PaulWeller

Thirty years ago, Paul Weller Download was number one. The Jam's A Town Called Malice spent three weeks at the top of the charts, its Motown bassline bustling, its finger clicks rustling. Watch its video now, and the 23-year-old at the middle of it has hardly changed in some ways. His Woking vowels are still 'ow's-yer-father; the haircut's still cockatoo-daft. But he sings a line in its first verse that's practically become his motto: "Stop apologising for the things you've never done, because time is short and life is cruel, and it's up to us to change."

Weller has never been a man to look back at his career, in anger or otherwise; time ain't been short for him either, but it seems to have inspired him rather than smothered him. Sonik Kicks, his 11th solo album, is alive with the vitality that implies. Nevertheless, so rapturous has been the reception to his recent LPs – 2008's 22 Dreams and 2010's Mercury Prize-nominated Wake Up the Nation – that's it's almost become a cliché to flag up his return-to-form as something thrillingly adventurous, even avant-garde. But this isn't skronky, dissonant (The) Wire (magazine) music: this is psychedelic, kaleidoscopic pop. It just happens to be made by a man always interested in filtering the past in his own way – and most 53-year-olds don't do that as peculiarly as this.

Sonik Kicks fizzes and spits from its first track, Green, blasting off with a synthesiser that recalls the motorik rhythms of Neu!, as well as the drone that starts The Human League's Love Action. Then we whirl into a world of vocal echoes, garbled lyrics about secret guides and quiet times, and stereo whooshes through the headphones: it's really hard not to be energised. Dragonfly and Around the Lake are similarly propulsive and sci-fi, driven by drumbeats and Joe Meek-friendly sound effects. Then we get into the weirder, instrumental stuff. Sleep of the Serene is like a 1960s B movie curio, full of electronic burbles and strings that get progressively strange. Twilight is 18 seconds of metallic clatter and messing about with sine waves, before Drifters arrives with a shadowy Silver Apples bassline, chunky guitars, and Weller "finding his way back home" as a mysterious voice calls "him on". It's still pop, Paul, but it's not as we know it.

More than anyone, these space-age stylings make you think of David Bowie, of whom Weller's new wife is a huge fan – so much so, she's famously named one of their new twin boys after him. But there are more solid, classic Weller tracks too. That Dangerous Age is particularly funny, a brilliantly self-aware piece of pop about a middle-aged man: "He likes three sugars in his coffee / He wants that chick in the office / He's took to staying up late / He's on a much higher rate." Kling I Klang is slightly less successful, a funny piece of oompah about salty days and vicars’ wives, while When Your Garden's Overgrown could have come from Weller's mid-90s Modfather era. Its chorus, however, still packs a real punch: from A Town Called Malice to here, the man still has an ear for a tune.BBc

The most moving moments, though, are the two big ballads: stunning pastoral epic By the Waters and the mainstream-friendly finale, Be Happy Children. This features Weller's daughter Leah on a chorus, infant son Mac at its end, even a lyric that he's acknowledged as a nod towards his late father ("your daddy's gone, but only for a while"). Weller throws it all in on this record: experiment as far as he can take it, emotion as far as he will allow. To these ears it's a heady, and brilliant, combination.

The Shins

The Shins’ Downloadlast album, 2007’s Wincing the Night Away, was largely recorded by commander-in-chief James Mercer alone, just as it was when he first developed a side project from his day job as Flake Music’s frontman. So a studio construct isn’t in itself bad news, even if it was like discovering The Smiths and Belle & Sebastian were merely interchangeable vehicles for their frontmen.
Like those icons, The Shins set a benchmark for sublimely nuanced alt-pop, but for all Wincing’s greatness, it lacked the surefooted cohesion and intuition of the first two albums Oh, Inverted World (2001) and Chutes Too Narrow (2003), qualities a united band can bring. Port of Morrow has eight players on it, so there really is no Shins anymore. Insert sad emoticon here.BBC
Mercer’s footloose status means he can veer off-piste, for example his Broke n Bells collaboration with Danger Mouse. And Mercer is far too gifted not to deliver those trademark effervescent melody and lyrical lexicons that set him apart. There’s not another songwriter alive who sounds so uplifting. Even when it sounds routine – Simple Song sounds exactly like a Shins song written to order – it works, simultaneously mixing zippy and plangent, joy and resignation. The opening The Rifle’s Spiral nails it so well, you can virtually sing along by the second verse. Bait and Switch’s rich uplift and spangly guitar and the shades of brass coating Fall of ’82 are equally gorgeous, while For a Fool’s irresistibly languid gait is matched by 40 Mark Strasse’s velvet touch.
The title-track’s slinky neo-soul could even be the best track here, where Mercer adopts an endearing falsetto and some latter-day Radiohead mood. If this is what no band restrictions means, you can appreciate Mercer’s choice, and he’s no doubt learnt some tricks from Danger Mouse. Yet it’s obvious there’s a deficit. This Shins is as much about Port of Morrow’s producer/engineer Greg Kurstin, whose previous clients include Lily Allen and Gwen Stefani: for example, It’s Only Life sounds too clipped and Pro-Tooled.
Perhaps Mercer is only really a victim of our expectations as it seems ridiculously churlish to be disappointed by a record with so much clever and excitable beauty. But an unassailable commander-in-chief doesn’t always make the right policy decisions. Note to Mercer’s sub-conscious: it’s time for a mutiny.

Green Day

Green Day Download have posted another video from inside their recording studio, as they continue working on the follow-up to '21st Century Breakdown'.

It is the latest in a series of videos to be posted on the band's YouTube channel and features frontman Billie Joe Armstrong saying of the band's recording progress: "It's a new sound and it's fucking with my head."NME

Most of the talking in the latest video update, which you can see by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking, is done by producer Rob Cavallo.

Speaking about the album, Cavallo says: "It takes balls to do this, each hit of every instrument is actually super important, they add up to one thing. When you get it done, it's like 'Wow, that's a big powerful statement'.

The band have previously said that their new ninth studio album will move away from the concepts of their last two records 'American Idiot' and '21st Century Breakdown', and be more straightforward.

Earlier this month, the band confirmed their first live dates of 2012 with headline shows at Japan's Summer Sonic festival and France's Rock En Seine in August and a headline slot at I-Day festival in Bologna, Italy on September 2.

Although there are currently no UK dates, Green Day's American Idiot musical will tour later this year. The musical will tour the UK for three months, ending up with a two-week run at London's HMV Hammersmith Apollo in December.

Will i am

Will.i.am Slams The X Factor Over Commitment To Acts

The Voice judge accuses Cowell's talent show of letting acts down...

Will.i.am Downloadhas taken a pop at Simon Cowell'sThe X Factor, accusing the show of failing former contestants.

The Black Eyed Peas man, due to appear as a judge on BBC's The Voice this evening, claims X Factor acts are all too often let down in the aftermath of the show, and cited fourth-placed Cher Lloyd, currently signed to Simon's Syco label, as an example.

Speaking to The Sun, Will explained: "I love Cher Lloyd. She should have been the biggest star in the world. She should have had the coolest freaking music.

"It's like they put them out, juice them, juice them, juice them, and give people something to watch on TV. Then, who is making sure she has the right material? That is wrong."

The rivalry between Cowell and will.i.am has been hotting up this week after it was revealed that The Voice will go head-to-head with Britain's Got Talent.

As a judge on the long-awaited BBC talent show though, will.i.am plans to show his ITV rival how it should be done and is fully prepared to focus all his attention on the hopefuls.

He revealed: "I told every person on my team that I am going to try my hardest to see their career is jumpstarted or revitalised regardless of whether they win or not."

The Voice UK starts tonight at 7pm on BBC1.

Katy Perry

Adele, Coldplay, David Guetta and Bruno Mars took home top awards at Germany's ECHO Music Awards in Berlin last night (March 22), beating out competitors from across the globe.Billboard

Following up her BRIT and Grammy award wins, Adele won Album of the Year for "21" and also snagged the Best Female International Artist award, topping nominees Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse, Reuters reports.

Adele, Coldplay Enjoy BRIT Awards Bump on U.K. Charts

Katy Perry performed her latest single "Part of Me" at the awards show, while Lana Del Rey sang "Video Games." Best Alternative Group and Best German Act Abroad winner Rammstein also performed, taking the stage with Marilyn Manson. Watch a blue-haired Perry rock her new track below:
Bruno Mars took home the Best International Male Artist award, while Coldplay won for Best International Group and David Guetta for Best Club Performer.

Ian Brown

Music of the Spheres is the 3rd solo album released by Ian Brown, the ex-frontman of The Stone Roses.Download It is noted for its minimalist song structures with tracks like "Hear No See No" and "El mundo pequeño", sung in Spanish.
Highlights on this album include "F.E.A.R.", where the first letters of each word in a stanza spell out the song title. For example, "For each a road" and "Fallen empires are running". Other standout tracks include "Stardust" and "Northern Lights". The Song Whispers won Muso's 2002 award for Best Single. The Canadian edition of the album omits Track 5, "Hear No See No".

Richard Ashcroft

Richard Ashcroft Download In Human Conditions,Ashcroft'ssecond solo album, the former Verve frontman carries on from where he left off with Alone With Everybody.

In a ceaseless quest for answers to timeless questions, Ashcroft still also manages to tap into a malaise that many identify with. As the album title suggests this soul searching is on the whole more global than personal. Containing lyrics full of universal references such as 'we are on a rock spinning silently', some might find this venture into Stephen Hawkings cosmology territory a little too much. The album in fact finishes with Ashcroft concluding that "Nature Is The Law": a track where his gravely voice sinks to glorious depths, unfortunately spoilt by over polished backing vocals.BBC

Lyrics ring truer when he sings about issues closer to home. His recent domesticity hasn't stopped lines like 'I'd have a breakdown but I don't have the time': is life still that bad Richard, or have you got a good memory? This is no bad thing however as his voice was destined to communicate yearning and pain. At times it is as rough and as rich as Dylan or Jagger with an evocative quality that unveils a sensitivity that can make the bitterest of women swoon.

Despite bleakness like 'Lord I've been trying to keep myself from crying' (or 'don't drink me I'm like turpentine') his voice is like a comforting blanket you can wrap yourself up in, and ultimately there is as much hope as despair contained in these ten tracks.

Sitting comfortably in AOR/MOR playlist land there are plenty of songs to tap your foot or wave your lighter to. Ever since his Verve days, Ashcroft has always had a knack for producing catchy down-tempo anthems. Such is the case with "Buy It In Bottles" which will entangle itself into your grey matter and linger a while which, bizarrely enough, starts not unlike Gladys Knight's "Help Me Make It Through The Night".

Musical embellishment is rich and well-produced but maybe the soaring strings are a little overdone. Less is often more, such as the poignant French horn at the start of "Paradise", achingly beautiful in its starkness.BBC