Enya-"Dark Sky Island" Review

Since 2015 was a year in which the mainstream turned to placid and soulless pop, perhaps there was no greater time for Irish siren Enya to return from her castle and deliver her first LP in seven years, "Dark Sky Island". To get the obvious out of the way, it is indeed just as ethereal and sonically rich as every one of her previous albums. After a career spanning three decades, what more was there for Enya to do in the realm of new-age pop? Well, after taking a considerable beating from critics since her "Only Time" sleeper-hit success, she actually takes a look back at her best music, bringing back the purity of "Watermark" and "Shepherd Moons" to prove that her eternally reliable formula is solid, transcendent, and can go toe to toe with the best music of its era. Though elements of her post-2000 work remain--Loxian language, no real instruments (except for a double bass cameo), lyrics with heavy allusions to stars and nature--Enya was savvy enough to push the melody ahead of the multi-vocal tapestry, placing equal emphasis on sound and song. Many tracks, chiefly "The Humming", "Diamonds on the Water", and "The Loxian Gates", revisit the low-slung 6/8 feel of Enya classics such as "The Celts" and "Boadicea", while others like "Echoes in Rain" and "The Forge of the Angels" mine the similar territory of "It's in the Rain" and "The Journey of the Angels" (no one ever said Enya didn't blatantly repeat herself through her career...). Then, there are the few songs that achieve the old-meets-new fusion quite successfully, with the best being "So I Could Find My Way" (though "Astra et Luna" is a close second). While it's playing, there's no denying that "Dark Sky Island" contains some of Enya's most accomplished music in years--it could even convert a few non-believers!-but when the final beat clicks, the sad truth is that a large portion of these songs are just not as memorable as her 90s masterworks. The sound is gracefully soft, the words and production don't push into 80s cheese too much, but aside from the careful construction, nothing else really stands out here. "Dark Sky Island" is one of those records that plays like a record, but loses interest with the consistently subdued atmosphere and soggy tempos. It's a step up from the flimsy "And Winter Came" for sure, but given the sheer pedigree of the artist and production team behind this project, it's hard to not wish that it had strayed from tradition a little. Of course, consistency has always made Enya such an unlikely star, but recapturing the important aspects of her best material on "Dark Sky Island" proves why her early works were her best, which turns this record into a synthesis of career rather than a strong statement of purpose.

Recommended Tracks in Bold:
1. The Humming                 2. So I Could Find My Way         3. Even in the Shadows
4. The Forge of the Angels   6. Echoes in Rain               7. I Could Never Say Goodbye
8. Sancta Maria                     9. Astra et Luna                     10. The Loxian Gates
11. Diamonds on the Water

Adele-"25" Review

Maybe once every decade, a female artist arrives out of nowhere and strikes gold (and then multi-platinum and diamond) with records that shouldn't have been successful given the current mainstream audience. The 80s had Madonna, the 90s had Alanis Morissette, while the 2000s saw Norah Jones skyrocket to ubiquity. And then, despite having been mildly present on the charts a couple years prior, British songstress Adele was elevated from anonymous torch singer to a monumentally profitable diva on her own terms. "21", her star making album, had a lot to do with that, selling 30 million copies globally and picking up seven Grammys because it was that good. In fact, it wasn't just good: it set the pop standard for the next five years. But why did it so? If every album full of break-up songs became a blockbuster like "21", Taylor Swift's income would equal Bill Gates' by now. The truth of the matter, is that Adele deliberately chose to maintain focus on her voice--certainly much better than any of her pop (and even soul) peers--the songs she was singing became a bit inconsequential, since they were catchy and driven by raw emotion, but lose their potency after being played to death and beyond on the radio. It didn't matter, though, because the 2010s was in dire need of someone with more than a pretty face or promotional gimmick, someone who brought a performance to their songs, rather than a vacant reading. That, and quite honestly, it was outstandingly refreshing to see a genuine talent eager to share her music, and not her arrogance, with anybody who cared to listen.

That modesty is what sets up Adele's enormously anticipated third album, "25". Instead of being empowered by her success, Adele scales back her ambition and focuses inward, creating a warm collection of substantial ballads and searing mid-tempo jams. Lead single "Hello" captures this approach better than any other song on "25"; even better actually, because it not only recaptures the intense emotional power of "Rolling in the Deep" or "Chasing Pavements", but it manages to strip the arrangement to its bare minimum, yet still retains that sense of drama that made "21" such an unexpected blockbuster. It's unfortunate, then, when "Hello" ends and the album crawls through the rest of its tracks, because the realization sets in that no matter how hard she tried, Adele was never going to re-create the exact formula that made her last record such an invigorating listen. That doesn't mean "25" is a disappointment, at least when compared to the other pop albums of 2015 that failed to live up to their potential, but it's not a rousing triumph either. And Adele is just fine with that: she coos and wails at will, gives safely written pop from Ryan Tedder and Greg Kurstin much needed personality, and eventually succumbs to writing a song about her son ("Sweetest Devotion", the closest this album gets to matching the quality of "Hello"). Basically, if "21" was Adele's "Thriller", then "25" is her spiritual successor to "Bad": a record that shows an artist becoming a standard-bearer instead of a game-changer. True, Adele was the one who reset the pop standard, but there's an undercurrent of dissatisfaction that runs beneath "25" when taken into consideration that she could have taken her music to new and more unpredictable places, but deliberately chose not to. If that makes this record an unsuccessful sequel to "21", then so be it: it still does justice to Adele's skills as vocalist and cements her superiority among the many British balladeers in the 2010s. Now that she's a star, she's entitled to remind her wannabe peers (ahem, Sam Smith) who does it best.

Recommended Tracks in Bold:
1. Hello                      2. Send My Love (To Your New Lover)       3. I Miss You
4. When We Were Young     5. Remedy                              6. Water Under the Bridge
7. River Lea                             8. Love in the Dark                9. Million Years Ago
10. All I Ask                            11. Sweetest Devotion

Ellie Goulding-"Delirium" Review

In the wake of Adele's success in early 2011, multiple artists from across the pond have had their way with the mainstream US market--Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Marina and the Diamonds, One Direction, Chvrches, Katy B, Disclosure, Calvin Harris--the list is endless, but few of those names were as distinctive in their pure artistry as Ellie Goulding. She recalled the early 2000s when Dido's acoustic/folk leanings mixed with electronic sheen and made an intoxicating sound fit for either the clubs or small cottages in the countryside. Goulding's first two albums "Lights" and "Halcyon" exploited this successful fusion to the hilt, and even when 2013's "Burn" took the re-vamped "Halcyon Days" into a dancier direction, the progression felt natural and unforced. It's not odd to think that Goulding has so much intrinsic quirkiness, that anything she touches bears the stamp of a true individual, like Grimes or FKA Twigs. However, what happens when an artist decides that a niche audience is nice, but anonymity in the mainstream is not? No matter how many times "Lights" or "Burn" were played on the radio (and it was quite a lot, mind you), nobody outside of the UK could really connect those songs with Ellie Goulding, the pop star. She seeks to formally define her sound and rectify the indie-trappings of her earlier work with 2015's "Delirium", an album built to be the sum of Taylor Swift's "1989" and Carly Rae Jepsen's "Emotion". Though "Delrium" is far less 80s-crazy than either of those albums, it never-the-less plays like the chilly, calculated dance-pop of "Shake It Off" or the hard-working bubble-gum of "All That" or "Run Away With Me". This isn't by accident: Goulding recruited Max Martin, the mastermind behind Swift's pop makeover, and Carl Falk, a major collaborator on Jepsen's sophomore set, to be her song smiths this time around, as well as the perennial hit-maker for big budget pop makeovers, Greg Kurstin. 

It may be disarming at first to see a roster of producers that aren't Jim Eliot (though he does contribute to one track, the pretty good "Scream It Out"), but Goulding has had hits with Kurstin and Martin before, and both turned out quite well (the aforementioned "Burn", and 2015's definitive ballad "Love Me Like You Do"). It should come as no surprise, then, to hear "Delirium" as an anthology of sorts; everything going right in pop and dance all condensed into sixteen tracks. Lead single "On My Mind" certainly feels like a Swift anthem, "Holding On For Life" mixes soul with EDM nuance not unlike Jess Glynne, "Don't Need Nobody" could've fit well on AlunaGeorge's debut, and when hip-hop inflected dance isn't at the fore (like in "Keep on Dancin", an ode to Ke$ha perhaps?), then we get more classic Goulding tracks (both "Army" and "Something in the Way You Move" fit perfectly in her back catalog of folk-tronica hits). Although, as diverse as this reads on paper, the unfortunate setback to "Delirium" is that like so many other modern pop albums, any distinctive characteristics in the writing or production have all been scrubbed clean, making each track imperceptible on the first listen. Especially with such a large number of songs here, it's quite frightening trying to discern which hook is which, what songs are products of genuine creativity or just expertly crafted filler. There aren't any tracks here that are sub-par, but even the best tracks feel more like plateaus that mountain peaks. Taken altogether, "Delirium" may not be Goulding's best work, but despite its flaws, you have to admire the fact that she has ambition. Her perpetually unique, airy voice separate this record from the countless other canned and bland LPs of 2015 (here's looking at you, "Mobile Orchestra"). Goulding's peers might be trying to pass off their underwhelming efforts as ground-breaking and state of the art, but "Delirium" rises above them all because there's no pretense that this record is anything but what it really is: fun, simple pop. 

Recommended Tracks in Bold:
1. Intro                                    2. Aftertaste               3. Something in the Way You Move

4. Keep on Dancin                 5. On My Mind                6. Around U

7. Codes                                  8. Holding on for Life      9. Love Me Like You Do

10. Don’t Need Nobody 11. Don’t Panic                 12. We Can’t Move to This

13. Army                              14. Lost and Found     15. Devotion

16. Scream It Out

Demi Lovato-"Confident" Review

Demi Lovato reached new peaks in and beyond 2013, releasing her most successful album "Demi", forming her own record label, becoming a near-predominant presence on radio (no less than four singles from "Demi"her hit the top 40 in the time following its release), and still finding time to foster a relationship, maintaining her advocacy for anti-Bullying and even writing a self-help book for her loyal fans. Surely all of this success has emboldened Demi, and never the one to be subtle, she steps into her fifth album "Confident" with as much swagger and chutzpah as she's entitled to. Max Martin provides the horn-fueled fanfare to the opening title track, where Lovato belts "You had me underrated/What's wrong with being confident?" Clearly, she's fully intent on making a big and bold statement here, which is somewhat validated by lead single "Cool for the Summer", another Martin-helmed banger dedicated to sexual experimentation. The blunt honesty that front-loads "Confident" is invigorating for a while, since it was sadly missing on the more polite "Demi", but the inevitable slow jam stops the action dead in its tracks around the time Iggy Azalea drops a phoned-in verse on "Kingdom Come", and Sirah shoehorns her way into "Waitin for You" but strangely disappears as fast as she came. Even more of a problem is that "Confident" never recovers after the middle of the record incapacitates it, making it a somewhat bewildering experience to listen through. Lovato 's sound has sufficiently severed all ties with her teen-pop past, she's already proven that she possesses a strong set of pipes and vocal range, so it's truly bizarre as to why she doesn't utilize either of these strengths to the fullest extent on "Confident". Even though she wails and shouts through more than half the record, it's unclear as to what she's so impassioned about. The volume of her voice doesn't give her words more power, and unfortunately neither does the production, which is pretty settled in the adult-contemporary lull of smooth melodies and gospel choir affections. Of course there are a couple moments when the subdued production finds a hook and accentuates it, both "For You" and "Lionheart" present a perfect blend of vocal prowess, understated beats, and catchy lyrics. Most of the time though, "Confident" is demure, very much unlike the one-two sucker punch of its starting tracks. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with modesty, but Demi has already given us gems like "Skyscraper" and "Give Your Heart a Break", both of which played to the pop sound but were undoubtedly vehicles for showcasing her talents as an artist and singer. It certainly takes talent to keep eleven songs so focused and cohesive, but considering that most of that material is designed to be agreeable, not profoundly innovative or challenging, "Confident" can't really attest to what Demi is truly capable of. Her humanity shone bright on "Demi", but here it's almost as if it's a nuisance rather than a source for inspiration. It all adds up to an interesting listen--an album that shows promise yet falters where it should've succeeded the most.

Recommended Tracks in Bold:
1. Confident             2. Cool for the Summer 3. Old Ways
4. For You                 5. Stone Cold                         6. Kingdom Come
7. Waitin’ for You      8. Wildfire                              9. Lionheart
10. Yes                        11. Father

Selena Gomez-"Revival" Review

After she released one of 2013's best dance-pop albums, "Stars Dance", the road got a little bumpy for Selena Gomez. Or, should we say very bumpy: a stint in rehab after a Lupus diagnosis, tabloid drama over her relationship with Justin Bieber, a few hit-or-miss singles ("I Want You to Know" didn't really live up to expectations, but the R&B-tinged "Good for You" surprisingly turned out to be a big hit for Gomez), all the while balancing her acting career, new management, and a new label. Certainly, Selena Gomez has earned a fresh start (perhaps a vacation as well?), and maybe she's even entitled to name her fifth album "Revival", a choice that carries with it the notion of a new direction, either sonically or lyrically. If you could recall ten years ago when Jennifer Lopez made the same statement by naming her fifth album "Rebirth", it brings a parallel motion into focus: if "Stars Dance" was Gomez's attempt to be "Rihanna", then "Revival" is no doubt her JLO record. The songs, while fashionable and distinctive in their own right, don't aim far beyond middle of the road. The production always hints at creativity and spark, but often submits to the gloss and genericism of modern dance-pop. But unlike JLO, who sounded like she sorta-kinda cared about steering herself towards more unfamiliar territory in "Rebirth", Selena Gomez doesn't muster up the energy to sound half as invested. Since "Revival" is so stubbornly subdued and mannered, any intricacies in the production go by largely unnoticed, while Gomez's vocal performance is mostly ignored in order to emphasize the low hum of the beats beneath patchwork quilts of synths and percussion.

Predictably, "Good for You" is the only track here that strikes the balance between sultry vocals with sexy and subtle production. "Survivors" comes in a close second, benefitting from house and club influences, only without the strong hooks it deserves. "Revival" thankfully only dips below average once as well, on the clumsy and neck-cringing "Hands to Myself", where Max Martin delivers his worst dud since the early days of the teen-pop revival in the 90s. So, Gomez can be proud that she has achieved her most consistent album, but even still, the number of times "Revival" tries to flirt with rebirth ("Rise"), sex ("Good for You"), or relationships ("Camouflage"), is the exact amount of times it fails to cover enough musical ground or lyrical depth in any of those areas ("Revival", "Hands to Myself", and "Sober", respectively). Especially when odd-ball tracks like "Same Old Love" and "Me & The Rhythm" pop in, feeling so slightly out of place, there's no sense of coherency here. Despite the promotion of this record as a personal product of self-love and introspection, "Revival" relies most heavily on its production and style; not necessarily a problem for just any ol' pop record, but on a supposed statement of purpose like this, it's a big issue. Gomez has more writing credits--she even oversaw the album's overall production and direction as well--but she doesn't prove that she consciously knows how to create her own persona outside of Taylor Swift's girl squad or the Radio-Disney tween scene. Even if it's more mature and not as garish as some of her previous work, "Revival" is ultimately weighed down by not letting Gomez be the fun, dynamic character that she so auspiciously wants to be.

Recommended Tracks in Bold:

1. Revival                    2. Kill ‘Em With Kindness     3. Hands to Myself

4. Same Old Love      5. Sober                                     6. Good for You

7. Camouflage         8. Me & The Rhythm        9. Survivors

10. Body Heat             11. Rise

Lana Del Rey-"Honeymoon" Review

What's the rush, Lana? "Ultraviolence", LDR's second album and first number one, was a giant leap forward in the star's ouevre of sultry and sedated torch-rock. Wonderfully tattered vocals from Del Rey, mixed with equally gritty production from Dan Auerbach, all blended seamlessly in a record that generated more acclaim than sales. Sure, "Ultraviolence" still went Gold, but its life-span on the charts didn't quite match up to the promise of its two-year gestation period. Maybe LDR wanted to release albums quicker than that, but didn't have the necessary inspiration. Cynics might suggest that releasing "Honeymoon", Del Rey's third album, so quickly after an underwhelming attempt at crossover success would imply that she's running back to comfortable territory after a stumble with the less familiar. Don't be fooled by either scenario: "Ultraviolence" wasn't an artistic failure by any stretch; even if it didn't match the sales of "Born to Die", it was still an accomplished triumph for an artist initially pegged as a fleeting phenomenon.

While "Ultraviolence" showed signs of longevity, though, "Honeymoon" by comparison can't help but feel like a step backward in some regard. Lana Del Rey continues to strip away the excess from her work, this time favoring smooth orchestral ballads rather than trip-hop or psychedlic pop. Her vocals are clean, the synths soft and muted, the production mastered to sound as if this album were recorded straight onto vinyl. All this "authenticity" results in a very warm album; the songs are all beautiful and lush, but...that's about it. "Honeymoon", despite its ludicrously long running time (65 minutes, really?), doesn't actually make many statements; artistically, politically, socially, musically...there's just not much substance here. Lead single "High by the Beach", with its modern mix of hip-hop and soft rock, would have made a deeper impression had LDR not already made an entire album and bonus EP with the exact same formula. Likewise, "Terrence Loves You" sounds like "Old Money" with more piano and a saxophone loop. It all sounds good to the ear, but at the same time reeks of self-indulgence. Had LDR not been so pointedly lethargic and stoic, perhaps she could have made "Honeymoon" the sprawling anthology it so clearly wants to be. It's too stuck in its ways for it to be a true, comprehensive work, and instead is a collection of songs that add up to less than the sum of its parts. It's a pleasant collection of songs, yes, and it doesn't tarnish Del Rey's ever-growing legacy in alt-rock, but it doesn't really enhance it, either. There was a bold provocateur that "Ultraviolence" brought to fruition, and once the "Honeymoon" ends, LDR might be better off embracing that willing-to-take-risks part of herself, rather than settling on the safe and well-beaten path that she's slowly sinking into.

Recommended Tracks in Bold:
1. Honeymoon                    2. Music to Watch Boys To               3. Terrence Loves You

4. God Knows I Tried           5. High By The Beach                   6. Freak

7. Art Deco                           8. Burnt Norton                                  9. Religion

10. Salvatore                     11. The Blackest Day                         12. 24

13. Swan Song                   14. Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood

Carly Rae Jepsen-"E-mo-tion" Review

Nothing could've prepared Carly Rae Jepsen for "Call Me Maybe". It was hard for anyone to imagine how such a light and frivolous song could sell over 15 million copies and completely engross the globe within a few months. The problem with that level of success is that its not only impossible to follow, but it completely overshadows the person who made the record so appealing in the first place. Jepsen tried to continue her sudden success, first with the excellent "Good Time" and then the pretty good "This Kiss", but it was readily apparent that no one was really interested in Carly Rae, the artist. The mainstream audience was ready to toss her aside the second that "Call Me Maybe" was squeezed dry of airplay. By the time her sophomore album "Kiss" entered stores, it was too late to dissuade the legions of critics who thought of her as an anonymous, annoying pop-tart. Reviews were mixed (some downright cruel), sales were poor, and Jepsen's big hit departed the pop charts, leaving no successful singles in its wake. The fact that Carly Rae Jepsen made it to album number three is a feat in and of itself. It was lead by the great (though reductive) single"I Really Like You", and its two-year gestation period--as opposed to the two months that Jepsen was given to complete "Kiss"-- certainly signals a carefully thought-out career move. Since her last album set such low expectations, it was crucial to appeal to the critics this time out, to show that Carly Rae Jepsen is a true pop artist capable of making a solid front-to-back album. That, and not replicating "Call Me Maybe"'s success, is the principal goal of "Emotion".

So, it's no surprise to hear that much of "Emotion" is fun only in the critical sense: technically proficient but utterly devoid of true joy. Jepsen isn't really covering any new ground here; she still sings solely about relationships, her voice still sounds like a 16-year old girl, and any wisdom that she could offer through words is at odds with the cheesy 80s fetishism in the music. Songs like "All That" and "Let's Get Lost" don't sound like synthpop throwbacks, they sound outdated; quite frankly, they're indistinguishable from the all the other 80s rip-offs that have plagued the 21st century. Unfortunately, these aren't the only songs that adhere too closely to MTV: "Gimmie Love"'s staccato beats undo its dance leanings, "Boy Problems" is more irritating than anything Jepsen or other synthpop artists have released to this point, and "When I Needed You" tries desperately to be a triumphant closer but is too clanging and cluttered for a proper send-off. "Emotion" flirts with modernity--explicitly so in "LA Hallucinations"--but its clear that unless Jepsen is surrounded by neon clothes and disco balls, she can't make a great pop song without over-calculating every element so it pleases the critics. Even if "Emotion" is more consistent than "Kiss", it winds up being a clinical exercise in synthpop, rather than the knock-out pop record that it thinks it is. Early reviews of this record in June showered it with acclaim, but it's important to note that "Emotion" is easy to overpraise considering that no one bothered listening to "Kiss" all the way through, ignoring pop gems like "Turn Me Up" and "Sweetie". "Call Me Maybe" had such potency, that it was impossible to give Jepsen any credit for her other work. As good as the idea of "Emotion" reads on paper, the actual result isn't better or worse than the overall impression that "Kiss" made. 

What makes this record good, then, is the handful of songs that strike a balance between the past and the present. The best cut here is, of course, "Run Away With Me", the first song on the album. It splashes in with an infectious saxophone loop and gets even more fun the more you play it. "Making The Most of the Night" is inspirational, while the title track nods to HAIM's 2013 debut. The low synth wobble of "Warm Blood" is definitely appreciated, and "Your Type" is pop that benefits from its simplicity. Those songs highlight the album proper, but the biggest injustice "Emotion" makes is saving all its best material for the deluxe edition. All five of these songs are thrilling listens: "Black Heart" is sparse and upbeat, "I Didn't Just Come Here To Dance" is pure house, "Favourite Colour" goes back to Mariah Carey in her prime, "Never Get To Hold You" glides on a nocturnal pulse, and "Love Again" is the synthpop blitz that the rest of "Emotion" wanted to do but never actually achieved. It's the better deal, to be sure, because it hints at what really could have been the best pop album of the year. But without those tracks, this record really doesn't meet the initial goals set by Jepsen and her handlers. Maybe "Emotion" will get better critic reviews, and maybe it will convert some non-believers, but like last time, Carly Rae has got to get out of the 80s if she wants to make the masterpiece that the mainstream needs. More songs like "Run Away With Me" and "Love Again" will surely do the trick.

Recommended Songs:
"Run Away With Me"
"I Really Like You"
"Making The Most of the Night"
"I Didn't Just Come Here to Dance"
"Love Again"