Track Review: Demi Lovato - Confident

Demi Lovato has previously said that her new album showcases her "badass" side and now, she has given us a glimpse with her new single Confident. The song sums up all the the intentions Demi has, with her new album, of telling the world that she is no longer the coy and cutesy teen she used to be, she has matured. After showing us the sexual side of her maturity with Cool For The Summer which I really enjoyed, Demi declares her unquenchable ambition to "run the show" and how she is "the boss right now" with Confident.

The song begins promisingly with blaring trumpets setting the song's triumphant mood. The booming bass-drum beats and snapping fingers kick in next. When Demi's voice enters the mix, I'm all ready for a catchy little tune. Though the song is fairly hooking, it left me disappointed. It is not a song that can be listened to on repeat. Hearing Demi sing lyrics like "Bitch, I run the show" is worth revisiting though.

Confident is a sassy statement and serves Demi's purpose of expressing her ambition and confidence, but is nowhere as well-written or catchy as Cool For The Summer which had gotten me excited for her album.

Rating: 6/10

Quick Album Review: The Weeknd - Beauty Behind the Madness

I usually enjoy sexually expressive music, being a huge fan of artists like Marvin Gaye and Prince. Curious with all the hype surrounding The Weeknd and his upcoming album, I decided to look into some of his previous work. Though I wasn't very impressed, it made me look forward to hearing Beauty Behind The Madness.

The album has a fair share of catchy moments, and also a decent amount of skippable tracks. Tell Your Friends, produced by Kanye West, stands out as the album's brightest jewel with it's hooking vocal melody and light production, slightly reminiscent of Kanye's Bound 2. The Michael Jackson-esque Can't Feel My Face is another highlight.

When it comes to lyrics, The Weeknd has done the best he can to make sure that the album never feels pleasant, not even for a moment. His rambling on about his obsession with drugs, money and loveless sex maintains a dark tone till the end, and he warns us about this in the first song, Real Life singing "Tell 'em this boy wasn't made for loving".

This theme just didn't work for me. When I play a sexual R&B album, I expect it to be passionate, something which gets me in the mood, even if it is dark. But Beauty Behind the Madness gave me a bitter, obsessive and misogynistic perspective instead. Come on, there are a million better things to do with sex than obsess over it - enjoy it, for instance?

Favorite songs: Tell Your Friends, Can't Feel My Face


Rating: 6/10

Album Review: Miley Cyrus - Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz

Miley seems to have a tradition of surprising us on VMAs. At the 2013 VMAs she surprised us with her raunchy twerking, and now, in 2015 returning to the show as the host, she surprises us with a free album. I had pretty low hopes from Dead Petz, expecting it to be the same old flimsy commercial pop Miley gave us on Bangerz, but Dead Petz is worse.

The album sees Miley taking on a psychedelic pop sound and the heavy influence of Wayne Coyne of the band Flaming Lips, who produced most of the album and also co-wrote a few of it's songs, is clearly heard in the music. Miley has also thankfully gotten rid of the overdone production we found on Bangerz and has switched to a more stripped down style.

Not wasting any more words, I'll get straight to the point. Apart from the songs Karen Don't Be Sad, Bang Me Box and I Get So Scared, I found the album to be pretty awful. The songs on Dead Petz feature some of the worst vocals Miley has performed in her career, and this time there is no heavy production to save her either. In the last track Twinkle Song, a piano ballad, Miley makes hilarious attempts at singing at a high pitch, which only ends up sounding like she's shouting.

The album's lyrics sound as if they were written after a quick read-through of "Poetry For Dummies". Most of the times they sound pretentious, and when they don't, they sound nonsensical, like in the first track Dooo It. The lyrics on the song Pablow The Blow-fish, about Miley's dead blow-fish are another great example. It is just impossible to figure out whether the song is meant as a joke or it is actually meant to be a mournful ballad, since it is too drab for the former and too silly for the latter.

A song that I did enjoy was Bang Me Box. The funky guitars and synths matched with the raunchy lesbian lyrics made quite a groovy combination.

To conclude, I feel, it was a brilliant decision to make this album a free one. I don't think anyone would have paid for such substandard music. Miley has said that Dead Petz was a side project, and she's currently working on another major release. Well, if she is, I'm not a bit excited for it.      

Favorite Songs: Bang Me Box, Karen Don't Be Sad

Rating: 3.5/10

Album Review: Emotion By Carly Rae Jepsen

I feel Carly Rae Jepsen is an underrated artist. Though her sugary pop hit "Call Me Maybe" ruled 2012, she has made equally good (and sometimes better) music which went largely unnoticed by the masses. Her previous album, Kiss, in particular, deserved a lot more attention than it received.

After three years of studio silence, Carly is back with Emotion, an 80s pop influenced collection of 12 songs handpicked out of the 250 songs Carly recorded for this project. She makes it quite clear, with her notoriously catchy hooks and charming lyrics that she is well ahead of most of her peers in the pop scene, and is also a very capable songwriter. The album features some talented guest artists such as Sia (in Boy Problems) and Rostam Batmanglij ( in Warm Blood) who have assisted Carly in songwriting, and their talent is put to good use.

The album draws you in, with Run Away With Me's saxophone intro, and refuses to let go up till the very end. It gives you one catchy chorus after another and often compels you to get up, wherever you are, and dance like you're out of your mind. The 80s pop sound is ever-present and literally gushes out, on certain songs like the slow and tender All That, which immediately brings to mind Prince's Do Me Baby, with it's occasional bass guitar slaps and synth and piano harmony. The Cyndi Lauper influence shines bright on Gimmie Love and a few Madonna-isms can be found too, like in Let's Get Lost. Gimmie Love is also one of the most smartly produced songs on the album. After creating an exciting build-up to the chorus, the production reduces itself to a simple electronic beat, letting the melody enthrall us to it's fullest. The album, overall, is pretty well produced, and never sounds "choked" like a lot pop music does these days. Carly's producers have made sure that her vocals remain the main target of attention and the production serves only as a tool to complement it.

The tremendous efforts put into making this record (the 250 demos), certainly haven't gone to waste, Emotion is definitely the best pop album of the year so far. The album remains insanely catchy from start to finish, and some songs surpass Call Me Maybe by a mile. The 80s throwback that Taylor Swift attempted with her commercial blockbuster 1989, has been done in a far more effortless and elegant way with Emotion. In the end, I would only like to say that I "really really really" like this album.

Favorite songs: All That, Gimmie Love, I Really Like You, Let's Get Lost

Rating: 8/10