Buy Kylie Minogue - X
The best summary of Kylie Minogue comes from Grant Morrison's 1992 Zenith comic: "Kylie is Vera Lynn for Third World War," yelled an eight-foot raver robot, and though nobody knew it then he was right. Like 1940s siren Dame Vera, she's one of Britain's most beloved entertainers, a comforting fixity in the pop firmament. But since 2001's career-defining "Can't Get You Out Of My Head", there's also an expectation that she'll play the futurist, define pop's leading edge. X, her comeback album after a fight against cancer, doesn't always succeed in balancing these two Minogues.
When Minogue's irrepressible teen chirp dominated Britain's charts in the late-80s, critics deplored her even while conceding that she herself was a likable personality. Minogue's career has often seemed a series of attempts to expand on this basic likability to add sex, or credibility, or modernism to the mix. The main barrier is generally her voice: Thin, slightly nasal, and prone to strain, it's a 128 kbps instrument in a 320 kpbs world. Minogue has usually been skillful enough to pick material that suits it, however. "2 Hearts", X's first single, is a fine example: An electro-rock vamp gesturing toward Goldfrapp, it's built around heavy piano rolls that give the track some bottom and Minogue freedom to hiss and slink.
"2 Hearts" ticks all the Minogue comeback boxes it's an unexpected stylistic move, it plays to her strengths, it's not copying herself or her close peers. It also, unfortunately, sounds like nothing else on X, which hops around searching for a sound it's comfortable with. X can seem like a revision primer for Minogue fans who've ignored the past few years of chart pop here's a bit of Gwen Stefani-style clockwork playground pop; here's some nu-Britney Spears cut-ups; here's some Sugababes sultriness. Here's electro-disco, cosmic disco, and just plain disco disco, plus nods to 1980s street dance and 00s r&b. If she'd thrown in a ska sample and cockney accent we'd have the whole contemporary UK pop scene on a single CD.
As you'd expect, not all of these styles suit her. "Heart Beat Rock", for instance, has fizzy Neptunes keyboards and a hot, stuttering beat. But the half-spoken lyrics need more sass than Minogue can give. Stefani giggling "I can make your heartbeat rock" might have been convincing Minogue just sounds twee. When that track ends and "The One"' shimmers gloriously in with New Order guitars and morse-code synths, the return to 4/4 dance-pop brings an almost tangible inrush of confidence. "I'm the One love me love me love me," she sings, and for these four minutes she is and we do. This kind of unfussy, hook-first music is what Minogue has always been best at, and back in her comfort zone she thrives.
In fact "2 Hearts" aside X's best tracks recall earlier victories. The heart of "No More Rain" is a hushed and lovely meditation on life's prettiness, like Minogue's haunting 2005 track "Made of Glass". Calvin Harris' production on "In My Arms" is like a cassette player version of Justice all hiss and stickytape but Minogue's roots were in cheap Xerox pop and she bounces around the tune with gusto.
Other songs see good ideas more clumsily executed. A Serge Gainsbourg sample makes "Sensitized" swing harder than anything else on X, but Minogue doesn't have the vocal power to match it. "Speakerphone" starts off with a tantalizing harp figure, then bundles it to the back of the mix assuming we'd prefer a Daft Punk retread instead. "Nu-Di-Ty" boasts the same writers, and the same sliced-up vocal treatments, as some of Britney's standard-setting Blackout, but here the relentless identity shifts result in a grating, baffling mess. On Minogue's comeback album, we want to hear Minogue.
Ultimately, we do. "Wow"'s funked-up electro sexiness may feel contrived, but its excitement is infectious anyway: It's great to hear Minogue having as much fun as she did on "The Loco-Motion" 20 years ago. Likability has got Kylie Minogue this far, and it pulls her through again even the weak tracks on X have a sparky enthusiasm that makes their magpie modernism sound less cynical. Vera Lynn wins this one: The third world war may have to wait.
Buy Kylie Minogue - X
01 2 Hearts
02 Like A Drug
03 In My Arms
04 Speakerphone
05 Sensitized
06 Heart Beat Rock
07 One
08 No More Rain
09 All I See
10 Stars
11 Wow
12 Nu Di Ty
13 Cosmic
14 Rippin' Up The Disco
15 Magnetic Electric
16 White Diamond
Kylie Minogue - X
Shayne Ward - Breathless
Buy Shayne Ward - Breathless
The Leona Lewis story has eclipsed just about every pop release of the autumn, but it casts a particularly dark shadow on Breathless, the second album from Shayne Ward. While the Manchester lad has toiled tirelessly to shake off his X Factor shackles, undertaking lengthy promo campaigns to place recent singles 'No U Hang Up'/'If That's OK With You' and 'Breathless' in the top ten, Lewis appeared to shed hers without breaking sweat. The number one spot? Hogged. Sales records? Smashed. Next year's Brit Awards? Bagged. To put it in context, Lewis' debut album Spirit has sold more in a fortnight than Ward's eponymous first platter managed in 18 months.
Nevertheless, the success of those singles suggests pop fans are warming to Ward, a process his 'people' have sought to speed up by grooming him as a fun-loving, bed-hopping ladies' man. To that end, he's got himself a buzz-cut (phwoar – manly!), gone shirtless in a promo video (ooh – steamy!) and, as his sophomore album attests, taken his musical cues from Mr. J.R. Timberlake (ah - sneaky!). 'Some Tears Never Dry' and 'Tell Him' are reasonable facsimiles of Timbo's Justified sound, while 'U Got Me So' approximates the tremulous electro of his recent Timbaland hook-ups. Sadly, like large portions of Breathless, they're crippled by the dry, stale whiff of anonymity.
As a young, handsome pop boyo with one eye on the Bliss market, the other on Saturday night at G-A-Y, it makes sense for Ward to ape Timberlake, currently the nearest thing the pop world has to a regnant King. However, his decision to channel George Michael, a contender to that throne back in the late eighties, is woefully misguided. Michael hasn't convinced as a ladies' man since he sauntered into an LA latrine on April 7, 1998, and Ward lacks the vocal charisma to attempt a 'Father Figure'-style soul workout, as he attempts on the vapid 'Stand By Your Side'. Worse still is 'Tangled Up', which photocopies every element of Wham!'s 'Everything She Wants' except the one that really matters: the gutsy, impassioned vocal performance.
Tantalisingly, when Ward concentrates on holding a tune rather than trying to copy the bigger boys in the pop playground, he emerges as a likeable, talented performer. 'Breathless' shows he's capable of selling a slick pop ballad, while the sleek reggae-pop of 'Damaged' makes good use of his impressive falsetto. The Timberlake-on-amyl club rush of 'U Make Me Wish', meanwhile, points to a possible new direction for the talent show survivor. Less cred-obsessed than Timbo, he can release the fun, frivolous pop songs that the increasingly po-faced Mouseketeer is too cool to croon.
As for that lothario act, it's comprehensively quashed by the gooey sentiments of 'If That's OK With You'. "I wanna keep your toothbrush at my apartment," Ward simpers winsomely. "I'll make a second set of keys and ask you to move in." Hard-partying bed-hopper? Nah. This one's more the stay at home type. Once he and his 'people' accept this, Shayne Ward might have a shot at a long-term career.
Buy Shayne Ward - Breathless
01 No U Hang Up
02 Breathless
03 If That's OK With You
04 Damaged
05 Some Tears Never Dry
06 Until You
07 Stand By Your Side
08 Melt The Snow
09 Tangled Up
10 Just Be Good To Me
11 U Got Me So
12 You Make Me Wish
13 Tell Him
Justin Timberlake - FutureSex / LoveSounds
Buy Justin Timberlake - FutureSex / LoveSounds
As a member of N'Sync, Justin Timberlake fronted innocuous love songs like "Girlfriend" and "God Must Have Spent A Little More Time On You." Then The Neptunes provided a musical landscape for his debut solo album, "Justified," that features horns, obvious verse/chorus structures and danceable beats.
Now, the flaxen-haired singer is straight up telling women what he wants in a more beat-driven style on his sophomore effort, "FutureSex/LoveSounds." The Neptunes are long gone, replaced mostly by Timbaland.
The 12 songs on "FutureSex/LoveSounds" roll together on the CD like a special club mix. That makes for a perfect soundtrack for a nightclub, but each song taken individually sounds out of context. Perhaps that's why "SexyBack," featuring Timbaland, doesn't necessarily work as a single.
The album kicks off with the title track, which possesses a bass line similar to Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust." With its distorted pre-chorus vocals, the track sounds like a dizzying fairground.
Special guests abound on "FutureSex/LoveSounds." Timbaland--who produced and sang bass on "Cry Me a River" from "Justified"--returns as a singer on "SexyBack." Rapper T.I. appears on the stomping "My Love." Black Eyed Peas' Will.I.Am sings on "Damn Girl." Finally, unlikely Oscar winners Three 6 Mafia let loose on "Chop Me Up."
But the special guests do not help heal the monotonous nature of the album, which relies on musical textures rather than strong tunes to hook the listeners in. For example, "LoveStoned" builds up with a pre-chorus that never goes anywhere.
A Timberlake release would not be complete without his deft beatboxing skills, found on songs like "My Love" and "LoveStoned." It's impressive but doesn't hold the album together.
Buy Justin Timberlake - FutureSex / LoveSounds
01 Future Sex/Love Sound
02 SexyBack
03 Sexy Ladies
04 My Love
05 Love Stoned
06 What Goes Around
07 Chop Me Up
08 Damn Girl
09 Summer Love
10 Until The End Of Time
11 Losing My Way
12 All Over Again (Another Song)
Whitney Houston - The Ultimate Collection
Buy Whitney Houston - The Ultimate Collection
Five years before Britney veered towards meltdown, another pop superstar began to teeter at the edges of the emotional abyss. Whitney Houston, a performer who'd stayed serene while selling 170 million albums, scoring seven consecutive US number one hits and belting out the lion's share of history's biggest-selling soundtrack CD, suddenly appeared to lose the plot. She got sacked from the Oscars, lost weight like a warthog who'd just been fitted with a particularly restrictive gastric band, and then told US talk show host Diane Sawyer that she made "too much money to ever smoke crack. Crack is whack," the once impenetrable diva surmised, in a move that makes the present day Britney seem remarkably lucid and media-savvy.
In the light of her ongoing personal and professional tumult - Houston's been absent from the charts for four years, now - her label can't be faulted for cutting their losses with a new hits collection. Sadly, in slimming down Houston's oeuvre to a single disc of chart-botherers, The Ultimate Collection omits several of her best songs. The anthemic 'Step By Step', the elegant, jazz-tinged 'I Learned From The Best' and the searing 'Queen Of The Night' are all missing, their places taken by the grandstanding ballads that made Houston a superstar.
Over the years, these have tended to fall into two categories: the schlocky love songs that are as sweet and gooey as a Nigella Lawson pudding ('Saving All My Love For You', 'I Have Nothing', 'Run To You'), and the inane self-empowerment anthems that have recently become AmIdol audition staples ('One Moment In Time', 'Greatest Love Of All'). Too often, these saccharine songs are a waste of Houston's rich, powerful, opulent voice: asking her to bellow lines like "Let the children's laughter remind us how we used to be" is like employing Stephen Fry to write a 10,000-word guide to capped rate mortgages. Worse still, ballad-mode Houston has a tendency to scorch when she should be simmering: the way she smothers 'I Will Always Love You' with melismatic vocal showboating is cold, crass and, ultimately, the very antithesis of soul.
Houston's floor-fillers have aged a little more gracefully, although their clunky, thudding drum sounds tend to be as irreversibly eighties as Joan Collins' Dynasty wardrobe. Nevertheless, 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)' remains buoyant and unshakable; 'So Emotional' houses one of Houston’s most persuasive vocal performances, and 'How Will I Know' is so steeped in melody that its verse – yes, its verse - became the basis for LMC vs. U2's 2004 chart-topper 'Take Me To The Clouds Above'.
However, Houston only truly justifies her superstar status on two tunes from 1998's My Love Is Your Love collection, a largely successful attempt at reinventing the increasingly fusty belter for a contemporary audience. Playing the wronged woman over Rodney Jerkins' percolating R&B rhythms on 'It's Not Right But It's Okay', she sounds spectacular, while Wyclef Jean's tender, romantic 'My Love Is Your Love' manages to humanise an artist who's often seemed like a robotic octave-conquering machine. If today's hitmakers can pull off the same trick – rumour has it Houston's currently sharing studio space with Ne-Yo, will.i.am and Akon - that dazzling voice could still realise its true potential.
Buy Whitney Houston - The Ultimate Collection
01 I Will Always Love You
02 Saving All My Love For You
03 Greatest Love Of All
04 One Moment In Time
05 I Wanna Dance With Somebody
06 How Will I Know
07 So Emotional
08 When You Believe - Houston, Whitney & Mariah Carey
09 Where Do Broken Hearts Go
10 I'm Your Baby Tonight
11 Didn't We Almost Have It All
12 Run To You
13 Exhale (Shoop Shoop)
14 If I Told You that - Houston, Whitney & George Michael
15 I Have Nothing
16 I'm Every Woman
17 It's Not Right But It's OK
18 My Love Is Your Love
Keith Urban - Greatest Hits
Buy Keith Urban - Greatest Hits
This greatest hits album may leave you wondering if Keith Urban should give his guitar to someone who's actually going to use it to make music worth listening to?
As a general rule, artists release greatest hits collections when they are a) out of ideas or b) in the process of reinventing themselves. Keith Urban's latest offering has left this reviewer desperately hoping that it is b) in this situation. The opening track, Romeo's Tune (which boasts an infectious piano riff and sing-along chorus), would have been an excellent choice to begin this album under ordinary circumstances. However, even if listeners had no idea who originally wrote and recorded this song (Steve Forbert in 1979, incidentally), it is blatantly obvious this is not a Keith Urban song. The fact that Urban uses another artist's song to open his greatest hits collection should immediately concern to anyone thinking of purchasing this album.
Listening to this CD is more or less the equivalent of tuning into your local easy-listening radio station. The songs, with their corny, cliched lyrics - like "It'll run us till we're ragged/It'll harden our hearts" and "I want to love somebody/Love somebody like you" - are incredibly easy to tune out to. Even when a banjo is permitted to feature, supposedly to add interest to an otherwise bland song, it is only to repeat the same riff, ad nauseam.
What this record highlights is the fact that Urban is a safe performer and songwriter. With tracks spanning a 10-year recording career it is interesting, not to mention disappointing, to discover that this artist has not evolved much (if at all!) since his humble beginnings. This reviewer cannot help but feel that Urban, who seems to be producing music for no other purpose than to enhance his media status, would be much better off flicking his sculpted hair around as a male model.
Buy Keith Urban - Greatest Hits
01 Romeo's Tune
02 Got It Right This Time (The Celebration)
03 I Told You So
04 Stupid Boy
05 Better Life
06 Making Memories of Us
07 Once In A Lifetime
08 Tonight I Wanna Cry
09 You're My Better Half
10 Days Go By
11 But For The Grace Of God
12 You'll Think Of Me
13 Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me
14 Raining on Sunday
15 Where The Blacktop Ends
16 .Your Everything
17 Somebody Like You
18 Everybody