Olly Murs - Right Place Right Time

Well North America is finally going to get a taste of the UK star Olly Murs with a new album that combines some new material from this release and his previous album. The American release will feature the awesome and should be a massive hit "Dance With Me Tonight" but right now lets concentrate on the new album in its original form from the mighty UK.

The opening cut is "Army Of Two" and its almost his best song with the Beatles influence all over it and the catchy chorus with the marching drum beats this song is a classy opening to his new album. The current single "Troublemaker" which features Flo Rida one of those guys I'm getting pretty sick of at this point. The song is good though and even with Flo Rida on it he doesn't take away from Olly's slick production and delivery of the funky little number that is a great dance song that would have sounded wonderful back in the disco era as well.

Olly is a singles artist and that's where he will continue to be even with this album. The overall listening experience is flawed because the album contains a good amount of filler. Like "Loud & Clear", "Dear Darling", "Right Place Right Time" and "Personal" all songs that aren't very strong with "Personal" a little to close to that waste of listening time Usher in sound. I do find you get Olly doing Cold Play, OneRepublic, The Script all to often and getting lost in their sounds where I don't particularly enjoy him. Then you get an R&B funk song like "Hey You Beautiful" that lacks what Bruno Mars brings to this style. Another style that Olly seems to copy and I'm again not big on his take.

When he records a song that is more his personality like "What A Buzz" he sounds like Olly Murs and not Olly Murs doing someone else. Sure sometimes its a little difficult to really take artist chameleons like this serious but when they croon songs as good as "Cry Your Heart Out" you can't deny how good they are and Olly can be off the hook good at times like the opening cut. The very British sounding ballad "One Of These Days" is a well written pop song that Olly does a fine job emoting the lyrics in a commanding way that draws you and makes you feel part of the song scape.

There are bonus tracks a-plenty on the I-tunes UK version with moderate success going to "Runaway" another very Bruno Mars sounding song that lacks Bruno's spirit and Olly doesn't sound very into either. The best of the bonus songs is easily "Just For Tonight" which should be on the main album and it would have been a great replacement for any of five or six duds. This song is a glorious anthemic love song that invited me to dance in my chair while I listened to the song and is for sure an add to my I-Pod. More songs like this would be a huge improvement to Olly's output and maybe he could become an album artists if there was more Olly and less producers and handlers influence.

In the end Olly Murs is going to find great success with a couple of the tracks on this album and he'll be in the studio recording a follow-up probably before this one even gets cold. That is unless "Dance With Me Tonight" explodes in North America and the song becomes the anthem of the 2012 which believe me it is more than good enough to be the song of the year and could be a bigger smash than the Canadian pop star Carly Rae Jepsen's excellent "Call Me Maybe". Here's to hoping the American release is a better package and Olly becomes a huge success here.

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Retro Rewind Track: Warrior Soul - Love Destruction

A real kick ass tune from back in 1992 that is actually even more relevant lyrically today in 2012 than back in its original release year. The band was ten years ahead of their time. This is from their third album Salutations From the Ghetto Nation which makes much of the current sub-par stoner metal sound even lamer.

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Check Out: Nikki Williams - Kill, Fuck, Marry

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Kid Rock - Rebel Soul

After Kid Rock standing up in support of that Mormon douche bag I have to admit I have a hard time listening to this album without that idiot move interfering. Kid Rock's always been a little praise oriented with his music since he switched from rap-rock to blues and country styling. The album opens with the typical later day Kid Rock singing about drinking with a bluesy stones style with little change from his last album. Song is OK nothing to write home about at all. The more dirgy "Let's Ride" is next again not a great song but passable to those who still care for Kid Rock's schtick.

With so much of the same this album isn't catching fire at all but I found myself entertained by "Rebel Soul" which has more going for it than just the "if the south woulda won" propaganda. The song has a good melody and decent hook that is worth checking out. The praise song "God Save Rock N' Roll" is a good song too bad about the stupid name and the religious tones. I wish people would just give up on the entire promotion of superstitions and myth's. We are so far past that in 2012 but still the diehards fight for their right to be ignorant fools and I guess it will take a few more years until we are free from such ignorance. BTW Kid Rock god had nothing to do with it indie rock, drugs, Kurt Cobain (pains me to say it) and the Black Keys saved rock n' roll.

For pretty much a Bob Seger album this isn't awful and there is some decent material but I can't say it jumps out of my speakers and grabs me like some of the more modern and much cooler stuff that is permeating my listening time the last few years. When Rock really drops a load of stinky shit it is titled "The Mirror" which is just bloody awful and anyone who likes this song obviously has no taste in music and should stab themselves in the ear until they can no longer hear any sounds. The albums jumps right back into Bob Seger territory where Kid seems to rip off all his inspirations from these last few years.

The eleventh track "Cucci Galore" is an attempt to be all things hip-hop which sounds more forced than he ever did previously. The song is fucking terrible and should be on permanent skip if you buy into this stuff. Now after a couple of trashcan participants Kid Rock actually finds all the ingredients to make a decent song that I can actually enjoy "Redneck Paradise" I actually like much about the redneck life outside of their guns and god bullshit so I like this song but it isn't Kids second coming.

If you aren't bored with him and his sleaze, white trash redneck douche bagness then get the album. If you've progressed as a human being since he was actually relevant or at least popular then you might want to pass this one by.

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Check Out: Katy Tiz - Famous

Katy Tiz - Famous

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Aerosmith - Music From Another Dimension!

Here we go America's overrated Aerosmith are back again and the man with the worst guitar tone in rock n' roll along with longtime writing partner the duo of Tyler and Perry are attempting to be relevant in 2012 some eleven years since their last debacle of music know collectively as Just Push Play and wow what a stinker that album was but not unexpected for sure. This band hasn't truly released an album worth listening to since their second coming Permanent Vacation.

Sure Pump was ok but it didn't come close to PV and that's not hard to figure out after listening to both records. So now we get the perma-stoned American Idol judge "beautiful" the pissed of ex-drunk and the other guys who need to work and their new album. The opening song is "Luv XXX" which sounds like "Love In An Elevator" in an odd way and probably comes from that era's writing sessions so the entire throwback classic Aerosmith album they've been promising sounds like comeback era Aerosmith instead as far as track one is concerned. The song is passable and I didn't want to slit my wrists while it played.

"Oh Yeah" is a much better song still nothing classic era sounding here still then we get "Beautiful" that is actually a pretty song again so far this album is better than Play by a large margin. But as soon as I heard track four start I was instantly ready to hit the skip button. "Crying", "Crazy", "Amazing", "What It Takes" and "Angel" is repeated once again this time titled "Tell Me" which is a little better than most of those throwaway chick ballads because of the production of Jack Douglas and the very Beatles-esq sheen all over the song. So I kinda enjoyed bits and pieces of the song. The sad part is that Perry still has such a shitty guitar sound and the solo could have just been a nice Telecaster and an old school Fender tube amp with no effects and it would have sounded amazing (
Rock N' A Hard Place era makes an appearance but is that a good thing? No it's not really but that is what I hear on "Out Go The Lights" a weak attempt to sound cool and funky but it comes off sounding like the theme song for Brotus Clay a WWE wrestler.  One of the leaked tracks or singles I can't remember now it's been around so long "Legendary Child" makes its appearance to no fan fare because the song was weak ass wanna be Aerosmith sounding Aerosmith in the first place. A very cartoonish version of themselves is what they sound like on the song.

One of those pathetic power ballads and then another but with Carrie Underwood that is fucking ridiculously bad to another to another with some really badly composed uptempo filler adding play time to the album but not value for the listener at all. A "Dream On" rip off ends another disappointing Aerosmith album from guys that are way past their prime and at this point are just ruining their credibility by forcing this non working partnership between the two main players. Really the rest of the band don't matter specifically Joey Kramer who is told how to play which parts by Tyler because Tyler was the drummer first before stepping up front. The other guys are sidemen that get to always participate. If you really want to listen to new Aerosmith then this is what you have to concede to liking and supporting and I'm sure there are many with no taste who will be happy to eat it up and be sheep. I refuse to accept drivel and forgettable material and lie to myself and others who might read my reviews. This album starts off nearly acceptable but quickly turns into sucky garbage and terrible uptempo numbers.

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The Trews - Thank You & I'm Sorry

The Trews E.P. comes as an apology for the total shite album that was released back 2008 titled No Time For Later. At least I'm taking the title that way myself because I couldn't believe they released that garbage as an album. I can admit that the band sound more focused on this seven song outting and I really like "Not Yours To Love" with it's honky tonk heroin swing made famous by the Rolling Stones.

This is more to level I expect from the bad after hearing their debut and the tad weaker sophomore releases. This E.P. is a stop gap until their next full length album but if they shit the bed again with that then the label should make them only release E.P.'s to get a better hold on their creative output.

The band ape the Beatles and Kinks with "Herm-Aphrodite (She Was A Guy)" which propels the song to higher level for using such great source material as inspiration. Even the silly titled "...And We Are The Trews" works for them but still the song that stands out from the pack is the opening cut "The Power Of Positive Drinking" which better be a hit because it would be a travesty if it wasn't. Canada's so called favorite band The Tragically Hip which I can't stand used to attempt to make great rock music but they always came up short with awful vocalist Gord Downey ruining every song. The Trews are similar sounding but Colin Macdonald can sing much better which elevates The Trews far above the overrated Tragically Hip even though I'm in the minority with this statement.

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