=Cb\]e
;CA71
ALBUMS OUT IN JUNE
now you know your queen is back – she’s BACK!’. It’s
one of several tracks on the album that finds Summer
in blistering form. Aided by a string of contemporary
songwriters, including Greg Kurstin (Pink, Lily Allen), Evan
Bogert (co-writer of Rihanna’s ‘SOS’ and son of Casablanca
Records founder and Donna’s mentor, Neil Bogart), and JR
Totem (Rihanna), Crayons holds at least half a dozen songs
that will delight fans and pick up a few new ones in the
process. Opening track ‘Stamp Your Feet’ – with its ‘State Of
Independence’ sounding synths – deserves top ten success,
and finds Summer again in defiant mood; ‘Stamp your feet
on the ground, make a bigger sound, you ain’t going down!’
‘My Music’ and ‘Crayons’ are modern r’n’b electro dance
tracks, while ‘Fame (The Game)’ could be directed at any
American Idol wannabe, with Summer commenting on her
own career and warning, ‘be careful what you wish for’. It’s
Pink meets Mariah meets Christina with added stabbing
DONNA SUMMER
strings. And all this from a woman who turns 60 later this
year.
Crayons (RCA)
Summer’s best work has always found her mixing up
genres, and for variety’s sake, Crayons also has ballads
(‘Sand On My Feet’), Latin-tinged numbers (Drivin’ Down
Brazil’), and even – gulp – a bit of country-blues (‘Slide
Blimey… this is a turn up for the books. Donna Summer’s Over Backwards’), which finds Summer doing her best Tina
first album of new material since 1991’s best-forgotten Turner impression! These latter tracks don’t really live up to
Mistaken Identity, Crayons leaves you in no doubt that the the opening dance stompers, but all things considered, this
queen of disco is well and truly on the comeback trail… is one surprisingly mighty and confident return to form. AG
not least because she tells us so repeatedly on camp album Out: 23 June
highlight ‘The Queen Is Back’. ‘Call the DJ, call the station, +++++
dancing all across the nation, here for every generation,
COLDPLAY ALANIS FEEDER
Viva La Vida MORISSETTE Silent Cry (Echo)
or Death And Flavors of Mindful that their
All His Friends Entanglement transformation from a post-
(Parlophone) (Maverick) grunge group to a mellower
When Coldplay announced the title of this, their fourth Alanis Morissette once got famous by singing about giving mainstream act has flummoxed and frustrated the spikier
album, they hinted that it had been heavily influenced head in cinemas, before trading in feistiness for emotional members of Feeder’s original fanbase, Silent Cry sees the
by their time spent touring Latin America. Had the band incontinence. Album titles like Under Rug Swept suggested Newport trio attempting to square the circle. Ostensibly
decided to move away from the sonic template that had that she considered even basic syntax somehow oppressive, their most successful album, 2005’s Pushing the Senses
made them the biggest selling rock act of the noughties? prompting record buyers to Returns Counter Asda Take. also marked a creative lowpoint: with the enormodomes
Most fans will probably breathe a sigh of relief that Viva La This is her seventh studio set, and during her self-imposed in mind, they predatorily pursued a populist direction,
Vida finds the band adjusting their sound only very slightly. two-year sabbatical, she’s deftly subverted her sincere, sandpapering any edges to produce the kind of Snow
This is very much classic Coldplay, and the much anticipated stentorian style with a hilarious YouTube cover of the Black Patrol/Keane ballads that you shouldn’t listen to while
Latin influence – where present – is subtle. Viva… kicks Eyed Peas’ ‘My Humps’. Sadly, this knowing playfulness operating heavy machinery. This time, the amps are turned
of the atmospheric instrumental ‘Life In Technicolour’, with is lacking from Flavors Of Entanglement (sic). While back up: the meaty Corgan-riffs and angsty lyrics of the
its harpsichord-like guitars, before the slightly pedestrian Morissette delivers her most earnestly prosaic, leaden lyrics incendiary, call-to-arms ‘We Are the People’ and ‘Miss You’
‘Cemetries Of London’. It’s one of the weaker tracks, but sets to date, producer Guy Sigsworth has veered in completely seem poised to woo back Kerrang! readers while remaining
the tone for what’s to follow. ‘I saw God in my garden but the opposite direction, burying her in sonic pyrotechnics. At polite enough to avoid scaring Q subscribers. Despite
I don’t know what he wanted,’ sings Chris Martin, on an times, he actually appears engaged in an attempt to drown occasionally demonstrating Jimmy Eat World’s clever ear
album preoccupied with religious imagery and mortality. out her idiosyncratic vocals with Asian-influenced dub for a melody (as on the straight-ahead pop of ‘Tracing
R
Y
R
Y
AN
The album really moves up a gear with the wonderful, beats (‘Citizen Of The Planet’), drum’n’bass, buzzsaw synths Lines)’, there’s a glaring lack of variation in Feeder’s output
G
A
anthemic ‘Lost’. ‘42’ has more of a 70s feel, with a plaintive (‘Straitjacket’) and soaring strings. On the epic ‘Versions Of with each stadium-sized tune designed to elicit giant foam
AND
piano dominating the song’s first half before it lets rip in the Violence’ – which resembles a James Bond theme – you fingers waving back at them at festivals. Frontman Grant ON
second half with Martin opining ‘You thought you might be get the feeling that, had it been a legitimate option, he Nicholas now has the children to go with his dad-rock, but
a ghost, you didn’t get to heaven but you made it close.’ would have hurled the kitchen sink at her. This approach has fatherhood hasn’t furnished him with inspiration subject-
GORD
Some fans might miss the more stripped-down simplicity the adverse effect of diluting Morissette’s identity: too often, matter wise, as banal observations about relationships
of past hits like ‘The Scientist’, while others may be it simply sounds as if she’s recorded Ray Of Light ten years and world events abound on the likes of ‘Who’s The Enemy’ ,
ANTHONY
disappointed that Viva… doesn’t offer the musical too late. (Pro) Tools are temporarily downed for the joyous, (‘we’re fighting with ourselves, who’s the enemy?’).
experimentation promised by its title, but one suspects that giddy pop of ‘Giggling Again For No Reason’, where both Compared to previous efforts, Silent Cry is a return to form,
HUDSON
overall, this is likely to maintain the band’s position at the words and production demonstrate a lightness of touch that crammed with workmanlike anthems. Even so, it’s difficult
A
VID
top of the rock tree. DH would have benefited the whole album. GR to actively love a band so ambitiously unambitious. GR
S
:
D
Out: 12 June Out: 2 June Out: 16 June
W
+++++ +++++ +++++
VIE
RE
$
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132