Music Mashup
This month DJ Michelle took a well deserved break from her onslaught of gigs, VIP after-parties, celebrity meetings and generally living it up on the London Music Scene. I would never attempt to match this lady's musical literary stylings so until her return in the February E-zine, here's a short and sharp run down of the top five albums out at the moment 2008.
1. Rufus Does Judy At Carnegie Hall - Rufus Wainwright
I'd heard this guy's name before but I'd never dug deeper than the preconception that he was a cheesy, cover artist with an affinity for classical backings. One in depth interview in Esquire magazine later, and it turns out I shouldn't have written him off. This is a great concert recording and if his live performances in Europe live up to the hype, then Rufus is someone you definitely want on your MP3 player.
2. Some People Have Real Problems - Sia
This lady was referred to me by a friend whose musical taste swings between super-ahead of their time-cool to profoundly bad, mistakes of musical taste. Sia belongs to the first camp and this crazy little lady has a voice that matches her creatively kooky approach to music making. The best track goes by the name of Buttons and the low budget, highly entertaining, facially contorting video is a big hit on You Tube.
3. Leona Lewis – Spirit
The X Factor talent competition either induces vomit or phone bill increasing bouts of over enthusiastic voting. Loathing and loving aside, this is an album by the 2006 winner of the British TV show and it's not bad. Leona's Whitney Houston-esk voice isn't wasted on meaningless remakes of current classics and the fresh material is probably good enough to crack the American market. The title of best song is split between Bleeding Love and Footprints In The Sand.
4. Spice Girls – Greatest Hits
DJ Michelle will more than likely beat me for putting this one in here but after seeing the ladies in action at London's O2 arena, there's no way I could leave them out. I arrived fully prepared to accept that their voices, without digital re-mixing, would be terrible live. Completely contrarily they were vocally stunning and looked younger than ever. You won't find Mel B's amazing, whip cracking cover of Are You Gonna Go My Way on here but you will find all their biggest and most addictive tunes, so grab a hair brush and start singing into that mirror.
5. Kylie Minogue – X
Ending on an equally cheesy note we have the latest offering from Miss Minogue. I used to wonder if the constant news features about her eternally good nature were true but then I was lucky enough to see her record some of the new tracks for a Saturday Night TV special. She sang live, was perfectly in tune, looked amazing, cracked some Kath and Kim jokes, got the audience dancing with her on stage and jammed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the finale – Cosmic. The best track of a great bunch is Wow and the album as a whole is a great backing for New Year Gym going.
- Rob Savage
