All American Country - Connie Smith

Advantages: Good voice, good variety of songs
Disadvantages: Not a very distinctive voice, not to everyone's taste

...own personality on it for something slightly different. She only adds a trace of an American accent too, so it sounds natural and not contrived. This is followed by a song which is both from a musical but was also in the charts - No Matter What. I always associate this with Boyzone and Stephen Gately's 'coming out', so it does seem somewhat strange hearing it with female vocals. It's a really pretty song and she does a good performance of it, although I still prefer Gately's version. Track six is the 1960s pop song Shout, another one Connie performed very effectively during the series. Again, she displays lots of energy and keeps up well with the pace of the track. She also has an interesting texture to her voice in this song, with a little growl present at times, which I like. Slowing things down, the next track is one I hadn't heard... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages:
Disadvantages:

...Astral Weeks is generally considered one of the best albums in pop music history. For all that renown, Astral Weeks is anything but an archetypal rock & roll album: In fact, it isn't a rock & roll album at all. Employing a mixture of folk, blues, jazz, and classical music, Van Morrison spins out a series of extended ruminations on his Belfast upbringing, including the remarkable character "Madame George" and the climactic epiphany experienced on "Cyprus Avenue." Accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, Morrison sings in his elastic, bluesy voice, accompanied by a jazz rhythm section (Jay Berliner, guitar, Richard Davis, bass, Connie Kay, drums), plus reeds (John Payne) and vibes (Warren Smith, Jr.), with a string quartet overdubbed. An emotional outpouring cast in delicate musical structures, Astral Weeks has a unique musical power... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Wonderful piece of work
Disadvantages: None really

...It was in 1974 that Kraftwerk really established their own personal musical style and also came to wide public notice through the hit single Autobahn, taken from the album of the same name. Produced by Hutter and Schneider at Connie Plank’s studio, Autobahn marked the addition to the group of Klaud Roeder (violin and guitar) and Wolfgang Flur on electronic percussion. Rather like 1973’s Tubular Bells, this was one of those rare records which seemed to be accepted by easy listening, AOR and more progressive audiences alike. Most of all, though, Autobahn’s title track, like Bowie’s Young Americans, appealed to the growing disco market - Wolfgang and Ralf were habitual disco goers. Kraftwerk had pulled off a trick that has never been equalled or imitated yet - to make synthetic and obviously synthetic percussion sound warm and dynamic... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful