Album Reviews

By Marry Jessie Burke, Guruchathram Ledchumanan and Ryan Belbin

Lady Antebellum Need You Now Capitol Nashville Country

B

By Ryan Belbin

Lady Antebellum is the latest in a long list of musicians coming out of Nashville trying to make country music cool again. The trio’s sophomore release is pretty much exactly what you’d expect: Catchy, feel-good hooks; sappy ballads; and rhymes that are cute, but clichéd and contrived. Need You Now isn’t completely formulaic. With Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott sharing the lead vocals, the group had an interesting dynamic that works fairly well. Kelley brings a radio-friendly rawness that is nicely counterbalanced by Scott’s unassumingly sweet voice. Each song sounds like a duet, which gives a fresh energy to the album that doesn’t get old. The lead single, “Need You Now,” is one of the standout tracks on the album, as is “Love This Pain,” which had better be on deck for radio rotation. They’re energetic, likeable pop songs, with just enough southern flair to be considered country. Where the groups veers a little off course, however, is with some of their other material, which sounds like filler. It’s almost as if they were reviewing the track listing and realized they didn’t have enough songs about idyllic summer days, innocent relationships, and overcoming heartbreak, and had to scramble to fill in the gaps, lest they piss off the kids with Corona cowboy hats who think Kid Rock wrote “Sweet Home Alabama.” Still, you can’t blame a group for capitalizing on market trends, and Lady Antebellum makes a decent attempt at carving their own niche out of the well-worn surface of country pop. The good songs on the album make up for some of the other half-hearted tracks, and give some indication of a group that could have a promising future if they continue in the direction they’re moving.

Sade Soldier Of Love Sony Music Soul

A

By Guruchathram Ledchumanan

Both Sade and AC/DC have perfected the art of creating the perfect song that just happens to sound like all their songs. It doesn’t matter if you’ve heard the latest AC/DC song, “Rock ‘N Roll Train,” if you’ve heard just anything from Back In Black onwards. Similarly, the songs on the new Sade record sound comfortingly familiar and yet still manage to blow the current competition out of the water. As much as I love Alicia Keys, she doesn’t have the smooth operator sophistication and sublime subtlety that Sade so effortlessly has. On the track Morning Bird, a piano plays over a cello and she sings, “You are the morning bird that sang into life every day, you are the blood of me, the harvest of my dreams, there’s nowhere I can find peace and the silence won’t cease.” The song even sounds the way lonely mornings feel like. It’s perfect music to cry on the couch to. Her album’s title, Soldier Of Love, suggests that strength and power comes from falling in and out of love and not being destroyed. That is the same message that AC/DC has. Their first album that they released after their original lead singer Bon Scott died was the unrepentant Back In Black with funeral songs that can rock every corner of hell, such as, well, Hell’s Bells. The message of both acts is that whether or not you intend on agreeing with it, life goes on. Or as Sade herself puts it on acoustic Prince-sounding track, Bring Me Home, “Let the tide take me, I won’t fight.” She does the entire album in her voice of voluptuous heartbreak with a hushed librarian’s tone. The title track is a ballad that describes complete emotional devastation that samples Kool Moe Dee’s 1988 hit, Wild Wild West. Over the old-school hip-hop beat, Sade sings, “I am at the borderline of my faith.” Her smoky voice has an ache that you will instantly recognize. The song’s rhythm section slowly builds up the tension but there is no climax. In classic Sade fashion, it’s a calm and collected song about falling to pieces.

Amelia Curran Hunter, Hunter Six Shooter Records Folk

A

By Marry Jessie Burke

Amelia Curran’s fifth album Hunter, Hunter has to be one of the most beautiful albums released in 2009. Both placidly comforting and tensely exciting, it masters a subtle energy that Canada’s East Coast has become an expert at producing. From silky love ballads and rhythmic poetry to ambiguous confessionals, Hunter, Hunter is a gorgeous collection featuring 12 original tracks that simply beg to be replayed. Curran’s soft instrumentation is pleasantly appealing, and her lyrics bleed with a raw passion that contrasts with her honey tone surprisingly well. The tender low register of her voice draws listeners deep into the story. Her words capture the emotions that lie within them. Curran’s lyrics are intricately laced with gorgeous metaphors and stunning imagery that exemplify her music as truly artistic. As each song flows into the next with effortless precision, the diversity of Curran’s unique personality is accented with gentle harmonies performed by another local talent, Newfoundland’s The Once. Curran’s distinctive talent shines brightly through songs such as “The Mistress” and “The Wrecking Ball.” However, it is the final track on the record, entitled “Last Call,” that really leaves an impression. The combination of soulful lyrics and romantic instrumentation leaves the listener with a restrained ache. It feeds into the addiction that Curran has created. Her music is refreshingly genuine and with strong echoes of Leonard Cohen, it’s performed with an indisputable sincerity that any music lover can appreciate. Curran’s undeniable talent for combining delicate and lively acoustics with brutal honesty is portrayed with a memorable eloquence that will strike listeners in the heart and stay with them long after the last note fades.

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