Buy Mommy A Prezzie

Material: Courtesy of The Valiram Group

COACH always has the most beautifully crafted and luxurious gifts for moms. Here are some of our favourites compiled from the Spring Collection, which also make ideal gifts for Mother's Day, which is on May 13.

If you are looking for a handbag Mum will enjoy for a lifetime, Coach’s elegant Madison Collection offers the perfect options.

Coach’s Madison Tossed Lace Sophia in burnt orange is an updated take on our instant classic Sophia shape. Intricate laser cut details adorn the leather - making it a must-have for Spring and beyond.

A matching assortment of Wallet’s and Zip Clutches in complementary colors, are the perfect addition to your gift.

Coach’s Madison Woven Caroline, in parchment and blue is a bit more structured with our iconic double ‘broken’ dowels, inspired by the Coach Archives, running along the top. Delicate, soft woven leather adds texture to this elevated style. 

Coach’s Hamptons Perforated Shoulder Bag is a sporty take on a classic shape. Named for the exclusive beach towns favored by well-heeled New Yorkers, silhouettes from the Hamptons Collection have simple lines, in a rich nautical color palette of corals and blues. The convertible strap allows for easy conversion from day to night, and the contrast leather base creates a beautiful spectator effect. Add an exquisite piece of jewelry like Coach’s Convertible Heart Necklace or Linked Heart Bracelet in rose gold for that special touch.

Album Review-KELLY CLARKSON

Album reviews by ACID

Artist: KELLY CLARKSON
Album; Stronger
Label: Columbia/Sony Music

I‘VE  always had a faulty tendency to just watch American Idol for its entertainment value (which is questionable at times), but after seeing the title awarded to the winner, fail to follow up with what happens post-Idol. Sometimes, it feels like Idol winners enjoy their extended 15 minutes of fame, but there are a few whose longevity withstands a short-term test of time. Chief of this, and possibly the most is the country star Carrie Underwood, followed by Texan-born Kelly Clarkson and arguably, Adam Lambert.

Clarkson has that kind of sleek muscularity to her voice that is quite taking, and suggests that she would do proper justice to a rock album, but still has yet to come up with one. Stronger is her fifth studio album, and it resonates with its strong pop melodic lines, slick yet sensitive execution and a definite sense that she has come into her own as a professional singer and most importantly, she sings like she feels comfortable in her skin, more than ever.

Stronger largely contains survival songs, most of them well-crafted power ballads, which she ably belts out, from the first two tracks, the hits Mr Know It All and What Doesn’t Kill You onwards. One gem that needs kudos is the third track, Dark Side, which she delivers with punchiness and earnest emotion that lingers in the brain and ear well after the track is done. The War is Over is another guitar-driven, rhythmic noteworthy piece.

Containing a whopping 17 tracks (four of them are bonus tracks, one featuring American Idol former judge Kara diGuardi in The Sun Will Rise and country singer Jason Alden in the wonderful duet Don’t You Wanna Stay), this should be a must-have for any Clarkson fan. All things aside, it’s a strong pop album, and much better than a lot of what her contemporaries are putting out. Don’t miss it!

Album Review - Leonard Cohen

Album reviews by ACID

Artist: LEONARD COHEN
Album: Old Ideas
Label: Columbia/Sony Music

HAVING been a longtime fan of the Canadian singer-songwriter-poet-famous Buddhist Leonard Cohen, I look forward to his work with a measure of anticipation. Cohen’s biggest strength, it is often successfully argued, is his version of the written word.

Right off the bad, the material in Old Ideas, while it almost seems to project different nuances of Cohen through the different phases of his creative career, is not a let-down. This album is also his first in seven years. Growled, whispered, spoken and sung in intervals in that scratchy, decadent baritone, the songs are about the subject he knows the best – himself. This is apparent from the beginning itself in the first track Going Home, when he starts off with “I love to speak to Leonard / He’s a sportsman and a shepherd”, all wryness, quiet and grim wit.

Present in the album, too, are familiar tools – mildly repetitive lines (which are always deliberate), found in Going Home and Amen (which sounds like that other paean Hallelujah). Darkness is a sultry ode to pure temptation, cunningly put in an organ-and-Southern blues-hook combination. Banjo, is another one of those unexpected pleasures, and you know that outright when you find yourself tapping your feet to lines like “It’s a broken banjo bobbing / on the dark infested sea”.

Whether he is sly, humorous, despairing, intimate, the songs seem to present a deeply personal side to Cohen’s life and work. And considering how he continues to fascinate critics and fellow musicians, it is wholly justified.

Anyone listening for that pleasant hook and arresting vocal ability will never truly find that in any Cohen album – he maintains that gritty and gaunt edge and slips effortlessly into the stance of the poetic, haunted, emotionally resonant troubadour. At the grand old age of 78, the one who brought classics like Song of Bernadette, Famous Blue Raincoat and Marianne still shines through the medium he knows so intimately and so well.

A real treat, this, and one worth listening to again and again.