Get Your Fix: Album Reviews by the CoolJunkie Staff

June 4, 2008 5:54 PM
by Marcos Colón [email]

Walter Meego - Voyager
by: Marcos Colón

There’s always been an eclectic mix of sound that’s come out of the Windy City. Not only is it the birthplace of house music, but you also have strong roots in jazz and the blues. Coming in to add more to the melting pot of sound are two Chicago natives that bring their beats, synths and vox to the table creating dancy pop tracks that could get an 80 year-old woman to tap her foot along.

Simply known as Walter Meego, Justin Sconza and Colin Yarck teamed up to create dance floor tracks that are influenced by their love of early 90s American pop music. With their debut album, Voyager, the duo are set to compete with the likes of Euro dance titans such as Cut Copy and Australian new comers Midnight Juggernauts. Although, that sound seems like it’s at its tail end, what the duo brings to the table is a lyrical aspect that most dance music fails at including. Tracks like More Than I Can Say and Tomorrowland, singer Sconza’s voxed up vocals express heartache and despair as he croons [Take a minute to show me/That you still care for me/Take a minute to go back/Inside your memory].

The album’s key track is Keyhole, as the band seems to conjure the Muse’s evocative vibe as well as the epic guitar riffs used. The combination of synth and epic metal guitar riffs, along with a haunting piano intro, makes this track a must to listen.

Although, there are a lot of great things happening with this genre of music, there’s always room for one more. If they continue to add aspects to their sound that differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack, then they’ll be well on their way.

Benny Benassi - Rock 'n' Rave
by: Aubrey Ford

With his debut release, Hypnotica, celebrated Italian DJ/Producer Benny Benassi set the stage for the electro house craze that raged throughout the recent past, influencing countless artists from Fedde Le Grand to MSTRKRFT. With his new album Rock’n’Rave, however, the tables have turned. On this album, Benassi is more influenced than he is influencing. While taking cues from mainstream electro house, Benassi delivers a rather homogonous and formulaic collection of pop songs that wouldn’t hold a candle to his early work.

The songs range from the unbelievably cheesy and annoying My Body to the compelling and effectively hilarious Who’s Your Daddy, but such hits are few and far between. I Am Not Drunk is the likely dance hit of the album, playing soon at a mainstream nightclub near you. It is a decent track, but in no way lives up to the talents of its creator.

The greatest flaw of the album is Benassi’s rigid and formulaic approach, marked by his obsessive and over-the-top use of heavy portamento (the alarm sound) on almost every lead synth. The second disc of the album is much stronger than the first, representing Benassi’s slightly less poppy side with energetic tracks like Eclectic Strings and Bring the Noise. Overall, Rock’n’Rave, as suggested by its extremely tacky name, is a weak album designed to appease the popular marketplace, rather than take you places.

FYI: whatever you do, do not listen to the track Free Your Mind, seriously...just don’t do it.

Adele - 19
by: Marcos Colón

A few weeks ago in the CoolJunkie music reviews we covered Duffy’s new release. If you remember, the British songstress was compared to and labeled to new Amy Winehouse. The review started up a little like this, “Just when you thought that [Leona] Lewis was the new hit singer out of the UK, Aimee Duffy comes in.” Well, apologies for sounded repetitive, but it seems like we’ve come across something better.

With her debut album, 19, Adele Laurie Blue Adkins, a.k.a Adele, will enter the states right as the rush of the rest of the British crooning women is at a high. However, after taking a listen to her first effort, it’s clear that she will definitely be able to hold her own.

Equipped with the same soul as Amy Winehouse, and a dash of salt and peppering of Kate Nash and Norah Jones, Adele’s voice truly shines on tracks such as Chasing Pavements and ,i>Crazy For You. She definitely doesn’t lack in the lyrics department either as the title track on the album, Daydreamer, tells the true story of her bi ex-boyfriend leaving her for another man, [He would be hard to chase/But good to catch/And he could change the world with his hands behind his back].

With an even more soulful voice than Duffy and Leona Lewis, and the addition of her guitar dexterity á la Kaki King, giving her the edge on Winehouse, it's fair to say right now that Adele deserves the top spot in the U.S. as the premier British songstress. This may last for quite some time, or at least until Winehouse releases her next effort.

The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing
by: chipi

The phrase "the song from the iPod commercial" has become a part of the American lexicon since Jet's Are You Gonna Be My Girl? exploded onto our television screens in a flurry of cut-out colorful popness. It's nothing short of a commercial catalyst and a sure shot at a space in the Billboard Hot 100. When British indie-pop duo The Ting Tings got their 30 second spot in the sun, they made it count with their infectious single Shut Up and Let Me Go.

More than just a piece of commercial fluff - The Ting Tings are Jules De Martino and Katie White, former members of English teenage bands TKO and Babakoto. After the dismantling of their respective groups, the two came together to contribute to whats been recognized as the new...well, New Wave. The Brit-Pop invasion has brought some incredible music to American radio waves. With We Started Nothing The Ting Tings manage to bring a sense of celebration to a genre that can at times drown under the weight of it's own pretentiousness.

From start to finish, songs like Be the One and Great DJ are upbeat, danceable and full of a certain level of unexpected joy. However, they're all layered with raw instrument tracks, soulful brass sounds and enough garage band edge to remind you it's brit, it's indie and they mean business.

The feminist rant That's Not My Name is an exercise in White's lyrical catharsis, venting about offers from former ventures that suggested a sexuality for sale mentality for the scenester as a youngin'. While it is an indictment of the state of the music industry, the song keeps pace and tone with the rest of the album, keeping things light enough to keep dancing through.

The Ting Tings are another brick in the wall for a genre that continues to build in mainstream approachability and credibility state side. The brits may be fed up with this sound but I say keep it coming, hipsters.