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I just listened to this album for the first time and I admit it is one of the best recorded by Britney. Differently than Blackout, this album provides wonderful ballads, returning, this way, to a comprehensive Britney. It is very hard to define rating, but I listened carefully each track and decided that only a fabulous track, such as Toxic, would be rated as 5 stars. Following rates track by track...

3.5/5.0 - Womanizer
3.5/5.0 - Circus
4.5/5.0 - Out from under
4.0/5.0 - Kill the lights
3.5/5.0 - Shattered glass
4.0/5.0 - If u seek Amy
4.5/5.0 - Unsual you
4.0/5.0 - Blur
2.0/5.0 - Mmm papi
3.0/5.0 - Mannequin
4.0/5.0 - Lace and leather
4.5/5.0 - My baby
4.0/5.0 - Radar
3.5/5.0 - Rock me in
4.0/5.0 - Phonography
4.0/5.0 - Amnesia

My partner hates this album with a passion...He said it was like having sandpaper rubbed all over his face. I love it. Exquisite, strong, heartbreaking. J'adore Takk.

The excellent CD booklet that comes with this CD informs us that the name Matachin is enigmatic and of uncertain origin .Originally thought to be Arabic and derived from the word mutawajjihin meaning "mask-wearer" though now it is considered to derive from the Italian mattaccino the diminutive of the meaning matto -mad or fool. This is more apt for this 11 piece band have a certain barmy frisson . There is also a hypothesis that the name comes from an old Spanish sword dance ! This album could make you dance though I suspect it will make your head spin and your knees pop out of their sockets if you do .
Bellowhead are for the uninitiated, which until listening to Matachin I was, like a burlesque collision between a folk band and a big band . The music is expansive and fervently expressive with cello, fiddle, violin, trumpet , trombone, oboe, pipes, mandolin, banjo , concertina and avid percussion. There are elements of jazz, music hall , cabaret, mariachi , traditional folk and it's all done with a playful vigour that doesn't subtract from the wonderfully individual performances.
That booklet also helpfully explains the origin of each song excluding the three short instrumental vignettes dubbed helpfully Vignette one , two , three. To be honest the album wouldn't lose anything if these hadn't been included. However the same cannot be said of tracks like "Widows Curse" a traditional song arranged by Pete Flood with emphatic burgeoning strings and a terrific twittering oboe. Or of "Kafoozalum/The Priests Miss" which again is a trad song arranged by the band and is so completely barmy it would make Jeremy Paxman jig. "Roll Her Down The Bay " a shanty arranged by Pete Flood seems a touch incoherent and slapdash but is actually cleverly arranged .
What is also noticeable is the way the band can cleverly arrange a song to match it's subject matter. The way that Kipling's 1896 poem "Cholera Camp" has wheezy sounding horns or the unearthly trumpet on "Spectre Review" or the woozy but rambunctious "Whiskey Is The Life Of Man" .Then by way of contrast opening track "Fakenham Fair" is more gracious and mannered and the head spinning cello/accordion on "Trip To Bucharest" segueing into "The Flight Of The Folk Mutants Parts 1 & 2" is just a giddy joy.
The vocals by Jon Bodem occasionally struggle to match the intensity and virtuosity of the songs and it made me wonder just how special this band could be if they had a vocalist as unique and powerful as Devotchka .s Nick Urata. None the less in a great year for albums Matachin is another to add to the list. Splendidly singular stuff.

but that applies to all of Leonard Cohen's albums. "I'm your Man" features his perhaps most famous - or certainly one of his most famous - tracks of all time, FIRST WE TAKE MANHATTAN which is my favorite from this album and has been covered many times, but never has been performed as good as here. This certainly marks a change in Leonard Cohen's music, now not as minimalistic as before, but still as great as ever.

I was going to mention Clapton's christening of the Les Paul, Marshall setup, but others have beaten me to it. I liken it's impact to what happened to harp playing when Little Walter and other's deciding to blow through the PA or an early guitar amp. They REDEFINED the sound of the instrument.

So all I'll add is the rhetorical question...can you imagine being a teenage Brit, having been reared on the sounds of the Beatles, Jerry and the Pacemakers, or even the Dave Clark Five, wandering into a London club because someone had recommended the Bluesbreakers, and hearing THIS STUFF? Probably as epiphanic as being a white guy in mid 50's Chicago and having the nerve to wander into the Dew Drop Inn and hearing Muddy, Wolf, or later, Otis Rush and Buddy Guy. Simply put, a life changing experience.

Arrived yesterday and I have played it over and over, hit after hit superbly remastered and a 'must have' CD absolutely fabulous can't add anything more just buy it!

Having just heard the CD, I am warmed by the quality of ALL the tracks, the singing is beautiful and sung so professionally.
If you are looking for a traditional Carol CD, then I would definately recommend this one,

Loved the movie, bought the disc. Unlike some movie sound tracks where you wonder how you thought the soundtrack would keep alive the memory of the movie, this one really does. The quirky and independent music mirrors the film's style and characters, witty, unusual and highly entertaining. How can you not love a disc that includes such lyrics as from Kimya Dawson's 'Loose Lips'; "they think we're disposable, well both my thumbs opposable are spelled out on a double word and triple letter score". Awesome.