Lana Del Rey grew up Lizzy Grant in Lake Placid on the outer edges of New York State. Herein some of her unique music flavour was incubated. `It has an epic, nostalgic feel. It's in the middle of a national park that is six hours from New York City. But it's also a struggle because it's a town built on tourism that no-one goes to anymore.'

At 18, she fulfilled her lifelong ambition of decamping to New York City. `Since I was little I knew I would end up there,' she says, `Every day is a pleasure there. Every single day I walk out of the door is a good day. I like everything about it. New York totally rewards me for my love of it.'

Lana Del Rey's direct influences were visual as well as musical; David Lynch, soundtracks for `50s black and white movies, the whirring sound of the Ferris at Coney Island, fame itself. She lived in a New Jersey trailer park and decked her homestead in flags, streamers and seasonally inappropriate Christmas lights. `All the things I love,' she notes. This was Lana's world now and it needed to sparkle.

She intends to work with hip-hop heavyweights, with the future-perfect foot soldiers at the coal face of exciting pop. `I know it is going to take a lot of work to get there. But that's OK when you have people around you who believe in you. The record is going to be gorgeous. That much we know. Whether or not it will work? That much we don't know.'

As for the inevitable stardom that will come her way? That is something Lana Del Rey does not fear. `I know a lot of different people. When they are drunk, in the dark of the night they all want the same thing. They all want to be famous. It's innately human to want other people to bear witness to your life. It's important for people to be watched. They don't want to be alone. I don't want to be alone.'

19 is the Grammy Award-winning debut album from British singer/songwriter Adele. Citing influences as diverse as Etta James, Jill Scott, Bjork, Dusty Springfield, Billy Bragg, Billie Holiday, Jeff Buckley, The Cure and Peggy Lee, Adele is a truly unique new artist. With her mix up of R&B and soul served up with a healthy dash of feisty London attitude, she spins beautiful dark stories of loves won and lost and sometimes just daydreamed about. Features the classic tracks Chasing Pavements and Hometown Glory as well as a cover of Bob Dylan s Make You Feel My Love.

Reviewing The Black Keys 2010 Top Ten breakthrough album Brothers, Rolling Stone called the duo a two-man combo with a big-band mind. That description seems downright prophetic now. With the hard-rocking El Camino, The Black Keys fourth Nonesuch disc, guitarist-singer Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney conjure up an exhilarating, stadium-sized sound in collaboration with producer and friend Danger Mouse. El Camino boasts a no-nonsense brilliance: The pace is fast, the mood is upbeat, the choruses unfailingly addictive made for shouting along, preferably in a large, sweaty crowd.
A band already at the top of its game has gotten even better. And The Black Keys have done pretty damn well so far this year, with three 2011 Grammy awards for Brothers under their belt, an MTV Video Music Award for Tighten Up, more than 850,000 copies of Brothers sold in the U.S., and upwards of a million units worldwide, plus innumerable licensing placements in film, TV, and commercials. El Camino features one stand-out track after another, such as first single Lonely Boy, Gold on the Ceiling, and the surprising, acoustic-guitar-driven, tempo-shifting Little Black Submarines. .

This record is more straight ahead rock and roll raw, driving, and back to basics, says Auerbach. As Carney has put it, The Black Keys respect the past while being in the present, and that formula has made them sound like nothing less than the future of rock and roll. While the largely self-produced Brothers, recorded at the famed Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama, had a more soul and blues-oriented sound, El Camino often recalls the blitzkrieg-paced British-style rock of the 1960s and 70s, post-Beatles and pre-punk: artists like T-Rex, The Sweet, and Gary Glitter, along with the heavier swing of such bands as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.
The references are there, but the sound is very much contemporary and utterly their own, equally informed by The Black Keys passion for hip hop and R&B and bolstered by the atmospheric production approach of Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Burton), who was behind the boards for 2008 s Attack & Release and collaborated with them on the funky Tighten Up for Brothers. As Auerbach notes, "Brian understands all the different kinds of music we're into. He's got really great ideas about melody and song structure. For him it's all about the song." Also rejoining them is consistently innovative mixing engineer Tchad Blake, who Auerbach calls a genius with audio, a complete wizard.
El Camino arrives just in time to serve as the ideal holiday gift for The Black Keys rapidly growing fan base. It came together quickly in an unfettered burst of creativity by the hard-charging pair. They recorded these 11 tracks between tour dates for Brothers at Auerbach s new Easy Eye Studio in Nashville, where he and Carney have now relocated after years of working in their native Akron, Ohio. The duo plans to embark on a six week European Tour at the start of the New Year, with U.S. dates to follow shortly thereafter including several arenas.
In a time of global austerity, The Black Keys work simply and efficiently, with a minimum of tools and a wealth of ideas, to produce the richest, fattest, coolest music around. Upon the release of Brothers last year, Britain s Uncut magazine called them one of the best rock n roll bands on the planet, and El Camino, confirms that.

2012 album from the British vocalist. After the success of his platinum-selling album Soul, Seal has now turned his attention to classic '70s Soul records for this follow-up. Bringing his recognizable voice to tracks such as Rose Royce's 'Wishing On A Star' and Bill Withers' 'Lean On Me', Seal brings soul back to Soul music.

Belgian-Aussie artist Gotye (Wally de Backer) delivers a great art-pop album in the form of Making Mirrors. If you like your music original, interesting, with killer hooks and an arty slant then this is for you. Standout track, Someone That I Used to Know has just become the biggest selling Australian record since Savage Garden's Truly Madly Deeply in 1995. You won't regret this album, you'll wear it out.

2012 release from the Soulful vocalist. Let it Burn is a deeply intimate recording: a smoky mix of original songs coupled with inventive interpretations of an unexpected collection of covers - ranging from Adele to Los Lobos, and from The Black Keys to Johnny Cash. Recorded in New Orleans at Piety Street studios, with a small group of A-List musicians that includes George Porter Jr. of the legendary Meters, this album takes the listener on Ruthie's most personal journey yet. With her deeply moving vocals at the core, Ruthie is supported along the way by some very special guests - gospel legends The Blind Boys of Alabama and Stax Records soul man William Bell.

2012 collection, the 41st installment in the popular NOW series spotlighting the hottest hits of the moment. Includes tracks from LMFAO, Gym Class Heroes, Katy Perry, Lady GaGa and many others. 16 tracks.

FILM SYNOPSIS: Soundtrack to the film Joyful Noise, a funny and inspirational story of music, hope, love and renewal starring Oscar® nominees Queen Latifah (Chicago," Hairspray") and Dolly Parton ("Steel Magnolias," Nine to Five"). The small town of Pacashau, Georgia, has fallen on hard times, but the people are counting on the Divinity Church Choir to lift their spirits by winning the National Joyful Noise Competition. The choir has always known how to sing in harmony, but the discord between its two leading ladies now threatens to tear them apart. Their newly appointed director, Vi Rose Hill (Latifah), stubbornly wants to stick with their tried-and-true traditional style, while the fiery G.G. Sparrow (Parton) thinks tried-and-true translates to tired-and-old. The musically driven story brings together the sounds of gospel, pop, country, rock and R & B with memorable songs, performed by the cast, from a wide range of artists, including Michael Jackson, Usher, Chris Brown, Paul McCartney, Sly & the Family Stone and Stevie Wonder. Dolly Parton wrote original songs for the film, including "Not Enough (Love)" and "From Here to the Moon."