Anastacia // What Can We Do (Deeper Love)

Download @ Amazon.co.uk | Download @ iTunes

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from the American singer/songwriter, but those out there will recognise that she was recent in cahoots with Skoda for a few of their ads. Well, now the song that went with those adverts is now available for us to enjoy in entirety.

Now of course in the ad we only ever heard the chorus, a hark back to the classic Deeper Love but the rest seems to be original. It’s full of Anastacia’s familiar vocals, showing that, after a 4 year absence (technically, although she has been doing other things in the meantime) that she’s still got it. With a new album coming soon (though sadly report are this won’t feature on it…we’re guessing a bonus or maybe even hidden track ;)) hopefully, this will tide fans over until it’s available

Rating: 4/5

Ellie Goulding // Anything Could Happen

Download @ Amazon.co.uk | Download @ iTunes

It’s been a while since Ellie Goulding released anything (we can’t help thinking that the last track from her was the cover of Your Song), but now she’s revealed her latest offering in the form of Anything Could Happen ahead of her new album Halcyon.

There’s just something about the song that we don’t like. It just doesn’t seem to be on par with her previous works. It feels flat, doesn’t seem to go anywhere and the repeated chorus of Anything Could Happen does start to get annoying in the song’s short lived life. Actually we’d put it on par with the annoying version of the nursery rhyme Twinkle Twinkle Little Star used in a car advert not so long ago.

Hard to sort of gauge how this will be taken. For us though we’re not impressed with it

Rating:1/5

Sandi Thom // The Big Ones Get Away Feat. Buffy Sainte-Marie

Download @ Amazon.co.uk | Download @ iTunes

The Big Ones Get Away is the second single to be lifted from Thom’s latest album Flesh And Blood. Whilst it is a cover of track, it’s original performer, Buffy Sainte-Marie, joins Sandi to perform it as duet.

The duet sounds a little odd to begin with when both artist have their individual vocals, but as the track progresses, they actually blend and work well making it a great little version. And it manages the ‘respect to the original but make it your own’ that we like to see (well the original is 20 years old!). Also included is Sandi’s solo version of the song, which may give an indication of what the song will sound like should she be performing it on her upcoming tour.

Nice little track whichever version you happen to listen to

Rating: 4/5

Book Review: John & Carole E. Barrowman // Torchwood: Exodus Code

Buy @ Amazon.co.uk | Buy @ Waterstones

This isn't the first book that John Barrowman and his sister Carole have written together. They worked together on John's two autobiographies plus they wrote the young adult fictional title Hollow Earth (the follow up title The Bone Quill is released next year). But in the meantime, we have a Torchwood book by the name of Exodus Code.

Without giving too much away, here's the description:

It starts with a series of unexplained events. Earth tremors across the globe. Women being driven insane by their heightened and scrambled senses. And the world is starting to notice - the number one Twitter trend is #realfemmefatales. Governments and scientists are bewildered and silent. The world needs Torchwood, but there's not much of Torchwood left.

Captain Jack Harkness has tracked the problem to its source: a village in Peru, where he's uncovered evidence of alien involvement. In Cardiff, Gwen Cooper has discovered something alien and somehow connected to Jack. If the world is to be restored, she has to warn him - but she's quickly becoming a victim of the madness, too...

We have the return of familiar characters (Jack, Gwen, Rhys & Andy) who are written as we have come to know them, but even the newly introduced characters are given a good description and you feel as if we've already known them but just being re-introduced. You'll find the usual mix of action, odd happenings, humour with some innuendo thrown in for good measure.

The use of medical and scientific terminology shows some good researching, but you don't feel as if you need to understand their meaning when it's used in the book. Cultural research is also shown (although there is part at the end of the book that mentions that the tribe mentioned in the book has no relation to anything in the present world) drawing you into the world that they create.

The chapters are short, but what you will find that at times, it can jump times and locations so sometimes you can feel a little lost. The only other negative of what otherwise is a good Torchwood book is that the book seems to race quickly to it's conclusion after what has been a good read.

If you're a 'Woodie' (apparently the name for Torchwood fans), you will probably enjoy the book (or if you don't fancy reading the book, the audio book is out in October) if you're in need of a Torchwood fix.

Rating: 4/5

Charlotte Church // O N E

Download @ Amazon.co.uk | Download @ iTunes
Buy @ Official Site

It’s been a while since Miss Church has released anything (her last release Back To Scratch was released back in 2010) but now she’s back with the first of 5 EP to be released over the next 12 months in the form of O N E.

The four track EP opens with the track The Rise, it starts off seeming quiet but by the end of it, it is a thundering crescendo, a track suitable for the opening of an album. Building on the ending of the first track is the second number, Say It’s True, a track that in some ways reminds us a little of a Coldplay track but that would be in home in the charts at the moment.

Starting off quietly and lulling you into a false sense of ethereal feeling, How Not To Be Surprised When You’re A Ghost constantly builds with Church’s huge voice, before dropping back to that ethereal sound to end with. The closing track is a fitting end to the EP, as it could easily be seen as the closing song to a film with it’s mix of vocals, guitars & strings.

It’s an interesting sound from the Welsh singer, who seems to be heading in a new direction but taking the years of experience with her to experiment with. Should be interesting to see what else comes from the other EPs in the next few months.

Rating: 4/5

Joe McElderry // Here’s What I Believe

Buy @ Amazon.co.uk | Download @ Amazon.co.uk
Download @ iTunes (Standard) | Download @ iTunes (Deluxe)
Official Store

Joe returns with his 3^rd album under Decca (4^th overall) Here's What I Believe.

The album opens with the co-written title track (we review it a little earlier here) before we head into the first cover of the album in the form of Leo Sayer's When I Need You. From here, you can guess the album mood. To Have A Broken Heart is next up followed by the ever popular I Don't Want To Talk About It. Gene Pittney's Something's Gotta A Hold Of My Heart comes up next followed by Demi Loverto's Skyscraper but we can't help feel that there is something missing from this rendition...

How We Love is another cover but it's a duet with the original performer, Beth Nielsen Chapman, which works quiet nicely. Taking a break from the covers, we have another co-written track, Your Voice which seems to draw a little on the previous albums. A quick hop back onto the covers for I Look To You before we return back to the co-writing track of What Have I Done?. We then head into the guitar driven number of My Love Will Find You. Another driven track in the form of the Queen classic Love Of My Life. The last track on the album is an Italian number in the form of E Penso A Te where he shows that he's not forgotten his previous two offerings.

If you want, there is a deluxe version where you get another 3 tracks (Mayday, Silence Is The Loudest Cry (both of which are co-written by McElderry) and Rescue Us)

Looking at the album as whole, we're a little disappointed. Yes, McElderry delivers the tracks in a way that only he can but we have out doubts. Had the three tracks that were additional on the deluxe had been part of the standard version, we might have been a little happier. It would have been nicer to see an album a little fuller of his own material rather than being bulked out by covers. On a whole, most of the covers work out except for Skyscraper and Love Of My Life. There is just something missing from the tracks that Joe doesn't seem to bring to it. Sadly, we're just not sold with this one we're afraid.

Rating: 3/5

Mika // Celebrate feat. Pharrell Williams

Download @ Amazon.co.uk | Download @ iTunes

Another artists that we haven’t heard from in a while is Mika (in case you can’t remember him, he’s the one behind tracks like Grace Kelly, Big Girls (You Are Beautiful) & Happy Ending), who’s coming back to the airwaves with his brand new track, Celebrate.

Unfortunately for us we can’t find anything to celebrate on this track. There’s a beat that might get your hands clapping and feet moving slightly, but there just seems to be something missing from this track. Maybe it’s because it feels as if the tracks just follow one sort of note, doesn’t deviate much from it, when you compare it to previous tracks.

It only really starts to get to celebrate near the end of the track where it seems to become a bit more of a party track. Actually, now that we think about it, it reminds us a bit of One More Time by Daft Punk excepted duller. Could result in mixed reactions from listeners.

Rating: 2/5

New Music Friday Special // Manran Feat. Michelle McManus

 
Download @ Amazon.co.uk | Download @ iTunes

There’s a bit of a Scottish bias to this week’s NMF. Back at the start of 2011, we reviewed Manran debut single Latha Math (see the review here). since then, they’ve released an album but this single that features Michelle McManus (remember her?) and produced by the the legendary Phil Cunningham has been released for the STV Appeal 2012, aiming to raise as much money as possible to help the 200,000 kids that live in poverty in Scotland. At least 40p from the sale of the single will be going to the appeal. While we’ve only linked to Amazon and iTunes, the track is available from a variety of outlets. The full list is here. You can see the video (featuring scenes from the studio as well as other celebs who have taken part in events for the appeal) here

Tulisa // Live It Up Feat. Tyga

Download @ Amazon.co.uk | Download @ iTunes

Oh dear oh dear! Tulisa’s second solo single from her debut album (supposedly out at the end of November…oh so during X Factor then? We’re not daft!) sounds as if it’s being pulled from the recycling bin.

By recycling we mean that it sounds like Alexandra Burke’s Start Without You (circa August 2010). If you removed the vocals from the track, it wouldn’t sound to bad but the lyrics are just poor. According to Tulisa, this isn’t a track to get to number one of storm the charts (so long as she’s happy with that) and that it’s trying to define her as an artist.

If she’s wanting to define herself as an artist then maybe she should look at not releasing similiar sound tracks one after another and finding some original rather than recycling what’s already been done

Rating: 1/5

Lucy Spraggan // Top Room At The Zoo

(Sadly, this release is no longer available for purchase as it's been removed to 'allow fair representation to other contestants' on the X factor)

Up until a week ago, Lucy Spraggan was probably a complete unknown to the rest of the UK (and the world!) until her performance of her own composition, Last Night on the auditions of the UK's X Factor. Sitting quietly in the corner (until that performance) was her self released album Top Room At The Zoo.

The album opens with the track Someone which is a nice little number that points out that it doesn't matter if you're famous, but it up to you to get where you want. Butterflies is similar in tempo to the previous track but at the same time has something a little different. The next track (91)reminds us of that infamous song that apparently everyone can play on piano/keyboard (which we struggle to name!!) but has a nice walking/sway beat.

The probably now infamous Last night is up next and is about 'beer fear' or in other words, trying to remember what happened the night before. You might find yourself find yourself smiling and laughing it at. You're Too Young comes in the form of a sort of narrative song, telling the story about a girl who is end up being a victim of knife crime. Join The Club gives us imagery of gambling (Are you here to dig for diamonds/Well bring along your Spade/It seems that life is just a gamble/So Just enjoy the game) whilst In A State brings her memories of being in the states.

Summer 08 seems to talk about a summer love while the tone is brought down with the sad 'til Death that has a haunting quality (could easily see it being used in a TV programme) Let Go follows the tale of breaking up with someone after they've promised everything. And finally the album closes with Paper Dreams that somehow leaves us expecting something more after this.

Alright some of the tracks are quite short but there is something about Lucy's songs that make us smile. Maybe it's because it feels as if you can relate to some of the subjects that she is singing about. Or maybe it's just her way with words over what seems like simple melodies. Either way, we're pretty sure that Lucy Spraggan has probably found a new following.

Rating: 4/5