Helped by guests of the calibre of Snoop Dogg, Nelly and Twista, with production assistance from The Neptunes and Kayne West the original pop diva returns with a strong collection of mainly R ‘n’ B based songs
N*E*R*D’s second album, Fly Or Die, is truly awful. It’s the sound of the Neptunes jumping gleefully into the vast abyss of the middlebrow and abandoning all of the sonic inventions and musical elasticity that once marked their work.
They’ve been heralded as the biggest thing in Irish rock since U2 – a prediction that proved prescient when The Script romped to the top of the charts with their debut album.
With a little help from Timbaland and The Neptunes, Justin Timberlake’s debut solo album justified propelled him from N’Sync baby food salesman to purveyor of the slickest dancefloor pop since the days when Michael Jackson was black. here, via the wonders of modern technology, HP eavesdrops as the boy wonder receives a Woodward & Bernstein-style investigative enema from the Euro-press.
Everybody Hertz is an album of re-mixes of three selected tracks from the previous album, mixed by luminaries such as Daft Punk's Thomas Banghalter, Mr Oizo, Malibu, Adrian Sherwood, Modjo, The Neptunes and the Hacker
The producers of choice for everyone from Justin Timberlake to Jay-Z, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo are also earning plaudits for their rock and hip-hop influenced side project, N*E*R*D
Former Moloko singer Roisin Murphy talks to Paul Nolan about collaborating with an all-star team of songwriters, her unique image and clubbing in Sheffield and New York.
Brit-rock heroes Maximo Park are back with a new album – and without the novelty hair-cuts. Here they talk about death metal, hip-hop and missing notebooks.
She’s been a regular festival goer since she first attended Féile at the age of 14. Gemma Hayes waxes lyrical on the joys of those sprawling, big days out
The former wife of the late Notorious BIG, Faith Evans has forged a highly successful career for herself, and on her fourth album she showcases her soulful take on the rather narrow R&B genre.
One of the highlights of this year's Witnness festival Basement Jaxx drop hints about their forthcoming third album, explain why Brixton is so important to their sound and preview the live show
They've masterminded recordings by Lily Allen, Estelle and Kate Nash, to name a few. In this exclusive interview, Future Cut lift the veil on their whizz-bang production techniques.
LCD Soundsystem's frontman James Murphy talks about working with Justin Timberlake, his Cork ancestors and recalls the time he almost hooked up with Arcade Fire
The criterati may not like them but Adrian Young doesn't care. and why should he when No Doubt have crafted a most excellent pop record, with dancehall rhythms, in rock steady
The Lovebox festival returns to Dublin with a stellar line-up including Maximo Park, N*E*R*D, Paolo Nutini and Gorillaz Soundsystem. We talk to organisers Groove Armada.
When not touring with Republic Of Loose, Mick pyro is free to kick back in his basement pad in a 1960s Swedish-style Terenure house, where he indulges his love of CDs, books and movies – and ponders the aesthetic similarities between Shakespeare and hip hop.
She may be one of the biggest r&b stars on the planet, but that doesn’t mean MARY J/ BLIGE is happy with her lot. in one of her frankest
intervews yet, she tells HELEN TOLAND why she’s been given a bad rap
A black NYC rap crew collaborating with members of the white rock aristocracy? Nowadays it wouldn’t raise an eyebrow, but back in 1986 the Run DMC/Aerosmith interface was the stuff of cultural revolution.
Our annual HP-7 summit brings together some of the pre-eminent movers and shakers in irish music to reflect on everything from backstage catering to the end of war, pestilence and famine. Your host: Stuart Clark.
It's been over four intriguing years since Damien Rice's extraordinary debut album O was launched. That record went on to become a huge underground international hit, selling in excess of 2 million copies. Now his long-awaited follow-up – the similarly simply titled 9 – is finally ready to hit the shops. So how did Rice so successfully capture the collective imagination? And will the latest instalment in the Rice musical biography propel him to even greater heights? Hot Press talks exclusively to some of the key players in his remarkable rise and rise.
On her sixth album, Missy Elliott has – for the most part – ended her long-running working relationship with gifted producer Timbaland. It’s difficult to be happy about the death of a partnership that has thrown up some of the most dazzlingly futuristic pop music of recent years, but it was a collaboration that had been on the wane for some time.
Each track is a distinct little hit-single, destined for the global Saturday night dancefloor. Some are too twee for my taste, pure bubble-gum, but most of these songs are much deeper and smarter than your average poppy dance tune, with lyrics that reward repeated listening, and a plethora of up-front musical references that read like an encylopaedic history of excellent pop.
Now on her third album, Tasty serves up yet more evidence that Kelis Rogers is someone who the likes of poor misguided Britney should be taking grinds in sassiness from.
Debased Dubliners Republic Of Loose return, here serving up their second smorgasbord of gourmet sleaze for your delectation. What more could a poor boy ask for in a time of plenty?
Rock Steady comes with aspirations towards roots-reggae by way of dancehall beats, but the band have made a wise choice in plumping mostly for luscious cherry pop here, crafting a bunch of tunes that can slot easily between nu-punk and the new Pink.
Their self-titled album was one of the very best records of 2005, and with the follow-up, Sound Of Silver, James Murphy has delivered another absolute cracker.
Confronted as we are these days by hordes of fame-hunger, toxic, teen princesses – Stefani’s odd-ball, retro-futurist bubblegum pop can be seen as a heartening example of individuality in a field that’s more often creepily exploitative and conformist.
It gives your reviewer great pleasure to report that on this album the singer has quite literally cut the crap and created a vibrant and inventive urban variation on an old school R&B set (that’s R&B as in rhythm in the beats and blues in the voice rather than rhinestones and baubles).
