ALBUM REVIEW: James Morrison- The Awakening

The Awakening, James Morrison's 3rd album and which it went straight to #1 in the UK. The album has upbeat songs and ballad's and the album has everything you would expect in a pop/soul album. James' vocals are amazing and you can feel the emotion in the songs, especially with the first single 'I Won't Let You Go', which went to #5 in the UK. Another strong and emotional ballad is 'Up' which features a softer sounding Jessie J, which happens to be the second single from the album. The vocals in the song are warm and unlike other collaborations, Jessie actually gives James a run for his money. However, James' same style of writing does get boring and it would be nice not to hear James a song about being in love. One can't argue that James has one of the most soulful and uplifting voices around and he put other male singers to shame. The best songs on the album have to be 'In My Dreams', 'I Won't Let You Go', 'Up', 'Slave To The Music', 'Person I Should Of Been' and 'Forever'. It's nice to see James has kept his same sound and hasn't tried going down a mainstream-pop route, which to be fair we couldn't see him do anyway. In the songs we also get to hear a variety of instruments, which make the album even more interesting and engage the listener even more. LOUD! give the album 9/10 because the songs make you feel happy and James' vocals on the albums are the best yet.

SINGLE REVIEW: Nicki Minaj- Fly (feat. Rihanna)

The queen of hip hop Nicki Minaj has teamed up with her BFF Rihanna for her next single 'Fly'. The single has been taken from Nicki's debut album 'Pink Friday' and it is a really uplifting and empowering song. Miss Minaj talks about 'I came to win, to survive, to prosper, to rise' and 'But when you go hard your nay’s become yay’s'. LOUD! think the song has a positive message and will help people who are struggle with day to day life. The video features Nicki and Rihanna (watch here) walking around a destroyed city. There is also a scene where Nicki is beating up some men, which represents her 'haters' and shows that she doesn't care what they think and shows she is a strong person. At the end of the video you see pink flowers starting to grow, which LOUD! thinks is a nice way to end the video. We give the song 8/10 because it sends out a positive message and it is an uplifting song.

NEW ARTIST ALERT: Kreayshawn

Kreayshawn, the new female rapper from San Francisco. LOUD! came across Kreayshawn after listening to her debut single 'Gucci Gucci', which to be completely honest was one of the worst songs LOUD! have heard in a while (actually 'Swagger Jagger' is worst). The song just features her talking about random crap and gives female rappers a bad name. However LOUD! likes Kreayshawn's style and she isn't ashamed of her past (Kreayshawn started to smoke weed from a young age). The video for 'Gucci Gucci' (watch here) just shows Kreayshawn walking about a city, which really isn't that intresting at all or different for any other rappers video. However the video was nominated for a MTV VMA, which LOUD! doesn't understand at all. LOUD! is intrested to see if she will be a sucess in the UK.