Jack Johnson And Friends - Curious George: Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies (Mp3 Download)

Review by James Christopher Monger @ allmusic.com

Perennial surfer dude/singer/songwriter Jack Johnson lends his voice to the eternally silent Curious George on this collection of "Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies," original material built around the famous monkey and his strange obsession with "the Man with the Yellow Hat." Universal Pictures couldn't have picked a better collaborator for this soundtrack to the Curious George film, as Johnson's easygoing delivery and breezy demeanor match George's silent curiosity to a T. Fellow songwriters Ben Harper, G. Love, and Matt Costa contribute three songs to the predominantly children-oriented affair, while Johnson and band give up an island rendition of the White Stripes' "We're Going to Be Friends," as well as the umpteenth cover of Schoolhouse Rock!'s "Three Is the Magic Number." Heady stuff? Not exactly, but there's not an ounce of pretense to the project, making it a fun, safe bet for kids and a forgettable -- yet not entirely unpleasant -- piece of escapism for adults.

Track Lists
01. Upside Down
02. Broken
03. People Watching
04. Wrong Turn
05. Talk Of The Town
06. Jungle Gym
07. Were Going To Be Friends
08. The Sharing Song
09. The 3 R's
10. Lullaby
11. With My Own Two Hands
12. Questions
13. Supposed To Be

Amos Lee - Supply And Demand (Mp3 Download)

Review by Matt Collar @ allmusic.com

On the title track to his sophomore effort Supply And Demand, singer/songwriter Amos Lee sings, "Baby I need a plan to help me understand, that life ain't only supply and demand." If the supply and demand Lee is referring to is money, success and power -- and it clearly is -- then the stuff he truly values here is the currency of freedom, love and sympathy for your fellow man. It's just such yin yang subject matter that has driven folk-singers to set struggle to melody ever since Depression-era scufflers like Woody Guthrie pointed out how America was technically "made for you and me" and not just them in the nice suits. For the most part, Lee is on about the same stuff here although his vantage point is the more stylish, if no less lonely, tour bus and not a dust bowler's flat-bed truck. Nonetheless, Lee is a heartfelt songwriter with an R&B crooner's sense of romance and drama and a real knack for turning his own ennui into anthems for the average guy. He tackles wars of various stripes on "Freedom" and like John Mayer's "Waiting On The World To Change", the song finds Lee deftly threading the political needle with lines like, "Don't want to blame the rich for what they got or point a finger at the poor for what they have not" and, "freedom is seldom found by beatin' someone to the ground." It's a catchy, stump speech of a tune and, three songs in, lifts the album up from just pleasant into something truly welcome and unexpected. Similarly engaging is the sanguine, slow ballad "Careless" which mixes The Band's "The Night We Drove Old Dixie Down" and Crosby, Stills & Nash's "Helpless" into a gut-wrenching and artful self-indictment of infidelity. However, it's the low-key and darkly sweet "Night Train" that should remain as not just the album's best cut, but Lee's signature song. Hypnotically simple, the song hangs on the chorus with Lee's candid omission, "I've been workin' on a night train/Drinkin' coffee, takin' cocaine/I'm out here on my night train/Tryin' to get her safely home." It's a hushed, rhythmically propulsive song filled with dramatic tension that is beautifully colored by shimmers of organ and lush guitars. On an album all about what we've bought and sold, both personally and collectively, it shows how in tune Lee is with this land of ours and how good he is at selling his soul in the best possible way.

Track Lists
01. Shout Out Loud
02. Sympathize
03. Freedom
04. Careless
05. Skipping Stone
06. Supply And Demand
07. Sweet Pea
08. Night Train
09. Southern Girl
10. The Wind
11. Long Line Of Pain

Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane (Mp3 Download)

Review by MacKenzie Wilson @ allmusic.com

The boys of Maroon 5 have certainly come a long way since their days in the indie outfit Kara's Flowers. After the band's demise in 1999, frontman Adam Levine surrounded himself with New York City's urban hip-hop culture and found a new musical calling. Maroon 5 was born and their debut album, Songs About Jane, illustrates an impressive rebirth. It's groovy in spots, offering bluesy funk on "Shiver" and a catchy, soulful disposition on "Harder to Breathe." "Must Get Out" slows things down with its dreamy lyrical story, and Levine is a vocal dead ringer for Men at Work's Colin Hay. Don't wince -- it works brilliantly. Songs About Jane is love-drunk on what makes Maroon 5 tick as a band. They're not as glossy as the Phantom Planet darlings; they've got grit and a sexy strut, personally and musically. It's much too slick to cross over commercially in 2002, but it's good enough for the pop kids to take notice.

Track Lists
01. Harder To Breathe
02. This Love
03. Shiver
04. She Will Be Loved
05. Tangled
06. The Sun
07. Must Get Out
08. Sunday Morning
09. Secret
10. Through With You
11. Not Coming Home
12. Sweetest Goodbye

Keane - Under The Iron Sea (Mp3 Download)

Review by MacKenzie Wilson @ allmusic.com

In the two years since releasing their debut album Hopes and Fears, Keane has quickly established itself an integral part of the mainstream rock canon. Hit singles such as "Somewhere Only We Know," "Bedshaped," and "Everything's Changing" made Hopes and Fears a transatlantic hit, earning the trio two Brit Awards, a Grammy nomination, and a host of sold-out world tours. They're as likeable and as accessible as Coldplay yet Keane's return isn't as buoyant as their initial introduction. Whereas Hopes and Fears faced uncertainty head on with joyous enthusiasm, Under the Iron Sea is a darker, less romantic set of songs affected by a disenchanted outlook on life and the world's problems. Keane feels the frustration of a world torn apart by war, but also expresses their own growing pains as a group. Songs such as the grayish ebb and flow of "A Bad Dream" and "Crystal Ball" connect with such reflections. Frontman Tom Chaplin faces the disappointment of growing older on the haunting "Atlantic," another stone-cold gem of synthesizer strings and Tim Rice-Oxley's gorgeous piano delivery. When you think it might be totally depressing, there are some hints of life hidden in the corners of Under the Iron Sea and these mysterious loops highlight Keane's new sonic experiments. Thus far they've existed without guitars. Though the bounty of this record breathes with a collection of various analog synths and an old electric piano, Rice-Oxley's usual performance is now enhanced with a bevy of guitar effect pedals. Debut single "It Is Any Wonder?" is layered with pianos and Chaplin cries out, "Stranded in the wrong time/Where love is just a lyric in a children's rhyme, a soundbite." Such words capture how crucial it was for Keane to come up with something that's tangible and thought-provoking, but the guitar pedals are just a bit too dramatic. Keane should be applauded for going after a different sound; there's no harm in that, but die-hard fans might rush to judge Under the Iron Sea as sounding a bit too much like U2.

Track Lists
01. Atlantic
02. Is It Any Wonder
03. Nothing In My Way
04. Leaving So Soon
05. A Bad Dream
06. Hamburg Song
07. Put It Behind You
08. Crystal Ball
09. Try Again
10. Broken Toy
11. The Frog Prince

Disturbed - Ten Thousand Fists (Mp3 Download)

Review by Johnny Loftus @ allmusic.com

It started in 2000 with "Down with the Sickness." Disturbed's thick, rhythmic take on alt-metal was perfect music for stalking bloody zombies, and vocalist David Draiman's jaw-snapping Pavlovian grunts made the trigger fingers of first-person shooters itch. There were threads of other groups in the sound -- Pantera's wrenching power, Slipknot, the ill-lighted parlor games of Tool. But Disturbed held their own from the start, so get up, come on get down with the sickness. If 2002's Believe downplayed Draiman's guttural responses a little, that tact's long gone for 2005's Ten Thousand Fists. From Todd McFarlane's evocative wronged misfits artwork -- Suicide Girls stand fists upraised next to ghoulish fiends and disenfranchised truckers -- to the rousing staccato of the title track and the "Sickness" rewrite "Stricken," Disturbed solidify their stance as the black knights of gaming-console rock. Creepy electronics slither behind Dan Donegan's guitar, and he mostly forsakes soloing to concentrate on the visceral groove. When he's not hacking like a chained-up pit bull, Draiman emotes from the valley of reverb (that's next to the valley of death), and his moments of epic roar make the songs' choppier parts more effective. Now, "Overburdened" takes the epic stuff a little too far. Draiman starts off the song in narration, muttering "Fate is so unkind" like a monster who's been given the power to feel. But even in its swirling pretentiousness, you can't deny his intensity. Luckily the majority of Fists sticks to mid-tempo punishers that pound back anger-gritted teeth and no anesthesia. (Remember, Disturbed's tours are underwritten by Jägermeister, the black licorice firewater that punches Saturday night in the face.) "Deify" rails against blind devotion to political leaders and "Sons of Plunder" stalks at a faster, more aggressive faster heart rate, while "Decadence" and "Sacred Lie" drop into the rhythmic grip that by mid- to late album is almost comfortable in its gloomy thump. (Disturbed's ill-advised cover of Genesis' "Land of Confusion"? No comment.) Ten Thousand Fists does start to sound the same after a while. But those bloody zombies aren't going to stop pouring though the doorway, so it's a good thing it has at least 12 burly alt-metal rockers. Fire!

Track Lists
01. Ten Thousand Fists
02. Just Stop
03. Guarded
04. Deify
05. Stricken
06. I'm Alive
07. Sons Of Plunder
08. Overburdened
09. Decadence
10. Forgiven
11. Land Of Confusion
12. Sacred Lie
13. Pain Redefined
14. Avarice