Hello readers. For a while now I have had a desire to upload more reviews to my blog, in particular reviews in the field of music. Fortunately I believe there could not be a better time to act upon my wish as I feel 2013 has thus far been a stellar year music wise. The surge of contemporaneous greats include the comeback of Justin Timberlake with his album 'The 20/20 Experience' and another of my favourite artists, Calvin Harris with his dance centric record '18 Months' which spans hit after hit of great collaborations with superstars such as Example, Rihanna and Ellie Goulding. It is likely that this years music will get even more extreme with records soon to be released from Dizzee Rascal, Timberland and Craig David. I will be uploading a top ten of my favourite songs at the end of the year but now I will shed some limelight on three albums of which are my favourite to be released as of June 2013. Enjoy!
1. '#Willpower' by Will.i.am
I have always been a big Black Eyed Peas fan even from the early days of the groups career and songs such as 'Where Is the Love' and 'Boom Boom Pow' are some of my favourite songs of all time. I was sceptical however if will.i.am could perform well as a solo artist. Fortunatley this sceptism proved to be unnecessary as upon first listening to the album '#willpower' I instantley decided that I liked it. All the well known singles on the album such as 'this is love' and 'scream & shout' are enjoyable as ever to listen to. There are also many other techno influenced tracks such as 'hello' and 'gettin' dumb' which are upbeat and catchy.
Many reviewers have criticised the album for featuring too many other artists and in turn not reflectimg Will's own musical ability. Here I totally disagree with the norm, to me the collaborating artists all seem to add some advanced element to the songs they are in, for example in the track 'fall down' the collaborated artist Miley Cyrus' vioce creates a unique corous to the song and her more softer tone blends well with Wills heavyweight raping corous. Undoubtably Will's now iconic techno modified vocals are still the forefront of the album which proves to be a positive point.
One thing that can not be criticised is will.i.am's songwriting abilities, this is especially evident when will steps out of the dance zone and creates deep and meaningful tracks such as 'far away from home' and 'ghetto ghetto' which appear to be expressing the iner sentiment of Will and reflect his earlier life and growing up in a somewhat emotional way. My only small criticism to the album would be that there are not enough of these types of tracks and too many song sound similar in there pace and beat. I wish however I purchased the special edition to this album however as it contains slower tracks such as 'smile mona lisa' which address this issue somewhat and provides more variety to the album.
Overall this is a really great album and fun to listen to. I recommend you purchase the special edition version to get the three extra tracks which really add to the awesomeness!
VERDICT
STANDARD EDITION - 8/10 SLICKER THAN YOUR AVERAGE
SPECIAL EDITION - 9/10 OFF THE HOOK
2. 'Home' by Rudimental
Rudimental present a very unusual style of music, so much so that I can not define their genre. There are big dance tracks on the album such as 'Feel the Love' in which I have heard been played in clubs but these tracks are placed alongside the likes of 'Hell Could Freeze' which is a hybrid of soul and rap! For me the uniques of the album is appealing and even though different genres are explored all tracks somehow link nicely.
In reality however 'Home' is an album of two sides. There are marvellously created songs with clever lyrics and complex audio, this can be seen in 'Baby' with the combination of male and female voices played seperate from each other in order to create an intense dialogue vibe to the song. This feature is also seen along well placed lightly computerised beats which makes it both effective for dance and chilled out easy listening. Differently however songs such as 'Hell Could Freeze' and 'Spoons' are unsual tracks with their echo and almost dub like sound but for me they become very boring very quickly. I do not really enjoy the sound of a monotone woman's voice moaning in a slow tempo and thus despite being experimental these songs hurt the album overall for me.
In conclusion 'Home' is definatley one of my favourite albums of the year so far. The tracks with a slight upbeat dance vibe such as 'Feel the Love', 'Not Giving In' and 'Baby' are extreme as I would be equally happy to listen to them in a club as I would be at home and no doubt I will be keeping them on my playlist for a long time to come. However as I have mentioned experiments can some times go bad and this is seen in some strange and slow female vocals which almost sound haunting. Having said this I am sure some people may enjoy these songs, maybe if you are into soulful singers such as Adel you could appreciate these tracks, as for me I will stick with the more diverse tracks.
My final word would be to buy this if you want to try somthing different. Very different.
VERDICT
7/10 - EXTREME
3. 'The 20/20 Experience' by Justin Timberlake
Prior to this album I had hardly listened to any Justin Timberlake songs even though I had an idea that his smooth R&B tracks would appeal to me. After hearing the great singles 'Suit & Tie' and 'Mirrors' I decided a listsen to a JT album was way overdue and thus made the purchase of the shiny new '20/20 Experience', Timberlake's first album in seven years. Firstly I am going to give complement to the designers for the cover of the album which I love. With Timberlake having an eye test in his suit is an adept way to relate to the albums title. Speaking of the title, on the album cover is is displayed in a reflective gold paper, this just adds an extra coolness to the already well designed cover. But of course a good cover is unimportant without good music, did 'The 20/20 Experience' live up to my hopes?
As I mentioned I really like the singles 'Suit & Tie' and 'Mirrors' however upon listening to the album versions of these hits I discovered that they were different to radio versions. The main section of these two songs are identical to the radio edit but the album versions continue for a longer duration of around seven to eight minuets as opposed to the usual four minuets. In the extra allocated time JT changes the beats, adds different vocals and modifys pitch. Giving extra elements to songs like this is somthing I have never seen before but of which I really enjoyed. In fact Timberlake has distributed two different sides to all of the tracks on his album which is a technique that I love and adds to the longevity into which the songs can be continuously enjoyed upon repeated listen. I do not know if this was an intentional decision but the dual sided album tracks reflect the '20/20' album title which is, if nothing else a fun novelty and prehaps intentional genius.
As a advocate of post-colonial discovery one music element I always award high marks for is the use of exotic or oriental instruments in popular music. To my joy Timberlake seems to equally respect non western sounds as there several uses of relevant sounds in tracks such as 'Don't Hold the Wall' and 'Let the Groove Get In'. The prior uses what I can only imagine is a type of pan pipe for its main beat and the latter uses upbeat long sounding vocals and bongos which are common to the regions of Southern America. As I have stated, I respect this type of sound and the fact that the tunes are still lively and smooth still makes them suitable for parties and other such occasions.
The four songs I have mentioned are my favourite on the album but I appreciate all tracks. The only and very minute criticism I can give is that the album lacks some aspects of a shock value, for example there are no lyrics which come across as extreme. If this flaw was to be adressed however if could ruin the overall smooth feel of fhe album and thus I will conclude by saying 'The 20/20 Experience' is one of the best albums I have ever heard and will likely to continue to listen to it for a long time.
VERDICT
9/10 - OFF THE HOOK
