Review: Prince - 20ten (2010)

Release Date: July 10

Length: 39:18

Genre: Funk, Rock, Pop

Other than George Clinton, I've always considered Prince to be a 'king of funk', having the greatness of 1984's Purple Rain along with his long lasting career to attest to this. One of the things I've admired so much about his work is that he seems to keep his overall style (in most respects) as it did in the 80's, even as music moved forward. Somehow though, I feel his refusal to change is what allowed his music to stay really, really fresh (fine, much of his work has been pretty mediocre lately, but I am referring to his total career since 1990-...oh, shut up).

20ten acts as a follow-up to 2009's lackluster Lotusflow3r, and is Prince's twenty-seventh studio album. The album released by unconventional means, being sold with copies of European magazines as a free cover mount, after making the interesting declaration that "the internet is totally over", and refuses to provide the album over download (even though it has failed to prevent other people from uploading said album). Unsurprisingly, on the day the album was included in these publications, sales of UK's The Daily Mirror and The Daily Record increased by 334,000 and 45,000 copies respectively. My hopes for the album dwindled as I had realized that his style of release would be a great way to bring attention to an album that is otherwise poor. All I can say to that is...

Review: Soulfly - Omen (2010)

Release Date: May 25, 2010

Length: 40:35

Genre: Groove Metal, Nu-Metal

Soulfly for years has been one of metals biggest bands. They've been known for their mixture of heavy music and traditional Brazilian sounds which have always come together to make a very cool and powerful sound. Lead singer Max Cavalera who left the band Sepultura in 1996 to form the band took the underground fame that Sepultura had with metalheads and ran with it. Over the years they have made solid album after solid album.

Since I have a real love for this band I was excited when their new album came out, but from the start I was a little bit taken back. When I listen to an album I'm used to hearing some kind of intro which I like because I think that it starts it off well but the first track, "Bloodbath & Beyond" sounded more like it should have gone somewhere in the middle of the album because it started with no rhyme or reason.

Review: Nappy Roots - The Pursuit of Nappyness (2010)

Release Date: June 15

Length: 61:07

Genre: Rap/Hip Hop/Various

I really wish hip hop would stop getting such a bad repertoire when being judged as a genre. Every time I glance at a Facebook page of some musically inept person, it will typically read "I like everything except rap and country", or even worse, having a list of artists that are now used to represent these two displaced genres, such as Lil Wayne, Rascal Flatts, 50 Cent, and Taylor Swift. It's not that I hold a grudge against any of these artists in general, its just that these artists stand as terrible representations of the genres at hand (country pop is a subgenre, not an acceptable replacement for country). However, hip-hop is becoming a very difficult genre to classify these days. While there is a set definition for hip hop, samples involving typically unrelated genres have been known to cause certain genres to blur the line between genre and sub-genre (A very crude example would be Lil Wayne's Rebirth). Nappy Roots has been noticing this modern trend for the last decade, and is using this knowledge to turn hip hop (and rap) on its head.

Review: M.I.A. - "Maya" (2010)

 

Release Date: July 13th, 2010

Length: 41:31

Genre: Electronic, Hip-Hop, Experimental

 M.I.A. is a British rapper who has been in the mainstream since around 2005 when she put out her first album, "Arular" and was an accomplished visual artist by 2002.

This album came out on July 13th (Although I got it a few days early thanks to the power of the internet) and I had been waiting for this album for months now. Right off the bat it caaught my ears with the song "The Messenger" which is definitely a very interesting song. It really set the tone for the rest of the album in a way because in general I found this album to be very different from M.I.A.'s previous albums. In her other two previous albums, "Arular" and "Kala", there was a very strong Hip-Hop feel to it.

Over the Horizon: New Albums to Look out for in 2010

By Alex C.

Looking at video gaming and film, it's not out of the ordinary for many releases to be anticipated for rediculously long periods of time (sometimes up to two years). However, most album releases are pushed under the rug for the mainstream until just a month or so before release. It's not like the album hasn't been announced, but advertisement isn't being pushed anymore, and honestly, I can't help but be just a bit shocked.