CD Reviews - Page 2

This is the album to crank up when you and your girls are getting ready to go out. The Young Divas have pulled together an upbeat and groovilicious compilation to throw on next time you need some funk in your life. Feeling like you’re back in the midst of the disco era, this 11 track sophomore offering from Australian Idols youngest and hottest will have you reaching for your hotpants and dusting off your disco ball.

There have been a handful of truly inspirational guitar masters when you explore the contemporary field over the last fifty years, Clapton, Hendrix, Iommi and of course there is Carlos Santana. Master of a highly successful sound fusing his own blues based lead work with the jazz, Latin and salsa sounds generated by his band (who for the most part played under the Santana moniker), Carlos Santana’s legacy has been expanding over the last four decades...

Ok, let me start out by saying that I quite like Guy Sebastian; a lot of people don’t, finding his whole Australian Idol heritage a little hard to swallow. I have to admit I for the most part side with these people, people who have trouble reconciling Australian Idol, the artist’s subsequent mainstream reach and good old fashion due paying and credibility. That said, Guy Sebastian was working hard in the business beforehand writing his own music and he has made the very most of this opportunity, no matter how plastic it may be in nature; which may be why I’m a little disappointed that I can’t buy into this record...

Well, unless you’ve been living in a cave with terrible radio and television reception you would no doubt know all about Human Nature and their very profitable foray in the sounds of Motown. After banging out over 350,000 copies of the first Motown record back in 2005, the follow ups have been similarly successful affairs. The third and most recent of the tambourine slappin’ trilogy is “Get Ready”. Wanting a new angle to avoid the proverbial beating of the dead donkey the band and their people have made a very cunning move… not only are the lads singing some of Motown’s greatest hits, they have brought in some hired guns… big guns...

If you want heavy rock pedigree the lineage papers dont get much longer than those belonging to one Nikki Sixx, founder and survivor of California's Motley Crue. While the Crue remain active to some degree, Mr Sixx has found time to get a book together chronicling the nightmarish rollercoaster that was his heroin addiction during the late eighties. In a unique marketing move Sixx and his new musical outfit Sixx AM have released what has been sold as the books soundtrack.

In keeping with his punk-rock past Dave Grohl welcomes you to the new record with a stiff upper-cut and a knee to the cobblers; first track and current single The Pretender is as close to pure rock precision as the Fooeys have come since 1997's The Colour and the Shape.

What can you say about Bob Dylan that hasn't already been said? Sod all really; the man's one of our greatest songsmiths and over the course of his amazing career he has been both...

After changing the face of pop in the neon lit haze of the eighties, Annie Lennox has well and truly established her own identity beyond that of her former role as one half of the Eurythmics. On studio album number four the bleached baroness is found wailing on the masses, soap box in tow.