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Sound check Pop diversitySmart sounds on classy new releases Da Endorphine
This album doesn’t just contain love songs. Tracks like “Wan Mai (New Day)” and “She Wit Nee Sun Ja Tai (Life is Short)” feature thoughtful lyrics that give hope to listeners. Both of those songs have a good rhythm to complement the sentiments of the words. The music on Sound About has a softer feel compared with her previous records. The album features more ballads and slow tempo songs, but Da still keeps up her usual high quality and style. She’s definitely still unique enough to keep her place as one of the most popular female rockers in Thailand. — VH Cynthia’s Vacation
So many albums these days seem to feature songs that all sound the same, but Closer has a great variety of styles and a nice mix of different male and female singers. Even with that diversity, it hangs together well as a cohesive record. “Sun in You” kicks off the album with an energetic blast of sunny power-pop, while “Be Yours” has a pretty melody and an acoustic, almost bossa nova feel. “Megumi (Part 2)” is a great slice of guitar-drone pop and “Princess’s Love Song” has a soulful sound that wouldn’t be out of place on a Pizzicato Five album. The record also has some nice experimental touches, like the short instrumental “Megumi (Reprise)” and the electro-minimalism of “Loving ... Please Wait (Surreal Space).” The album ends nicely with what sounds like a cassette recording of the pretty “Sliding Door.” One of the great things about Closer is the packaging, which features a beautiful fold out cover, a photo to go with each song and a fold-out map of the London metro. Closer is a great effort from Cynthia’s Vacation. It has a good mix of styles and a nice balance between the experimental and accessible. — BE Morrissey
Morrissey has probably released as many compilations as he has original albums, and Greatest Hits is again a solo career retrospective. This one spans the years from 1988 to the present day and features many classic singles such as “Every Day is Like Sunday,” “The More You Ignore Me the Closer I Get,” and “The Youngest Was the Most Loved.” Greatest Hits also has the additional appeal of two brand new songs. Although it stretches from Morrissey’s debut solo single “Suedehead,” up to the new tracks, this compilation still feels a bit incomplete. The problem is that Greatest Hits contains too many singles from his last two records — more than half of this collection is compromised of songs from those albums, causing some real classics to be unfairly omitted. There isn’t enough variation here to make this the best Morrissey compilation on the market. For better Morrissey collections, look for Suedehead (1997) or The Best of Morrissey (2001) instead. — TB
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Sound About is the fourth album from Da Endorphine.
The first single from the record, “Dai Yin Mai (Can You Hear Me)” is
already doing well on the charts. It’s a good rock ballad with a nice melody to
showcase Da’s unique and powerful voice — a voice that fans can always
recognise. 
Closer is the first full-length album from the young
Chiang Mai based indie collective Cynthia’s Vacation. The songs on Closer
seem to be mainly inspired by ‘90s indie power-pop mixed with some tasty
electro sounds.
His former cult rock group The Smiths may have collapsed
back in the ‘80s, but Morrissey is still one of the most popular English
artists in music world. He has released 11 albums as a solo singer over the
past two decades, establishing himself as one of the UK’s greatest poetic and
musical talents.
