Album Review: JLS – “JLS”

So, I finally get chance to write the album review that I have been really looking forward to writing!

JLS have released ‘JLS’ on the same week that Robbie has released ‘Reality Killed The Video Star‘, so the battle for supremacy in the charts this weekend will be one of the most interesting of the year I reckon.

We all know JLS, we all love JLS, and we all want to sleep with at least one of JLS, right?!

So, in lieu of this, rather than give you the spiel about JLS and their story, here’s my thoughts on the album

I tend to just make notes whilst I listen:

Beat Again: MOBO ‘Best Song’ of the year… what more is there to say?! Excellent debut single!

Everybody In Love: not a huge fan of this, but it’s really grown on me the more I’ve heard it. A little too soppy for me.

Keep You: Funky, great song! I was chair dancing along to the beat – I really hope this one is a single!

Crazy For You: 90s-style ballad, nice sound to it, but does sound a little dated as it harks back to the boy band of yester-year. This is to be the third single, and will (again!) go head to head with Robbie (‘You Know Me‘). Unfortunately, I think this song will lose that battle.

Heal This Heartbreak: love the style of this and the pulsating baseline – would be great in a nightclub, and I’d imagine it’d have a very cool music video to accompany it.

Close To You: A JLS style ballad instead of a dated one… much better! Really nice stripped back sound, with some gorgeous vocals.

Only Tonight: Opening bars sound a little like the start of Don Henley’s “Boys Of Summer“, but it quickly turns into a song with a great beat, chilled sound and some great harmonies.

One Shot: Excellent club track – potential single I reckon. Contemporary, upbeat and pleasant on the ear.

Private: Another funky baseline, I can imagine this one as a single too (I’d choose this over One Shot) – I was dancing around my living room, and I’ve just had a long hard day at work… so that’s something! Second favourite track on the album.

Don’t Go: Edgy sounding song, starting to sound like the last two tracks a little, but I love the little ‘woo-ohh’s’.

Only Making Love: Strange sounding track, dislike the beat, it jars with the song I feel. By the chorus, I was kinda into it and bouncing along, but I think that was just because the beat started getting repetitive.

Kickstart: I like this one – similar sounding to many of the other tracks, but there’s something that I like about it that I can’t quite put my hand on it… I think it’s the chorus! Either way, it had me dancing along.

Tightrope: A bit of sing-by-numbers ballad. Album track, but not necessarily a bad one. Clumsy transpose towards the end spoils it a little.

All in all, I think that this is a good album!

I much prefer an edgy contemporary JLS sound/performance than the 90s ballad sound that they sometimes come out with…. but in all fairness, when they do go into ballad mode, it’s nowhere near as bad as some of the absolute slush that’s gone before (911, A1 etc!).

Perhaps predictably, they have been criticised (ok, ok, slammed) quite a lot by the media for this debut album, and I can understand why, though I do think that they are getting more flack than they should – it’s certainly not hideous! They wrote nine of the thirteen songs on the album, and in my opinion, it’s their second album which is going to be the more exciting, as they’ll be able to mature into their new roles and get a feel for what they want to do, and do it in their own time.

I was a huge fan of these lads in X-Factor and recognised their potential very early on. I am very glad that they’re currently getting all the success that they have earnt, and sincerely hope that it continues for them.

I purchased the HMV edition which came with the exclusive slip case (naturally, I chose Aston) – I  like the album artwork, though I was very disappointed that they didn’t include any torso shots! Boo!

… and you wouldn’t want to see Aston topless now…. would you?

Robbie Williams – Reality Killed The Video Star

I am very excited today as Robbie Williams‘ new album, ‘Reality Killed The Video Star’, has been soft-released on the music platform Spotify.

The album has is being exclusively previewed in full by Spotify from today, Friday, onwards. This album will not be available elsewhere until Monday, when record sales actually begin.

For those people using Spotify, all levels of user are able to access the album, it’s not a premier user only release!

This has to be one of the most heavily promoted albums that I’ve seen in a long while. I already know which songs I really really adore (‘You Know Me’ is a career highlight I think) and the lyrics to most.

I get the feeling that this come-back album really is ‘for the people’ in a sense. Robbie’s appearance on the Electric Proms, and other media means that a lot of us have already heard most of the new material. Indeed, Robbie’s own website has been allowing people to listen to 3 tracks from the new album each day for free! (I had ‘You Know Me’ on an endless loop the other day).

I love that Robbie has gone back to an orchestrated sound. If asked to compare the sound to another album, I’d say ‘Intensive Care’ – which I thought was marvellous! It’s as if ‘RudeBox’ never even happened.

Now that the entire album has been made available, I thought I’d write this post, as it seemed unfair to judge it based on all of the preview performances etc.

Without doubt, my ‘most eagerly anticipated’ album of the year, and I’ve been waiting restlessly all week for today to come around!

As always, I had a listen to the album whilst at work, so I made a few thought notes against each track, which I have shared below.

NB – these are in order of how the ‘random’ function on Spotify played them, so are not in track listing order.

Bodies – we all know how this one goes by now… strange lyrics, but an awesome chorus when those strings kick in! A track that has definitely grown on me.

Difficult for Weirdos – perhaps how the RudeBox album should have sounded. Good club track, futuristic sounding and contemporary. Hurrah!

Somewhere – a bit of a ‘nothing’ track really, it’s only 1 minute 2 seconds long.

Morning Sun – I love the orchestra at the start of this track. A great vocal and a fabulous track. Hope this gets released as a single.

Superblind – some good orchestrations again here, good song though perhaps an album track? Love the delicate vocal that sometimes feeds through.

Morning Sun (Reprise) – I thought having a Reprise at the end of the album was a fantastic idea. It really tied the whole project together, and is a great way to close the album off.

Do You Mind – love the chunky guitar chords, which were slightly unexpected. Had me bopping in my seat and tap/clapping along!Bit of Robbie attitude in the vocal, a great bridge, though probably an album track.

You Know Me – I cannot rave about this song enough. Shoo-wop-do-booop!

Last Days Of Disco – I love this track!It’s like the genre of disco has been dragged right up the present-day. I really like the pulsating, high tension vocal.

Deceptacon – I was initially not a huge fan of this song… mainly as I was expecting a song about Transformers!! It’s grown on my a lot though and is now one of my favourites on the album.

Starstruck - My second favourite song from the album I think. The performance of this on the BBC Electric Proms was great – I loved the ’sway’ bit for the chorus!

Blasphemy – another great song; I really like the prominence of the piano.

Won’t Do That - a great brass introduction, a light vocal and a really nice song.

All in all, I really do like the album, which I think comes to life when you have Robbie on stage performing songs from it. It’s great to listen to, but I think that the album’s real potential is realised through Robbie’s delivery of the songs in his live performances, which to be fair, is usually the case! Ever the showman, I can’t wait for a tour!

The track order is as below:

#	Title		Length
1.	“Morning Sun”		4:05
2.	“Bodies”		4:01
3.	“You Know Me”		4:27
4.	“Blasphemy”		4:18
5.	“Do You Mind?”		4:06
6.	“Last Days of Disco”		4:50
7.	“Somewhere”		1:01
8.	“Deceptacon”		5:01
9.	“Starstruck”		5:21
10.	“Difficult for Weirdos”		4:29
11.	“Won’t Do That”		3:38
12.	“Superblind”		4:46
13.	“Morning Sun (Reprise)”		1:19

Oh, and I am LOVING the preview that they have released for his new video for ‘You Know Me’!

(NB – if you visit the above link after midday today, Friday 6th November, you should be able to see the video in FULL!)

Cheryl Cole – 3 Words (Album)

I make no bones about saying this, and it’s going to be unpopular with some readers I’m sure, but I really disliked the album (and it seems that most of the British newspaper reviews are with me on this).

Having  loved ‘Fight For This Love’ and absolutely played it to death, the rest of the album came as a huge disappointment if I am honest. I think that given where she is at the moment, and all the success she’s currently enjoying, I expected better than this album has ultimately delivered.

The main bugbear for me is that there are far too many collaborations with will.i.am. He’s the only artist that she’s collaborated with, and it seems that he is credited as being an artist on 37% of the album! (plus he worked a lot behind the scenes on some of her other tracks). Crikey!

Sorry, but in this case, the pupil really has surpassed the mentor!

As always, I had a listen to the album whilst at work, so I made a few thought notes against each track, which I have shared below.

NB – these are in order of how the ‘random’ function on Spotify played them, so are not in track listing order.

3 Words - Dull, boring… tries to be pulsatingly tense and threatening, but ultimately fails and becomes repetitive.

Rain On Me - A good track, not a big fan of all the vocal overlays or the continuation of the stripped back instrument sound at the swell of the chorus, but a potential single?

Heartbreaker - I already know from the singles chart that I dislike this track… sorry! On second listen, I still dislike!

Parachute – vocal sounds a little flat and lacking in attitude… nice melody to the song, but let down by the vocal.

Stand Up – how I was hoping that the album would sound! A good song for the clubs, had me dancing along to it in my chair!

Fight For This Love - amazing, amazing, amazing – I continue to love this song! I can pretty much forgive the rest of the album for the fact that this song is included on it. Probably second best single of 2009 after Alexandra’s ‘Bad Boys’!

Happy Hour - a little middle of the road, but refreshingly different to the rest of the album.

Don’t Talk About This Love - quite a nice little ballady type song. Won’t set the World alight, but still rather nice nevertheless.

Heaven – Tolerable but plods a long a little, the ‘you, you, you’ and the ‘witchoo’ grates quite a bit.

Make Me Cry - again, a little dull/repetitive.

Boy Like You - I do quite like this one, but again, it’s not amazing. Something to dance to in a club though.

Paloma Faith

OK, so it appears that I am a ‘little’ late to the Paloma Faith party, largely due to my being constantly diverted away from writing this blog by other posts, and a lack of time – boo.

I have to say that her recent single, ‘New York’ has not been off my music player since I first heard it – it’s been on constant repeat – I LOVE IT!

I first heard of Paloma Faith via a TV advert for her album, and within 5 seconds of hearing a few bars of ‘New York‘ followed by that delightful transpose with the gospel choir, I’d made up my mind that I had to look this lass up, and had made a note on my phone to do so first thing next morning.

However, about five minutes later, Greg and I flicked over to Friday Night With Jonathan Ross and to my delight, she was his music guest for the week!

I had no idea that the song ‘Stone Cold Sober’, released earlier in the summer, was hers, I just chalked it up to Duffy or someone similar… perhaps unfortunate (in a back-handed compliment kind of way), however Paloma Faith has only recently started getting some mainstream recognition over here in the UK.

Her album/singles originally charted around the #15 mark on entry and didn’t really fare much better – however in the slew of marking and promotion that has been done since, it seems this girl is (rightfully!) on her way to the top! Recently, Paloma’s album topped the iTunes album chart, so it seems that her music is finally getting through to what I would consider the expected demographic.

It seems strange though that the single was released back in September 2009, and they are only now getting her onto the major talk-shows and music shows (such as Later… with Jools Holland). Hopefully, many of the people in the industry and media who originally gave the two singles/album a lukewarm/somewhat jaded reception will revise those thoughts as support for the artist grows.

Stargazer is also a lovely theatrical/dreamy song I think, and is my second favourite song on the album:

I adore her ‘background story’ too – apparently she’s half Spanish, half British (she was born in Hackney, London) and amongst her many prior jobs, she was a magician’s assistant! Her name, Paloma, translates as ‘Dove’ in Spanish.

Her debut album, ‘Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?‘, is currently in the album charts, and is also available to listen to on Spotify for those wanting to give it a whirl! Paloma is also on the social media network, twitter.

Oh… and this latest entry from her video diary on YouTube is charmingly funny! This is the sort of thing that you’d find me doing most days heh! Maybe my next vLog post will take this format!

For those of us in the UK, Paloma is playing several gigs, including KOKO  (London), in November… tickets are onsale now!

Erik Hassle

A  friend of mine, Andrew (who has a great taste in music imo!), posted a YouTube link to the song ‘Bump In The Road’ by a Swedish chap called Erik Hassle. I really liked the track, and so I thought that I’d briefly share on my blog:

Having just looked up a few of his other tracks, I especially like ‘Hurtful’, which will be released as a single in February 2010.

Erik is on twitter, and his official website can be found here.

Robbie Williams – BBC Electric Proms and new album

Having previously blogged about the build up to the performance, I’ve just caught up with the BBC Electric Proms and had chance to see Robbie’s performance, having only had opportunity to listen to the audio via Radio One during the week.

I do wish that he’d stop lauding this ‘it’s been three years since I last gigged’ fact… it makes me feel really old, as I can still remember all the work that we put into his last tour as if it were only yesterday heh!!

The Electric Proms performance at Camden Roundhouse was absolutely fabulous I though!

I’m a fan of the Electric Proms themselves, I tend to love any album or concert that weaves orchestras into popular music (such as Metallica’s S&M gig), and Robbie’s music was rife for such treatment, especially as there seems to be a lot of orchestration in his new album (yay!).

For me, the highlight of the entire gig was when he performed ‘We Know You‘, which will be the second song from his new album, and will be released on December 14th 2009.

The sound on this track is gorgeous! I love the lazy, classical, sweeping refrains/sound to the track, and I have a feeling that I will rate this of one of his best tracks given a few more listens.

Hopefully, that won’t be the kiss-of-death for the track, as I tend to get really passionate about the Robbie tracks (and performances) that fall by the wayside somewhat! (Note, this does not include the RudeBox album… that fell by the wayside all on its own!!).

A few of the other new tracks previewed are as below:

For people in the UK, there are currently plenty of ways to catch up on the performance:

• Hit the Red button on Freeview (from BBC channels) – or go directly to channel 301 – the gig is on a constant loop.
• BBC iPlayer also carries the audio from Radio One – which gives an unedited version of the gig (the visual was edited slightly – a lot of the  ad-lib stuff (that was rather endearing to Robbie) was cut out unfortunately).

As a side note, this gig has also been screened in cinemas in several different countries, and has earned this performance the official Guinness World Record for “most cinematic screenings of a live concert” – not bad when you consider that the last Take That concert was made available to people via Vue Cinema screens too!

The track listing for ‘Reality Killed The Video Star’ will be as below:

#	Title		Length
1.	“Morning Sun”		4:05
2.	“Bodies”		4:01
3.	“You Know Me”		4:27
4.	“Blasphemy”		4:18
5.	“Do You Mind?”		4:06
6.	“Last Days of Disco”		4:50
7.	“Somewhere”		1:01
8.	“Deceptacon”		5:01
9.	“Starstruck”		5:21
10.	“Difficult for Weirdos”		4:29
11.	“Won’t Do That”		3:38
12.	“Superblind”		4:46
13.	“Morning Sun (Reprise)”		1:19

Very pleased that Robbie is back on top form, can’t wait for the album, and I really look forward to the possibility of him gigging again in the very near future!

JLS – debut album (‘JLS’)

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FOR MY REVIEW OF THE ALBUM; PLEASE CLICK HERE.

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I pre-ordered the debut JLS album at the weekend – very excited about it and can’t wait to receive it in November.

Did it via HMV as they’re giving away ‘an exclusive’ slipcase – so you can choose which of the guys you get! (I went with Aston, of course!!).

(oh… and I couldn’t ever end a post about JLS without including a hawt picture of Aston that I found online, could I?! )

Mini Viva – Left My Heart In Tokyo

Another music track that I am really loving at the moment – today seems to be the day for discovering music, this is my fifth music related blog post in two hours!

Cheryl Cole – Fight For This Love

Initially disliked this, but all of a sudden I’ve had an about turn, and I love it, love it, LOVE IT!

(Update: annoyingly, all Cheryl vids are now ‘embedding disabled by request’ – so I’d suggest you go to YouTube and look up her X-Factor performance for this!)

The live performance really did help to bring the single to life – good on her!

Hope that it gets to number one this week (ironically knocking Alexandra’s fab “Bad Boys” off the top spot!) and I have very high hopes for the album now!

Yesterday, I blogged about a remix by Moto Blanco on Jennifer Hudson’s Spotlight, and it seems that there’s also a Moto Blanco remix of ‘Fight For This Love’ too – which is the best of all the remixes I’ve heard thus far (and believe me, there’ve been many!). Loving this Moto Blanco outfit – expect more blog posts devoted to their remixes!

Young Soul Rebels – I Got Soul

I found myself watching the MOBOs the other week, enticed by the appearances of JLS and Alexandra Burke, and as part of the awards night, they had everyone from the collective ‘Young Soul Rebels‘ up performing the charity single “I Got Soul” (recorded to benefit War Child).

For those unaware of ‘Young Soul Rebels’ – it’s like a less festive and more ‘urban’ version of Band Aid

It’s a stonker of a song and, though the chorus is a little simple, it is something that reinforces their message effectively and will have you humming it for weeks!

I sincerely hope that it does well for them and, most importantly, War Child!