We thought we’d spice things up a bit for you this week in terms of the album reviews and decided to let two new talents in the music industry battle it out for best album this week. In the right corner, American Lana Del Rey, who’s debut album ‘Born to Die’ was released January 30 2012 is taking on Maverick Sabre, who’s debut album ‘Lonely are the brave’ hit the shelves this week.
Who’s going to be the one we recommend to you…
Lots have been said about Lana Del Rey over the past few months since she’s released ‘Video games’ worldwide. We were quite intrigued and especially since topping the album charts with ‘Born to Die’ despite mixed reviews we believe she’s the ideal candidate to take up the gloves for this week’s duel.
Miss Del Rey offers us 15 tracks on ‘Born to Die’ and quite frankly, we were left unimpressed after a first listen. Her new single, ‘Born to die’ released a day before the album, has the honour to open the album. It’s a very heavy, overly dramatic song, and that’s more or less what the whole album is like in general; very heavy, very bombastic with very minor style changes which makes you wonder if Lana Del Rey is a very versatile artist or if she’s just playing it safe. We came to the conclusion, that it made the album also very forgettable as you won’t hear Miss Del Rey belt out, or use any emotions in her voice. This is a shame. ‘’Videogames’’, the song where it all began with, is without a doubt the best composition on the album, and while some other songs get really close, they don’t quite reach to the same expectations. There are flashes, songs as ‘Diet Mountain Dew’ where Lana tries to break with the bombastic feeling, unfortunately for her they are missing that final pinch of salt/pepper to make it really stand out. Songs like ‘Dark Paradise’, ‘Summertime Sadness’ and 
‘Without You’ have all the potential to sound absolutely amazing, would they have been sung by the vocals of Florence + the Machine, but with Lana Del Rey they fall short.
Not all is lost for Lana’s monotone album, the more you listen to it, the more you start appreciating the songs you might have forgotten about. The best advice we can give you is to have at least a listen or 3 before a final, objective judgement of the album can be made.
In the right corner of our duel is quite an extraordinary young man who saw 2011 to be the start of what he hopes to be a long and exciting career in the music industry; Maverick Sabre. Born in Hackney, London but raised in Ireland, this young fella saw his album ‘Lonely are the Brave’ released this week, 6 February 2012 proceeded by two top ten 2011 singles ‘I need’, ‘Let Me Go’ and the currently to be released ‘No one’.
Maverick, who you could describe best as the love child of a secret romance triangle between Plan B, Daniel Merriweather and the sadly passed away Amy Winehouse, delivers a very strong musical debut filled with authentic, personal, soulful songs. Previously released ‘I need’ and ‘Let Me Go’ set course for a 58 minute trip of versatile old school soul. ‘Cold Game’ is a favourite as the overall feeling is very orchestral but sees Maverick mc’ing, something which he pulls of very well and remarkably suits the song. The MC style is repeated on a few tracks, another one being ‘Sometimes’, it shows how the Plan B inspiration isn’t far off. The new single ‘No One’ is full swing earworm destined to go high in the charts. There’s a varied mix of songs on the album, which doesn’t sound outdated or boring throughout. It’s very versatile as well in terms of mood. I can easily see myself listen to this while being at work, or just while I am sitting indoors in the evening with some candle light reading a book. A must buy.
Sooo the verdict…
While both are in their own league and both have a unique style we’re declaring Maverick Sabre and ‘Lonely are the brave’ the winner of this duel, as we find his album a lot more varied and interesting than the bombastic, monotone album of Lana Del Rey. Both are fantastic, but ‘Born to Die’ takes a little longer to fully appreciate than Maverick’s.
In order to celebrate Maverick’s victory, here’s the official video for his latest single ‘No One’. Both Maverick’s ‘Lonely are the brave’ and Lana Del Rey’s ‘Born to Die’ are available for download via iTunes.
Have you heard both albums? What do you think? Get involved and post your comments.
