Tedd a napfényt be a számba (2010) - ♪♪♪
Anima Sound System (Hungary)

Since their debut in 1994 that fitted the triphop and acid-jazz wave at the time the Anima’s seemed to hop on every eletronic bandwagon that passed by. They went from drum ’n bass in 1996 (’Hungarian astronaut’), to dubby downtempo (’Közel A Szerelemhez’ (1999)), to trying to ride along with the Balkan beat trend with the past two albums (‘Aquanistan’ and ‘We strike’). But after four years of silence Gergely Németh and Zsolt Prieger come back with a surprisingly consistent and good album. According to Prieger they left EMI and wanted to make a record solely for their own pleasure. As Prieger says in an interview: “There are many who liked the old Anima , and who may be puzzled with this new album. We moved away from the progressive etnodisco we made on ‘We strike’”. They wanted an album that had the vibe of their youth when they listened to French, Italian and German electronic dance music from the eighties. And indeed ‘Put the sun in my mouth’ has become a hip and danceable album. The band also choose not work with a selection of guest vocalists but found in Fanni Prieger a third bandmember on vocals. A young singer who actually was still in dipers when Németh and Prieger started Anima Sound System. OK, you could blame the Anima’s that they now sound a bit like the Hungarian answer Goldfrap, Hooverphonic or Moloko but somehow the whole does not sound like they try to copy a certain sound. The album is partly sung in English and partly in Hungarian and in my opinion those last ones sound even more unconstrained. Maybe that is what gives this album the thumbs up over their previous projects. This is a band that has fun making their music and not a DJ-act that bops along on international trends. Indeed the sun is coming through on the title track when Fanni sings: "Put the sun in my mouth / Make a rainbow picture/ Milk, honey, courage to be a liar / like a picture overexposed”. Other highlights are ’Kik azok?’ (Who are they?) and ’Hadd lássam, kisfiúk’ (Come on, boys). In my opinion the last three songs don’t add anything to the whole album and if they finished of with the Moroder-like track ’Space exodus’ (track 12) it would be fine by me. But i’m not complaning, there’s a stop-button in my CD-player. The good news is that after fifteen years of wandering the Anima Sound System has come home to electronic Budapest and made the album they always had in them. Keep it up guys.

Das gezeichnete ich (2010) - ♪♪♪
Das gezeichnete ich (Germany)

The name of this artist could be roughly translated as the 'drawn-up self‘. Which is just as mysterious as who he actually is. Speculations say that is in fact ex-Blumfeld Jochen Distelmeyer produced by Annette Humpe and Tawil from Ich und Ich. In good German that’s probably ´kwatsch‘ although the parallels between those acts and this one are sometimes obvious. The career of Das gezeichnete ich is one of sudden and stormy rise. From nothing he suddenly appeared in the past tours of the Pet Shop Boys and A-ha as support act. And now his debut album. And with the production by Herbert Grönemeyer's house producer Alex Silva it is a lush orchestrated pop album. Opening track is immediately a track that attracts your attention. DGI‘s anthem to the inner paradise is an impressive piece of Deutschpop with strings, shallow beats, chorus work and moving lyrics “Inside beats live / It's nice we met/ all is still only the heart speaks”. If only he would be able to keep up the quality he displays on this track. Alas with second track ‘Halleluja’ he quickly derails with a Guy Chambers / Robbie Williams clone. And there are more tracks that seemed that have fallen of the writing table of this British writing duo. Then again Robbie would wish he would record a strong track like ‘Nebel’, ‘High’ or ‘Unsichtbar’, because his recent output needs some of DGI’s talent. At the heart of the album the orchestra gets a time-out for the intimate piano ballad ‘Durch die Blüme‘ :“Once pale and now in full color / Your face ruled me / I carry my heart to the grave / Because yours is now dictated to me / The rhythm of the beat in me / freely and not imposed / Your name sounds in me / from now on resides“. But it is not untill the album is almost over that DGI reaches the level he displayed at the start of the album. ‘Vergangenheit’ shows that he can be subtle. “Only transience / A comet in thundering light / it lights up / the glow and glitter are gone / your traces in the snow of yesterday / are only water in the stream of time”. Eventually the closing track is a jubilee about love “We can win this world only with love / Why spend still light years in the shade ? / All you need is love and all that“ (Lightjahre). So this leaves a debut that gives in many ways a vague impression. Although the production is as homogeneous, it misses an edge and thus comes across as very smooth and sterile album. It leaves the listener with the question if this is over the top drama or a profound album. For the production it does deserve the three stars but I wonder of a second identical album would meet the same fate.

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Meine zeit (2010) - ♪♪♪
Rainhard Fendrich (Austria)

With ‘Meine zeit’ the 55-year old Austrian singer songwriter returns with a most cynical album. Autobiographical he opens in ‘Pures Gold’: “I used to waste my time / didn’t think about / spend it all / without restraint and often useless / I used to think that my strength would never leave me”. And it becomes clear the title of the album refers not to the present but he looks back at the era when Fendrich scored huge hits with ‘Macho macho’. A song that almost seems hedonistic now in his own eyes. Fendrich says: “If life is a Calendar, I would be now in September, time to look back” (September is meine zeit). Without saying as much ‘Meine zeiten’ is a calm but certain complaint against his own generation who has spend it all and dumped the world into the current economical crisis. The nihilism of the Macho people suddenly seems unrealistic to him. Single ‘Luise’ tells about a woman who is a model used to go to the most expensive restaurants, shops at Gucci and Dior. To her he says: “Hi Luise / welcome to the worldcrisis / when you suddenly get presented with the bill / it came like a party crash / welcome to the finance debacle”. But he also concludes that ‘Der Mensch ist wie er ist’. Can his generation be blamed for the state the world is in? The song was written after one of his good friends went bankrupt because his wife could not handle the new financial situation. But he also has a message for the young generation which he encounters on his second home on Mallorca. "This binge drinking, the violence amongst each other, I wonder what their parents were doing when they raised them. Most of those kids don’t even have an idea what island they are on”. He reports about it on ‘Partyluder’. With the album Fendrich still proves he is an excellent songwriter who can write down his observations in sharp lyrics. But this time the tone has become very sour: In the press release Fendrich says :”Some say that my songs became to heavy. But that is not so strange, the time is hard! We live in a highly complex world that constantly brings new challenges with it. From that you cannot run away.I know you can’t improve the world, but you must at least try. Like my late friend, Georg Danzer said: A singer needs to be there and cry when it hurts the other." Fendrich looked over his shoulder and warily reports what he sees and cannot be undone. Yet, it has not become a somber album musically. He envelopes the lyrics in uptempo melodies, funky sounding cords and poppy arrangements. It is not an artistically very innovative album. Rainhard used his experience as a songwriter and took his guitar and like a street musician he recorded the songs simple and straight forward. Just a man and his guitar and his perception to the world.

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La pluie sans parapluie (2010) - ♪♪♪
Françoise Hardy (France)

Françoise Hardy’s 26th (!) album ‘La pluie sans parapluie’ (‘The rain without umbrella’) is already out for some months. Still, a new album from this icon of French pop music is a major event in France and therefore this website cannot do without a review of Hardy’s last record. Either you like Françoise Hardy or you don’t. There is nothing in between, just like for example her friend and colleague Jane Birkin. With her soft, fragile voice and her typical sophisticated French pop songs, she is one of the first ‘Filles fragiles’ who inspired and influenced a large number of female singers the past four decades (Camille, Coralie Clément, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Carla Bruni etc.). Do not expect a major change of direction on ‘La pluie…’. It is a traditional Hardy-album with all the ingredients we know so well from her previous albums. Still, Hardy succeeds in presenting it in a modern way, making it fit in 2010 perfectly. And there is no way Hardy is flying on the automatic pilot; her lyrics are very personal and touching as ever and she invited some great songwriters and musicians. Colagero, La Grande Sophie, Murat, Ben Christophers, Arthur H… All lyrics were written by Hardy herself, except for three songs. In these sings, she writes about love, but almost in a mythical or philosophical way. She describes the forces of love one can encounter, the attraction, the desire, the battles, the need to flee from the power of love.

‘Le temps d’ innocence’ (‘Time of innocence’):
“The torture chamber like seventh heaven / Where they have sworn eternal love / Sudden alienation, the kiss of death / The sovereign addiction, the devil in the flesh / So young, when I think about it, demanding, blunt / Trapped by the urgency of the time of innocence / In silence, I dream of love commencing / Faith, the hope from the time of innocence, as is it is already far away! / My dearest enemies, you remain my light in the night”

‘L’autre côté du ciel’ (‘The other side of heaven’):
“And it’s already nightfall, red and black fades into another / A little colour from our lives, one last glimmer in the night / A timeless insight, the other side of heaven / An unknown force tears at you, robbing you of your fears, desires / Mystery of the gap between the worlds in which particles and waves / Are governed by the new laws from this side of heaven / Suddenly propelled out of Earth at the speed of light / You're nothing but a ball, a compact point / Ignoring the target and the impact / In the infinite supernatural this side of heaven”

In other songs she reflects on the ups and downs of everyday live, like in ‘Champ d’Honneur’:

‘Champ d’honneur’ (‘Battle of honor’):
“There are days when it gets too much, the cup is full / Bad news, a chain of disasters / Where we would like to disappear, ending this life of toil and trouble / No more remorse than an old dead horse/ But whether or not you fall into battle, there will be no more losers than winners”

Despite the fact that the songs are produced by different producers, the album sounds coherent in every way. It has many melancholic elements, which is obvious for a Hardy-album, but it also has some strong mid-tempo songs (‘Les pas’, Çhamp d’honneur’), that make listening to this album a joyable experience from start to finish. ‘La Pluie sans parapluie’ is one of the stronger albums Hardy has released in her lengthy career.

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Philippe Katerine (2010) - ♪♪♪
Philippe Katerine (France)

It took him five years but Katerine is back to confront us again with his zany world. With this new self titled album he seems to grab back to the absurd collages on his debut ‘Les mariages chinois’ and to mix it with the more structured songs (of that is even possible with Katerine) of his previous album ‘Robots après tout’. After 32 seconds long intro ‘Je m'éloigne d'autant que je m'approche’ he delivers the song ‘bla bla bla’ which actually is a variations of singing the words ‘Bla’ on a simple casio-melody. Can he get more nerdy…of course he can. On ‘Les derniers seront toujours les premiers’ he sings the letters of the alphabet a to z and then back again. The song ‘Bien Mal’ is, you guessed it, singing the words Bien and Mal. And so the album unwinds with almost all the songs having no more lyrics then in repeating the title of the song in different manners. I say almost because sometimes he adds a few lines to the title. On single ‘La Banana’ he sings ‘No I don’t want to work / No I won’t go on forever to the supermarket / No, but let me eat my banana on the beach ’ and ‘J'aime tes fesses’ Jeanne Balibar helps him out with some additional words. Even more special is that on ‘Il veut faire un film’ he gets his parents to join in. Is there a point in all this? Maybe there is. On ‘Juif Arabes’ the combination of the two words underline a whole conflict. Why explain more when the two worlds symbolize the clash that goes on in the Middle East. After a clash of drums and guitars Katerine ends the song with a multilayered cry ‘Ensemble’ (together). Why say more when this says it all. Katerine stripped the world down to it bare essence. It is like looking at the world with the eyes of a three year old. Simple and with a relentless curiosity. Like the annoying child on ‘Phillipe’ which asks ‘What is your name?’ to murderous extent. On ‘Musique ordinateur’ he just hums the Windows start up melody of his computer and builds that into a whole composition. Written down this concept of just singing the most simplest of titles may sound completely bonkers but if you know the music of Philippe Katerine you’ll know that in fact it sounds pretty cool. OK, maybe not everyone will see the humor of this musical venture. It’s a bizarre approach to make an album but somehow Philippe again gets away with it. Like said many times before the line between genius and madness is a thin one. And Katerine walks it perfectly. To me it's brilliant but due to it's excentricity it is much more complex project then the more accesible 'Robots après tout' and it remains a listen first album.

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En plats I solen (2010) - ♪♪♪♪♪
Kent (Sweden)

When Kent delivered the pinnacle in their guitar-driven period with ‘Du & jag döden’ (2005) they started developing themselves in a more sophisticated manor where more emphasis is on synths and keyboards and on the production. This gave the last two album ‘Tillbaka till samtiden’ (2007) and ‘Röd’ (2009) a bit of an Eighties Depeche Mode feel. Great albums but the band’s electronic explorations did not always fall well with the old fans who fancied them old guitar songs. But apparently it does work inspiring for Joakim and his gang because already six months after ‘Röd’ they release the album ‘En plats i solen’ (A Place in the Sun). And what a brilliant album it is. Teaming up again with producer Stefan Boman who worked with the band on Du & jag döden (2005) the album sees a combination of their recent albums with their old work. Opener ‘Glasäpplen’ starts with acoustic guitars, while slowly opening up with light and airy strings, and gradually turning into a driving synth driven pop song (didn’t I tell you they’d try to combine two worlds). But the album really kicks of with the song ‘Ismael’. Co-produced by Danish producer Jon " Joshua " Schumann (know from his work with Mew) it does sound like Joakim got inspired by a lost ‘Flock of seagulls’ track (remember them?) I just love it when the song reaches the chorus and the guitars and piano drive the song to a higher lever: “I see a future where / I could be something big / So blow a kiss and fill my quota / When you think loud / And scream silent / And holding your breath through the monologue / As written for your inner voice / You sounded exactly like Ismael / Do you remember Ismael / I am your Ismael”.

This could be thé summerhit for me if it wasn’t for the next track ‘Skisser för Sommaren’ (Sketches for the summer) with its catchy ‘la, la la/ Please say it again / And say it again’ chorus. You feel that Kent is on a roll here. But the album kicks back with ‘Ärlighet Respekt Kärlek’ and ‘Varje gång du möter min blick’. The band had the idea to record this album in as short a time as possible to keep the songs fresh and not over-produced. Exactly what causes these two songs to sound a bit demo-like and you miss that finesse that the start of the album does have. Luckily the band catches itself with ‘Ensam lång väg hem’ and is back on the right track with the single ‘Gamla Ullevi’ (Think of you). All Latin beats, synths flutes and good guitar riffs they show their craftsmanship: “Give me a new drug that takes me somewhere / I need new medicine and a new country / When I said I was happy and free it was a false alarm, false advertising”. With ‘Minimal’’, starting as a simple sounding ballad , without too many frills but by 1:22 minutes turning into a electronica driven anthem, and ‘Passage Rare’, a duet with Rebecka Törnquist complete with high-flown strings, the album comes to a close. Five stars…well deserved..,super Europopmusic-album.

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Krajina rovina (2010) - ♪♪♪♪♪
Jana Kirschner (Slovakia)

‘Krajina rovina’ is the fifth album by Slowakian singer Jana Kirschner. In the mid nineties, Jana participated in the national beauty contest, but do not let this mislead you. This is a very credible artist! She has worked with famous Slovakian and international producers, composers and artists like Michal Horáček and Petr Hapka, recorded a duet with Czech folk singer Jaromir Nohavica, producer Ross Cullum (Tears for Fears, Enya, Tori Amos, Brian Ferry). For her latest record, she worked with British producer Eddie Stevens (Freakpower, Moloko, Roisin Murphy, Zero 7). With ten songs and a total playing time of more than an hour, it is clear that this album is not a ‘pop’ album, but a musical listening experience. With rudimentary intros sometimes lasting more than three minutes, these songs were certainly not aimed for the mainstream radio channels. Nevertheless, Jana and Eddie Stevens have succeeded outwitted the trap of creating a high brow, difficult over-pretentious record. The songs are experimental and multi-layerd, with subtle electronics, but the centre point are always the beautiful melodies in combination with the serene voice of Jana. Both musically and lyrically Jana puts inspiration out of Slovakian folk music. The songs have become small stories of (lost) love and her strong desire for the simple country life. This becomes very clear in the albums title track:

Krajina rovina (‘Country level’):
“How to clean a man's hand, there among the mountains / … / good words sooth and stroke on a sleepy summer day / rain hanging in the air, cornflower blue / with the eyes of a child I still look at it, after all this time / the fragrant of soft earth, hot fresh bread / … / slowing down, hoping that something still remains here for me...”

But apart from her ode to country life, Jana presents to us her stories about desire and, mostly, loves gone by. Still, no matter how sad the story is, there always remains a small piece of hope somewhere hidden in the songs…

Unesená (‘Kidnaped’):
“Abducted in the embrace of the stars, heavenly road in the distance... / Crowds of bedside lamps, together, in the dark, under strict supervision / No one escapes from the arms of love / lift the chest, how I'm falling as a meteor into your hands”

O láske nepoznanej (‘O love beyond recognition’):
“Over there, my old friend, is this world where the poet died, where love has gone / Over there, there is this young girl over there, that you do not love. / Heart open, eyes closed, when we embrace / I will go all by myself / How the wind in my ears whispers at last / a song of love, lost just like your voice”

With ‘Krajina rovina’ Jana Kirschner created a true romantic masterpiece, putting herself in the top league of the Slovakian and central-european music scene! This album definitely deserves a wider audience. If you are interested in serious quality pop music, this album is highly recommended!

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O Miłości (2010) - ♪♪
Kombii (Poland)

The days that Kombi had something to offer in Polish pop has long past (about thirty years to be exact). Since Łosowski is pursuing his own career Grzegorz Skawiński and Waldemar Tkaczyk reactivated Kombi in 2003 under the name Kombii. After ‘Ślad’ and the remix project ‘DANCE’ they now return with a third album. As said, the times when Kombi delivered their own brand of Polish synth-funk won’t be revived with this project. ‘O Miłości’ (About love) is filled with “very modern music with a clear transfer and wording that reflects the atmosphere and spirit of our times ". At least according to Skawiński . I don’t know which reality he lives in but the word modern is not what pops up in my mind on hearing the album. Indeed some tracks on the album have a modern euro-disco feel to it. On single ‘Gdzie jesteś dziś’, ‘Ciało’ and ‘Handlarze miłości’ show that they are able to make a radio friendly but attractive pop-track. With ‘Zaczaruj mnie’ and ‘Chwila’ they already on a sliding scale downwards but with ‘Uratuj’, ‘MP3’ and ‘Poker’  they reach a lowpoint with cheap synths and melodies. And please do skip the white-reggae drible called ‘Kolory tańczą w twoich oczach’ which sounds like a long last Boney M track (and I’m insulting Boney M with this one). My advice…download the three good tracks (legally of course) and forget the rest. Poland has more to offer.

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Otoradio (2010) - ♪♪♪♪
Flip Kowlier (Belgium)

Flip’s days as a rapper of the West-Flemish hiphopcrew 't Hof van Commerce are long gone and since his debut of 2001 he is more known as Flip Kowlier (pseudonym of Filip Cauwelier) the Belgian singer-songwriter that delivers small visions to everyday life. But with this new album, three years after ‘De Man van 31’, ‘Otoradio’ sees a radical musical stylechange. Because Kowlier goes reggae. White Euro-reggae that is, bringing back the days of ‘Nightclubbing’ (Grace Jones), ‘4us’ (Doe Maar) and ‘Faut plus me la faire’ (Valerie Lagrange) and ‘African Reggae’ (Nina Hagen). Yes, it’s back to the Eighties with Flip but not the electro sound that finds so much rewinding at the moment but the reggae influences that were common in Nothern Europe around 1983. Is it a tribute to that era? In a way, but most of all Flip takes the reggae rhythms into his own signature style. All sung in incomprehensible West-flemish dialect Flip continues to give his miniature insights into everyday life and love. But together with producer and keyboard player Wouter van Belle the rainy Flemish landscape is turned into a sunny soundtrack. And it works! According to Flip he first wrote all the lyrics in the usual style (a tip from friend Gabriel Rios also present on the album) and then Wouter moulds the whole thing into the well-known mellow off-beat rhythmic style from Jamaica.  And to prevent it becomes tedious he picks elements from reggae sub genres like ska, dub and rocksteady to create a mixed album. One song, ‘In een boek geplakt’, apparently did not fit that mould and resembles the usual Flip singer-songwriter guitar style but by then you’re almost at the last track. My favourite tracks on the album are ‘Moestek duod hon’, ‘Mo ba nin’, ‘Raar’ and the title song. But that does not mean the rest is to be ignored. Call me a sucker for Euro-reggae but this album should be on constant replay in every summer venue in Europe. Original, fun and cool! Or to speak with Flip: “’T is ier goed / Ge kun dat eigenlijk nie verbetern” (“It’s good here / it is almost impossible to improve”). 

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Caramella (2010) - ♪♪♪
Mina (Italy)

Only seven months after the release of the fantastic album ‘Facile’, Italy’s most productive recording artists is back with a new album, ‘Caramella’ (‘Candy’). After more or less one hundred albums, Mina is definitely Italy’s leading lady for over five decades. She knows how to sing very different musical styles: jazz, pop, rock, disco, ballads, classical aria’s, folk songs from Napoli... she recorded it all. So with every new record it is a surprise what musical direction she takes this time. Well, on ‘Caramella’ she did not take just one direction, but several. The album starts with ‘You get me’, a wonderful duet with British top selling singer Seal. The album contains two more duets, ‘Amore disperato’ (‘Hopeless love’) with old pal Lucio Dalla and ‘Poche Parole’ (‘A few words’) with Giorgia. Both duets are okay, but a bit cliché and already published on albums from these artists. Further more we hear Mina sing some ballades of which ‘Accendi questa luce’) (‘Turn the light on’) is one of the better ones.

And there is Mina doing some experimental songs from the new league of Italian musicians. This is Mina at her best. Just listen to ‘Solo sai rispondere’ (‘Only if you know the answer’), a fantastic song by Massimiliano ‘Max’ Casaccia, (guitarist, producer and one of the founders of the band Subsonica). Or ‘Io e te’ (‘Me and you’), co-written by Paolo Benvegnù (former member of the band Scisma), a beautiful dramatic rock ballad. And ‘La clessidra’ (‘The hourglass’) written by Davide DiLeo (keyboardist and founder of Subsonica), probably the stand out track of the album with Mina whispering the words to the dark and creepy melody:
“And leave me here to cry alone / The white of my eyes stops my heart / The hand, the tip that sinks between us as the air / Cold fingers do not shake anymore / No longer I feel like I’m drowning, you are no longer here”

One of the lyrical high lights is ‘Il povero e il re’ (‘The poor and the king’), written by Mina’s nephew Axel Pani:
“I hear your voice in this city it warms the soul / Almost nonexistent it vanishes in an instant / A portrait of serenity it's just a sound, but for me this is music / … / When the lights go out above this city, diversity disappears / And there are only shadows around me / And you cannot distinguish the poor from the king”

So ‘Caramella’ has become a very diverse album, with some great tracks, some average songs and some fillers. It is less consistent than her previous album ‘Facile’, but it has enough highlights to receive 3 notes.

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Už - ♪♪♪♪
Richard Müller (Slovakia)

Richard Müller (1961) is one of the most significant artists on the Slovakian music scene. He started his career as a pop journalist, but soon became a musician himself. He founded the highly influential band Banket, but started a very successful solo career in the beginning of the nineties. Apparently after the release of his latest album, three years ago, he announced that he would retreat from the music scene. Fortunately for all Slovakian people (and all European music fans) he changed his mind and recorded the album ‘Už’ (‘Already’) a few months ago, containing twelve brand new tracks.

The album sounds very modern, yet very timeless at the same time. This is probably the result of the careful use of modern electronic touches, but always putting the ‘holy trinity’ of voice, guitar and melody in the centre. The songs are multi-layered and constructed very cleverly. When listened to only superficially, they sound quit radio-friendly. But when listened to more intensely, you will discover a new universe of beautiful melodies and deep philosophical lyrics. Take for instance the song ‘Čiara’ (‘The line’):
"All sorts of things have changed over the line and below the line / the line does not change / everything goes as usual / each fraction represents the value of life / that corresponds to life this time”

Or in ‘Majú ma rady’ (‘I have advice’):
“They advice me, frogs and snakes / Slimy creatures that live in the sea / They advice me / Lice from a long beard / Spiders in the corner / Even the hollow worms / Beloved all that I ask / Have you also at least some advice”

Richard also deals with the universal theme of love, but always in a philosophical, distant way, like in the title track’s lyrics:
“Long ago I did not know – the meaning of love / Long ago I had not seen - your face / … / “A moment with you and already I feel love / A moment with you and already I feel peace / Do you have a moment to lose love”

‘Už’ does not offer you an easy listening experience. But it does contain twelve very intelligent songs that are bound to get under your skin, when you open up to them. His songs and singing style sometimes reminds me of Alain Bashung (France). Although Richard is true to his native language (he only sings in the Slovakian or Czech language), his music definitely has the quality to appeal a wider international audience. Therefore we highly recommend this album!

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Adımı Kalbine Yaz (Write my name into your heart) - ♪♪♪
Tarkan (Turkey)

The biggest news about the new Tarkan is that it sees him reunited with Sezen Aksu and Ozan Çolakoğlu. Once the trio responsible for Tarkan’s international ‘Simarik’. This time they contribute with to songs. The pumping ‘Öp’ and the more melodic ‘Sen Çoktan Gitmişsin’. But Tarkan sees him surrounded by more accomplished songwriters for his first album in three years. For his single ‘Sevdanın Son Vuruşu’ he takes a text written by the in 2008 deceased songwriter Aysel Gürel (responsible for hits from Ajda Pekkan, Nilufer, Coşkun Sabah and Sezen). Also the talented Yildiz Tilbe helps out on track ‘İşim Olmaz’. Young heartthrob Mithat Can Özer delivers the Eastern-vibed dancetrack ‘Acımayacak’. All music is written by Tarkan himself with the exception for ‘Usta-Çırak’ which is completely written by him and oddly enough sounds the most traditional of all tracks. So what to think of this display of musical friendliness? Let me start with the conclusion that none of the tracks is bad. The album is divers and Tarkan has always had a keen eye for production. And Tarkan choose to make this an Anatolian pop album where in the past he was willing to make a knee fall for a more international and less typical sound. But there is also a critical note. Because artists around him, including Tilbe and Aksu, already are one step further in the musical spectrum and listen to what the young generation comes up with. Not with Tarkan who sticks to the sound that fits his smooth voice but in doing that remains loyal to a sound that may not be completely up to date anymore. Reviews in Turkey were mixed, not in the least because after a three year wait and many hints towards a new album only eight new tracks are a bit meagre. The rest of the album is filled with remixes from the planned singles. That gives Tarkan a score for a mediocre album, nice for your car drive from Istanbul to Gebze, but not a totally convincing album for the return of a self-convinced superstar. 

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Sonrisa (2010) - ♪♪♪
Ana Torroja (Spain)

With ‘Sonrisa’ Ana Torroja delivers her fifth solo album. Mind you, it took her seven years to come up with these ten new songs so the question was it worth the wait is a good one. For ‘Sonrisa’, which means ‘smile’ and not sunrise by the way, she teamed up with producer Andrés Levin who before worked with Aterciopelados , Carlinhos Brown , Caetano Veloso and Miguel Bosé. The result is surprising when the opening track starts. Rock-riffs, staccato drums? Is this Ana we’re talking about? Yes indeed, the synths went to the background and Torroja and Levin tried a more traditional rock approach. It’s a merry summer song on which Ana celebrates live: “I have a smile to give you / I have a thousand letters of love, and I have / all the time forgiveness without seeing the sun”. And that celebration of live is not for nothing considering her serious car accident near Barbate (Cádiz ) she suffered in 2008. Forced to stay inside due to her injuries she started calling musical friends like Bosé, Juanes and Mai Meneses ( Nena Daconte ) and starting writing new songs with them. Also young songwriters like Airam Etxaniz (author of ‘Sonrisa’) came by. Torroja wanted to express the gratefulness that she survived the accident in her music. In the press release she says: “I wanted something very strong , hard, punchy and not easy songs just like that. I liked them in a positive , vital , thoughtful at times, manor.” Part of the album was recorded in New York where she was also joined in the studio by French R&B duo Les Nubians for the song ‘Sueña’. " When people think of me they think of the sweet voice and fragile ballads , "says Ana Torroja. "I wanted to surprise them by singing more aggressive and direct, without fear and a taste of rock”. Did she succeed? Although I applaud her guts to try and broaden her musical horizon fact is that Ana has a very very specific voice. You’ll recognize it everywhere but it is also a voice that is not meant for all types of music. When you listen to a more slow song like ‘Ana’ or ‘Soy’ you feel the music and voice fit each other like a glove. With the more uptempo songs Torroja has to make an effort and on some tracks that works out fine (like the title track and the Les Nubian song) but on a song like ‘Porque non puedo’ it just does not happen. And when Miguel Bosé joins in at the end of the album for the duet ‘De mi lado’ (On my side) all pieces fall together again and you just know where Ana’s strong points lay. ‘Sonrisa’ is a happy return to the scene and we are happy Ana is still around to offer us good music. In that perspective the album is maybe not a masterpiece but an album where the joy of making it is omnipresent. And that is also worth a lot.

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Alt er tabt (2010) - ♪♪♪
Under Byen (Denmark)

Never being the light of the party anyway the Danish dark ensemble take things even darker on their latest album ‘Alt er tabt’ . Translated as ‘All is lost’ they continue on the path the created on their gracious ‘Samme Stof Som Stof’. That already being an introspective search into the dark corners of the mind, with this new album the band spirals even more inward.  On the first two tracks ‘8’ (actually not being more then an intro) and ‘Territorium’ they keep the instrumentation to a minimum. With the title song  the menu changes to bass, toms, and that alluring voice of Henriette Sennenvaldt's. Floating on a dark rolling bass the song gets under your skin, like a thunderstorm approaching. This feeling is very well translated by visual artist Sidse Carstens who created the haunting video of an obviously emotionless woman maliciously wrecking her kitchen to shreds.  But it takes to half the album before the rest of the ensemble (strings, percussion, pots & pans) gets let in for ‘Ikke latteren men øjeblikket lige efter’, a Tom Waits meets Current 93 variation. The nearly six minute ‘Unoder’ is the album's longest track, which is to say not terribly long by the band's standards, but it slowly and meticulously layers piano riffs atop spectral ambience as it leads up to a big and dramatic conclusion. It sounds, with its repetitive piano and bass-drone like a Michael Nyman soundtrack for a dark thriller movie. You feel the murderer getting close and his black glove wrenching itself around your throat. Coming to ‘Konstant’ you’ll have to conclude that bass-player Sara Saxild left a very powerful mark on this album this time. Again this song is structured around a bass-riff over which the rest of band lays lose elements of synths, vocals, strings and percussion. It’s her steady bass play that holds the rhythm and forms the backbone of all songs on ‘Alt er tabt’. Except maybe on ‘Kapital 1’ that actually is the odd one out on the album lying more closely to their previous album then this one. But with all this praise why not given it four stars? ‘Alt er tabt’ is a daring and original album, no doubt about that, but the inward journey the band takes holds the risk that they eventually disappear in their own navel oblivious of the outside world. Under Byen is brilliant in what they do, and for all the fans who loved their previous work this is an absolute must have.

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Dziś już wiem (2010) - ♪♪♪♪
Urszula (Poland)

In 2001 Urszula released the album ‘Udar’, composed and recorded with her husband, Stanisław Zybowski. A few months later, he passed away. Apart from some very rare public appearances and the release of a best of album, it appeared that Urszula had retired from the music business. Now, almost ten years after ‘Udar’, Urszula is back with a new album ‘Dziś już wiem’ (‘Today I know’). The title track of the album was already released in autumn 2005. It is the album’s key track, being a conversation with her late husband, helping her come to terms with his pre-timely death. The song is a beautiful pop-ballad, great mature vocals and a soft, light melody. Yet the lyrics, obviously, are very intense and personal:

“When dying is around us, in the enchanted dawn of peace / And the same... strange times... empty days... / When you take someone’s time you reach out for the stars in despair / And somewhere out there, in a strange world... an empty house... / Now I know you'll always be near me / I believe in good times, when the pain will be gone."

The entire album is quit soft, compared to Urszula’s earlier records. Her career started in the beginning of the eighties, long before the wall came down. She recorded a lot of successful rock albums and singles and became one of Poland’s most successful female artists. After the wall fell, she went to the United States, but came back to Poland to regain her place at the front league of the Polish pop scene. After her husband passing away and taking a decade of, Urszula – already in her fifties (and boy, she still looks fantastic on the promotional pictures and videos!) – chose to record a more melodic album. ‘Dziś już wiem’ still has some up and mid tempo guitar orientated songs, like opening track ‘Ten drugi’ (‘This second’) and ‘Skacze na dach’ (‘Jump on the roof’) and ‘Zostawiaj mi’ (‘Leave me’). But there is a fare share of slower songs as well, like ‘Blues mimo to’ (‘And yet – the blues’), ‘Bajka’ (‘Fairytale’) and the earlier mentioned title track.

Half of the lyrics were penned by Urszula herself, the other were written for her. Yet, every songs seems a very personal expression of Urszula herself, like in ‘Bajka’ (‘Fairytale’) by G. Walczak:

“As if I wanted to believe in fairy tales again / When the window is chasing the world somewhere / I want to be touched again, your paragraph / Which of the white fog wind sculpts / Maybe you're already a tree that can live in the stone / Maybe I look at me, one of the stars / That may return in the spring, when the snows stops / And it gets light around us.”

In the last song of the album, we learn that Urszula has found her way out of the darker period her life. ‘Wstaje nowy dzień’ (‘A new day rises’) is a great song, with uplifting lyrics by Urszula herself:

“Everyday life takes its course / The lack of experiences, a sad circle of daily affairs / The lack of time and so I want to dream and run somewhere. / … / A new day rises, I cannot stop to fix it / … / A new day comes, carries taste of success / Ends the polar night, the one string game. / Hello again warm sun, with his radiant face / I do no longer want to live at night / I want a shiny a new day, even if it will change me.”

Welcome back on the music scene Urszula! We hope to hear much more from you in the future (and hopefully we do not have to wait ten years for the next album…)

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Bring mich nach Hause (2010) - ♪♪♪♪
Wir sind Helden (Germany)

After ‘Soundso‘ from 2007 Wir Sind Helden went into retreat for some years because of singer Judith was busy having children. With the new family safely at home the band started working on their fourth album. A crucial one since their sound has been copied and refined by other bands over the years. The band recorded the album during a three month session in Tritonus Studio in Berlin starting with a month of rehearsing in February 2010. It was produced by Ian Davenport. The first song ‚Alles‘ sounds like they continue on the old path but don’t be mistaken, Wir sind helden takes a new route. On the second track ‘Was uns beiden gehört‘ the synths go out the window and suddenly instruments like accordion and banjo our brought. It’s a suprisingly fresh sound and one the band keeps up thoughout the album. And a catchy because the songs refrain “Ein Kuss ist ein Kuss ist ein Kuss ist ein Kuss ist ein Kuss“ will immediately stick into your consciouness. Is it a form of Deutschrock-countryfolk? Maybe but meanwhile tracks like ‘Dramatiker’, ‘Im auge des sturms’ and ’23.55, alles auf anfang’ make you wanna dosido your Lederhosen partner.

Another change ist hat WSH turned more reflective and maybe bitter in comparison to earlier albums with lyrics like: “I need deepest black night behind my lids / a poison against the pain in my limbs” and bitter songs like ‘Meine Freundin war im Koma und alles, was sie mir mitgebracht hat, war dieses lausige T-Shirt: “My friend was in a coma / and all I got was a lousy t-shirt saying / you, you too / we all wanted a souvenir at the end of the tunnel / but you, you had a lot of luggage / and only two set of hands”. The painful life of the artist is told in ‘Dramatiker’: “in the libraries of the Metropolitan / books are stacked upon a silly boil / find books full of songs with bumps and slopes / the walls echo with weeping and wailing” and with ‘Die ballade von Wolfgang und Brigitte’ WSH makes their own Bonny & Clyde epos. The bitter ballad ‘Nichts was wir tun könnten’ closes the album with the mysterious words for a young mother ‘What is born in pain / must go out in pain / what is never born / can never be lost”. Now, this might give the impression that ‘Bring mich nach Hause’ is a sad album but that is not the case. The album features enough uptempo songs to make it a well balanced album and serious step forward for the band. It can absolutely measure itself with their breakthrough album ‘Von hier an blind’ and is maybe even better. That the German public agrees with me is shown with the fact that the album bumped Unheilig’s ‘Große Freiheit’ from the top of the charts after weeks of dominance.



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