Reviews by Time Bomb

Listen marks the return of David Guetta. The new album confirms the dj at the top of the world dance collaborations with important and successful songs. Here are 5 reasons why the disc you will love.

1. Listen closes an era without denying an important story
Listen to David Guetta is a pop record with a heart that beats strong for the dance. A "full album" which is always the case straight to emphasize the legitimate role of top players EDM. Or the obvious one of rock stars among the dj. Only a month ago, the artist records stated: "I composed the guitar and the piano, and thinking about the voice, and only at the end of the process I produced all in an electronic way." It is a commitment that Guetta keeps to the letter, without betraying its history.

2. It is full of hit
Should start from the next hit. How Goodbye Friend feat. The Script, reminiscent at times I Can Only Imagine and could become a new and more exciting Without You. O the tasty Hey Mama with colleague Afrojack, Bebe Rexha, the hot Nicki Minaj and already booked a place in the high ranks of the chart. Eye then the roaring Bang My Head, with the powerful sounds of Nicky Romero (and the usual Daddy's Groove) and with a proven Whether as a counterweight to a riff that does a lot remixes by Cedric Gervais. Yesterday, however, it is noted more for voice intriguing Bebe Rexha that the repetitive dance / country marked Avicii. While the spatial No Money No Love with Showtek, Elliphant and the usual excellent Ms Dynamite pulls out a Guetta so cunning as nostalgic.

3. It is a record that will do well to music, because it has great songs
"Dance, yes, but also a lot of heart." The notes evocative of staff The Whisperer and clear voice Both, for example, are looking straight ahead in this direction. In STOP, which is a more refined Titanium, Ryan Tedder knows to be sublime. And Emeli Sandé's What I Did For Love is bright, huge, exciting. Face more radio-friendly and less size of the festival is rather fantastic Bad Sun Goes Down feat. MAGIC! Sonny & Wilson, where the quote from The Sound of Violence of Cassius (on which Guetta put his hands in 2002), the hints of reggae and work more effective Showtek give a touch of magic all its own. Finally there is the voice of Sam Martin, seductive in Dangerous, more anonymous Lovers On The Sun, still a novelty.

4. Listen Guetta remains behind the times
No surprise instead for the stars on the catwalk. The highly decorated One Love or the indestructible Nothing But The Beat excel in terms of pop star dream (Rihanna), remixed (Madonna), cleared (Both the same) or resuscitate (Snoop Dogg, Usher, Ne-Yo and perhaps an entire scene hip hop until a few years ago in a coma). What changes, then, after nell'EDM Listen? At the level of sounds little or nothing. Guetta, simply, is updated.

5. Consecrate the role of DJ popstar
Listen, more than anything else, consecrates the figure of dj producer who not only supports but works in all respects according to the logic of the traditional pop star. Better yet: it tells us that today is the dj the only real big pop star, which starts from the radio hit and with remixes triumphs well in clubs (see Dangerous). Above all, remember a friend as Avicii and a pupil of the most technically savvy as Calvin Harris from that point is shared the dance, where she arrived and thanks to whom. On a personal level, it is more difficult because the disc is the first after the divorce from the former manager and before ex-wife Cathy Lobe. Even for this, Listen is a test muscle. An interesting restart. It is the motto of "Work hard, play hard" that nevertheless reinforces.

Listen to the vibrato palpable, timbre soft crossed by a melancholic. It is the call of a world that no longer exists, the echo of a whiteness vanished. The voice of Zooey Deschanel is one of the secrets of "Classics", the fifth album from She & Him, the first composed entirely of covers. Strange that the actress-singer and her musical partner M. Ward we are only now arrived. At the bottom of all their repertoire is an act of love for the classics. It is from 2008 winking crafts' 60s pop, to read and melodious songs of the girl group, in a retro musical taste. In "Classics" go even further back in time to when the rock'n'roll did not exist and teens were not with ears glued to the radio to hear Elvis Presley, but left for the war.
"We'll meet again," which closes the album, is one of the older things that Deschanel and Ward have recovered. Vera Lynn sang it during the Second World War, becoming the first choice of British soldiers at the front. To interpret this and the other twelve tracks on the album She & Him have chosen a live sound, enriched by the orchestral arrangements provided by winds. There is no bombast in here. The two use the colors of the orchestra without weighing the sound, aim at simplicity, subtleties, nuances, between stamps ultravintage guitar and jazz touches like never before in their history. They go around the time - from 1930 to "Would you like to take a walk?" To 1974's "She" - choosing songs according to their personal taste and realizing performance that have a heat usually fugitive in albums like. Just in "Unchained melody" take some liberties transforming it into a folk tormenting with the help of the voices of the Chapin Sisters. Do not miss other troubled love songs, but this is the only time when "Classics" abandons the tone light, the air of cuteness.
Zooey Deschanel has a powerful voice, does not possess a large extent, is not particularly versatile. But unlike other actresses lent to the world of music knows how to leverage the color of the voice and interpretation. Confronted with a repertoire seasoned but not granted, gives the best pieces in the 60s, those that resemble more closely the repertoire autograph She & Him. This is the case of "Stay awhile" by Dusty Springfield, a reference point for her, and "Oh no, not my baby" of the couple Gerry Goffin-Carole King, deliciously measured between strings, horns and bells. Deschanel is authoritative when interpreting "I'll never be free", already in the discography of Willie Nelson and Van Morrison, and makes it look lovely when the piece of 1953 "Teach me tonight" even older. Ward does not have the same charm. Sings in the only known piece, the "She" by Charles Aznavour already in the repertoire of Elvis Costello, and duets with Deschanel in "Stars fell on Alabama" with the stamp of a hoarse ironically Louis Armstrong, nell'ammiccante "Would you like to take a walk? "and the standard 40s" Time after time "that Frank Sinatra sang in the movie" it Happened in Brooklyn. "
Posted in Italy only in digital - for the CD and the vinyl one must turn to imports - "Classics" is not the best album of the duo. She & Him are more surprising when they interpret songs that seem written fifty years ago but they are brand new. Nevertheless, in "Classics" avoid the trap of the disks that are dripping with nostalgia those are heavy, cold, dark, this is light, spontaneous, bright. Resembles a flight backwards, in a time more reassuring. It gives the idea that the pop-rock is giving up to make sense of the contemporary. Or maybe, just, sometimes we need to be reminded where does the music we love. The Thirty-nine minutes of "Classics" instill nostalgia for a time that we have not lived. We like Zooey Deschanel in the video for "Stay awhile" happy while dancing with the ghost of the past.

Here are some very quick impressions , after a first listen to "Rock or bust" :

"Rock or bust": the title track with a little opening words' to "Nervous Shakedown" (Here comes again "Flick of the Switch"), is a typical hymn style AC / DC that pleases all, in the opening line ... just to make it clear from the beginning who we are and what we are doing.

"Play Ball": simplicity and zero frills. A piece of rock'n'roll that in the hands of any other band would sound like trivial minimum. Not played by AC / DC, but ... they can afford it and silence all. Beautiful the only Angus.

"Rock the blues away": a bluesaccio rockato, with pleasant southern drift. The text speaks of women and alcohol, the music takes you immediately to a pub with half a dozen medium lager on the table. Not memorable, but effective.

"Miss adventure" groove almost funky, hypnotic riffs, circular, which leaves no time to think. But the head starts to move immediately. Too bad for the chorus not too fast setting, which seems a try ruled out for what's "Thunderstruck".

"Dogs of War": the piece mid tempo darker is practically a must in an album of AC / DC-respecting. And they give him to. On a blues riff the band builds a song cut epic, almost NWOBHM. Beautiful choosing not to overdo with playing time ... and the final duet with Angus doing its SG with the voice of Johnson.

"Got some rock & roll thunder": business as usual. A piece by Bignami of AC / DC with all the elements in place. Deja vu certainly, but the result is taken home very well. Blues + rock'n'roll. And that guitar sound warm, clean, sharp, with the gain never exaggerated ...

"Hard times": a song beautiful rough, bad and heavy, with a touch of metal eighties.

"Baptism by fire": a kind of homage to the years of Bon Scott, with a riff that comes right away you want to try to play and all the dynamics that make full-empty recognizable pieces of AC / DC.

"Rock the House": AC / DC masquerade as Led Zeppelin!

"Sweet candy": rock high voltage for dummies. With that air stomp that takes you and makes you stand up without you noticing.

"Emission control": closing without a bang, but with an honest piece rock'n'roll. With Angus protagonist's final.

How to move higher up the bar, after you've done the most important rock bands of the last 25 years and then you have put up another that fills stadiums, has credibility to spare and never misses a move? Make a record like "Sonic highways".
Nearly you imagine, the band meeting in which the Foo Fighterssi are sitting at a table to decide what to do for their 20-year career and for their eighth album. Grohl says that "we do a hard experimental? So no one can say anything "(blank faces of the other members). "Reincidiamo our first album?". "Dave, but you're stupid?" (This really happened). "There are: the thing I enjoyed the most in recent years is" Sound City ". Why do not we turn this disc in a documentary? But not on a recording studio, all about America. "
And so it went eight songs, each recorded in a different city, each influenced by the musical history of the city, each with a musical guest of the cities, each the subject of an episode of a documentary directed by Dave Grohl, aired in america on HBO (in Italy will go on Sky Arts as of 12 November).
Once, when it was fashionable "post-modern", it said it was the era in which there were not the great stories, great stories that can explain the world. The post-modern is out of fashion and is back to tell in great. With "Sonic highways" the Foo Fighters have set up a huge story, he wants ripercorrrere the history of American music, in one place, a "Sound City" which includes all cities sound like on the cover of the disc, which brings together all symbols metropolitan in a collage in which the center stands the 8 / symbol of infinity. Ambitious, yes. The bar is there, higher. But the Foo Fighters the jump nimbly, and with style.
Because the base of all there are the songs. It is not a soundtrack, maybe not even a concept album. It 'a collection of good songs, paying homage to the roots of the music, however, in a not too obvious: the links between places and songs are certainly not didactic.
The Foo Fighters are able to be both ambitious and humble, without being presumptuous putting himself to the level of their heroes - which could easily do, because many of the groups mentioned in the documentary and it involved the project are seemingly "minor".
Eventually, in these eight songs, the Foo Fighters sound like themselves and just: "Congregation" is power pop of the best kind, "The feast and the famine" is perfect for the granitic rock to jam an arena or a stadium . Then, of course, playing with sound references (the jam Californian "Outside", the horns of "In the clear", they do play the FF as the last E Street Band). And they play well with the song form, affording deviations from classical structure (the ride "Something from nothing", the final suite of "Subterranean" and "I am a river"). But the general feeling is that always have fun, not intellettualizzino ever, and always have in mind the goal: to entertain themselves, ok, but above the listener.
"Sonic highways" is a big, ambitious story, we said. But also the musical tale largest deflates, if there are no songs.

A musical dialogue with the hereafter. A tribute to Rick Wright. A collage frayed. Fifty minutes of immersion in a timeless sound. A long introduction to the song that closes the adventure of Pink Floyd. A tombstone light. "The endless river" is the album that no one had expected, not to the tweet of Polly Samson last July. Instead of leaving with a final statement bombastic, with a disc full of meaning and a colossal tour, Pink Floyd take their leave with a tribute to the art of the keyboard player who died in 2008, but also to its talented architects sound. Substantially instrumental album, "The endless river" refers to the freedom that the band had in previous years "The dark side of the moon." The freedom to get away from the song form, the freedom to make mistakes. With one key difference: those were Pink Floyd bold and progressive, these are satisfied and conservatives.

"The endless river" is first and foremost an appendix to "The division bell". For the few who do not know the story, during the sessions of the album of 1994, the group then composed of David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Masoncarezzò the idea of publishing a double: on one hand the songs, the other instrumentals , a kind of "Ummagumma". The project was abandoned and for almost twenty years and jam music sketched remained in the archives of Gilmour. There is also finished "The big spliff", collage assembled by Andy Jackson from those fragments to demonstrate its potential. But "The endless river" is not "The big spliff". The twenty hours of archival recordings were entrusted to the co-producer Phil Manzanera, youthe same Jackson in order to obtain and install the best moments. Devoid of design talent of a Roger Waterse perhaps distracted by the recording of his solo album, Gilmour has entrusted to them the task of laying the foundations of the album. When she regained possession of the project tracks assembled by the producers were partly echoed and reworked, supplemented by new performance, shuffled and rearranged to compose the four sections of the album. The session was attended by Jon Carin and Damon Iddins on keyboards, Guy Pratt on bass and Bob Ezrin, saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, three singers and the female quartet of electric arcs Escala, launched at home from participation in "Britain's got talent".

It's hard ambient Pink Floyd, has been said. But "The endless river" denies one of the principles of ambient music that is designed to serve as a background to daily activities. Music as a piece of furniture, a painting, upholstery. "The endless river" does not work that way. Demands your attention to be appreciated because it communicates through small changes, the alternation of tone colors, the idea of instrumental music as abstract narration. To understand this you have to immerse us. Frustrates the listener from YouTube, he wants a refrain within thirty seconds and it's sensational. The album offers a partial view of Pink Floyd, showing mostly their talent in launching into digressions instrumental mood. It provides good evidence of Gilmour, his tone, his touch. In this sense, the disc is perfectly within the tradition of the band. Too, and this is its main limitation. References to works ranging from "The Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wall", and of course "The division bell", make it seem the album echoes of the past. It is absent any recklessness. Fortunately, even the sounds are absent dating dating back to the 1993 session and traceable in "The division bell". Curiously, it appears a fragment from Wright played the organ of the Royal Albert Hall in 1969: not clash at all.

What we hear is not the creative dialogue between the musicians of the group. Resembles rather the collective vision - Gilmour, Mason, Manzanera, Youth and Jackson - the essence of Pink Floyd. It is a collage of many hands constructed from existing material and following an idea of what Pink Floyd are or should be. Gilmour and Mason did not alter the character of impromptu recordings, have safeguarded their precarious denying opportunity. They could transform some instrumental songs and meet an even wider audience. They preferred to remain faithful to the original idea by producing one of those albums "minor" that appear in the discography of Pink Floyd pre "Dark side". The problem is that being tied to a "script" - the assembly of old engravings - Gilmour and Mason have not fully solved the problem of the fragmentary nature of the material. If "It's what we do", "anisina" and "Allons-y" offer a musical narrative accomplished, many more songs than a few minutes in duration seem queues or preludes of songs that never arrive, and especially at the beginning of the third section group seed remnants music easily amendable. Once every note of Pink Floyd seemed sculpted, designed, required. S'ascoltavano their instrumental in suspense, to see where they were going to end up. Today their music is beautifully predictable.
The album may sound to the ears of the most impatient as a long introduction - somewhere between trance, dream and nightmare - the piece that closes sang, "Louder than words" (the deluxe version includes three other instrumental and six video tracks). Twenty years ago, "The division bell" would close with the intense bittersweet nostalgia for "High hopes" for an era in which "the grass was greener and more turned on the light." Today "The endless river", which takes its title from a line in the same song, closes the story of Pink Floyd with a feeling of peace and a look that embraces seemingly the entire history of the group. When David Gilmour sings "What we do is louder than words" - him in low tones and singers octave above, on the model of Leonard Cohen - the memory goes to the parable of Syd Barrett, the merciless battle with Roger Waters, exclusion of Richard Wright. To borrow the words of Polly Samson, the group launches with "Louder than words" the first compassionate gaze on himself, on his miseries, on their talents. Pink Floyd have no more to say. Now they can dissolve in history.

The literature / horror filmography teaches that the undead must be treated rather rudely: usually necessary to chop their skulls to neutralize them. Without thoughts and second thoughts, however - worth the not too welcome opportunity to join their army of zombies.
Well, listen to this "Queen forever" - designer Queen, of course - the first instinct is to run for the pick or bat 10 pounds to crush the skull of "returnees". And the reason is obvious: in this album, the lead singer is a dead man for 23 years - the legendary long as you want, but irrevocably passed away. Freddie Mercury, in fact. He adds, putting the proverbial load to be ninety, another performer in duet, for a song announced with great fanfare: Michael Jackson, who died in June 2009.
What the hell? We are in a film by Romero?

Not really. We are only in the presence of one of the many operations of squeezing the legend for the benefit of the record industry perpetually in trouble. So here is that, just a month and a half before the fatal and fateful Christmas period, comes out this compilation of the Queen that - in addition to the usual parade of classic versions more or less known - reveals three pieces more or less unknown.

The main selling point of "Queen forever" is "There must be more to life than this", duet that sees Mercury alongside Jackson, as mentioned just above (note: the song is not unprecedented 100%, as it appeared in the solo album of Freddie in 1985, but without the vocal track of Michael).
We are very close to the apotheosis of necrophilia pop, which is not even a bad thing in itself (rock and pop have always been a fascination for this dark side). Too bad the piece, despite stellar credentials, let cool and rather disappointed ... after all if it has never been published before in this capacity, as popular wisdom teaches, there is a good reason. And it is, simply, that it is not a great song: apart from the historical value and evocative, there is almost nothing.
The problem is to be found in the fact that two cocks in the same poultry house rarely lead to good results - because the sum of two artists of great value is often lower than that individually are able to do. And then the addition Mercury more Jackson does not automatically create a masterpiece, but rather an outtake minor, with the value of a notation in the margin in the history of pop.
Fortunately the other two pseudo-unreleased songs are, however, the most interesting: the power ballad in pure baroque-rock "Let me in your heart again" (already engraved and published by the wife of May - Anita Dobson - in his album "Talking of love "of 1988) holds up the great confrontation with the repertoire more consolidated; while the hard rock version of "Love Kills" (Mercury solo, in collaboration with Giorgio Moroder) lifts the fortunes of a piece in the eighties was not well received.

What, then ... if even before were part of the people of worshipers of Mercury and Queen, you will find yourself in the hands of yet another greatest hits with three curiosity (even if it is not discovered scratch) to act as icing on the cake. If you have never had particular transport or interest in the band, it is certainly not with this CD of remastered versions more or less that will change your mind ... in fact, you probably have several more reasons to avoid even the music of Queen. And maybe that's the problem: pray to the converted is easy, but if it becomes a practice landlocked different, it becomes a vicious circle. You know the cd anthology on offer that you see in the baskets of roadside restaurants or supermarkets in the province? Here ...

TRACKLIST:
Let me in your heart again
love kills
There must be more to life than this
It's a hard life
You're my best friend
Love of my life
drowse
Long away
Lily of the valley
Do not try so hard
Bijou
These Are the Days of Our Lives
Las palabras de amor (the words of love)
Who wants to live forever
A winter's tale
Play the game
Save me
Somebody to Love
Too much love will kill you
Crazy little thing called love

The project was signed by Ralph Sall, author and producer who began to fix it as far back as 2003. Sall has to his credit other tribute albums, such as those dedicated to the Eagles ("Common Threads", the Doors ("Stoned immaculate ") and the Grateful Dead (" Deadicated "). he proposed his project with Paul McCartney, obtaining the consent, and began working with the band that accompanies the former Beatles in his concerts (guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, keyboardist Paul "Wix" Wickens and drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr.). Then he began to search for artists willing to contribute: the first to accept was Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, that McCartney is linked by a high esteem each other. from then on, Sall has put together a pretty impressive list of names, among which stands out above all that of Bob Dylan.

There is no need to reflect on one point: Paul McCartney, with all its limitations - that make it little sympathetic to the critics, and often with good reason - it is, however, highly regarded by fellow musicians, who recognize an amazing and prolific compositional a high profile as a bass player. Not have been so difficult to obtain the consents Sall; if anything, it has been more difficult to arrive at a final tracklist, so much so that the standard version of the double CD counts 34 pieces, while the deluxe version contains eight more (there is also a special edition boxed limited edition of one thousand copies with a number of bonus content and gadgets).

The specific methods used - the artists have sung on a basis prepared by McCartney's band, so faithful to the live performances of the songs in concert - means that there are no disruptions, refurbishment or radical interpretations particularly daring: in essence, we have for hands a great karaoke in which the voices that replace that of Paul are known or well-known people. It would be interesting to know exactly how you have made your choices, or combinations (in the deluxe version includes a documentary that will perhaps shed some light on this aspect). Of course some are coupled to the limit of the obvious (Harry Connick Jr for "My Love"), others are very happy ("Wanderlust", the richly orchestral track of "Tug of War", Brian Wilson is in the ideal interpreter) others reveal the deep knowledge of the repertoire of the artist honored (Jeff Lynne sings the jewel of the "Junk", a song written by the Beatles and active published after the dissolution of the first solo album by Paul, Toots Hibbert, Sly and Robbie fished "How and get it, "written by McCartney for Badfinger). If you want to know Dylan, does a nice job with "Things We Said Today" excursion into the country & western Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" (perhaps he would have chosen "Norwegian Wood", but that's John Lennon ...) .

Attendance must be reported less striking (Owl City / Adam Young, The Airborne Toxic Event), combined curious (BB King addresses "On the Way", one of the smaller pieces of "McCartney II"), unlikely collaborations (the Cure with her son Paul, James McCartney, for "Hello goodbye"), surprising absence of interpreters (Ringo Starr?) and one of the songs (there's "Another Day", the first single from the solo career of Paul, and there 'is "Goodnight tonight").
It remains to point out the double presence of Billy Joel (which with McCartney has long been a beautiful relationship and has the honor of opening both Cd), of the Heart, Steve Miller, before concluding that probably if you were prevented from spreading to a double album and we were limited to one called the final result would have been better (and it would be more correct to focus on the songs of McCartney's solo, post-Beatles). A pleasant work, then, but far from the inventiveness and originality of similar ones by Hal Willner.

TRACKLIST:
CD1
"Maybe I'm Amazed" Billy Joel
"Things We Said Today" Bob Dylan
"Band on the Run" Heart
"Junior's Farm" Steve Miller's "The Long and Winding Road" Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)
"My Love" Harry Connick, Jr.
"Wanderlust" Brian Wilson
"Bluebird" Corinne Bailey Rae
"Yesterday" Willie Nelson
"Junk" Jeff Lynne
"When I'm Sixty-Four" Barry Gibb
"Every Night" Jamie Cullum
"Venus and Mars / Rock Show" Kiss
"Let Me Roll It" Paul Rodgers
"Helter Skelter" Roger Daltrey
"Helen Wheels" Def Leppard
"Hello, Goodbye" The Cure featuring James McCartney

CD2
"Live and Let Die" Billy Joel
"Let It Be" Chrissie Hynde
"Jet" Robin Zander and Rick Nielsen
"Hi Hi Hi" Joe Elliot
"Letting Go" Heart
"Hey Jude" Steve Miller
"Listen to What the Man Said" Owl City
"Got to Get You Into My Life" Perry Farrell
"Drive My Car" Dion
"Lady Madonna" Allen Toussaint
"Let 'Em In" Dr. John
"So Bad" Smokey Robinson
"No More Lonely Nights" The Airborne Toxic Event
"Eleanor Rigby" Alice Cooper
"Come and Get It" with Toots Hibbert, Sly & Robbie
"On the Way" B.B. King
"Birthday" Sammy Hagar

Scordatevi Life Is Sweet, che è un gran bel pezzo, ma allo stesso tempo è quello che più ci si poteva aspettare dal trio composto da Niccolò Fabi, Daniele Silvestri e Max Gazzè. Il primo singolo è un mix perfetto degli autori che già conosciamo. Ma il meglio viene dopo. Bisogna immergersi nell’ascolto de Il padrone della festa per scoprire un album immaginifico e immaginato, sognante e sognato, ma profondamente vero e concreto nel mettere in luce l’anima di tre cantautori amici che hanno fatto quello che (quasi) nessuno finora aveva fatto in Italia. Forse solo Volume 8 di Fabrizio De Andrè (con Francesco De Gregori) era riuscito nello stesso risultato di essere un lavoro di tanto sincera collaborazione tra due artisti.

Il padrone della festa è un album da ascoltare e riascoltare per coglierne a fondo l’intensità e l’intimità. Il primo ascolto incuriosisce quanto serve per farlo ripartire dall’inizio con la voglia di ripercorrerlo dalla prima all’ultima nota: non c’è una canzone che svetti sulle altre rubando tutta l’attenzione. Non ci sono tormentoni come Capelli, Salirò o Una musica può fare. Ma tante Ecco, tante Mi persi, tante Mentre dormi. Tutte gemme che brillano e continueranno a brillare. Forse nessuna rimane in testa dal primo ascolto, ma ognuna resta nel cuore perché il livello è davvero molto alto. Si tratta di un disco che racchiude molti generi, ma riesce a essere molto uniforme e ben amalgamato.

E in realtà il vero, grande merito de Il padrone della festa è proprio questo: regalarci non il meglio di tre grandi cantautori, ma un artista altro, differente. Non dunque la somma delle parti (e già sarebbe stata gran cosa), ma qualcosa di nuovo e diverso: ogni volta che sembra di intuire il contributo di ciascuno al brano in una nota o in un arrangiamento, subito il pezzo cambia e non si capisce da chi e come sia stato rielaborato. Perché dentro si sono uniti tutti i pregi di ciascuno, dall’inizio onirico di Alzo le mani, splendido brano che ci porta a svegliarci in un sogno quantomai reale, fino alla chiusura della bella title track che sembra quasi non voler finire, come se non volesse concludersi la collaborazione di questi tre amici.

It has a certain effect only to say, but "Ghost Stories " is only the sixth album by Coldplay. Seems to have been around forever , not only from year zero . An effect derived from the density of their history : full of great records, questionable music choices , great songs and mega-hit (which often do not coincide ) and extra-musical factors . They filled a void - that of the epic group - U2 , lost in their grandeur , no longer seemed able to fill . I've always been a bit ' old youth , Coldplay , they were already "classics" from the beginning.

"Ghost Stories " comes in the aftermath of an extra-musical factors : the separation between Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow, communicated well in advance so as not to make too much shade to the album but still recent enough to trigger a hunt for references the disc - and those who want it will find plenty of them, as many are in inverted commas Martin playing on " say - do not say " nay " i talk about it but do not speak ." From the title , which refers to the ghosts of the past. Willy-nilly , the private life of Martin is one of the factors that have made Coldplay stars.

But this is not all , and this is not what makes it interesting "Ghost Stories ." The album comes two and a half years from " Mylo Xyloto " - the most pop album of the band, many (too many ? ) Colors put together, as in the cover . "Ghost stories" moves away from the right by its cover, soft colors, night (Opera Mila Fürstová ' : streaming on iTunes has turned into a beautiful animated video directed by Alasdair + Jock of the Trunk Animation) .
"Ghost Stories " , in essence, is an album minimalist , minimalist as can be Coldplay. Has a much more homogeneous production of " Mylo Xyloto " - largely operates Paul Epworth . Indeed, it is probably the most homogeneous disk of the recent production of the band, perhaps the purest of " Viva la vida" . You can tell from the first notes of "Always in my head ," angelic choirs on which part of a beat and a guitar just mentioned - and so on until the closing piano , voice ( and effects "ambient" ) to "O". To say , in "True love" is also Timbaland, a manufacturer that is not usually noted for minimalism or understatement and fortunately it does not feel nearly , if not for a beat that colors the song .

One of the keys to understanding the music of this period is the transformation of the hot in the new mainstream and pop in the new indie, with a reversal of roles between what is niche / cool and what's popular ( and inevitably some ' less cool) : adored pop singers and pumped a few "chosen ones " and indie bands that are mass phenomena - with inevitable distortion of the original labels .
Coldplay are good at playing on this border , fishing from both sides , running on the edge of pop and indie . Looting the now -mainstream indie ( the vocoder of " Midnight" that calls openly Bon Iver ) , now giving a dimension to pop indie pop that is - the tastieroni EDM Avicii in "A sky full of stars " , minimized with little guitars , piano , solids and voids that are filled and emptied . "A sky full of stars " is the missing piece chain to " Milo Xyloto ."
To want to see well , Coldplay arriving late on all these sounds, it's true: Bon Iver is that the EDM are certainly not the most avant-garde. But Coldplay have never been great innovators. If anything, the excellent craftsmen of song and sounds, with sound strong and recognizable identity . All confirmed in "Ghost Stories " at the end , it's a great disc . Typically Coldplay but also a bit ' different from the recent past.

TRACKLIST :

Always in my head
Magic
Ink
true love
Midnight
Another 's arms
Oceans
A sky full of stars
O

They have agreed a day at lunch in a restaurant in West Hollywood, Epic boss Antonio "LA" Reid and the administrator of the immense heritage of Michael Jackson John Branca. By real businessmen have done things seriously and wasted no time : 's been a little less than a year , here comes now the second posthumous album in stores and " new" King of Pop , needy - Billboard with pragmatism also emphasizes all-American - a revival of trade after last year its back catalog, 584 000 copies sold, turnover has considerably less than that of Elvis Presley (1.1 million copies) and that of Johnny Cash ( 969 000 copies ) while maintaining a distance other legendary dear departed as Whitney Houston and Jimi Hendrix.

To transform a collection of outtakes and " waste" caught between 1983 (just after "Thriller" ) and 1999 (just before "Invincible " ) on a hard solid , convincing, and dignified as possible homogeneous moved the bigwig of black music and the mixer , led by Reid ( who also signed a piece along with Babyface , " Slave to the rhythm , a techno funk worked in the days of " Bad " and then again during the sessions of " Dangerous " ) and led on the field by Timbaland, eager to prove himself in a challenge mica laugh . disc of the deluxe edition also features the original versions retrieved from the immense archives Jacksonian and realizes the work: the super team has nearly erased the old bases , however, often enough already finished and processed to build around Jackson's voice - loud, shrill , always in the front and central - gleaming , chrome and modern arrangements that ( stated intention ) would like to pay tribute to his restless spirit and pioneering , to his perfectionism and his willingness to always look ahead . Missing rebuttal (from " control freak " that he was, would never have published these pieces ? ) And you have to settle .

The already-known single "Love never felt so good ," written by Jackson along with the evergreen Paul Anka , published in 1984 by Johnny Mathis and reinforced , in one of two new versions , from a small cameo by Justin Timberlake, is the perfect paradigm of ' operation (because of this , after all, that is) : a soul dance pop with strong echoes of the '80s, with strings and melodic , bubbling and summer : just what it takes , how he wanted Reid to compete in radio equals with the latest single from Katy Perry. Proceeding by subtraction by addition and then , Timbaland ( assisted by his faithful Jerome Harmon aka J -Roc ) and the other decided continue in that direction in the rest of the repertoire, virtually all known - because surfaced in various forms in the network - the most enterprising fan : their "Chicago" , very electronic and driven by a synth bass riff , it is less dark original, "Blue gangsta " , developed on a breakbeat rhythm and a symphony of voices from the Gothic cathedral, renunciation of touch "roots " accordion , while in "A place with no name" reworked by the Norwegian Stargaze , much admired by Jackson, the explicit references to the " A horse with no name" of America survive especially in the final chorus . The rhythms , scans , and the melodies are unmistakable sobs and Jacko , it must be said , does not come out distorted and indeed the protagonist because Reid has used the few clues available to build the project in accordance with its virtual liturgy : choosing only tracks "important" and presumably beloved by the artist who had returned several times by cutting multiple tracks and naming the artwork to a song " Xscape " , in homage to another tradition held ( in this case on the repainting of the hypnotic funk soul is also spoke at the original co-author , Rodney Jerkins ) .

It remains to be said of the two titles , perhaps better, a soft and dreamy soulful piano ballad entitled " Loving You" ( " The Boyz II Men that meet today ", said Timbaland) and a relentless , almost angrily , " Do you know where your children are ", where in a sea of ​​echoes and synthetic riffs closed by a distorted electric guitar solo a Jackson not yet overwhelmed by the infamous scandals of Neverland addresses the issue , even then topical , sexual abuse on adolescents with crude language and compassionate. The only real emotional shock that gives a thrill even mocking a hard iperprofessionale that works if it is understood as a "reinvention " (declared , however) of Jackson's music to the ears , palate , and the market in 2014.

TRACKLIST :

Love never felt so good
Chicago
Loving you
A place with no name
Slave to the rhythm
Do you know where your children are
Blue gangsta
Xscape