Music review entries

The first of a number of reviews..

I feel like I have let the RaW Pop fans out there down by not reviewing this debut album from Charlotte Church sooner but I've been so busy I only remembered it had come out at the weekend

The best way I can describe Charlotte's singing style is a cross between Avril Lavigne and Anastacia.

It starts with track 1, Call My Name which has a great little beat but very similar apart from being slower and more relaxing to track 2 which is of course her first single Crazy Chick, but a good opener nevertheless.

Crazy Chick although its quite good gets a bit boring after listening to it more than once and I can see why it only made it to number 2 in the charts

Track 3 is Moodswings. with the main hook sounding awfully likeysomething from the Corrs, and already there seems to be a theme with the track titles and the lyrics seeming to depict Charlotte's life and what the tabloids say about her, almost emphasising too much that she cowrote most of the album

Track 4 is a nice ballad called Show a Little Faith and shows this album certainly has variety. A nice calming track and this would make a good single release. I always think ballads can always show if singers can sing (or not) and certainly shows she can.

Track 5 continues the ballad theme called Finding My Own Way and is even better than Track 4. Sounds a lot like a Natalie Imbruglia-ish song with a great bit of piano that really makes the track, and it gets better as it develops with a customary key change. So far this album is seeming well produced and certainly shows a lot of effort and energy has gone into writing these songs.

Track 6 – Lets be Alone is a complete change bringing back the more rockier feel of tracks 1 and 2, and in my opinion is the worst track so far with someboday going overboard with the voice effects and synth and is a bit like a bad Sophie Ellis-Bextor track, avoid this one if I were you.

Track 7 is called Easy to Forget which this track certainly is. Compared to the previous two ballads this one has a Spanish theme and is definitely not up to the same standard and rather boring.

Track 8 Fool No More, ditto track 7 comments I'm starting to get really bored now

Track 9 Easy way Out, is better but not by much, I thought it might improve at the chorus but it didn't

Track 10 Casulty Of Love sounds like it is a love song from a musical and brings back the Spanish flavour again

Track 11 Even God – OIf theres chance of a late comeback for this album from a downhill road this track might do it. Of the same callibre as tracks 2 and 3 with some more great piano. Complete, complete contrast in terms of style, instrumentation and lyrics to Crazy Chick and bit of a weird endsing with no perfect cadence (or those of you musically in the know) like the other tracks

Track 12 Confessional Song contues the religious theme in the title and lyrics like that of track 11 and is very similar in many other ways. This track can stand its own and is not a bad one to end

So overall its seriously let down by tracks 6–10 and makes me wonder what the 7 tracks were that Charlotte produced that didn't make it on to the album are like. The other tracks makes this album a solid 3 out of 5 but Charlotte seriously isn't challenging for the princess of pop crown let alone that of the queen of pop's yet and to be honest I expected it to better but I suppose it is her first attempt and I'm sure there will likely be another album eventually that may get higher up the scale and charts from this diva

: 18 Jul 2005 22:14 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Affirmation by Savage Garden (just like at my cov. home)

Bought a couple of random CD's today just because I got locked out at home (well more precisely forgot my key) and instead of trying to commit a breaking a entry offence by kicking down the front door (as well as annoying the landlords a bit) I decided to head into the great city of Coventry.

This was the first cd I bought today as have always been quite keen on savage just never got round to getting one of there albums before. It has some classic tunes on it such as Affirmation and the hit Crash and Burn but these are inter mixed with some slow rubbish that I found was putting me to sleep such as The Best Thing. Having not listened to that much savage before I was quite surprised that most tracks were slower than the two previously mentioned with the only other really good track being The Animal Song.

Anyway these 3 tracks make it worthwhile in buying this album from one of my favourite shops MVC,(due to it being the nearest music shop to my coventry home and having a large amount of cheap Britney and other cheeses always in stock :-). In retospect this is probably one of the best albums I listened to this year as I actually managed to listen to it all the way through just about so thats why i have given it the poptastic rating of 4 stars out of 5.

: 22 Feb 2005 17:38 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem