John Denver - Rhymes & Reasons [1969]
Posted by admin on June 22nd, 2008
Relative newcomer John Denver — his work with the Chad Mitchell Trio notwithstanding — released his debut in 1969 to a relatively empty room. It wasn’t until Peter, Paul & Mary took the singer/songwriter’s “Leaving, on a Jet Plane” to the top of the charts later in the year that he began his ascent from fresh-faced folkie to America’s best-selling recording artist in 1974. While the producers did their best to position Denver away from the dwindling folk scene by incorporating lush orchestrations and murky backing vocals, there was absolutely no way that they could remove the artist’s heartfelt delivery and gentle disposition. RCA Read the rest of this entry »
The Backstreet Boys finally broke (and broke big) in America during 1998, as if by design. They had been Euro sensations for a couple of years, but it wasn’t until Backstreet’s Back was unleashed in the U.S. in 1997 that they had a presence in the States, and it was no small presence, either — after selling over ten million copies, the album remained in the Top 40 on the eve of the release of its sequel, Millennium. And sequel is the appropriate word — Millennium has no pretense of being anything other than an album for the moment, delivering more of everything that made Backstreet’s Back a blockbuster. There’s a familiar blend 
MLTR has been making international recordings for nearly 15 years now (the band was formed in 1991, when Jascha Richter (singer and keyboard player), Kåre Wanscher (drummer), and Mikkel Lentz (guitarist) came together to form a band. Bass guitarist Søren Madsen was roped in later), and yet they are able to keep their freshness alive in their songs. Though most of the songs delve around emotions surrounding love and its ilk, they have been able to make each song unique in itself.
One of the best pop debut albums I’ve heard in years, “Katharine McPhee” has something for everyone: Catchy pop numbers, club anthems, power ballads, and powerful blues ballads.
This two-CD set is the second of three albums of material Frank Zappa compiled from the 1988 tour. While Broadway the Hard Way (released in 1988) mostly presented the new songs performed during that tour, this set focuses on older songs (Make a Jazz Noise Here would contain mostly instrumental pieces). This is the best band you never heard in your life because the 12-piece group disintegrated after only four months of touring through the U.S. East Coast and Europe. These shows took place during the Jimmy Swaggart scandal, when the televangelist was caught with a prostitute. Thus, many of the songs’ lyrics were rewritten to refer to this situation 
If a series of unfortunate comparisons (like the ones to follow) cause listeners to equate British vocalist Amy Winehouse with Macy Gray, it’s only natural. Both come on like a hybrid of Billie Holiday and Lauryn Hill who’s had a tipple and then attempted one more late-night set at a supper club than they should have. Despite her boozy persona and loose-limbed delivery, though, Winehouse is an excellent vocalist possessing both power and subtlety, the latter an increasingly rare commodity among contemporary female vocalists (whether jazz or R&B). What lifts her above Macy Gray is the fact that her music and her career haven’t been marketed 
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