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 KONK

12 audio Download from I-Tunes. Rock

 Dislikes: Their brashness

Buy?: Yes! Yes!

Rating: 3.5/5

Formed at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music around 2006, the Kooks are not a love-at-first-sight band. But that doesn’t stop them from being booked till August this year. KONK is their second album after selling two million of their first album *Inside in/Inside Out’.

Konk is the name of the studio they recorded at, and from the singles “Always Where I Need To Be”, “Sway” and “Shine on”, this album can surpass the success of the first. Classic Indie, UK rock sound. Great chorus hooks that get stuck to your brain.

SPIRIT

13 songs Pop

Price: Rs. 249

Dislikes: The pop feel. Nothing original about it

Buy?: Can

Rating: 3/5

With the depth of Tony Braxton and even the super high falsetto stunts of Mariah Carey, Leona’s voice is simply loaded with finesse. The album is a collection of songs with collaborations from various songwriters & producers including Avril Lavigne. The pop feel doesn’t really excite, but when the live instruments kick in with songs like “Homeless”, the meat is juicy. There’s a lot of heart in songs like “Here I am” and “Footprints in the sand”. Good album and for once, less show of curves and more talent.

My Favourite: “Here I am”

 Detours

14 songs Rock/Indie

Price: Rs. 395

Dislike: None

Buy?: Must.

Rating: 4/5

Track 1, ‘God Bless this Mess’, features Crow with one guitar! “The president spoke words of comfort with teardrops in his eyes, Then he led us as a nation into a war based on lies!” The anti-Gulf War sentiment is prevalent and in *Gasoline’, fuel scarcity riots even blow up the Taj Mahal! Crow blatantly lashes out at the U.S. and the rest of the first world. There’s even an Arabic “As salaamu alykum” refrain featuring Ahmed Al Hirmi. Crow is questioning with phenomenally great rock music. The love songs are swell too.

My favourite: “Drunk with the thought of you” (If love is a cocktail of all that you do…) SAROOP OOMMEN

Liverpool 8

12 songs

Buy?: Can

Rating: 3/5

Ex-Beatle Ringo Starr’s 14th studio album. Considering that the album’s title refers to the place in which the Beatles lived, it is not surprising that the title track is an autobiographical piece on the quartet: “Went to Hamburg, the red lights were on, With George and Paul and my friend John…”The songs are all about emotions: love, nostalgia, happiness, peace and some more love. The clear, no-nonsense songs sound like the Beatles in the 1980s but with lyrics that haven’t graduated out of the 1960s. Overall, enjoyable with nothing out of the ordinary but sure to put a smile on your face.

MADHUMITHA SRINIVASAN

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