Notable albums this week: Two ten-foot statues of yourself don't make you a good musician

Dance

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Armin van Buuren Breathe In

Armin van Buuren is the carpenter who single-handedly first built the Dutch dance scene and then that of the world. He has been in the top 5 of the DJ Mag list of the best DJs in the world for almost twenty years, and was the surprise of last ADE. His new album Breathe In is, in his own words, his fastest album ever. The tracks fluctuate between 130 and 150 bpm. Read the entire review.

Classic

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Katharine Dain & Sam Armstrong Forget This Night

The second album by soprano Katharine Dain and pianist Sam Armstrong is also spot on. On Forget This Night they combine a grand song cycle by Lili Boulanger with work by Karol Szymanowski and Grazyna Bacewicz: a wonderfully composed and performed whole. Read the entire review.

Pop

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Sophie Street Broken Mirrors

Sophie Straat is in a hurry. She once presented herself as a tear-jerker singer, although the activist songs had more grams than sorrow. Sophie is also angry now. While the violins sway and the pianos clatter, she sings hoarsely and virtuoso, with an Amsterdam drawl. Her chastisement affects the 'stupid' person – man? – and especially the participants in (British) bachelor parties and fraternity members who drunkenly stroll through the Red Light District: 'Married and two kids at home in Liverpool/ But drinking, snorting, fighting is your goal tonight/ You're stupid!'. Read the entire review.

Chanson

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Machteld van der Gaag Machteld chanted Shaffy

It's strange that no one has ever thought of singing Ramses Shaffy songs in French before. After all, his lyricism lends itself ideally to the blend of poetry and temperament that makes him so recognizable. The songs he left behind fit much more into the French chanson idiom than into the Dutch cabaret repertoire. And that statement has now been proven – with the album Machteld chanted Shaffy as result. Read the entire review.

Hip hop

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Kid Cudi Insano

He announced Kid Cudi's long-awaited new album by placing two meter-high statues of himself in New York and Paris. Unfortunately the album Insano, with the exception of a few pearls, not very original. Read the entire review.