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Destiny’s Child
Greatest Hits
This Texas trio have dominated the charts for the last seven years, both together and
as solo artists and this collection shows how. A red hot helping of female
empowerment, it’s got all the infectious dance grooves and melancholy tales of
women done wrong a girl could ever need.
Solo albums:
Beyonce Knowles Dangerously in Love
Kelly Rowland Simply Love
Michelle Williams Heart to Yours, Do You Know
Kanye West
Late Registration
Rapper and producer Kanye West may have cultivated a reputation for overbearing
arrogance, but this second album proves just how hard he is to contradict. An
impressively mature labour of love that rewards both past supporters and new fans
alike.
Pussycat Dolls
PCD
Once a burlesque dance troop that wowed LA’s famed viper lounge, these girls have
come up trumps with their debut album. A fun, upbeat mix of RnB, dance and ballads
it’s a truly scrumptious collections of fun loving, escapist pop.
Sugababes
Taller in More Ways
Resonating beats, striking lyrics and thrilling vocal performances combine with
diverse musical influences and experimental sensibilities to make this one of the
‘Babes most accomplished and dynamic albums to date. Seductive, infectious stuff
that burrows into the soul and the brain.
Black Eyed Peas
Monkey Business
A joyful cross-genre journey with musical props to hip-hop, rock, folk, funk, and pop,
this is guaranteed to make anyone bust a move. A truly accessible hip-pop CD, high
profile guests include Justin Timberlake, Sting and James Brown.
Mariah Carey
Emancipation of Mimi
A return to her RnB roots, mid-tempo cuts, big ballads, and a few harder dance tunes
form a slow, late-night template that’s all sultry, low-key, polished club groove. A
fine return for the best-selling female artist of all time.
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Kate Bush
Aerial
Aged just 16, this idiosyncratic popstress exploded onto the pop charts in 1978 with
her melodramatic adaptation of Emily Bronte's tale of doomed love, Wuthering
Heights. She breaks a 12-year recording drought with this double disc-set.
Kate’s top singles: Wuthering Heights, Wow, Running up That Hilll, Babooshka,
Hounds of Love.
Notable Awards:
The Brits Best British Female Artist 1987,
Q Magazine Classic Songwriter 2001
Ivor Novello outstanding contribution to British music prize 2002
Barbra Streisand
Guilty Too
Babs and Barry are back! It’s the 25th anniversary of Barbra’s 1980 best-selling
album Guilty, which written and produced by Barry Gibb, became her biggest selling
album to date. 10 news songs along with a track written for Guilty but never recorded
cannot fail to impress.
Anastacia
Pieces of a Dream – Greatest Hits
Since winning her fight against breast cancer, there’s been no turning back for this
leather-lunged diva. Studded with uplifting, life-affirming anthems and foot-stomping
choruses, this shows exactly why Anastacia is one of the most powerful singers in the
business.
Gwen Stefani
Love Angel Music Baby
Stomping state-of-the-art pop, this collection of backseat love and lifetime devotion
pulls together '70s pop throwbacks, hip-hop beats and Clash adoration. A genrebending masterpiece that is as fresh as it is retro and as progressive as it is feel-good
familiar.
Madonna
Confessions on a Dancefloor
The original queen of dance music returns to her roots – and hikes everything up a
few notches. Blending early disco with the future of music, it’s a spontaneous,
unencumbered collection of up-tempo tracks that prove there really is no holding this
material mom back.
KT Tunstall
Eye to the Telescope
All Chinese blood, Scottish heart and great legwarmers, this sparkling songwriter
celebrates classic singer-songwriting with an articulate, immediate brew of rootsy
sass, wistful quandary & after-hours atmosphere. The creative consequence of a truly
inquiring imagination, it’s thoughtful and inspiring stuff.
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Will Young
Keep On
This pop idol winner has fast become recognised as one of the major popular music
talents of the decade.Adept at singing across many musical gneures, Keep On
provides all we’d expect from this gentle star and lots more besides.
Madeline Peyroux
Careless Love
Weaving strands of acoustic blues, country ballads, classic jazz, torch songs and pop
into a vibrant fabric that is both timeless and thoroughly up to date, Peyroux smoky
voice and knowing delivery make each song on this long awaited second album her
own.
Katie Melua
Piece by Piece
The second album from this Georgia-born chanteuse cum naturalised Brit is sultry and
kittenish on the one hand and solitary and ruminative on the other. Blending vocal
technique and unfeigned wistfulness, her self-determined musical adulthood has
found full bloom.
Aled Jones
New Horizons
The Welsh singer and TV personality who first came to fame as a boy soprano fell
from grace when his voice broke aged sixteen, but he bounced back to enjoy a
successful musical career. New Horizons is his seventeenth album to date.
Simply Red
Simplified
Take Simply Red Hits, strip them down to their purest form and you have Simplified.
An eclectic collection that ranges from the sexy Latin infused beats of Perfect Love to
the soulful Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye, Mick Hucknall’s tremulous vocals as
always, can’t fail to impress.
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David Gray
Life in Slow Motion
Combining orchestral pop with ghostly dabs of minimalism and marching band glory,
David Gray’s seventh album shows just how refined his sonic palette has become.
Held together by lyrics that dig deep and that memorable voice, the blue eyed folkster
has come of age.
”Musically and lyrically, Life In Slow Motion is his
strongest collection of songs to date.” – Q Magazine.
Ray Charles
Genius and Friends
It was among Ray Charles’ last requests this be released. He must be smiling now. An
album of superstar duets with some of his favourite contemporary artists, it shines
throughout as he and an all-star roster of vocal partners serenade in sublime harmony.
Daniel O’Donnell
Teenage Dreams
Another rock n roll album from Daniel O’Donnell. It features such classics as the
Beatles’ All My Loving and Elvis’s Good Luck Charm plus a heap of goodies like
Heartbeat, Dream Lover, Da Doo Ron Ron and Walk on By.
Bryn Terfel
Simple Gifts
A great voice, immaculate diction and a commanding stage presence have made Bryn
Terfel the hottest property in opera. Here he focuses on great classical as well as
newly arranged traditional pieces, his mercurial and inimitable baritone is showcased
to the full.
G4
G4 and Friends
Featuring a host of special guest stars including Robin Gibb, Sir Cliff Richard, Johnny
Mathis and Lesley Garrett. unforgettable, lush vocal arrangements ring out over a
backdrop of contemporary music to create the unique, modern pop-operatic sound for
which G4 have become so reknowned.
Now That’s What I Call Music 62
Having sold 80 million albums the Now That's What I Call Music brand is, in effect,
the UK's biggest-selling music star. This latest edition in the collection comes packed
with all the latest essential pop hits.
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James Blunt
Back to Bedlam
Heartfelt songs of unattainable romances, lost loves and friends' failures climax with
this former cavalryman’s first-hand experiences of war. A debut album that proves
Blunt to be truly modern musical hero.
What James wants for Christmas:
DVD - The Last Waltz. This is Martin Scorsese's great documentary about The Band.
It's a classic moment where some many great artists were captured doing their thing in
their hay-day.
CD - The new Franz Ferdinand album. I loved the first. Lets hope for more of the
same thing.
Classic FM
Relaxing
A relaxing mix of the finest classical music as heard on Classic FM. Over 3 hours of music
split across four CDs featuring the world’s best loved composers including Tchaikovsky:
Nutcracker - Dance of the Mirlitons and Holst: The Planets – Venus.
No 1 Classical Album 2006
Il Divo
Ancora
Four formally trained young men take old and new popular songs and heal the historic
rift between pop and classical music. A multi-national act, the songs are not all sung
in English, but however worded, they all use the language of love.
Amici Forever
Defined
Two sopranos, two tenors and a bass-baritone add a beat to the classics with a
handsomely produced album which is such a good listen, it might just turn more than
a few pop fans onto the classics.
Foster & Alan
Sing the Number 1’s
If you’re not Irish, you’ll wish you were after listening to this. 40 classic Number 1
hits from the 1950s right up to 2005 include unique interpretation of classics that
include Elvis’s Good Luck Charm, Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled
Water and Dean Martin’s Memories are Made of This.
Westlife
Face to Face
The biggest ever UK pop-act and Ireland’s favourite boy band get back to pop basics
with their seventh album and the first release since since last year's 'Allow Us To Be
Frank' covers album. The boys are most definitely back in town.
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Shakira
Fijacion Oral (English version)
This Colombian superstar’s biting voice is in fine fettle here and the material has an
electric urgency. Both girlish and innocent and sensual and seductive in turns, the best
bits though are when Shakira channels her inner and innate rock goddess.
Hayley Westenra
Odyssey
A child star in New Zealand, Hayley’s now ready to show the world just how grown
up she is. Fans will be pleasantly surprised. Her wonderful voice retains its crystalclear purity, but it’s richer and more rounded. The girl’s grown up with grace.
Katherine Jenkins
Living a Dream
This former school teacher from Neath in Wales signed the largest record deal in UK
classical recording history and hasn’t looked back since. Breathtakingly brilliant, her
wonderful voice warms the cockles of the heart and brings a breath of fresh air to the
familiar.
Michael Buble
It’s Time
Michael Bublé's assured debut and tireless year of touring elevated this 20-something
Vancouver native into the first grade of pop-crooner revivalists. Here his considerable
vocal prowess mixes flawless Sinatra with pop standards and artistic intrigue to great
effect.
Paul Anka
Rock Swings
Famous for taking 80s rock hits and putting a bit of swing into the balance, Sonically
amazing, musically impeccable, and vocally superb, this is the ultimate music to drink
cocktails to. Which is what makes them so totally rocking.
Eurythmics
Ultimate Collection
Kings of strong and intelligent pop, this celebrates the Eurythmics glorious string of
hit singles, clocking in with a generous 19 tracks that includes two previously
unreleased titles. Timeless and peerless, they sound as fresh today as on their first
release.
Kelly Clarkson
Breakaway
The toothsome winner of Fox TV's first American Idol competition shows once again
that her prime-time win was no fluke. A rock-influenced, MOR pop affair bursting
with energy and overflowing with youthful charisma.