Lawson

Lawson are a four-piece British band signed that are signed to Polydor Records. The band consists of Andy Brown, Ryan Fletcher, Joel Peat and Adam Pitts, who are originally from Liverpool, Chesterfield, Mansfield and Brighton respectively. The band are currently based in London. Their debut album, Chapman Square, is due for release on 22 October 2012. It has been preceded by the top five singles "When She Was Mine" and "Taking Over Me'", with their third single "Standing in the Dark", released on 14 October 2012.

After finishing at BIMM Brighton (Brighton Institute of Modern Music), drummer Adam Pitts began searching for a singer-songwriter. He contacted Andy Brown, through his acoustic Myspace page, and just over three months later, the pair met up in London. Brown introduced Pitts to bass player Ryan Fletcher, who he had previously met a few years earlier at The Academy of Contemporary Music. They agreed to form a band, bringing in guitarist Joel Peat, whom Fletcher knew from his childhood, to complete the line-up. The band came up with the name "The Grove" after visiting an American shopping centre of the same name. The band began recording material in early 2010, and their debut recording, "When She Was Mine", became one of the highest-rated songs on YouTube within a week. They soon began playing gigs around the United Kingdom, including the Wireless Festival and the Ultrasound Festival. "The Grove" decided to change their name after lead singer Brown was diagnosed with a brain tumour. His surgeon, Dr Lawson, completed a successful operation to remove it, and in honour of his successful recovery, the band renamed themselves "Lawson". The next day, Adam Pitts sketched the all-new 'Lawson' logo freehand on an envelope.

The album is amazing. The best song being Standing In The Dark 

Kanye West

Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and Janet Jackson. His style of production originally used pitched-up vocal samples from soul songs incorporated with his own drums and instruments. However, subsequent productions saw him broadening his musical palette and expressing influences encompassing '70s R&B, baroque pop, trip hop, arena rock, folk, alternative, electronica, synth-pop, and classical music.

West released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004, his second album Late Registration in 2005, his third album Graduation in 2007, his fourth album 808s & Heartbreak in 2008, and his fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010. His five albums have received numerous awards, including a cumulative twelve Grammys, and critical acclaim. All have been very commercially successful, with 808s & Heartbreak becoming his third consecutive #1 album in the U.S. upon release. West also runs his own record label GOOD Music, home to artists such John Legend, Common and Kid Cudi. West's mascot and trademark is "Dropout Bear," a teddy bear which has appeared on the covers of three of his five albums as well as various single covers and music videos.[9] About.com ranked Kanye West #8 on their "Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers" list.[10] On May 16, 2008, Kanye West was crowned by MTV as the year's #1 "Hottest MC in the Game."

A few of his good songs are:
Power
Gorgeous
Stronger

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Well if it isn’t the man that the media loves to hate. Back again, with his fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, West had plenty to prove after the sappy, bleak collection of dark pop that was 808s and Heartbreak and he did just that with this latest LP My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

This time around we get classic Kanye, but with a twist: the landscape is full of dark, ominous strings mixed with hard-hitting classic drum samples and one other thing – his rhymes are better than ever before, after his last album being primarily singing auto-tuned breakup songs.

Recorded entirely at Diamond Head Studios in Hawaii, Kanye called upon a list of his closest friends and collaborators to record with him: Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Raekwon, Pusha T, Big Sean and even G.O.O.D. Music newcomer Cyhi da Prince. The most important contributors, however, are the producers. West enlisted mentor No I.D., Jeff Bhasker, Mike Dean, RZA and Ken Lewis to ensure this would be one of his greatest, most ambitious works of art yet, and they did just that.

“Power,” the lead single is built upon a pulsating beat that samples the chaotic chant of Continental No. 6’s “Afromerica,” paired with the grueling guitar of King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man.” This is West’s return to boom-bap hip hop and it’s a good one. The other standouts on the album are those most meticulously produced. The Raekwon and Kid Cudi-assisted “Gorgeous” meets a heavy climax with a street-perceptive verse from Raekwon the Chef as Kanye brings the real drums in midway through the verse.

The indie rocker assisted “Lost in the World” samples Bon Iver’s “Woods,” proving further something middle-of-the-road Hip Hop producers don’t seem to grasp in their production; a musical understanding. Not just Hip-Hop and not just breakbeats, but all genres. It also demonstrates his self-consciousness as the hook (could not be any more appropriate, following the death of West’s mother and what he told the audience of his “Runaway” film premiere were suicidal times).

“But I will not give up on life again,” West told the crowd.

Although collaboration-heavy, the key tracks of the album are the ones in which West has the most verses. Sure, “So Appalled” and “Monster” are great, but having released them as G.O.O.D. Friday tracks far before the album’s release contributed to their lack of overall presence on the album. For the listener, what’s good is what’s new as the British storytelling of Nicki Minaj leads into the epic introduction so typical of a Kanye West album.

With My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, gone is the album format as there does not appear to be a club single in sight. Instead, West provides a dark landscape of hard-hitting beats and rhymes that hit home with his Hip-Hop audience. However, there is something for everyone as the Elton John piano-laced “All of the Lights” has serious potential as a single and promo for athletic events of all kinds.

If there is an issue with the album is that there are too many collaborations. A solid verse from Kanye seems to be forgotten by the verbal torture that is Fergie’s verse on “All of the Lights”. Although entirely warranted, Kanye’s verses on “Runaway” also seemed to be eclipsed by Pusha T, one-half of the rap duo Clipse and the newest addition to a very compelling roster of Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Music. “Invisibly set, the Rolex is faceless/i’m just young , rich and tasteless,” he raps. However, Kanye is the artist in the spotlight here, as his own production and self-conscious rhymes tell the story the media hasn’t been able to tell. This is a man still finding his place in the world and he is sharing his gifts and talents with us – his music.

“Could we get much higher?” the Mike Oldfield-sampling “Dark Fantasy” asks. The answer is, surprisingly, yes. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy marks Kanye West’s return to Hip-Hop and his rise to the top of Rap supremacy; not just as a producer, but as a lyricist.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Key Tracks: “Dark Fantasy”, “Gorgeous”, “Power”

The Doomsday Key

Was the purpose of the Domesday Book other than what is traditionally assumed by mainstream historians? And did the word “wasted” inscribed in it, as well as the peculiar red-inked markings, indicate something more sinister that could possibly rear its ugly head in our time and somehow threaten the world? And does the island of Bardsey hold a clue to saving the world? If you're a James Rollins fan, you know that the answer will almost certainly be a resounding "yes."

Rollins' newest Sigma Force action thriller opens with a handful of mysterious events: a strange and loathsome disease wipes out an English village in the spring of 1086; an archaeologist is hunted down and killed inside the Vatican for the contents of a tiny satchel; and a U.S. senator's son working on genetically engineered crops in Africa is murdered in a brutal attack on the GM project site. The link between all these compelling events? A mysterious symbol in the shape of a cross, branded into all of the victims.

Part of what makes Rollins' thrillers so enjoyable is the way in which he weaves ancient legends and symbols into myths entirely of his own making by including modern day plots and technological threats. In The Doomsday Key Rollins not only treats us to the ancient evils and myths of the English Isles, which hide the secret to the Doomsday Key, he unleashes modern day dangers of genetic crop modification and bioprospecting into the mix.

Genetically modified crops are an area that's open wide to all kinds of experimentation, much of which is not as far out as the storyline in The Doomsday Key seems to suggest. For instance, in 2001 a biotechnology company called Epicyte created a crop with the ability to reduce human fertility. This is one of the facts that Rollins sprinkles throughout his yarn. How far off are the events of Rollins' story? And what abuses have been enacted but slipped undetected? One can only speculate. Bioprospecting offers its own possibilities for danger, too: think long-buried plagues brought back to life. Though most of such research is motivated by noble motives, Rollins asks, what if the wrong people used the technology in order to advance their twisted aims?

Sigma Force Commander Gray Pierce is thrust into a dangerous hunt for clues in just such a scenario when he must fly to Rome in order to help his friend Rachel Verona. It was her uncle who arranged a meeting between himself and the archaeologist inside the Vatican, a meeting that someone wanted to prevent. Now as he lays in a Rome hospital comatose from the blast Rachel wants to discover who killed the archaeologist researching the roots of Celtic Christianity and why. Her clue? A tiny satchel she recovered while snooping the crime scene. But another woman from Gray's past makes an appearance in Rome, the treacherous assassin known as Seichan. Soon the trio are fighting in the streets of Rome, including a spectacular action sequence through the Coliseum as agents of a mysterious cabal spare nothing in order to stop them in their tracks.

Rollins orchestrates other crescendos of action as battles over the Doomsday Key between the Sigma team and Guild agents are fought in, among other exotic locales, the English peat country, where a fiery apocalypse leaves the team singed but not stirred; and the frozen Norwegian wastelands, home to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault where crusty polar bears do not take too kindly to all the ruckus. In the end, treachery forces Pierce to make a choice between the woman he loves and the future of the world's food supply.

Though in some of his thrillers action seems to predominate — 2004's Ice Hunt comes to mind here — Rollins strikes an balanced approach in his latest thriller, allowing the reader some recovery time between the rough and tumble of the action. And though, for now, this is the last Sigma Force book, The Doomsday Key leaves room for more: “A war is coming,” Pierce says. Stay tuned. Rollins has surely more up his sleeve.

Science And Faith- The Script

The Script are the type of band every struggling musician who has busked, borrowed and begged to be signed would love to hate.

The release of their first single We Cry in 2008 garnered enough airplay to secure an impressive slot in the top 20 of the UK singles charts, and its follow-up The Man Who Can't be Moved charted at Number 2 less than six months later.

As if that wasn't enough to rid them indefinitely of the label of being a one-trick pony, the Dublin born trio's self-titled debut album shot to Number 1 in the UK album charts the same year and netted worldwide sales of more than two million copies. Add to this a personal invite from Sir Paul McCartney to support him for the US leg of his recent world tour, and you are somewhere close to gauging The Script's rise to fame.

How does a band who've achieved all this commercial success ensure more of it? As Maroon 5 have already demonstrated, it takes more than a painful break-up and a catalogue of heart-felt memories to sustain a commercial band's career.

From a band who make no apologies for penning the most unashamed lyrics about being in love and all the emotions derived from it, listeners can expect the same cocktail of melodies unravelling tales of break-ups, make-ups and this time unemployment in their second album Science & Faith.

The opening track You Wont Feel A Thing is a rock-pop grower which oozes with heroic chivalry and there is no mistaking the fearless falsetto of singer/songwriter Danny O'Donoghue who sings "Coz everything the world could throw, I'll stand in front I'll take the blow for you." This is classic The Script - and you'll either love it or hate it.

For The First Time is the tale of a couple who reignite their relationship after they both find themselves unemployed. Never has a song about joining the dole queue been so alluring - or, in 2010 Britain, so timely. This narrative songwriting is typically formulaic of the Dublin three and illustrates their ability to marry lyrics and music with ease but at the compromise of neither.

The stylistic intro to the album's namesake Science & Faith leaves no question as to its creator. A classic love song looped with boy band harmonies and accompanied by a non-intrusive guitar riff, it has all the chart-fodder makings of another Top 10 hit.

Walk Away and This = Love are upbeat, tightly produced pop numbers with definite RnB infusions, the latter of which sees the band try their hand at a modest rap indicative of Mark Sheehan (guitarist) and O'Donoghue's formative years spent in the USA.

Following on from the success of their debut album was always going to be a hard act to follow. Rather than spending months, weeks or some cases years deliberating on how to reinvent themselves, The Script have clearly channelled their energies into a tried and tested formula. Business as usual then, as The Script stick to the script.

A solid 3.5 out of 5

A few good songs in the album are:

For The First Time

Nothing