World > European World

Laundry Service - Easily Shakira's best album to date

Advantages: Fantastic album
Disadvantages: Need to brush up on your Spanish

It is an unfortunate fact of life for the many thousands of talented latin musicians that, if you want to make it on a worldwide scale, you have to learn to sing in English. This was powerfully illustrated in the late 1990s by Ricky Martin, and in 2001 when Shakira's third studio album - but only her first in the English language - expanded her appeal from the confines of the Spanish-speaking world and sent her global. Of course the fact that the ...
...coupled with the fact that Shakira herself is a multi-talented mega-babe, did her progression no harm at all. The album itself is an appealing mix of traditional latin beats, pop and ballads, with a number of tracks still sung in her native tongue - but not enough to make the album unlistenable to the monolingual masses (of which I am one). OBJECTION - Starting with a typical Tango-Argentino introduction, the song bursts into life with a lyrical ...

rabidbadger 04.10.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Laundry Service - Shakira

The Voyage - a beautiful thought-provoking album by Christy Moore

Advantages: Good mix of musical moods, suberb vocals and musicianship.
Disadvantages: None that I can see

...lyrics and melody. The Voyage is a good album for the Christy novice listener as it is not as political, perhaps, as some of his other albums.....or at least the songs contained on this album can be interpreted on different levels.There is also a fair mixture of light and shade, of lively and contemplative songs on this album. The title song has a haunting melody and lyrics which compare a long-term relationship with a sea voyage. The song is quite ...
...a popular choice to be played at weddings. The Mad Lady and Me has a wonderful narrative and it is up to the listener to conclude if the lyrics are a straight-forward piece of storytelling of are representational of something more profound. By the same songwriter (Jimmy MacCarthy) is the sublime song Bright Blue Rose which leaves the listener wishing to hear its' complex and (at times) unfathomable lyric over and over again in order to connect ...

Moongazinghare 23.04.2009 · Read full review

Review of Voyage - Christy Moore

Amarantine brings a tear to my eye

Advantages: Absolutely beautiful music; emotional; powerful
Disadvantages: I wish it was longer

Enya is an irish singer, best known for singing the theme tune for the premier film 'Gladiator'. She has an amazingly soft yet powerful voice that makes me feel sleepy when listening to her. This is a such a beautiful piece of music. The music in unconsciously consistent the enitre waythrough the song which makes you feel really relaxed and drowsy. The music sort of echo's and I liken it to raindrops. The beat is four beats, the inital beat is slightly ...
...da; da; da' 'DA; da; da; da' The lyrics are heart warming and I said that this was a song I sing to my mum when she is feeling low following an argument with my step-dad. The song is all about the enternity of love, 'Amarantine' being roughly translated as 'Eternity'. A part from the chorous, every verse is the same consistent rhymthm and beat ,again, to make you feel relaxed. It's a two syllable beat each sentence, the stress on the last syllable. ...

LaceyR26 11.06.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Amarantine - Enya

'JOANNA...A Hymn of Devotion

Advantages: incredibly underrated music very well produced and presented
Disadvantages: none

...Devotion’ James Young's Joanna was made on the battered upright piano in his house - an instrument most pianists would reject without a moment's hesitation. Bad pianos - in pubs, bars, clubs, cafes and the parental home - are the bane of musicians and music teachers: the sustain pedal doesn't work; the felts are worn; mezzopiano is indistinguishable from fortissimo. And that's before you get on to the problem of keeping it in tune. Players develop ...
...wisdom on its head. Joanna is a hymn of devotion that both dignifies and delights in his old piano's imperfections. As Billy Jenkins wrote in Notes on Crap Pianos: "Years of warp and deterioration have ripened each mechanical artefact into its own unique sound. Do not attempt music scored for a good piano." Young describes his piano as "a ready-made that needed to be celebrated for its intrinsic peculiarities". There are antecedents: Virginia Astley's ...

JLWguardian 28.10.2009 · Read full review

Review of Joanna - James Young

"Remembering The Day", thought provoking and uplifting music!

Advantages: Beautiful, thought provoking and uplifting music
Disadvantages: none

"Remembering The Day" is such an evocative, beautiful, touching and sensual album, composed / performed by the multiple award winning violinist / composer Catya Maré. I´d like to recommend it to everybody who likes world / ambient / new age music! It is highly original. A mixture of ambient / electronica / classical / new age and world elements. And, in my opinion, it really touches your soul, leaves you refreshed after listening. Catya´s violin ...
...special. In some of her songs she combines her mesmerizing violin sound with a choir, that adds an ethereal quality to the song. I love it! If you like Deep Forest, Enigma, Delirium or classical crossover artists like Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli you might love this one. Worth the money... Cheapest buy at: http://www.soundloud.com/catyamare.aspx Also check out her websites..... www.catyamare.com or www.myspace.com/catyamar ...

Harry112222 27.10.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Remembering The Day - Catya Mare