SOUND JUDGEMENT
THE LATEST ALBUM RELEASES RATED AND REVIEWED
ORBITAL – MONSTERS EXIST ★★★★★
MONSTERS Exist is a masterful soundscape, each track is a social comment on life today, starting with a dark, gloomy tone and raising with hopeful crescendo to an almost euphoric pitch.
Amongst this is the gem of P.H.U.K. a collection of video-game chiming beeps and pips, that mellows, as much as an Orbital track can mellow, into an ambient journey of optimism.
Monsters Exist is definitely a political statement, in There Will Come A Time, featuring Professor Brian Cox, he puts life and everyone’s certain death in perspective, in a way only Cox can.
This is an album with meaning. We all matter and life is there to be lived with heart.
PAUL WELLER
– TRUE MEANINGS ★★★★★
ON his 14th solo album The Modfather appears to have entered a period of his career where, for once, he is momentarily looking back.
This collection of intimate, acousticdriven songs, complete with lush orchestration, strikes a reflective tone in its lyrics and instrumentation.
Weller’s timeless voice lends a comforting, warm quality to dreamy songs like Wishing Well and Books.
The song Bowie offers a tribute to the late singer as well as a wider message about loss and acceptance.
Mayfly starts life as a 12-bar blues shuffle before subtle brass blows through an air of relaxed contemplation that characterises this record as a whole.
CARRIE UNDERWOOD
– CRY PRETTY ★★★★★
CARRIE Underwood won American Idol in 2005 and unlike other reality TV music stars often do, she has not faded into the background. In fact, she’s cemented herself a place as one of the industry’s top female vocalists. And her latest album, Cry Pretty, is likely to blaze her music trail further.
It’s her first album since her accident last year that saw her having to have more than 40 stitches in her face after she fell at home.
The rest of the album is filled with everything from wistful longing to upbeat, tap your feet rhythms. Tracks like Backsliding remind you that Carrie knows her way well around a powerful ballad. One thing’s for sure: Carrie won’t be crying about this one.