REFRAIN MUSIC

Adele's sophomore album "21"

By now everyone knows who “Adele” Adkins is, the young bluesy Brit that had us ‘chasing pavements’ a year or so back on her debut album “19”, and now with her new sophomore album “21” has us “Rolling In The Deep”, the hot single off the new album.   The song became her first number one single in the United States and she became the only the second Brit singer to top both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts in the same week, it’s also gone ‘platinum’ in five countries.  With it’s haunting, grumbly vocal and catchy, pounding drum, it’s infectious, it pulls you in and makes you feel (it was even sung by American Idol contestant Haley Reinhart on this years version of the show)

Another song that really leaped out at me, not that there is really a ‘bad’ song on the album, was “Turning Tables…I actually didn’t know this was an Adele song the first time I’d heard it because it was being sung by Gwyneth Paltrow…on Glee!  I really like the song and went and googled it and found it was Adele’s, the simple piano and Adele’s powerful delivery pulled me in to the song (yes Paltrow did a good job of it too).

A song that I’ve heard mentioned several times from the album is “Someone Like You” where she talks about someone that she has to let go of, wishing the best to them, but hurting at their loss and telling them that it’s not over for her.  This song not only comes in it’s original version but on the Deluxe Edition of the album it has a “live acoustic” version of the song.  Speaking of the acoustic version there are actually three on the album, the afore mentioned ‘Someone Like You’ and ‘Turning Tables’ and ‘Don’t You Remember’.   “Don’t You Remember” is one of my favorites on the album as well, that is very relatable and reminds me of something that may have been written by the great Carole King.

Adele was discovered by putting herself out there on MySpace (yay, social media strikes again!) and both “19” and “21” (thus named for the artists age when they were recorded) have both been met with critical success, and this 22 year old gal from the UK, even with all her success; is showing signs that she’s just getting started.  Definitely worth a purchase!

1. Rolling in the Deep
2. Rumour Has It
3. Turning Tables
4. Don’t You Remember
5. Set the Fire to Rain
6. He Won’t Go
7. Take It All
8. I’ll Be Waiting
9. One and Only
10. Lovesong
11. Someone Like You

Deluxe Edition includes “live acoustic” versions of “Someone Like You”, “Don’t You Remember”, and “Turning Tables”

4.0/5.0

Hope & Ruin - The Trews

One thing is for sure with this new album, someone had just gotten ‘hurt’ before they sat down to write the songs on The Trews fourth studio album…”Hope & Ruin”.  There is obvious angst right from the get go on this album with the first song “Misery Loves Company” that talks about the control that the women described in the song has over the singer.  There is a sort of ‘indie’ feel on this album that comes from most Trews albums but this one also has a polished feel hidden subtlely under the raunchy guitars and outstanding harmonies.  The album is definitely written around the theme of heartache and love lost in being shot down, “One by One”, the pleading to hang on, “Stay With Me”, and the feelings of losing and moving on, “If You Want To Start Again”.   There are some great harmonies on “Love Is A Real Thing” and has the sound that we have come to recognize Trews music for.

Hope & Ruin - The Trews

This is a solid rock rendering from The Trews, with some bluesy undertones, some intelligent lyrics and some awesome harmonies.   This little band from Antigonish, Nova Scotia (now based in Toronto) have a great album on their hands here with solid songs from beginning to end.  The first single off the album is the title track, “Hope & Ruin” and like the album art, a broken heart behind shattered glass…it paints the picture of what this album is all about, love, loss, and dreaming of recovery.

3.5 / 5

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

So as I listened to Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More, for the first time I was puzzled…what are these guys?  Are they folk, country, rock, pop, celtic…what am I listening too here?  I mean, there’s guitars, piano, a stand up base, a trumpet, a banjo (yes I said a banjo) all from four British musicians.  I also want to emphasize ‘musicians’ with these four wildly talented Brit’s that play the nuts and bolts off their instruments.

It’s odd, this album debuted two years ago in 2009 and only now is making its ‘across the pond’ and rapidly gaining popularity. Assisting in this popularity was a fantastic performance on the “Grammys” opening, and many saying, performing better than the ever famous Bob Dylan.  I think that when I played this disc for the first time I listened to it three times from beginning to end, I couldn’t stop, it was that good.  The song progressions can be somewhat predictable in their build up from slow to fast, sometimes maniac fast, but it’s wrapped around harmonies that absorb you into the song and keep you safe through the craziness.  Speaking of harmonies, these brit boys have harmonies in spades, imagine walking into a british pub and staring through the haze of a smoke filled room not being able to see the band to hear a song like “Timshel” rise up from the other side of the room wrapping you in its harmonious elixir.

Marcus Mumford and his band mates Country Winston, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane are four young guys from West London  that have all paid their dues playing in the background for other groups, opening for other artists tours and finally, after several EP’s releasing Sigh No More in 2009.  Likely their biggest hit on this side of the water has been “Little Lion Man” is one of those crazy tunes that slowly picks you out of your chair and get’s you clapping your hands and stomping along.

From songs that make you stomp your feet, to make you swoon in harmonic ecstasy, songs that make you think and songs that make you want to find the nearest pub and have a drink.   If you like, music, musicians, and great stories…pick up this album and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

1. Sigh No More
2. The Cave
3. Winter Winds
4. Roll Away Your Stone
5. White Blank Page
6. I Gave You All
7. Little Lion Man
8. Timshel
9. Thistle & Weeds
10. Awake My Soul
11. Dust bowl Dance
12. After The Storm

4.5 / 5

Some call her a brat, whiny, fake, many don’t like her and ten times that number do like her…but no one, and I mean no one in recent memory has been pumping out hits and strings of sold out concerts like this young lady in the last five years.
We’ve watched this young lady progress from teen champion who sang about boys and bubblegum dreams that every girl could wrap a sleepover pajama party around, to a budding young women who has started to explore love and love lost and is bringing us along for the ride on her third studio album, “Speak Now”
One of the things that I think about her that I personally appreciate is the fact that, for example on this album “Speak Now” she wrote every one of the songs herself, no co-writers, all Taylor. I also appreciate that she’s actually a musician, that writes a song the old fashion way picking up a guitar or sitting at the piano and not thinking about that next hit but putting her life experiences into the songs. To me that is one of the reason’s she has garnered such succes, she’s relatable to so many, she writes songs that people want to sing, that people can feel, that touch some part of everyone because they are real.
A testament to her success is the response to “Speak Now” which sold over one ‘million’ copies in the first week of it’s release. Taylor Swift has a built in audience that is growing with her, laughing with her, crying with her on songs like “Back To December”, a song many believe to be about her relationship with Taylor Lautner, that talks of a love she regrets walking away from. The title track “Speak Now” talks about her confessions and how she’s held back really telling people how she feels, and this album is that confession to all of those individuals. Likely my favorite song on the album is yet unreleased in “Haunted” that is edgy, powerful, rocking…on the “Deluxe Edition*” Haunted also has a really cool ‘acoustic version’.
So far there have been 4 hit songs off this fourteen song album, and it’s only been on the market six months…for those that like her and for those that don’t this young lady shows no signs of slowing down and will carry us along with her on her journey of life in her songs.

1. “Mine”
2. “Sparks Fly”
3. “Back to December”
4. “Speak Now”
5. “Dear John”
6. “Mean”
7. “The Story of Us”
8. “Never Grow Up”
9. “Enchanted”
10. “Better Than Revenge”
11. “Innocent”
12. “Haunted”
13. “Last Kiss”
14. “Long Live”

*Deluxe Edition includes three additional tracks, two acoustic versions, a Pop Remix of “Mine”, and thirty minutes of video content: the music video for “Mine”, as well as behind-the-scenes footage of its production.

3.5 / 5

http://www.taylorswift.com/

“All I wanna do is have a little fun before I die” is what she said on her debut album, now, with her seventh studio album Sheryl Crow has changed her tune and it’s very evident in this album. For me, personally, I wish she’d taken a page from her earlier days as this was not her best effort to date. Crow literally grew up about 100 Miles from Memphis and thus came the title of her album and her attempt to recreate some of the music that came from this iconic musical city. I also heard a little ‘old motown’ in this attempt as well, that caught me a little off guard, what with the title of the album.
Listening to this album it becomes a bit ‘tedious’ in it’s flow, it becomes an album that’s not real sure what kind of an album it’s supposed to be, there’s soul, there’s motown, there are reggae-like rythms on songs like “Eye To Eye”.
Likely my two favorite songs on the album are the two “covers”, the first being a cover of Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Sign Your Name” from way back in 1987 when songs still had ‘b-sides’. The other coming from her tribute to Michael Jackson, who gave Crow her first big break choosing her to be his back-up singer, with the song “I Want You Back” which she actually did a very impressive job of.
For me the album overall was a bit of a let down after some of the media hyping articles I read prior to it’s release, I think I prefer Crow in her bluesy, country, rock style akin to her duet with Kid Rock on “Pictures” to this.

1. Our Love Is Fading
2. Eye To Eye
3. Sign Your Name
4. Summer Day
5. Long Road Home
6. Say What You Want
7. Peaceful Feeling
8. Stop
9. Sideways
10. 100 Miles From Memphis
11. Roses And Moonlight
12. I Want You Back

Rating: 2.5 / 5