Mariah Carey, Tony Dize, Lil Mama and Madonna
the music press
tue 5/13/2008
- R&B and pop diva Mariah Carey releases E=MC2, her eleventh studio album. Blender calls it her "most fun" album and gives it four stars: "Mimi has definitively been emancipated – from her need to decorate every damn song with more octaves than Maria Callas." The Los Angeles Times compares it to her previous album, The Emancipation of Mimi: "E=MC2 is a little better – the songwriting is more consistent, the feel a bit more natural – but it too lacks … artistic vision.”
- Reggeatonero Tony Dize drops his debut album, La Melodía De La Calle. The Hard Data blog digs a couple of dance tracks but is annoyed by the boasting and self-promotion: “I hate to break it down to you, but Calle 13 is 500 years ahead of you and all your friends." Billboard en Español says despite some reggaetón clichés, the experimental tracks like "Permítame" will "undoubtedly leave the listener sweaty."
- Lil Mama releases her debut album, The Voice Of The Young People. The Associated Press says Lil Mama is not a typical ringtone rapper: “Her lip gloss may be poppin', but she's got more to say than that.” Rolling Stone gives the album three stars for proving "there's more to her than bubble gum," adding, "let's hope she's got a few more years to give us the rest.”
- Veteran pop queen Madonna releases Hard Candy, the "kind of album a record company longs for in the current embattled market: a set of catchy, easily digestible, mass-appeal songs by a star who’s not taking chances,” proclaims the New York Times. “[Madonna] doesn't reinvent pop; she defines it,” gushes Pitchforkmedia, before complaining that “nobody involved in Hard Candy is anywhere near their creative peak.”
Akwid, Day26, Panic at the Disco and Ill Niño
the music press
tue 4/8/2008
- Akwid returns with La Novela, featuring guest appearances by Los Tucanes De Tijuana, "El Flaco" Elizalde and Voces Del Rancho. "It's the first Akwid album that contains explicit lyrics," observes La Vibra, which calls it "their most adventurous release yet." "This mix of grittiness and sophistication strikes just the right note," writes Billboard.com, "achieving cohesiveness despite a changing cast of guest acts."
- "Making The Band" act Day26 drops its self-titled debut. DJBooth.net asks: "Is this album truly the second coming of the Age of the Black Male Super Group? Not really, but it’s close enough to make me hopeful, and that’s going to have to be enough – for now." The Village Voice writes Day26 can "slow it down nicely," the group is "leaderless," leaving the vocals "sounding more crowded than harmonized."
- Emo rockers Panic at the Disco release their sophomore album, Pretty. Odd. "Like any growing emo band, Panic want to make a Seventies-style art-rock epic," chides Rolling Stone, noting the album "sounds cheerful, with a broad sense of humor." Entertainment Weekly agrees: "The band may occasionally outpace themselves in an eagerness to make a Big Important Record… but they succeed an impressive amount of the time."
- Latin nu-metal band Ill Niño delivers its fourth album, Enigma, after a five-year delay between releases. Tunelab Music thinks it was worth the wait: "The heavies are the heaviest Ill Niño has ever been, while the mellow moments are the band’s most serene and sultry." Rockfreaks.net can't help but enjoy it: "When the songs are as well written and executed… you tend to forget about the lack of originality."
Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross, Fat Joe and Danity Kane.
the music press
tue 3/18/2008
- Snoop Dogg returns with his tenth album, the genre-hopping Ego Trippin'. According to The New York Times, the album finds Snoop "obsessed with defining just who, or what, he is" including a "party-ready high roller, a street-toughened gangster, an insatiable lothario and a nurturing husband and father.” Rolling Stone digs the diversity but admits the album "grows weaker as it drifts away from head-spinning collages into generic slow jamz."
- Miami rapper Rick Ross is back with his sophomore effort, Trilla. The Boston Globe accuses Ross of "recycling most of his much-lauded debut" but can't get enough of his “booming voice-of-God flow and his aura of authority." The Village Voice backhands him with: "Ross understands something many infinitely better rappers do not: his limits," adding "[t]here's something almost admirable in how unapologetic he is about his lyrical ineptitude."
- Nuyorican rapper Fat Joe delivers The Elephant in the Room, his eighth album. “While Joe will never get the respect that Jay-Z gets for some reason," laments webzine Six Shot, "this album takes him one step closer to solidifying his spot as a consistent artist and a legend in the game.” UGO.com underscores the “multitude of talented producers only serves to highlight the absence of anything exciting going on with Fat Joe.”
- Diddy-backed pop quintet Danity Kane drops Welcome to the Dollhouse, an album filled with "mid and uptempo pop tracks produced by the likes of Danjahandz, Bryan-Michael Cox and Mario Winans,” according to Billboard.com. Blog That Hot Ish is convinced "DK is where Diddy's money is at!" while Think 2 Twice gobbles up the "musical platter full of influences from '80s-'90s pop and R&B to hip-hop and modern day dance tunes."
Jack Johnson, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow and Vampire Weekend.
the music press
tue 2/5/2008
- Singer-songwriter and surfer Jack Johnson returns with Sleep Through The Static, his fourth proper album. Rolling Stone is pleased that the new sound marks “a tentative step forward for this improbable superstar." The BBC is underwhelmed but convinced that Johnson’s “status as a household name will be undoubtedly reinforced by this well-nigh perfect example of all his best traits.”
- After a four-year hiatus, Lenny Kravitz is back with his eighth studio album, It Is Time For A Love Revolution. Kravitz “exhibits a different kind of urgency this time out," observes Billboard.com, "partly fueled by the times and perhaps also motivated by a desire to bounce back from the disappointing sales of 2004's Baptism." England's The Times Online is disappointed that the “king of fast-food rock offers no surprises,” delivering the “usual leaden soul pastiches, laborious power ballads and quixotic attempts to re-create John Lennon's drabbest solo efforts.”
- Rocker Sheryl Crow delivers her sixth studio album, Detour. Entertainment Weekly calls the album, featuring songs about breast cancer, the Iraq war and ex-BF Lance Armstrong, a "terrific return to form." The Los Angeles Times is pleased with her pop craft: “Crow's progressive lyrics hit like rubber-band pings fired by some joker in the back row at school.”
- New York indie-pop darlings Vampire Weekend drop their eponymous debut. Paste Magazine gives them four-and-a-half stars, describing their sound as "The Strokes with a sense of humor." The music snobs at Pitchforkmedia lavish Vampire Weekend with an "8.8" for creating "one of the most refreshing and replayable indie records in recent years."
The Mars Volta, Beck, Natasha Bedingfield and Blake Lewis.
the music press
tue 1/29/2008
- Prog-rockers The Mars Volta release The Bedlam in Goliath, a concept album inspired by their experiences with an Ouija-like "talking board." "You may scoff and shake your head at their muse," writes the Associated Press, "but the result is a sonic masterpiece." The album has "moments that remind you just how powerful the band can be … but it's exhausting trying to find them," sighs Spin magazine.
- Genre-mashing hipster Beck releases a deluxe edition of Odelay, a two-CD set featuring the original release from 1996 and unreleased material. "[T]he rarities and B sides are so good, they'd add up to Beck's third- or fourth- best album on their own," marvels Rolling Stone. A less enthusiastic The Washington City Paper asks: "[W]as Beck just a hipster doofus who got really lucky with the right producers? Odelay seemingly settled that question for good; too bad its reissue brings it up again."
- British pop singer Natasha Bedingfield returns with her sophomore album, Pocket Full of Sunshine. The Los Angeles Times slams it two-and-a-half stars but gives Bedingfield credit for creating "adult dance pop that's not overly promiscuous, in the sexual or self-promotional sense." Yahoo! Music is bored: "With no risks being taken, the best it can hope for is nice, and very nice though it is, that's never enough."
- Former American Idol contestant Blake Lewis makes his debut with the '80s pop-inspired Audio Day Dream. The New York Times says there's a "little something for everyone … though it probably won’t hold anyone’s focus all the way through." The album gets a "C" from Entertainment Weekly, which pulls no punches: "If Lewis could just find a way to integrate all his early-MTV influences (A Flock of Fat Boys?), well...that album wouldn't be great either — though it'd be less forgettable than this exercise in pop adequacy."
Raheem DeVaughn, Kate Nash, Sia and The Magnetic Fields.
the music press
tue 1/15/2008
- Raheem De Vaughn is “arguably the most underrated R&B artist of his time,” according to Billboard.com. His sophomore album, Love Behind The Melody, offers “a flawless blend of serene, soulful music with emotion-filled lyrics about his love, respect and appreciation for women." Webzine Did You Hear That also loves DeVaughn's sultry voice and the “radio-ready R&B package.”
- British pop singer and Internet darling Kate Nash debuts in the U.S. with Made Of Bricks, a "rushed, glossed-over misfire that almost trips over itself to hide the reasons why Nash became such a web phenom in the first place," snarls Pitchforkmedia. Web log Music Ohm disagrees entirely: “If there's one thing that Made Of Bricks proves, it's that the advance word about Nash's songwriting talents was right on the money.”
- Australian singer Sia Furler, whose music has appeared on TV shows "Grey's Anatomy" and "Six Feet Under," returns with her third solo album, Some People Have Real Problems. Mainstream bellwether Entertainment Weekly is pleased that Sia "ditches the sleepy pace of prior efforts for a throatier soul sound.” But Rolling Stone gives the album only two out of five stars: “[T]he main attractions are Sia's smoky voice and quirky personality," but "not enough of that personality makes it into the music."
- Pop-rockers The Magnetic Fields return with Distortion, a collection of "clever songs that are sweet and bitter, comforting and subversive," according to Popmatters. England's New Musical Express loves the noise pop a la Jesus and Mary Chain, recommending the album be filed in the “Purest, starkest genius” section of record stores. You know, like they have at Wal-Mart.
Downward spiral for music sales in 2007
the music press
tue 1/8/2008
- "2007 was not a good year for Latin music," writes Billboard, pinpointing that "the top-selling Latin album so far, Daddy Yankee's El Cartel: The Big Boss , had sold 248,000 copies as of December 2. In contrast, his Barrio Fino En Directo, the top-selling album of 2006, had sold 484,000 by year's end." The industry insider adds: "Aside from Mana ... and Juanes ... all the other acts to hit the [100k sales] mark have had sales histories more lucrative than this year's numbers reflect."
- The upturn in digital downloads has cushioned the blow, with Reuters underscoring that 477,000 units sold in 2007 "far exceeds the 293,000 digital album sales tallied for Latin music in 2006." It attributes the boost to "iTunes Latino's solidified status as a destination for a vast, well-catalogued library of music and by the proliferation of videos by Latin acts now found on YouTube. Ringtones and master ringtones are also growing sources of revenue for Latin labels."
- It's not just Latin music that is hurting, with Forbes magazine reporting that "[d]ouble-digit percentage sales declines were registered in most categories of music, including rock (12.5%), R&B (18.3%), alternative (19.2%), metal (13.9%), Christian/gospel (14.3%) and jazz (10.6%)." "[H]ip-hop has been hit particularly hard," writes the New York Times. "This was the year when the gleaming hip-hop machine — the one that minted a long string of big-name stars, from Snoop Dogg to OutKast — finally broke down, leaving rappers no alternative but to work harder, and for fewer rewards."
- For some acts, it's not all doom and gloom — Kanye West's Graduation went double platinum. Josh Groban's Noel sold 3.5 million units, giving the ailing his record company a much needed shot in the arm and making him "the rare person in the music industry singing a happy jolly tune this holiday season," according to Variety.com. Video games like Guitar Hero, Sing Star and Rock Band have also provided the ailing music industry with a small chunk of 10.5 billion dollars in sales, writes PC World: "2007 was a great year for the video game industry, driven largely by the rising popularity of music-based titles."
Chingy, Jaheim, Rivers Cuomo and Celine Dion.
the music press
tue 1/1/2008
- Dirty south rapper Chingy returns with Hate It Or Love It. Nappy Afro compares Chingy to Nick Cannon, Ja Rule and Nelly because “no matter what success they've had musically in the past, no matter what they try to do now, most of the hip hop world looks at them as lames.” DJBooth.net echoes those sentiments, calling Chingy's latest “not interesting enough to truly be hated" and "not deserving of love.”
- R&B singer Jaheim releases his fourth album, The Makings Of A Man. Billboard.com loves the album's “mature, introspective stance," a departure from the "'thug R&B' tag inspired by his 2001 debut." R&Bmusicblog laments the album's "lack of depth and creativity" but admits that “R&B really needs a voice like his right now."
- Rivers Cuomo, leader of rock band Weezer, unearths his first solo album, Alone: The Home Recordings Of Rivers Cuomo. Popmatters thinks the demo collection is only for hard core Weezer fans: “It shows Rivers Cuomo disarmed and open, doing what he loves. Sometimes it succeeds marvelously. Sometimes it fails." Pitchforkmedia loves the collection of “goofy and indulgent ideas" that "[remind] us why we fell for dorks with horn-rimmed glasses and flying-V guitars in the first place."
- French-Canadian diva Celine Dion delivers her 34th album, Taking Chances. Rolling Stone rips the "remarkably ugly" album and its title: “That's like a Zac Efron musical called Making Cops S*** Their Pants, or a Lil Wayne mix tape titled Bumming Bus Fare From My Mom." The BBC defends the pop veteran, suggesting her latest "doesn’t quite do what the title suggests, but it does push Celine Dion to the edge of her comfort zone and show an artist who not only wants to remain relevant but is prepared to work hard to stay that way."
RBD, Mary J. Blige, Lupe Fiasco and Mario.
the music press
thu 12/27/2007
- Mexican pop sextet RBD returns with Empezar Desde Cero, their fifth studio album. A year after releasing Celestial, a huge commercial success, Blog De La Tele asks: "[d]oes RBD need to start from scratch?" The blog thinks not, suggesting the pop group should now focus on "conquering the international market." Don't read too much into the title, 'cause the rebels “are simply back with more pop tunes in the key of teenage crush," writes Rhapsody.com.
- R&B diva Mary J. Blige delivers her eighth album, the edgy Growing Pains. Rolling Stone notices that Blige “has definitely lost or just outgrown the brassy urgency of her twenties," underscoring that "these days, [her confessions] sound more like she's had a lot of therapy." The Village Voice is more cynical, wishing Blige would just "shut up for a while and luxuriate—and we know she understands what that word means—in the gorgeousness of a voice that's as full and declamatory as ever."
- Chicago's Lupe Fiasco is back with his second album, The Cool. Fiasco's ability to build on "the divergent themes and musical explorations of his impressive debut” earned this album an "A-" from Entertainment Weekly. The Onion's A.V. Club agrees, giving another "A-" to a musical set that “oozes geek chic with terrific songs, smart, dense lyrics, and nimble, eclectic production.”
- Mario is back with Go. The 21-year-old R&B singer "pulled out all the big guns for album number three,” showing off a “distinctive voice [that] is earthier and more mature with the underlying power of a young Luther Vandross,” gushes The BBC. Billboard.com is worried about his lack of hits: “While third album Go shows a necessary maturation, the disc is short on standouts.”
Bow Wow & Omarion, Ghostface Killah, Freeway and Scarface.
the music press
tue 12/18/2007
- Wu-Tang Clan killa bee Ghostface Killah delivers The Big Doe Rehab, the follow up to his critically-acclaimed album Fishscale. Ghostface proves he is one of the "wickedest, least predictable MCs of this era,” on an album “jammed full of dense, smoggy New York chaos,” according to Billboard.com. Rolling Stone gives Ghostface four stars declaring: “[R]ight now is a good time to be a Wu-Tang fan.”
- Bow Wow and Omarion recently released their collaborative album, Face Off. Filling Jay-Z's and R. Kelly's shoes “is no easy feat," observes Blender, "but thanks to slick production and stay-in-your-head melodies, the duo nearly rises to the challenge.” Entertainment Weekly loves the collab: "[T]ogether, Bow (he of quicksilver flow) and O (he of slender harmonies) are urban-pop Wonder Twins.”
- Philadelphia rapper and Roc-A-Fella act Freeway returns with his sophomore effort, Free At Last. Popmatters laments “the absence of producers Just Blaze and Kanye West” and longs for the days when “the Roc’s sound was based on sped-up soul samples and sparkling drums." Pitchforkmedia gives Freeway a solid 7.7 score: “The title of this album isn't a mere play on words… [it's] a portrait of someone who's still discovering his own identity.”
- Houston rap pioneer Scarface returns with his seventh studio album, M.A.D.E.. Allmusic.com finds the veteran rapper on point: "Scarface [is] doing everything right, delivering those cold, hardcore rhymes over uncomplicated, soulful beats” while the The New York Times applauds Scarface's quality-over-quantity approach: “[M.A.D.E.] lasts barely 40 minutes, just long enough to provide a satisfying dose of stories and boasts, delivered in a rich, bluesy voice that often makes him seem even older than he is.”
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