Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises.
Preparation
Want a job as a music journalist? Here's your chance. We're looking for a new lead reviewer for Hot! Magazine but we're not interviewing for the job. Instead, write a review of your favourite album ever. We want to know why you love it and why you think everyone should listen to it. Convince us and you've got the job!
I'm certainly not alone with my choice of favourite album. In fact, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA has sold 30 million copies worldwide since its release in 1984. Nearly 30 years later, in 2013, Springsteen performed the complete album in concert to the delight of some of his many die-hard fans.
A fast-paced, foot-tapping rock album, Born in the USA's lyrics nevertheless carry emotional weight. Behind the catchy rock melodies that drive these powerhouse classics are stories of the dark side of the American dream. Many tracks deal with the struggles of hard-working ordinary people and the bitterness and anger they feel as life doesn't bring them riches or glory. The song Glory Days, for example, is about people in a small town looking back at when they were young and had the world at their feet while Downbound Train tells the story of a young man whose life is ruined when he loses his job. It's not hard to imagine that the artist is channelling real people he knew and the life he might have had if he hadn't become a star. The album will leave you in no doubt of the unique and extraordinary talent of the Boss.
Unlike many other best-selling album artists, Springsteen is still releasing chart-topping, stadium-filling new music and remains at the top of his game in his late 60s. It doesn't surprise me at all. This is a man who tells us our most fundamental stories about ourselves and, when you listen to Born in the USA, those stories are as relevant today as they ever were.
Tips
- The first paragraph should be a general introduction to what you're reviewing. Include the title, artist, and an interesting fact about its success or how it was made.
- The main body of the review needs detailed observations. Use specific vocabulary (e.g. lyrics, fast-paced, catchy melodies) to comment on particular songs and parts of the music.
- It is also important to give context. Link the music to the artist's life, or what inspired them, and the political or social context of the album.
- Try to make the review interesting and relevant to the reader. You can relate the artist's work to real-life experience (yours or that of people in general).
- Use compound adjectives (e.g. fast-paced, foot-tapping, best-selling) to make your writing highly descriptive.
- Finish off with a summary of why this album/concert, etc. is important.
There is no denying that Depeche Mode belongs to the kind of cultural phenomena that has shaped a whole generation. Their unique style, varying between droning hypnotising mechanical sound and soothing orchestral music. Yet, it's the voice of their lead singer, Dave Gahan, that deepens the spell and puts you in an inescapable trance. DM's songs channel a full vibrant range of every human emotion: from jealousy and passion to sorrow and wrath. If you are longing for a soul-healing, mind-bending experience, be sure to give Depeche Mode a try, you'll thank me later :)
I'm not surprised that my favourite album - "Innuendo" by one of my favourite bands Queen - is still on top of music lovers' minds. This is a great album with a great and sad story behind it.
The band Queen performed almost twenty years before their very last album "Innuendo" (not counting some later albums that were released after Freddie Mercury death) and have already been a legend. But nor their first success in the middle 70s with "Night at the Opera" and "A day of the races", nor their mature and powerful albums of the 80s ("The Work" and "The kind of magic" first of all) couldn't be compared with the absolutely unique and breath-taking sound of their last work.
And not only the instrumental part but the voice of Freddie. It never sounded like this before, so high and deep and unforgotten.
The main hits of the album - "Innuendo", "Mother Love", "I'm going slightly mad" and "These are the days of our lives" show us the best Queen had all these years: high-performance level, variability and serious lyrics.
The best Queen song (not only on this album) - "The show must go on" sounds like music from heaven and could touch your soul even if you don't know about Freddie Mercury's disease and how he fought with death trying to finish the very last album of his life.
I don't have any favourite album. I just listen song and never listen again and again. Use and throw it
I am not very clear about this sentence grammar
"The guitar I might have had I I hadn't a singer"
Hello sengaung,
The sentence is not grammatical. I'm not sure what you're trying to say so I can't make a suggestion as to how you might change it.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
I don't seem to find just one favourite album. My love for music has made me enjoy different types of genres making it difficult for me to compare one "Young The Giant" rock album to a "Cultura Profetica" reggae album and come up with a choice from them both great pieces of artwork i adore and recommend, whether it is the "Mind Over Matter" or "La Dulzura" albums' , tottally opposite sounds. Either way I know that music has also gone through different stages in wich hits had become very poppular because of different quirks of a tune or music video but not really as a whole production where the audience could not only enjoy a catchy sound but also a great lyric composition and as a complement a great music video with an amazing dance choreography. Only very few artists had been able to accomplish that, like the one and only Michael Jackson. "Thriller" is for me as for so many others the all time favourite album with a tracklist of chart-topping hits. Though i was more used to modern sounds i couldn't overlook on the fact that Michael Jackson's music was made to endure, impacting in farther generations as it did in the 80's. Every song is so well ensambled in that album and his peculiar powerful voice makes a unique experience while listening to each song in it, not mentioning the dances in his music videos becoming trends that would never get old. It's a non explaining work of art that of course was on Jackson's hand to be portrayed as culture that unified all parties with one goal in specific that was to create joy around. Therefore i can conclude that though my mother was the die-hard fan of his, i was also able to appreciate his art and for that reason pick "Thriller" as my fav album of all time.