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P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern


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ReviewColumn's rating :
4 stars

P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern review and ratingP.S. I Love You is a book that has drawn a variety of comments. This debut novel by Cecelia Ahern has won over many sentimental readers, drawing rave reviews; it has also drawn flak from critics who think that her work is amateurish.

The story revolves around a couple Holly and Gerry living in Ireland. They lead a happily married life and were madly in love with each other, treasuring each other's companionship. They always joked that Holly would not be able to cope if Gerry departed first, Holly being so dependent on Gerry. The solution was to come up with a 'List' of instructions to teach Holly what exactly to do in the event of that. However, neither of them expected to part so prematurely, when Gerry was diagnosed with brain cancer and shortly passed on.

In the months that followed Gerry's demise, Holly became self-absorbed, brooding at home. She became a depressed wreck, unable to cope with the massive loss of her beloved spouse. Despite her family's and friends' best attempts to console and cheer her up, she remained despondent. It is at this juncture that Holly's mother mentions to her about a parcel addressed to Holly with the word 'List' on it. Reluctantly, Holly agrees to take a look at the parcel and finds a letter from Gerry together with 10 sets of envelopes. It dawned onto her that Gerry, acutely aware of his impending demise, forced himself to pen a whole series of written instructions for her, to help her cope with his departure.

Each of the 10 envelopes is to be opened on the first day of every month, and each letter tasks Holly to do something to help her regain her confidence and step out of the shadow of the tragedy. The types of tasks range from amusing to quirky to touching - Gerry instructs Holly to go on a much-needed vacation with her buddies, to buy a new dress for herself and start dolling up and so on. Holly follows the instructions to the letter, as a form of tribute to her late husband. Where her eccentric family members and best friends failed, Gerry manages to gradually help Holly out of her plight even when death claimed him. Amidst worries that the letters might cause Holly to cling on to the past and exacerbate the situation, Holly actually starts to find her life moving forward and slowly accepts her new lease of life.

This is a romantic tale of loss, hurt and learning to cope with it; it is a very heartwarming story. On one side, we can see how deeply Gerry cared for and understand Holly that he could predict what would happen to her in the event of his death. He forced himself through the draining task of writing the whole set of letters just to make sure that Holly would be alright. Holly is a largely naïve and slightly immature woman, who has a strong bond and dependency on her husband. Reading her struggle to put behind the love they shared and then the love that she lost certainly does pain me at times. Cecelia Ahern does manage to communicate the grief felt by Holly and the reluctance to let go of something so dear.

Critics found Cecelia Ahern's style of writing amateurish, that she does not have sufficient experience to write about something as drastic and somber as death and rehabilitation of grief. I felt that this novel was conflicting as Cecelia Ahern seemed to be using light-hearted language and style which was not appropriate at times, especially during Gerry's death. However, this does not fault the creativity in coming up with such a remarkable plot and storyline. It is a very captivating read; Cecelia Ahern makes you want to continue reading to find out what happens next in Holly's rehabilitation process. At times, the story is absolutely heart-wrenching and embarrassed as I am to say this, but it is difficult to remain dry-eyed after this read.

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Daughtry (album)


ReviewColumn's rating :
4 stars

Daughtry album review and ratingAmerican Idol has already spawned so many Idols and created so many seasons. Yet the only Idol that we can fairly call a 'success' is the first American Idol Kelly Clarkson. Winners of the following seasons have faded into oblivion after one or two singles, including the likes of Ruben Studdard. It seems that the trend is showing us that Idol participants who do not go on to win are able to perform to greater success in their careers. Clay Aiken was one, and now Chris Daughtry is proving to be another post-Idol success story.

Being ousted from the semi-finals in the fifth season of American Idol did not stop Chris Daughtry from being hastily signed by RCA Records and 19 Entertainment. He eventually teamed up with his former band, humbly named 'Daughtry', to record a debut rock band album. This debut self-titled album 'Daughtry' recorded phenomenal success within weeks of release in November 2006. In the space of 5 weeks, the album sold 1 million copies and made it to #1 on the Billboard charts on its ninth week. This was the fastest selling album by an American Idol contestant since Kelly Clarkson's 'Thankful'.

Daughtry's distinctively gruff vocals are a perfect front for his band's pop-rock tunes. His throaty, mellow voice however has a surprisingly large vocal range. In songs like 'Over You' we can hear him belting out and maintaining high pitches without much problem. Daughtry's very first single, titled 'It's Not Over', is a remarkable rock track that is catchy yet not preppy. The tune is catchy and it does resemble a decent authentic rock song, unlike most of Simple Plan's songs despite their claims. Although reminiscent of Nickelback, many of Daughtry's songs are mainstream-oriented and are inclined more towards pop-rock than Nickelback's brand of emo-rock. Rock ballads such as 'It Feels Like Tonight' and 'Breakdown' show off Chris Daughtry's crooning side, starting soft and building up to a all-rock yelling climax, and he does a commendable job for a singer on his debut album, with his popular trademark growl.

Despite the pleasant-sounding tracks, you cannot help but observe that majority of Daughtry's tracks sound similar. There was one instance, after listening to the CD on repeat for an hour or so, that I subconsciously mistook 'Over You' for another track. I felt that Daughtry has built his own style of singing and created a distinctive sound for their music, but each song was not unique on its own. The album felt more or less like the songs were produced with reference to a model, before making subtle changes to each of them.

All in all, this record is still something I would recommend to rock fans. Be sure to listen to 'Over You' and 'Home', two of my favourite tracks. 'Chris Daughtry is a man. Daughtry - like Van Halen and Bon Jovi - is a band.' A band that has proven that it is capable of making some pretty damn good music.

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Amy Winehouse – Back To Black


ReviewColumn's rating :
4 stars

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black review and ratingThe British singer with the towering, distinctive beehive hairdo brought home the biggest haul from the recent prestigious Grammy Awards 2008. She matched the record previously set by world-class artistes like Alicia Keys and Norah Jones by winning five Grammy Awards - Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album. She is now the only British singer to record as many as five awards in one night.

Amy Jade Winehouse was born in 1983 in London and established her career in the R&B and soul music industry. Her debut album named 'Frank' was released in 2003 in Britain and earned her rave reviews from peers and critics. 'Frank' was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize, the annual prize for the best music album in the United Kingdom. Her sophomore album brought about even more stellar results - six Grammy nominations and five wins, a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist and two Ivor Novello Awards.

'Back To Black' is a delightful mix of soul, jazz and modern 'pop-py' R&B with, more often than not, dark lyrical content. It is an artistic blend of the evergreen '60s retro and modern-day pop engineered to near perfection by Amy Winehouse and producer Mark Rhonson. Her album has drawn much comparison to Lily Allen and Macy Gray; however, Amy Winehouse's sounds appear darker and more mature, as opposed to Lily Allen's hip-hop and reggae-like style. Her smash single 'Rehab' is a cynical insight into her alcoholic and drug addiction and rehabilitation. 'Rehab', I feel, is actually representative of her transition from her debut to sophomore albums - from Frank's jazzy blues ballads to Back To Black's more commercial and preppy feel. Yet, Winehouse manages to retain that retro groove and vintage style.

She is endowed with a husky, mellow voice that manages to bring out fully that distinctive Amy-Winehouse-retro sound. Her powerful vocals create soulful ballads, transforming her own experiences into powerful heart-wrenching statements. Her album is also laden with playful and cheeky tracks like 'Me And Mr Jones' which is full of profanities. This obvious clash of old-school classy vintage retro and brash, modern pop is what appeals to me the most. She manages to incorporate both successfully, giving her modern songs that popular nostalgic theme.

Evidently, 'Back To Black' is intended for mature audiences. Profanities aside, tracks deal with very mature themes. In 'Just Friends', she croons about trying to break off from an illicit relationship and part of it goes '...the guilt will kill you, if she don't first...' The soulful fusion of Mariah Carey-crooning, Alicia Keys-R&B and Aretha Franklin-retro will guarantee great songs. This album will definitely yank at your heartstrings with the borderline-seductive 'Just Friends' or the somber 'Love Is A Losing Game' coupled with Winehouse's naturally-bleak vocals. This album was rated by her fellow artistes to be worthy of five Grammy Awards. This fact by itself already speaks volumes about the quality of her work.

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Simple Plan (album)


ReviewColumn's rating :
2 stars

Simple Plan album review and ratingThe name "Simple Plan" is almost synonymous with the punk rock genre of music. Formed almost a decade ago in 1999, Simple Plan has had major successes world wide. Releasing "No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls" back in 2002 and then "Still not getting any..." in 2004. Both albums achieved double and single platinum in the United States respectively as well as quadruple platinum in Canada. Just recently (a week ago as a matter of fact), they released their 3rd studio album, simply titled "Simple Plan" (no pun intended).

However, the standard of this album falls far behind that of the other 2 albums in my opinion. The most popular song in this album, Your Love is a Lie, as well as I Can Wait Forever remind me of the boy bands of the 1990s (ala Backstreet Boys/Westlife), especially the chorus. Not to mention Take My Hand sounds like an oddly "cheerful" song (S Club 7?) and The End is practically indistinguishable from all the other punk rock songs (Yellowcard, Good Charlotte... take your pick) as do Generation and Time to Say Goodbye (both sound like Bowling for Soup, and the latter is just irritating me by repeating the song title over and over again in the song itself). Save You almost sounds like a boy band singing along to rock music in the background (ie. completely weird).

The only songs in the album which I can bring myself to remotely like are When I'm Gone, Holding On, No Love and What If (ironically the first song and the last 3 songs). Yet, even then, there isn't anything completely unique about these songs that sets them apart from all the other punk rock songs out there, including Simple Plan's own songs from previous albums. In my opinion, the music found in Simple Plan (I'm referring to the album here) simply hasn't evolved much over the years.

In fact, I loved Simple Plan's debut album No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls and Still Not Getting Any... When it comes to the punk rock genre, I've always enjoyed their songs, unfortunately, I can't say the same thing about this new self-titled album of theirs. Honestly, these type of songs were fresh when they first appeared a few years back in their earlier albums, but it's time they injected something new into their songs. I don't know what that secret ingredient is, all I know is that it's missing from this album.

All in all, I expected better from a band of this standard and am pretty disappointed by this album (I'm not alone). Simple Plan's plan for this album was perhaps a little too simple (pun intended this time).

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Marie Digby


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Marie who? I am willing to wager a good portion of my savings that majority of readers have not heard of Marié Digby. She's a singer living in Los Angeles, California. What makes her stand out from the whole wave of pop singers is that she plies her trade in the online world, in communities such as MySpace and YouTube.

Marie Digby is a country/pop/soft rock singer who shot to stardom after she posted homemade videos of her singing on the popular video-sharing website YouTube. Singing acoustic versions of mainstream pop songs like Rihanna's 'Umbrella' to the soulful 'You Give Me Something' by James Morrison to even rock tunes like 'What I've Done' by Linkin Park, she garnered near-overnight fame. Legions of fans and admirers left many favourable comments and encouragement and also brought about many hits on her MySpace page.

This highly-versatile singer could be seen playing instruments like the acoustic guitar as well as the piano, belting out beautiful cover versions of popular songs. By far, her most popular video was that of her strumming her guitar, singing a cover of 'Umbrella' (as attached). This YouTube video attracted 2.4 million views up till the end of 2007.

According to Marie, this was a desperate attempt on her own part to gain some much-needed publicity for her fledgling music career. The record label that she signed for in 2005, Hollywood Records, did not manage to provide her the visibility that she wanted. Fortunately her persistence paid off and shortly, Hollywood Records released a high-quality studio recording of 'Umbrella' onto iTunes and other online stores. She also was invited to perform live on 'Last Call with Carson Daly' in August 2007, and is now currently on tour, performing at various locations in the United States, much to the delight of her online fans.

A big break for her followed, when her 'Umbrella' was played on radio and subsequently featured in an episode of the MTV serial 'The Hills'. Eventually, her songs were chosen to feature on popular serials like 'Smallville' and her self-composed single 'Say It Again' was released to American radio stations earlier this year.

The brand of soulful music that Marie Digby delivers can be easily identified with. The melodious crooning of her takes on modern pop songs are a refreshing sight and a joy to hear. It is a welcome and delightful change to the sleaze and glitzy glamour of MTV - it offers a very stripped down insight into a musician's world. What really impressed me, aside from her excellent vocal ability, was that she was a perfect role model of a musician. She separated herself from the sensationalism and glam, using solely her songwriting and singing skills to impress. Her videos are in sharp contrast with typical MTV music videos. Visit Marie Digby's MySpace page for snippets of all her songs, do leave a comment of appreciation for a commendable singer/songwriter who focuses on music more than the hype that it brings.

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