Cafe Noir - Cocktail And Lounge Vol.1 - Various Artists

Advantages: Some of the best bits from Jo Whiley's Live Lounge sessions
Disadvantages: Includes some really odd ones that you might skip

...Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley has got hold of some of the worlds best artists to perform in the Live Lounge. Not only to perform there own tracks but to perform another artists song in their own style. The Live Lounge has become an integral part of her show and becuase of its success, the Live Lounge 2CD was released. The Live Lounge sessions enable artists to let listeners hear what they are all about. The live and unrehearsed sessions allow the listeners to appreciate what an artist is really like (and how they can sign without digital enhancements)!! The Live Lounge has encouraged artist to reproduce covers of their own personal favourite artists or tracks. Some of these have been truely outstanding as any listener to Jo Whiley's show will know. Can you imagine hearing The Automatic covering Kanye West, or Franz Ferdinand... Read review

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Advantages: Wide range of tracks and styles, unpredictable but enjoyable songs and covers, listenable and fun
Disadvantages: Some songs will be disliked depending on your musical tastes

...One of the most popular radio stations in England - Radio 1 feature many new bands each week, speak to some of the biggest bands around at the moment and are generally notorious for providing excellent music, presenters, new music and interesting features such as the live lounge. The concept behind the live lounge is to provide listeners with especially recorded live versions of their favourite bands tracks. This was a huge success and what became even more popular was recording of artists covering other artists, some of similar style other of something completely different and unexpected. The album is highly successful in taking familiar and popular songs and giving them a very interesting twist from the eyes and ears of other popular artists. There are 40 tracks on this album in total featuring the more popular live lounge... Read review

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Advantages: Some excellent performance, shows the pure raw talents of some of the UKs top artists
Disadvantages: some weaker tracks and some covers that dont work for me

...I have to admit I have been waiting in anticipation for the release of a live lounge CD for a number of years. My mornings are often much happier after hearing the Jo Whiley show, partly for her sexy voice (unfortunatly not featured on the CD) and for the amazing live lounge sessions. For those of you that dont listen to radio 1 mid-morning during the week, Jo Whiley often invites artists into the studio for a chat and to perform a few tracks. These are often stripped down accoustic versions of thier most famous songs and an inpromptu cover which can range from the sublimly beautiful to the hilariously funny. This CD compramises the best performances from the last couple of years and there should be something for everybody on this list. The songs range from moving acoustic versions of artists well known hits (KT tunstall other... Read review

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