Lopez Blogs

What a positively frightful work week it's been. Not particularly horrible, just terribly busy with lots of good things but have taken me away from the really important things like twitter, blogging and er, spooning Darren :P I must say I have a brilliant weekend update coming sometime tomorrow with lots of things I've been sitting on (not literally) ... but today is about the music that got me through this week and a nice rest after 4 x 12 hour days, an early finish today, a nice starbucks, avoiding the Gok Wan stuff going on in the shopping centre/mall and being far too seduced by River Island's spring summer collection...

Marina & The Diamonds ~ Family Jewels:

Oh I am just adoring being a diamond at the moment. I love love love everything about Marina. Frankly, I've been ever so smitten since I heard the first few notes of I Am Not A Robot about 10 months or so ago. And finally she is a bonafide popstar with a top 20 hit and an ace debut album. She kicks off right out the box with the feisty Are You Satisfied where a vibrant musical endeavour challenges people to examine what they are doing with their lives and her unique vocal style endears right out the box - as does her ear for a brilliant pop hook. Next up of course is the long time stand out Shampain, which absolutely has to be a single. It's a rip roaring, powerful, confident electro tinged number with a glam rock chorus that just lingers for hours after you have heard it (particularly the sweetly delivered "I feel celestial"). Of course there are lots of familiar tunes on there (plainative Obsessions, rollicking Mowgli's Road with all hints of Sugacube worn firmly up front and centre, and the best song of recent years with blah blah in it - take that Ke$ha - Girls) but none more welcome than the still exquisite I Am Not A Robot and current single, Hollywood. Even those stunning highlights are more than matched by the sheer ferocity of insta-pop smash Oh No! with an off kilter beat and a chorus that crescendos into an almost theatrical poperatic finale. It's an incredibly strong album and after numerous listens, it's real charms lie in discovering how layered it is the more you become familiar with it. The "quirky" charm may draw people in, but it's the accomplishment of the album that will get them to stay...
Potential singles: Hollywood, Shampain, Oh No!, I Am Not A Robot, Girls

Kd Lang ~ Recollection:

I must confess, I've only ever been a casual admirer of KD Lang, although there are a number of songs of hers that I know back to front. So after hearing her at many of Ruth & Lou's dinner parties, and reading a rather touching recent blog on XO, I knew I absolutely must invest in her massive 'hits' collection. Calling it a hit's collection is a bit of a misnomer because in actual fact it's simply a stunning collection of tunes that every home should own. Constant Craving has always been a supreme example of her vocal excellence and still strikes a chord with me to this day. Miss Chatelaine is a lovely effervescent slice of dreamy lounge-pop while her interpretation of The Hollies' Air That I Breathe is just a joy to listen to. Listening to the collection makes me wonder why I have been so casually dismissive of her in the past and I'm already busy making up for that by snapping up her back catalogue. I still have the cassingle of her duet with Roy Orbison (Crying) and can't bring myself to get rid of it, such is the passion and emotion in her voice. Long time fans won't need me to convince them to pick up this set; if you've just dallied round the edges of langness, view the gorgeous version of Hallelujah above and dip into your pockets. It's a real education (and one where recommendations of further learning are more than welcome)...

Back tomorrow. Ish.