After having presented an exceptional album in 2004 with Funeral, the band from Montreal Arcade Fire must try to progress with a whole challenge on its arms, to resume offering a record of such quality. Neon Bible brought us completely elsewhere with a dark album, often difficult of access. For its 3rd opus, the group returns to a very “suburban” melancholy, with simple, but so effective melodies. While listening to the title-song, one can hear an obvious influence of the 1960s. 1970s pop also comes to our mind on several occasions with David Bowie never hiding well far behind the influences of the band. Not surprising that Bowie is their number one fan. A little less theatrical than the previous records, The Suburbs presents less great orchestral moments to concentrate on more sober recordings, centered on guitars and melodies. In spite of the great melancholy which furnishes the 64-minute album, the unit remains luminous, much less dark than Neon Bible. In that sense, one can a little more easily compare it with their masterpiece of 2004. On the other hand, the 16 tracks are not all at the same level and they could have cut off some to give even more power to the CD. We can hear anyway a good number of great songs like “Ready to Start”, “Suburban War”, “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)”, magnificently interpreted by Régine Chassagne, and of course the title-song in opening with a reprise in conclusion. The group explores genres we never really knew about them until now: rock 'n' roll (“Month of May”) and folk (“Wasted Hours”). This 3rd recording by Arcade Fire constitutes once again a very great success and it will appear undoubtedly among the best albums of the year, especially after several additional listens.

Video: « Ready to Start »

It will have taken a few years for this Outkast member to produce his true first album. A change of label and many leaked tracks indeed delayed all the process. But here is finally the so much awaited record for fans of rap. Sir Lucious Left Foot… presents an extremely creative rap with short tracks of a great effectiveness. It’s very varied and particularly rich musically with a good mixture of hip hop and R&B. “Turns Me One” quickly seduces us before the excellent hits “Follow Us” and “Shutterbugg”. The unique beat of “Tangerine” makes of it also one of our favorite ones and it has everything necessary to become a great hit. Big Boi gives us an intelligent and entertaining album at the same time, probably the best rap album of the year until now. Don’t hesitate a second!

Videos: « Follow Us » - « Shutterbugg » - « Shine Blockas »

After the success of Ta-Dah, thanks to “I Don't Feel Like Dancing”, we didn’t really know what to expect with a new album by the band from New York City. Especially that the Scissor Sisters had almost completed an album before they decided to throw it away and to start from the beginning with producer Stuart Price (Madonna, Pet Shop Boys). The group drops the piano we could hear on the previous record and returns to a sound reminding us of their excellent first album. It indeed contains a superb mixture of rock and dance music of the 1980s, with always a key of disco here and there. We cannot find instantaneous hits like “I Don't Feel Like Dancing”, but it’s the coherence of the ensemble which is catching our attention and is seducing us. However, almost each track of the CD has a commercial potential with good beats and unforgettable melodies. Once again, the Scissor Sisters are successful to present us an album of very great quality.

Video: « Fire With Fire »

Kylie often separated critics in two groups and it’s still the case with her 11th album, Aphrodite, for which we can hear and read the best and the worst. However, if her previous album, X, proved to be passably unequaled in spite of good moments, Kylie largely tightens the cohesion of the unit on Aphrodite. Obviously, it remains the light pop sound which made her famous, but she’s nevertheless one of the rare pop singers to be able to produce albums of such quality. Several titles have the potential to burn the dance floors, especially in Europe, even if nothing can equalize her mega-hits of the beginning of the last decade. To carry out this step ahead, Kylie is surrounded here by producer Stuart Price (Madonna, Pet Shop Boys) and by the authors Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters) and Calvin Harris. The result is surprising, but completely satisfactory. Kylie succeeds in presenting at the same time largely effective pop songs and a cohesive album, which is probably making of Aphrodite one of her best albums in career.

Video: « All the Lovers »

Miley Cyrus initially became a star in the Disney series Hannah Montana. She’s also the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. Now 17 years old, the teenager presents already her 2nd album. Can't Be Tamed marks a renewal for Miley which hopelessly tries to dissociate from her image of innocent girl. So, it’s sexier and more woman than ever that she comes back to us, with a sound which wants to be also more adult. The music remains pop, but a little darker, and it ventures somewhat in rock territories. She covers effectively the Poison classic from 1988 “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”. Unfortunately, this side a little darker removes pleasure while we listen to the album. They are effective pop songs, but it seems that with too much trying to change her style, she loses all her joie de vivre. Potential hits remain numerous and there is sufficient accessible material to preserve a good part of her young female fan base. She also has a solid voice and all the qualities necessary to catch the attention of the public of Ke$ha, Britney or Katy Perry. When she really reaches her so much desired maturity, she will be able to thus aspire to great honors.

Video: « Can’t Be Tamed »

Here is the 6th album by California metal band Deftones, a group which has existed for more than 20 years. Nothing from them really succeeded in catching my attention since the excellent White Pony issued 10 years ago. Awaiting thus proved to be rather large towards Diamond Eyes. It will have been necessary to wait 4 long years since their last record, but it should be said that bad luck struck the group during that period. Initially, bass player Chi Cheng underwent severe wounds in a car accident in November 2008, which forced the band to take a hiatus, before continuing the tour with Quicksand bass player, Sergio Vega. They even recorded an almost complete album with him before destroying it. On Diamond Eyes, Deftones explores a little more atmospheric environment, even if it doesn’t leave obviously aside its aggressiveness and its dark side. The more luminous or deep moments come to balance the rough aggressiveness characteristic of the group since the beginning of its career. It’s thus a mature album which brings Deftones elsewhere, in an unexplored territory until there. Even if few titles arise from the batch, the unit is largely satisfactory and it will please fans of intelligent metal music.

Video: « Diamond Eyes »

Brothers is already the 6th album by the minimalist duet The Black Keys, which however exists since less than 10 years. After their weakest album with Attack & Release in 2008 (possibly their only moment of weakness to date), here is that the duet returns at the top of its art. The Black Keys somewhat leave aside their psychedelic tendencies to concentrate on the blues influences which made their trademark at their debut. We cannot even talk about a return to the sources since they take another step ahead. This time, they go in a direction a little more accessible and they present us finally a true hit in “Tighten Up”, largely helped by a TV ad. In addition to several titles influenced by the 1960s like “Unknown Brother”, the duet covers the Jerry Butler song “Never Gonna Give You Up”. On Brothers, The Black Keys succeed in amalgamating perfectly influences of the past with a modern sound of a great creativity. It only remains to applaud…

Video: « Tighten Up »

The rock band from Nova Scotia is back with its 4th album. Rather dark on its previous records, Wintersleep lets predict a turning a little lighter on New Inheritors. It’s true on some occasions, thanks to a rock sound a little more accessible, a little less tortured, which is not without reminding us of the Tragically Hip. On the other hand, the unit can be somewhat destabilizing with a sometimes odd mixture of rhythmic pop songs and more experimental pieces which can be stretched in length. Their fans will find on certain occasions the sound they liked, but they will probably have problems to understand the direction their favorite group is trying to take. The addition of string and horn sections brings some kind of a musical richness to the album, but it comes to create a dissonance with the rather rough style of the band. If “Black Camera” is a guaranteed hit, a few other parts really catch our attention. When the album is ending, one remains pensive in front New Inheritors, a CD that is difficult to analyze, but which should obtain some success anyway.

Video: « Black Camera »

Infected Mushroom is an Israeli duet established in Los Angeles, California which is presenting to us techno trance underground music since already many years. The Legend of the Black Shawarma constitutes their 7th album indeed. More than ever, the duet returns to its rock and metal influences whereas one can hear Jonathan Davis (Korn) on “Smashing the Opponent” and Perry Farrell (Jane's Addiction, Porno For Pyros) on “Killing Time”. It should be said that their rock influences always had a place of choice in their techno sound, regularly bringing them in the playground of industrial music. Besides, “Can't Stop” presents this energetic style with guitars quite present and electronically worked over voices in the Ministry style. The 78-minute long album concludes with a remix of “Riders on the Storm”, a classic by The Doors. For those who like creative underground electronic music, Infected Mushroom deserves that we pay a detailed attention to them. Fans of industrial music should also listen to this single duet.

Video: « Smashing the Opponent (feat. Jonathan Davis) »

Off With Their Heads is an American punk rock band offering its 2nd album, the first on Epitaph, Brett Gurewitz having signed them because he liked them a lot. They present a raw punk sound inspired by Bad Religion and other punk rockers of the genre. In Desolation includes 12 titles adding up less than 34 minutes. Several tracks present a unique energy, worthy of the greatest punk groups (“Drive”, “Their Own Medicine”, “All I Can Do”). Other moments a little slower can remind us of the Ramones in the 1980s (“I Just Want You To Know”). The unit is very pleasant to hear and it will undoubtedly be great for the nostalgic ones of the punk sound of the 1980s, before punk became pop.

Video: « Drive »

We Are The In Crowd is a very young band formed only in 2009. They offer us a first EP, just to make their already many fans wait patiently, since they had the chance to discover them on MTV thanks to their hit “For the Win”. The group offers us an energetic pop punk sound of a great effectiveness alternating between a female and male voice. The 7 tracks included here for a total of 22 minutes definitely catch our attention and make us eagerly awaiting a full-length album by them. To discover!

The Guilty Brothers Experience is a band from Brussels, Belgium which is offering his very first full-length album. The group presents us a rock sound, sometimes rather heavy, with many moments of experimentation and some Eastern influences. Difficult to describe, their music can be compared with a mixture between Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, The Mars Volta and Queens Of The Stone Age. This is an intelligent rock sound and it’s necessary to listen to it attentively to be able to really appreciate. With its 12 songs adding up 58 minutes, TGBE! is a particularly successful first album.

Jazz saxophonist David Murray joins Gwo Ka Masters again, after the dithyrambic reviews received for the album Gwotet in 2004. Their African percussions marry perfectly with the music of Murray. The Devil Tried To Kill Me also represents the 3rd album of Murray plunging in the culture of the island of the Guadeloupe, an adventure started in 1996. To supplement the portrait, two artists of reputation come to lend their voices to some songs of the album: Taj Mahal and Sista Kee. The album contains six tracks and we can find in bonus a radio version of the songs “Africa” and “Southern Skies”. The sound of the album is often funky, with a unique heat and a beat typical to the Caribbean. It’s an interesting record for any jazz fan, without however having the potential to make history.

Even if Hard Candy was far from being a first quality album for Madonna, she had to embark on another huge tour. After all, it’s how she earns all her money! Warner issued a CD/DVD combo from that other successful tour by Madonna. In fact, it’s probably the DVD that does all the work, but as I didn’t receive it, I will talk to you about the CD today. The CD presents unfortunately half the material of the DVD. Moreover, these are especially medleys that we can hear on this, rather than the hits of the queen of pop. We nevertheless find new versions of some of her hits, like “Vogue”, “Music”, “La Isla Bonita” and “Like a Prayer”. “Give It 2 Me” and “She's Not Me” are among the rare interesting moments of this CD recorded live in Buenos Aires in 2008.

Even if they were always in the shade of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who, The Kinks were undoubtedly among the most influential bands of the modern era. They influenced as much britpop and new wave than punk rock and even metal. This 88-minute documentary presents a complete portrait of the English group through footage in concert, on TV or in videos. This footage offers sometimes the full song, even if in some occasions we can find narration covering it partly. Production is indeed one of the weak points of this DVD whereas we can hear only the beginning of a piece or that the narration reflects more or less what we hear in the back. On the other hand, in spite of these details sometimes disappointing, the documentary succeeds in well depicting the career of The Kinks which we can divide into 4 waves, until their stopped in 1996, even if the band never officially dissolved.

The famous bass player of the British punk rock band Sex Pistols died in the controversy of a heroin overdose, a few hours only after being released from prison on bond. He had indeed been accused of the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. The heroin abuse he did that day, whereas his body was completely cleaned of it for a certain time, will have caused his loss. They are these last 24 hours which are analyzed here in the least details, with a dramatization of the events. On the other hand, where this DVD becomes interesting, it’s that it brings a new element which had not been revealed about that famous evening of February 1979. This element makes the light over the 2 last hours of his life that were not clear before that. Well documented and supported by testimonies of his friends that were present at the time of that last evening, this 52-minute film brings a lot of interesting information about the character and the thoughts which animated him throughout his last hours. This DVD is necessary for any fan of punk rock and the Sex Pistols.