Latest Reviews

Black Eyed Peas’ recent comeback scores a rush of excitement in the form of Shakira in their latest single ‘A Girl Like Me’. This beloved group has reassembled in the past year but most would notice that their latest work has been missing a certain feminine flavor. Though Fergie and her captivating vocals are still nowhere to be found, Shakira’s wild and over-the-top charisma shines through and makes an impact regardlessly. It helps that there’s a strong chorus to match Shakira’s spirit, one that distorts her voice at the end and layers it up a couple of pitches. The end-product is a fun, exaggerated, high-pitched refrain that echoes through the silence and builds up the mood for a rambunctious adventure. 

Texas-born singer and songwriter Alaina Castillo came to fame through YouTube after uploading videos of her singing to the platform in 2017. Her hushed, gentle tones saw her amassing thousand of views, before she dropped her debut EP, Antisocial Butterly, last year, and embarked on her first tour, with dates around the USA.

Mariah Carey recruits a coterie of phenomenal singers for her 2020 rendition of ‘Oh Santa!’ featuring Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson. The Queen of Christmas may very well glide through every holiday season through her most famous number but she chooses to update a more recent tune of hers. The original version of ‘Oh Santa!’ was released in 2010 but this tune featuring Ariana and Jennifer is set to be a leading single for Mariah’s Apple TV+ Christmas special titled “Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special.” 

Folk rocker Lissie burst onto the scene a decade ago with her debut album Catching A Tiger, which was recorded in Nashville and spawned the hit single When I’m Alone, chosen by iTunes as their ‘Song of the Year’ for 2010. Three further albums have followed over the last ten years – 2013’s Back To Forever, My Wild West three years later, and Castles in 2018 – releases which solidified her reputation as a singer-songwriter with a real talent for crafting country-tinged modern folk songs.

David Guetta’s take on Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ is scintillating enough without losing any of the charms of the original number. Guetta works his usual bit of magic and ends up transforming what was a gentle, whimsical composition into a glamorous, exhilarating affair. ‘Dreams’, as many would know, achieved widespread attention this year after Nathan Apodaca of Idaho Falls posted a TikTok in which he was seen riding on his longboard, drinking Ocean Spray, and lip-syncing to the iconic Fleetwood Mac tune. The video went viral, launched a number of recreations, created a trend, and spawned a couple of thousand memes. Both Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood of the band also joined in on the trend. 

Jennifer Lopez’s new single ‘In The Morning’ makes use of a familiar chord to take us through a touch-starved, ecstasy-filled ride through the artist’s deepest desires. The piece will immediately remind you of the early 2000s. The sharp acoustic guitar chords, the hypnotizing percussion arrangement, and J-Lo’s affective vocals come together to set up a moody, romantic atmosphere that’s brimming with a vulnerable sensuality. A sensuality that J-Lo has cultivated and mastered to perfection over the years. What really bolsters the composition is the central melody — it’s passionate, it’s infectious, and it perfectly encapsulates J-Lo’s strengths. She doesn’t dabble in vocal runs or wild soaring notes; however, she is adept at infusing each and every word with her sass, with her feminine energy, with the glamour and glitz that have made her a household name. 

Will Joseph Cook – the mutli-instrumentalist who earned legions of fans for his debut LP Sweet Dreamer back in 2017 – has long specialised in crafting dreamy, carefree summer-fuelled indie pop numbers. He started writing his own songs when he was in his early teens, with Sweet Dreamer being completed before he hit the age of twenty. Now firmly in his twenties and with his new album Something To Feel Good About, has the now all grown up Cook turned his back on his youthful optimistic self? Not a bit of it.

Lockdown has now become some much a part of our lives that it’s not just inspiring new music, it’s outright facilitating it. Take Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong; way back in March the punk-pop crooner, backed by his sons, jumped online to share his cover of the Tommy James and the Shondells track (made famous by Tiffany) I Think We’re Alone Now. He promised he’d carry on dropping a new cover song every week, dubbing the series ‘No Fun Mondays’.

The post-Busted careers of the trio that formed one of the early noughties biggest acts couldn’t have been much more different. After the runaway success that was the outfit’s first two albums (their self-titled debut in 2002 and A Present For Everyone the following year), the band parted ways at the peak of their powers in 2005 after Charlie Simpson quit the band to focus on his other outfit, the rock band Fightstar. That left Matt Willis to pursue a solo career, while James Bourne reemerged with the very Busted-like Son Of Dork. None of them achieved anything like the kind of success they had together, and in 2015 they reformed, recording two more albums together since.

Sam Fender is a man of many talents. After being spotted performing in a pub in his home town in the northeast when he was just a teenager, he went on to appear in ITV drama series Vera, and in the CBBC show Wolfblood. Music was his passion though and after signing a record contract he dropped his debut EP Dead Boys in 2018 and followed it up last year with his first full-length album Hypersonic Missiles, which received some excellent reviews. Along the way, he was named as one of BBC’s Sounds of 2018, and picked up the Critics’ Choice Award at the 2019 Brit Awards.