from Amazon.com
Call Off the Search was released in the U.K. in November 2003 to deserved acclaim, alongside countless declarations that this 19-year-old British music school-educated, Russian-born singer is "the next Norah." There are similarities--Melua does work within a jazz/blues idiom, is talented beyond her years, and concentrates more on classics than her own material (ten are covers and two originals). But she's far more of a classic showbiz type singer than the sultry and sophisticated-sounding Jones. On the single "The Closest Thing to Crazy," for instance, Melua's phrasing is pure show tune. But it works for her, as it did for Lena and Liza before. The only weak link resides in a few straightahead blues songs, notably the 12-bar stomp "My Aphrodisiac Is You." Melua has the talent, she just lacks the soul to put oomph into a song that namechecks the Kama Sutra (this is as it should be, of course, as she's a teenager, but the choice of material is suspect nonetheless). Melua is a great torch singer who deserves the spotlight; odds are you'll eagerly await her next album before you're even done listening to this one all the way through. --Mike McGonigal

Two singers - Maria Bethânia and Gal Costa- and two composers/singers - Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso -- they were the main leaders and performers of the Brazilian cultural movement known as "Tropicália". This album is a rare show when they decided to play together with music and lyrics by Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil.

This is the CD reissue of the 1978 LP Álibi, which sold one million copies, projecting Maria Bethânia as a popular romantic artist after her being inadvertently connected with protest songs due to her success at the show Opinião. "Álibi," a bolero by Djavan, "O Meu Amor" (Chico Buarque) with special guest Alcione, and "Explode Coração" (Gonzaguinha) all became hits in her interpretation, solidifying her expression in a contemporary, deep romanticism freed from the excesses of the past Brazilian tradition. She also pays tribute to Lupicínio Rodrigues ("Negue"), and interprets other hits like "Ronda" (Paulo Vanzolini), the unofficial anthem of the city of São Paulo.

While it may sound like an entire Balkan gypsy orchestra playing modern songs as mournful ballads and upbeat marches, Beirut's first album, Gulag Orkestar, is largely the work of one 19-year-old Albuquerque native, Zach Condon, with assistance by Jeremy Barnes (Neutral Milk Hotel, A Hawk and a Hacksaw) and Heather Trost (A Hawk and a Hacksaw). Horns, violins, cellos, ukuleles, mandolins, glockenspiels, drums, tambourines, congas, organs, pianos, clarinets and accordions (no guitars on this album!) all build and break the melodies under Condon's deep-voiced crooner vocals, swaying to the Eastern European beats like a drunken 12-member ensemble that has fallen in love with The Magnetic Fields, Talking Heads and Neutral Milk Hotel.