Shakira’s new album is actually quite good

I’ve never been a fan of Shakira as her voice annoyed me most of the time. And so did her music, to be honest. However, I realised that things may be about to change when I heard ‘She Wolf’ single and found out that she teamed up with the legendary The Neptunes to make her new record. I was right.

So considering it’s a heavily mainstream electropop, here’s a review:

Listen to ‘Ellipse’ now!

The time has come! Imogen Heap doesn’t know the limits of generosity and she lets us listen to her new album Ellipse in full a week before the release date! Just click on the picture to get to the player and enjoy divine sounds she has created and her breathtaking vocals.

I’ve listened to the album I guess four times so far and I’ve fallen in love with it instantly! The fact that I have already found the album personal before I actually heard it might have an influence on that, but I can’t help it that I feel like if I’ve been involved in the process of making the album by watching Immi’s vBlogs and following her tweets for two years…

I’m going to wait with reviewing the album until I get my very own deluxe edition of Ellipse, but I can say it’s a masterpiece right now.

Best albums of 2009 – so far (part 1 of 3)

July is coming to an end, let’s have a look at good albums that this year has brought over last 7 months. I’ve found 15 interesting positions, so I will divide the post into three parts so you shouldn’t be overwhelmed.
I’m not rating them yet – all I’m gonna do is to present them in an alphabetic order, give you a hint what it’s all about and post a song, so you can easily decide what you should quickly get familiar with if you haven’t done it so far. Enjoy! /PART 1 of 3/

Top 10 albums of 2008: part 2 (of 2)

The final top 5 albums in the ranking.

Top 10 albums of 2008: part 1 (of 2)

Now that I’m in the holiday zone finally, I can listen to all the music, watch all the music videos, and write on the blog without the feeling I should be studying for the exams. So here I return again (it comes in waves, doesn’t it?) with new posts.

I have never managed to finish my ‘top ten albums of 2008’, so I’ll do it now, in two post (I’d better write both of them right now just to make sure they will appear on my blog soon). I changed positions of some albums in the former ranking, but the very top ones are still.

Top ten albums 2008 – #10

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

Oracular Spectacular made it to 2008’s top ten albums in most of the important music magazines and websites. But is it really that amazing?

Top ten albums 2008 – prologue

I know it’s March already, but I couldn’t make myself finish writing this summary of 2008, even though my final list was ready in last days of December. On the other hand it’s never too late to catch up with good albums, so if you are not familiar with the ones I’m gonna present in this new ’series’ – give them a try!

There was plenty of good music in 2008. Lots of new fresh artists and thrilling discoveries. I would like to present you my ten favourite albums. Before I do that, let’s have a look at great albums that didn’t make it to my top ten:

Buraka Som Sistema – Black Diamond

Buraka Som Sistema
Black Diamond
3+/6

Buraka Som Sistema joined Heineken Open’er Festival 2009 line-up recently, so I decided to listen to their debut album Black Diamond. Raw sounds of kuduro are just crazy – the moment I heard the leading single ‘Sound of Kuduro’ featuring M.I.A., I felt the thrill of dancing wildly in the crowd (flashbacks of my music festivals were involved). I just can’t wait to see them live!

What is a strength of BSS music is

Sugababes – Catfights and Spotlights

Sugababes

Catfights and Spotlights

4-/6

Sugababes’ previous album’s title, ‘Change’, was very adequate to what was happening to the band. ‘Babes were musically heading in new direction – less smart and sassy, more light and easy. But still, the album was quite decent. Just different than what they had done before. Personally, I like it the least from all their albums.

Since Mutya left the band, Sugababes has lost their unique spiciness. However, Amelle, the new Sugababe, is not the one to blame – she has amazing voice and fits into the group. Actually, there is no one to blame. The thing is that Sugababes are not nasty girls anymore – they have become classy young woman, or at least they want to be seen this way.

When I heard ‘Girls’, leading single from the sixth album, I was taken by surprise. Brassy, Ronsonesque style made the ‘Babes sound fresh again.