Monday, December 17, 2007
Bruce Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town
Bruce Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town
The pain of a protracted legal battle with his former manager and the release of being allowed to record again after a three-year layoff are equally apparent from the piercing hard rock and harsh lyrical content of Darkness on the Edge of Town. Betrayal and hard work that comes to naught are the primary subjects on his mind here, evidenced by songs such as "Adam Raised a Cain," "Factory," and "Streets of Fire." Elsewhere, there are signs of hope or at least the possibility of outrunning your problems ("Racing in the Street," "The Promised Land," "Prove It All Night"). But mostly, these are songs about exorcising some serious demons, and from the sound of things, Springsteen's loud, lonesome howl and blistering guitar work went a long way toward making him whole again. This is angry art, made by someone pushed to his absolute limit and more than ready to push back.
1. Bruce Springsteen Badlands
2. Bruce Springsteen Adam Raised A Cain
3. Bruce Springsteen Something In The Night
4. Bruce Springsteen Candy's Room
5. Bruce Springsteen Racing In The Street
6. Bruce Springsteen The Promised Land
7. Bruce Springsteen Factory
8. Bruce Springsteen Streets Of Fire
9. Bruce Springsteen Prove It All Night
10. Bruce Springsteen Darkness At The Edge Of Town
Bruce Springsteen Darkness on the Edge of Town
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Bruce Springsteen Born in the USA
Bruce Springsteen Born in the USA
1. Bruce Springsteen Born In The U.S.A.
2. Bruce Springsteen Cover Me
3. Bruce Springsteen Darlington County
4. Bruce Springsteen Working On The Highway
5. Bruce Springsteen Downbound Train
6. Bruce Springsteen I'm On Fire
7. Bruce Springsteen No Surrender
8. Bruce Springsteen Bobby Jean
9. Bruce Springsteen I'm Goin' Down
10. Bruce Springsteen Glory Days
11. Bruce Springsteen Dancing In The Dark
12. Bruce Springsteen My Hometown
Born in the U.S.A. is an album painted in big, broad strokes. But it was still too subtle for some--namely politicians who tried to tap the title track as a jingoistic anthem when it is in fact a bitter diatribe by a Vietnam War vet whose country forgot him. The rest of the album is a glorious grab bag of radio-ready populist anthems--his best display of pure pop songwriting ever--including "No Surrender," "Dancing in the Dark," "Bobby Jean," and "Glory Days" alongside more circumspect numbers such as "My Hometown" and "I'm On Fire." It's not true that there's no arguing with success, but in this case Springsteen's widespread acclaim was warranted. With Born in the U.S.A., all those predictions from a decade earlier--that Springsteen was the future of rock--had come true.
Bruce Springsteen Born in the USA
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Bruce Springsteen Greetings from Asbury Park NJ
Bruce Springsteen Greetings from Asbury Park NJ
1. Bruce Springsteen Blinded By The Light
2. Bruce Springsteen Growin' Up
3. Bruce Springsteen Mary Queen Of Arkansas
4. Bruce Springsteen Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street
5. Bruce Springsteen Lost In The Flood
6. Bruce Springsteen The Angel
7. Bruce Springsteen For You
8. Bruce Springsteen Spirit In the Night
9. Bruce Springsteen It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City
Greetings From Asbury Park served notice that there was a new musical force on the scene. On his debut, Bruce showed he was the best songwriter to come along since Bob Dylan. The album kicks off with the musical tounge twister "Blinded By The Light" that showed Bruce wasn't a typical singer-songwriter. The song has a funky riff and is replete with horns. "Spirit In The Night" introduced the E Street sound and is a precursor to the character oriented songs that would appear later on Born To Run & Wild. "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd St?" is fun and "For You" is a rare rock song about suicide. "Growin' Up" & It's So Hard To Be A Saint In The City" show early signs of Bruce's "Tramp" persona. "Lost In The Flood" is the great forgotten Bruce song and is as good a song as he has ever recorded. While Greetings is uneven at points ("Mary, Queen of Arkansas' & "The Angel"), it shows an artist who had a very original sound and huge potential. It is great to throw it in the cd player and hear a young, raw and hungry Bruce Springsteen and listen to where it all started. Although Bruce Springsteen became known to the world as a singer/songwriter who wrote story songs embodying the spirit of the disheartened and the downtrodden, it is often forgotten that he started out as a wild, exuberant, and borderline naive artist. His debut album, Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. is a prime example of this youthful enthusiasm. Springsteen belts out lyrics in his raspy, intimitable voice the likes of which had not been seen in rock 'n' roll since Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde (fostering the inevitable Dylan comparisons that hound The Boss to this day.) Right from the kick-off of Blinded By The Light (later a big hit for Manfred Mann's Earth Band, but far better in this, the oringal version), it was obvious that a new and very talented singer/songwriter was on the scene: replete with a funky/jazzy rock riff and numerous horns, the song starts out with the lyrics "madman drummers bummers and Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat/in the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat" - and just goes on from there. The arrangements and playing are just as busy as the lyrics, and the playing, while not exactly what you would call tight, is huge-sounding, loose, and feels like it is just barely contained - in other words, the perfect backdrop for these wild lyrical flights of fancy. Despite somewhat hazy production, this remains one of the greatest debut albums of all-time. It has what still rank as some of Springsteen's best songs (Blinded By The Light, Lost In The Flood, Spirit In The Night) - not to mention the all-time classic lyric "nuns run bald through Vatican halls pregnant pleadin' Immaculate Conception." Although he would later come to be known and treasured as American's bard of the dispossessed, one can look back on this album and hear a Bruce who was just as good, infused instead with a brimming, admirable youthful enthusiasm. Essential Springsteen.
Bruce Springsteen Greetings from Asbury Park NJ
Monday, December 10, 2007
Seal System
System
1. Seal If It's In My Mind, It's On My Face
2. Seal Amazing( Thin White Duke Edit)
3. Seal Just Like Before
4. Seal Loaded
5. Seal Wedding Day
6. Seal System
7. Seal Dumb
8. Seal The Right Life
9. Seal Rolling
10. Seal Immaculate
11. Seal Amazing
Amazon.com
Some artists mellow as they age; Seal enters never-surrender mode and hits the dance floor. System gets at a new way of thinking for the king of the sexy British croon--he's a little less committed to nailing the vocals here and a lot more into manufacturing a mood. Overall, it's one infused with high spirits and an almost dreamy sense of possibility: "Rolling," the only song outside of a weird duet with wife Heidi Klum ("Wedding Day") to avoid elaborate but likable synths, stands its romantic ground without settling into ho-hum balladry, while "Loaded," "Dumb," and "The Right Life" bust out of the speakers determined to raise the profile of house music and electro beats. If he cribs a vial or two of vibe from Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor,, also produced by retro whiz-kid Stuart Price, it doesn't make Seal any less appealing. Even without hits like the super-smooth "Amazing," some guys manage to be amazing just by showing up. And so it is with Seal. Even his supermodel wife says so. --Tammy La Gorce
Product Description
The first studio album in four years from Seal, System, with its shimmering melodies, layers of synths and acoustic guitar, and electronic beats, is a return to my roots says the singer-songwriter. To help him deliver a more dance oriented album, what he calls a quintessential Seal album, Seal turned to Stuart Price(Madonna's Confessions On A Dance Floor and Grammy-winning remixes for No Doubt and Coldplay).
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Bruce Springsteen Born to Run
Bruce Springsteen Born to Run
1. Bruce Springsteen Thunder Road
2. Bruce Springsteen Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
3. Bruce Springsteen Night
4. Bruce Springsteen Backstreets
5. Bruce Springsteen Born to Run
6. Bruce Springsteen She's The One
7. Bruce Springsteen Meeting Across The River
8. Bruce Springsteen Jungleland
Few albums are as fueled by hope, possibility, and the lure of the open road as Born to Run, a virtual concept album about small-town Jerseyites in search of a better life via hot-rodding out on the turnpike, scoring some small-time hustle, or blowing out of town altogether, either across the river to New York City or west for parts unknown. Songs like "Jungleland," "Thunder Road," "Backstreets," and the title track are epic productions, both sonically and lyrically, borrowing from Phil Spector, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, and West Side Story. When Born to Run was released in 1975, it earned then-unknown Springsteen the rare honor of simultaneous covers on both Time and Newsweek. The attention was warranted then, and it still is now.
"Born To Run" is one of the greatest albums of all time, and that fact is inarguable. The only question is how many albums you'll put on the list. Any list with more than ten, without this one, is clearly in error.
It is an album where a single listen will convince you.
The cinematic sweep, from "Thunder Road" to "Jungleland", makes you feel like you're watching a movie while listening. The epic nature and true storylines makes you feel like you're reading a classic novel.
I ask you, what album have you ever listened to, that elicits a sensation of music, film and literature simultaneously? It's breathtaking.
And ageless as well. You know how old black & white movies seem crisp and eternal, while, say, certain 70's movies have a dated feel...even though they may be GREAT 70's movies?
"Born To Run" hasn't aged one iota. It's as impressive now as it must have been in 1975.
It's an album that sounds just as good in your car as it does on your headphones.
From Roy Bittan's piano opening "Thunder Road" to Springsteen's anguished howl ending "Jungleland", you will have gone somewhere. Bruce and the band takes you on a journey...GOD I'm jealous that some of you haven't heard this yet! I'd like to watch someone listen to it for the first time...
Bruce Springsteen Born to Run
Garth Brooks Ultimate Hits
The Ultimate Hits ( Garth Brooks )
Disc: 1
1. Garth Brooks Ain't Going Down ('Til the Sun Comes Up)
2. Garth Brooks Friends In Low Places
3. Garth Brooks Shameless
4. Garth Brooks Two Of a Kind, Workin' On a Full House
5. Garth Brooks The Beaches Of Cheyenne
6. Garth Brooks If Tomorrow Never Comes
7. Garth Brooks Papa Loved Mama
8. Garth Brooks More Than a Memory
9. Garth Brooks Good Ride Cowboy
10. Garth Brooks In Another's Eyes
11. Garth Brooks The Fever
12. Garth Brooks Midnight Sun
13. Garth Brooks Learning To Live Again
14. Garth Brooks Longneck Bottle
15. Garth Brooks To Make You Feel My Love
16. Garth Brooks We Shall Be Free
17. Garth Brooks The Dance
Disc: 2
1. Garth Brooks Callin' Baton Rouge
2. Garth Brooks Two Pina Coladas
3. Garth Brooks The Thunder Rolls
4. Garth Brooks That Summer
5. Garth Brooks The River
6. Garth Brooks Beer Run
7. Garth Brooks Unanswered Prayers
8. Garth Brooks Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old)
9. Garth Brooks Workin' For a Livin'
10. Garth Brooks What She's Doing Now
11. Garth Brooks When You Come Back To Me Again
12. Garth Brooks Standing Outside the Fire
13. Garth Brooks American Honky-Tonk Bar Association
14. Garth Brooks The Change
15. Garth Brooks Rodeo
16. Garth Brooks Wrapped Up In You
17. Garth Brooks Leave a Light On
18. Garth Brooks Bonus Track 1
19. Garth Brooks Bonus Track 2
2007 three disc set (two CDs + DVD). One artist...one decade...one hundred million albums sold! Garth Brooks remains the biggest Country artist of all-time. He harnessed the Country and Pop influences of has past and created a new kind of Country that appealed to different generations of fans and crossed over into the Pop market like no other artist before him. Garth Brooks changed the rules based on his talent alone. He became a worldwide superstar while remaining true to his humble roots, which added to his appeal. This three disc set features two CDs scheduled to contain 34 tracks including four new songs plus a bonus DVD containing videos for all the CD's tracks.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Rascal Flatts Still Feels Good
Still Feels Good
1. Rascal Flatts Take Me There
2. Rascal Flatts Here
3. Rascal Flatts Bob That Head
4. Rascal Flatts Help Me Remember
5. Rascal Flatts Still Feels Good
6. Rascal Flatts Winner at a Losing Game
7. Rascal Flatts No Reins
8. Rascal Flatts Every Day
9. Rascal Flatts Secret Smile
10. Rascal Flatts Better Now
11. Rascal Flatts She Goes All the Way
12. Rascal Flatts How Strong Are You Now
13. Rascal Flatts It's Not Supposed To Go Like That
Amazon.com
Rascal Flatts has always been an anomaly in country music. Signed to the Disney label Lyric Street, they arrived in 2000 as essentially a trio (winning lead vocalist Gary LeVox fronted pin-up boy Joe Don Rooney on electric guitar and Jay DeMarcus on bass) that traveled and recorded with additional musicians to make up a full band. Despite their workingman backgrounds, their repertoire was so pop-oriented that hardly anyone could really call them country, and the group bristled at being dubbed Nashville's Boy Band. Yet while they were primarily marketed to teens (the young set screams their lungs out in concert), a lot of adults found their bouncy, bubbly radio tunes irresistible. And in 2006, when they released their fourth album, the quadruple-platinum Me and My Gang, they sold more than 700,000 records the first week, ending up as the best-selling artists of the year across all genres. Now comes the follow-up, and with the group sharing production credit with hit-meister Dann Huff (Keith Urban, Faith Hill), they turned out an extremely well-built album of heavily layered, grown-up pop. (The one country-ish song, "Bob that Head," about the joys of Friday night cruising in a tricked-out truck, almost amounts to a rap.) DeMarcus has said that the band took its time making the record, and it shows--everything about it telegraphs a growing maturity. Not only do Rooney and DeMarcus play on every cut (which they didn't do until Me and My Gang), but the trio has a hand in writing much of the material that doesn't come from the pens of Nashville's most reliable songsmiths (Jeffrey Steele, Neil Thrasher, Steve Robson, Hillary Lindsey, and headliner Kenny Chesney on "Take Me There"). It all goes down quite smoothly, from the sexy title track to the pain ballad "Better Now," to the (too-obvious) social commentary of "It's Not Supposed to Go Like That." As a measure of that, even actor/singer Jamie Foxx's guest appearance on the silky "She Goes All the Way" blends seamlessly with the rest of the material, much of it crafted to manipulate the emotions with power choruses, stinging electric guitar solos, and throbbing drums. But unlike the Rascals' other albums, there aren't many story songs here. And though LeVox's hangdog tenor hammers home the devastating ache of failed relationships ("Help Me Remember"), there's no standout tune like "What Hurts the Most," and not a lot of this sticks in your head after it's gone. Yes, as the title promises, it "Still Feels Good," but only for a little while. -–Alanna Nash
Product Description
It all begins when the lights go down. For Gary LeVox, Joe Don Rooney and Jay DeMarcus, it has been that way since they were playing for a handful of people in a club in Nashville's Printers Alley. These days, of course, they play for thousands of screaming fans a night, drawn by state-of-the-art production and sound, and by spectacular vocal harmonies in service to an ever-expanding catalogue of hits. In between, it was the magic of those performances that catapulted Rascal Flatts into the front ranks of entertainers in all genres.
By any measure, Rascal Flatts is in elite territory. They are the reigning 2006 CMA, ACM and CMT Vocal Group of the Year. In 2005 they added Billboard and R&R Artist of the Year trophies as well. The trio also picked up its first three Grammy nominations in 2005, and their "Bless The Broken Road" received the Grammy for Country Song of the Year. Coming off the biggest selling artist album of 2006, Rascal Flatts is geared up for their brand new album coming on September 25.
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