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Thursday, September 21, 2006

Chris Rea - Wired To The Moon [1984]

Bitrate: CBR 320 kb/s
Genre: Rock
Year: 1984



Artist: British singer and guitarist Chris Rea has enjoyed a run of popularity in Europe during the late '80s and early '90s after almost a decade of previous recording. Rea started out performing with a local group called Magdalene, taking David Coverdale's place; the band won a national talent contest in 1975 as the Beautiful Losers, but still failed to get a record contract. Rea left the band and recorded the album Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?, which alluded to a discarded stage name, which went gold on the strength of the U.S. Top 20 hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)." Rea was not heard from again in the U.S. for some time, concentrating his efforts on his main fan base of Europe. A compilation of tracks from Rea's '80s albums, New Light Through Old Windows, was released in 1988 and sold well in the U.K. and Europe and charted in the U.S. Rea followed it up with the critically acclaimed The Road to Hell, which many regarded as his best album. It and its follow-up, Auberge, went to the top of the U.K. album charts, but did not prove as successful in the U.S., where he has failed to chart with his subsequent releases. He released his most ambitious project in 2005, an eleven-album, 130-track box set of all new material inspired by the blues and his own paintings called Blue Guitars.

Album: Unlike his later work, which is much more vocal- and guitar-centered, the music of "WTTM" is primarily arranged for keyboards, with guitars often providing sonic texture instead of functioning as a lead instrument. Originally released two years before his commercial breakthrough, 1986's "On the beach", "WTTM" is one of Rea's overlooked early albums. Rea also plays most of the other instruments. Lyrically, "WTTM" doesn't venture beyond the tenets of pop music - Rea writes love songs to his wife and his daughter. While this concept is rarely challenging and not nearly as interesting as his late-'80s/early-'90s themes, the music on "WTTM" is very pleasant and doesn't sound too outdated. More important, nearly every song would qualify for radio airplay. "Bombollini", in particular, delivers a densely percussive sound with wonderful guitar/marimba/keyboard exchanges. The 6 1/2-minute "Winning" truly lives up to its title and features a Stonesy guitar riffs. The album's best known songs, however, are the title track, "I don't know. . ", and the ballad "Ace of hearts", the latter being re-recorded by Rea for his hit compilation "New light through old windows". With lots of different guitar/keyboard textures, uncommon drum rhythms and clean production, "WTTM" is one of Rea's most interesting performances. But since he's a very good singer/songwriter as well, all these features turn "WTTM" into one of the best albums Rea has ever made.

Tracks:
01 Bombollini
02 Touche D'Amour
03 Shine Shine Shine
04 Wired To The Moon
05 Reasons
06 I Don't Know What It Is But I Love It
07 Ace Of Hearts
08 Holding Out
09 Winning

Monday, September 11, 2006

Duke Ellington- Greatest Hits



Artist : Duke Ellington
Album : Duke Ellington- Greatest Hits
Quality : CBR, 320kbps, stereo
Review: Those familiar Ellington pop tunes from the RCA vaults are, with two exceptions, examples of the Ellington sound as recorded in the early to mid-40's. The tempos are slow to moderate, the sound of the rhythm section is subdued, and the marvelous, inimitable instrumental textures of Duke's band are on full display. The inclusion of a 1967 recording of Strayhorn's "Lotus Blossum" is a nice bonus, but the inclusion of a 1928 version of "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" (!?) is inexplicable and regrettable. The erratic credits fail to identify the vocalist on this latter number and provide extremely limited information about the soloists on most of the other tracks as well. The liner notes are general biographical information about Duke's career and make no reference to the specific recordings on the album. In short, people with limited Ellington collections could do much better than this poorly disguised attempt by RCA to capitalize on its holdings. On the other hand, the Ellington fan who knows the background of the recordings may find this a "convenient" collection of some vintage recordings from the vast Ellington musical universe.
Tracklisting
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01 (2:59) Take The 'a' Train
02 (3:10) Mood Indigo
03 (3:17) I'm Beginning To See The Light
04 (2:46) Sophisticated Lady
05 (3:21) I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good
06 (3:14) Perdido
07 (3:08) Solitude
08 (3:22) I Can't Give You Anything But Love
09 (3:06) Prelude To A Kiss
10 (3:41) Drawing Room Blues
11 (2:51) Caravan
12 (3:07) In a Sentimental Mood
13 (3:05) It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)
14 (3:22) Lover Man
15 (3:57) Lotus Blossom

Playing Time : 48:26
Total Size : 111 MB
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Gladys Knight - Before Me



Artist : Gladys Knight
Album : Before Me
Quality : CBR, 256kbps, stereo
Review by Rob Theakston
At a time when most of her contemporaries are satisfied reliving their glory years to appreciative audiences in casinos and theaters, Gladys Knight continues her refusal to be pigeonholed as a soul singer. With 2000's At Last, she returned to the mainstream R&B circuit with a session of adult contemporary R&B that was equally accessible and refreshing, and with 2005's One Voice she collaborated with the Saints Unified Voices for a fiery gospel and praise record. So this time around, Knight recruited legendary producer Phil Ramone and an impressive lineup of jazz musicians to record an album of jazz ballads and standards that influenced her during the formative years of her singing career. At first, the prospect of Knight's soulful, gritty vocal styles taking on some of jazz's greatest moments may be a questionable proposal for jazz purists, but all hesitation can be safely swept aside during the album's opening moments, a fantastic rendition of the Ellington classic "Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me." Gone are the grit and raspy nature of Knight's voice, and in their place is a smooth, sultry set of vocal cords safely in control of the delivery of the material. Every single song here is already a bona fide hit, and Knight does them all justice in a way few soul singers could. Wonderfully relaxing, classy, and pleasantly void of vocal histrionics, Before Me is another important chapter and highlight in a career that is chock-full of them.
Tracklisting
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01 (3:56 ) Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me
02 (4:22 ) The Man I Love
03 (4:25 ) Good Morning Heartache
04 (3:51 ) Since I Fell For You
05 (4:54 ) God Bless The Child
06 (4:06 ) This Bitter Earth
07 (4:24 ) I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)
08 (4:54 ) Someone To Watch Over Me
09 (4:00 ) But Not For Me
10 (3:57 ) I'll Be Seeing You
11 (4:26 ) Stormy Weather
12 (5:34 ) Come Sunday

Playing Time : 52:49
Total Size : 96.8 MB
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