We open with 'Hey Man' and it's not overproduced, quite the opposite. That's the first pleasant surprise for an album of basically commercial music. The second nice thing is her voice. It's not conventionally beautiful, however it is very distinctive, yet manages to not be grating at all, to my ears at least. Going back to 'Hey Man', it features a lo fi sound, actually, a scratchy violin and is really rather good. 'S**t On The Radio' is ultra contemporary but her voice rides above it all. The sound is slightly exotic, programmed beats for sure but Spanish style guitar underneath it all. 'Baby Girl' is perhaps displaying a little too much 'teenage' sound for my liking. It's actually one of the rare occasions this album slips. 'Legend' sports a good vocal. 'I'm Like A Bird' is an omnipresent radio favourite and hardly needs any description at all. 'Turn Off The Light' - the other big radio hit is actually rather wonderful. It's quite rare in this day and age that such a good song is also such a popular one. The second half of this kicks off with 'Trynna Find A Way' which could also be a massive hit if released as a single. 'Party' - as its title indicates is lightweight, but yeah, it's fun.

Ah, ok. OK! She's moved on. She's progressed, which is obviously a great thing to see an artist doing. On the face of it, this album is structured exactly the same as her debut, with the inherent flaws intact. Hence, it's too long. Too many songs are generic thanks to the team of producers and co-writers, although I shouldn't be too harsh. Those guys help Alicia to create one of the finest moments soul music has produced in the past twenty years. No, i'm not overstating anything - the past twenty years, Erykah Badu apart, haven't produced a great deal, actually. At least, not a great deal worth speaking of. Well, once we reach 'You Don't Know My Name', all six minutes of it ( it contains a two minute spoken word section and was a hit single, too! ), an open-minded listener really should have little choice but to bow down and surrender. This is gorgeous, utterly beautiful and stunning. Pure fantasy, deliriously joyful fantasy and true soul music of the highest order. Her voice sounds improved, on this song especially. The backing harmonies are lovely, the structure of the song, even incorporating the spoken word section, natural. Ah, the spoken word section, pure teenage fantasy and romance. It's not cheesy for one section, it really does work. The harmonies, her piano. Her damn sexy voice, she sounds very sexy speaking with that accent of hers. Ah.

It seems hundreds of thousands of people heard this album via various internet 'sources' way before the release date, causing Eminem and 'people' to bring forward the release date. All the hoo-ha about this being one of the most downloaded albums ever didn't do much to harm sales, though. It sailed to Number One all round the world and became a best-seller. Who said MP3 file sharing is hurting record sales? It gave Eminem huge publicity! He was also helped by almost uniformly positive reviews across the board for this, his third album proper. And, I can't say I can actually disagree with the across the board positive reviews, although I will throw a note of caution in here. I don't *love* this album, but I do enjoy it more than i'd ever expected to have done. In a word, it's solid, and whether you loathe, love or despise the merest sound of the guys voice, you've got to give him credit, especially if you don't want to. Listen to what we have here, and you might just say, "yeah, it's not that bad, but I still don't like him" - as one person i've played this record to has said. That's actually a result! Is Eminem turning heads, slowly converting the masses who can't stand anything he's ever done? I used to be such a person. Anyway, i've rambled enough. Ignoring 'Curtains Up', which is just a brief piece of theatre, both the opening songs proper are absolutely fantastic. Really! 'White America' runs for five minutes, has a semi-rock feel about it and absolutely frightening and powerful Eminem vocals. Put simply, it ROCKS! 'Business' is a slick piece of hip-hop, well produced, eminently listenable. 'Cleaning Out My Closet' has some interesting things going on musically, little nice keyboard sounds like a Piano sound, a softer Eminem vocal, a little bit of swearing and talk of "oceans exploding" amid the many rhymes. Astonishingly, given past Eminem albums, track five 'Square dance' doesn't sound like any of the preceeding songs. A thumping groove is the key to 'Square Dance', 'The Kiss' is a little linking track 'skit' of the type that still 'litters' Eminem albums, but then, we can't have everything.

Grime is an underground music scene that's evolved out of garage and drum n bass. It exists largely outside of the music business, preferring to organize for itself late night raves, broadcast over numerous London pirate radio stations, etc. The music represents the mobile phone and playstation generation, bringing in sounds true to real life today. Grime is so real and upto date as far as what's happening in London and England, that existing rules are being broken. Dizzee Rascal is 'the name' from this scene that's made it into the mainstream. More will surely follow, as true as some other cliche that I could have followed that one with. I was listening to the 1400 hours of music I have on my computer. Well, not all at once, obviously! I had the thing on random play. I suddenly felt very old, even though the music I have spans the 50s onwards, with a good 50% coming from the 90s onwards. Yet, I felt very old. New bands sounding like old bands, a mainstream music scene berift of new, challenging ideas. Berift of originality. Dizzee Rascal comes to us via 'Boy In Da Corner' saying he doesn't care HOW music is made, or at least, or it's 'supposed' to be made. He just knows what he wants to acheive. London calling?? The easy comparison to make using mainstream ears is to recognize a certain shared music spirit between Dizzee and Mike Skinner of The Streets. That's hugely simplistic, although does capture some of the essence of what musically is going on here. A return to freshness, to basics. Utilizing sounds such as ringtones, beeps, traffic, etc.

Marketing at major labels works in predictable ways. James Blunt is an excellent example of this, his history at a soldier ( Kosovo and Queens Guard ) gets the attention, an attempt to portray James Blunt as a tragic, lovelorn poet for the modern age. No mention of Harrow or Sandhurst then? No big focus on his privileged background? Well, obviously not, that's not the kind of thing that sells records. The choice of artwork, the direction of his videos, the choice of collaborators. James Blunt has been labelled a singer/songwriter, which I suppose he is, but major-label tampering has taken place. Professional song-writers including the likes of former Robbie Williams collaborator Guy Chambers assist James Blunt with his tunes. The lyrics are all written by James Blunt, although that's hardly anything to boast about. 6th form rhyming standards are strictly adhered to, bed/head, that kind of rhyme. The imagery the lyrics try and conjure up is decidely poor given the stories James Blunt must surely have to tell, living the kind of live his biographical details tell us he has done. So, it's a packaged product, then? Well, yes, although i'm not against packaged music to go as a general rule. The production line of Motown in the 60s ended up mutating and producing many fine and true genuine artists of worth. Perhaps in a few years and albums down the line, James Blunt will also be considered an artist of true worth? Because for now, i'm not sure i'd rate him that highly based on 'Back To Bedlam' alone. For one, the albums first release dates back to 2004. He's currently touring America in support of 'Your Beautiful' topping the charts over there, so don't expect a new album before 2007. Three year gaps between releases when you've only released one LP? That's not really going to help James Blunt long-term. The runaway success of 'You're Beautiful' will also probably hamper his long-term potential and hang like an albatross around his neck. We've seen this kind of situation happen all too often before.