2 posts tagged “audio recording”
Alright Still
By Lily Allen
Released July 2006, by EMI
So, two of the magazines I reviewed for this project (Shout, and Bust) both had interviews with Lily Allen. In fact, she was on the cover of the Shout magazine I looked at. I had heard of Lily Allen from last summer, when her song "Smile" was featured on a blog I frequent; and then in an end-of-summer wrap-up in People magazine or something, they mentioned her song "LDN" as one of the songs of summer.
So, I had slowly started downloading Lily Allen songs, and the more I heard her songs, the more I liked them. My initial favourites were "Knock 'em out" which is a song about telling off jerks who make moves at you in clubs; and "Take what you take," a kind of cheeky life manifesto.
Lily Allen's songs are all filled with cheeky British attitude, and very interesting musical samples set to kind of old-school hip-hop beats. Most of the songs are easy to sing along with, as she sings mostly in the same range as her speaking voice, and it's mostly sort of talk-singing anyway.
I can see teens really enjoying this album. Her fun, irreverent attitude and refreshing lyrics where she makes fun of the beauty industry are a nice change from the "I love you forever" lyrics of other singers in her age range like Jessica Simpson or Brooke Hogan. In addition, seeing her healthy body image makes her songs where she makes fun of double-standards in the fashion industry ring a lot more true than when someone like Beyoncé or Christina Aguilera makes similar statements.
I guess from a library perspective, the main concern about this album would be that there is an awful lot of profanity in almost every songs. Her accent is so strong, though, that it's hard to make out what she is saying so a lot of the profanity would probably go unnoticed by listeners. The album does have a parental advisory sticker on it, and I believe from looking at the Amazon listing, that there is a "radio-friendly" version of this album that maybe a library in a more conservative environment might prefer to purchase.
However, I find the profanity a lot less offensive in her cheeky songs than in the more sexually-charged, exploitative songs and videos coming out in a lot of hip-hop albums (i.e. 50 Cent, Bubba Sparx, et al)
Rating: Great, catchy, cheeky music for ages 15 and up. I'm sure younger teens would like it and would probably listen to this album, but due to some of the lyrics, I wouldn't specifically recommend it to them. But I wouldn't stop them from borrowing this album.
And for your listening pleasure, here is one of my favourite songs from this album, "Everything's just too wonderful":
Gossip Girl: A Novel
By Cecily von Ziegesar
Audiobook read by Christina Ricci
So, I had heard a lot about these books before I "read" this one (on audiobook) and I was actually pleasantly surprised. I had anticipated shallow, vapid, mean characters doing horrible things - but the main characters were actually quite sympathetic, and there was genuine character growth (at least for the Serena character).
Basically, the story centers on the rivalry between ex-best friends Serena and Blair. Serena was always more beautiful and popular, but when she moved to boarding school, Blair took over as Queen Bee. Then Serena is kicked out of boarding school and Blair, threatened by her appearance, spreads vicious reasons about why Serena was kicked out - while Serena just wants to be friends with Blair again.
Anyway. There are other characters, like the non-rich Dan, who loves Serena in secret; Vanessa, a goth girl who loves Dan in secret; Blair's boyfriend Nate, who loves Serena in secret; and Dan's sweet sophomore sister Jenny who doesn't know what she's getting into by befriending Blair and Serena.
This was an OK audiobook - Christina Ricci's bored, Valley-girl drone suits the characters and storyline. Every few chapters, a different voice actress comes on (with obnoxious techno music in the background) to dish gossip as the anonymous "Gossip Girl" -- either talking about things which we just saw happen, or giving hints as to the events yet to come. I haven't read any of these actual books, but I guess in the books, GG's monologues are in the form of an online blog or something.
Anyway. I can see why girls would like these books - everything is sooo over-the-top with the teen characters drinking martinis in bars; smoking all the time; wearing fabulous outfits; going to art openings and attending chic parties - it is totally escapist and the hint of "badness" probably just lures in the readers. While there is some sexual content, the only actual sexual scenes are handled with awkwardness and humour - reminding you that these characters really are just 16 or thereabouts.
Rating: Obviously girls aged 13 and up are devouring these books; and that is probably the target audience
