I'll post some new/old albums and singles reviews of this uk page (hopefully daily)

Single - Christina Aguilera "beautiful"

Poor Christina - long considered pop's bit of rough. Next to Britney she was always going to come across as a little bit filthy. Especially when she paraded around the charts in those 'Dirrty' leather chaps.
But it's all change in camp-Aguilera. Gone are the bare butt-cheeks and raunchy dance moves and in come the sophisticated black outfits and a sombre piano ballad.
For a singer who has based much of her career on a carefully constructed image, 'Beautiful' marks a massive, but succesful change in direction. The track - written by Pink hitmaker Linda Perry - is an anthem for inner beauty. It's about looking beyond appearance and celebrating what's within.
In keeping with the lyrics, the music is stripped of needless fluff - Christina's voice more than capable of carrying the song next to the simple plod of the piano and a light smattering of strings. Whatever you might think of her, one thing's for sure - the girl can sing.
Britney had better watch her back, there's a new Princess of Pop in town.

Rate :7/10


Album - Mary J Blige "Reflections: (A Retrospective)"
For nearly 14 years, the USA has worshipped Mary J Blige as the queen of modern R&B, a sort of hip, street-toughened version of a torch singer, Dionne Warwick's soul fused with Missy Elliott's sass. In the UK, however, she hasn't had the same sustained impact. Other than odd exceptions like the Dre-propelled groove of "Family Affair", still her finest solo moment, Blige is as well known here for the promiscuity of her collaborations as for the quality of her back catalogue.

If "Reflections: (A Retrospective)" hoped to change minds, it seems destined to fail. Over 18 tracks, Blige repeatedly proves herself a very talented singer, an expert capable of both honeyed restraint and crystalline power. But unlike younger rivals like Beyonce, she's rarely found songs good enough to match that talent. None of the original songs here seem strong enough to ever become a standard, which is perhaps why Blige relies so much on cover versions and glitzy guest spots.

Indeed, the co-credits here read like the invite list for Elton John's next party: John Legend, Method Man, Wyclef Jean, George Michael and Bono. The results of these couplings are decidedly mixed: she and Legend sound simply gorgeous together on the sensuous new ballad "King And Queen", while her work with George Michael on "As" is cocktail bar muzak, bland as baby food but far less substantial. As for her blustery version of U2's "One", it's no more pompous or meaninglessly vague than the original.

On her strictly solo work, Blige made her name with "man done me wrong" brooders like the bluesily effective "I'm Goin Down" or the downbeat sulkiness of "Not Gon' Cry". But the years of therapy and AA meetings have turned her into a sort of hip hop agony aunt, with likeable but forgettable new songs like "Reflections" and "We Ride" offering girls homely advice about loving yourself, growing spiritually and not wasting time with no-good men (advice she presumably ignored for the peppy duet with 50 Cent).

There is one stunning song, the gloomily beautiful collaboration with Method Man, entitled "I'll Be There For You", where his urgent, grimy, blood and guts rap is exquisitely counter-pointed by her glacial backing vocals. It's a haunting hymn to urban love to match Suede's "Stay Together", a huddling together against the barbarities of the modern city. Neither Blige nor the Wu Tang rapper are ever likely to sound as good again, a fact sadly revealed on this competent but generally unspectacular retrospective.

Rate: 6/10

Single - My Chemical Romance "famous last words"

The nine millionth single taken from the all-conquering emo-rockers' "Black Parade" album sees the band continue their inevitable transformation into a tasteful 21st century Queen. Granted, dear old Freddie probably wouldn't have penned woe-is-my-love-life lyrics as therapy-open as Gerard Way's ("I'm incomplete / A life that's so demanding / I get so weak / A love that's so demanding / I can't speak", moans the poor mite at one point), but pretty much everything else is in place.

Grandoise melodies? Check. Operatic harmonies? Yup. Fiddly, Brian May-esque guitar solo? Uh-huh. It doesn't take much to imagine an ocean of bodies crammed into an enormodome clapping in time to this a la Live Aid / "Radio Ga Ga" - in fact, you could say that scene is this song's precise raison d'etre. In their dreams, this is what The Killers sound like. But they're still in Freddie Elementary in comparison. Resistance is useless.

Rate 8/10

Album - Coldplay "Parachutes"


Just imagine the fuss if somebody truly amazing came along. Us critics would have to drag ourselves out from up Thom Yorke's arse and quickly concoct a whole new raft of superlatives to replace all those old ones we've so glibly frittered away on the nice-but-ordinary likes of Coldplay.

Album of the Year, apparently, but ten years ago this bunch would have been happy scoring a perfunctory 30-second glimpse of their grubby new video on The Chart Show's Indie rundown. Nowadays they go straight in at No.4 on the proper, grown-up Top 40 and find themselves feted as the next big thing.

True 'Yellow' is a cut above virtually everything else out there at the moment but please bear in mind that these are dark, doleful times we currently endure. Like the rest of 'Parachutes' though, it's initial doe-eyed cuteness all to quickly starts to cloy. As a conceit it's fairly affecting but a conceit it remains all the same. You can't help but dwell on the fact also that 'yellow' too readily calls to mind the sour hue of stained y-fronts. Oh yeah and it's a third-rate rip-off of The Boo Radley's mighty 'Lazarus' into the bargain. There, that should have killed the magic for you.

Widely regarded as the next Travis, on this evidence Coldplay are more redolent of Embrace's early way with a tune. What they lack though, particularly on the quirky waltz-time fade-out of last track 'Everything's Not Lost', is Embrace's who-you-looking-at swagger. 'Parachutes' is just all so very, very polite and unassuming; 'We Never Change' might bravely plonk itself down at the old pianna in-between Tom Waits and Randy Newman but it too quickly realises that it really hasn't got a great deal to say for itself.

Album of the Year then but only for those poor battered souls who've just discovered the warm hug of well-spoken melancholy. It can't do any harm either that they were all probably too interested in Buzz Lightyear at the time to be aware of 'The Bends' when it came out.

Rate: 6/10

??????....MCR <333

but Xtina's Beautiful seems to be so old...

it's old and new reviews

Beautiful <3.

Single - Fergie "fergalicious"
In which her from the Black Eyed Peas applies for the position recently vacated by Gwen Stefani. Over a brilliantly streamlined old school electro backing, which essentially sounds like a lost Salt N Pepa mastertape spooling out to the accompaniment of a table full of metronomes, Fergie delivers a vocal that manages to be sassy, cool, and sexual without feeling horribly premeditated.

In fact, this could be titled "Push It (If You Must But Don't Expect Me To Join In)". La Ferg relates a common tale for an international pin-up. Male fans "want my treasure, so they get their pleasures from my photos", but, bad news lusty fellas, "I ain¹t easy, I ain't sleazy, I got reasons why I tease 'em." Oh yes welcome to pop deconstruction 101. "I ain't promiscuous," declares Fergie. "And if you was suspicious / all the **** is fictitious." Pop about business. In this day and age, what could be better?

Rate: 8/10

Album - Nelly Furtado "Loose"

Success too soon in any career can spell disaster as surely as years of thankless toil. Many are the promising artists who fluke a hit with an early single and fail to follow-up with anything nearly as successful. Alanis Morissette was one - although the 17 million-odd sales of "Jagged Little Pill" probably softened that blow. Lauryn Hill would appear to be another and time will tell whether Corinne Bailey Rae and Lily Allen are able to transcend being too hot to handle before their debuts even debuted.

Nelly Furtado ticked all the boxes. A worldwide smash with "I'm Like A Bird", a star-making slot at Elton John's post-Oscars party - subsequently occupied by the Scissor Sisters and Joss Stone - and then a handful of disappointing mid-teens placings for her second album singles. As with Kylie before her Parlophone makeover, few people would have bet on Nelly releasing a Number One single - her first - in the future. And yet here it is, the twinkly yet bass-heavy, Prince-indebted "Maneater" anthem; not a silly-season fluke (that dishonour goes to Sandi Thom) but a fantastic slice of unexpected funk-pop that could hold its own against "Hung Up" for the best single of the past nine months.

The most relevant reference points for "Loose" are Gwen Stefani's "Love Angel Music Baby" and Justin Timberlake's "Justified" - producer-defined albums that reinvented their performers as stand-alone solo artists with a wide, hip remit. Although already solo, Nelly appeared wedded to a folky, world music brand of pop that, put simply, didn't make for great ringtones. Now, she's sparky, melds well with her guest artists (Attitude, Juanes and Timbaland - who also produces), is sultry without being ****ty and does cool convincingly.

Highlights? The sparse, pumping "Promiscuous" is her "Like I Love You", via Paisley Park - don't be surprised if she makes it two chart-toppers in a row; "Glow" is a multi-tracked Stefani special and the mostly Spanish "No Hay Igual" ('I have no equal') is a sharp mix of percussion and empowered chanting.
It's not without lulls. The limp ballad "Showtime" and cloying lyrics of "Te Busque" ('I looked to you') and "In God's Hands" smother the hard-won cred, while the inclusion of two bonus tracks on the UK edition dulls the effect of intended closer "All Good Things" - written with and originally featuring Chris Martin, before EMI put the kibosh on his appearance - a superior goosebumps slowie.

Otherwise, this is a second coming to believe it - get "Loose" as soon as possible.

Rate: 8/10

Nice that Fergalicious got 8/10!
Something good for Fergie,