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Heffee uses a formula that takes into account the input from websites, moderators and expecially the users to decide which news across the internet is the most important. Users can create their own customized feeds, save pages and articles from across the web, and subscribe to their favorite news outlets.
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Artist: Review: Comprising the Philadelphia-spawned lead singers of the three foremost falsetto groups of late-period soul --the Stylistics? Russell Thompkins Jr., Blue Magic?s Ted Mills and the Delfonics? William Hart --the 3 Tenors of Soul are more than a cheeky gimmick. Conceived and produced by Bobby Eli, a guitarist in the definitive Philly-sound studio band MFSB, they?re an oldies act with a brain, like Mavis Staples doing freedom songs. Rather than dipping back into their unduplicatable catalogs, Eli pic... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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Kevin Michael Review: On his debut, Afro?d newcomer Kevin Michael makes bright R&B for people who think Chris Brown isn?t pop-friendly enough. At his worst, the young Philadelphian sounds green, relying too much on vocal swoops and falsettos and over-employing cutesy singsong choruses. But on friendly jams like the lovestruck ?Hood Buzzin? and the slinky, Prince-esque ?We All Want the Same Thing,? Michael is a confident hookmeister and born crowd pleaser. The reggae-tinged, Wyclef-assisted ?It Don?t Make Any Differen... Rating: 3 Stars |
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Siouxsie Review: Dear fierceness --can you come out to play? Goth-punk goddess Siouxsie Sioux hasn?t sounded this tough since the Banshees fell apart more than a decade ago. She recently split with husband and musical partner Budgie, who drummed for the Banshees and joined her in the globe-trotting adventures of the Creatures; it?s the goth equivalent of a royal divorce. But with all her cities in dust, Siouxsie concentrates all her eccentric music powers on her first solo album ever, one where you don?t have... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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HIM Review: As doom merchants go, HIM are pretty easy to take. On their sixth album, the long-running Finnish quintet tops Black Sabbath riffs and grinding, tightly wound grooves with Ville Valo?s lovesick crooning, all of which adds up to a dark, sexy sound the band once dubbed ?love metal.?(Its logo is a pentagram mashed up with a heart.) Valo keeps his bleeding heart on his sleeve, yowling about dead lovers and dropping creepy poetry like the title track?s gothed-out lament: ?Watch me fall for you my Ven... Rating: 3 Stars |
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Marc Cohn Review: A divorce, being shot in the head during a car-jacking, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina: All those events inform the new album by singer-songwriter Marc Cohn. If all you know of Cohn is the overblown soul of ?Walking in Memphis,?the 1991 hit that won him a Best New Artist Grammy, the ten songs on Parade will surprise you. He remains obsessed by American roots music -- ?Listening to Levon? is a tribute to the Band?s Levon Helm, ?The Calling (Charlie Christian?s Tune)? nods to the legendary... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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Beirut Review: In retrospect, it?s obvious. Attracted though Santa Fe, New Mexico, prodigy Zach Condon may have been to the hyper-emotional voices of the Balkan Roma, he?s not intense enough to share a style with Macedonian diva Esma Redzepova or Serbian outlaw Saban Bajramovic, whom he knows even if his alt-rock admirers don?t. So here he moves his Beirut project west, to the tamer turf of Parisian chanson. The raucous Gypsy brass that gave Beirut?s debut album and especially the Lon Gisland EP some jam,... Rating: 2.5 Stars |
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Bill Medley Review: It?s not exactly news that Bill Medley is one soulful singer -- that?s been an established rock fact since he and Bobby Hatfield gave blue-eyed soul a good name with Sixties masterpieces like ?You?ve Lost That Lovin? Feelin?.? The news is that at an age when Medley might normally be expected to be sitting at home polishing his trophy from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and working out a retirement plan, this gritty singer has instead delivered his finest solo album and the best thing he?s done sin... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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The Pipettes Review: America always loves a bit of fake English Motown, from George Michael and Banana-rama to Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson. But the Pipettes have none of Winehouse?s soul aspirations --just better songs and more sex. These three cheeky hair-hoppers dress the part: Gwenno is the brittle blonde, RiotBecki is the punk rocker, and Rosay is the pheromone-scrambling brunet vamp. On their long-delayed U.S. debut, the Pipettes get their polka-dotted knickers in a twist over schoolboys (?Dance and Boogie?),... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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Keyshia Cole Review: At twenty-five, Oakland diva Keyshia Cole seems to have her shit together. She?s got a big voice, a knack for nasty kiss-off songs and the good sense to (usually) avoid over-singing. None of these things makes her terribly unique, but they do make her second album a work of engaging, pop-wise R&B: The beats stick mostly to jumpy keyboard bounce with string stabs and other minor adornments, and uptempo cuts like ?Give Me More? breeze along with unflashy assurance and plenty of hooks. The ballads ... Rating: 3 Stars |
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Mick Jagger Review: Mick Jagger is one of rock?s greatest singers and songwriters. That is common knowledge. This should be: He has written and recorded superb work outside the double-guitar tangle of the Rolling Stones, and this collection proves it, going back to the sneering evil of 1970?s ?Memo From Turner? and climaxing with the sublime country soul of ?Evening Gown,? from 1993?s Wandering Spirit. Many of these songs are about having it all and realizing that still isn?t enough: the pneumatic rock of ?God Gave... Rating: Not Rated |
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Jagged Edge Review: You may not have noticed, but Atlanta thug-soul quartet Jagged Edge have scored four Top Ten records in seven years, presumably helping make many babies along the way. Credit them for truth in advertising on their sixth album: Baby Makin' Project is full of lush, strenuously sung R&B -- the sort of thing that brings to mind candles, oiled pecs and dripping sweat. The beats are cushy, but there's too much oversinging (Beyonce?s vocals are restrained in comparison), and memorable cuts are scarce.... Rating: 2 Stars |
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Bettye LaVette Review: Until she was rediscovered early this decade, Detroit's Bettye LaVette was a great lost soul diva, her career derailed in the early Seventies due largely to record-label troubles. LaVette made a comeback in recent years, earning a spate of new fans -- including Southern rockers the Drive-By Truckers, who back LaVette on this covers-heavy set. The full-bodied soul they provide begs to be heard live in a smoky club, and it's more sympathetic than the raw grooves Joe Henry cooked up for LaVette on ... Rating: 3 Stars |
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Chaka Khan Review: Chaka Khan has never bothered with great albums because she has such a great voice -- juicy, airy, spunky, transported. Though she's fifty-four, it's also unfrayed, one reason this committed if never classic comeback makes its mark. Another is hot-no-more producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who add bite while discreetly leaving the songwriting to the likes of Hendrix, Prince, Sly Stone and the indelible Ed Townsend. Respect as well to Mary J. Blige's New York raspberry. Rating: 3 Stars |
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Mark Knopfler Review: Along with occassional soundtracks and All the Roadrunning, his winning 2006 collaboration with Emmylou Harris, Kill to Get Crimson is Mark Knopfler's fifth solo album, and it's a gem. Since the 1995 breakup of Dire Straits, Knopfler has dedicated himself to making music that blends the deep resonance of traditional folk with the off-kilter edginess he brought to his former group's most trenchant songs. Knopfler is best at deftly drawn character studies -- the failed actor in "The Fizzy and the... Rating: 4 Stars |
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Steve Earle Review: Supposedly, this Steve Earle record is unlike all other Steve Earle records because it was recorded with beats. But production by Dust Brother John King notwithstanding, it impacts just like any other Steve Earle record -- lyrics first. So fans will follow the title's hint and take this for the New York record of a Texan turned Nashvillian turned Greenwich Villager. After all, two of its strongest songs are "Down Here Below," a talky pan-New York City meditation from the twin vantages of Central... Rating: 3 Stars |
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Iron & Wine Review: Singer-songwriter Sam Beam has gradually added rhythm and instruments to his gravitas across his previous records as Iron and Wine. On this third album, Beam finally brings the blood, instrumental colors and quirky but fluid arrangements that make explicit the worry and wounds running red in his Southern-gothic stories and dead-love letters. Slide guitars and buzzing sitars hang like spider's silk from "White Tooth Man." In "Carousel," Beam sings through a Leslie-organ effect, like George Harris... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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Stars Review: The Canadian dream-pop ensemble Stars took everybody by surprise with 2004's Set Yourself on Fire, probably even themselves. It was sonically expansive, labored, on the psychedelic side, but what seemed like just another kaleidoscopic headphone record turned out to hold one powerhouse song after another. In Our Bedroom After the War is mellower, without so much of the emotional turmoil that seethed under the surface of Set Yourself on Fire. Amy Milian's mournful voice takes center stage in torch... Rating: 3 Stars |
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Down Review: Ex-pantera singer Phil Anselmo doesn't believe in A's for effort. "Never try/You either do it or don't waste your time," he growls in "Never Try," in a voice etched with scars from his own blues and trouble (the messy breakup of his old band, a personal war with hard drugs -- he's been clean since 2002 -- and the near-destruction of his New Orleans home to Hurricane Katrina). But Down, originally started as a Pantera side project, are a clear-cut victory in their own right, making Southern metal... Rating: 4 Stars |
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Nellie McKay Review: In 2005, cabaret upstart Nellie McKay vacated her Columbia deal so she could release Pretty Little Head at sixty-five minutes instead of forty-eight. But on this follow-up, she zigs where she once zagged -- the nine songs last barely half an hour, and they're better for it. Track for track, Obligatory Villagers is no stronger than its predecessor. But things are over so fast that it's carried by its two or three standouts, innumerable charming moments and kooky mood. Announcing itself with an... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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The Honorary Title Review: While the Killers and the Bravery were racing to translate glitter into gold for their second albums -- trying to be Bruce or Bono and coming up a few lighter-flickering choruses shy of anthemic -- singer-songwriter Jarrod Gorbel was recasting his modest, wickedly worded indie-emo songs into something grander and far more successful. Gorbel's New York quartet multiplies its sound by a thousand on Scream with mammoth drum fills, ringing guitar lines and echoing vocals. The group strikes U2-inspir... Rating: 3 Stars |
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Melissa Etheridge Review: On her first album since being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, Melissa Etheridge finds both a depth and an ease that eluded her on previous releases. She's never had a problem with passion -- which is still present in boatloads here -- but now she has discovered restraint, fun and the joys of pop. "Message to Myself," the album's first single, borrows sunny harmonies and a catchy chorus from the Beatles, while a Stones-ish country-rock riff drives "Threesome," a sly paean to fidelity. ... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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Foo Fighters Review: This is an anthology of strong new songs by a great bunch of bands, all calling themselves Foo Fighters. You get the speed-of-light Foos in "The Pretender," the glam-candy Fighters in "Long Road to Ruin," the Southern-rock stompers who butt in with "Summers End" and the goth folkies on "Stranger Things Have Happened." Singer-guitarist and ex-Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl used to spread this variety across whole albums -- the one-man power pop of 1995's Foo Fighters; the real-band slam of '97's... Rating: 2.5 Stars |
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Devendra Banhart Review: Devendra Banhart is a master of the idiotically cosmic. On Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, his fifth album, he holes up in Topanga Canyon to make an old-fashioned psychedelic folk opus, breathing in the California spirits and listening to his beard for inspiration. He runs through terrible ideas and twists them into good songs, even the one that goes "In 1902/The devil sucked off the moon." You could complain that this guy needs an editor, but that's like saying a dancing bear needs a compass... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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Chamillionaire Review: For someone who scored one of the biggest hits in recent memory with 2005's "Ridin'" -- which earned the Houston MC a Grammy and sold more ringtones than any song in history ? Chamillionaire sounds awfully grumpy. "Money don't do nothing but bring you trouble," he says in the lead-in to "I Think I Love You," a tragic tale where cash is the object of the rapper's affection. It's a recurring sentiment on Cham's second disc, on which he lashes out at the record industry, money-grubbing ex-friends a... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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Eddie Vedder Review: Shortly after Pearl Jam released Ten, a disillusioned twenty-something named Christopher McCandless dropped out of society, hitched cross-country and perished in the Alaskan wilderness. Now Eddie Vedder tells the young man's story on the soundtrack to Sean Penn's Into the Wild, tossing his weighty baritone onto earthy, folky tracks that temper the romance of absolute freedom with an eerie foreboding. Vedder strikes a cinematic tone on the jangly opener, ?Setting Forth,? and ten more sketches... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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The Mekons Review: Thirty years after they formed in Leeds, and fifteen or so after most of them relocated to America, the Mekons return to England for their quietest and weirdest album since 1982's The Mekons Story. Replete with chants, harmonicas, found percussion and an extra helping of haunted London holdout Tom Greenhalgh, Natural eschews the comforting competence of unplugged á la MTV. Instead it delivers the ramshackle, ritualistic, druids-at-Stonehenge mood that campfire crusties at U.K. festivals like Gl... Rating: 3 Stars |
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KT Tunstall Review: Set the way-back machine for 1997! Smash Mouth and Third Eye Blind and Primitive Radio Gods are the rock stars of the future. People are still walking around saying, ?You are so money, baby!? Nobody's heard of Napster, reality TV or Britney. Puff Daddy is all over the airwaves rapping, ?Ten years from now we'll still be on top,? which turned out to be half true. And everybody complains about how conservative Bill Clinton is -- can't wait for the real Democrats to take over in 2000. So let's... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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Dropkick Murphys Review: These seven Massachusetts guys know how to make even dire moments sound like a hot party. On their sixth album, fiddle, mandolin and other Gaelic accouterments adorn rave-ups like ?The State of Massachusetts,? reminding you they're a punk band with a Celtic twist. They're also songwriters -- and good ones, too, preserving their party-boy reputation while turning out giant, soulful choruses on songs both manicured and memorable: Dig tunefully sotted jams like ?Tomorrow's Industry,? which sounds ... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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James Blunt Review: James Blunt's 2004 debut, Back to Bedlam, charmed American audiences like a bad Hugh Grant movie, only moonier -- soft, unfailingly polite, very sappy. On All the Lost Souls, Blunt again delves into pretty folk pop, though he comes up with a couple of solid cuts in the Bowie-minus-the-weird ?One of the Brightest Stars? and ?Give Me Some Love,? which is Elton-esque piano pop with a hilarious chorus that begins, ?Why don't you give me some love?/I've taken a shipload of drugs.? Problem is, the... Rating: 2.5 Stars |
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Kenny Chesney Review: Kenny Chesney won America's heart as the fun-loving country boy, the one who schmoozes with Jimmy Buffett and Uncle Kracker for island-hopping party hits. Unfortunately, in Nashville, even the most lovable party boys are expected to grow up and sing about husbandhood, so now it's Chesney's turn. ?Shift Work? is a fine duet with George Strait, who has more great songs about husbandhood than Chesney has fingers and toes. But getting serious doesn't really suit him, especially with tedious ballads ... Rating: 3 Stars |
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Lori McKenna Review: On her fifth release, this Massachusetts mother of five -- and songwriter for Faith Hill and Mandy Moore -- boasts a perky, sharp twang reminiscent of Dixie Chick Natalie Maines. She also has a gift for detailed storytelling on tracks like "Falter," a slow country-pop meditation on human failings, and the title track, a capable rocker that attests to her frozen-dinner lifestyle. But even this seasoned songstress occasionally gets stuck in unglamorous midtempo muck. Rating: 3 Stars |
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Sara Bareilles Review: It's tempting to simply applaud Bareilles' capable Fiona Apple-on-Prozac homage for what it is: slightly edgy, stompy piano-based pop rock. That is, until she unfurls the earsplittingly impressive climax note of the Maroon 5-esque "Come Round Soon." Whether banging away at the driving "Love Song," turning slinky for "Bottle It Up" or getting contemplative on the gently orchestrated "City," Bareilles' writing voice is uniquely her own. Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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Colbie Caillat Review: In a landscape populated by lawless and unrehab-able female pop stars, it's easy to see the Everygal appeal of this twenty-two-year-old MySpace sensation. Caillat sings about letting her feelings show on a mellow acoustic-guitar-and-piano song with a soulful swing, but over a dozen bland, sunny tunes, it's hard to pin her down. Her songs are entirely inoffensive -- that's probably why she rocketed to Number One on the iTunes chart. Rating: 2 Stars |
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Imperial Teen Review: So about that title. Hair: Jone Stebbins tours with her styling scissors. TV: Roddy Bottum scored the defunct ABC series Help Me Help You. Baby: Lynn Truell, nee Perko, is pregnant in her booklet photo. Which leaves Will Schwartz as the band, still harboring dreams that these veteran art-pop up-and-comers will someday be remunerative as well as catchy. Catchy they remain on their belated fourth album -- also bright, dynamic, tender, brainy, unpretentious and civilly pansexual. But after... Rating: 3.5 Stars |
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Silverchair Review: In the mid-nineties, the Australian trio Silverchair was a true boy band - very young men playing strong, original hard-rock songs on their own instruments. Drummer Ben Gillies, bassist Chris Joannou and singer-guitarist-songwriter Daniel Johns are still young (in their late twenties). They are also aggressively modern in the long reach of Young Modern, their first studio album in five years, from the balled-fist fuzz of "Mind Reader" to the sumptuous glam of "Strange Behaviour" (with strings... Rating: 4 Stars |
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The Grateful Dead Review: The Grateful Dead Three From the Vault Rhino Longtime bootleg favorite from 1971 finally gets an official release this show, the second of six at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York, in 1971, has been a trader's favorite since ancient times, when live Dead music circulated on cassettes. The week began with a drag ? drummer Mickey Hart quit after the first night, not to return until 1976. But the Dead had recently made Workingman's Dead and American Beauty and were on an inspired... Rating: 4 Stars |
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Junior Senior Review: Where can we buy the happy pills Junior Senior are taking? Hey Hey is the Danish duo's second straight album full of megabright electro disco, something on the order of KC and the Sunshine band partying with Abba, only with better keyboards and a knowing wink. The album's enthusiasm sounds almost cartoonish at times, and its title tells you all you need to know about their lyrical approach. But Junior Senior's track-building smarts and way with a hook add up to non-annoying bliss on a handful of... Rating: 3 Stars |
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Talib Kweli Review: Talib kweli earns the respect he gets. He's got plenty of brains and enough flow, and though his attempts to make conscious rap commercial inspire purist sniping, he's balanced the two with integrity and grace. But four solo albums in, it can't be an accident that he's done his signature work with collaborators ? Mos Def (Black Star), Hi-Tek (Reflection Eternal) and many, many cameos (try the z "My Favorite Mutiny"). The man simply lacks spark. Kweli's Warner debut features yet more cameos -- ... Rating: 3 Stars |
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Architecture in Helsinki Review: What happens when indie-prog miniaturists decide to go for the long bomb? "Heart It Races," if they're lucky -- the Australian twee-dweeb aesthetes devise a real pop song even trippier than the fake ones they keep snapping into fragments, a spaced-out bit of calypso crossed with dance hall that keeps getting bigger until it finally floats away. With its sexed-up beats, cowbell, nonsense chants and wigged-out Casio-keyboard psychedelia, Places Like This turns its sound-effect juxtaposition... Rating: 3 Stars |
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Rilo Kiley Review: Because Rilo Kiley's More Adventurous was a triumph of the well-made narrative song, its markedly terser and beatier follow-up, which is also the band's true major-label debut, will be accused of sellout. Instead, it's yet more adventurous, a prosperous band's challenge to its comfortable cult. Always too cute for serious indie cred, Jenny Lewis slips four songs about dangerous sex in which she herself might be indulging -- right now, in her pretty prosperity -- into music that's defined... Rating: 4 Stars |
