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Lou Bega — A Little Bit Of Mambo (BMG Crescendo)

***

Everybody’s talking a little bit about Lou Bega. Already making waves with his current hit single Mambo No. 5 (A little bit of ...) the 24-year old charmer mixes Afro-Cuban rhythms, swing, soul and rap to create his own musical style. The album is full of energy, temperament and passion start to finish. Underlining his fascination for the fairer sex, Bega expresses his ideas best on I Got A Girl. The not-to-miss tracks include Baby Keep Smiling, Lou’s Cafe, Can I Tico Tico You, The Most Expensive Girl In The World and Trumpet Part II. In a nutshell, a fantastic combination of fun and music.

Eurythmics — Peace (BMG Crescendo)

****

Eurythmics were perhaps the greatest of the early Eighties British synth-pop bands. Dave Stewart’s studio wizardry and Annie Lennox’s powerful vocals helped the duo win an instant recognition. After a gap of 10 years the odd couple of rock are back with a brand new album titled Peace. And what’s more important is that the duo still sounds as fresh as ever. Annie’s sultry vocals flowing over Dave’s enthralling arrangements still sound exciting. The superb opener Seventeen Again is a cleverly worked track which refers to Sweet Dreams, as Annie sings: "You and all your jewellery and my bleeding heart, who couldn’t be together and who could not be apart." She further becomes vicious as she sings: "All those fake celebrities, and all those vicious queens, all the stupid papers, and the stupid magazines, sweet dreams are made of anything, that gets you in the scene." Peace Is Just A Word and My True Love gives you the true Eurythmics feel. Meanwhile, the Stewart revved-up rockers, Power To The Meek and I Want It All are unable to live up to Eurythmics standards. Lennox attains Liam Ghallager like swiggy vocals for the soaring Beatlesque Forever. I Saved The World Today, Anything But Strong, I’ve Tried Everything and Lifted are tracks worth listening to.

Top ten singles

The Grrr... eat Music Zone Quiz

1. In which movie did Louis Armstrong sing with Bing Crosby?

2. Who is the male singer in the chorus of Tori Amos’ Past The Mission?

3. What year did the Ace Of Base single Don’t Turn Around come out?

4. What is the name of the video arcade game featuring Aerosmith?

5. Aaliyah once sang for an animated movie, What movie was it?

6. Where was Ash’s Numbshell video shot?

7. What was the name of Greg Duttis’ (Afgan Whigs) highschool cover band?

8. Which was the last single All Saints released from their debut self-titled album?

9. What was the name of ABBA’s last album they ever made together?

10. Which popular male artist could be heard on a song on Duran Duran’s Arcadia album?

Answers

1. High Society

2. Trent Reznor

3. 1993

4. Revolution X

5. Anastasia

6. New York

7. Helen Highwater

8. War Of Nerves

9. The Visitors

10. Sting

The album is no let down. Possibly it won’t yield the usual row of hit singles, but it has an undertow of dark emotions which pull you further in and under with each listening.

A Perfect Love — Various Artists (BMG Crescendo)

***

Love is in the air. This compilation offers some of the biggest love ballads. Each song has been hand-picked to create the right lovable atmosphere. They are all there. Whitney Houston opens the album with her 1985-hit track Saving All My Love For You, there is Annie Lennox with A Whiter Shade Of Pale, Gary Barlow with Love Won’t Wait, Trademark with I’ll Be There For You, Aqua doing Turn Back Time, Lisa Stansfield looking for her love All Around The World, M People with the hit track Just For You, featuring Tabla, the hot group Oasis with the super hit Wonderwall, Natalie Imbruglia with Torn, Sweetbox doing Everything’s Gonna Be Alright, Take That with Beegees cover How Deep is Your Love, the permanently parked duo in any love compilation Air Supply with Without You, Eternal with Angel Of Mine, Spandau Ballet with the soothing True, Midge Ure with Breathe and Elvis Presley with Always On My Mind. If you are in love, this is an essential album for you.

Nirvana — Instrumental (Times Music)

***

Wanna experience tranquility? Well, it’s just a music shop away. We’re talking about this splendid debut album by Mungal Patasar, offering rich ethnic textures, mellow beats and soothing strings. Of South Trinidadian descent, Mungal and his Pantar Group (Pan for the steelband and Tar for the Hindi word for string). Presumably termed as Indo-Calypso-Jazz the winning formula of Mungal lies with his ability to fuse pan and sitar with marvellous rhythmic control. It is very interesting to hear the combination of Indian classical raags with dancehall jungle beats. Having worked with jazz giant and calypso king Boogsie Sharpe and Harold Headley, Mungal’s past experience reflects here. With contribution by Wayne Tabitt, Earl Carnoran, Dawud Orr, Prashant Patsar (Mungal’s son) and Harold Headley, the album is all in all a beautifully conceived piece.

Album of the month
Mariah Carey — Rainbow (Sony Music)

The biggest selling female recording artist of the 1990’s back with Rainbow. Her first album of all-new material since 1997’s quadruple-platinum Butterfly. And the first single from the album Heartbreaker has already made history, becoming Mariah’s 14th # 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, an achievement shared by the Beatles (20) and Elvis Presley (18-with Don’t Be Cruel and Hound Dog counted as two records). Here Mariah continues to walk the line between streetwise hip-hop soul and adult-contemporary. Thank God I Found You and Petals are excellent ballads, faced together with powerful, inspirational and heartfelt lyrics. Mariah is in a rare vocal form here, offering her unattainable vocal range on tracks like Bliss (Minnie Ripperton-esque) to the gospel-tinged inspirational song Can’t Take That Away (Mariah’s theme). The album features a reworked version of Phil Collin’s hit single Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now) and a bunch of collaborations with hip-hop’s prominent artists of today Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Da Brat and Snoop Dog. The headliners include X-Girlfriend, After Tonight and Did I Do That? An album for true Mariah fans.

— Saurabh & Gaurav

Top 10 singles

1. Heartbreaker

2. Learn To Fly

3. Shake Your Bon Bon

4. You Can’t Hurry Love

5. I Need To Know

6. Wild Wild West

7. Mambo No. 5

8. Jazba

9. I Learned From The Best

10. When You Say Nothing At All

Mariah Carey

Foo Fighters

Ricky Martin «

Dixie Chicks ¯

Mark Anthony

Will Smith ¯

Lou Bega «

Nirmal Pandey

Whitney Houstonl

Ronan Keating ¯

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