Rated Fall To Grace: First Listen

I've been girding my loins for the new Paloma Faith album for weeks and in 10 days it will drop into my lap and I'll be floating along to it for hours on end. This morning I discovered the album sampler is available online and so, naturally, I got listening and putting pen to paper. On first impressions this is a strong collection of songs, with Paloma's voice on top form and the production never threatens to drown her out. I notice a lack of the potent retro feel of her debut Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? with its vintage inspired songs 'Upside Down', 'Smoke & Mirrors' and 'Broken Doll'. However, that said, this slight change/evolution in her sound is a clear sign of artistic progression. I guess we'll have to wait and see for sure when the album-full is released on 28 May.

Picking Up The Pieces
A lovely 'oomph' filled orchestral ballad about a crumbling relationship. See my review here.

30 Minute Love Affair
"30 minute love affair/All in the blink of an eye/There you were standing there..."she sings over an uplifting array of pleasant 80s synths. This is a bouncy poppy number that sounds unlike anything she's recorded before.


Black & Blue
One of the stronger ballads on the album, with stunning vocals on the massive chorus that wouldn't have seemed out of place on her debut album.


Just Be
A stripped back ballad, with some unusually restrained vocals from Paloma laced over the top of a gorgeous piano.


Let Me Down Easy
A fantastic sounding mid-down tempo song with a throbbing synth beat and a haunting metallic riff. This is electronic soul at its best.


Blood, Sweat & Tears
This sounds a bit like it was written by Sam Sparro and The Scissor Sisters. A electronic-disco infused pop song, this is a grower.


Beauty of the End
This sounds a bit like a bonus track from her first album. Lovely 'oooohh aaaahh' backing the chorus and Paloma's soulful voice.


When You're Gone
The first thing I thought of when I heard this was James Blake's album. It's no where near as wonderfully weird as that, but it has a faint throb in the background that sounds like he might have had a hand in its production.


Agony
A stronger uptempo track to 'Blood, Sweat & Tears'. "This is agony but it's still a thrill for me..." she belts out on a less bouncy, more orchestral pop song.


Let Your Love Walk In
Again, another ballad with lovely vocals. By this point I'd gotten a bit confused by which ballad was what. This is probably just because I've only had access to 1 minute clips of each, making it harder to absorb each one. Sounds good, potentially not as strong as the others though.


Freedom
One of my favourites. Starting off in lounge ballad form over a piano this song unexpectedly bursts into an exhilarating mid tempo chorus with light synths and an infectious beat.


Streets of Glory
The album closes with a ballad, showcasing just why this singer deserves some more recognition for her talent. It's a ghostly song with a sumptuous strings section and a thumping beat.

On first listen Fall To Grace sounds like it's brimming with artistic promise. There are some truly beautiful musical moments here in the form of 'Picking Up the Pieces', 'Just Be' and the epic 'Freedom'. I have some concern that the ballads might be a little samey, but I will reserve this criticism for when I've heard the full album in all its glory. Right now, I'm pretty confident this is going to be a joyride.

Rated Perfect World

Beth Ditto is back to her belt out best on the Gossip's new track 'Perfect World'. Similarly to 'Heavy Cross', this is a strong example of what's on the rest of their new album A Joyful Noise (review coming soon) and as a stand alone song it's damn lovely. Ditto's soulful vocals meander between the gothic rock synths and riffs, sounding as convincing and powerful as ever. It's typically Gossip and gorgeously Beth.

5/5

Rated Sunday Girl 2012

Ok so it's over a year since I first posted about Sunday Girl and still nothing has happened. Her career hasn't gone into orbit like I predicted and 'Four Floors' still isn't receiving the recognition it deserves. This is something I want to rectify, if only for this one song's sake! It's over two years old now and I still absolutely love it. I want an album god damnit!

Rated Picking Up The Pieces

It's been a while since we heard anything from Paloma Faith, other than the odd burst of 'Upside Down' over the top of the daft Boots adverts. Her last single 'Smoke & Mirrors' didn't even threaten to ignite the charts, which is a shame because it really is a great pop song. Her debut album Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? was a great collection of retro tinged pop songs, with elements of blues and soul entwined in well written pop craft. As her sophomore album approaches, entitled Fall To Grace, she really needed to showcase something special to ensure it makes an impact.

'Picking Up The Pieces' succeeds as a lead single. The standard structure of a song is start off small and end things big, however this doesn't follow this generic layout. Instead, the song's first chorus is huge and gets even bigger as the song reaches its crescendo. 'Now she's gone and I'm picking up the pieces' Paloma belts with her gorgeous vocal on a song about a crumbling relationship, damaged by a past love. The song is well written, well sung and most reassuringly continues the nu-vintage soul sound of her debut collection. It's nice to see she's sticking to her own style and not falling into the habits of many of her peers, jumping onto some boring dub step inspired bandwagon. I just hope this song and the upcoming album gain this brilliant artist the recognition and respect she deserves.

5/5

Listen to the song here

Rated 'My Kind of Love'

Emeli Sande performed her stunning new single on The Voice UK last night on BBC1. One performance so strong and so impressive I thought it needed a post of its very own. Amazing vocal range, brilliant stage arrangement and one of my favourite songs of 2012, this is a performance I'll be watching over and over for months. Take a look below if you missed it or like me, you just can't get enough of Emeli!

Rated Roundup: Cheryl/Tulisa/Rita

She's back and she forgot her trousers!

Something horrendous has happened... I like Cheryl Cole and Tulisa's new singles. I'm distressed as I dance around the flat singing '...when you call my name' at the top of my voice. My poor neighbours, no wonder they moved out. Anyway, here's another roundup of singles for your audio pleasure/displeasure, including those two dirties above:

1. Cheryl Cole - Call My Name

So she's back, Y-I.ing her way back into the spotlight after a much needed hiatus (much needed for us, not her). I won't lie, I liked 'Fight For This Love' and 'Promise This' because they were nothing more than fun coated, sticky sugary pop. Now with 'Call My Name' she's teamed up with Calvin Harris to create a song that sounds suspiciously similar to his behemoth Rihanna hit 'We Found Love'. It's got the same summery tone and a very similar structure, but it's completely different, right? Anyway, that aside, this is a pretty damn good pop song and I won't deny ol' tarty chops her place at number 1. Since I'm the chart controller.

5/5

2. Tulisa - Young

Another one who's thrown me into turmoil with her new single. 'Young' is a well timed dance number about the foolery of youth and how it is an excuse for making silly mistakes and trashing art shows (or giving a guy a blow job on camera, badly). 'Forgive me for what I have done, cos I'm young, Yeah I'm young', sings a vocally impressive Tulisa. It's not perfect though. The Calvin Harris esque build up-dance explosion is fun but not as good as that which it seems to mimic and the repetitive title line gets a bit tiresome. It's just silly pop at the end of the day, so let's not take it too seriously.

4/5

3. Rita Ora - R.I.P

First coming to our attention on DJ Fresh's annoying number one hit 'Hot Right Now', Rita Ora caused some confusion as the 'girl who copies Rihanna's blonde hair'. Somehow I don't think hair colour is something attributable to being a rip off, so let's just sack that notion now. 'R.I.P' is her first solo outing and it's pretty catchy. Her voice sounds great and she's got her own thing going on there. The only problem is that we've heard all this before. Dubstep inspired electronic pop rnb. If only she'd come at us with something a bit more original then maybe we could consider her a force to be reckoned with. Based on this good, but unoriginal debut, I don't have much confidence in her future.

3/5

Rated Thursday Playlist

They say music reflects and affects your mood. I'm not sure what mood I'm in, a pretty crappy one but the below playlist has plenty upbeat slices of yummy musical cake to keep you bouncing this coming weekend. I think the more up tempo tracks are probably illustrative of my desire to escape to a completely different existence. This isn't in any particular order, it's just some songs I can't stop listening to this week and I'll probably continue to batter then this weekend.

Rated i's weekend playlist (Published May 3rd)

Fun. - We Are Young
Rihanna - Where Have You Been?
Simian Mobile Disco - Cruel Intentions
James Blake - Why Don't You Call Me?
Black Keys - Gold on the Ceiling
Lana Del Rey - Off to the Races
Norah Jones - Happy Pills
Alicia Keys - Like the Sea
Beyonce - Sweet Dreams
Emeli Sande - My Kind of Love
Kele - Tenderoni

Rated Where Have You Been?

Hi hi! So Rihanna finally made the right move and released an epic single from Talk That Talk. After 'We Found Love' the other two singles seemed lack lustre on their own, but new cut 'Where Have You Been?' is an immense dance floor mercenary of a song, that starts of in a teasing down tempo fashion, only to build into an intense and epic electronic break down. I just hope she whips out 'Drunk On Love' next, to really tip the scales back in her direction.

5/5

Rated Self Esteem Assault - Martin Pichler

So I came across (no puns please) Martin Pichler this evening when I was reading through my blogger feed. So, he pretty much has the ultimate male physique. I have a sneaking suspicision that no amount of good diet, protein shakes and working out could get me a body like this. Damn his perfect genetic code. 

Ass hole. :(

Rated Roundup: Connor Maynard is awful and Beyonce's still fabulous!

There are so many new songs dropping out of the pop-womb right now I figured it would make more sense to just post 5 of them in one go. Some are good, some not so. Some are seductive, some about as appealing as a night in bed with Pat Butcher's corpse. The one thing I will say though, even if you can't tell right now, is that we are coming into the 'Summer Smash' season and I couldn't be more excited! 

Cover Drive - 'Sparks'

I was perplexed by their debut single 'Lick Ya Down', which deserves negative numbers out of 5 for its corny and simply awful lyrics and production. However, after a few weeks of 'Twilight' beating through the radio at work I became hooked to the 'Ooh la Ooh la' hook and Caribbean flavour of their second effort. Now they're back with a third assault on the charts and it's a bit like  a ballad version of 'What's My Name?' by Rihanna, with the gorgeous West Indian percussion floating about in seductive fashion. This is guaranteed to be big over here, with its summery sound being exactly what we need right now.

4/5

Beyonce - 'End Of Time'

It's been almost a year since 4 was unleashed and the rumours of a terrible album were quashed under the immense booty of one third of Destiny's Child. A string of singles (maybe 5?) later and we have had some of the most refreshing music to hit the charts in years. 'Countdown' was fantastic fun and its production unlike anything else around and '1+1' was stripped back and hypnotically nude. Now 'End Of Time' is being presented on its own and it's a glory to behold. Although we could have done with a funky music video to support it, this is one of the most fun and colourful songs Beyonce's every released, with its pounding military drums and blasting horn section, the lady seems unable to make a 'single' mistake.

5/5

The Saturdays - '30 Days'

I was a big fan of 'Heart Takes Over' but it failed to ignite the charts. In fact, The Saturdays were once filled with such promise, but seem to have fallen victim to genericism, which is causing their music to be relegated to the bottom end of the top 10. Could '30 Days' be the song to break this pattern and could it become their first number one? Probably not. The chorus is catchy and in places quite exciting, along with some pretty standard but refreshing dance-floor ready production. Unfortunately, the song is let down by some dodgy verses that feel like they were written as some Secondary school kid's music project, 'I woke up in the morning/felt so far away/marks on my calendar/don't hurry up the days...'. 

2/5

Connor Maynard - 'Can't Say No'

"The British Bieber" is what the critics are hailing this fame hungry youth from Brighton as. Great, just what we wanted. I don't really know where to begin, so I'll give the production a swift roundhouse kick to the face first. The beat is repetitive, uninspired and completely lacklustre. As for vocal performance, Connard is as convincing a singer as Bieber, that's for sure. Neither of them has any vocal 'oomph' and singing in one key doesn't count as young talent. You might not be able to say no Connard, but I can guarantee there's plenty rejection coming your way.

0/5

Fun. - 'We Are Young'

I was engulfed by this song the first time I heard it. It's already broken chart records in the US and it looks set to do big things on our side of the Atlantic too. It's a pop record by an indie band, only it's not a pop record. It's so confusing, because I know it sounds Indie and I know it sounds pop, but I just can't decide which it should be! Bugger it. Let's just say I love it! Big Indie-Pop-Somethingorother anthem of 2012.

5/5

Rated Resident Evil 6

It may come as a surprise, or not so much, but I am a total video game geek. Well, I used to be and sometimes a game will come out that will reignite my love for this platform, like the months of my life lost to Final Fantasy 13 last year. It looks like 2012 is going to be the year of Resident Evil. With the new movie coming out at the tale end of Summer (mmm love me some Milla) I got ever so excited about the franchise once more. Now I have witnessed a trailer for the next video game in the series, Resident Evil 6 and I am almost, emphasis on almost, sitting in a pool of bodily fluids. 

The next generation of the series has been impressive and controversial thus far. RE4 rebooted the series and gave it the overhaul into the action genre it so desperately needed, whilst retaining the tension that made the earlier instalments so loveable and so bloody terrifying (I still recall being 13 and not being able to play RE2 on my own at night because of that bastard Licker). It got Leon Kennedy back, with his floppy Cali-hair do and a newly buffed out physique that made any males playing the game feel inadequate. Then RE5 popped up, set in Africa and drawing huge wads of controversy for its depiction of violence against natives. This was a completely ridiculous argument and I gave it very little time. The game started off very well, in uber violent form and thrust a phantasmagorically ripped Chris Redfield back into my life as well as a likeable sidekick, Sheva. I liked it all, but many didn't, saying it was clunky, linear and quite unsatisfying, although looked wonderful.

RE6 is now coming out in early October 2012. It apparently give us 3 stories, like RE2 gave us Leon and Claire's scenarios. There's Leon, Chris and a new guy called Jake Muller (yes, like the rice) who turns out to be Albert Wesker's son. You couldn't make this shit up... or you could, but it's all just too juicy. The zombies are back instead of the plagas loons and survival is emphasised more than action, creating a healthy balance of the first 3 games and the latter stages of the series. I don't know much right now, but I know that I am crazy excited about this and I also know that come October, I won't have a social life for weeks (sorry friends). The one thing that would make this whole event more satisfying is if Claire made a cameo. If we're being forced to deal with Sherry Birkin again I need a cameo from CR. 

I am going to buy a 100" tv and I am going to die of starvation come November. It will be so worth it.

Rated Sam Way

March/April manspiration and major man envy is Sam Way. I can't even begin to express...

Rated Mad About Mad Men

I didn’t even know Mad Men existed until summer of 2011, when I saw pictures of a certain voluptuous redhead from some sexy magazine shoot. This pushed me to do some research and within minutes I became aware of the award winning American drama. It’s now March 2012 and I have just worked my way through the first season. Let me just say, I have never been so swiftly hooked by a TV show in my long life as a TV consumer.

I won’t go into any plot details because you will have, or should have, already seen it! The performances are captivating, the humour is appropriate and relevant, the styling spot on for the 60s setting and the dialogue is at worst, immaculate. It explores more themes than I ever thought it would or could. For example, the latent homosexuality of Sal and the lesbian lust of Joan’s roommate are portrayed so sensitively and so appropriately for the time that it’s impossible not to relate. The crisis of identity this brings on is also explored in the division of men and women. Don Draper and his male associates are all womanizing, adulterous chauvinists. You can’t hate the men for their attitudes because it’s what the general conception of what masculinity and femininity meant at the beginning of the 1960s. The depression of Elizabeth Draper is a poignant storyline that makes you wonder, is she just depressed or is this some indirect way of commenting on the role of women? I would hazard a guess to the latter. One of my favourite things about the show is the incessant smoking, indoors and out. There’s something satisfying about watching Joan light up a chunky ciggy in the middle of the office, something liberating in contrast to the restrictions on the habit that are endured today.

The deepest recess of the hook’s curve is the divine Christina Hendricks who plays Joan, the office manager from heaven. She’s got the body of a goddess and the sharp tongue of an authoritative redhead. Her performance is by no means better than anyone else’s (everyone is great) but her onscreen presence is incredibly enticing. Maybe it’s all those awesome dresses she sports?

Right, now I’m going on Play.com to order season 2. Goodbye Life.

Rated Blue Jeans

I love this song from Lana Del Rey's debut album Born To Die. I made it clear how much I love the album back in January and as time has gone on I've grown to love it even more. You can say whatever you want about her, but you can't deny her musical charm. Also check out 'Radio'.

Rated: We Want The Same Thing

I still remember the day my mum brought home the Belinda Carlisle Greatest Hits album on cassette. So much plastic and all that dark brown ribbon inside gave so much joy to a 6 year old boy, who tired of the 60s and 70s albums constantly blasted through the stone walls of his croft house. I didn't have music channels (it was 1993 and I was on an island) and I didn't really listen to radio, so I was completely musically ignorant. It's funny, how one song can bring you back to a specific moment in your past. The below song takes me right back to my kitchen, dancing about and singing with a broom handle, that towered about 2-3 ft above me. I was so talented. May I add, I was wearing a blue and green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sweater and matching trackies at the time. This is my song of the 80s.