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Album Review: Christopher Lee - Charlemagne; By the Sword and the Cross

Posted by Lawrence Lee | Sunday, May 9, 2010 @ 6:05pm

Charlemagne; By the Sword and the Cross is a concept album where Christopher Lee sings in the role of the dying King Charlemagne reflecting on his life. The album attempts to be epic, but fails miserably, due to several factors, despite having Christopher Lee's incredible voice. Christopher is joined by a pair of heavy metal bands, an orchestra, and guest singers, none of which contribute to making the album memorable. A lot of the blame goes to the songwriting, horrific guitaring, and intrusive narration. But more than anything, the album does not feel like a musical recording. Instead, it comes off like a man lecturing about history, as some instruments in the background are playing.

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Album Review: Emme Packer - Earlier, Later

Posted by Ariana | Sunday, November 22, 2009 @ 1:56am

When I first sat down to listen to Emme Packer’s double album, Earlier, Later, I was feeling very much in the mood to listen to Bon Iver—you know, it was a typical rainy, grey November day in Vancouver, and I wanted something gentle and melancholy—and before I was halfway through the opening track, Save Me From That Cage, I’d decided that it was perfect: Emme Packer is a female version of Bon Iver. And she’s been in rotation on my iPod ever since.

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Album Review: Jeffery Straker - Step Right Up

Posted by Ariana | Tuesday, November 11, 2008 @ 10:25pm

Hey, have you heard? We’re having a contest. You--yes, you--can win your very own copy of Canadian singer-songwriter Jeffery Straker’s third full-length album, Step Right Up. And you should enter, because you want this CD. I’m telling you; I listened to it once and had to have it on my iPod.

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Album Review: Emma-Lee - Never Just a Dream

Posted by Ariana | Wednesday, July 30, 2008 @ 1:01am

What grabs you first about Toronto songstress Emma-Lee’s debut full-length album Never Just a Dream? The dulcet tones of her voice and the mellow vibe, for starters. But what will keep you listening is the thoughtful, compelling lyrics coupled with some nifty melodic ideas and the slight edge to her voice that keeps you guessing – will she or won’t she?

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Album Review: Night Ranger - Hole in the Sun

Posted by Jeremy Maron | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 @ 5:17pm

As an avid fan of 80s hair bands for a number of reasons including the emotional highs of power ballads, the bombastic choruses, and, most importantly, clean, high male vocals (the cleaner and higher the better, at least for this subgenre of metal), I was quite anxious to see what the newest Night Ranger album, Hole in the Sun held. Overall, this album is a very decent effort that delivers a good amount of solid rock, some heavy guitars, and catchy vocal patterns, even if the new songs don’t ultimately de-throne NR classics like Don't Tell Me You Love Me and Sister Christian (aka the song from the most intense scene from Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. As a brief aside, the CD does include bonus tracks of these two songs done in acoustic style, and while this is a nice addition and the songs translate equally well to the alternate form, their inclusion on an album of otherwise new songs makes one question the confidence that Jack Blade and crew have in their most recent material.

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Album Review: John Mellencamp - Life, Death, Love and Freedom

Posted by Ariana | Wednesday, July 16, 2008 @ 1:28am

The prolific John Mellencamp returns with his 20th studio album as a man with a lot on his mind and a heavy heart. Fortunately for all of us the world over with heavy hearts, there is such a thing as blues music.

Here, the former Mr. Cougar has mastered all manner of blues styles, from Southern blues, to folky blues, to blues rock. Life, Death, Love and Freedom blends them all – and everything in between – in an emotional concoction that sets you to thinking and feeling and reminiscing and hoping.

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Album Review: Elisa - Dancing

Posted by Ariana | Tuesday, July 15, 2008 @ 12:54am

For diehard fans of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance, Italian singer/songwriter Elisa is nothing new – the title track of her North American release, Dancing, was featured prominently on the third season’s Top 20 episode in a Mia Michaels-choreographed piece.

Dancing contains hand-picked tracks from most of Elisa’s previous home-country releases, plus the iTunes version released last month features a reasonable cover of The Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses (though the 90s version by The Sundays remains my favourite so far).

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Sarah and Ariana's Top Fives: Best of 2007

Posted by Sarah Miller | Monday, February 4, 2008 @ 12:43am

The 50th birthday of the Grammy Awards is almost upon us, and in honour of this momentous occasion we decided to come up with a list of our 50 Favourite Songs of 2007.

Just kidding. That would be ridiculous. And impossible. And would probably end in fisticuffs. Instead, we offer you our not-really-related-to-the-Grammys-at-all Grammy edition of the Top Fives!

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Sarah and Ariana's Top Fives: Holiday Music

Posted by Sarah Miller | Thursday, December 20, 2007 @ 2:44am

During the holiday season, we know there’s one thing none of us can get enough of, and that thing is Christmas music. Since you're stuck listening to it as you stroll through malls from Halloween right through the Boxing Day Super Sales, you may as well be listening to the good stuff when you get home and start wrapping presents. Luckily, a couple of our resident self-proclaimed music experts are here to inform you of the cream of the crop in holiday music so you can skip straight to the good stuff.

As for what the malls play, well, we have no say in that.

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