CM (1) 336 views 0 favorites
Cold War Kids (1) 326 views 0 favorites Los Angeles four-piece Cold War Kids elevate their passionate take on indie rock with their emotionally-raw fourth album Dear Miss Lonelyhearts.
Formed in 2004, the band’s breakthrough debut Robbers & Cowards was released to considerable acclaim in 2006. The darker Loyalty To Loyalty followed two years later, and 2011’s Mine Is Yours introduced deeper anthemic qualities to the eclectic group’s catalog.
Coldplay (5) 801 views 0 favorites Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and manager Phil Harvey. They initially met at University College London, calling themselves Big Fat Noises and changing to Starfish, before settling on the current name.
After independently releasing an extended play, Safety (1998), Coldplay signed with Parlophone in 1999. The band's debut album, Parachutes (2000), included their breakthrough single "Yellow" and received a Brit Award for British Album of the Year, a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album and a Mercury Prize nomination. Their second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002), won the same accolades and included the single "Clocks", which won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Their third album, X&Y (2005), which completed what the band considered a trilogy, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album. Their fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008), won Best Rock Album. Both albums were the best-selling of their respective years, topping the charts in over 30 countries. Viva la Vida was also nominated for Album of the Year, while its title track became the first single by a British group to simultaneously reach number one in the United Kingdom and United States in the 21st century.
Coldplay further diversified their sound over their next five studio albums, the most recent being Music of the Spheres (2021). Each album presented a unique theme and added new musical styles to the band's original repertoire, including electronica, ambient, pop, R&B, classical and progressive rock. They are also known for "euphoric" and "immersive" live performances, which NME said are when the band "come alive and make the most sense". In 2018, a career-spanning documentary directed by Mat Whitecross was released in select cinemas to mark the band's 20th anniversary.
With over 100 million albums sold worldwide, Coldplay are among the best-selling music acts of all time. In 2014, Fuse ranked them as the sixth-most awarded group in history, which includes having the most Brit Awards wins by a band. They currently own three of the 50 highest-selling albums in the United Kingdom and the most number-one albums in the country (nine) without ever missing the top. In 2021, "My Universe" made them the first British group to debut at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100. The band also have two of the 10 highest-grossing tours of all time. Moreover, Coldplay are considered one of the "most influential and pioneering" acts in the world. Forbes described them as a standard for the current alternative music scene, while the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included A Rush of Blood to the Head on the 200 Definitive Albums list and "Yellow" is part of their Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll exhibition, for being one of the most popular and influential recordings in the music industry. Despite their popularity and impact, however, Coldplay have earned a reputation as polarising music icons.
Company B (1) 266 views 0 favorites Company B was a dance-pop trio formed in 1986 by Cuban-American producer Ish "Angel" Ledesma (Foxy, Oxo), featuring members Lori L. (Ledesma), Lezlee Livrano and Susan Johnson. After their self-titled debut album, Livrano and Johnson were replaced by Donna Huntley and Julie Marie. Company B, resulted from the music trend of producer-driven girl groups in the late 1980's and early 1990's, most successfully the group Exposé. Company B's first album was released in 1987 on Atlantic Records. Their first single, "Fascinated", received significant radio and club airplay and received noted popularity. It reached number one on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart and crossed over to pop radio, peaking at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. Today, it is regarded as a dance music classic. The trio was best known for this single, as well as their white wigs that were initially a part of their image. Although subsequent releases "Full Circle," "Perfect Lover," and "Signed in Your Book of Love" also received club play, along with appearances on such programs as Showtime at the Apollo, the songs received little attention at radio. In 1989, Company B released their follow-up album, Gotta Dance, along with a revamped image - the white wigs were gone. Singles culled from the album included "You Stole My Heart," "Gotta Dance" and a cover of The Andrews Sisters song, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy". Despite a music video for "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", the group did not realize the continued success from their debut effort. A third album recycled a few songs from the first album, while the track "Jam on Me" added more lyrics to the song than it initially appeared on their first album.
Conjure One (1) 302 views 0 favorites Conjure One is a Canadian electronic music project, headed by Rhys Fulber, better known as a member of Front Line Assembly and Delerium, as well as other musical groups alongside Bill Leeb.
Fulber left Front Line Assembly and thereby all other Leeb-associated projects in early 1997, in pursuit of a solo career. Soon after, a debut album was announced, though Fulber's work as a producer and remixer eventually pushed its release to September 2002.
The self-titled album was a fusion of the electronic characteristics of Fulber's previous work -- keyboard-based, with rhythmic dance beats -- and the influences of Middle Eastern music, which inspired ambient melodies more reminiscent of Delerium.
A number of songs were more pop-oriented and featured guest vocalists, primarily Poe and Chemda, the latter singing entirely in Arabic. Sinéad O'Connor and Jeff Martin of The Tea Party were also featured.
After returning to Front Line Assembly and Delerium, in 2005 Fulber released a second album entitled Extraordinary Ways. This album utilized much more contemporary sounds, including much greater prominence given to guitars and trip hop-like beats. Vocalists included Tiff Lacey, Poe (credited as "Jane"), Chemda, Joanna Stevens, and even Fulber himself (covering a song by the punk band Buzzcocks).
In 2007, Germany's biggest selling female pop star of the 80s Sandra Cretu covered "Sleep" as a bonus track on her single "The Way I Am".
Conrad Sewell (1) 245 views 0 favorites “Finding a sound is everything,” says Conrad Sewell, “especially since I love so many types of music and grew up listening to so many types of music. With my voice, I can sing a lot of different styles, and it was a real struggle to hone in on one thing. So since this is the first thing people are going to hear from me, I wanted to focus on the songwriting—write songs that I felt were timeless or represented what I really wanted to say.”
Conrad’s debut album marks the arrival of a major new talent, although the 25-year-old vocal powerhouse has already racked up some significant accomplishments. He has written songs for other artists in his native Australia; had a European hit with his previous band and, most recently, wrote and sings the hook on Kygo’s global smash “Firestone,” which already has over 100 million streams on Spotify.
Now, for his debut solo recording, Conrad has worked with an all-star team of writers and producers, including Jamie Hartman (Christina Aguilera, Joss Stone), Sam Hollander (Train, One Direction), and Eric Rosse (Sara Bareilles, Gavin Degraw). "Hold Me Up," the sparkling, exuberant first single, was written/produced by Brian Lee (Lady Gaga, Icona Pop) and Louis Bell. The results draw from pop, dance, rock, even gospel, and display an impressive command of styles, from the blue-eyed soul of “21 Questions” to the wistful “Neighbourhood.”
Born in Brisbane, Conrad started chasing his musical dreams early. “Since I was 8, I’ve been sending out tapes, going to random places to record demos in people’s garages,” he says. “But in Australia, ‘pop’ was still almost a dirty word, so I felt like I had to get to America or Europe—and when I did, people reacted to my voice right away.”
“I took out a credit card and maxed it out to make a demo when I was 18, and that’s what led to the whole band thing. We got signed and had a bit of success in Europe, then that sort of fizzled. But early on, it was clear to me that the songwriting is what gets you to that next level. If you write a great song, people start to listen to you.”
Eventually, Conrad found his way to Los Angeles, where he connected with Hartman. They began refining the material, and recording everything live in the studio. “I think previously people have tended to over-produce my voice,” he says, “so we wanted to keep it simple and go with the old-school way of making a record.”
In the process, the singer was discovering new, more nuanced approaches to his craft. “I’ve learned that sometimes I need to pull back,” he says. “I have quite a big range, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I need to use it all the time. Sometimes it’s nice to have those moments when you sing softer, so I’ve been trying to control it more.”
He also developed the confidence to have faith in performances that were more spontaneous and natural. “Capturing moments is an important thing with me, not just singing the record 60 times and trying to make it bigger and more perfect,” he says. “Some of the tracks on this album are one take—“Start Again” is the demo vocal that I sang once, and it sort of defined me, like ‘I need to be singing soulful music like this!’ Those moments are so key for me as an artist.”
Conrad points to the classic pop sensibility of “Beautiful Life” as another turning point for the album. “It has this timeless rock feel, like an Elton vibe, and when we finished that one it was like, ‘Cool, this is what it is’—it didn’t sound hip or trendy, it just felt right.” The anthemic “Hold Me Up” emerged out of a late-night, free-form session in the studio. “I’ve been doing this thing lately where I set up a mic live, put on some reverb so I feel like I’m singing in front of people, put on a track and just flow a melody over it,” he says. “It’s been hard for me to get up-tempo songs, because I love nothing more than sitting at the piano and melting your heart—that’s definitely what I’ll tend to do in a writing situation. So when that one came, it was just a fun track that you can dance, drive, sing to, and we can worry about the serious stuff later.”
The album is coming out, of course, on the heels of the staggering success of “Firestone,” which served as an ideal way to introduce Conrad’s name and voice to the world. “We were looking for hip-hop or dance features, so I wrote something in the vein of Swedish House Mafia,’ he says. “I thought ‘Firestone’ was a great title for a song, it sounded epic. Kygo heard it and loved it, and he sent back a first draft with that amazing keyboard line. It wasn’t what I was expecting—I was thinking it would be a big EDM thing—but after a couple of listens, I loved it.”
Millions of listeners around the world agree, and the pre-release buzz has only gotten louder since Conrad’s initial, triumphant showcase performances. It’s been a long ride for a debut artist, but everything seems to be lining up perfectly for his arrival.
“I’m putting this record out at the right time for me,” says Conrad. “When I decided to do a solo record, that was exactly the time that I was having all these thoughts of ‘What do I want to say, what do I want the music to mean to people?’ With my band, I never thought about that. I loved singing and being around my mates, and I didn’t think so seriously about it, whereas now, with my name on the cover, it’s more important to sing about stuff that I feel and have it be real.”
“I wasn’t ready to do this three years ago. But now I’m ready to come in and be myself.”
Corey Hart (1) 286 views 0 favorites No description.