Saturday, May 31, 2008

j-lo & r.kelly, baby i love you reviews

General comments: J-Lo & R.Kelly, Baby I Love You is heavy but all of her remixes are better than her original songs but I don't care just as long as it is a good song. Go out and buy it, I can't even dis this song because it is just so good, everyone I know listens and sings to it.

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Alicia Keys, The Diary Of Prices

Good Points: An unbelievable album. To think that she rights her own songs is something very unique in the music industry today with most singers having their songs written for them. The is far more mature than her original album but stills shows you what she first brought to the music industry years ago. There are many genres used in this album but there is a clear influence by soul music. The best song is If I Ain't Got You which is probably my favourite song ever. Other highlights of the album are You Don't Know My Name; Wake Up: Dragon Days; Heartburn and When You Really Love Someone.

Bad Points: I can't think of anything bad but some people may not like the first track as there is a strong classical influence due to her being a classically trained pianist.

General comments: Alicia Key

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Usher, confessions review

Usher, Confessions - Overall, the album does have lots of good songs on it yet it's not a listen to every day sort of album. Yeah is too separate from everything else, there's not one song on here that manages to even compete with Yeah.
Also can get slighty boring with the main subjects of the album being sex, cheating and dumping. But one song that does strike gold in every way is "Can You Handle It?" It reminds me somewhat of "U got it bad" but it is 100 times better and so romantic!
Yes, this is a good album but nothing too groundbreaking.

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James brown, star time reviews

James Brown can seem like an insufferable braggart. He makes no bones about his greatness, proclaiming himself not only the King of Soul but the inventor of funk and the progenitor of rap and disco – not to mention a leading exponent of black pride. To hear him tell it, James Brown is one of the most dynamic and visionary musicians America has ever produced. After examining the evidence set forth in the seventy-two songs on Star Time, however, only one conclusion is possible: James Brown is far too modest.

Simply put, Star Time is a staggering collection. It goes well beyond the usual hits 'n' rarities approach of boxed retrospectives to get at the essence of Brown's development from gospel-style shouter ("Please Please Please") to Soul Brother No. 1 ("Papa's Got a Brand New Bag") and from Godfather of Soul ("My Thang") to grandfather of rap ("Unity," with Afrika Bambaataa), while sprinkling in pseudonymous hits like "(Do the) Mashed Potatoes, Pt. 1," originally credited to "Nat Kendrick and the Swans," instrumental singles ("Grits," with Brown on organ) and the expected batch of hard-to-find gems and unreleased recordings.

But Star Time is no mere "and then we wrote ..." retrospective. Rather than relying on edits that were designed to sell singles, producer Harry Weinger pored over session tapes to find the full-length versions of these hits. That provides more in terms of listening time – all six minutes and eighteen seconds of "Mother Popcorn," for instance, instead of the 3:11 offered by The CD of JB – but the advantage isn't simply a matter of length. The unexpurgated versions convey a sense of Brown's intent, an understanding of the energy behind these singles. And in that regard, Star Time is a real eye-opener.

"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is probably the most startling piece of session-tape spadework, since it unearths the complete, unreleased original take (including studio chatter that finds Brown fretting that "there's a lotta words here, man," then crowing, "This is a hit!") and follows it with the shortened, speeded-up single that first put him in the Top Ten. But the collection makes an even better point with "I Got You," letting an unreleased 1964 take set up the two "Papa" 's before bringing in the 1965 hit version – "I Got You (I Feel Good)" – to demonstrate just how much Brown's new bag had toughened his band's attack.

Brown's strength, after all, was not merely as a singer but as a bandleader, and Star Time makes a special point of showing just how much genius he was able to pull from his various ensembles. Whether coaxing funk from his sidemen on "Cold Sweat" or letting them stretch out over the insistent groove of "Get It Together," Brown played his band the way Ray Charles played piano, with minimal effort and maximum soul. Particularly amazing are two previously unreleased live tracks – a stop-on-a-dime medley of "Brother Rapp" and "Ain't It Funky Now" from 1971 and a rendition of "There Was a Time" cut in 1968 that smokes the more familiar Live at the Appollo, Vol. 2 version – both of which suggest that Brown's studio performances were just the tip of the iceberg.

Then again, the same could be said for Star Time itself. Unlike other box sets, which often turn completeness into a perverse endurance test, this package seems almost skimpy at a mere five hours; everything here, from the early singles to the supposedly lesser hits of the early Eighties, leaves the listener hankering for more. Is it greedy to want an encore?

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Beyonce, b'day review

Beyonce says she made this album in 2 weeks and believe me it sounds like it. I was a fan of the first album (it wasn't a wonderful album but it was GOOD) and compared to HER previous effort this is just poop. Maybe she needs to experience life more or break away from the family, but to hear a 25 year old woman sing about Freakum dresses and complimenting deals with her looks in the boardroom is just plain ridiculous. I think Christina Aguilera "changes" are extremely fake but at least they aren't as superficial as this. Hopefully Beyonce takes a break, gets some life experience and then comes back with an album. And P.S. Beyonce, make sure your album sounds good before you go bragging about how long it took to create...

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Justin Timberlake, Future Sex / Love

Future Sex / Love Sounds is a really good album, at first after hearing 'sexy back' I wasn't so sure...but after a while the song grew on me, just like the album has. JT's new style of music from Justified, is a nice change and offers something new, all the songs are good, but get annoying when overplayed, overall a fantastic new album.

Here is the track list.....

1. Another Song
2. What Goes Around Comes Around
3. Sexyback
4. Crowd Control (feat. Nelly Furtado)
5. Lines (feat. Timbaland)
6. The One You Have Not Seen
7. Help Me Breathe
8. Lose Your Way (feat. Mario)
9. Nocturne (feat. India Arie)
10. I Walk Alone
11. No Connection
12. The Darkest Childe
13. My Love (feat. T.I)
14. Your Tongue Like The Sun In My Mouth

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