October's Hottest Tunes

Jay Z The Blueprint 3
Jay-Z’s CEO status of the hip-hop empire is firmly in tact with his 11^th studio album which is as good as the man himself likes to boast. Combining soul grooves of the yester-years with a future forward sound, The Blueprint 3 maintains accessibility within experimentation. It’s not a one man show either with cameo’s from some of hip-hops elite. Of course, Kanye puts his two cents worth in, along with guest appearances from Alicia Keys, Pharrell and Rihanna to name a few.

Timbaland also takes over a few of the tracks, more to the detriment of the album than anything else and ‘Young Forever’ was an ‘interesting’ re-take on Alphaville’s much covered ‘Forever Young’. Overall, Jay-Z is only getting better with age and his talent for phrasing and quality rapsmanship continues to put him at the front of the game.

Mika The Boy Who Knew Too Much
Mika is back and has made quite the entrance. Waving those jazz hands around in what can only be described as an eccentric and vibrant pop album, The Boy Who Knew Too Much is a bold and somewhat novel collection of show tune harmonies. Plenty of falsetto, plenty of technicolour tunes, it sure is OTT, but also sure is fun. Oh so glam darling, this album is the glitter at the party all the while aiming for a honest, deeper and darker album – relative of course to his previous effort, Life in Cartoon Motion.

Be prepared though, it’s a sugar rush of pop and while it’s there’s a place for this candy coated glory, it can just as easily leave you with a headache.

Paramore Brand New Eyes
Paramore’s potential is nearly fully realised in their latest release with the potential to grow their fan base beyond vampire lovers and emo kids. A Sharp and energetic return, Paramore have a new found maturity which starts to hint at some sort of longevity for the band. Sure, it’s not the classic album fans are waiting but with some interesting ideas and fast and furious numbers, it’s worth giving it a go.

This is an album of focus and of course, intensity with more bitter and angst filled lyrics carried by lead singer Hayley with connection and huge emotional investment. The riffs are infectious and the drums thrashing, but the band, whilst broadening, haven’t branched out from their boundaries all that much – it’s up to you if you think this is a blessing or curse.
 
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Muse The Resistance
Much anticipated and much revered, Muse return with an album that is their poppiest, in an orchestrated art-rock kinda-way, to date. A band where overblown music is more a compliment than detraction, Muse is back on the dramatics with an album filled of trills and spills, rolling pianos and massive harmonies. It’s not a smooth ride either, but again – not a bad thing. The album takes you on a journey that bounds from Queen to Radiohead influences, pure pop-out rock to electro glam.

Amidst all the ever-highlighted influences this is an album that still sounds inexplicably Muse which is where, with their past successes backlighting this album, it falls. It doesn’t fall far though and is still well worth a listen.

Pixie Lott Turn It Up
The next run of the mill popstar, Pixie Lott takes the early sweetness of Britney, a little bit of Duffy and enough export-ready aspirations to become the brit version of the Christina Aguilera’s and Mariah Carey’s of the world. This unoriginality extends to her music with a number of cliché ridden tracks. That’s not to say she doesn’t have promise. First single ‘Mama Do’ is a feisty pop track and ‘Boys and Girls’ infectiously fun, but that spark is lost throughout the album.

Also on the saving grace, is a powerful voice – the girl can belt out a ballad- and let’s not forget, at just 18, Pixie has the potential to grow out of the Disney-soundtrack phase and inject more of the edge we saw in ‘Mama Do’ into her music. Fingers crossed.
 

Madonna Celebration
Two discs, 36 hits, one Madonna. Covering every phase of her 25 year career, this record lives up to the title name –it really is a celebration. Of course there are some noteable tracks missing ie ‘Angel’ for one, but that is merely testament to Madonna’s huge career than an oversight that she can release a double disk cd that still leaves her successes somewhat short changed. There’s also a couple of new tracks ‘Revolver’ feat Lil Wayne and the aptly titles ‘Celebration’ amidst all the old favourites – everything from ‘Like a Virgin’ to her collaboration with Justin Timberlake on ‘4 Minutes’.