“Mika has flirted with dance music and electronic sounds since Life in Cartoon Motion, but on The Origin of Love he commits to it in a much bigger way…The album’s other highlights show that he’s still a keen and witty singer/songwriter, especially when it comes to love’s more confusing aspects.” –All Music Guide Check Our [...]
Category Archive for 'Dance Pop'
“Along with co-producer Jerome ‘J-Roc’ Harmon and fellow songwriter James Fauntleroy, the Tims have made a refined and distended follow-up to FutureSex/LoveSounds… [A] pleasant and grown release from a charismatic entertainer.” –All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
Ellie Goulding: Halcyon
Posted in Alt Rock, Dance Pop, Indie, Rock/Pop on Feb 23rd, 2013
“Gifted with a disarmingly throaty — yet still resonant — voice and attractive, girl-next-door charisma… An ambitious work by an artist intent on developing her total sound, Halcyon finds Goulding poised at the edge of artistic and career possibilities.” –All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
“Not only is Unapologetic just as varied as Rihanna’s past albums — it’s another timely refresh of contemporary pop music — but it’s a little more exploratory and a whole lot deeper, too.” –All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
“One Direction deliver another immediately catchy mix of dancey pop that maximizes the group’s shared lead-vocal approach and peppy, upbeat image. This album highlights even more than their previous one how much One Direction’s mix of punchy guitars over snappy beats, handclaps, and bright synthesizers has in common with the positive, fun-loving tone of ’70s [...]
“Christina may not pushing at her limits here — a safeness underscored by the presence of not one but two Voice co-stars…but it’s hard to blame her for playing it safe, particularly because she wound up with such a strong pop album, one that reconfirms her gifts as a singer and savviness as a pop [...]
“A lot has happened to P!nk since the release of her 2008 breakup album, Funhouse, most notably a reconciliation with her estranged husband, Carey Hart, and subsequent birth of their child in 2011. P!nk wrestles with these two life-changing events and many other thorny issues on her 2012 album, The Truth About Love, a vibrant [...]
Jennifer Lopez: Dance Again… The Hits
Posted in Dance Pop, R&B, Rock/Pop, Vocal Pop on Sep 13th, 2012
“[T]wo new recordings, ‘Dance Again’ and ‘Goin’ In,’ tracks that feature Pitbull and Flo Rida, respectively, [are] cuts designed for the dancefloors of 2012. …These hard, cold constructions feel especially steely when paired with the fizzy, glitzy turn-of-the-millennium hits that turned Lopez into a pop star. Not all of her charting singles are here but… [...]
“The debut from 2010 X-Factor runner-up Rebecca Ferguson, 2011′s Heaven is a stylish, expertly produced contemporary R&B and pop album that showcases Ferguson’s emotive, soulful voice… These are literate, thoughtful songs that balance a kind of singer/songwriter approach with a more club- and dance-oriented aesthetic… And while the old-school soul sound certainly informs much of [...]
“Although The Wanted fall into the multi-member teen pop tradition of such groups as *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and Take That, musically they evince more of a dance-rock, synth pop sound that is influenced as much by the modern rock uplift of Coldplay and Snow Patrol as it is the more club-oriented R&B of the Justins: [...]
“With rare exception, revolutionary pop as presented on Looking 4 Myself sounds just like contemporary pop-oriented R&B, or European dance-pop, or some combination of the two. Compared to Usher’s previous album, this is weighted more heavily toward dance-pop.”–All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
“Believe finds Bieber co-writing all but one song and handling his “not a boy, not quite a man” status with poise, despite some considerable contrast between his age and what he has been through. Given the space allowed by an hour-long release, Bieber aims for just about every pop market.”–All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
“Hello is where Karmin attempt to shake off the specter of novelty and present themselves as an honest to goodness modern pop band.”–All Music Guide Check Our Catalog
“Following the success of JLS and the Wanted, X-Factor contestants One Direction were the next group of heartthrobs to help revive the previously dying concept of the boy band. They released their first single, “What Makes You Beautiful,” in late 2011. The full-length album, Up All Night, followed soon after. In 2012, One Direction became [...]
“Most pop stars reach a point where they accept the slow march of time, but not Madonna. Time is Madonna’s enemy — an enemy to be battled or, better still, one to be ignored. She soldiers on, turning tougher, harder, colder with each passing album, winding up with a record as flinty as MDNA. There’s [...]
Bibio: Mind Bokeh
Posted in Alt Rock, Dance Pop, Electronica, Indie on Feb 4th, 2012
“From the opening track, it’s clear that Wilkinson has gone for an even more defined electro pop sound than 2009’s Ambivalence Avenue.” –Beats Per Minute Check Our Catalog
“Rowland has typically been one of R&B’s more reserved presences, but on her third album, Here I Am, she sounds positively liberated—it’s as if the same radioactive spider that gave Beyoncé her superhuman confidence finally bit Rowland, too.” –The A.V. Club Check Our Catalog
Songs for Japan
Posted in Alt Rock, Dance & DJ, Dance Pop, Rock/Pop on Sep 12th, 2011
“A music industry-wide charity initiative, Songs For Japan is an unprecedented compilation of 37 major hits and classic tracks on 2 CDs including 21 Billboard Hot 100 hits and five #1′s from more than 30 of the biggest names in contemporary music. It is a star-studded album collection benefitting Japan earthquake and Pacific tsunami relief.” [...]
“Femme Fatale finds Brit-Brit ready to dance again à la the underrated Blackout and Britney albums of yore…her polymorphous perversity extends to track after track of more-out-there-than-the-last tunes packed with literal bells and whistles designed to get whole stadiums of weekend sex warriors into a simultaneous tizzy.” –The Boston Phoenix Check Our Catalog
“This sparky album keeps on catching the ear…Hilson is in warm, confident voice throughout – much more of this and she’ll be hard to ignore.” –BBC Music Check Our Catalog