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Summary
With a record-breaking chart history to her name, Anastacia is not only one of the biggest selling artists of the decade, but also one of the biggest names in today’s music industry. Now she’s back with her fourth studio album, Heavy Rotation. Collaborators and producers on the album include such music heavyweights as Ne-Yo, Lester Mendez, JR Rotem, Guy Chambers and Rodney Jerkins. With a body of songs that are not just hits, but empowering anthems, as well as a direction that has progressed and evolved without abandoning Anastacia’s signature sound, Heavy Rotation is set to be her most powerful and successful release to date.

“I called the album Heavy Rotation because it’s a phrase that originated with DJs”, Anastacia explains. “Also, for me, the meaning is that life can be heavy, but it all turns around and goes into something else. It seemed to be the perfect title for where I’m at in my life”.

Verdict
Despite the makeover, Ms. Defiant stands strong. Heavy Rotation is, like the artist, simply powerful, sexy, funky and cool. As Anastacia sings in closing track ‘Beautiful Messed Up World’, “Life’s like music, don’t wanna turn it down. Gotta live it loud and love the groove that keeps spinnin’ around”, this is an album you won’t want to turn down or switch off. Er, the title says it all, really.

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Full Review
The fourth studio album from Anastacia, Heavy Rotation, comes – we are told – complete with a brand new look and sound for the pop songstress with the killer pipes. Well, gone are the glasses, but here to stay is the trademark Anastacia personality, as the Motown-tinged track ‘The Way I See It’ makes perfectly clear: “Even if I really could change, I think people would find me strange…Just because it wouldn’t be me”. Yes, despite the makeover, Ms. Defiant stands strong.

2008 is the year that pop turned retro, and Anastacia has kept her finger firmly on the pulse of modern music, recalling the 60s-inspired sounds of artists such as Amy Winehouse, Duffy and Solange Knowles. She also throws in a bit of electro and then lets her mammoth persona take over. The mid-tempo clap-along soul of opening track ‘I Can Feel You’ has the hips swaying in an instant, the beats taking hold as she sings about the way her body moves when she loses control, asking, “Did you put a hex on my body?” Saucy lyrics such as, “Pushing my buttons, making me do what you want me to do”, up the single’s hip-grinding factor, getting the album off to a rich and delicious start.

More kick-ass beats and a sultry, slow pace follow with ‘Absolutely Positively’, while next track ‘Defeated’ is a stop-start urban thumper that beats to the well-known Anastacia drum of battle-scarred empowerment: “You can say that you’ve won but I’ll never believe it, ‘coz I can’t be defeated”. Yes, Anastacia’s still here, folks, and expect ‘Defeated’ to get its own heavy rotation on personal stereos and iPods everywhere after relationship break-ups and personal breakdowns alike.

Anastacia ups the oomph and sex factor again as the beats quicken and reverberate through the album’s title track, a club-friendly electro quickstep of a tune with a naughty edge: “Watch me twist like it’s contortion…Boy, don’t miss, come get your portion”. ‘Beautiful Messed Up World’ continues the gotta-live-it-up sentiment, as well as the funk, while ballad ‘Never Gonna Love Again’ showcases Anastacia’s all-mighty voice as well as her vulnerable side.

Heavy Rotation is, like the artist, simply powerful, sexy, funky and cool. As Anastacia sings in closing track ‘Beautiful Messed Up World’, “Life’s like music, don’t wanna turn it down. Gotta live it loud and love the groove that keeps spinnin’ around”, this is an album you won’t want to turn down or switch off. Er, the title says it all, really.

Heavy Rotation, by Anastacia
Label: Mercury Records
Released: 27 October 2008
ASIN: B001G93Z60

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