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Battle of the year's biggest albums
By David Smyth, Evening Standard 23.10.09
Back on top form? Robbie Williams
Rap rivals: Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent
More pop than bop: Jamie Cullum and Nora Jones
Soul contenders: Soul contenders: Rihanna and Leona Lewis
Look here too
Autumn is undeniably here, which means things are brightening up for the music business. Between now and Christmas around 40 per cent of the year's albums will be sold, somewhere approaching 50 million in total.
What the industry calls Quarter Four is when the biggest of big guns release their latest albums. The possibility of being the Christmas number one appeals but they also know this is the time when those generally indifferent to music will finally darken the doors of HMV and buy their annual pair of CDs. Even your granny may pause at the albums shelf in Tesco and grab the musical debuts of Susan Boyle and (yes, really) Pope Benedict XVI.
Greatest hits collections are handy stocking fillers. There are new ones by Madonna, Snow Patrol, Foo Fighters, Will Young and Queen but the brand new albums by major acts will dominate the charts from now until well into the new year. Here are the main contenders:
THE RAPPERS
As usual, the big US hip hop men are keeping their new albums close to their diamond-encrusted chests. 50 Cent's recent singles, the dramatic OK, You're Right and I Get It In, may or may not end up on Before I Self Destruct (Polydor, 9 Nov), just as the release date may change again. It was scheduled for 2007.
Snoop Dogg's Malice N Wonderland (EMI, 7 Dec) should be more fun if the retro synth bounce of his new single, Gangsta Luv, is any indicator.
Super-producer Timbaland is following his 2007 album, Shock Value, which spawned two number one singles, with Shock Value 2 (Interscope, 23 Nov).
Reports suggest it will feature guest appearances from seemingly every singer in every genre of music, including Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Brandy, Miley Cyrus and even Nickelback.
If you buy one, make it Shock Value 2 by Timbaland
HOMEGROWN POP
Of the other British pop stars entering the fray, the most obvious success seems to be Girls Aloud escapee and tabloid treasure Cheryl Cole. Her solo debut, 3 Words (Polydor, 26 Oct), features four collaborations with scorching hot producer will.i.am and a few electropop gems such as current single, Fight For This Love, and dead cert future hit Parachute, though it becomes significantly more forgettable in its second half.
Girls Aloud's peers Sugababes suddenly look a far shakier proposition with their seventh album, Sweet 7 (Island, 23 Nov). The trio replaced lone founder member Keisha Buchanan with the Eurovision contestant Jade Ewen so hastily that at the moment reviewers can only hear album samplers that still feature Buchanan's vocals.
It's hard to imagine Ewen's voice being so spectacular that it causes fans to forget the recent bad publicity, though the heavily Auto-Tuned synthpop of Miss Everything has hit potential no matter who sings it.
The debut album by grime-pop trio N-Dubz was a sleeper hit, attaining platinum sales without ever reaching the top 10 but there should be no avoiding the Mobo winners' follow-up, Against All Odds (UMTV, 16 Nov). Tracks such as their comeback single, I Need You, continue to unite rapidfire rapping with big trance synths and will surely follow pals Tinchy Stryder and Chipmunk to the top of the charts.
Equally primed for success are the smooth boy band JLS, who may have failed to win the X Factor last year but seem genuinely adored by the public even so. Their self-titled debut (Sony, 9 Nov) is high on cheese, just as it should be.
If you buy one, make it Against All Odds by N-Dubz
THE BIG ROCKERS
Now is also the time for heavyweight rock stars to make their returns. The last Oasis album was a big seller in autumn 2008.
This year it's Bon Jovi back on the treadmill with their 11th album, The Circle (Mercury, 2 Nov).
While the lead single, We Weren't Born to Follow, keeps their classic sound alive, with a big chorus and lots of strategically placed yeahs, in truth the new album is just an excuse for another gargantuan tour to take them through most of 2010.
Stereophonics also return with Keep Calm and Carry On (Mercury, 16 Nov), an album whose title proudly trumpets the Welsh trio's lack of adventure.
There's an appealing rawness to Trouble and Could You Be the One? is one of their finer ballads, but as the title suggests it's simply business as usual.
More appealing is the fourth long-player from blues guitarist John Mayer, Battle Studies (Sony, 16 Nov), a light, poppy affair, which he says is inspired by Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young.
Aside from a funky take on Cream's Crossroads, it's all breezy, beautiful stuff.
If you buy one, make it Battle Studies by John Mayer
THE JAZZ SMOOTHIES
Two of the biggest crossover successes in jazz are back in November. Norah Jones seems destined never to match the success of her debut, Come Away With Me, which went seven-times platinum in the UK alone, so her fourth album, The Fall (Blue Note/Parlophone, 16 Nov), is being billed as her “experimental” one.
Though it shares a producer and guitarist with gruff horse-frightener Tom Waits, in truth this album is as smooth as ever, albeit heavier on the guitar and lighter on the tunes.
Jamie Cullum's The Pursuit (Decca, 9 Nov) has a jazzier feel thanks to plenty of dextrous piano, his slick croon and a ragtime feel to tracks such as You and Me Are Gone, yet it's essentially a pop album, more likely to appeal to Keane fans than the black turtleneck crowd.
If you buy one, make it: The Fall by Norah Jones
THE DIVAS
Pop's most glamorous creatures will be an inevitable part of the autumn sales rush, led by Leona Lewis, the only talent show winner to turn Simon Cowell's affections into global success.
Her second album, Echo (Sony, 16 Nov), sticks to her tried-and-tested formula of slow‑building balladry and features some great tunes as well as a few surprises, notably the Kylie-style synthpop of Outta My Head and an unlikely cover of the Oasis hit Stop Crying Your Heart Out.
While Lady Gaga will try to prolong the success of her consistently popular album The Fame by tacking on eight more tracks and renaming it The Fame Monster (Polydor, 23 Nov), other American stars will be back with completely new releases, including Mariah Carey and Rihanna. Carey's 12th album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (Mercury, 16 Nov), mostly skips the showboating ballads in favour of sounding current, with largely electronic production handled by the same team behind Rihanna's mega-hit Umbrella.
If it's not the best showcase for her voice, there's always a grandstanding cover of Foreigner's I Want to Know What Love Is to fall back on.
Barbadian star Rihanna will also struggle to match past glories on her new album, Rated R (Mercury/Def Jam, 23 Nov), if her remarkably dull comeback single, Russian Roulette, is anything to go by.
A trudging ballad written by the R&B singer Ne-Yo, it aims for the drama of a Bond theme but falls short.
Dame Shirley Bassey certainly doesn't have the same problem on The Performance (Geffen, 9 Nov), her first album of new material in over 20 years. Tracks specially composed for her by the likes of Gary Barlow, Pet Shop Boys, Richard Hawley and John Barry all sound completely her own thanks to that ocean liner of a voice.
If you buy one, make it: Echo by Leona Lewis
AND ROBBIE WILLIAMS
Finally, the one that is bound to get the most attention even if it doesn't, as is hoped, end up the biggest seller. Robbie Williams's Reality Killed the Video Star (Virgin, 9 Nov) has been pitched as a final throw of the dice for formerly the nation's favourite entertainer.
Either he'll sell bucketloads and be showered in Brit Awards once more, or be declared a true flop and be forced to capitulate before the newly all‑conquering Take That.
Clearly shaken by the frosty reception to its predecessor, Rudebox, he's played it almost too safe here, heavy on the ballads, lots of Trevor Horn-produced strings, holding back on the cheekiness that once endeared him to millions.
There's a nice nod to The Beatles' I Am the Walrus on Morning Sun, a touch of doo‑wop on You Know Me and a chugging rock riff on Do You Mind.
If it isn't his current release, Bodies, there must be a single in here — possibly the emotional slowie Deceptacon — capable of touching the masses once again. Barring a major disaster, Christmas is Robbie's for the taking.
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Reader views (1)
It would be nice if any of those so-called top albums were worth a listen.
The days when you could look forward to listening to a new album seem to have gone, because these days all that is on the menu are poor second-hand-sounding offerings, more productions designed to sell than musical creations.
- Eric Legge, Ongar, England
