Music Album Reviews

PUTUMAYO PRESENTS BLUES FROM AROUND THE WORLD VARIOUS ARTISTES
This album features artistes from various corners of the world, different in all ways, but united by their love of the blues.

The album begins with the track Listen My Son by The Unseen Guest, a group led by Irish musician Declan Murray and Indian musician Amith Narayan. The song blends Indian rhythmic traditions with blues, folk and rock, with the aid of the tabla, the guitar, banjo and mandolin.

The other highlights of the album include the tracks Back Around by Bonnie Raitt and Habib Koite (here Raitt and Koite carry on a conversation of the strings between her electric slide style and his lively acoustic style), I Got A Feeling by Otis Spann (an acoustic blues track), Playing Mahjong by Taiwanese singer Long-Ge, Slide Blues by Buenos Aires-born guitarist Miguel Vilanova and Catfish Blues by Taj Mahal Meets The Culture Musical Club Of Zanzibar (a Delta blues song about the search for love).

REFLECTIONS: A RETROSPECTIVE
MARY J BLIGE
While this is a pretty good collection of some of Mary J Blige's biggest hits, it's certainly not the best collection: where are the hits You Remind Me, Love @ 1st Sight, Dance for Me and Your Child? However, to make good, the album does feature the tracks Family Affair, Not Gon' Cry and Be Without You, as well as four new tracks, including King & Queen, a beautiful duet with John Legend.

OH! GRAVITY
SWITCHFOOT
For a band recording their sixth album, we're surprised Switchfoot don't sound jaded or repetitive. A lot of the songs have political undertones. Take for example lead single Oh! Gravity. It's a track about the band's cry for peace, love and understanding. Our other favourite track on the album is Circles, a track heavy on instrumentals, with a very Middle Eastern flavour to it. Although Oh! Gravity is morally heavy and even borders on preachy at times, it still makes for good listening.

VOILA
BELINDA CARLISLE
Belinda Carlisle's Voila, her first album in over a decade, is also her first French album. Here she tackles 11 French classic tracks including Edith Piaf's La Vie En Rose, François Hardy's Ma Jeunesse Fout Le Camp, Serge Gainsbourg' Contact and Bonnie Et Clyde, Hardy's Pourtant Tu M'aimes and Jacques Brel's Ne Me Quitte Pas. What's most surprising is Carlisle's accent. She seems to have nailed it.