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Is there such a thing as being too smooth? Seal's David Foster-produced tribute to classic soul is a figure skater of a collection, all elegance and grace.
BBC Radio DJ Charlie Gillett offers a generous sampling of outstanding world music on this double-disc set: 34 tunes by 34 artists from 28 countries.
With 13 albums and 20 years of recording behind them, Hezekiah Walker & Love Fellowship Crusade have grown from a group of exuberant Brooklyn teenagers into one of gospel's most acclaimed ensembles.
After spending 10 years as lead vocalist for Trick Pony, Heidi Newfield successfully broke out with top 15 country hit "Johnny & June."
Lifehouse maintains a long string of fast-rising adult top 40 hits with "Broken," the third single from album "Who We Are" and the band's third consecutive top 10 single at the format from the set.
North Hollywood, Calif., quartet the Yelling is making a racket within Los Angeles' club scene that's led LA Weekly to call the band "high-impact, blues-informed rock fiends."
Twenty years after her self-titled debut, Tracy Chapman remains true to her musical calling: soul-rich folk melodies around a voice of honesty and nuance that nails ambivalence like no other.
Former Alabama lead singer Randy Owen's solo debut walks a fine line that will please both Alabama faithful and new fans.
When we last heard Butch Walker the artist, he was banging out gleeful glam-rock with his Let's Go Out Tonites.
Trumpeter Christian Scott leads a fine sextet on this live recording, from an August performance at the Newport Jazz Festival.
The Who has no new material to support, but it's almost as if Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey feel like they have something to prove.
It wasn't as monumental as the Who "Live at Leeds." The special-guest Dylan was Jakob, not Bob, and the Who frontman Roger Daltrey was nowhere to be found. Nonetheless, Townshend at the Troub was pretty damn special.
Roots Manuva's proper English dialect, fierce, street-smart microphone skills and undying love for dub-reggae are part of a unique sound that has inspired everyone from Dizzee Rascal to These New Puritans.
On its sophomore album "Residente o Visitante," Puerto Rican rap duo Calle 13 veered from sophomoric humor to outright perversion, an explosive combination that raised more than one eyebrow.
"Just when I discover the meaning of life they change it," Mike Skinner raps with typically uneasy, endearing coordination on his fourth album's opening title track, but those aren't the gutter scribblings of the desperately hungover—they're a swelling carpe diem with a soaring hook (as soaring as you can get via Skinner's keyboard-in-the-bedroom-closet vibe, anyway).
Andrew Peterson has always been one of Christian music's most literate singer/songwriters, and his first album for Centricity Records is filled with the kind of soul-stirring, thought-provoking songs that fans have come to expect.
To the "less is more" adage, add the idea that quicker is better—particularly in the case of Travis' sixth album. The British quartet wrote the exceptional "Ode to J Smith" in just five weeks and recorded it in two.
A new Los Angeles-based trio featuring Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti, Little Joy plays a laid-back brand of indie pop that reflects the outfit's easygoing West Coast environment in the same way that the Strokes' caffeinated jangle depicts the hustle-and-bustle of Manhattan.
Sol y Canto is Rosi and Brian Amador, backed by a group of extraordinary players, including Nando Michelin (piano), Jorge Roeder (contrabass) and Bernardo Monk (saxophone, flute).
In This Moment shifts a few degrees away from its metalcore foundation on sophomore album "The Dream," opting to dress its enjoyable melodies with a mass-appeal production courtesy of Kevin Churko.
Philly newcomer Jazmine Sullivan is the first female in two years to top Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart with a debut—"Need U Bad"—not to mention No. 1 R&B album "Fearless.
Context is everything.
Any time Seal decides to offer new material is a homecoming for fans of majestic, cultured melodies. How about the fact that "Crazy" became his first top 10, egads, 18 years ago? Seventh studio album "Soul," due Nov.
The best thing about a collaboration between Coldplay's Chris Martin and Jay-Z (see "Beach Chair" from the latter's 2006 set "Kingdom Come") is that the artists remain themselves.
As the album title states, these unreleased tracks were originally recorded during radio and TV appearances in the late '50s.
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