Word: balladic
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...trunkful of classic pop - Rodgers and Hart's"Manhattan," Dietz and Schwartz' "Dancing in the Dark," Cole Porter's "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" - I found a few surprises: the 1952 "Guess Who I Saw Today," a quietly devastating ballad of Cheever-like yearning and betrayal, and "Pack Up Your Sins," a Berlin number that was new to me, and wittier than the songs of his I know from this period (1922). Just reading some of the lyrics, you can feel the rhythm and the revelry: "Pack up your sins and go to the Devil in Hades...
...Ponnudorai's style is to deconstruct a hackneyed standard, reassemble the parts in startlingly creative ways, and then perform it with a passion that nobody has previously dared. Thus the campfire dirge Five Hundred Miles becomes a spine-tingling R&B ballad, dripping with anguish. The Beatles' chirpy Can't Buy Me Love is transformed into a complex jazz exercise, incorporating some of the Karnatakan rhythmic phrases of Ponnudorai's South Indian ancestry. The Cascades' saccharine Rhythm of the Rain metamorphoses into the purest Burt Bacharach, with unexpected chord changes and lush melodic lines...
...Spider-Man 3 isn't very up-to-date either; indeed, it's defiantly anachronistic. Black-Peter is fond of 40s jive talk ("Now dig this") and antique hipster choreography. Mary Jane, who harbors the outmoded ambition to be a Broadway musical star, sings a ballad ("They Say It's Wonderful") from Irving Berlin's 1946 show Annie Get Your Gun. The film's main emotional points are loyalty to your parents, or parent figures, and fidelity to your friends - the lessons of the uber-square Andy Hardy movies from the 40s. And Spidey 3, like the first film...
...Roll On” features the song-writing ability and soft vocals of Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis. On that track, Tamborello picks up the pace and demonstrates that he can toe a more conventional line without sacrificing originality and inventiveness. Lewis’ ballad lies alongside Tamborello’s electronic manipulations and offers a prime example of how contrast brings out the best in both components. At the other end of the spectrum is “To a Fault,” which features indie darlings Grizzly Bear. While the track acquires intensity from Tamborello?...
...poppiest song and first single, is worth a listen, as it best showcases the full range of Stone’s voice. But the CD often tries too hard to offer meaningful insight into Stone’s psyche. It leaves this reviewer with two main complaints: the ballads and the lyrics. “Bruised But Not Broken” is the only of the ballads that does Stone’s voice justice. The lyrics are sub-par (“Love ripped me up and tore me down / But baby that ain’t enough...