When Take That broke up in 1996, many of their fans became so distraught that a Samaritans helpline had to be set up to council all the broken hearts. Fast forward 10 years, and Take That are back, fresh from a reunion tour and releasing a brand new album for the first time without the infamous Robbie Williams. Many people doubted that they would be successful, believing that they belonged in the 90’s along with their various, unsuccessful solo careers. They were just there for the money right? The fans would have moved on for sure? There’s no interest left. Wrong. The fans were there, ready and waiting, excited at the prospect to see the band that they had loved back again making more amazing music. How right they were.
From the beginning of the album you can tell that this is a typical pop album that Take That are renowned for. There is the catchy chorus that you just can’t help singing along to, beautifully written lyrics about love and life, the consistent rhythmic music that you can imagine swaying and dancing to. Yes it has it all. But what Take That do better than all the rest is the fact that they have done it for years. They are the masters of the genre. They know what works and what doesn’t, and you can tell by the fact there’s not one weak song on the album.
The songs, written and sung by all the bandmembers, shows their new mature but contemporary style whilst still holding on to that classic, Take That sound that was loved in the 90’s. There is a song on there for everyone; the typical ballads like ‘Hold On’ and ‘I’d Wait For Life’ alongside the more up-beat songs like ‘Reach Out and title track, ‘Beautiful World’. The lead single, ‘Patience’, sung by Gary Barlow, is a slow but powerful song, whilst their second single, ‘Shine’, sung by Mark Owen, is more rockier and breaks the mould of a traditional pop song, showing the difference between the 90’s and 00’s Take That. The end track ‘Wooden Boat’ demonstrates the bands comedic side and allows for Jason Orange to sing lead for the first time.
The album is defiantly worthy of its number one status, and the fact it has sold over 2.5 million shows that there is one or two people out there who thought so too. With stacks of awards given to it, the band have defiantly shown that they are Back For Good.
Friday, 13 February 2009
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Spotify- The new music revolution!!!
There I was, sat on a train, 2 hours into my 4 hour journey, reading my beloved copy of NME. It was there where I came across an article about a new music system called SPOTIFY-a free, internet-based, jukebox, which has almost every song and album ever released (well except from the odd artist here and there) available to you at the touch of a button.
The basic principle behind it is that you download the programme from their website (www.spotify.com/en/get-started), create an account, enter in the artist you want to listen to and hit play. As easy as one, two, three really. Amazing really.
Now you're probably thinking, 'How is this different from other programmes like this?'. Well Spotify has one of the largest libraries of music so there is more choice and, unlike places like Limewire, you won't get any of the bad quality, recorded from the radio, types of songs. You get the official ones. For free. Also the layout is a lot like that of Itunes, which means that for a lot of society, it is easy to get used to, with a lot of its features being very familiar. You can also create saved playlists, to allow for ease of access for your favourite songs. There is also a 'radio' feature where you can choose from different genre's and decades and they will play recommended music. Perfect if you are looking for some new music to listen to.
However, like most things, it does come with some flaws. Firstly, none of the music can be downloaded, meaning that you can only listen to it from you computer. Not the greatest if you're life-source for all your music is your MP3 player. Secondly, in order for it to be free, it is funded by adverts and, as well as the odd advert around the programme, there is also an advert played every 7 songs or so. Now this can become annoying when you're listening to your favourite album, but it does make it sound a lot like you're listening to the radio. Also, the adverts do become very repetative, with only a few adverts being played. By the end of a day, you are able to memerise them in entirity, which although annoying, can be an amazing party piece. But these adverts are needed so that the creaters can pay the record companies for the access to the music.
If adverts are not your thing, you can always pay for them to removed. The lovely makers of Spotify have come up with two different payment stages to remove those pesky ads. The first is the 'Day Pass' option which costs 99p. This allows you 24 hours of advert free access to the library. This is perfect for parties and general days of music endulging. Then there is the 'Premium' option which costs £9.99 a month. This allows you to have absolute no adverts, ever. However, I must say that these two options take the fun out of the fact that it is completely free.
Spotify is defiantly the music programme that everyone should use, and I can see it taking over from other programmes in the near future, especially if/when they create a MP3 player to transport all the music around on. Itunes, beware.
The basic principle behind it is that you download the programme from their website (www.spotify.com/en/get-started), create an account, enter in the artist you want to listen to and hit play. As easy as one, two, three really. Amazing really.
Now you're probably thinking, 'How is this different from other programmes like this?'. Well Spotify has one of the largest libraries of music so there is more choice and, unlike places like Limewire, you won't get any of the bad quality, recorded from the radio, types of songs. You get the official ones. For free. Also the layout is a lot like that of Itunes, which means that for a lot of society, it is easy to get used to, with a lot of its features being very familiar. You can also create saved playlists, to allow for ease of access for your favourite songs. There is also a 'radio' feature where you can choose from different genre's and decades and they will play recommended music. Perfect if you are looking for some new music to listen to.
However, like most things, it does come with some flaws. Firstly, none of the music can be downloaded, meaning that you can only listen to it from you computer. Not the greatest if you're life-source for all your music is your MP3 player. Secondly, in order for it to be free, it is funded by adverts and, as well as the odd advert around the programme, there is also an advert played every 7 songs or so. Now this can become annoying when you're listening to your favourite album, but it does make it sound a lot like you're listening to the radio. Also, the adverts do become very repetative, with only a few adverts being played. By the end of a day, you are able to memerise them in entirity, which although annoying, can be an amazing party piece. But these adverts are needed so that the creaters can pay the record companies for the access to the music.
If adverts are not your thing, you can always pay for them to removed. The lovely makers of Spotify have come up with two different payment stages to remove those pesky ads. The first is the 'Day Pass' option which costs 99p. This allows you 24 hours of advert free access to the library. This is perfect for parties and general days of music endulging. Then there is the 'Premium' option which costs £9.99 a month. This allows you to have absolute no adverts, ever. However, I must say that these two options take the fun out of the fact that it is completely free.
Spotify is defiantly the music programme that everyone should use, and I can see it taking over from other programmes in the near future, especially if/when they create a MP3 player to transport all the music around on. Itunes, beware.
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