In Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, the sixth studio album by the Foo Fighters, Grohl presents songs that are ever more emotional and ever more measured. Half the record is the usual hard rock, but he's softening. He's using string arrangements; he's writing some ballads on the piano. These elements are put in the service of greater emotion. They're all battling to become songs your children will hear at their proms. This is not the best Foo Fighters record, but it's the shrewdest one.
The Pretender, the album's first single, is the prime example of his scientific process. There's an Eleanor Rigby-ish beginning, ominous lyrics about how a mysterious "they" always keep you in the dark, then loud snare-drum hits on every beat of the measure, and the commencement of a spindly modern-rock riff. You're teased by how much the yelled, buttonholing refrain, What if I say I'm not like the others? sounds like the children's song One of These Things Is Not Like the Others.
The clever songwriter's desire to swim around in the public imagination, catching phrases and cadences that have the ring of inevitability, sometimes leads Grohl into cliches. But he has also made his own cliches that are far better. He uses them well on Let It Die, with its soft acoustic murmur rising to an electric scream, and in the moralizing hard-rock of Erase Replace. These songs are astonishingly easy to listen to, guided by iron notions of form and musical narrative, lifted by a zesty chord just as they're threatening to become mundane. If you're past prom age, there's a lot of craft here to admire.
After doffing her Hairspray beehive, Latifah returned to the studio to record her sensational new album Trav'lin' Light.
Light follows the template of her first all-sung release, 2004's The Dana Owens Album. Latifah applies her smoky alto to a collection of covers that run the gamut from jazz standards to classic soul, blues and pop.
The result is almost like listening to Latifah inhabit different roles. For Jobim's sultry bossa nova Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars she plays the seductive temptress. Fizzy phrasing transforms her into a zippy sidekick on the big band swing of I Love Being Here With You. And she's one sassy broad twisting her tongue around the teasing of the Pointer Sisters' deliciously wicked dance classic How Long (Betcha' Got a Chick on the Side).
Latifah chose tracks based on either their performance value or her sentiment for them. No matter what Latifah does on screen or in the studio, to fans of a certain age she will always be the Queen, the one who matched an army of male rappers rhyme for rhyme, staking a claim for female swagger on tracks like Ladies First and U.N.I.T.Y.
Who says the golden age of boy bands has passed? With gel in their hair and distress on their jeans, the three members of Rascal Flatts have outsold just about everybody else on country radio, thanks mainly to a string of hugely whiny - and totally irresistible - power ballads.
Important but unsurprising information: you really don't want to hear them try a half-rapped Southern rocker called Bob That Head. And since no one stopped them from recording a slow jam, suffice it to say that the husky voice of the special guest Jamie Foxx has never been more welcome (or less expected). Mainly, though, the new Rascal Flatts album, Still Feels Good, confirms what fans already know: these guys sound great when they raise their eyebrows and wail. Sure, country music has a long tradition of stoic balladry, but these three couldn't care less.
On the first single, Take Me There, Gary LeVox makes a shameless plea: I wanna know everything about you. And while the title track ventures bravely (and, believe it or not, successfully) into prog-rock, most of the best songs stick closer to home. Secret Smile is a sweet-as-Sugarland love song, and It's Not Supposed to Go Like That starts sad and gets sadder. Listen closely and you can hear millions of country-radio listeners clearing their throats, ready to sing along.
On her excellent 2005 debut album, The Way It Is, Keyshia Cole spent a few minutes telling a guy why she was leaving him. Then came the rejoinder, in a loutish guest rap from Jadakiss, who sneered, You wanna act hard?/Yeah, I'm-a give you your keys back - just give me my platinum and black cards.
No doubt Cole has plenty of her own credit cards by now. The Way It Is was a sleeper hit, selling about a million and a half copies. The follow-up, Just Like You, has already given Cole a new hit in the form of Let It Go, an unexpectedly bubbly collaboration with Missy Elliott and Lil' Kim. Has R 'n' B's reigning drama queen cheered up?
Not exactly. There's plenty of heartbreak here; she still prefers breakup songs to hook-up songs. But now, when she asks a no-good ex, Was it worth it? she sounds sorrier for him than for herself. And it's somehow satisfying to hear her coo Sent From Heaven, a gooey love song, especially since she has already shown us what comes after bliss.
Is it selfish, though, to wish this album sounded a little more turbulent, a little less level-headed, less healthy? Cole's singing style used to echo the recklessness of the relationships she chronicled. Love, from her first album, was built around a sobbing, wailing refrain. By contrast, the new songs can't help sounding rather mild, and maybe even constricting. When she sings the cramped chorus in Got to Get You Back, she sounds more hobbled than freed.
Still, this is a likable and well-sung album; Cole may be incapable of making any other kind. And anyone who listens closely may be relieved to find that even at her most serene, she still seethes. In the title track she sounds warily optimistic as she counts her blessings and says a prayer. But lest you think she's gone totally soft, you should know that the prayer is Psalm 144: "Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight."
Taiwan, once relegated to the backwaters of international news media and viewed as a subset topic of “greater China,” is now a hot topic. Words associated with Taiwan include “invasion,” “contingency” and, on the more cheerful side, “semiconductors” and “tourism.” It is worth noting that while Taiwanese companies play important roles in the semiconductor industry, there is no such thing as a “Taiwan semiconductor” or a “Taiwan chip.” If crucial suppliers are included, the supply chain is in the thousands and spans the globe. Both of the variants of the so-called “silicon shield” are pure fantasy. There are four primary drivers
The sprawling port city of Kaohsiung seldom wins plaudits for its beauty or architectural history. That said, like any other metropolis of its size, it does have a number of strange or striking buildings. This article describes a few such curiosities, all but one of which I stumbled across by accident. BOMBPROOF HANGARS Just north of Kaohsiung International Airport, hidden among houses and small apartment buildings that look as though they were built between 15 and 30 years ago, are two mysterious bunker-like structures that date from the airport’s establishment as a Japanese base during World War II. Each is just about
Two years ago my wife and I went to Orchid Island off Taitung for a few days vacation. We were shocked to realize that for what it cost us, we could have done a bike vacation in Borneo for a week or two, or taken another trip to the Philippines. Indeed, most of the places we could have gone for that vacation in neighboring countries offer a much better experience than Taiwan at a much lower price. Hence, the recent news showing that tourist visits to Pingtung County’s Kenting, long in decline, reached a 27 year low this summer came
Japan is celebrated for its exceptional levels of customer service. But the behavior of a growing number of customers and clients leaves a lot to be desired. The rise of the abusive consumer has prompted authorities in Tokyo to introduce the country’s first ordinance — a locally approved regulation — to protect service industry staff from kasuhara — the Japanese abbreviated form of “customer harassment.” While the Tokyo ordinance, which will go into effect in April, does not carry penalties, experts hope the move will highlight a growing social problem and, perhaps, encourage people to think twice before taking out their frustrations
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