Posts tagged "Spin Cycle"
Acing R&B With Flying Colors: The Foreign Exchange Return With 4th Studio Album

Acing R&B With Flying Colors: The Foreign Exchange Return With 4th Studio Album

Grammy-nominated R&B duo The Foreign Exchange have just released a consistently bumping album called “Love In Flying Colors.”

Chante's Got Moore Of That Good Grown Folks Music

Chante’s Got Moore Of That Good Grown Folks Music

R&B diva Chante Moore returns with a soulful new album.

Franz Ferdinand Puts It All Together On Right Thoughts

Franz Ferdinand Puts It All Together On Right Thoughts

Franz Ferdinand stays alive-something their namesake couldn’t manage.

Goodie Mob Rages Hard In Age Against The Machine

Goodie Mob Rages Hard In Age Against The Machine

The whole is still greater than the sum of its parts. Goodie Mob is back to save hip-hop.

Relaxing In Paradise Valley With John Mayer

Relaxing In Paradise Valley With John Mayer

Five for 6-I’d say that’s a pretty good average. Check out what we think about John Mayer’s latest.

Robin Thicke, Blurred Lines: Album Review

Robin Thicke, Blurred Lines: Album Review

“Blurred Lines” is the song of the summer. That’s not mere conjecture; that’s almost scripture at this point. “Blurred Lines” is a big old Smash Hit, the kind we only get a couple of a year, the kind that everyone knows the words to. They know T.I.’s vowel-heavy guest rap, Pharrell’s every “whoo!”, the sly way Robin Thicke himself barely conceals a chuckle as he croons “what rhymes with hug me?”… the song’s massive, and why shouldn’t it be? With […]

Jay-Z, Magna Carta Holy Grail: Album Review

Jay-Z, Magna Carta Holy Grail: Album Review

If you’ve grown up with Jay-Z as a consistent presence in your life, it’s difficult to be critical of him. That might have to do with his fairly remarkable record – although he’s only released a handful of stone-cold classics (Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint unimpeachably, and I’d argue for The Black Album too), he’s released plenty of good albums, with few (if any) clunkers in the bunch. I mean, sure, Kingdom Come and American Gangster weren’t really what anyone […]

Ciara, Ciara: Album Review

Ciara, Ciara: Album Review

You would have to be blind to not notice that Ciara has had a pretty rough run of luck over the past couple of years. After her first three albums all debuted top three on the Billboard albums chart, Basic Instinct whimpered in at number 44 back in 2010, with only a top three showing for “Ride” on the R&B chart to show for it. Since then, there’s been an air of desperation about the number of singles that have […]

Deep Purple, Now What?!: Album Review

Deep Purple, Now What?!: Album Review

      Let’s start with a bit of an opinionated, music snob mini-rant: Deep Purple is one of the most important and too-oft overlooked bands in rock history.  If one looks at their obvious and strong influence on hundreds of bands and the multitude of musicians who flat-out credit Deep Purple with inspiring them to do what they do, it’s shocking how frequently their music is completely absent from the collection of many rock fans.  Quite often, the average […]

PJ Morton, New Orleans: Album Review

PJ Morton, New Orleans: Album Review

When Maroon 5 announced their Overexposed album, I did a double take when I realized that there was a new member. Keyboardist PJ Morton joined Adam Levine and co. for their most recent album and tour, and has since gone on to release his first major label album, New Orleans, on hometown label Young Money. So, to encapsulate, the black dude from Maroon 5 just released an album on the hottest rap label around. Roll that around in your head […]

Chrisette Michele, Better: Album Review

Chrisette Michele, Better: Album Review

R&B and I have had a rough run of it over the past few years. With the exception of a couple of outliers (Ne-Yo’s Libra Scale, Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange, Janelle Monae’s The ArchAndroid), there have not been R&B albums that spoke to me the way that old school Mary J. Blige, Jill Scott and Robin Thicke did in the late 90s and early 2000s. Chrisette Michelle fell right into the middle of that rut, despite getting off to a […]

Barenaked Ladies, Grinning Streak: Album Review

Barenaked Ladies, Grinning Streak: Album Review

Barenaked Ladies grin themselves into complacency on their latest album.