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Music Reviews

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John Barrowman 'Music Music Music'

Pop, country and musical theatre. Three completely different genres, brought together on one album. The latter is nothing new for former West End and Broadway star John Barrowman, and his previous album Another Side already gave us an example of Barrowman’s love for classic pop music. Country, however, is new.

With three genres, the album gives quite an interesting variety in different songs. The opening track and first single What About Us?, written by Gary Barlow, is Barrowman’s first original song and sounds promising, being everything you’d want a pop ballad to be. The rest of the album, just like Another Side, consists of covered songs solely.

But that is not necessarily a bad thing, since Barrowman manages to select songs that seem to be written for him, from the sensitive Right Here Waiting For You to Billy Joel’s upbeat and danceable Uptown Girl. Still, Barrowman seems to be at his best at swingy songs like Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, and songs from, not wholly surprising, musical theatre, making clear that the stage is the only place the multi-talented performer belongs.

Though mostly predictable, Music Music Music also manages to surprise. Barrowman does a lovely version of Keith Urban’s You’ll Think Of Me and I Know Him So Well, a duet with Daniel Boys, is guaranteed to give you goose bumps.

But at times, the combination of pop, country and musical theatre seems to unbalance the album, even though all genres are performed particularly well. At times, the variety of genres is brilliant and refreshing. But after listening to twenty minutes of pop ballads in the background, a sudden change to a track like I Am What I Am doesn’t seem right.

However, all in all Barrowman once again impresses with his magnificent voice, performed beautifully from the opening track to the very last. If you like classic pop music, Music Music Music is an absolute must-have.

Rating: 4/5

Reviewed by Caroline Hendriks

The Killers - Day & Age

The Killers- Day & Age



After the anthem fuelled debut of "Hot Fuss" and the increasingly brilliant "Sams Town" The Killers had given themselves one tall order in replicating such success. After two years out of the spotlight, albeit a colaboration of b-sides and rarities released on last year's 'Sawdust' they have returned with 'Day & Age', and its not short of superb. Day & Age represents a brand new era for The Killers, headed by the flagship single "Human" it re-introduces us to  the 80's electro magic of such bands as The Human League, who's influence is particularly noted in "The World We Live In". The album rains on 80's influences, the Pet Shop Boys, Duran Duran and so on to provide an extremely catchy, yet 21st century retro romp, if that's even possible.

The new single "Spaceman" is a return to form for The Killers who are famed for producing anthems, the likes of "Mr. Brightside" and "When you were Young". In Track 8, "Neon Tiger" lead vocalist Brandon Flowers stated that he "intended to write like MGMT" and in so has produced a quirky, but incredibly catchy feel good anthem. The album kicks off with "Losing Touch", complete with a trademark Killer's taste and a melodic, electronic symphony as Flowers blasts "Tell all your friends that im Losing Touch", a perfect introduction to not only Track 2, "Human" but the rest of the album. From then on The Killers deliver tracks completely different yet similar to anything they've ever released before. Hitting various weak spots in "This is your Life" and "I can't stay", despite both being good tracks, they don't particularly stand out and are victim to "middle album mediocracy". The album then picks up steam before ending on The Killer's first depressingly beautiful "Goodnight, Travel Well", a 6 minute, orchestral offering with Flower's vocals overlapping straining as the snare drum builds and trumpets accompany a completely different end to an album which is, in my own opinion the best The Killers have released so far.

Hot Tracks: Spaceman, Losing Touch, Neon Tiger
Rating: 4.5/5

Reviewed by Tom Quante

Nickleback 'Dark Horse'

It's safe to say that Nickelback have been around quite a bit this year with songs like Rockstar and Photograph gaining quite substantial airplay over the summer. So now they're back with their first album in 3 years and it's a variety of hard rock anthems mixed with the few slower songs. Unsurprsingly, the album kicks off with a couple of rock belters that Nickelback have become synomonous with over the years and these are generally good if sligtly average songs. We then move on to a softer section with the first single "Gotta Be Somebody" potentially being a chart hit. The middle section of the album is containing some rock anthems and some ballads. In this section, the highlight of the album is found as "Just To Be High" as this starts fairly slow before livening up after the solo. The album then winds down with a couple of songs that can be potential chart hits. The album is solid musically but it's very generic and doesn't offer the fan anything new. However, Nickelback have always been good and successful with their mix between soft ballads and powerful riffs and Dark Horse contains all of these characteristics so it's a good,strong addition to their catalogue.7/10

Reviewed by Andrew Roach

Keane 'Perfect Symmetry'

When the uplifting and catchy `Spiralling` was released Keane seemed to be moving away from the very dark and at times disappointing second album `Under The Iron Sea`. However as you delve further into the new album `Perfect Symmetry`, a familiar melancholic feel is established. True the tempo has been lifted slightly on tracks like `You havn't told me anything' and `Better than this`, but as you get into the second half of the CD, the tracks become much slower and rather samey. The highlights are certainly the two singles, `Spiralling` And `The lovers are losing`. However it's hard to imagine the Hastings 3 piece ever improving on their debut album `Hopes and Fears`. Definately an album of two parts. The first four tracks are good, the middle ok, the closing stages slightly mediocre. 6/10

Reviewed by David Taylor