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Teddy Thompson - A
Piece Of What You Need
For some reason, Teddy
Thompson hasn't yet been able to fully emerge
from the shadow of his folk superstar parents
Richard and Linda or his celeb buddy Rufus
Wainwright, but hopefully A Piece Of What
You Need will at least take him another
step towards that. Coming three years after
his last proper album, the critically-acclaimed
Separate Ways, it finds Thompson building
on what was good about his first two albums,
plus showing how the music he performed
on last year's country covers album Upfront
& Down Low has inspired his creative growth.
Vocally, his similarity to Roy Orbison and
Chris Isaak is ever more apparent, but he
doesn't play on that too much, while he's
still staying clear of making the kind of
music his parents are famous for. There
are definite Orbison references in the songwriting,
of course, as there have been on all of
his albums, but unlike, say, Isaak, Thompson
takes these and uses them in a modern way,
rather than making music that could be from
the 50s or 60s. Producer Marius de Vries
helps in that respect, mixing up the old-timey
touches (like the blissful wurlitzer segment
of In My Arms) with resoundingly modern
production. Like Orbison and Isaak, Thompson's
voice is so thick with emotion at times
that some of the more downbeat tracks can
be suffocated by it, so the more successful
songs on here are the ones that are a little
bit more lively, and thankfully there are
plenty of those. Even when the lyrics are
quite dark and brooding (which they usually
are), the songs and the production methods
used are almost always enough to lift them
up, like on Jonathan's Book, which kicks
off with a slash of music that sounds like
it is straight from the score of Psycho
or some other Hitchcock movie, while Can't
Sing Straight explodes into life at the
end with the help of a brass band straight
out of Dixie. A Piece Of What You Need takes
everything that has been great about Teddy
Thompson's career so far and turns it into
a widescreen production that should really
help cement his place in the music history
books alongside those parents of his.
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Hellsongs - Songs In The Key Of 666
A quick and easy way to get yourself some attention in the music industry is to do a cover version of a famous song from one genre in the style of another genre. Heck, even the great Paul Anka brought out a covers album a few years ago that saw him tackle Smells Like Teen Spirit and Black Hole Sun, while Richard Cheese has built an entire career out of his lounge versions of rock and rap classics. So, it's easy to be cynical about the motives of Hellsongs and their Songs In The Key Of 666 album. But at least found and guitarist Kalle Karlsson is a passionate metalhead who has a long history in headbanging bands, so there is a genuine love for the music his current band are transforming. And there's almost a noble motive in there too. Most people don't really consider heavy metal as a genre where the lyrics are important or meaningful, mainly because no-one can tell what they actually are when they are being screamed out by a hairy guy over a barrage of guitars. Songs In The Key Of 666 takes away the screaming and the heavy guitars, presenting a series of metal classics in a more stripped-down and laidback setting, letting the lyrics to tracks like Iron Maiden's The Trooper and Run To The Hills shine through, making you realise that Bruce Dickinson's air-raid siren vocals are actually bellowing out some meaningful and thoughtful stuff. Along with Maiden, the likes of Slayer, Metallica, AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Twisted Sister are represented here, with the music and soft vocals by Harriet Ohlsson fitting the lyrics just as if they were meant to be done like this. The only real exception is Megadeth's bleak Symphony Of Destruction, with is given a swinging kind of jive that sounds good, but also sounds false as it doesn't fit the words. It's a rare mis-step though, on an album that works more often than it doesn't, and if it gives you a new-found respect for heavy metal, then all the better.
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The Allstars
Collective - All About The Music
On the
face of it, a band called The
Allstars Collective should really
have a number of people who
could be called 'stars' because
they are incredibly famous,
but this Collective has none.
The chances are that 99% of
music fans will have never heard
of any of them, but that doesn't
mean that they aren't stars
in the true sense of the word,
rather than the 'Paris Hilton'
sense of it. Here's a list of
artists who these musicians
have individually worked with
over the years: Michael Jackson,
Elton John, Madonna, Rod Stewart,
Mariah Carey, George Michael,
Amy Winehouse, Stevie Wonder,
The Eurythmics, Chaka Kahn,
Jennifer Lopez and Shakira.
One member taught Madonna to
play the guitar. The Collective
performed at Ashley and Cheryl
Cole's wedding, as well as several
film premieres. And more important
than all of that, their debut
album All About The Music is
really good, so it's definitely
not a case of too many cooks
spoiling the broth. The emphasis
is firmly on music that is easy
to listen to, with elements
of pop, soul, reggae and funk,
so it's hardly cutting edge
stuff, but nor is it over-produced
elevator music made by dull
session pros either. The clear
highlight is title track, mission
statement and recent single
All About The Music, which features
Jocelyn Brown on joyous vocals,
but each of the 10 tracks on
here is entertaining and impressive
on its own merits, as well as
perfect summer party music.
They may not have the high profile
of the artists they work with,
but this lot are often the real
stars of the music they perform
on, so it's about time they
had their moment in the spotlight
and All About The Music gives
them just that.
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