Karen Carpenter is the only solo album by singer/drummer Karen Carpenter of the Carpenters, recorded between 1979 and 1980 and released by A&M Records in 1996.
With a stripped-down list of members and a lean, tech-pop sound, Gus Gus's Attention gets more from less, building a lively, kinetic sound that draws heavily from old-school acid house and new-school electro. Instead of taking the usual crowd of filmmakers, artists, and even some musicians into the studio, only a trio of regular members contributed to Attention, along with vocalist Earth, whose pipes give the record's spare rhythms an edge of diva-funk. It can make for a pretty sexy sound, as tracks like "David" (featuring the provocative refrain "I still have last night in my body") attain a hands-in-the-air momentum. But overall, the diversity of the music is what keeps the record afloat, as Gus Gus piece together an aggressively modern sound from a cleverly chosen selection of early techno influences. Throughout the record, the synths are as bright as anything you'd find at an early '90s hyper-rave, but they're often integrated into synth-pop structures; "Unnecessary" sounds like something Soft Cell might be recording right now in a perfect world.
Gretchen Wilson set the country music charts on fire with her smash single "Redneck Woman" and her debut album, Here for the Party (2004). The track – though composed by colleague John Rich (of Big & Rich) – became an anthem for women all over America. Written especially for Wilson, it is from-the-gut, working-class feminism for the post-feminist age, straightforwardly sung with a celebratory vengeance. As a slice-of-life singer who embodied and brought to life each cut on the album, she became an "overnight sensation." Her follow-up, All Jacked Up (2005), was recorded and rushed out by Sony a year later…..