Jordin Sparks, Amy Winehouse, The Hives and Daft Punk.

the music press

tue 11/27/2007

A collage of Jordin Sparks, Amy Winehouse, The Hives and Daft Punk.

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American Idol winner Jordin Sparks releases her self-titled debut. Rolling Stone loves its diversity but thinks the album is too naïve for its own good: “She's the kind of pop star who writes 'Nobody puts baby in a corner' on her MySpace blog and means it.” Slant Magazine is thoroughly impressed, calling Jordin Sparks "one of the strongest Idol debuts yet.”
Amy Winehouse's debut album, Frank, makes its way to the U.S. long after its 2003 U.K. release. Back then, Musicomh.com was singing its praises: “Frank is a superb debut album that announces Amy Winehouse as a major young talent.” Four years later, Popmatters agrees: Winehouse’s success … is based on pure talent rather than good producers or gimmicks.”
Swedish garage rockers The Hives return with The Black and White Album, an LP featuring “less of an emphasis on garage spit-and-venom, replaced by forays into ballads and lounge soul,” according to The Village Voice. The geeks at The Onion's A.V. Club give the album a "B+" and breathe a sigh of relief: “[I]n a world gone mad, it's nice to know that at least one band remembers what rock 'n' roll is all about.”
French electronic duo Daft Punk releases its live album Alive 2007, a set that "blends all their biggest hits into one enthralling, seamless mash-up of pumping bass lines, steady drumbeats, and cooing vocoders,” writes Entertainment Weekly. Billboard.com thinks Alive 2007 "comes pretty darn close" to matching the "in-person thrills of the current Daft Punk live experience, what with the robot costumes, onstage pyramid and body-rattling beats radiating out into the blissed-out faithful.”