Category: Pop (Page 99 of 216)

Enya: And Winter Came…

November 28, 2008 /

Actual conversation between two Bullz-Eye staffers:

Writer #1: Isn’t Enya’s new album a holiday album?
Writer #2: Aren’t they all holiday albums?

It was only meant as a joke, of course, but there is a kernel of truth there as well. There is nothing on And Winter Came… that sounds any more or less Christmas-y than any of her other albums (save for the album’s closer, a version of “Silent Night” done in Irish), but Enya’s soundscapes do have a certain coldness to them that make them ideal wintertime listening. You’ve heard a few of these songs before in various incarnations – this album’s instrumental title track is a direct descendant to the instrumental title tracks on Watermark and Shepherd Moons – but a couple songs, namely “Trains and Winter Rains” and “My! My! Time Flies,” boast chord progressions and arrangements that suggest Enya’s a closet power pop fan, of all things. Heck, the latter song even has an honest to goodness guitar solo. It’s tempting to put Enya down for making the same album over and over, but it works, damn it. (Reprise)

Click to buy And Winter Came…

Ambient, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, New Age, Pop

Zealousy: Complications

November 28, 2008 /

Zealousy is another one of those groups that wants to marry dark theatrics to their pop tunes. That’s fine and all, but this has been done much better before with far greater appeal (think Fuji Minx, for instance). Vocalist Amarie Darvai hits all the notes effortlessly, but there’s something about the mix of opener “Girl on the Edge” that pushes everything into distortionland. The rest of the group plays facelessly behind her, which is fine because you get the feeling this is all really her show. “So I Am” tries to play it off strong-willed and tough, but really doesn’t have claws as long as it likes to think it does. When the band tries for somewhat lighter moments, such as on “Drop,” Darvai’s performance just overshadows the rest of the group. She could stand to hold back just a little at times. A song like “Chemical Imbalance” plays out as annoyingly as you might expect from a group like this. My advice is for Zealousy to find a better producer, and perhaps musicians who don’t constantly take the piss from Amarie’s delivery on every song. It’s okay to be heard as well, you know. Otherwise, these guys are just treading the average waters with a nondescript sound. Ho hum. (self-released)

Zealousy MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, Pop, Rock

Jimmy Wayne: Do You Believe Me Now?

November 28, 2008 /

Every once in a while, some country artist and/or songwriter takes a chance on a song that doesn’t sound like everything else they release. Jimmy Wayne’s “Do You Believe Me Now?” the title track to his latest, and second album, is that song – essentially a great pop song sung with a twangy vocal and a lyrical theme that is left of center (guy sees the way other guy is looking at his girl, and fast-forwards to when he is the odd man out and the other guy has his girl now). Well, that, and the track is as catchy as anything you’ll ever hear. Read his bio, and you won’t help but feel for the guy, who once saw his stepfather shoot (and paralyze) his stepbrother’s wife and then attempt to kill Jimmy too when he was 15. But mostly this is a new country artist (who co-writes most of his material) armed with a solid album of hooky songs that reflect the variety of music his foster parents listened to – Hall & Oates, Alan Jackson, Iron Maiden among them. Other standouts are the breezy “I Will” and sultry semi-ballad “One on One.” With the title track recently hitting #1 on the country charts, the sky is the limit for Jimmy Wayne, and gives hope to some of the lesser-known but promising songwriting talent on Music Row. (Valory Music Co.)

Jimmy Wayne MySpace Page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Country, Pop, Rock

Cosmic American Derelicts: Songs from the Homestead

November 25, 2008 /

This electric/acoustic bluegrass boogie band does an amicable job of throwing up some dust on their new nine-track release. “Sleepwalking Killer” gets things off to a good start with lickety-split rhythms, plenty of twanging guitars and a banjo thrown in for good measure. “Same Old” follows almost the same exact formula, except the acoustic guitars take front and center, and the drum sticks are given away for brushes, but the vibe is completely the same. “Barbed Wire Bed” finally steeps itself into rustic bluegrass Americana and ditches the electric guitars altogether, showing off the pure, raw talents of this group. Other tracks that try for the more pop country format, like “Dollar Bill Blues” don’t suit the band as well. Ditto that for the corny clichéd lyrical pursuits of “Drink You off My Mind.” And, well, the closing “Rocktopus” really doesn’t fit at all with the rest of the album. Too bad, because the first half of this disc really is good. When these guys stray from the bluegrass trappings, though, they lose it all over the place.(self-released)

Cosmic American Derelicts MySpace page

Americana, CD Reviews, Country, Pop

Great Big Sea: Fortune’s Favour

November 24, 2008 /

Newfoundland’s finest return for their 10th album, this time with producer Hawksley Workman in tow, and though nothing on Fortune’s Favour is unexpected – the band long ago got its act down to a science, if not an art – none of it disappoints, either. Since making its American “breakthrough” in the mid-to-late ‘90s, Great Big Sea has occasionally seemed unsure of which direction to follow – some sets found them tilting a little too heavily toward the pop end of the spectrum at the expense of the trad-folk elements of their sound that make them so unique – but as their U.S. sales have dwindled over the last five or six years, their focus has improved, and this album is as sure-footed as anything they’ve released since Turn. It does present a somewhat mellower picture of the band than some longtime fans may be comfortable with, but that’s appropriate; Great Big Sea’s music has always played on the tension between love of home and love of the road, and if their songs get sweeter and softer with age, it’s probably only par for the course. The album is bookended with a pair of killer cuts (“Love Me Tonight,” “Straight to Hell”), and manages to get through 14 tracks without ever really sagging in between. A no-frills DVD of studio footage is thrown in as a value-added bonus, but unless your idea of fun is watching the band fart around between takes, there’s no reason to buy this other than the music – and thankfully, it’s more than strong enough to stand on its own. (Great Big Sea 2008)

Great Big Sea MySpace page

CD Reviews, Folk, Pop, Rock

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