Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

TV Review: A Passionate Woman

On Friday, April 23rd, 2010
Asking us to believe Billie Piper can age into Sue Johnston in just 30 years is a bit of a stretch, but it was a fairly essential part of A Passionate Woman, a BBC1 adaptation of Kay Mellor’s fourteen year-old stage play. In the first part, unhappily married and withdrawn young mother Betty (Piper) was won over ...

Album Review: Kate Nash – My Best Friend Is You

On Friday, April 23rd, 2010
Three years ago, Kate Nash’s ‘Made of Bricks’ was a quirky snapshot of the sound-du-jour, matching Lily Allen’s quick-witted lyrics and providing delicious piano-pop nuggets such as ‘Foundations’ and ‘Pumpkin Soup’. Now however, in this post-GaGa world we inhabit, Nash’s breed of punchy pop has little place, so she’s upped the grit and gone all ...

Album Review: Selena Gomez & The Scene – Kiss and Tell

On Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
Unless you’re a Disney Channel superfan, you’re unlikely to know who Selena Gomez is. Allow us to bring you up to speed – she’s the star of the Disney series ‘Wizards of Waverly Palace’, she’s Demi Lovato’s BFF, and she’s been involved in films such as ‘Horton Hears A Who’ and ‘The Princess Protection Program’. Now, in ...

Album Review: Scouting For Girls – Everybody Wants To Be On TV

On Monday, April 12th, 2010
From the moment people realised that the vast majority of Scouting For Girls‘ eponymous debut album sounded like the same song ten times, it became rather uncool to be a fan. Certainly the jaunty, piano-pop choruses of ‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’, ‘She’s So Lovely’ and ‘Heartbeat’ were every radio playlister’s dream; but high-brow critics took an instant dislike, ...

Film Review: The Bounty Hunter

On Saturday, April 10th, 2010
‘Love Happens’. ‘The Break-Up’. ‘He’s Just Not That Into You’. ‘Along Came Polly’. ‘Bruce Almighty’. ‘She’s The One’. There’s really no mistaking Jennifer Aniston’s comfort zone, and lo, here she is again, sitting comfortably in romantic comedy territory in The Bounty Hunter; this time as a determined reporter and wanted felon being persued for arrest by her ex-husband Gerrard Butler. ...

Film Review: The Blind Side

On Sunday, April 4th, 2010
With it’s all-American overtones and heart-warming tale of a zero-to-hero football player, it’s no wonder that ‘The Blind Side’ has fetched more than $200 million at the US Box Office; comfortably putting it in their Top 10 highest-grossing films of 2009. Over here however, where American football isn’t anywhere near as appealing and Michael Oher ...

Album Review: Ellie Goulding – Lights

On Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
Living up to the hype of ‘One To Watch’ lists doesn’t come easily to some artists. Florence and the Machine may have followed a Critics’ Choice Brit Award with a bestselling album, but others like Little Boots have somewhat struggled. This year the task is in the hands of Ellie Goulding, winner of both the aforementioned ...

Album Review: Gabriella Cilmi – Ten

On Monday, March 22nd, 2010
When ‘Sweet About Me’ embedded itself in the Top 10 after excessive radio airplay and use on a major TV ad, subsequent singles from Gabriella Cilmi‘s impressive debut album ‘Lessons To Be Learned’ failed to make much of an impact; and apart from having a Christmas tune picked up by seasonal promos for the Co-Op ...

Album Review: Sugababes – Sweet 7

On Saturday, March 13th, 2010
Let’s start by getting one thing clear – the overhaul of the Sugababes sound and the controversial line-up change are two completely separate things. People tend to forget that Line-Up III were in L.A. recording the majority of ‘Sweet 7′ before Jade Ewen had even recovered from Eurovision; and by the time Keisha Buchanan was sacked the ...

Album Review: OneRepublic – Waking Up

On Friday, January 22nd, 2010
As a songwriter Ryan Tedder has produced some of the biggest hits of the last few years – ”Bleeding Love’, ‘Happy’, ’Battlefield’, ’Halo’ – but with his band OneRepublic he has a little more work to do to secure them the same level of stardom as the divas he writes for. Thanks to a polish from Timbaland their ...