She has good genes and a great voice. Singer/songwriter Shana Morrison's second solo CD features a guest appearance on one song by her dad, Van Morrison, but she is definitely the star of this show. Morrison's style is more like Joan Osborne or Meredith Brooks than her dad's. She is an adroit vocalist, her voice sounding pure and clear on some songs, but turning up the attitude, edge, and nasal factor on others. 7 Wishes also shows a lot of variety, featuring folk, pop, blues, soul, and country. It's both gritty and sweet, powerful and mellow, a case study of musical ying and yang.
Web Link: http://www.shanamorrison.com
Motorbaby - Rise
Motorbaby is a band with all the ingredients for success. They have quality musicians, including former Cult drummer Lez Warner and Beggars & Thieves bassist Ron Mancuso. Frontwoman Sharon Middendorf has a great voice and plays a wicked lead guitar, and is a former model and actress who appeared in videos by the Beastie Boys and Cheap Trick, so you know they'd look good on MTV. Rise is an eclectic collection of pop and rock with a strong psychedelic influence, a mixture of the Pretenders, Garbage, and Stone Roses. Motorbaby can sound punk on one song, progressive on the next, pop on the one after that, and pull it off with ease and conviction. They are definitely a band on the Rise.
Web Link: http://www.motorbaby.com
Peter Murphy - Dust
New wave pioneer and former Bauhaus lead singer Peter Murphy has released a CD that defies categorization. His latest solo release, Dust, is a tour-de-force, an epic culmination of his career. It is a combination of lush classical orchestration, Eastern music, Celtic music, world music, progressive rock, trance, and pop. Murphy's collection of British, Canadian, and Turkish backup musicians play exotic instruments such as the tabla, kanun, cumbus, dolak, and mey along with the traditional guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums. Dust is neither an Eastern nor Western CD, although it has elements of both cultures. It is innovative, hypnotic, and at times deeply moving, a quality that you don't experience often enough in music.
Web Link: http://www.petermurphy.org
Pet Shop Boys - Release
One of the longest running synth pop bands has teamed up with a guitar icon and the result is their best CD in several years. The Pet Shop Boys still have that disco beat, but have updated their sound with modern electronica effects and the riffs of ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. It's a good combination. Neil Tennant's instantly recognizable voice and sugary sweet melodies are given a boost by Marr's skillful and subtle guitar work. The Pet Shop Boys always sound outwardly serious, but have always managed to sneak some humor into their songs, and poke fun at misogynistic rapper Eminem in the song "The Night I Fell in Love", where a character voiced by Tennant meets the rapper backstage at a concert and ends up sleeping with him. Release is an interesting and entertaining CD.
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