NeedtoBreathe ~ More Time
South Carolina rock group NEEDTOBREATHE made a few waves in 2006 with their debut release, Daylight. The hook-filled, catchy collection of pop/rock anthems was one of the stronger records of the year, even if it bore a great deal of familiarity along with it. Now the band is poised to release their follow-up, The Heat, a distinctly more rootsy, transparent, and honest album that takes steps towards defining NEEDTOBREATHE as a lot more than just another rock act.
The acoustical opener "Spare The Time," which clocks in barely at half a minute sets up the record with a lighthearted invitation to the listener to experience them live. And to confirm that this isn't another Daylight, the delicious, pounding drum beat and soulful piano of album highlight "Restless" kick in to reintroduce this exciting young band to their listeners. Lyrically, where the debut was almost soley inspired by relationships, The Heat delves into more spiritual matters as well as vulnerable introspective. But the record really hits the high note with soaring worship on "Signature Of Divine (Yahweh)," a song that arguably packs more punch lyrically and musically than a lot of songs coming from the worship genre today. "Washed By The Water" is another one of the album's true gems, a piano-driven southern delight inspired by some church troubles the Rinehart brothers' preacher father experienced. It's when the guys delve deeper on songs like these, as well as the title track, that The Heat really excels.
It's important to note that the album's a lot more subdued and melodic than their debut. Also, there's a generous fourteen tracks included on the disc. And at first listen, it may appear that there's a bit of filler here and there where some track pruning could have tightened up the song list. However, with repeat listens, The Heat begins to really reveal its worth. Songs like "Return," "Again," "More Time," and even the heaven-minded "Streets Of Gold" cover love and loss, much in the way that Daylight had established. But just as you think The Heat is a mellow collection of relationship musings, NEEDTOBREATHE throws a clever curveball with the ridiculously catchy and upbeat "We Could Run Away." The Rinehart brothers also seem to be writing out of a process of healing in the love department as well, where songs like "Restless" admit, "...I’ll have years to think of / The way I’d do the things I did / Just to chase the pain away / We’re here now and I can change / But I’m still restless," and the grand sounds of "Looks Like Love" proclaims, "I won't run when it looks like love / I won’t hide beneath the fear / Of how my past has come undone... / I can’t spend another night alone / Regretting what I’ve done / So, I won’t run." Even at the most melancholic moments of The Heat, there's hope.
From the worship elements displayed in the single "Signature Of Divine (Yahweh)," to the soulful title track, The Heat offers a little bit of everything. Fans of the first record will especially enjoy tracks like the beat-driven "Restless" and the sensitive "Return," while tracks like the southern-flavored piano ballad "Washed By The Water" or the restrained closer "Second Chances" are new territory that will no doubt spread a smile across the listener's face. There's no sophomore slump for these guys. Feel The Heat; NEEDTOBREATHE is on the rise. -
Reviewed 8/26/07, PReview date: 7/16/07, written by John DiBiase
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Leona Lewis ~ Bleeding Love
Leona Lewis tops US album charts
X Factor winner breaks records again after America falls for her music
Rosie Swash
Wednesday April 16, 2008
guardian.co.uk
Leona Lewis is set to become the first British solo artist ever to enter at No 1 in the American album charts.
Her debut collection, Spirit, tops the Billboard 200 chart, with trade publication Daily Variety reporting that it has shifted more than 205,000 copies in its first week of sale. It is the second US No 1 for Lewis, who also broke records when her debut single Bleeding Love hit the top spot in America last month.
Lewis found fame in 2006 after winning the TV talent show X-Factor. The 23-year-old from east London was immediately taken under the wing of Simon Cowell and went on to work with some of the biggest, and most expensive, names in the industry. One of those figures was Clive Davis, who shaped the early career of Whitney Houston. And it's Houston to whom Lewis has often been compared.
Thanks to extensive radio play and the support of Oprah Winfrey and celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, Bleeding Love was enormously popular in America before it had been released. The song has now sold 1.1m copies in the US on downloads alone.
Bleeding Love was the UK's biggest-selling single of 2007 and Spirit has since sold nearly 2m copies in the UK.
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3DD - It's My Time NowFebruary 29, 2008 10:02 AM
By Kym Kilgore, LiveDaily Contributor
Multi-platinum-selling rockers 3Doors Down are back with new music and a slate of spring dates that will lead into a worldwide tour this summer.
The band is currently scheduled to visit more than a dozen US cities this spring, starting March 20 in Panama City Beach, FL, and sticking primarily to the Southeast through mid-May. A July 4 show is also booked on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Details are listed below.
The bandmates have been in the studio for the last 11 months working on their fourth album, according to a blog posting at their MySpace page. The self-titled set, due May 6, follows 2005's "Seventeen Days," which debuted at the top of The Billboard 200.
The new record's lead single, "It's Not My Time," was serviced to radio last week and is currently making waves on mainstream-rock, modern-rock and pop charts. Another single, "Citizen Soldier," has been featured in a major promotional campaign for the National Guard, according to various reports. Samples of those songs are streaming at 3 Doors Down's MySpace page.
The Mississippi/Nashville-based group has sold 13 million albums since its 2000 debut, "The Better Life," which has gone six-times platinum on the strength of mega hits including "Loser," "Kryptonite," "Duck and Run" and "Be Like That." Article courtesy of LiveDaily.com.
[Note: The following tour dates have been provided by artist and/or tour sources, who verify its accuracy as of the publication time of this story. Changes may occur before tickets go on sale. Check with official artist websites, ticketing sources and venues for late updates.]
May 2 - Birmingham, AL - Schaeffer Eye Crawfish Bowl
May 3 - Jackson, MS - Coliseum Festival Fairgrounds
May 18 - Columbus, OH - Columbus Crew Stadium/Rock On The Range
July5 - Oahu, HI - Bayfest Hawaii Kaneohe Bay
Jakob Dylan - Something Good This Way ComesJakob Luke Dylan was born in New York City, New York USA, on December 9, 1969, the youngest of Bob Dylan and Sara Lowndes' five children. He was around 3 when the family moved to Los Angeles, where he spent a good amount of time with both parents after they divorced in 1977. He caught the music bug in his early teens, inspired by bands such as The Clash to pick up the electric guitar; while attending private school in Los Angeles, he formed bands with classmates that shared his love of the more thoughtful end of the Punk-Rock spectrum. After high school Dylan spent a period studying in New York at the Parson's School of Design, but he soon returned to Los Angeles and decided to follow in his father's footsteps by the late '80s. Enlisting the help of some his previous collaborators, he formed the band that by 1990 would be called The Wallflowers.
In mid-1996 the band released its most critically acclaimed album, "Bringing Down The Horse", which included the monster hit "One Headlight", the song that earned The Wallflowers a Grammy for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.
Jakob Dylan's first solo album, "Seeing Things", is a mostly acoustic affair and will hit stores May 13 on Columbia Records and also via Starbucks; the amiable "Something Good This Way Comes" is the first single to be released off of the forthcoming CD.
Ferras ~ "Hollywood's Not America"
Ferras - Biography
Courtesy of Capitol Music Group
Ferras (pronounced Fer-AHSS) approaches a big pop hook the way a Formula One driver approaches a straightaway — he floors it. Take the payoff of “Aliens and Rainbows,” the psychological and stylistic centerpiece of the 25-year-old artist’s album of the same name. Symphonic strings are cranked to the max, a vocal chorale summons up a celestial ahhh-ahhh, an electric guitar spins out a quicksilver figure and Ferras’ own elegant piano underscores the grandeur as he sings, “I would rather be with aliens and rainbows / On the other side of the universe / And finally…” —here he slides up into a goosebump-inducing falsetto — “This is me / This is my coup de grâce / My reality.” That urgent, stirring passage is a quintessential example of a risk-taking artist holding nothing back — which is what makes this audacious newcomer such a blast of fresh air.
Produced by The Matrix (Avril Lavigne, Jason Mraz, Korn) with their frequent collaborator Gary Clark (Natalie Imbruglia, Lloyd Cole), Aliens and Rainbows contains undisguised references to the greats — David Bowie on the anthemic “Liberation Day” and the widescreen rocker “Something About You,” Elton John on the narrative opus “Hollywood’s Not America” and Stevie Wonder on the silky ballad “Soul Rock.” Other songs isolate his own hot-wired psyche: “Dear God” is a prayer of desperation and defiance (“If you’re so full of grace / Then send it / On down”), while the sensual “Take My Lips” is a jaw-dropping expression of emboldened vulnerability.
“Because this was my first record, I decided to draw on the artists who’ve inspired me — Elton John, Bowie, Queen, the Beatles — because of the huge impact they’ve had on my own music,” Ferras explains. “But I also wanted to make a record that’s personal and tells a story, and every song is either something I’ve experienced, something I hope to experience or something I can really connect with. These aren’t just random pop songs— they come from a real place; they explore feelings.”
Ferras comes by all of these classic influences organically. Growing up in a small town in southern Illinois, separated by a vast cultural and emotional chasm from his surroundings and contemporaries, the youngster turned to radio and the Internet for companionship and validation, conjuring up a world of his own to inhabit.
It wasn’t the first time he’d been rescued by songs on the radio. “When I was 5, right after my parents got divorced, my dad, who’s from Jordan, told me he was taking me to Disneyland,” Ferras recalls. “On the way to the airport, we stopped at a Wal-Mart and he bought me a little Casio keyboard so that I’d have something to do on the flight. When we got on the plane, I began to realize that he was kidnapping me and taking me back to Jordan. I spent three months in a big house in Amman, and his family treated me lovingly, but I missed my mom, and I somehow connected the songs I heard on the radio with my feelings. One day I picked up the Casio,
made up a melody and wrote a song for my mom, bizarre as that sounds. When I played it for her over the phone that night, she cried. Three months later, she rescued me and brought me back home.”
But Illinois didn’t feel like home to this self-described alien either, and he continued to take refuge in music. “I was attracted to choruses, melodies and expression,” he says, “especially the emotionality of ballads.” Also around this time, after Ferras got it in his head that he belonged in California, he somehow managed to convince his mom to make the move, and they relocated to Santa Barbara. As soon as he could drive, Ferras was regularly bombing down the 101 to L.A., on a mission to get a record deal.
There were nibbles, but nothing substantive — “They’d always say the same thing: ‘You’re great, but we don’t know what to do with you,’” he says. Then a ray of hope entered in the unlikely form of Limp Bizkit leader Fred Durst, who was so blown away by Ferras’ songs and singing that he put the wheels in motion to sign the kid to his Interscope imprint. But when Durst’s label deal began to unravel, Ferras was crushed, despite the fact that his benefactor vowed to get him signed to a major.
At that point, Ferras did what any self-respecting prodigy would do — he applied to Boston’s Berklee School of Music, which accepted him despite the fact that he couldn’t read a note of music. But the academic life didn’t suit Ferras, so he was elated to find out that Durst had set up an audition with Capitol Music Group Chairman/CEO, Jason Flom, during spring break.
“We met Jason at the Beverly Hills Hotel,” says Ferras, “and I played him two songs on the piano in the lobby. Right away he seemed different — he was actually listening rather than messing with his BlackBerry. Then Fred told me to play ‘Take My Lips,’ this ballad I’d written when I was just 17, and when I finished, to my amazement, Jason said, ‘That’s brilliant — why didn’t you play it first?’ Four days later I was in New York doing solo demos, and he signed me right after that.”
“From the start, all I wanted to do was write and sing songs that would make people feel something,” he says, “and I’m grateful to have gotten the opportunity to be who I am. At this point I can truthfully say that I’m proud of what I’ve done, the person I’m becoming and the journey that led me to this moment.”
It’s already been quite a journey for Ferras, and after listening to this album, you get the distinct impression the adventure is just beginning.
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Newton Faulkner~ "Dream Catch Me"
Newton Faulkner - Biography
23-08-2007 20:47
What’s that sound? It’s acoustic guitar like we’ve never heard it before. It’s things done to six strings that will boggle the ears and eyes. It’s a throaty but gentle blues croon that speaks of backwoods, beaches and the badlands of, ah, Surrey. It’s t*u*n*e*s, the likes of which have become a word-of-myspace cult across the Cornwall surf scene and landed prestigious support slots with Jack Johnson’s cult buddy Donavon Frankenreiter.
It’s a genius cover of Massive Attack’s Teardrop dropped into a set to silence a rowdy crowd whilst supporting Paulo Nutini during the World Cup or the Python-esque wit with which Newton Faulkner is fast winning over audiences across the UK.
It’s this inventiveness – this esprit de gig – that made this 21-year-old from just outside London one of the most buzzed-about DIY artists of 2006. With no promotion and bugger-all money his first release, last spring’s Full Fat EP, reached Number One on Amazon’s singles chart. The shuffling beats; Faulkner’s laidback scat singing and gutsy holler; the chewy blues riffs; the ‘tapping’ of strings – these had (pardon the pun) struck a chord with anyone who had stumbled across his shows in the south-west, causing the low-key release to sell-out its 3000 copies. With his wonderfully dexterous approach to guitar, Faulkner is as exciting to watch as he is to hear.
‘Tapping,’ explains Faulkner, ‘is prodding the strings really hard with your other hand, your picking hand. You can have stuff coming from both sides of the strings. There are certain frets which work really well – you get two notes and they harmonise with themselves. It sounds like there’s more than there actually this. You’re getting stuff out of both sides of the guitar.’
But Faulkner doesn’t want to get all Guitar World on our ass, even if he does play his handmade guitar (‘it’s been built to take a hammering’) with proper affection. He just wants to move us, and himself, with his music. Which is why prefers writing while he’s touring rather than while sitting at home.
‘Everything makes more sense on the road,’ he says. ‘When you’re not gigging you write stuff that’s for you in a way that you don’t when out doing gigs in pubs. If you’re doing gigs whilst writing you know what you need, you have a clear understanding of what people like and want – which I can’t seem to remember when I’m at home. Which is really stupid,’ he says with a grin, ‘but it’s just how it is.’
He spent his teenage afternoons teaching himself the guitar after picking one up for the first time aged 13. He progressed so fast that by age 16 he secured a place at the prestigious Academy Of Contemporary Music in Guildford.
Aware that there would be some serious players also enrolling, super-focused kids who’d been playing since the age of four, this three-year veteran – well, novice – spent the summer before enrolling with a guitar round his neck from dawn to dusk, working on his skills.
His diligence paid off. Under the tutelage of the college’s Head Of Guitar, the legendarily innovative guitarist Eric Roche – who sadly died in 2005 aged only 37 – Faulkner rapidly developed. ‘It was Rock School,’ he admits. But while other students were seriously into ‘heavy metal shredding,’ he was pushing on with his own style of rhythmic, percussive playing.
A stint in a teenage wannabe punk-rock band petered out. ‘I knew we really were a Green Day tribute band when at one gig we played the whole of Dookie, in order.’ He played in another outfit called Half Guy – ‘everyone else was playing angry metal in church halls so we thought we’d be perverse and be the happiest band in town. My guitar was pink…’ But the responsibilities of being, effectively, the band’s manager, soon took their toll.
So Faulkner started writing and gigging on his own. A publishing deal and a record deal – the latter with Ugly Truth, a new subsidiary of SonyBMG – quickly followed. His second release, the UFO EP, came out at the end of last year. The lead track, a co-write with his brother, is a rippling, infectious tune that had earned him a standing ovation at one of Jo Whiley’s recent Little Noise gigs (sharing the Union Chapel stage with the likes of Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Lily Allen & The Automatic).
‘UFO’ was closely followed by first single proper ‘I Need Something’ which propelled Newton straight onto the Radio 1 Playlist for the first time. Follow-up ‘Dream Catch Me’ became a much coveted Jo Whiley Record of the Week while full scale nationwide support slots for James Morrison and Paulo Nutini helped send his myspace into meltdown with over 300,000 plays in less than four months.
Now a fully fledged touring artist, Newton is playing at several major festivals in summer 2007 including Glastonbury, Secret Garden, Cambridge Folk Festival, V, Wireless and Newquay Unleashed.
July 2007 sees the release of Newton’s debut album, ‘Hand Built By Robots’ which showcases not only those fantastic vocals but also his wistful and intelligent lyrics that are delivered with tremendous wit. ‘Hand Built..’ also offers the chance to hear that staggering version of ‘Teardrop’. There aren’t many who would have the bottle to attempt a reinvention of Liz Fraser’s spectral vocal and Massive Attack’s symphonic majesty. But Faulkner does, with style. While his guitar gently weeps, his voice quietly soars. It’s quite something. He’s quite a talent. Lord knows what next he’ll magic out of those fingers, that throat, and that instrument. Prepare to be gobsmacked. Article courtesy of artists.letssingit.com.
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Augustana ~ "Sweet and Low"
Augustana Set to Release New Album, Can't Love, Can't Hurt, on April 29thMonday March 24, 5:41 pm ET
Confirmed North American Headlining Tour
April 30th Performance Confirmed for the Tonight Show with Jay Leno
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gearing up for the release of their sophomore album, CAN’T LOVE, CAN’T HURT, San Diego, CA based-quintet Augustana will embark on a 30-date headlining tour beginning May 7th in Seattle, WA. Set for an April 29th release on Epic Records, CAN’T LOVE, CAN’T HURT was produced by Mike Flynn (The Fray) and follows up the band’s album, ALL THE STARS AND BOULEVARDS, which reached #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and spawned the RIAA certified Digital Platinum single, "Boston" On April 30th, Augustana will perform their new single "Sweet and Low" on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
Augustana released "Sweet and Low" via an exclusive iTunes EP earlier this month. The EP, which debuted at #2 on the iTunes rock charts, features the songs "Hey Now" and "I Still Ain’t Over You" from the forthcoming album.
While ALL THE STARS AND BOULEVARDS brilliantly captured the loneliness and vulnerability of a touring rock band, CAN’T LOVE, CAN’T HURT illustrates the excitement of new love and ever-changing growth within a band. With its meticulously crafted coming-of-age songs, CAN’T LOVE, CAN’T HURT solidifies Augustana as one of modern rock’s leading lights.
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Jason Mraz ~ "I'm Yours"
Jason Mraz To Release 'We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.' May 20
Atlantic recording artist Jason Mraz disclosed early details of his enormously anticipated new album, "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things." The collection – Mraz's first set of all-new material in nearly three years – will arrive in stores and at online retailers on May 20th.
The San Diego-based troubadour's third studio release, "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things." was produced by Martin Terefe, known for his work with KT Tunstall, Ron Sexsmith, and James Morrison. The album sees Mraz continuing to tread his own distinctive artistic path, melding a variegated musical tapestry with passionate, personal lyricism. Among the highlights are collaborations with British tunesmith James Morrsion and singer/songwriter Colbie Caillat. "I'm Yours," the album's first single, was chosen due to the undeniable fan response to the song. A demo version of "I'm Yours" originally appeared on a limited release bonus EP Mraz put out with his last album. Today the song is an online sensation, with over 300 user-generated videos from more than 25 different countries now appearing on YouTube.
Always an active online presence, Mraz has kept his loyal fanbase abreast of his recent activities via a series of video blogs, dubbed "Crazy Man's Ju-Ju." The clips – along with a variety of other travel adventures, live performances, and studio sessions – can be accessed at "Jason Mraz TV," the Official Jason Mraz YouTube channel, located at www.youtube.com/user/OfficialJasonMraz.
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Gavin DeGraw ~ "In Love With a Girl"
DeGraw Dabbling In Rock On Sophomore Album
January 15, 2008, 10:30 AM ET
Katie Hasty, N.Y.
After five years of supporting his 2003 debut "Chariot," Gavin DeGraw is finally prepared to release his next studio effort. The as-yet-untitled sophomore set will arrive some time in March via J Records, produced by Howard Benson."The album is moving in a much more rock direction," DeGraw tells Billboard.com. Recording recently wrapped for what the 30-year-old singer/songwriter hopes will be an 11-12 song effort. It will once again feature compositions written by DeGraw on piano; first singe "In Love with a Girl" will likely hit radio before month's end. DeGraw will be backed with a "newbie" band, with players like bassist Chris Chaney (Alanis Morissette, Jane's Addiction) and guitarist Tim Pierce.Tracks like the single, "Young Love" and "Cop Stop" ("Baby I'm a cop / stop, put up your hands and surrender to me") revisit the themes of love and relationships which dominated "Chariot." "I spend the most ridiculous amount of time of writing lyrics," he says. However, with the addition of heavier guitar lines and a faster pace, DeGraw hopes the effort comes off more "primal." "I've had a lot of time to make these songs, but didn't really have any down time from one thing to the next," he says. "When I came off the road, I thought, 'Now I can relax and spend time with people that I love.' But then I thought, 'I can't lose steam here.'"
DeGraw admits constant touring fueled the massive popularity of the last album's "I Don't Want To Be" and title track. "Getting on the radio is always very important," he says. "For me, that's what a major label wants, and my career was assisted by that. Fortunately, I have a touring career of some kind, too. If my album tanks, then I guess that's what some people would consider 'career suicide.' But I can't live in fear of that. I'm not too concerned."
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Shawn Mullins ~ "All In My Head"
Press releaseSource: conqueroo / Cary Baker
December 18, 2007
honeydew - Shawn MullinsShawn Mullins will serve up a new set of vibrant, character-driven songs with his new Vanguard Records CD, honeydew, on March 11, 2008. honeydew teems with humanity: railroad workers, traveling salesman, homeless troubadours, and several generations of family members, living and dead. It is a richly interwoven work, the most panoramic album of Mullins’ career as well as the most intensely personal. “These songs are character sketches of people I've come across and places I've traveled through,” he says.
Produced by the artist, the recording took place at Creekside Station, the rural Georgia studio of Gerry Hansen, Mullins’ longtime drummer, who engineered and mixed. Along with other regulars, including bassist Patrick Blanchard, multi-instrumentalist Clay Cook, B-3/Wurlitzer specialist Marty Kearns and mandolin player Kip Conner, Mullins managed to snag guitarist Peter Stroud (Sheryl Crow) during a break in his touring schedule. Also making appearances are Atlanta blues and soul legend Francine Reed (Lyle Lovett) on “Homeless Joe” and the extremely catchy first single, “All in My Head,” and Australian alt-country artist Kasey Chambers on “Cabbagetown.”
Mullins is best known for his Top 10 hit “Lullaby,” for which he received a Grammy® nomination that propelled the album Soul’s Core to platinum-plus status. Exposed to music at an early age by his grandfather, who was a big band player, Mullins began writing songs and producing cassettes in grammar school. After attending North Georgia College and a stint in the military he launched his own label in 1991 and hit the singer-songwriter circuit, building a strong following in the Southeast. Seven independent albums later, he released Soul's Core on Sony Music in 1998. He signed with Vanguard Records in 2004 and shortly thereafter released 9th Ward Pickin' Parlour. honeydew is his sophomore release for the label.
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R.E.M ~ "Supernatural Superserious"
Editorial Review from amazon.com
Accelerate, the first studio album in four years from R.E.M., finds modern rock’s most acclaimed band returning to the stripped-down, guitar-driven power that first enraptured fans. Helmed by the band and, for the first time, Jacknife Lee (co-producer of U2’s ’05 Grammy® Album Of The Year How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, The Hives and Snow Patrol), Accelerate puts the 2007 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame group once again firmly behind the wheel of alternative rock, a genre R.E.M. helped invent.
R.E.M. announced a two-month North American tour over the summer to support Accelerate. Opening for R.E.M. will be Modest Mouse and The National. The first live date in support of the new record is scheduled for the Langerado Music Festival in Florida.
Released United States April 1, 2008
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Paolo Nutini ~ "Jenny Don't Be Hasty"
In much the same way that José González is from Sweden and not Spain, Paolo Nutini is not a smooth Italian pop star, but a soul-influenced adult alternative singer and songwriter from the exceedingly not continental town of Paisley, Scotland. Raised in a music-loving family, with influences ranging from folk to opera to the jazz and R&B favorites of his father, and discovering homegrown folkies like John Martyn in his teens, Nutini left school in his mid-teens to focus on developing his own musical chops. Moving from Paisley to London at age 16, he garnered enough attention in local showcase clubs to be signed to the British arm of Atlantic Records just after he turned 18. Working with Coldplay and Badly Drawn Boy producer Ken Nelson, Nutini was the recipient of an impressive amount of label buzz even before his first single, "Last Request," was released in the early summer of 2006. Nutini appeared at special Atlantic Records showcases at Carnegie Hall and the Montreaux Jazz Festival, as well as showcase sets opening for the Rolling Stones and Paul Weller. Nutini's debut album, These Streets, was released in July 2006 in the U.K. (it wasn't until January of the following year that it made it into the U.S.) alongside its second single, "Jenny Don't Be Hasty." ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
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Spoon - "The Underdog"
With a history of stellar, no-filler records, Spoon has somehow topped themselves with Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, a consistently thrilling album recorded throughout 2006 in Austin by the band and Mike McCarthy (except "The Underdog," recorded in Los Angeles with Jon Brion). Spoon have been together over a decade, with one of the most unusual trajectories of any band in recent memory-and one of the best and most unique songwriters in the world.
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Timbaland f/ One Republic - "Apologize"
This is the debut single from the group OneRepublic, a MySpace favorite signed to Timbaland's Mosley Music Group. The song, however, has Timbaland’s name attached to it...as artist. This gently remixed version of the song "Apologize" by Los Angeles based band OneRepublic appeared on Timbaland's Shock Value album. Following on the heels of the #1 pop smash "The Way I Are," the Timbaland name will instantly draw pop radio and fans to the sound of OneRepublic.
Despite the marketing tactics involved in the listing of credits, don't let it deter you from falling in love with one of the most beautiful mainstream pop songs of the year. Timbaland contributes an airy, echoey sound that will bring to mind Nelly Furtado smash hit "Say it Right." It elegantly underscores the soaring vocals from OneRepublic's leader Ryan Tedder.
Lyrically, the song is a rather melancholy one, but the melody irresistibly draws you in, and you are likely to find yourself singing along. When OneRepublic's new album does appear later this fall, we will be listening.
