Album Reviews: Chris Brown and Maroon 5

CHRIS BROWN - FORTUNE

Browns 2011 album F.A.M.E reached the top spot on US charts and it seems that his newest album is having similar success spawning no.1 hits such as Turn Up The Music.

Browns fifth studio album is far more commercial than F.A.M.E, filled with speaker-pumping choruses likely to be heard in clubs from L.A. to Ibiza - releasing such tunes seems to be the only way artists can make a dent on the 2012 charts; Brown seems to have caught on to this as Fortune provides no shortage of fist-pumping moments, beginning with Turn Up The Music, and featuring more party music such as Don't Wake Me Up and Trumpet Lights. Although this album has no beat as wicked as Look At Me Now - Brown definitely knows how to hit the dance floor hard!

The album features some great collaborations as well with Nas lending his talents to the track Mirage and Wiz Kalifa and Big Sean featuring on Til I Die. These tracks are arguable the best on the album. Other notable tracks are Stuck On Stupid and 4 Years Old which are slower, sentimental tracks in which Browns lyrics are self-reflective.

VERDICT:  Although the album features a fair few catchy tunes, it is unimpressive in comparison to his previous albums. The club tunes seem too commercial and not very memorable. The best songs are the hip-hop tracks Til I Die and Mirage, which prove that that's the territory Brown belongs in. 

MAROON 5 - OVEREXPOSED

Overexposed is the fourth studio album released by the five-piece led by the gorgeous Adam Levine who stated that this is the poppiest record they've ever released. 

The first release from the album is Payphone which features (a fairly unnecessary) cameo from Wiz Khalifa and proved to be pretty successful in digital downloads - the album is filled with similar radio-friendly tracks.

One of my favourite tunes is Ladykiller which has a distinctly old-fashioned Jacko sound to it, and is most similar to their older work. Other songs such as the reggae fuelled One More Night, country-tinged Sad and dance number Doin' Dirt affirm that this is no run of the mill pop album. Another notable track is Lucky Strike which was written and produced by OneRepublic front man Ryan Tedder who has written tracks for an endless list of artists and bands such as Beyonce, Adele and Gym Class Heroes.

VERDICT: It is an enjoyable album - and a great car CD! There's nothing on Overexposed as catchy as the bands worldwide smash Moves Like Jagger; but it doesn't mean that its bad. In fact, there's loads of good songs - but none are particularly memorable and all-in-all it seems quite safe.

Coldplay at the Emirates!

Last week I went to see Coldplay at the Emirates with my sister and mum and I was not disappointed!

The band played all their hits, new and old, and despite the dire weather the crowd seemed in good spirits as everyone sung along and danced. 
A highlight of the show for me was when the band disappeared from the main stage, and one by one began to appear on a much smaller stage towards the back crowd where they performed 'Us Against the World' and 'Speed of Sound' acoustically in the pouring rain. The various areas of performance and wristbands all add to the inclusiveness of the show that is so hard to achieve in stadium performances which are usually detached and impersonal. The intimacy that Coldplay creates was most seen during some of their classic tunes such as 'Yellow', 'Clocks' and 'Fix You' were the audience was vocal throughout - which seemed to be visually moving to Chris Martin.