CD/Music Review: Pink: Beautiful Trauma

 

Beautiful Trauma is the 2017 album released by Pink. The album is similar in tone and style to her past few albums, having a mix of hip-hop and dance-oriented songs (including a duet with Eminem) and then the ballads she has become known for as she has gotten older. The album has a lot of songs about growing up (like Barbies) as well as songs about relationships, good and bad. The best songs are, in my opinion, Beautiful Trauma, But We Lost It, Barbies, Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken, and You Get My Love. 

There is a version of the album with explicit lyrics and a clean version. On the former, about half of the songs have explicit lyrics, including a few instances of the f-word. Personally, I hate censored versions of albums, but if you have kids or are offended by swearing, that is an option. Pink has been around long enough now that people generally know if they like her music or not. I always thought that she would be a flash in the pan when she put out her first album back around 2000/2001, but she has continued evolving musically, and getting better over the course of time. So, if you are a fan, this is definitely worth listening to.  

CD/Music Review: Katy Perry: Witness

 

Witness was an album by Katy Perry that was released in 2017. Perry is firmly in the pop music genre that mostly appeals to younger listeners, but does release songs that have wider appeal. This album has a mix of both types of songs. There are some songs that are very heavily produced and others in which her voice is the main focus of the song. Perry has a good enough voice that she could do nothing but ballads without all the over-produced stuff that probably makes her a hit with "the kids". 

Perry has definitely proven that she has musical talent and is not popular just because she is hot and has big tits. That said, I do think she tends to lean more heavily on the over-produced dance numbers than she really needs to. I do not think any of the songs on this album are on par with her big, mega-hits, but even so, the album does have some good tracks. The best tracks, in my opinion, are the less popular songs such as Into Me You See, Pendulum, Save as Draft, and Miss You more. 

CD/Music Review: Taylor Swift: Reputation

 

This was, in my opinion, at least as of the time it was released in 2017, Taylor Swift's best album. She had already pretty much ditched her country music roots (to the extent that she was ever really country) for pop music, but this album has a lot more adult, more mature songs on it than her prior albums did. Although she does still have some of the breakup songs and songs about beefing with other artists that she is known for on this album.  For me, the best songs are Ready For It, End Game, I Did Something Bad, Look What You Made Me Do, and This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things. But really, I would not say that there are any songs that I would skip on this album. This is much more of an adult-pop album than it is a teen-pop album, and I think that she made that transition well. 

CD/Music Review: Phi Collins: The Singles

 

If you were alive in the 1980s and 1990s and were a fan of pop and/or adult-contemporary music you heard Phil Collins a lot. Either because of his time as the lead singer of the group Genesis or his prolific solo career. This is a two-disc set (if you get the physical CD) that has all of the songs that Phil Collins put out as singles during his solo career. It is basically a greatest hits album and the songs on it cover his solo career from the early 1980s up through the mid-1990s. All of the songs have been remastered and pretty much all of his solo hits, including songs like Both Sides of the Story, Another Day in Paradise, You'll Be in my Heart, Against All Odds, and Take Me Home are included, along with some of his lesser-known non-smash hit songs. I definitely recommend this one to any fan of Phil Collins.

CD/Music Review: Richard Marx: Greatest Hits

 

If you were listening to pop and/or adult contemporary/soft rock music in the late 1980s into the early 1990s you heard Richard Marx's songs, a lot. All nine of his top ten hits, including, of course, the three that went to number one, including Right Here Waiting, Hold on to the Nights, and Satisfied are included here. The other big hits include songs like Endless Summer Nights, Angelia, Hazard, and Now and Forever. 

Marx has certainly been around long enough that people will know if they like him or not. He is pure soft rock ballads and pop songs. If you like that kind of music, you will like this. If that kind of music is not up your alley, you won't. 

CD/Music Review: The Monkees - Good Times

 

This is really the last "real" Monkees album. It was released in 2016 when three of the four members of the group were still alive (Mickey, Peter, and Mike). The album is pretty much a collection of new 2-3 minute songs that are a mix of more upbeat "pop" numbers with a couple of ballads thrown in there. To me, the best song on the album is "Me and Magdelena," and a very slightly remastered version of "Love to Love," through which they found a way to include Davy on the album.

Overall, I do not think the album is as good as what you would get on one of their greatest hits albums or even as good as the album Justus, but it is still good. It is also, now that Peter and Mike have both passed, the last album that can be attributed to the group. Definitely worth the listen if you are a fan of the group.

CD/Music Review: Then & Now...The Best of the Monkees

 

This is primarily a Monkees greatest hits album released in 1986 to honor the 20th anniversary of the TV show and spawned a reunion tour by Mickey, Peter, and Davy. It was the album that, along with the show's re-runs, made me a fan of the group. I was not even born when the show originally aired but was pretty much the perfect age in 1986 when the group had a huge resurgence in popularity because the show was being played on Nickelodeon and MTV almost constantly. It does also have a few new songs that feature just Mickey and Peter (Davy did not sing on any of the new songs because he did not think they were paid fairly, and Mike was still pretty bitter about the whole Monkees experience and pretty much-avoided anything to do with the anniversary and the reunion aside from making one appearance at one of the tours stops).

The album includes all of their major hits like Last Train to Clarksville, Daydream Believer, and Plesant Valley Sunday, as well as some of the more obscure songs like DW Washburn. The last three songs, Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere, Kicks, and the song that got them back into the top 40, That Was Then, This is Now, are the only new songs on the album. They are not the only new songs that the trio of Mickey, Peter, and Davy put out around that time as there was another album "Pool It" that included new material, but did not do nearly as well as this album did.

Overall, it is a very good greatest-hits album. It is probably even more of a desired item now that three of the four members of the group have passed away, but whether you were a fan of the group in the 60s or became a fan after that, it is definitely a must-listen.

CD/Music Review: Demi Lovato - Confident

 

You pretty much know what you will get with a Demi Lovato album, a mix of pop/dance numbers and ballads. While the bit hits from this album are Confident and Cool for the Summer, the song that I think is the best is one of the ballads, Wildfire. Overall, I think that Demi's ballads tend to be better than the pure pop songs that tend to be geared more toward younger listeners. This is definitely the most adult album that she had put out (as of when it was released) and the songs definitely touch on some of the struggles she has had. And, some of the songs do contain f-bombs, so that is something to be aware of. Overall, it is a good pop album, but whether you like it will really depend on your musical taste.

CD/Music Review: Selena Gomez - Revival

 

This was the album that Gomez used to break out of the "Disney kid" mold. While there are certainly pop songs on the album that are probably only going to appeal to a younger audience, there are some really good songs, especially a couple of ballads, that are very good. For me, the best songs on the album are Kill Em with Kindness, Same Old Love, Sober, and Camaflouge. I would not put Gomez in the same category as someone like Adele; with this album, she shows that she is more than just a teeny-bopper pop star.