Sam Cooke was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. Cooke had 29 Top 40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1965. Major hits like “You Send Me”, “A change is gonna come “, “Chain Gang”, “Wonderful world “, and “Bring It on Home to Me” are some of his most popular songs. Cooke was also among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career. He founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the American Civil Rights Movement.

The song “A change is gonna come ” was played upon the death of Malcolm X, and was memorably featured in Spike Lee’s film Malcolm X. Barack Obama’s presidential victory speech paraphrased the song: “It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.”

Download some of Sam Cooke tunes here

The Horrors
EP ‘Who can say’ review: ‘After rooting a little deeper in their daddies’ ’60s record collections, the band has returned with a shimmying, brighter sound, which retains just enough of their old sinister guitar slashes to prevent the change from seeming cynical. Badwan’s bleak vocals about failed romance are played out over haunting fairground organs, Ronettes-esque drums and a fuzzy scuzz of Jesus & The Mary Chain-style effects that will have Glasvegas seething with jealousy. It might pain certain people to say it, but The Horrors are actually starting to sound pretty amazing.’

The Horrors
are an English garage rock band who formed in mid-2005. They released their debut album Strange House, which reached #37 on the UK Albums Chart, on 5 March 2007. Their sophomore album Primary Colours was released on 4 May 2009 and reached #25 in the UK.

Download The Horrors ‘Who can say’ here

Becks
re-released their re-mastered album ‘One foot in the grave‘
which was originally released in 1994. The album now features 13 previously unreleased tracks. His third official album, One Foot in the Grave shows a strong folk influence that is more pronounced than on his more eclectic-style albums of the time, ‘Mellow Gold’ and ‘Odelay’. ‘One Foot in the Grave’ was recorded prior to the release of his debut album ‘Mellow Gold’, but was not released until after that album met with critical and commercial success.

Much of the album is about mood as much as song, a situation not uncommon to Beck, which is hardly a problem because the ramshackle sound is charming and the songwriting is often excellent, channeling Beck’s skewed sensibilities into a traditional setting, particularly on the excellent “Asshole,” which is hardly as smirking as its title. It’s that delicate, almost accidental, balance of exposed nerves and cutting with that sets One foot in the grave
apart from Beck’s other albums; he’d revisit this sound and sensibility, but never again was he so beguilingly ragged.

Download ‘One foot in the grave’ here

Jarvis Cocker comes back with a rock album ‘Further Complications ‘. He was a boy with the weird nose and the big glasses back in High School but he believed in his individuality. Jarvis Cocker wrote songs about short skirts, dance moves, sexual espionage and the abject glamour of drug consumption. “Common People,” the song about a rich Greek student, who could learn about the real life in England, became an international hit. Cocker sang about all types of creepies and crawlies, applying himself to songs about the trees that make our oxygen, species, natural selection and genetics, and the little bird singing in the garden.

Before Jarvis Cocker came back, he moved to Paris, got married, became a father, and grew a beard. In his new album, between the noise-pieces, he sings wonderful tearjerkers such as , “I Never Said I Was Deep”. In other sections, scratchy wind sections and contorted guitars account for an overall atmosphere similar to that of the sort of smoky club where you would never hear a Pulp (previous Jarvis band) album played. He is still interested more than anything in lonely mothers and disco dancing. The fact that he is now married only serves to make his songs of seduction more delicate – if not the stuff itself. In “Fuckingsong ,” he lewdly suggests listening to his songs, because in real life he is never so punctual, dependable and persevering.

Buy Jarvis Cocker’s music here

Ranging from songs that were written years ago, to material that was written specifically for this album, you won’t be surprised to feel a connection with Kristin as you walk with her through her own personal journey of faith and hear the stories of loved ones that surround her.

“Days of Eden” has given Kristin an opportunity to delve into herself intrinsically. She confronts, questions and reflects on her life experiences, beliefs and insecurities.

Charming ambient piano melodies swathed in classical vocals tenderly illuminates Kristin to the listener. From ‘This Is Life’, an up-tempo piano-driven song about the highs and lows of life, to ‘Emma Prayed’, a raw and sentimental ballad about a young woman whose life takes a dramatic turn as she prays for the very first time, there is sure to be a song for everyone on this project.

Kristen’s goal for the album is “to be personal and candid, sharing my thoughts, the insecurities, the questions, the joy and pain, my love of life and God, all of it. Some days I’m a mess and some days I’m only slightly a mess, but that’s part of my own story; the freedom and opportunity to express it all with my music is what drives me.

No matter where you are in your journey of faith, allow ‘Days Of Eden’ to bless your heart, refresh your mind, and captivate your soul.

Kristin Schweain can be checked out on MySpace where her site has already received over 70,000 hits.You can buy the album here.

The Horrors… Their previous releases have, in my view, failed in every sense; ‘Sheena Is A Parasite’ is quite possibly the worst song I have ever listened to, a confused amalgamation of terrible lyrics and melancholic shouting, a minute and a half of pure dross.

As you can imagine writing a review for their critically acclaimed new album ‘Primary Colours’ was difficult. However I gave them the benefit of the doubt and approached this with an open mind, trying desperately to suppress urges to snap the CD in half and bury it in Farringdon cemetery.

The Horrors are a British garage rock band; they’ve been performing together since 2005 and released their debut album ‘Strange House’ in 2007. Two years have passed since this quintet donned their skinny jeans and morose haircuts. Their ridiculous hype has died down a little, oh and Faris Badwan’s girl Peaches Geldof got married… to some American for a few months.

‘Primary Colours’ is their second album, bringing with it another wave of hype. Despite my predetermined judgement of the album, it’s actually quite good. Rather than ripping my headphones and ranting endless profanities, I sat calmly and thought, what on earth has happened to this band, have they had a few music lessons, did they discover the meaning of life, or have they had a little burst of inspiration? It seems to me that two years is not enough time for such a young band to totally reinvent their sound, its almost too good to be true.

‘Primary Colours’ is not entirely the work of this quintet. Geoff Barrow founder & pioneer of ‘Portishead’ has taken on production duties, alongside visual pioneer Chris Cunningham. This confused me more, Chris Cunningham is a visual pioneer… what’s he doing meddling with audio?

Cunningham directed the video ‘Sheena Is A Parasite’ and hats off to him, visually it’s great, typically Cunningham, dark, twisted, mutated, brilliant…Did he play with the sound though… no. However Cunningham’s most recent work for Gucci, gives us an insight into Cunningham’s remixing capabilities. In the film he remixes Gucci’s trademark song Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’, beatless, shimmering, ephemeral, not dark in the slightest. So why has he been incorporated into The Horrors new album ‘Primary Colours’?

In an interview with XFM, Farris Rotter explained, “He (Cunningham) hasn’t done music production before but I think it’ll be really special. The results so far are really encouraging.” He also commented on Cunningham’s inexperience “That’s what so brilliant about it – he won’t approach things in the way that so many people will. He’s really into the music we like: y’ know – My Bloody Valentine, Dead Can Dance and Squarepusher and I think he’s gonna bring something to the new album that no one else will.”

‘Primary Colours’ was an intense experience for ‘The Horrors’; it was made in isolation in a windowless studio in east London. In an interview with NME, Rhys ‘Spider’ Webb (Keyboard/Bassist) said “the experience sometime drove them to the edge…we’d begun to question our sanity…we were just lost in this world, in this place for months that didn’t have any windows. We didn’t have any involvement with (record label) XL – there was no A&R man telling us what to do – and we didn’t play the music we were making to anyone, not even to our friends. So it got to the point where we’d start to question what we were doing.”

Despite many hours spent in the fittingly gloomy recording studio, Webb insisted it was worth every minute “We wouldn’t want to just be a conventional guitar group. We felt like we could and did try most things on this record. We’re all really interested in psychedelic sounds and mind-bending sounds and pushing things in a different way.” This I can defiantly identify, even the album’s seven and eight-minute epics “I Only Think of You” and “Sea Within a Sea” are completely new ventures for the band and they pull them off effortlessly.

‘Primary Colours’ is very different to their predecessor ‘Strange House’. On the whole this sophomore feels a lot more complete, Bristolian Geoff Barrow has done a brilliant job in producing the album, adding that psychedelic experience to the album, and giving it that finely polished warmth to it. Remnants of Portishead’s latest album ‘Third’ pop up throughout, most noticeably within the final track to the album ‘Sea Within A Sea’, reverberations of Portishead’s dazzling tune ‘The Rip’ are clearly used to finish the album in style.

There’s just one last thing that I can’t get away from. ‘Primary Colours’ sounds just like Joy Division; ‘The Horrors’ have developed their sound, but only into an almost carbon copy of the ‘Joy Division’ & ‘The Cure’. ‘Primary Colours’ is not an independent or original album; it’s got elements from many different influences, without Geoff Barrow this album wouldn’t be anywhere near its acclaimed status.

They’ve just grown up a bit, realised that their previous stuff was utter dross, and have pulled this one out of the bag for now, what will really confirm their development is their next release, will they turn to others for inspiration or will they resort to their own sound?

Ultimately you have to look through the hype surrounding this album, yes it is good, but it’s not a masterpiece, it’s not original and ‘The Horrors’ still have a lot of work to do to distinguish their sound.

The Horrors are set to tour the US for a month with ‘The Kills’ they will be returning to the UK and will play in Leeds, Manchester, Aberdeen, Brighton and the Electric Ballrooms in London.

Frank Sinatra was an American singer and actor. Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the teenage girls. His career declines in 50s but reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He signed with Capitol Records and released several critically lauded albums such as’In the wee small hours‘, ‘Songs for swingin’, ‘Come fly with me‘and others.

Sinatra attempted to weather the changing tastes in popular music, but with sales of his music dwindling, and after appearing in several poorly received films, he retired in 1971. Coming out of retirement in 1973, he recorded several albums, scored a hit with “(Theme From) New York, New York” in 1980, and toured both within the United States and internationally until a few years before his death in 1998. He is also a winner of the eleven Grammy awards.

Download Frank Sinatra’s music here

Duke Ellington was an American composer, bandleader and pianist. He was of the most influential musicians in 20th century, especially in a jazz scene. He wrote many jazz songs that later became jazz standards and were sang by many jazz musicians, including Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and others.

Some critics’ comments about Duke Ellington:
Gunther Schuller : “Ellington composed incessantly to the very last days of his life. Music was indeed his mistress; it was his total life and his commitment to it was incomparable and unalterable. In jazz he was a giant among giants. And in twentieth century music, he may yet one day be recognized as one of the half-dozen greatest masters of our time.”

Martin Williams: “Duke Ellington lived long enough to hear himself named among our best composers. And since his death in 1974, it has become not at all uncommon to see him named, along with Charles Ives, as the greatest composer we have produced, regardless of category.”

Download Duke Ellington’s music here

Coldplay is British alternative rock band formed in London, in 1998. The band sold 50 million records worldwide and are best know for their hits like “Yellow”, “The scientist“, “Clocks“, “Speed of sound“, “Fix you” and “Viva la Vida“.

Coldplay achieved worldwide fame with the release of their single “Yellow”, followed by their debut album, ‘Parachutes’ (2000), which was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Its follow-up, ‘A Rush of Blood to the Head’ (2002), won multiple awards such as NME’s Album of the Year.

Coldplay’s musical style has been defined as alternative rock, being compared to Jeff Buckley and Oasis. Lead singer/songwriter Chris Martin once labeled the band’s music as “limestone rock”. The band’s music has been called “meditative” and “blue romantic”; it “[reflects] on their emotions” and Martin “endlessly examines his feelings”. Martin’s lyrical wordplay has been called feminist, similar to Andrew Montgomery of Geneva.

Buy Coldplay music here

Elbow is a Brit Award and Mercury Prize winning English alternative rock band formed in 1990s. Elbow have received vast critical acclaim and been endorsed by major artists Radiohead, Coldplay, Blur, R.E.M. and U2.

BBC about the album ‘The seldom seen kid’ (2008): ‘For everyone who likes to be moved, relaxed, and cheered by superior, soulful Mancunian lullabies, The Seldom Seen Kid is essential.’

NME: ‘Elbow remains one of the more interesting outfits to originate from Manchester in recent years.’

Elbow is also nominated for Ivor Novello Awards that takes place at Grosvenor House, on 21st of May.

Buy Elbow music here