Verdict: Beautiful voice that touches your heart that has rock + sentimental + etc elements in it.

Tracklisting:
1. "Awakenings" (4:08)
2. "Illusions of Bliss" (3:53)
3. "Loving You is Easy" (3:03)
4. "Changes" (3:43)
5. "Forgiveness" (3:49)
6. "Rivers of Love" (3:54)
7. "Love Come" (3:33)
8. "Out of Tune" (3:50)
9. "Heartbreak" (4:05)
10. "Don't Give Up on Us" (3:36)
11. "U Want Me 2" (4:06)
12. "Bring on the Wonder" (2:54)
13. "Love Come (Piano Version)" (4:04)

*Bold-italic song titles indicates my favorites

This is a very good package - in a CD.

Sarah's voice is still as beautiful, and this album - sounds to me, it's like a British artist instead of an American (she's Canadian, I know, but they are in similar league).

Yep, it reminds me of Dido, too.

The album started with an energetic "Awakening", it's a fast song, as if someone is rushing (music) and her voice is like jumping here and there/ fading in and out thru out the whole music.

(Yes, above is a totally random statement, so you go figure out the music to feel it yourself)

The second song, "Illusion of Bliss" - reminds me of Bee Gees, somehow. Just replace Bee Gees' voice and you can call it a Bee Gees song :P

Third song - it's like a Britpop, my favorite :)
Fourth song - A bit jazzy a bit of Britpop and her signature voice, of course

(I'm a bit lazy to write the rest) I've gotta tell you, the first 5 songs had already blown off my mind.

So it is a good album, don't expect something great like "Adia", "Building a Mystery" or "Angel" - because this is an album in different league/flavour now.

Just like you won't want to compare The Beatles' "Please Please Me" with "Abbey Road"

I hope you get what I mean :)

Rating: 9/10

Verdict: Refreshing and soulful voice from this 20 year-old young Brit

1. "Devil's Spoke" – 3:40
2. "Made by Maid" – 2:51
3. "Rambling Man" – 3:16
4. "Blackberry Stone" – 3:28
5. "Alpha Shallows" – 3:42
6. "Goodbye England" – 3:45
7. "Hope in the Air" – 4:32
8. "What He Wrote" – 4:07
9. "Darkness Descends" – 3:40
10. "I Speak Because I Can" – 3:59

Song title in bold italic are my favorite tracks

I haven't heard her first album - but this album blown my mind away.

The vicissitude feel in "Devil's Spoke" and "I Speak Because I Can" was great that you can feel as if Laura is playing the guitar singing in the middle of desert.

I felt "Made by Maid" and "Rambling Man" are the quite the same, so I gave my favoritism over the Rambling Man - as the tune has more diversity.

"Goodbye England" gave me the feel of a person sitting in the train leaving the snowy England to somewhere with more sunshine.

"Blackberry Stone" and "What He Wrote" gave some 'down' feeling but it wasn't so bad.

Darkness Descend doesn't sound dark as it seems - more like a dancing tune at the late evening beside the fire - before the last track "I Speak Because I Can" close the album beautifully.

Rating: 8.5/10

Verdict: Welcome to Jónsi's land of fantasy

1. "Go Do" – 4:41
2. "Animal Arithmetic" – 3:24
3. "Tornado" – 4:15
4. "Boy Lilikoi" – 4:30
5. "Sinking Friendships" – 4:42
6. "Kolniður" – 3:56
7. "Around Us" – 5:18
8. "Grow till Tall" – 5:21
9. "Hengilás" – 4:15

Song title in italic are my favorite tracks

This is a colourful album - mostly bright, with a hint of darkness to make this a complete album (i.e. there must be some darkness to amplify the existence of the brightness)

OK, enough of my weird theory.

Songs that immediately caught my attention are: Go Do, Animal Arithmetic, Boy Lilikoi, Around Us & Grow Till Tall (that's more than half of the album)

Samuli in the studio doing percussion for Jónsi's "Go" from Jónsi on Vimeo.

The production of the album is rather creative as well - see the clip above to see how Jónsi's boyfriend, Alex did the 'drum session'.

The use of strings give the album an overall cinematic feel - it does give additional children-like fantasy feel, too (another weird term)

Though Jónsi's attempt to sing in English still have room for improvement, but with his soothing falsetto voice - it is forgivable and I'd concentrate more on the melody instead. (that's the thing I normally do, btw)

Another slight complaint is that I think "Go Do" and "Boy Lilikoi" is overly long - but it is not a big issue here.

With just 9 tracks - I don't think this album ever tried to be a commercial album. (But again, what motivated Jónsi to write music? :P)

Lastly, you can write a children fantasy story, and use this album as the original soundtrack - it won't give much problem, at all.

Rating: 9/10

Verdict: Enjoy the Icelandic sunshine with this album.

So, another Icelandic band that produce good music (the earlier one that I listened was Sigur Ros).

This album is soothing. Very comfortable to listen to - to the extend that will make you feel sleepy.

It's some dreamy soft rock with rather upbeat melodies (ah, sounds complicated as it seems)

But the music is simple and easy to listen to.

When I listen to this song, I often have the image of me myself driving the car, while the warm sunshine shines on me during winter (i.e. Iceland)

Watch one of the MV below - it's both psychedelic + soothing.

Seabear - I'll Build You A Fire from seabear on Vimeo.

I'm pretty pleased with this hunt.

Rating: 7.5/10

Verdict: Soothing (but somehow, sad) 'popchestra' music. Solid performance by the duo and Icelandic Symphony Orchestra

Tracklisting:

01. Malmo Livs
02. For you and I
03. Not going anywhere
04. Sailor and Widow
05. One more trip
06. Ghost from the past
07. Where no endings end
08. Liberty
09. The world is gray
10. Inside
11. Que n'ai-je
12. Forward and reverse
13. Run in the morning sun

OK, I like all the tracks.

Not only I thought the music is carefully crafted with the orchestral pieces (hence pop + orchestra = popchestra), and FYI, this is a live album.

A little bit of the background - This also is an orchestral version of some of the individual compositions by Keren Ann & Barði Jóhannson with the orchestral pieces performed by Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. You may wanna check out their original version (I've listened Keren's acoustic version of "Not Going Anywhere" which made me appreciate more of this orchestral version)
It's a live performance and the performance + sound quality is superb.

But that also comes with the irritating part - after each and every track, it is also complimented with the audience applause - which is quite a drawback for the overall listening experience.

Yes, I, for one, would strongly suggest them to record a studio version.

You'll have cinematic feel with the first track, Malmo Livs, followed by a rather gray song, For You and I.

Situation turns a bit better with Not Going Anywhere, then a cheerful Sailor and Widow - before it turns into gray mode again.

It gets darker with: One more trip, Ghost from the past, Where no endings end

Sun rises again with Liberty, before the Nordic whines about The World is Gray.

Situation stayed the same with Inside & Que n'ai-je, and reached its worst with Forward and Reverse (check out the lyrics, and tell me if it can make your day)

(FYI, my sister likes this song and the whole album too, and she loves especially the orchestral part in the middle of that track.)

Finally, dawn is coming (again) with Run in the Morning Sun

So, even though it's a rather gray album, but it's nice to listen to.

As for the applause part - even though it's annoying, I would take it as a benchmark of the performance. The three minutes (a lot longer in real cos, it's too much?) of non-stop applause in the last track, by the audience tells a lot if they appreciated this performance.

A studio version will be all I ask for, after all.

Rating: 9.5/10

Verdict: A good comeback from Kaela

Tracklisting:
1. Dear Jazzmaster '84
2. Moustache (俏鬍子)(album ver.)
3. Phone
4. 乙女 echo
5. Butterfly
6. どこ
7. HOCUS POCUS
8. Another World
9. season
10. キミニアイタイ（想見你啊）
11. Jeepney
12. BANZAI (album ver.)
13. Super girl
14. Today (Hidden Track)

*Italic-bold track indicates my favorite tracks.

I found the last album so so only.

This album is a back to Kaela's original form: the blend of funky(electronic) + Jpop + Britpop + (punk) rock + sentimental elements.

To categorise the songs:
(Punk) rock + Britpop + Jpop : Dear Jazzmaster '84, Moustache, Phone, season, キミニアイタイ, Jeepney, BANZAI, Super girl
Funky(electronic): 乙女 echo, HOCUS POCUS, Another World
Sentimental: Butterfly, どこ , Today

It's like everything in a package :-)

Rating: 8/10

Tracklisting: (bold-italic are my favorite)
1. "(It's Good) To Be Free"
2. "Talk Tonight"
3. "Fade Away"
4. "Cast No Shadow"
5. "Half The World Away"
6. "The Importance Of Being Idle"
7. "The Butterfly Collector (with Paul Weller) (Paul Weller)
8. "All You Need Is Love" (with Paul Weller) (Lennon / McCartney)
9. "Don't Go Away"
10. "Listen Up"
11. "Sad Song"
12. "Wonderwall"
13. "Slide Away"
14. "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" (Morrissey / Johnny Marr)
15. "Don't Look Back In Anger"
16. "Married With Children"

The Dreams We Have As Children is a collection of songs recorded at the London Royal Albert Hall on March 27, 2007 by Noel Gallagher and Gem Archer of British rock band Oasis in support of Teenage Cancer Trust. (from Wikipedia)

I'm not quite a fan of Noel Gallagher's voice but - this is a near-acoustic album and it gives a "clean" feeling - which is a kind of back-to-basic music.

This is also like a compilation of Oasis classic tracks - with most of them are not Side-A

It's refreshing to listen to Oasis' classic, it does bring back some good ol' memory :-)

Rating: 8/10

Verdict: A nice top singles collection from Chemical Brothers, with Electronic Battle Weapons collection that adds the collectivity value

Rating: 7/10

This is a nice album... but at the same time - it's making me extremely sleepy.

Yes, very very very sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy.

(Review comes next time)

In this album cover and the song Snowdome, Kimura became a doll :)

The third album has good blend of Brit rock/pop, some Avril-que rock tunes, cute songs etc

It's my second most favorite album among hers.

1. "L.drunk" - pick+
2. "Magic Music" - pick+
3. "Snowdome" - Star of the Album
4. "WANI to kotori [ワニと小鳥]" -pick+
5. "dolphin" - pick++
6. "sweetie" - pick++
7. "kirin TAN [きりんタン]"
8. "Scratch" - pick+
9. "SWINGING LONDON" - pick++
10. "never land"
11. "Tree Climbers" - pick+
12. "JOEY BOY" - pick+
13. "Ground Control (Album Mix) - pick+
 
Rating: 9/10

In this album she become.. some rock style (?) This is what I can see from every of her album - she has some changing of style.

I don't have most of songs as favorite, but most importantly, there are some gems like "You", which I'll listen over and over again, watching the dancing with bear over and over again etc.

1. "RIRURA RIRUHA [リルラ リルハ]" - pick+
2. "tea cup" - pick++
3. "I♥hug" - pick+
4. "BEAT (Album Version)"
5. "Thrill Thrill Licker"
6. "Twinkle (NANA Version)"
7. "You" - Star of the Album
8. "PIONEER" - pick
9. "Deep Blue Sky" - pick
10. "Dancing Now"
11. "Circle" - pick++
12. "hachimitsu [はちみつ]" - pick+
13. "C-hildren" - pick+

Rating: 7.5/10

P/S: I said previously that her latest album +1 is placed #3 favorite among all her albums. After reviewing all the album, sorry to say that, +1 is the least favorite among the four.

This is Kimura Kaela's first album.I think it's the best among all the albums. I like almost every single of the songs in the album. It's got powerful rock/pop songs(untie, Because), some punk rock(dare, Level 42),some Japanese rock(happiness!!!, Inventor), some acoustic (sola), some Britpop (weak, What ever are you looking for?,ano koro, D.T.S) - I think it's just perfect blend. 

Most of the MV of this album represent the cutest/natural part of Kimura Kaela. Which didn't really appear in the latter albums.

1. "untie (album take)" - pick++
2. "You know you love me?"- pick+
3. "ano koro [あの頃]" - pick+
4. "happiness!!! - pick+
5. "INVENTOR" - pick
6. "D.T.S." - pick 
7. "Level 42 (album take)" - pick+
8. "dare [誰]" - pick
9. "Because"- pick++
10 "weak" - Star of the Album
11. "What ever are you looking for? (album take)" - pick+
12. "sola" - pick+

Rating: 10/10