PLACEBO: Bright Lights.A great band in full flow and that comes right across in this stadium-friendly rippling rock that suddenly starts to strut its stuff.
LEDDRA CHAPMAN: A Little Easier.She is being talked about in the same breath as Suzanne Vega and Joni Mitchell and this orchestral-laced folk pop belies the lyrics brimming with frustration.
HIM: Heartkiller.The goths get stuck straight in from the start and go at it full throttle down a long, open, melodic highway.
GLEN MELING: All You Can Do.Apparently a free spirit who has travelled the world and has yet to live in the same place for more than a year and abandoned several music projects on the way. He’s from Norway, lived in Australia, then more recently London and Hull – but all this is far more interesting than this somewhat bland rock pop offering.
KENDAL SANT: One Night.The 22-year-old from Brighton has captured the very essence of what a great song should be – good lyrics, full-bodied sound using all his songwriting skills and a sense that it’s 100% genuine.
CORINNE BAILEY RAE: The SeaAmazingly it’s four years since she released her four million-selling debut album. This is the follow-up and comes in the wake of her husband’s tragic death in 1998. It’s classy jazzy soul blues and it’s now OK to start drawing comparisons with the likes of Ella Fitzgerald. Dark, seductive yet ultimately full of hope.
NEW BOYZ: Skinny Jeans And A Mic.There are times you wonder how someone ever got studio recording time let alone a record company – and this is one of those moments. New Boyz have come out of the Los Angeles ‘jerk’ scene which is stripped down hip hop. This is so stripped down it’s pretty much naked but even Gok Wan could not make it sound good naked. The irritating nursery-rhyme style just gets on the nerves and the lyrics simply annoy. Minimal it may be, but the ultimate minimalist nature of silence would be preferable. The single is You’re A Jerk which says it all really.
VARIOUS: Brit Awards 2010.It’s 30 years since the Brit awards began and these three cds feature mainly last year’s stuff among with a sprinkling of oldies. It includes Coldplay, Robbie Williams, Taylor Swift, Lily Allen, U2, Girls Aloud, Spice Girls, Queen, Paul McCartney, The Darkness, Prince, The Killers, The Prodigy, Black Eyed Peas, Take That and Amy Winehouse.
