foxglove hunt: stop heartbeat

the foxglove hung is a side project of ronnie martin, of joy electric, and rob withem, of fine china. they have worked together before, ronnie was the producer of fine china's first disc. as a fan of joy electric i knew i had to get it just to hear what other things ronnie has been up to. the album is really good, it has a 70's syth vibe to it, which i really enjoy. some of the strongest songs on the album are 'the life highrise', and 'that's getting personal'. as always, the melodies and hooks are strong, and the beats are thumping (quite a change from the usual joy electric fare). on some of the best songs there is a full rich sound that ties it together and gives it its unique personality. a very good album, i hope these guys work together again soon!

joy electric: curiosities and such

its been a while since ronnie put out any music under the joy electric banner, so it was with very high spirits that i dug into this album. and let me tell you, i was not disappointed at all! musically its very much in the style of his last outing, 'my grandfather, the cubist', but still very different. its a very short disc, with only 6 songs, one of which is an instrumental, and another is just the title song with out the vocal tracks. ronnie has always been a fan of the whole 'short and sweet' mentality, and this cd sticks to that. all the songs are very catchy and quite good, but there is a stand out among the songs: 'which witch' is an instant classic with its unusual chorus hook and great music. that song rockets straight to the upper echelon of the best songs joy electric has ever written!

beyonce: i am sasha fierce

for her birthday i got the new one from beyonce for my wife. i didn't mess around either, i got the deluxe edition, which featured five extra songs. this album is divided up into two discs for some reason, one of them is the slow, heart felt stuff, and the other disc is all the loud dance floor tunes. now, i personally have never cared for beyonce or her music, but having listened to it often (diana usually has it playing in her car when we go out anywhere), i have to admit, its actually not bad. no, i will go even further than that, i will admit that i actually like it! the only song i had known before was the 'put a ring on it' song, but i really love 'if i were a boy', and 'halo' (which diana said reminds her of me, so for that reason alone i like the song!). now, dont worry, i'm not going all hip-hop or anything, but i have to give recognition to a great album when i hear it.