Album Review: Emma-Lee - Never Just a Dream

Posted by Ariana Heppner | Wednesday, July 30, 2008 @ 1:01am

What grabs you first about Toronto songstress Emma-Lee’s debut full-length album Never Just a Dream? The dulcet tones of her voice and the mellow vibe, for starters. But what will keep you listening is the thoughtful, compelling lyrics coupled with some nifty melodic ideas and the slight edge to her voice that keeps you guessing – will she or won’t she?

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Album Review: Night Ranger - Hole in the Sun

Posted by Jeremy Maron | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 @ 5:17pm

As an avid fan of 80s hair bands for a number of reasons including the emotional highs of power ballads, the bombastic choruses, and, most importantly, clean, high male vocals (the cleaner and higher the better, at least for this subgenre of metal), I was quite anxious to see what the newest Night Ranger album, Hole in the Sun held. Overall, this album is a very decent effort that delivers a good amount of solid rock, some heavy guitars, and catchy vocal patterns, even if the new songs don’t ultimately de-throne NR classics like Don't Tell Me You Love Me and Sister Christian (aka the song from the most intense scene from Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. As a brief aside, the CD does include bonus tracks of these two songs done in acoustic style, and while this is a nice addition and the songs translate equally well to the alternate form, their inclusion on an album of otherwise new songs makes one question the confidence that Jack Blade and crew have in their most recent material.

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Album Review: John Mellencamp - Life, Death, Love and Freedom

Posted by Ariana Heppner | Wednesday, July 16, 2008 @ 1:28am

The prolific John Mellencamp returns with his 20th studio album as a man with a lot on his mind and a heavy heart. Fortunately for all of us the world over with heavy hearts, there is such a thing as blues music.

Here, the former Mr. Cougar has mastered all manner of blues styles, from Southern blues, to folky blues, to blues rock. Life, Death, Love and Freedom blends them all – and everything in between – in an emotional concoction that sets you to thinking and feeling and reminiscing and hoping.

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Album Review: Elisa - Dancing

Posted by Ariana Heppner | Tuesday, July 15, 2008 @ 12:54am

For diehard fans of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance, Italian singer/songwriter Elisa is nothing new – the title track of her North American release, Dancing, was featured prominently on the third season’s Top 20 episode in a Mia Michaels-choreographed piece.

Dancing contains hand-picked tracks from most of Elisa’s previous home-country releases, plus the iTunes version released last month features a reasonable cover of The Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses (though the 90s version by The Sundays remains my favourite so far).

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Teddy Geiger takes different approach to choosing new album's songs

Posted by Paul Little | Thursday, July 3, 2008 @ 4:25am

Teddy Geiger is a young singer-songwriter I first encountered through the short-lived TV show Love Monkey, where he played a (big stretch) young singer-songwriter alongside Tom Cavanagh, Judy Greer, and Jason Priestley. Sure, it starred 2 great Canadian actors and one of my favourite actresses in the world (seriously, I love Judy Greer), but I was impressed by Geiger and his songs which were featured on the show, including its theme song "For You I Will". The song became a Top 10 single, and the album it appeared on, Underage Thinking, entered the Billboard charts at #8.

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Sarah and Ariana's Top Fives: Summer and Sunshine

Posted by Sarah Miller | Sunday, June 15, 2008 @ 12:16am

This issue of Top Fives is brought to you by wishful thinking and procrastination. We live in a land where summer is short-lived and sunshine is just a memory for eight or nine months of the year. Please enjoy.

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New Music Releases: June 10th, 2008

Posted by Sarah Miller | Monday, June 9, 2008 @ 8:24pm

Jakob Dylan Seeing Things (Amazon)

This is the first solo album from ex-Wallflowers frontman Jakob Dylan. It was produced and recorded by Rick Rubin in a home studio throughout 2007. The album is full of homegrown acoustic songs that showcase Dylan’s considerable talent as a singer/songwriter, and prove that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

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New Music Releases: June 3rd, 2008

Posted by Sarah Miller | Tuesday, June 3, 2008 @ 11:03am

Ashanti The Declaration (Amazon)

For her fourth studio album, Ashanti teamed up with some of the best producers in the biz. The Declaration features tracks produced by Jermaine Dupri, LT Hutton, Babyface and Pharrell Williams. The first single off the album, ‘The Way I Love You’ made it into the Top Ten on Billboard’s Hip Hop/R&B Chart.

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New Music Releases: May 27th, 2008

Posted by Sarah Miller | Tuesday, May 27, 2008 @ 2:14pm

Usher Here I Stand (Amazon)

This is Usher’s fifth studio album, the follow up to his 2004 multi-platinum selling album Confessions. Usher has worked with some of the top producers in the music business on Here I Stand.

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New Music Releases: May 20th, 2008

Posted by Sarah Miller | Tuesday, May 20, 2008 @ 4:12pm

Sam Roberts Love at the End of the World (Amazon)

The much anticipated third album from Canadian rocker Sam Roberts, Love at the End of the World features the new hit single ‘Them Kids’. Love at the End of the World is a little less psychedelic than Roberts’ last effort, Chemical City, and returns to his straight up rock and roll roots. If you were like everyone else in Canada in the summer of 2003 and fell in love with ‘Brother Down’ and ‘Where have all the Good People Gone?’ you will enjoy Love at the End of the World. Make sure you take it with you on your next roadtrip. Sam Roberts Band will hit the festival circuit this summer, check out their website for more info.

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