21 March 2010
By Lyov
In Jazz
The Rise & Fall of Ruby Woo
On record you can’t see the many costume changes into stunning ’30s vintage dresses, or be impressed by the trio’s mugging or musical chops — Marcella Puppini plays piano and accordion and Stephanie O’Brien plays credible jazz fiddle. This leaves the vocalizing, and while the trio isn’t half bad, its members are not spectacular or particularly adventurous singers. On their second album they follow the template of their first. There are a couple of standards including “It Don’t Mean a Think If It Ain’t Got That Swing,” and contemporary numbers — “Spooky,” “Walk Like an Egyptian” — delivered in ’40s vocal trio-style arrangements. Fine as far as it goes, but the joke is wearing thin. The Puppini Sisters’ salvation is clearly in their original material. All three Sisters write solid tunes; the sooner they can come up with a full album’s worth of original tunes, the better their career prospects will be. Puppini’s “I Can’t Believe I’m Not a Millionaire” is a blues full of arch humor, and her “Jilted” sounds like it would have been a natural for Peggy Lee, a sultry, sexy tune with a strong hook and a great lyric. O’Brien contributes “Soho Nights” a jump tune with a strong vocal arrangement, a perfect evocation of the era they obviously love. Kate Mullins may be the strongest writer of the three. Her “It’s Not Over (Death or the Toy Piano)” is another song in the big-band mode, but its complex melody and inventive lyric make it one of the album’s strongest tracks....
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50s, british, female vocalists, Jazz, swing, The Puppini Sisters, The Rise & Fall of Ruby Woo
20 March 2010
By Lyov
In Jazz
When You Know
Singer Dianne Reeves has proven herself one of the most popular and enduring jazz performers of the `00 decade. (Her appearance in the George Clooney film GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK certainly didn’t hurt.) WHEN YOU KNOW is more a “pop” album with jazz overtones however. This time, Reeves wraps her compassionate, slightly dusky voice around such classic `60s/’70s radio hits as Minnie Riperton’s first hit “Lovin’ You” and the Temptations’s “Just My Imagination.” The set is a nice mix of acoustic (a string quartet) and electric (Russell Malone’s bluesy guitar) elements, making for an attractive and thoughtfully varied listen....
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Dianne Reeves, female, female vocalists, Jazz, jazz vocal, vocal jazz, When You Know
19 March 2010
By Lyov
In Pop
Voodoo
The recording process began in mid-2009 when Johnson revealed on her website that she was dropped from Epic Records, and that the album she recorded and planned to release with them, was now shelved due to contractual complications. Some tracks were written as far back as 2005 with intent to be released through the album she planned with Capitol-EMI, but that deal shortly ended as the executives who signed Johnson to the label had been released from their contracts....
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Alexz Johnson, canadian, female vocalists, Pop, pop rock, Rock, Voodoo
18 March 2010
By Lyov
In Jazz
Olivia
Olivia is a Singaporean singer who made her debut with songs in the English vernacular. She subsequently progressed to singing in Japanese upon the progression of her career in Japan.
Likened to Keiko Matsuda, she won a singing contest and was signed to a Japanese recording company at the age of 15....
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bossa nova, female vocalists, Jazz, Olivia, Olivia Ong, singapore, singaporean
16 March 2010
By Lyov
In Pop, R&B
Ten
On paper, Gabriella Cilmi is quite the force to be reckoned with. She’s won six ARIA Awards in her native Australia and performed on the main stage at Glastonbury. But despite this, she’s known for little more than one runaway single and several ad soundtracks. Whether second album Ten will redress the balance remains to be seen, but it certainly comes with a very clear message....
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australian, female vocalists, Jazz, Pop, singer-songwriter, Ten
11 March 2010
By Lyov
In Pop
Bedtime Stories
For Madonna, pop music is the canvas of her greatest aspiration. While some critics might be ready to write her off, BEDTIME STORIES reasserts Madonna’s claim to the R&B/dance floor turf she ceded to others as her own productions became elaborately self-conscious. And where performers like R. Kelly filled the breach with risque, sexually explicit fare, BEDTIME STORIES marks Madonna’s return to a more stylized, elegant form of R&B....
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80s, Bedtime Stories, dance, Electronic, female vocalists, Madonna, Pop
10 March 2010
By Lyov
In R&B, Soul
The Promise
After a stylistic detour with 2007’s DESTINATION MOON, on which Deborah Cox paid tribute to jazz and classic-pop vocal legend Dinah Washington, the Canadian chanteuse returns to her natural R&B milieu on THE PROMISE. Working with a selection of top-tier collaborators (John Legend, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis), Cox delivers a set of eminently smooth yet impassioned music which alternates between hip-hop-style jams (“Saying Goodbye”) and neo-soul fare (“You Know Where My Heart Is”). On “Did You Ever Love Me,” the singer reveals the benefits of briefly leaving one’s comfort zone, combining modern production with a vocal that recalls Washington’s best torch songs....
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dance, Deborah Cox, female vocalists, Pop, rnb, Soul, The Promise
Usher
Ke$ha
Alicia Keys
Koop
