Tape Recorder

Coldplay offers a taste of their upcoming album. A new song called Violet Hill is available for free for one week starting today.

http://www.coldplay.com/song.html

CSS will release their new album "Donkey " this summer. Right now, Lovefoxx & co offer the new CSS single "Rat is Dead " for free. Download it here:

http://www.csshurts.com/

Madonna´s Hard Candy has already sold gold in some countries and tomorrow it´s out in the USA. Reviews in general are good, but not excellent as with Confessions.

Rolling Stone gives Hard Candy 4 stars out of 5
Rolling Stone review is written around the theme of dominance. Rolling Stone review suggests that even though Madonna lets top-shelf producers make her their plaything, the master in the end after all, is Madonna. "Even when she wrestles with Pharrell’s abrupt stylistic changes or lets herself get absorbed in a Timberlake melody, Madonna still finds her way back on top. The atmospheric closing track, "Voices," poses the question "Who is the master, who is the slave?" before its operatic wind-down ends in a dramatic bell toll. The answer to both questions is still Madonna."

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/20255940/review/20256148/hard_candy


The Observer gives Hard Candy 4 out of 5
Ben Thompson from The Observer writes an interesting intertextual review, where he, for example, finds the cover shot to be the picture of Dorian Gray in reverse. Thompson thinks that three songs collaborated with Pharrell Williams (She’s Not Me, Incredible, Spanish Lessons) leave the rest of the album in the shade. "Listening to these three fantastic songs and then looking at the gynaecological cover shot, which – for all the self-consciously modern trappings of Hard Candy’s coming into the world (pre-portioned up into Silvikrin adverts, mobile phone perks and Japanese TV theme tunes) – leaves people no choice but to describe this album as Madonna’s ‘latest waxing’, the fulcrum of the delicate balance between her public and private selves is suddenly discernible. That photo’s not a gross miscalculation; it’s the picture of Dorian Gray in reverse."

http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/reviews/story/0,,2273969,00.html


The Guardian gives Hard Candy 3 stars out of 5
Alexis Petridis writes about and gets stuck with Madonnas´s lyrics. "Perhaps Timberlake et al were just frozen into inaction, as overawed as our style-mag chum by the star’s sheer celebrity and cultural impact: however famous and successful you may be, you’re not as famous and successful as Madonna. She has claimed her collaborators weren’t above cracking jokes at her expense, but their boldness evidently didn’t extend to suggesting she do something about her lyrics, which are appalling."

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2275787,00.html

Surkin is a famous for Justice remix, but he also has tracks of his own. The 20 year old French DJ and producer has a superb track called Next of Kin. If Justice introduced the sound scape to mainstream dance floors, Surkin reminds us why we need to keep listening to what´s going on in Paris. Listen to Next of Kin on Surkin ´s MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/surkin

The critically acclaimed rapper Lil`Wayne is back with new material and hitting it big on the US charts with his single Lollipop . While Madonna ´s 4 minutes is number one hit in Europe, Lollipop is the number one single in the USA.

Tears for Fears, Cocteau Twins and John Hughes teen movies have been the influences of M83 new album "Saturdays=Youth ". Well, Graveyard Girl is like a Psychedelic Furs song from Pretty in Pink , Couleurs borrows something from New Order. I find these two songs to be pure nostalgia, bittersweet and they very much arouse longing, at least for those, who have been teenagers in the Eighties.

Sarah Assbring is El Perro del Mar , and her album From the Valley to the Stars was released this week. Listen to Glory to the World on http://www.myspace.com/elperrodelmaris . The song is a weird, melancholic little tune, at times almost like a hymn sang by a child.

Madonna scored her 13th number one single in the UK charts yesterday with "4 Minutes ". Her new cd is out in a week and "Give It 2 Me " is going to be the next single, out in early July. After hearing it for the first time, well, it´s simple, straightforward pop, Madonna 25 years ago with modern production, ultra-cool. It was co-written and co-produced by Pharrell Williams and a video with Pharrell was filmed in April. The upcoming video is directed by fashion photographer Tom Munro.

I love Basement Jaxx´s classic mix of Adele´s Cold Shoulder. Basement Jaxx have really improved the original version, which I find a bit dull. Pete Tong has played the remix a lot on BBC Radio 1.

Listen and view the original Adele – Cold Shoulder here.

Stuck on Repeat by Little Boots is available for download on RCRD LBL.
http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Little_Boots/download/Stuck_on_Repeat

You might mistake the track to be a typical example of nerd men behind computers making music and visiting female vocalists, but the person behind Little Boots is Victoria Hesketh from Blackpool/London.

Be sure to check the acoustic version here http://www.myspace.com/littlebootsmusic. The almost 7 minutes long dark dance track sounds amazingly good played on piano.