Imogen Heap - Speak for Yourself

(2005)

I'm going to go ahead and say this is my favorite pop album, but I guess that's not saying much since I only own maybe 5 pop albums. It's kind of weird I'm reviewing this when she just did another album this year, but I've been listening to this lately so this is it. Imogen Heap does a whimsical electro-pop style, and she's pretty damn good at it. Her voice is beautiful and she comes up with awesome vocal melodies and harmonies. It starts off with Headlock, which is one of my favorite songs on the album and serves as a pretty epic intro. Clear the Area and The Walk are my other two favorites, but to be honest, this album doesn't lose my interest once for the entire length of the album. Which is pretty incredible for this kind of music. And there is real emotion on this album, which is even better.

Bottom Line: 4.5/5 Tommy

Muse - The Resistance

(2009)

I could tell this album would be cheese as soon as I heard the title, but I checked it out anyway. Turns out it's pretty good, for what it is. It starts out with two pretty standard Muse songs, but they're not bad at all. Luckily, it follows them with something completely different, an amazing electro pop song: Undisclosed Desires. This song automatically gives the album a few points, in my book. This is followed with to songs that sound too cheesy and have some serious Queen influence. This is sort of saved by a great piano interlude. Unnatural Selection comes next, and it sounds like the kind of rock they played on Absolution, and it even has more of their prog rock influence. MK Ultra sounds cheesy, but it's a pretty awesome kind of cheesy as far as I'm concerned (unlike Guiding Light), and overall it's a good song. I Belong to You is a groovy piano driven pop song. It sounds a bit like something out of a musical later on in the song, and after that the main theme comes back and there's a bass clarinet solo. Finally, the album ends with the symphony, which is split into 3 parts. It's pretty weird that there would be a symphony on this album, but, hey. It's gorgeous, though, and it's pretty hard to believe you're hearing it after the rest of the album, but surprisingly it transitions well enough.

So, this isn't as good as their past works, but it's awesome that they're still trying to be creative and original, so I have to give them props for that.
Bottom Line 3.5/5 Tommy