Wyclef
JeanWyclef Jean emigrated with his parents to the USA
from Haiti when he was 10 years old. As a teen, he joined together with his
cousin, Pras Michel, and Lauryn Hill to form the Fugees (shortened from the
Refugees); with their second album,
The Score
, they became
superstars. Since their breakthrough, the trio have worked together
sporadically, but Wyclef's found the time to record two solo albums and pick up
a pair of Grammy awards for his work on Santana's
Supernatural
.
If you ain't sharing, people ain't
caring
Ronan
Keating Since leaving Irish pop group Boyzone, Ronan
Keating has gone from strength to strength. His solo debut,
Ronan
, pleased an army of fans from his boy-band days but also
attracted loads of new listeners thanks to the hit singles "When You Say
Nothing At All" and "Rollercoaster". Earlier in the year, around the time he
released his sophmore album
Destination, Amazon.co.uk offered our
customers the chance to submit questions, which we could pass on to Ronan
Keating. From the massive response, just 20 questions were chosen to be
answered and here are his responses.
Mobile phone, DVD player, some DVDs, my family and a
speedboat!
Stacey
KentStacey Kent, purveyor of such perennial Amazon.co.uk
favourites as
Let Yourself Go
and
Dreamsville
,
tells Amazon.co.uk writer Roger Thomas how her love of language and
storytelling fed her passion for lyrics and singing.
I'm not just a singer of this music, I'm a fan of
this music
Diana
KrallDiana Krall has long been hot property in the jazz
world, but
The Look of
Love could be her passport to the mainstream. Her ability to
completely inhabit any song she tackled with her trio was always clear, but now
she's moved into the major league, recording with the London Symphony Orchestra
and winning the admiration of celebrities such as Sir Elton John and Michael
Parkinson. She talks to Mark Gilbert about the music that set her on her way.
I was a normal kid, playing pop music, but I never
thought when I was practising the songbook of Goodbye Yellow Brick
Road
that I'd be singing "Border Song" with Elton John when I was
36
LadytronLadytron may be retro-futurists, tweaking their
antique synths like the only tomorrow will be one of cold and fashionable
automatons, but their stern image belies the accessible nature of their brand
of electro-pop. Their frighteningly infectious debut,
604
, is
Kraut rock meets 80s synth-pop via the Human League, Black Box Recorder and
Kraftwerk. Amazon.co.uk asks Ladytron to write about some of their favourite
albums.
The concept of Victorian-futurist-rockmusik is one
that makes me very happy
LambchopThe follow-up to Lambchop's rightfully acclaimed
masterpiece
Nixon
, 2002's
Is a
Woman is cut from a similar cloth, as frontman Kurt Wagner and
his band further explore their fascination with soul music. This time, though,
the electronic experimentation of their previous album has been replaced with
sparse instrumentation, with Wagner's songs accompanied by little more than
piano and guitar. As Amazon.co.uk guest editors, the band choose 10 of their
favourite albums, which reflect their diverse tastes and influences.
Including Yo La Tengo, Curtis Mayfield and
Dump
Lemon
Jelly Lemonjelly's debut album
Lemonjelly.ky
was a huge success and the duo's second,
Lost Horizons
, looks set to achieve similar acclaim. One half of
the duo, Fred Deakin, takes some time to tell us about some of his favourite
albums as guest editor for Amazon.co.uk.
Great to listen to when you're, you know, a little
wobbly
Ute
LemperChanteuse Ute Lemper is a consummate crossover
artist, whose singing career extends from the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber to
that of Michael Nyman and Luciano Berio. But it is as an interpreter of Berlin
theatre and cabaret songs from the Weimar Republic days of the 1920s and 30s
that she is best known.
Let's cut the bullshit and let's get to the
point
London
PosseWhen
Gangster Chronicle
was
originally released, with its mix of reggae, dub and unmistakably London
rhymes, it became a seminal album for UK hip-hop, the first example of UK
rappers rhyming in their own accent. Although the London Posse never released a
follow-up, Rodney P and Bionic still work within the rap and dance industry,
Bionic branching into drum & bass and Rodney P recently appearing on
Skitz's Countryman alongside a new wave of home-grown talent. With the reissue
of
Gangster Chronicle
, we asked Rodney P to choose his favourite
albums as guest editor of Amazon.co.uk's Hip-Hop & Rap shop.
This was unmistakable roots and it was not trying to
fit into the mould set by our American counterparts
LostprophetsJust one album in and Welsh six-piece Lostprophets
have built quite a reputation. Their debut,
The Fake Sound of
Progress
, offers a real challenge to the American dominance of the
nu-metal scene, and earned them a Kerrang Award for Best British Newcomers. As
guest editors of Amazon.co.uk's Hard Rock & Metal category, Ian Watkins
(vocals) and Mike Lewis (guitar) pick their favourite albums.
Hell yeah, the good old days
