Kalimba, Kimberley Locke, Linkin Park, Sage Francis and Wilco.
the music press
tue 5/15/2007
- negroKlaro, the second album by Afro-Mexican pop idol Kalimba gets its U.S. release this week. Revista Gente Sur describes the album as less pop, with more rock and soul than his last: “[T]he former boy prodigy wants to define his style once and for all.” Mexico's La Palabra proclaims that on this record the ex-OV7 member goes from "dark to bright, intense to calm and fun to profound."
- American Idol finalist Kimberley Locke returns with Based on a True Story, a “make-or-break sophomore effort that takes the first project’s promise and soars,” according to Billboard.com. Locke's second release finds her "unshackled by the constraints" of pop idol music, but “stylistic variety means little if it isn’t accompanied by memorable performances, and K. Lo fails to inject personality into these songs,” laments Entertainment Weekly.
- Minutes to Midnight is the third album from nu-metaleros Linkin Park. The Guardian U.K. says the album's rock-over-rap approach “opens up new opportunities for rapper Mike Shinoda as a gruff, bellicose singer, but the sound still pivots on the interplay of walloping guitar chords and self-flagellating lyrics.” The Black Iris cannot believe its ears: “Wow. Simply wow. Just a great album. Talk about changing gears. Talk about sounding more pure and more raw than ever before.”
- Rapper and occasional slam poet Sage Francis’ fourth album, Human the Death Dance, is described by Pitchforkmedia as full of “down-to-earth meditations, eerie soundscapes, and loopy abstraction.” Although it features some stellar guests, Popmatters says the record “can’t help but sound like a bit of a disappointment, even as he continues to outshine 90% of the rappers out there in terms of pure lyrical content.”
- Alt-country rockers Wilco are back with Sky Blue Sky, “the most musically direct and down to earth of the band’s six-album career,” according to the Los Angeles Times. Sky is "understated, erratic, often beautiful, disarmingly simple music," declares Rolling Stone.
Nosoylatino Says:
