Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow

Editor's note: We're thrilled to present a review of the new Kate Bush album by longtime friend of soldout, Atlanta writer and poet Collin Kelley 

One word for 50 Words for Snow: Perfection

By Collin Kelley

In 2005, Kate said during an interview that she might surprise everyone and release two albums in one year. Six years later, she made good on the surprise by releasing the fan base-dividing Director’s Cut in the spring and the brilliant (and near universally praised) 50 Words for Snow in the autumn. Although there are just seven songs, the album clocks in at more than hour, with Kate giving each song room to breath and then some. Kate’s piano is front and center on this album and the wintry soundscape she creates is expansive, elegiac and a little melancholy. In a word, perfection.

Click to read more ...

Kate Bush - Director's Cut

Updated on Jun 5, 2011 by Russ

Editor's note: Atlanta-based Collin Kelley is, in addition to being a fantastic writer, a dear friend of, and oft-contributor to, soldout. When he wrote saying he'd done the deed--contextualized, properly, Kate Bush's Director's Cut, soldout welcomed it eagerly. Collin's also provided a healthy essential guide to Kate's work, posted as an addendum/follow-up to this review. 

Kate Bush – Director’s Cut (2011, Fish People)

By Collin Kelley

Iconoclastic Kate Bush recently released her ninth studio album, Director's Cut, on her newly created label, Fish People. When Bush announced that her next album would be re-workings of songs from 1989's The Sensual World and 1993's The Red Shoes, fan reaction was mixed. When the track-listing was made public, there was collective apoplexy that Bush would have the temerity to monkey with classics like "This Woman's Work," "The Sensual World" and "Moments of Pleasure." How very dare she!

Click to read more ...

The Next Invasion? By Collin Kelley

Friend of soldout Collin Kelley submitted this article after hearing me rave about my new musical crush Delphic on the twitters. I was turned on to Delphic when soldout writer Ben blathered something about something about a remix of something about something regardless of what he was saying (I don't know, I don't listen to him), I checked out the song in question, "Counterpoint", and had my life changed. Collin Kelley presents bands that may also be life-changing according to the Brits.

The Next Invasion?

By Collin Kelley

 Every few years, America gets a new “British Invasion” – a clutch of artists from the UK who storm the Billboard charts or become overnight sensations on YouTube (and I’m not including Susan Boyle). Over the last few years, Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Mika, Gossip, Adele, La Roux and Florence + The Machine have made inroads into stateside consciousness.

 In December, the BBC announced its Sound of 2010 poll, a yearly list of up-and-coming musicians selected by UK industry experts to be the “next big thing.” This year’s list was decidedly British (last year’s list included American acts Lady Gaga and Kid Cudi), so chances are you’ve never heard of any of them.

 In the long list of 15 acts, three stood out:

Click to read more ...

Welcome to the Daouhaus: A Conversation with Vanessa Daou, by Collin Kelley

After Atlanta-based journalist, poet and novelist Collin Kelley did a reading for an event I'd assembled at The Tank performing art space which was later blogged about by Vanessa Daou, a name I've known from Danny Tenaglia DJ sets, Collin approached me about doing an interview with her for soldout. Here it is: "Welcome To The Daouhaus".

Welcome to the Daouhaus: A Conversation with Vanessa Daou

by Collin Kelley

Jazz. Pop. Trip-hop. House. Spoken word. Vanessa Daou has put her unmistakable voice to all these genres, but many clubbers also know her as a dance icon thanks to floor-fillers like “Surrender Yourself,” “Near the Black Forest,” “Two to Tango” and “A Little Bit of Pain.” From the beginning of her career with former husband/producer Peter Daou as part of The Daou to her solo success in the ‘90s, Daou has been a favorite with DJs and remixers, especially Danny Tenaglia.

              Coming off the success of her latest album, Joe Sent Me, Twisted Records has just released a compilation called Daouhaus: The Classic Remixes. Seven of Tenaglia’s reinventions are here, alongside deep grooves by David Morales, Olive and Mood II Swing. The album opens with the 1992, fourteen-minute opus that is “Surrender Yourself,” which rocketed to the top of the Billboard Dance chart and heralded a new direction for club music, bringing it from the underground to the mainstream. Olive (you remember them from the massive hit “You’re Not Alone”) turns the slinky “Near the Black Forest” (from Zipless, Daou’s solo debut based on the poetry of Erica Jong) and turns it into a heavy house groove with hints of drum-and-bass. Tenaglia’s Twilo Mix of “Two to Tango” is midnight rave-tastic.

              In this exclusive interview, Daou offers up a history of her early foray into the club scene and how handing over her songs to DJs for reinterpretation is an intoxicating kind of freedom.

 

Click to read more ...

Homophobia, double standards and Adam Lambert by Collin Kelley

Collin Kelley is an Atlanta-based journalist, acclaimed poet and novelist. Upon reading his insightful and intelligent tweets and Facebook messages regarding the American Music Awards/Adam Lambert controversy, I contacted him asking him to pen his thoughts, long form, for soldout. He graciously obliged. For further information, backstory and video performance regarding Adam Lambert and the AMAs controversy, Examiner has thoroughly compiled links.

Homophobia, double standards and Adam Lambert

By Collin Kelley

American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert was coy about his sexuality until after the competition ended, although there were photos floating around the internet of Lambert making out with a boyfriend and wearing enough make up to give any drag queen a run for her money. Everyone knew Lambert was gay (okay, maybe some tweens and 45 year old women with 14 cats didn’t catch on), and when he "officially" outed himself in the pages of Rolling Stone there was a collective "Duh."  

Lambert's vocal acrobatics and glam rock persona made him the most exciting stage performer Idol had seen in its eight seasons. But he was also controlled by the producers and sang "safe" covers of classic and modern rock that appealed to all demographics and wouldn't shock the 8 p.m. viewing audience. So, Lambert's performance on Sunday night's American Music Awards left many of his fans, Christian conservative wing nuts and parents who'd let their young children stay up until nearly 11 p.m. on a school night in absolute OUTRAGE!

Click to read more ...