Featured Reviews
Learn more about your favourite artists; find out what they are up and keep tabs on what interests you.
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One Love
David Guetta Feat. Estelle |
There's no questioning David Guetta's über-commercial brand of house pop as one of the major influences in the sound of today’s chart music. This DJ turned recording artist is behind the year's most popular tracks - the first two Black Eyed Peas singles from "The E.N.D." among them - and he's also found the time to prepare a star-studded fourth studio album, from which 'One Love' is already the third single. British urban singer Estelle joins Akon and Kelly Rowland in a list of notorious guests, adding their vocal talents to Guetta's summery smashes. 'One Love' also offers a first glimpse at the pair's future collaboration, 'Delicious Change' - Estelle’s follow-up to her 2008 breakthrough record 'Shine' in which the French DJ is one of the producers. ~Roberto González~ Copyright © Shazam Entertainment Limited 2009. All rights reserved. |
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Dominos
The Big Pink |
'Dominos is the standout track from The Big Pink's debut album, 'A Brief History Of Love'. While at the start of the year the band were favoured by several blogs and tastemakers, the release of this single showed that the band had the potential to cross over into the mainstream. Fronted by former Alec Empire protégé Robbie Furze and Merok Records (Klaxons, Crystal Castles) founder Milo Cordell, the band have had a hectic year of constant touring and also picked up an NME Radar Award along the way. 'Dominos' opens with a drum beat echoing The Jesus & Mary Chain, before giving way to what has to one of the most infectious choruses of the year. The track has recently sound tracked an X-Box advert and while naysayers may accuse the band of "selling out", if it helps more people discover this band, we can live with it.~Jon Davies. Copyright (c) Shazam Entertainment Limited 2009. All rights reserved. |
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Relax, Take It Easy
MIKA |
The sixth single of the Lebanese-born, London living soloist Mika brings a mix of cheesy 80's dance and electro/pop beats the Scissor Sister's wouldn't be ashamed of. This feel-good tune is one of the tracks from his debut album 'Life in cartoon motion', recorded in Miami with the help of a former Bee Gees' sound engineer. The singer's flamboyant vocals and matching hair certainly have a likeness to that of the sibling trio and this song showcases both perfectly. Whether the catchy melody, borrowed from the Cutting Crew hit single, '(I Just) Died in your arms' is fresh and fun or just downright irritating and camp probably depends on the mood of the listener- either way there is no doubt the infectious hooks, although rather meaningless, will brighten up any rainy day. ~ Ashley Waterhouse. Copyright (c) Shazam Entertainment Limited 2009. All rights reserved. |
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Russian Roulette
Rihanna |
Expectations for Rihanna's fourth work cannot be any higher after 'Good Girl Gone Bad' confirmed her as one of today's most popular stars. However, the millions of people who downloaded 'Umbrella' or 'Don’t Stop the Music' may be up for a bit of disappointment as the star revisits her normally less impressive slow side with the Ne-Yo penned ballad 'Russian Roulette. The first taste of 'Rated R' could have been a follow-up to 'Unfaithful'. It shares with the former hit down tempo and dramatic lyrics, in which the singer describes what sounds like her own death after being shot. The provocative artwork showing Rihanna covered in barbed wire got her fans thinking that the song is a metaphor about her former relationship with Chris Brown, still in the middle of media frenzy after ending in court due to the heartthrob's alleged physical abuse. Initial reception has been rather tepid, so a plan b single, 'Wait Your Turn (The Wait Is Ova)', is already in place. ~Roberto González~ Copyright © Shazam Entertainment Limited 2009. All rights reserved. |
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Bad Romance
Lady Gaga |
No one knows how to play the media game quite like Lady Gaga. Her unhinged dress sense; taboo baiting music videos and skill for delivering an attention grabbing sound bite has made her a tabloid darling in 2009. In many ways she’s out Madonna-ed Madonna. Even if a large part of Gaga’s popstar appeal has been a combination of the hype, rumour baiting and a now over exposed RedOne production sound; her vocal talents and ability to write truly memorable pop tunes are still pretty much undeniable. Her latest single, ‘Bad Romance’, carries on where ‘Poker Face’ left off featuring a barrage of hooky refrains and a typically Gaga style ‘gets stuck in your head’ chorus. The single heralds the release of Gaga’s new album, ‘The Fame Monster’. At first it would seem that this ‘new’ double disc album is just a cynical repackaging of Lady Gaga’s previous album; however with eight new tracks it deserves to be treated as a release in its own right. In typical headline bating fashion Gaga will be offering an Ultra Deluxe edition that offers (of all things) a lock of Ladg Gaga’s hair. Whether this beats the usual ‘extras’ of dull DVD footage and picture postcards will probably depend on how much of a Lady Gaga fanatic you are.~Stephen Titmus~ Copyright © Shazam Entertainment Limited 2009. All rights reserved. |
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Feel Together
Ben Macklin |
UK producer Ben Macklin is one half of the Sucker DJs and has been knocking out tunes for the past few years. 'Feel Together' has been his biggest hit to date, charting in the US and being promoted by veteran BBC pundit and DJ PeteTong. 'Feel Together' puts Tiger Lily 'ruthless as a cat, delicate as a flower' on vocal duties and cranks out a polished piece of disco/funky/vocal house. The backing vocals 'oohs' feature strongly, looping throughout to provide a sturdy backing over the standard house drums and moving bassline. Tiger Lily doesn't provide anything exceptional in the vocal department, but is certainly able enough to carry the line. The track went down a storm in clubland and was picked up by both Cream and the Ministry of Sound for release. Macklin has gone on from this success to engineer a move into the pop field, working with the likes of Taio Cruz, Natalie Imbruglia and The Saturdays, as well as hosting shows on Push FM. ~Martin Gadgil. Copyright (c) Shazam Entertainment Limited 2009. All rights reserved |
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Don't Think I Don't Think About It
Darius Rucker |
Rucker made it to the big time as lead singer of 'Friends' endorsed combo Hootie & The Blowfish, whose 1994 debut album was one of the biggest sellers of all time, going sixteen times platinum. As well as hanging out with best buddy Tiger Woods and singing at Frank Sinatra's 80th birthday party he has also released two solo albums - the R&B styled 'The Return Of Mongo Slade/ Back To Then' and the countrified 'Learn To Live'. 'Don't Think I Don't Think About It' was the lead single from the latter and in terms of polished commercial country hits the nail smack on the head. It went to number one in the genre's charts, something of a rarity for an African-American. While the song ticks all the right boxes, you can't help but wonder if Rucker didn't sit down with a list of items that he thought a country song should have and then wrote something to fit - relationship gone wrong, reference to whisky, slide guitar, etc. are all there. That said, it's a decent enough song, so the motivation probably isn't that important. ~Martin Gadgil. Copyright (c) Shazam Entertainment Limited 2009. All rights reserved |
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Slide
The Goo Goo Dolls |
When they picked their moniker from an ad in a detective magazine, The Goo Goo Dolls had no idea that they would go on to sell over nine million records - according to the band had they known they would have chosen something else. 'Slide' certainly accounted for a number of those sales. After four albums that more or less disappeared into the ether, the band released 'A Boy Named Goo' which went double platinum in the US. The follow-up 'Dizzy Up The Girl' featured this single. It's a tuneful number featuring a stripped down line-up of three acoustic guitars, vocals, a shaker and a tambourine. Having a minimal setup means the song writing has to be pretty good to avoid the listener slipping into a coma and fortunately in this case it is. The lyrics are reasonably coherent and clear, the guitars all strum along together and the backing vocals add a bit of beef while the up-tempo nature of the track keeps things ticking over nicely between verse and chorus. ~Martin Gadgil. Copyright (c) Shazam Entertainment Limited 2009. All rights reserved |
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The Boss
Rick Ross Feat. T-Pain |
Taken from Rick Ross's second album 'Trilla', 'The Boss' is one of his best performing tracks. Featuring T-Pain and the best use of the word 'thus' in an r&b tune to date ('I'm the biggest boss that you've seen thus far') it shot up to 17 on the Hot 100. After a few sirens and vocal effects announce proceedings T-Pain dusts off the AutoTune for the first verse before Rick pops up with the chorus and continues on from there. There's quite a bit of variety in the backing track, a scattering beat with synth vox-type lines rising and falling around orchestral stabs and harp scales, giving interesting melodic variation. It's a good effort from Ross who seemingly spends most of his time getting into beefs with other rappers (50 Cent) and trying to deny his past employment history - he once worked as a 'correctional officer' (ie. prison guard), probably not the coolest profession for a bad boy rapper who borrowed his name from a notorious drug dealer. ~Martin Gadgil. Copyright (c) Shazam Entertainment Limited 2009. All rights reserved |
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Walk It Out
DJ Unk |
Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Anthony Platt, better known as DJ Unk, cracked the big time with the release of his debut single, the infectious 'Walk It Out'. Although it had received airplay in Unk's home town, it took several months for the single to achieve nationwide success; but when it did things really took off. The single shot to number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was remixed to include contributions from Andre 3000 and Big Boi from OutKast. The track itself is pretty straight forward - a basic beat and the occasional orchestral stab with a synth top line and an arpeggio in the chorus is about all there is in terms of instrumentation, so it's a good job the vocals supply all the necessary vigour to keep things pumping. They 're heavilyy repetitive, but the chorus is sufficiently hooky to keep you nodding along, and various 'heys' and 'woah's' bulk things out. It's a surprisingly simple and effective combination, which certainly caught the attention of the US audience, as did news that Unk pledged to give up smoking weed and drinking after a suspected mild heart attack in August 2009. ~Martin Gadgil. Copyright (c) Shazam Entertainment Limited 2009. All rights reserved |
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