april2008 music musicdownloads Virgin Media
Madonna's new look
This month, a woman old enough to be your gran posed on the cover of her 11th studio album in a super-hero leotard. Thankfully, the woman in question was Madonna rather than Aretha Franklin, but the eagerly-awaited Hard Candy, [download album] featuring collaborations with the likes of Timbaland and Justin Timberlake, proved to be something of a pick-and-mix. Despite the all-star cast it was more filler than thriller – our advice is to stick with standout tracks Heartbeat [download track] and Devil Wouldn't Recognise You [download track].
And her Madge-esty wasn't the only diva dusting off the ballgown – Mariah Carey managed something of a career turnaround with her new album E=MC2 [download album] (her 11th effort too). After a sideways swerve with the likes of Glitter and Charmbracelet, Carey's latest mixes her somersaulting voice with some chunky breaks, beats and basslines. On the likes of Cruise Control [download track] and Migrate [download track] , she slaps down Madge at her own game.
Taking time out from the dayjob, Arctic Monkey Alex Turner made perhaps the decades' best attempt at a Scott Walker tribute as half of The Last Shadow Puppets. Their debut The Age Of The Understatement [download album] was a swooning stab at blue-eyed soul, showing Turner's muse isn't just hanging round outside Sheffield chip shops late on a Friday night.
Portishead: back
It might have been waylaid by a decade-long delay, but it was worth it. Portishead's new album Third [download album], their … ahem… third studio effort, treads the most magnificent of fine lines, seeming like a step forward while still echoing some great moments from the band's distant past. Opening track Silence [download track] certainly takes no prisoners.
Black Eyed Pea Will.i.am's solo single Heartbreaker [download track] featured Girl Aloud Cheryl Cole and showed the Geordie may have a rosy future ahead of her once the girls go their separate ways.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss continued an unlikely but endearing collaboration with the track Rich Woman [download track] off their album >strong>Raising Sand [download album].
Foo Fighter dave Grohl
Canadian/American duo Chromeo's single Fancy Footwork [download track] is a stab of robotic Prince-alike funk that sounds like something that could have blared out of the speakers in a Battlestar Galactica episode… you know, it's from the future and that.
The Foo Fighters deserve a clap or two merely for naming a song Cheer Up Boys, Your Make-Up Is Running [download track].
The single What U Gonna Do [download track] from Mancunian pop genius Jim Noir is like something recovered from a 1960s time capsule, including Hendrix-guitar and squeaky organs. The album, Jim Noir [download album], is a real gem too.
Moby's return
