Patrícia Nunes's Album Reviews
I must confess I never really listened One Direction’s music or watched their career unfold. Niall’s music caught my attention after listening to Slow Hands on the radio several times and deciding to research who sang it.
Overall Flicker is a pleasant debut album with some safe songs and some surprises.
On the Loose is a catchy opening song about an obsessive and toxic relationship that sets the overall sound of Flicker. The following track, This Town is a melancholic acoustic ballad about long lost teenage love that left its mark - bumping into them on your hometown means triggering all the bittersweet memories from the past.
Seeing Blind is a nice country duet with Maren Morris about two people accidentally bumping into each other and finding the love of their lives. Doesn’t everybody wish this would happen to them?
Slow Hands was the song that made me start listening to Niall’s music and I love it. The raspy vocals and the melody are really catchy. On this song the girl chases the boy and he’s actually happy about it.
In Too Much to Ask we meet melancholic Niall again, reminiscing about a relationship that has just ended but still hopes for another try. A heartache that is carried over to Paper Houses and Flicker where we’re told more about this love that had everything to be right but faded away.
Since We’re Alone and Fire Away talk about helping someone opening up and musically break the sad tone of the previous songs with a tune that I always imagine playing whilst driving in a car at sunset in a summer afternoon.
Flicker’s last track, You and Me gets us all daydreaming about finding the one at the end of a hard road of broken hearts and empty promises. It’s a beautiful closing track.
It’s a 4/5 for me. Top tracks: On the Loose, Slow Hands, Since We’re Alone, You and Me.
Overall Flicker is a pleasant debut album with some safe songs and some surprises.
On the Loose is a catchy opening song about an obsessive and toxic relationship that sets the overall sound of Flicker. The following track, This Town is a melancholic acoustic ballad about long lost teenage love that left its mark - bumping into them on your hometown means triggering all the bittersweet memories from the past.
Seeing Blind is a nice country duet with Maren Morris about two people accidentally bumping into each other and finding the love of their lives. Doesn’t everybody wish this would happen to them?
Slow Hands was the song that made me start listening to Niall’s music and I love it. The raspy vocals and the melody are really catchy. On this song the girl chases the boy and he’s actually happy about it.
In Too Much to Ask we meet melancholic Niall again, reminiscing about a relationship that has just ended but still hopes for another try. A heartache that is carried over to Paper Houses and Flicker where we’re told more about this love that had everything to be right but faded away.
Since We’re Alone and Fire Away talk about helping someone opening up and musically break the sad tone of the previous songs with a tune that I always imagine playing whilst driving in a car at sunset in a summer afternoon.
Flicker’s last track, You and Me gets us all daydreaming about finding the one at the end of a hard road of broken hearts and empty promises. It’s a beautiful closing track.
It’s a 4/5 for me. Top tracks: On the Loose, Slow Hands, Since We’re Alone, You and Me.
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I’ve been following Ed Sheeran since 2012 and after listening to Divide, I must say that for me this is probably the best album that he has released so far.
Divide is a pleasant surprise from Ed, and the title says it all – a collection of songs from different genres, ranging from his trademark acoustic songs such as - Perfect, How Would You Feel (Paean) and Hearts Don’t Break Around Here - to the soulful, John Mayer-esque track Dive and the Irish folk songs Galway Girl and Nancy Mulligan.
I’m glad that Ed Sheeran fought his label to include Galway Girl on the album, as this is definitely one of my favorites - when listening to it I found myself wanting to visit an Irish bar and learn how to play the fiddle, just as the girl described in the lyrics did.
Lyrically, I would say he is at his best on Divide – Supermarket Flowers is probably the most lyrically touching song in the album – I have to confess that I have never visualized so well a scenario on a song like I did with this one. It’s deeply sad and moving, as Sheeran narrates his grandmother’s passing from his mother’s perspective and it strongly reminds me of Afire Love on his predecessor album, X.
Eraser and Save Myself (the latter included on the deluxe version) are also lyrically introspective and reflective of the demons that have haunted him on the music industry – behind the mask of living the dream of being a successful musician, there is a dark place where Sheeran once found himself. And he is not afraid to tell us and warn us about it.
Sonically speaking I would say that Divide is the least safe and more diverse album that Ed has ever put out – he challenges the flat sound of contemporary pop music we are currently used to by experimenting with fiddles and blues on a few tracks.
I think no matter how critics poorly rate this album calling it a “calculated move”, Ed Sheeran is still one of the best pop musicians out there today. And like any musician, he is entitled to experiment and introduce us new sounds – after all, who really would like to listen to another soulless and auto-tuned pop album like so many released nowadays?
It’s a 4/5 for me.
Top tracks: Eraser, Dive, Galway Girl, Supermarket Flowers.
Divide is a pleasant surprise from Ed, and the title says it all – a collection of songs from different genres, ranging from his trademark acoustic songs such as - Perfect, How Would You Feel (Paean) and Hearts Don’t Break Around Here - to the soulful, John Mayer-esque track Dive and the Irish folk songs Galway Girl and Nancy Mulligan.
I’m glad that Ed Sheeran fought his label to include Galway Girl on the album, as this is definitely one of my favorites - when listening to it I found myself wanting to visit an Irish bar and learn how to play the fiddle, just as the girl described in the lyrics did.
Lyrically, I would say he is at his best on Divide – Supermarket Flowers is probably the most lyrically touching song in the album – I have to confess that I have never visualized so well a scenario on a song like I did with this one. It’s deeply sad and moving, as Sheeran narrates his grandmother’s passing from his mother’s perspective and it strongly reminds me of Afire Love on his predecessor album, X.
Eraser and Save Myself (the latter included on the deluxe version) are also lyrically introspective and reflective of the demons that have haunted him on the music industry – behind the mask of living the dream of being a successful musician, there is a dark place where Sheeran once found himself. And he is not afraid to tell us and warn us about it.
Sonically speaking I would say that Divide is the least safe and more diverse album that Ed has ever put out – he challenges the flat sound of contemporary pop music we are currently used to by experimenting with fiddles and blues on a few tracks.
I think no matter how critics poorly rate this album calling it a “calculated move”, Ed Sheeran is still one of the best pop musicians out there today. And like any musician, he is entitled to experiment and introduce us new sounds – after all, who really would like to listen to another soulless and auto-tuned pop album like so many released nowadays?
It’s a 4/5 for me.
Top tracks: Eraser, Dive, Galway Girl, Supermarket Flowers.
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2017 marks Taylor’s return to the limelight after three years of hiatus, silence and much public scrutiny.
She sent social media into a frenzy with cryptic posts and without much explanation ahead of the release of Look What You Made Me Do, the first single of reputation.
A revamped image and sound set high expectations for the release of reputation, an album made of 15 highly commercial pop songs, pretty much destined to be radio hits.
The old Taylor is still recognisable on her very personal lyrics, but her sonority is far removed from her country roots. Of course, every artist is allowed to experiment new sounds, but that’s exactly where I believe Taylor got lost – most songs on the album could have easily been interpreted by any other artist currently on the charts.
I can understand the point she’s making by calling out her critics and tell her version of events on reputation, but there’s a fine line between that and give critics more food for thought.
Who knows if the real her is actually what she portraits or how she’s portrayed in the media? It could all well be brilliantly mastered PR.
Going back to reputation itself, this is an easy listen album, without much depth and catchy lyrics that stick with you and become more gullible when you’ve listened to them a couple of times. It does its job of topping the charts and reinforcing the ‘queen of pop’ status extremely well, but the musicality is gone.
Don’t Blame Me, Delicate and New Year’s Day are probably the best tracks on the album.
I’d give it a 3/5.
She sent social media into a frenzy with cryptic posts and without much explanation ahead of the release of Look What You Made Me Do, the first single of reputation.
A revamped image and sound set high expectations for the release of reputation, an album made of 15 highly commercial pop songs, pretty much destined to be radio hits.
The old Taylor is still recognisable on her very personal lyrics, but her sonority is far removed from her country roots. Of course, every artist is allowed to experiment new sounds, but that’s exactly where I believe Taylor got lost – most songs on the album could have easily been interpreted by any other artist currently on the charts.
I can understand the point she’s making by calling out her critics and tell her version of events on reputation, but there’s a fine line between that and give critics more food for thought.
Who knows if the real her is actually what she portraits or how she’s portrayed in the media? It could all well be brilliantly mastered PR.
Going back to reputation itself, this is an easy listen album, without much depth and catchy lyrics that stick with you and become more gullible when you’ve listened to them a couple of times. It does its job of topping the charts and reinforcing the ‘queen of pop’ status extremely well, but the musicality is gone.
Don’t Blame Me, Delicate and New Year’s Day are probably the best tracks on the album.
I’d give it a 3/5.
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