Album Review: Catch a Fire" (Bob Marley & the Wailers)

According to Wikipedia, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated follow-ing on the development of “ska” and “rocksteady” related music.

“Catch a Fire” is characterized by those topics that most of the bands and musicians of the 60s and 70s were involved in, such as love, poverty, passion, peace, life, friendship, and faith. Probably, some of the influences noticeable in the lyrics make reference to spiritual freedom, religious beliefs and optimism; as a mixture with a typical reggae style and sort of rock sparks heard at the beginning of some of the songs, because of the drum sound.

The way Marley and the Wailers interpret melodies such as “High tide or low tide”, establishing the importance of friendship and spirituality; or "400 years” referring to people’s revolution against the system which controls everything; or “Slave driver”, recalling slavery; gives us an idea of their concerns.

Taking into account Bob Marley’s background: when we look at his own story, we find that he is a Jamaican citizen. His ancestors had come a long way in order to be free; as a result, he proudly self-identified as a black African. Marley’s world, and our own world, has not changed that much since Marley’s death. Otherwise, this album and artist would not be considered so important.

by Derly Yaima

Album Review: "Jagged Little Pill" (Alanis Morrisette)

Alanis Morrissette is a Canadian–American singer who positioned herself as one the best singers of all times after her third album “Jagged Little Pill” reached the highest positions in charts from 1995 to 1997. This is the best selling debut album by a female artist in the United States and the seventh best selling album of all time.

"Jagged Little Pill" contains 13 songs, including a hidden track called “Your House”, which is a capella song. All the songs from the album are composed by Alanis, and they reflect a new age in her life, since it is her first rock- pop album after two unsuccessful dance albums.

Most of the songs of the album have strong lyrics evoking feelings of anger, inconformity and spite. “You Oughta Know”, her first single and success of the album is the result of a bad relationship of Alanis with a famous actor. “You Oughta Know” and “Hand in My Pocket” have explicit lyrics using some strong words. “Hands in My Pocket”, the second single, it is a song of hope and resignation, a little different from the rest of the songs from the album.

Ironically, the fourth and most important single of the album, represents an idea of rebellion against the stereotypes of society, and the uncertainness of life. There are some other songs that give the same idea of reflection and protest such as “Mary Jane”, “You Learn”, “Perfect” and finally “Forgiven”, which is a direct criticism of religion.

The rest of the songs: “Right through you”, “Head over feet” ,”Not the doctor” and “Wake up” are spite songs, referring to different situations in love. The language in all of the songs is greatly elaborated and she uses a lot of uncommon words and expressions that make this album very poetic and metaphorical.

Definitively, from the beginning to the end, this is one of my favorite albums of all times and it is recommended for all those who are interested in profound lyrics with a real message. In addition, the instruments and Alanis’ voice produce a strong feeling of powerful music that have inspired some other artist such as Avril Lavigne and Shakira.

Diego Alexander Zapata

Album Review: "Exodus" (Bob Marley and the Wailers)

Exodus is an album released by Bob Marley and the Wailers in 1977. This album contains ten songs divided into two sides, each one of five songs, of the reggae’ genre.

Bob Marley who is a Jamaican singer, address his music to the people in the whole world, to make them to reflect about how they are living. “Exodus” is a song which talk about Jah; he say Jah that is God. “Jah” is a word used especially by the Rastafarian people, and exodus is a movement of Jah’s people. This album is very interesting because it is unusual to hear reggae that refers to God. Bob Marley invites people to open their eyes and look within through this song.

The most important songs of this album are "Exodus", "Waiting In Vain", "Jamming" and “One Love". “Waiting in Vain” is a love song and “One Love/People Get Ready” is a song to invite people to feel as one heart all together and give thanks to God. It is a song of hope.

This album is very nice. I can relax hearing these songs. He contributed to the world trying to raise the religious fervor of the people, and he believed in change. Even though I am not Christian, when I hear these lyrics I can believe in them. They have power, and the melody is nice to hear. These songs are good to appreciate. Even though this album is very old now it is still listened to. We can say that this album is for all the time in the reggae genre.

Bod Marley was the product of white and black people, but he consided himself as black. He felt more indentified with this group, and he developed his life according to this and showed it in his songs.

By Dora Agudelo Sanchez

Album Review: "Let it Bleed", (The Rolling Stones)

This album was published the 5 of December of 1969, and was recognized by the most important music critics as the most successful album of the Stones, this album got the first place in the United Kingdom music lists and a third place at the United States lists.

If you want to make a successful song, you should write about a current and controversial topic, and if you want to make a successful album, you should put that song as the opening (first song of the album). That is exactly what the Stones did with this album. The Stones used a strong song that has embedded in it a social aspect that touches almost everybody as their first song of the “Let it bleed” album. Back in the 60s there was a war in Vietnam, a war that everybody heard about every single day in the news, so it was “the perfect excuse” to write a song with a social content. The song was "Gimme Shelter", with lyrics that express the fear that anyone could feel: the need for peace or at least a please to feel safe. It also presented a sense of end of the humanity. All the topics included in “Gimme Shelter” made every one identify with the song.

The rest of the album has “normal lyrics”, they are about love, relationships, about feeling sad, get drunk and drugged; all of these also influenced by the Hippie movement at US and Europe.

The Rolling Stones are from England, and for me it is weird to find so much country sound in their songs like “Country Honk” and “You got the Silver”. Also, the song that gives the name to the album should be the most important and “Let it Bleed” is not that strong, it is about not being alone and having a person to support you. So I think that the name of the album should be “Gimme Shelter”. A song that touches the dugs topic is “Monkey Man” which expresses the need for being restless, to be in movement like a monkey.

Going back to the sound rather than the lyrics: I expected to hear ROCK – strong sounds of the instruments and strong voices, because of their name “The Rolling Stones”. A stone is something strong, rude, tough, hard, but these guys do not sound too much like stones.

I can say that this album was a good one, but not a masterpiece; personally, I do not like The Rolling Stones, but this feeling could be because this band is not from my era, neither from my region, although I like bands that are not from my era like AC/DC.

By Jenny Patricia Marulanda

Album Review: "The Joshua Tree" (U2)

I can recognize in this album a rock-pop style. Besides this, the U 2 players also cover some influences in type of music like: blues-rock, folk rock, country music, and gospel music in this musical album. The musicians interpret this style with a lot of guitar, bass playing, drum beats and vocals. The vocalist does an excellent job.

In spite of the influences mentioned above, I think that this group wanted to create a distinctive style in the musical field, for the media, and for their audience obviously.

U 2 formed in 1978 with 4 musicians: The drummer Larry Mullen, the bass player Adam Clayton, the guitar player David Evans “The Edge” and the vocalist Paul Hewson who is known as “Bono”. They, like most adolescents, wanted to perform a special rock style. They called their group the “Feedback Band”. After some time, they acquired a reputation, Then, like many other bands; they met a famous music producer who took them to make their first piece of music and as a result of their style, their audience, their efforts and their commitment for more than twenty years, they have become one of the most favoured rock and have sold millions of records around the world.

Carlos Alberto Dias

Album Review: "Pet Sounds" (The Beach Boys)

The Beach Boys have often been called "America's Band”; It is an American rock band from California, active since 1961; They were popular because of the lyrics of their songs referring to the California culture.

Nowadays "Pet Sounds" is regarded as one of the finest albums of all time on many music magazines lists of greatest albums of all time, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and "God Only Knows", show Brian Wilson's (founding member) improving mastery as a composer; other songs from this album are: “You Still Believe in Me”, “That’s Not Me”, “Don’t Talk”, "I’m Waiting for the Day", etc.

Even though I usually do not listen to this kind of music, I really enjoyed this album because the use of the different instruments makes it very interesting and also because the lyrics are really particular; my favorite song from this album is “That’s Not Me”, because it has beautiful content and it is really nice to listen to both the lyrics and the sound. Something that I found curious from this album is that the song “Let’s Go Away for Awhile” does not have lyrics; it is just the rhythm and the instruments playing. When I read the name of the song I was expecting from the content of the words.

During the career of this band many changes occurred; Brian Wilson developed mental illness and almost died because of his use of drugs. The rest of the group continued with their tours and after a time some of its members found their own bands.

Monica Alexandra Hurtado Cifuentes