Artist Recommendation: Paradisio

And now for something completely different... A genre named dance-music. Music from the 90's. Belgian group Paradisio produces exclusively Spanish songs that sound like summer. Happy, warm, relaxed... You may know this group for their song Bailando which was a big hit all over the world and which has been covered by several artists. For most people, that's where their knowledge of Paradisio stops. But their first album (also named Paradisio) was HOT from beginning to end. So I advise you all to check that out. Especially the songs Bandolero, Sentimental and Vamos A La Discoteca (which sounds a lot like their previously released song Un Clima Ideal, which has a different background melody but the same lyrics) are very nice.

After their self-titled album, they only released one more (remix) album. But they never stopped making music. They released, for example, the (all three awesome) songs Samba Del Diablo, Luz De La Luna and a new version of Bailando (sung by the group's new frontwoman), named Bailando (Me Dices Adios). It may still be Bailando, but it sounds very different and addictive. Another song they released is La Propaganda, which is not my favorite because it sounds different from their other music, but it's still nice.

I can't really describe their music as deep, genius and original, but I don't have to because it's addictive and happy music, you need that music as well because it gets you in a good mood :) Sooo, check it out! :-)

Album Review: Craig David - Born To Do It

Completely in contrast with my usual blogs, this is another one about a male artist. Specifically, it's an album review for British singer Craig David's first album Born To Do It, released in 2000. Why? Because Craig is one of the UK's most talented and successful R&B singers and his first album was pretty much awesome.

First of all, I'm going to mention a few songs on it that will hopefully make you download the album right away, because they were all hits all over Europe: Fill Me In, 7 Days, Rendezvous, Walking Away and Rewind (which is also known as Re-Rewind and is actually a song by 2-step group The Artful Dodger, featuring Craig David). I've loved all of these songs for years and I'm sure many of you feel the same way.

Furthermore, there are some non-single songs on the album that you should check out: Last Night, which you might recognize because it's the song that inspired Re-Rewind, Follow Me and Can't Be Messing 'Round. The latter one is about feeling seduced but not giving in because you don't want to cheat on your lover. A very nice up-tempo song.

There are two songs that only appear on the US-release of the album: Fill Me In Part 2 and Key To My Heart. They are both nice, but nothing extraordinary. Unfortunately, the R&B-genre uses certain concepts for songs a million times, which bores me, personally. Fill Me In Part 2 is disappointing if you expect something like part 1.

Songs that I don't really like are Booty Man and Once In A Lifetime. You Know What and Party Time are okay songs, not bad.

Overall, I think the album is particularly strong because it contains so many hit songs and party anthems, but it also contains some mediocre, typical R&B music. I think you should definitely check it out, and if you like it also listen to other Craig David songs such as Eenie Meenie and Fast Cars (both from his second album, Slicker Than Your Average), Woman Trouble (which is another song by The Artful Dodger, featuring Robbie Craig and Craig David) and 6 of 1 Thing (Remix) featuring Ryan Leslie. Craig is dope!

UPDATE: it's now half an hour later than when I wrote this blog, and I already changed my mind about one of the songs... I do like Booty Man! It has a great melody and it's just as addictive as most other songs on the album :)

Artist Recommendation: So Solid Crew

Hi all. I've found a (mainly) male group to recommend here! Their name is So Solid Crew, their most famous member (I think) is -ironically- a woman (Lisa Maffia) and they're from the UK. Their music is garage/electronic/hip-hop or whatever you wanna name it. And oh yeah, they're dope!

Let me first warn you: if you don't like raw hip-hop music (because it's raw, even with those electronic beats), you should not listen to their music. It'll only make you think I don't make good recommendations, but I make good recommendations as long as they're read by the right people, lol.

I won't talk about the individual members, but the whole So Solid Crew.

I would first recommend their album They Don't Know. It contains my very favorite So Solid song: Envy (They Don't Know Vocal Remix) which features Ms. Dynamite. And yes, you know that name. Put Him Out, It Takes More and Dy-Na-Mi-Tee were all hits by this artist, and all of them were R&B. So it's very interesting to hear her rap on this So Solid Crew song. She actually does it better than the other rappers on this song, which is why a few years ago I was hoping she would release a rap-album.

Other hot songs from this album are: Haters, If It Was Me, In My Life, Oh No (Sentimental Things) (Remix), Rave Scene and 21 Seconds. That's a lot of hot songs, right? I haven't gotten into the other songs yet, I've listened to them but I think they have to grow on me.

Now, for their second album, 2nd Verse, I like it a lot less but there are still some nice songs on it. Bou Bas (Remix) is very addictive, Money Maker is dope and No Love and So Grimey are nice. I really don't like Thug Anthem, the lyrics are so bad that I first thought the song was a parody on people who call themselves 'thugs'. No Love and Thug Anthem are like opposites of each other, which doesn't make sense.

Then finally I have the Fuck It remix album. I like that one. It not only contains hot So Solid Crew songs, but also remixes of hit songs such as Beverly Knight's "Get Up", Daniel Bedingfield's "Gotta Get Thru This" and Mis-Teeq's "One Night Stand". You're not guaranteed to like it if you like these songs, but you could give it a try.