CD Reviews

Michelle Schocked - Soul of My Soul

Soul of My Soul is full of great songs, Michelle's voice weaves in and out of your heart. On the downside it is more geared to Bush-era policies so unfortunately it does come across as a bit less than timely.

Overlooking that don't let it stop you getting it. The album is smorgasbord of styles. Kicking off with classic rock Love's Song reminds me a little of John Mellencamp. Very catchy and rocks along. True Story is lovely ballad sung to a friend on the other side of the phone. Ballad of the Battle of the Ballot and the Bullet Part I: Ugly Americans - would have been great released a couple of years ago, but still a great statement in light of what is taking place around the world. Some may say that now Obama is here things have changed but somehow you wonder.

Other People is a song that hits you like a brick. It has that soft ballad feel however the words get right to the heart of the matter. Other People is a song that will surely endure the test of time.

I may be a softie but hey Liquid Prayer had me doing the Motown slow dance - it's Temptations it's the Four Tops, its Billy Joel's River of Dreams. I became a fan!

Paperboy changes the mood to a more contemporary rock beat and then Giant Killer takes us further away from the soft folk ballads.

Michelle pulls us back to softer songs such as Heart to Heart and Pompeii. Again a classy song with lyrics that leaving you gasping and most of all force you to think. What i love about this album is her ability to write the most hard hitting words and put them into a melody that makes butter melt and just when you think you're safe she rocks your complacency with a voice that demands attention.

Besides the music, what makes this album so very interesting is the way in which Michelle is selling it and marketing it. I downloaded it from her site. The experience was good. I was a little concerned at the 128kbs but its fine. Soul to Soul is an album that should win her more fans and I think one of her best. Had it come out two years ago everyone would be buying it.... so it'll be interesting to see how it goes.... Liquid Prayer here I come again... - Dizzygee

Regina Spektor - Far

Regina Spektor writes the kind of crazy-quilt confessionals we used to hear a lot from 1990s alt-rockers but don't get enough of these days. The Russian-born Lower East Side piano punk has the European yelp of Björk, the loopiness of Fiona Apple, the too-much-information torridness of Tori Amos and the slanted critical eye of Liz Phair. But none of those girls ever interrupted a song about long-term commitment to uncork a flurry of dolphin noises, as Spektor does on "Folding Chair," one of the stranger — and catchier — moments on her excellent third major-label record.

The 29-year-old singer-songwriter's 2004 disc, Soviet Kitsch, flaunted her exotic Old World accent on stark, ranting torch songs that followed a boozy logic. 2006's Begin to Hope had fuller production and great one-liners about being a doomed New York romantic, like a Joni Mitchell for the post-Strokes era. Produced by Jeff Lynne, Garret "Jacknife" Lee, Mike Elizondo and David Kahne, Far matches Kitsch's rococo flow with the follow-up's pop smarts. On the jaunty, hip-hop-tinged "Dance Anthem of the 80's," she wanders lonely streets with her slip hanging out, "like a drunk, but not." "Laughing With" begins as a meditation on God's wicked sense of humor and ends collapsing in an existential freakout over a soft beat and weeping cello. Spektor is a woman who doesn't need much excuse to have an emotional Chernobyl (in one song, it's finding a wallet with a Blockbuster card in it). But she's also the rare screwball who gets more universal as she gets weirder.

Moby - Wait For Me

For a guy who made his name driving party people to ecstasy, Moby has always had a thing for the blues. His unlikely 1999 megahit, Play, used them literally, grafting ancient samples into inviting electronic grooves. His latest uses them spiritually, giving his melancholy streak room to brood and blossom. Instrumentals like "Shot in the Back of the Head" (Google the haunting video, directed by David Lynch) billow moodily, lush arrangements glowing with Eno-style analog-synth warmth. Never the most convincing singer, Moby wisely farms out vocal duties to friends — all of them unknowns and ripe for discovery. It's a return to form but with a wider romantic streak. Age will do that