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All the Little Lights is a folk-rock independent album composed and sang by street and independent musician Mike Rosenberg (aka Passenger).
Music, like Poetry, is something that it is always very personal. You like it or not. It does speak to you or it doesn't. It does touch you or it doesn't. All the Little Lights is an album that directly speaks to me.
Contemporary pop-rock music is so empty of personal experiences, so affected by musical mannerisms, so politically correct, or politically incorrect by clichés, so over-marketed and overproduced that one gets surprised at finding All the Little Lights -an independent basic album- topping the charts in Europe, America and Australia.
All the Little Lights has little instrumentation and basic musical
arrangements, with a predominance of guitars, violins and drums, very acoustic at times. The music is very catchy and cheery; a downside for an independent album, I think, which, in a way, explains its international success. However, the melodies per se aren't what make you listening to the album the second, third or tenth time. You will listen to it because of the lyrics, and because of Rosenberg's charming voice and honest performance.
All the Little Lights is an poignant album about love and lack of love, dreams and hopes, passions and disliking, failure and success. Rosenberg displays his wounds and flaws with emotional maturity, self-acceptance, lack of self-pity and lots of wit. Rosenberg has written wise witty lyrics that say something about him, his life, how he sees life, and who he is.
I absolutely love the lyrics of Things that stop you dreaming, Let her go, All the Little Lights, and I Hate (the latest recorded live in London). However, all the lyrics are great.
All the Little Lights is a good album with excellent lyrics that deserves the praise and success it has.
I hate the cover of the CD. I think it doesn't make any justice to the album.
Walking on a Dream is the first Album by the duo Empire of the Sound (Luke Steele & Nick Littlemore), published in year 2008.
Pop electronic music is
rarely a hit with critics, who always feel guilty giving more than
three stars to pop albums that are successful at the Radio. This is
especially evident in the case of Walking on a Dream, which although
well-received, received a meagre three-star rating in most
reviews. However, the album ended winning seven out of the eleven ARIA awards to which was nominated, including the Best Album of the Year.
Walking on a Dream is not only a good album title, it is a good album that has proven to stand the pass of time and age with grace. The album still sounds fresh and fashionable - a rare quality in contemporary pop albums, which have a couple of good songs, are aggressively promoted through Radio stations, and, once the hype wanes, the album doesn't speak to the listener any more. The music is not only upbeat and danceable, but the lyrics are excellent, and the energy and sound of the whole album very good and unique. One of the things I like the most is how smooth and kinetic the transition between the songs is, so the whole thing flows. The Pacing of the album is also excellent, with the songs combined and organised in a very organic way. This is one of the reasons why the album has become one of my favourite companions for walking and exercising.
"I don't want to talk, All I hear is noise"
This is a double CD with four mediation exercises destined to develop your empathy with other human beings (yourself, family members or friends, people we know superficially, and humankind in general).
The CDs are accompanied by an leaflet explaining the different exercises.
Bodhipaksa's voice is simply wonderful. His pacing, his tone and the lack of music help the listener to enter a soft estate of meditation necessary to practice the different exercises of empathy (love and kindness, compassion, joy and Equanimity) and open your heart to the world out there. Moreover, it is extremely relaxing.
Those people who like music in the background might not like it, but I find that true meditation is only possible with silence and a good "guru".
Easy to follow meditation-relaxation CD without the religious mambo-jumbo. The introduction is very short an and tells you in 8 minutes what yoga nidra is all about, and the other four parts are the exercises of relaxation; you can do them all together, or just two by two. The narrator's voice is very soothing, without music of any sort. I think the lack of music is a virtue as you focus on the exercise not on the music, and facilitates awareness. It certainly achieves what it preaches: deep relaxation similar to the one you get when entering sleep. To be honest my body started to react, physically, as when entering sleep, with my muscles kicking on their own and relaxing almost from the beginning. Most recommended to manage stress or simply to relax or to sleep (which is a contradiction!).
The only down of the CD is the poor quality of the sound, especially clear in the 10 silent minutes includes almost at the end.
Down the Way it is one of those albums that seem to be composed and played just for you, alone, as if Angus and Julia were at your place, in an improvised gathering singing some songs for you, in front of a bonfire at night time. That sort of intimacy.
The intimate feeling of the album, and the complementary voices of the Stones, is what makes it so special. Most importantly, the lyrics go from the extremely poetic, especially the magnificent For You, to those really fun and cheeky, like Big Jet Plane, just to mention two completely different songs.
The album gets down into your skin, slowly, and puts you in a special blissful trance mood. I especially like playing it at night, when the silence of the streets and the darkness of the sky are the perfect canvas for the lyric sparks of this album.
A little jewel for your ears.
