New Album reviews from The Carters, Christina Aguilera, and We The Kings!

THE CARTERS / Everything is Love

Under the name The Carters, Beyonce and Jay-Z’s unannounced joint effort Everything is Love came as a surprise to many. What is not a surprise is their ability to put together a memorable album, which is exactly what you get.

Everything is Love is, for the most part, a straight-ahead rap album. There are flourishes of Beyonce’s pop charm spread throughout, but she is willing and more than able to go toe-to-toe with her hubby for the faster delivery. She drops more than one F-bomb, which may catch some casual listeners off guard, but they fit the context of the song. There are plenty of delicate and modern social issues tackled here, including unjustified police arrests and the disturbing and blatant presence of racial inequality in our country. In “Black Effect,” Jay-Z raps, “Get your hands up high like a false arrest/Let me see them up high this is not a test,” over a beat with a sullen streak. His shout-out to the NFL puts the embattled league on notice.

The duo also focuses heavily on their family and the hurdles they’ve faced as partners – including one in particular. For two superstars whose personal lives are usually tightly concealed, it’s a refreshing turn when they decide to come clean about Jay-Z’s reported affair on the album’s closing track, “Lovehappy.” The two have a back and forth banter with Beyonce rapping conversationally: “You (expletive) up the first stone/we had to get remarried” to which Jay-Z tells her to chill and she responds, with a healthy dose of venom, “We’re keeping it real with these people right? Lucky I ain’t kill you when I met that….”

But, ultimately, as the album’s title suggests, everything is love, and reconciliation can win out. All it takes is some doing.

For more information, visit beyonce.com

Jason Savio

CHRISTINA AGUILERA / Liberation

Very few would dispute that Christina Aguilera is one of the best singers of her generation. But, as with her past albums, while she has the pipes, she’s still in search of her “voice” in the pop universe. We’re all for exploration – and explore and experiment she has for almost two decades – with albums so varied she could be 12 different artists. What we really need now, however, is for Christina Aguilera to find Christina Aguilera once and for all.

She was a bubblegum genie in a bottle on her self-titled 1999 debut, a down and dirty Xtina on Stripped, an adult-contemporary, R&B-infused chanteuse on Back to Basics (2006) and then an electropop princess on 2010’s Bionic. With both hits and misses to her credit in all her incarnations, Aguilera certainly deserves credit for never playing it safe, and Liberation is no exception, but to what end?

Aguilera relies on a variety of musical styles again, and while it might be considered ambitious if she hadn’t tried this tact so many times before, it sounds and feels uneven. The first half of the album drags. Once we hit her duet with Demi Lovato (“Fall In Line”) about halfway through, we’re all aboard the Xtina train and holding on for the ride until its beautiful ballad finale (“Unless It’s With You”). Throughout the album, you’ll hear over-the-top dramatics, rap, soul, español and soaring power ballads which embrace her incredible signature vocals – but we’ve heard it all before, haven’t we? And we are still left wondering: Who is Christina Aguilera?

For more information, visit christinaaquilera.com

Mike Wood 

WE THE KINGS / Six

Historically, I haven’t really been a huge fan of the mainstream style of music listened to by today’s 20-somethings. I can’t really pinpoint why – I suppose I just think too much of it sounds the same.

We The Kings have that youthful pop/semi-emo/punk kind of style to them that, at first glance, seems to fit the category, but there are surprises that help them rise above that musically monochromatic perception I have of the style. First, there is an authenticity about this album that can’t be ignored, and the songs are really well-written. I appreciate the mostly positive messages they contain – especially since there seems to be so many songs out now with a negative attitude toward every little thing.

For instance, the song “Even If It Kills Me” has a hook declaring “I know my worth, I know my worth – it’s enough for me to let you go,” and in “Planes, Trains and Cars,” they sing about finding that thing that leads to self-realization and the drive to succeed at something instead of succumbing to other’s opinions … or even your own opinion sometimes.

Singer Travis Clark has a squeaky clean voice that he commands well, balancing on a higher range and never losing its integrity. The instrumental is confident and mindful, bringing a sense of being present in the moment. And whereas there are many albums that are one- or two-hit wonders, I found the album to be solid all the way through.

For more information, visit WeTheKingsMusic.com

Jennifer Russo