Volume 2: Release by Afro Celt Sound System

Pros: Great beat, wide variety of talents
Cons: May be too "different" for some people's tastes

Afro Celt Sound System has a unique sound that you can't find elsewhere. Too many people get stuck in one genre and don't get around to listening to other types of music. This is a great CD to help people break out of that mold. The group effortlessly...

Pros: truly unique, danceable, and enthralling
Cons: software on CD takes up space that could've been another song

I have to admit: I bought this album because I had seen it in several different stores and it was always filed under a different section (world, dance, pop, new age, rock) and I was intrigued... now I know why. It is nearly impossible to describe this...

Pros: very unique sound
Cons: loses distinction between songs as album goes on

I'll admit I'm fairly new to the world music scene. Our company (altrec.com) sponsored WOMAD- the world music festival this last summer and so I got to see about 15 different bands play "world music" to a large crowd. I bought this CD because...

Pros: A few tracks are effective.
Cons: Extremely weak; lacking substance of any kind except commercial filler.

In recent years, due in large part to artists like Peter Gabriel and David Byrne, "world" (yuppie-speak for "non-American-sounding") music has sustained a dramatic insurgence in popularity in America. On one hand, this newfound...

Pros: Great live band
Cons: overproduced

Music seems to be trying to fuse as many genres as possible. Rappers are sampling Broadway (Jay-Z). You can here Country musicians and Teeny-Bopper popstars covering the same songs (Alabama and NSync). Most attempts border on stupidity rather than...