Jade's Music Blog

Rufus Wainwright ‘Release The Stars’ Geffen 3/5

Reviewed by Jessie

Rufus Wainwright’s lovely vocals soar across the minor keys with gently thoughtful lyrics and hauntingly sweet melodies.
Instantly appealing, this pleasurable grown up pop bears the distinctive mark of Neil Tennant’s subtle involvement.

Marilyn Manson ‘Heart Shaped Glasses’ Interscope 4/5

Reviewed by Mouse

Once again, Marilyn Manson delivers just what we’ve come to expect, but it’s not for everyone. If you’re into this sort of music, you will clutch this new release to your beatless heart in intense joy. Will it convert the uninitiated? I don’t know. But that’s not the point. The point is that this is authentic, uncompromising and true to Marilyn’s gloomy vision.
After a couple of plays, it even becomes quite catchy, in a madly, moody, mysterious sort of a way.
Alongside Marilyn’s trademark growly vocals, there are some fascinating sounds in this track, a high pitched scratchy, and an ethereal woo, which lift it to a whole other level of spooky - and that’s saying something in the strange world of Marilyn Manson.

Compilation album 'In the Mix Rave Revival: 60 Non Stop Rave Hits’ EMI 4/5

Reviewed by Grace Tiede

This seemed an unpromising little offering. I expected something as stale and mouldy as last year’s cheese sandwich hoiked out from under the fridge - but I was surprised!
Obviously, this is a compilation album, so there are some tracks that are better than others, and some that are definitely worse, but in with the makeweights, there are some real corkers! I haven’t heard some of these tracks since those happy, sweaty, wriggling, big fish little fish put it in a box, heady dancing days of The Hacienda, Manchester - the best club in the world, for a little while!
Even the tracks that now sound old bring a smile as the memories come flooding back. If those were your glory days, you are going to enjoy this album, if not, it still sounds mighty fine, cranked up high on your i-pod, on a summer evening stroll around the town, and is just what that super high quality car sound system was made for!
So, Rave music now evolves into Easy Listening through the passage of time - well, who’d have thought it?!!

Manic Street Preachers
Send Away The Tigers
Reviewed by James Hanley

IT'S virtually impossible to hear of a new Manic Street Preachers release without it being hailed as a "return to form" or "their best work since Everything Must Go".
But in the case of studio album number eight, Send Away The Tigers, those claims may finally be justified.
The Springsteen-esque opener and title track gets things off to a solid start, while the confrontational Rendition and Imperial Bodybags showcase the Manics at their nihilistic best.
Album highlight Autumnsong kicks off like Guns 'N' Roses circa Use Your Illusion, before growing into the type of soaring epic only this band can produce and for those appalled by first single, the 80s bubblegum pop ditty Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, fear not. It gives little indication of what is to follow.
Less earnest than its predecessor, 2004's underwhelming (and underselling) Lifeblood, and more accessible than the commercial suicide that was 2001's Know Your Enemy, Send Away The Tigers shows there's plenty of life in the old dogs yet.

4/5