CD-Charts Position 81
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The Best of Steeleye Span

CD-Charts > Music > World and Folk
by: Steeleye Span

Release Date August 26, 2002
Worth the price of admission for Gaudete alone, this is a good solid folk album, you can picture the lead singer resting his chin on his hand as he nasally crafts each track. For someone new to Span, it is a grower, which is always a sign of quality in an album.

If I have one gripe, it's that several songs, and 'All Around My Hat' in particular, tend to go a bit 'Quo' when they get over-excited. This is of the time, and to a degree the Span signature, but I find it an unnecessary blot on an otherwise great CD.

CD-Charts Position 82
Average Rating:

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Songs of Leonard Cohen

CD-Charts > Music > World and Folk
by: Leonard Cohen

Release Date April 23, 2007
I first heard a few songs of Leonard Cohen when I was 16. He was one of my dad's favorite singers and soon became my all-time favorite. His songs - often focusing on religious themes, but also on sexuality (in a non-primitive way unlike many songs nowadays), women and isolation - have a special impact. The usual minimalistic orchestration is legend (only a few albums such as DEATH OF A LADIES' MAN produced by Phil Spector and TEN NEW SONGS break the tradition). My absolute favorite song ONE OF US CANNOT BE WRONG is featured on this unique album. With all the R&B/rap crap played on the radio LEONARD COHEN is a welcome salvation!

CD-Charts Position 83
Average Rating:

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Echoes: The Einaudi Collection

CD-Charts > Music > World and Folk
by: Ludovico Einaudi

Release Date September 01, 2003
Well this is my first review on anything,so it must count for something.
I got this last week and must off played it at least 6 times in the car.
It's a joy to drive !
Thank you Classic FM for introducing me to this excellent album,and thank you to the honest reviews from the customers who had the sense to buy it.
The tunes are all different,not as some say the same,they grow on you.
A tune has been going through my head all afternoon and is as I type!
I'm not complaining.
The only problem I have now is deciding what to get next.

CD-Charts Position 84
Average Rating:

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Infiniment: 40 Chansons (remastered - high definition)

CD-Charts > Music > World and Folk
by: Jacques Brel

Release Date October 20, 2003
Jacques Brel remains an integral and hugely influential singer/songwriter in the scheme of twentieth-century music; with his gloomy and orchestral tales of whores, sailors, tramps and harlots influencing everyone from Scott Walker, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Shane MacGowan and Nick Cave, to bands like Jack, the Divine Comedy and Pulp. Like those acts, Brel's music is literate and theatrical, unfolding in a bleak world populated by lost love, loneliness, angst, melancholy and despair, but with the darkness softened by witty arrangements, satirical motifs and moments of dark comedy. The atmosphere of the songs is rich and evocative throughout... so, like the work of his contemporary Serge Gainsbourg; the songs practically reek of cheap booze and cigarette smoke, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 85
Average Rating:

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O Fortuna

CD-Charts > Music > World and Folk
by: Ysgol Glanaethwy

Release Date December 08, 2008
Jacques Brel remains an integral and hugely influential singer/songwriter in the scheme of twentieth-century music; with his gloomy and orchestral tales of whores, sailors, tramps and harlots influencing everyone from Scott Walker, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Shane MacGowan and Nick Cave, to bands like Jack, the Divine Comedy and Pulp. Like those acts, Brel's music is literate and theatrical, unfolding in a bleak world populated by lost love, loneliness, angst, melancholy and despair, but with the darkness softened by witty arrangements, satirical motifs and moments of dark comedy. The atmosphere of the songs is rich and evocative throughout... so, like the work of his contemporary Serge Gainsbourg; the songs practically reek of cheap booze and cigarette smoke, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 86
Average Rating:

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Jake in a Box: the EMI Recordings 1967-1976

CD-Charts > Music > World and Folk
by: Jake Thackray

Release Date April 17, 2006
Wow, I was quite shocked at the polarisation of the reviews of Jake's EMI releases (you just need to add the full recording of his live performance (Live Performance) to have pretty much the full works). Ah, but there is an explanation for the disappointment. Jake Thackray was a fantastic solo performer with a beautiful classical guitar style. Now helpful producers don't always recognise art, they like to domesticate it. The first CD starts with the over orchestrated LP "The Last Will and Testament of Jake Thackray" - yes they manage to musically imitate the pony's harness jingling in "The Little Black Foal". It's a bit of a teeth clencher when you know Jake well and just detracts from his dour West Riding accent and deadpan song writing. (I'm just getting thoughts ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 87
Average Rating:

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Greatest Hits

CD-Charts > Music > World and Folk
by: Tom Jones

Release Date April 17, 2006
I must admit, I'm not exactly a fan or Tom Jones, but my sister already has this album and when I listened to it I just had to buy it. The man has an awesome voice and every track on this album is totally different. A good one to add to your collection!

CD-Charts Position 88
Average Rating:

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O

CD-Charts > Music > World and Folk
by: Damien Rice

Release Date July 28, 2003
Just thought I'd do my bit to reduce the ludicrously high star rating of Mr. Rice's dreary and vacuous disc. Lisa Hannigan does well to provide a good contrast to his dreadful vocals, but 'Cold Water' is the only song here of any merit; the rest is over-hyped tosh of the worst kind. May he sink into deserved obscurity as soon as possible.

CD-Charts Position 89
Average Rating:

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Carried to Dust

CD-Charts > Music > World and Folk
by: Calexico

Release Date September 08, 2008
`Carried to Dust` is Calexico's most mature work to date, arguably the best synthesis of their frontier atmospherics and Latin-inflected country songwriting. The follow-up to 2005's much-dismissed `Garden Ruin', `Carried to Dust' makes the `South-Western noir' tag stick better than any other Calexico album. It's a record of great dusky beauty, varied and unusual musicianship and haunting songs. More understated than their aknowledged masterpiece `Feast of Wire`, `Carried to Dust' may pass that benchmark in time with its flickering, insidious quality. Cinematic but subtle, whispery yet substantial, there are fewer straight-out brooding Enio Morricone instrumentals, only one blatant Tex-Mex jam. The album is largely song-orientated but, unlike Garden Ruin, deftly impressionistic, ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 90
Average Rating:

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Pot Sounds

CD-Charts > Music > World and Folk
by: Lancashire Hotpots

Release Date November 03, 2008
The Lancashire Hotpots have stuck to the same formula that made Never Mind The Hotpots so unique and a mini-hit.

Topic of song writing include Ikea, Youtube, global warming, computer shortcuts for getting rid of "European videos", Chavs, beer in the Olympics and adultary in Bargain Booze. Not quite sure where the inspiration for the last one comes from, but either way it rounds off the album quite nicely.

Again, the Hotpots have taken old classical song music but twisted the lyrics so the songs become relative about topics and situations that relate to the average person. At least in Lancashire anyway. Imagine them as the musical version of Peter Kay. They can take a ordinary routine scenario in a working class lifestyle and make it funny, only they don't ... Read More: