I highly enjoyed the second disc – the acoustic disc – of In Your Honor, and tracks five through twelve successfully not only successfully marry acoustic Foos with loud Foos (often in the same song), but those tracks make babies that further the Foo evolution. All right, those were messy metaphors, but I hope you understand what I mean.”
• David Fricke – “Dave Grohl used to spread this variety across whole albums — the one-man power pop of 1995’s Foo Fighters; the real-band slam of ’97’s The Colour and the Shape; the unplugged CD in the 2005 set In Your Honor. He has finally figured out how to make one record out of all that leeway.”
• Dan Kelly – “In conclusion, this album is a definite improvement on previous effort In Your Honour. More clearly defined and lyrically intelligent, this album easily gets two thumbs up.”

Negative Reviews

• Adam McKibbin – “[Foo Fighters] continue their pace, but without the peppering of truly great songs that propelled their first two albums to the top of the then-crowded alt-rock field. They can still bring the thunder, but the chunky riffs and anthemic alt-rock choruses aren’t always aging kindly.”
• Damien Jones – “Unfortunately when Grohl et al do delve into pastures new it doesn’t quite work. When the charismatic frontman kicks up a country storm on “Summer’s End”, it falls painfully short of the mark.”
• Zane Ewton – “The Foos long ago abandoned humor for a more grown up, morose view of life…On record, they just are not that much fun anymore.”
• Adam Moerder – “Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners highlights the Foo Fighters’ unsolicited willingness to be everything to everybody all the time. Consequently, they’re sounding less and less relatable, leaving us pining not just for the days of a little grunge trio from Seattle, but for the relentlessly catchy and charismatic Dave Grohl of the Foos’ still-fantastic self-titled debut and the better half of The Colour and the Shape.”

Having read through 12 great reviews of the new album, most reviewers are hung up on the slight change in the band’s sound. Some see it as an evolution for the band and embrace it. Others are slightly hostile to it and criticise the inconsistent styles on the album.

One thing they are agreed on however, is that Foo Fighters are on of the most consistently good acts in rock music today. I thought Zane Ewton’s comments about them losing their humor were interesting – it’s been a while since I’ve seen a fun Foo Fighters video.

Anyway, I’ll be having a listen to the album this week, and I’ll let y’all know what I think of it soon…

The Good

Almost universal rave reviews with this album. Like me, most people found the mix of old soul with modern day sensibilities (not to mention swearing!) a refreshing change from the manufactured pop de jour.

• The real strength of Back to Black is its ability to maintain a strong theme, which with its nostalgic feel, nearly qualifies it as a concept album. Even with each song seamlessly tied to one another, however, Back to Black is also like nothing we’ve heard before. [Helium]
• I can’t stop listening to it… Amy has a textured vocal delivery, an almost raspy voice, combined with her contemporary song lyrics. Hailing from the U.K., she is truly inspiring and her music is full of soul and quite funky. [Dana Tuszke]
• Winehouse pushes the musical envelope even further than the innovative Motown artists who pioneered the genre, with provocative lyrics that would send Motown founder Barry Gordy over the edge. [Daily Nexus]
• She can also be witty, as on “Me & Mrs Jones” when she berates a boyfriend with “You made me miss the Slick Rick gig”. Back to Black is a refreshingly mature soul album, the best of its kind for years. [New Music Review]
• I believe Amy has just started a new change in music and soon everyone might want to have the same quality of music like her. The production was tight and classy and I believe is the winner album of the year!! [Stupid Thought]
• I enjoyed some of the poppier numbers more so than the tortured woe-is-the-Jew-broad slower numbers. The singing is pretty damn good throughout though. [Byron Crawford]

The Bad

When you thought the whole world was raving about Back To Black, it also got some people foaming at the mouth…bring on the haters…

• A sizable chunk of Back to Black…sounds like…white people copping black soul in order to sell booze and ribs. Songs like “You Know I’m No Good,” “Me & Mr. Jones,” and “Wake Up Alone” are nothing more than cheap retro-R&B novelties. [Cleveland Scene]
• The album is almost entirely set in the sixties, reminiscent of The Supremes and Diana Ross, which makes for a good change of pace but also a lack of originality. [Love The Music]
• This album has good production and lyrics(most of the time), but it seems like something is missing. This album is really nothing to rave about, I like some songs, but I doubt I?ll be listening to this whole album all the way through ever again. [Sum Of Everest]

The Summary

Some critics have accused Amy of being a copyist of the old Motown sound. These curmudgeons are missing the point completely – Winehouse reinvents the genre and lyrically deals with subjects that would have been major taboos in that era. I mean, can you imagine Aretha Franklin coming out with “fuckery” in a song?

Many of Amy’s songs tie back to her life, and that autobiographical element is refreshing. What would you rather have – teenagers singing twee lyrics written for them by faceless producers, or real songs written by someone dealing with what seems to be a crazy lifestyle?

As I said back at the beginning of this post, Back To Black is probably one of the best albums I’ve heard this year.

Natalie’s always excelled at a certain brand of polished acoustic pop music, but she’s never managed to achieve quite the same heights of success as another Antipodean ex-soap actress I could mention.

Glorious follows in that tradition, with a major marketing push to remind us that 2007 marks Natalie’s 10th year as a minor league pop star. I read this quotable quote from Imbruglia over on Pop Music Kingdom:

?I have been busy for the last 12 months writing and recording my 4th album, and started reflecting on the past 10 years and all the fond memories I have of that time.? Natalie says. ?So, I wanted to put out this singles collection to celebrate it.?

Permit me to pour scorn over those remarks. You wanted to celebrate your 10 years by releasing a greatest hits package so that your fan club could spend more money on you? Gee, that’s thoughtful. Smacks of duplicity, Miss Imbruglia.

Especially considering that, since Torn, most of Natalie’s tracks have blended together into some sort of vacuous, bland haze. Yes, she looks great as ever (despite a dodgy bob that makes her head look slightly disconnected from her body), and Glorious is a fairly upbeat, accessible tune. But it’s not memorable at all. For me, Natalie’s relevance in pop music started and ended with Torn and to still be churning out this kind of material 10 years later smacks of laziness and lack of artistic growth. I had such high hopes.

Vince is my kind of singer – he’s got a raw, throaty vocal style, but as you’ll hear, there’s a real warmth in his tone as well.

He also gigs extensively, and at the moment he’s in the middle of doing an ‘In Your Lounge’ tour, where he turns up at intimate venues like people’s houses and performs for them.

He’s also shared stages with some names you might recognize: Paolo Nutini, James Morrison, and Nizlopi. He tells me that at one gig Jamie Cullum came up to him and complimented him on his songs and was surprised to hear Vince is currently unsigned.

Vince has just released his third album, Songs Without Shoes which only available for sale at his live performances. He says his musical style is influenced by country artists like Johnny Cash, Ryan Adams and more recently Kings Of Leon.

The next year or so look pretty good for Vince, as his management are currently shopping around for record and publishing deals and have already had some interest from Island Records and EMI.

If you want to sample some of Vince’s music, check out his MySpace page. I’d recommend Beauty Queen (one of the first songs I heard by Vince) and Whispers. I’ll leave you to contemplate this picture of Vince’s feet:

Rather than doing a straight review, I’ve trawled the web to bring you some of the best reviews of the new album.

.

Ok, let’s get started. I’ve decided to organise this round-up into three types of review: those who loved Minutes To Midnight, those who hated it, and those who were indifferent. I’ve avoided the mainstream magazines – this one’s strictly for the citizen journalists!

Positive Reviews

• HardRockHouse describes the album as a huge improvement over Meteora and applauds the “intelligence and deep social conscience in the Linkin Park ethos”
• Common Sense Media reviews the album from an adult and child standpoint, and while they find the subject matter a bit depressing, the general outcome is that the themes will resonate with teenagers…
• IcyStorm over on Arrogantics rates the album as a 4/5 and notes that the change in musical direction was probably necessary for the band. (However, other members of the Arrogantics team are less than impressed – check the comments)
• Found a really positive review of Minutes To Midnight over on Last.fm:
  

  this is one of those where I can put the album on and let the whole thing go without skipping a track. It works as an album in a way that lots of other music I’ve heard lately doesn’t.

• AllAccess Magazine carries a glowing review of the new album, and like other reviewers here, they note the onclusion ofexcellent liner notes to explain their songwriting process to interested fans.
• Another happy LP customer at Splatr, where they’re very fond of the new album. I notice that a lot of people who considered Meteora a flop find Minutes To Midnight much better.

Negative Reviews

• Michael Kwan was less than impressed with Minutes To Midnight, mostly because of the shortness of the record.
  

  There’s a couple of good songs, but Linkin Park is far from being as good as they were on their freshman album, Hybrid Theory… Nearly gone are the beautiful blend of Mike Shinoda’s rapping and Chester Bennington’s raspy screaming. In their place are songs that almost qualify as ballads.

• Pandora over on Shakefire was bored by the album, saying there were only about 2.5 songs worth listening to.
• And John Wright takes the position of the fan left behind by the new Linkin Park sound. While he notes that it’s not a bad record, he says “a stripped-down Linkin Park, without their trademark sound, doesn’t make them groundbreaking or mature”.
• Despite the 3.5 out of 5 rating, Kariyanine’s review is actually mostly negative. She’s disappointed with a number of the songs and feels that the much hyped ‘new sound’ is just a toning down of their original musical style than any real progression.
• Ouch! This one laments the almost-disappearance of Mike Shinoda, as well as the musical style “Midnight is a slow trotting, ballad-riddled mess with no consistency between tracks, no flow”

Indifferent reviews

• The folks at GeekReviews start off by saying they like it as much as other Linkin Park albums, but end on a less than enthusiastic note. Can’t believe they were cold on Hands Held High though – it’s an excellent track.
• Billboard say that the album sounds derivative of other acts (can’t see it myself), but praises the band for Bleed It Out and Hands Held High.
• A well written analysis of Minutes To Midnight over on avrev.com looks at the motivations of the band – hit records versus artistic growth and comes down (marginally) on the side of artistic growth. To quote: “I don’t hate this record. I found myself enjoying it periodically. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to give it away.”

So there you go. If you’ve got any opinions left about Linkin Park’s latest album after all that, let us know in the comments!

I’ve written quite a bit about Extreme in the past – they were one of my favourite bands of the 90’s, and Nuno Bettencourt was my idol as a guitarist. I knew he was still performing, so I discovered his new band Dramagods and managed to get my hands on a copy of their album, Love.

It seems that the focal point of Dramagods is Nuno. But although he’s recognised as a guitar god, Nuno also fronts the group and he’s a surprisingly good vocalist. He carries off a range of material on this album, from hard-edged rock to more sensitive material.

Another surprising aspect of this album is that it isn’t filled with extended guitar solos. Instead, the guitar solos only appear where they’re suitable – they’re not the focus of the songs as I sometimes felt they were in Nuno’s earlier work.

Love: The Best Bits

Best bits? The whole album pretty much kicks ass! The strongest material on Love is the uptempo stuff. The opener, Megaton, is an explosive start to the album – and makes brave use of synth alongside a dirty, grinding riff, alternating between this and a soaraway chorus.

Lockdown is a little more laid back, but features a blistering solo from Nuno. One of those frantic, palm-muted, ascending solos that are his signature. I’m also loving Fearless Leader – it has this chiming, pretty intro that descends into grinding guitar and merges into a dreamy-sounding chorus. Heavy is in the same vein, hard grinding riffs with an irresistible groove.

By far my favourite track is Pilots. Not only is it the most infectious track on the album, it’s the one that sticks in my head most regularly. Great singing from Nuno, and tongue in cheek lyrics – “Red-eye girls you are the best/time to dim the lights my stewardess/think we’re gonna feel some turbulence/relax”. My only gripe is the 57 second long organ intro. Cut that shit out, I just wanna hear the song!

The Balladry

Oh, Dramagods have been around long enough to know that ballads pay the bills. I’m please to report though that every ballad on Love kicks the arse of More Than Words. Ten times over in fact.

What have we got? Interface does heartbreak well, with tender verses and big, heartfelt choruses. This kind of stuff gives me a lump in my throat. Seriously. Something About You is one of those tunes that plays over a big emotional scene in…Grey’s Anatomy or something like that.

Oddball acoustic track is Broken, which is slightly out of place on the album, but a fantastic showcase of the band’s diversity and a very raw, throaty sound from Mr Bettencourt.

In Summary

Although the final 3 or 4 tracks are relatively forgettable, the rest of the album is a joy to listen to. Another blogger sums it up perfectly:

Great arrangements, great songs with hooks and twists. Emotional and upbeat, beautiful and dreamy, it’s highly recommended! It deserves your attention, no doubt!

Love is one of my absolute favourite albums of the moment. Go and get yourself a copy (on iTunes) or listen to the guys on MySpace. Other bloggers with praise for Love are Louropa and enroutre66.

1989 at was the tail end of some major rock music releases, Def Leppard had released Hysteria, Bon Jovi’s New Jersey, Alice Cooper’s Trash and many other stadium-fillers had filled the rock charts. There was certainly a market for Extreme’s music, but in retrospect it may have got lost among the noise of the larger acts.

Maybe for that reason, Extreme’s debut isn’t as adventurous an affair as their later albums would suggest – it’s more of a straight-ahead hard rock effort with a few hints at the band’s potential. Nuno Bettencourt’s amazing guitar work is the central feature of the album, but the band exudes unstoppable energy throughout.

Still, Extreme is an outstanding rock album, opening in an explosion of harmonica, thundering drums and intense riffing with Little Girls, one of the singles from the album. Little Girls is an excellent showcase for what this band can do, but I’ve always been uncomfortable with the lyric in the second verse:

Some may say I’m too old for her
Old enough to be her father
Incestual blood is thicker than water

There’s just something creepy about that, and I’ve never been able to rationalise the line. What do you think?

Wind Me Up is a passable second track, but it’s Kid Ego that has it all: Memorable guitar work, catchy chorus and the fantastic drumming that are the signature of Extreme’s best work.

Watching, Waiting is a definite low point – a too-slow attempt at a power ballad that doesn’t quite hit the spot, but again shows a taste of some of the vocal harmonies that would develop in later work, most notably III Sides To Every Story.

Another outstanding track is Mutha, Don’t Wanna Go To School, which (when I had the tape) rounded off side one of the record. It begins with some light fretwork from Nuno over the sound of a baby burbling and works into a screaming crescendo of feedback and distortion before Gary Cherone comes in for the first verse. Again, Nuno proves himself a worthy adversary for Eddie Van Halen on the solo for Mutha.

What I fondly recall as ‘Side B’ of Extreme is mostly filler material, which ends with an almighty bang in the shape of Play With Me, another frenetic guitar-driven tune that showcases the band at their tightest.

Summary

While widely acknowledged to be their weakest material, Extreme demonstrate the songwriting and playing styles that would evolve over the following two albums. Gary Cherone’s voice is powerful and the perfect counterpoint to Bettencourt’s guitar playing, and the rhythm section of Paul Geary (Drums) and Pat Badger (Bass) provides a fantastic launchpad for Nuno’s fiery soloing.

Overall, Extreme is a strong rock effort, let down by some less-than-inspired album tracks. At a time when the rock charts were flooded with strong material, Extreme could easily have been buried. Thankfully they got a second chance with Pornograffitti….

Fresh from insulting X Factor’s Leona Lewis, Jamelia’s back on the scene with a new single! Funny how those tabloid-grabbing stories break whenever there’s a release on the horizon, isn’t it?

Until this minute, I haven’t paid an awful lot of attention to Jamelia’s career, but Beware of the Dog might change all that. It’s a sassy reworking of Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus that’s drawing comparisons with Rihanna’s S.O.S.

Everything about the tune is aggressive, from the dirty synth sounds to Jamelia’s growling. Yes, the subject is straight from the “All Men Are Bastards Songbook”, but can someone explain whose benefit she’s writhing around in the video for?