Posts Tagged ‘Eric Church’

« Older Entries

Sports Cars and Jesus: Hot 100 Roundup—3/9/13

Friday, March 8th, 2013

Nelly—“Hey Porsche”
#42

This is hilarious. Nelly has always experimented with mixing different genres into his-hop, but over the last few years, as his pop success has faded, he’s started to sound desperate. On “Hey Porsche” he dredges up the old idea of comparing a car to a woman (or vice-versa) mixes in some touches of EDM, tosses a “nigga” or two into the lyric to maintain his cred, and, most inexplicably, copies the riff from “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”. And after all that effort, what does he end up with? A hip-hop version of Train. Maybe he should try something else.

AfroJack featuring Chris Brown—“As Your Friend”
#88

Though it rarely gets mentioned, for obvious reasons, Chris Brown has done as much, if not more, to bring EDM into hip-hop as anybody. Whatever his other flaws, musical or personal, he knows how to pick beats. His biggest problem is that he often doesn’t know what to do with them, penning cliche lyrics around banal, or non-existent, melody lines. On “As Your Friend”, though there still isn’t much of a tune, the lyrics are better, and Brown intentionally plays down as low as he can. He also manages to avoids the defiant self-pity that makes him so easy to hate. He sounds resigned, almost repentant, which is a big change for him. As for the beat, it’s pop on the insane, dubstep side of the EDM spectrum, and far better than anything David Guetta or Calvin Harris have come up with recently. “As Your Friend” isn’t great, by any means, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Emeli Sande—“Next To Me”
#89

Those overpowering drums owe an obvious debt to Adele, but Sande takes them back to their source, the driving martial rhythms of gospel (you didn’t think “Next To Me” was about a lover, did you?). Also like Adele, Sande has the ability to get loud without ever sounding shrill or losing her emotional connection to the song; she can go places other singers wouldn’t dare. I have some doubts about the lyrics, especially the paraphrase of Kipling at the end, but a record this powerful almost defies criticism.

Eric Church—“Like Jesus Does”
#99

Church is so good at what he does that he almost pulls this off. Though I appreciate his refusal to turn this into a power-ballad, which is what 90% of country singers would have done, it gets stolid by the end, and the lack of rhythmic and melodic variety becomes wearing. His metaphors don’t always gel, either. Is a Waylon Jennings song more sinful if it’s on vinyl as opposed to CD or MP3? How would that work, exactly? Church must think it means something, because he repeats it at the end, but all I get from it is that it’s a way of establishing his country traditionalist bona fides without dragging his truck into the song. This is a good thing, but it doesn’t quite work.

Future featuring Lil Wayne—“Karate Chop (Remix)”
#100

It’s a feeling that’s been coming over me for the last couple of months, and now it’s taken an unshakable hold, no matter how I try to ignore it: I dread the idea of listening to Lil Wayne. He has become the worst part of almost every record he appears on (including his own). Here, after being provided a near-perfect lead-in by Future, he half-assedly replicates the flow Future has established, then tosses it aside like something that’s beneath him and proceeds to delivers a few bars of rote misogyny before giving up completely. He’s more than the worst thing on “Karate Chop”; he pretty much ruins it. To compound my despair, last week Kanye West called a radio station to announce that, whatever MTV may say, Wayne is the greatest MC in the game. Which only makes me fear that the two most dominant rappers of the last decade have both lost their minds.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Hot 100, Hot 100 Roundup, new this week, singles | Comments Off

Bad Raps and Country Hacks
Hot 100 Roundup—11/24/12

Thursday, November 15th, 2012

A handful of biz professionals this week (yes, even The Wanted), trying to find a way to tinker with their sound enough to keep it either fresh or relevant (it doesn’t need to be both). Only The Wanted succeed, and their youth probably has a lot to do with it. It’s hard on old pros when the business, and the entire cohort of fans, changes in the matter of a few years—though since it happens every decade and a half you’d think they’d be ready. This doesn’t affect the country folks much—the market changes so gradually that most people don’t even notice it until years after the fact—but boy is it smacking the hip-hop guys upside the head. Ludacris has no idea what to do, and Usher is only going through the motions. Maybe they should take some tips from Kendrick Lamar, whose “Swimming Pools (Drank)” entered the top twenty this week. The success of Lamar—and to a lesser extent Frank Ocean and The Weeknd—may be the most important thing to happen in hip-hop this year. There may not be room for someone like Ludacris anymore. I even have my doubts about Usher.

Ludacris featuring Usher & David Guetta—“Rest Of My Life”
#72

This is worse than terrible—it’s unspeakable. It sounds as if it were made entirely of spare parts: a Guetta beat that goes nowhere, an Usher hook that’s laughable in its feigned intensity and ridiculous “meaningful” pauses, and a couple of Ludicris raps that appear to have been produced by a cliche generating algorithm, and may well have been performed by one (and I thought Lil Wayne had reached a creative standstill). Actually worse than Ludacris’s other current single, “Representin’”, which is saying something. Does this mean that the merger of hip-hop and EDM is already a dead issue? Or can Ne-Yo keep it going all by himself?

Jason Aldean with Luke Bryan & Eric Church—“The Only Way I Know”
#93

The problem with country rap isn’t that it can’t be done well (though it isn’t in this case), or that it represents some sort of cultural imperialism. The problem is that it’s nothing more than an affectation, just another stylistic element for performers to add to their tool kit. When hip-hop and rap took over R&B they changed it completely: the sound, the style, the attitude, the lyrical content, everything. Country rap changes nothing. It’s just the usual rural chauvinism delivered in a sing-songy rhythm, nothing that hasn’t been done by plenty of performers in the past (and much better, too—Johnny Cash, anyone?). So I would hardly call Aldean and his colleagues daring. Besides, Aldean is a terrible rapper, and Bryan, judging by this, can barely speak at all. Eric Church wisely avoids looking a fool by singing the middle eight instead of rapping it. It’s the only decent part of the record, and it isn’t much.

The Wanted—“I Found You”
#95

This is a surprise. After the relative failure of “Chasing the Sun” I expected a rehash of “Glad You Came”, and though this resembles that big hit in some ways, it’s better: less garish, with more variety and a lot more soul. It’s clumsy in spots, but the high points make up for it. The biggest surprise is that two of these guys can really sing. I have no idea which two, but I can wait until they start their solo careers to find out. Since this isn’t selling very well, that may be sooner than anyone expected.

Little Big Town—“Tornado”
#97

Little Big Town is perfect at lighthearted fare like “Pontoon”, but when things get serious and a storm is threatening they can be as heavy-handed and portentous as Carrie Underwood at her worst, even if they’ve learned to tone down the bombast. “Tornado” isn’t much of a song, so they pack it with gimmicks lifted from the T-Bone Burnett school of record production: sparse, hard-edged instrumentation drenched in reverb (there’s a false ending that’s nothing but reverb); lots of echo; off-mike vocals and whistling; and various odd sounds thrown in at seemingly random moments. None of it has anything to do with the song, but it sounds impressive if you’re easily impressed by that sort of thing. I’m not.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Hot 100, Hot 100 Roundup, new this week, singles | Comments Off

Confessions and Evasions
Hot 100 Roundup—7/28/12

Thursday, July 26th, 2012

Frank Ocean—“Thinkin Bout You”
#85
Even without Ocean’s personal revelations, it’s hard to imagine how much further into the confessional form anyone could go than Channel Orange. His emotional confusion and the yearning that go with it shape and dictate the style and sound of the album, especially on this track, which opens the record and sets the stage for everything to come. He talks about the weather and begins to cry; jokes about the shallowness of his feelings and then admits he’s lying while collapsing on his bed in a single, brilliant line; finally he bares his hopes, his dreams, and his disappointments in a sweet, shaky falsetto that’s beautiful and unsettling, accusatory and pleading. Not a pop record, and its appearance on the Hot 100 may be the result of curiosity as much as quality (and I worry that some people are drawn to him because he reminds them of Drake). But anything that gives attention to a great record is fine by me.

French Montana featuring Rick Ross, Drake, Lil Wayne—“Pop That”
#90
Montana’s raps are so difficult to understand that it’s no surprise that people think he’s making up new words. There could be two or three in every line for all I know. Rick Ross is Rick Ross, which is neither good nor bad. He’s just there, as usual. Which leaves Drake and Lil Wayne, one becoming more ordinary with every rap, and the other trying desperately not to be. Drake sounds more confident than ever, but all that means is that except when he gets off a good line (there are a couple here), he sounds like every other bragging rapper. Meanwhile, Lil Wayne flails around trying to find something that will stick, and comes up with one of the most disgusting sexual images I’ve ever heard. I’m not going to repeat it; you’ll know it when you hear it (I hope).

Thomas Rhett—“Something To Do With My Hands”
#93
The title told me exactly what this would sound like, but it didn’t fill me in on how good it would be. If country is going to be the new rock and roll (or the old rock and roll with more twang and banjos for texture instead of synths) that’s fine with me, especially if the up-and-comers’ tastes in early ’80s rock continue to lean more toward Rockpile than The Eagles or Tom Petty. Like Eric Church, Rhett brings an energy to his music that’s missing from that of most of their peers, and he avoids the sheen of studio perfection that mars so many Nashville versions of rock (compare CHurch and Rhett to Tim McGraw or Kenny Chesney). Rhett is a little more laid back than Church, and sounds like he comes from the more privileged side of the tracks (he should; his father, Rhett Akins, was a minor country star in the late ’90s and still writes hits for others, including Blake Shelton’s “Honey Bee”), but he’s just as good at putting a song together. And in a genre that makes stars of overbearing hacks like Jason Aldean and Brantley Gilbert, he’s another glimmer of hope.

Ed Sheeran—“The A Team”
#95
An old-fashioned piece of singer/songwriter acoustic balladry, with all the flaws inherent in the form. The hushed romanticism sentimentalizes the darkness of the subject—a young girl hooked on opium (at least I assume that’s opium in her pipe; who would sing about a crack addict like this?), forced into prostitution to support her habit, and slowly dying to boot—while the attempts at lyrical profundity and poetry end up trivializing the subject rather than illuminating it. The girl’s face, for instance, is described as “crumbling like pastries”. It’s evocative, but of what is hard to tell. Is her skin flaky? Buttery? Dusted with powdered sugar? And why change the pronoun in the final chorus? Is Sheeran blaming us for this situation he made up? Or is he saying we’re all addicts? Is being simplistic and engaging in faux-profundity another flaw inherent in the singer/songwriter form, or is it just Sheeran?

Train—“50 Ways To Say Goodbye”
#98
Train’s hooks are so simple and obvious you find yourself humming along before they even start (especially, as in this case, when the new chorus sounds so much like the last one). Their beats are so bouncy that some rhythmic spring in your lizard brain sproings along in time no matter how hard your conscious mind tries to shut it off. Lyrically they’re goofy without being witty or challenging, though they do a good enough job at avoiding cliche to keep you listening for whatever nonsense they’ll come up with next. Their records are devoid of any actual emotion other than the desire to write a catchy chorus, even when the song is about a broken relationship, like this one. Even their irony is fake. In other words, they make children’s records for adults (or at least adult—cough—radio). They’ve been doing this for a couple of decades now. I’d admire their commercial acuity and tenacity if I didn’t hate them so much.

Big & Rich—“That’s Why I Pray”
#99
Less than a decade ago, Big and Rich looked like the future of country music. Somehow, though, they never moved forward in the way people hoped they would, and the future they helped to anticipate arrived without them (see above). Now they seem a bit old-fashioned and out of touch. This is an above-average “trust in God” song, but just when you hope they’ll do something different (I would love to hear more from the unemployed guy who tells them not to mention God in his presence), they start pulling out well-worn and outdated ideas that we’ve not only heard too many times before, but are just plain wrong; i.e., teen pregnancy rates have been dropping over the last decade, not going up. Except in the bible belt, of course, where they’ve been trusting in God a little too much.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Hot 100, Hot 100 Roundup, new this week, singles | Comments Off

Oh yeah

Thursday, July 19th, 2012

Thomas Rhett’s “Something To Do With My Hands”. Eric Church has some competition for the title of Best Country Rocker. Funny, too.

Tags: ,
Posted in country, singles, video | Comments Off

A Batch of Near Misses
Hot 100 Roundup—6/2/12

Friday, June 1st, 2012

Kenny Chesney—“Come Over”
#59
The mindless “Feel Like a Rock Star” to the contrary, in many ways Chesney has matured as an artist, and he’s become especially effective at songs like this, which emphasize a sense of regret while hinting at a barely restrained longing and sensuality. This may be more a matter of craft than sensibility—Chesney knows his stuff better than most anyone else in country—but it works as long as you don’t listen too deeply and catch the mechanics at work. I doubt he’ll ever top “You and Tequila”, but this is in the same ball park. Enough records like this and I may learn to tolerate him.

J. Cole featuring Missy Elliott—“Nobody’s Perfect”
#90
Cole is a good rapper, but his ideas are so confused that you’re never sure where he’s going or what point he’s trying to make. The beat is above-average but not great, and Missy Elliott, though always a pleasure to hear, provides only enough quality to maintain her reputation and nothing more. The only thing that’s noteworthy is the second reference to Plato to make the Hot 100 this year, but it’s a throwaway; Cole doesn’t build the whole track around it like Jay-Z and Kanye West did.

Gym Class Heroes featuring Ryan Tedder—“The Fighter”
#95
Ryan Tedder has appeared on God knows how many records, but as far as I can tell he’s written only two actual hooks, recycling them from song to song while changing the words and varying the arrangement just enough to cover his tracks. The good thing is that Tedder’s plaintive sentimentality forces Travie McCoy to act like a human being rather than a wind-up snark toy, making him far less irritating than usual. Not that it prevents McCoy from throwing out one of the worst ever examples of hashtag rap: “That’s when you press on/Lee Nails”. It’s so stupid and meaningless and so belittles the song’s message it’s almost disrespectful, especially coming from a guy who says he does it “for the kids”. I’m sure the twelve year olds who think he’s funny appreciate the effort.

Love And Theft—“Angel Eyes”
#98
I have no problem in general with power pop influenced country, even if it necessarily leans toward Tom Petty. The Band Perry, for instance, does very well with the idea, as does the more rock influenced Eric Church. But Church and the Perrys both dig into the emotional side of the form, while Love And Theft are nothing but machines. They get the sound right, the structure, even some of the clever lyrical turns, but they’re far more interested in technical perfection and hitting all the marks than expressing emotion. The result is a well-constructed song that is built from one tired trope after another and adds nothing to them: Songwriting 101 personified. The smartest thing they’ve done is name themselves after a Bob Dylan album, though I doubt they’ll ever live up to it.

Dustin Lynch—“Cowboys And Angels”
#100
In country, if you string enough well-worn clichés together with a decent title hook, you’ve got a song. Find a singer with an air of rough sincerity and enough gravel in his voice to be taken for a real cowboy, pair him with an arrangement that touches all the right buttons, and you’ve got a hit. Here’s another one.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Hot 100, Hot 100 Roundup, new this week, singles | Comments Off

F ‘em & F ‘em
Hot 100 Roundup—5/26/12

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012

2 Chainz featuring Drake—“No Lie”
#45
Drake’s misogyny is more subtle than that of other rappers (and rockers, and country singers, and so on), but it’s still misogyny. Instead of calling women names and physically and/or verbally mistreating them, he argues that they’re complicit in his manipulation of his celebrity to test drive women who strike his fancy. They all know what he’s about, right? So fuck ‘em and forget ‘em. It’s an old story, and Drake can’t be completely blamed for it, but considering the guy has built a career on his self-doubt and worries about his moral compass his inability to cop to his own bullshit is offensive. And for all that, Drake, who is rapping better than ever, is the least offensive thing on this record and the only reason to listen to it. 2 Chainz wouldn’t recognize a woman as a human being even if she kicked him in the nuts. Though I do encourage somebody to try.

Tony Lucca—“99 Problems”
#58

Justin Bieber—“Turn To You (Mother’s Day Dedication)”
#60
I’m having a hard time understanding the new, “mature” Justin Bieber. “Boyfriend” mixes dark, sensual music with some of the most naïve, unerotic lyrics ever heard, while this tribute to his mother is more reminiscent of southern rock murder ballads than a paean to a loving parent. He’s either mistaken sounding somber with sounding adult, or his much-vaunted precocious talent doesn’t extend to an understanding of what any particular piece of music means. That would go a long way toward explaining the emotional blankness of his singing.

Adam Levine & Tony Lucca—“Yesterday”
#68

Jermaine Paul—“I Believe I Can Fly”
#83

Christina Aguilera & Chris Mann—“The Prayer”
#85

Dierks Bentley—“5-1-5-0”
#94
A lot of people are impressed by Bentley—or at least they were impressed by “Home”—but I’m not one of them. He’s a better than average country rocker, but only slightly. Put him in a battle of the bands with Eric Church or Miranda Lambert, even Blake Shelton, and they’d wipe the floor with him before the second song. On a good night he might be able to take Justin Moore, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Usher featuring Rick Ross—“Lemme See”
#98
This is a step up from “Scream”, but nowhere near “Climax” (a tall order, I admit). The beat has a jumpy, eerie quality to it, but the song itself doesn’t work. Ross’s Trayvon Martin reference is too soon, and in some ways too little. Usher himself sounds, especially when he shows off his chest, as if he’s engaging in self-parody. That would be fine if it fit with the music, but it doesn’t. Maybe he hasn’t quite figured out all this electronic stuff.

Listen on Spotify

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Hot 100, Hot 100 Roundup, new this week, singles | Comments Off

The Boss and The Beebs
Hot 100 Roundup—3/17/12

Monday, March 26th, 2012

Far*East Movement featuring Justin Bieber—“Live My Life”
#21
Bieber’s involvement in this record may be the main selling point to millions of teenagers, but his presence is a distraction. For that matter, so is Far*East Movement’s. It’s not that any of them are bad vocalists, or that they don’t do a perfectly decent job here (I love the change-ups in vocal timbre throughout the record), but I just want to listen to that groove and ignore the rest. It’s so subdued in its way that I was surprised to find it’s a Redone production; I thought it must be The Cataracs. Maybe he’s gotten over his garishness. More records like this and I may start to like him.

Nicki Minaj featuring Lil Wayne—“Roman Reloaded”
#70
This record depresses me. Not because it’s the third or fourth Minaj track in a row to be less than stunning—if anything, thanks mostly to Lil Wayne, it’s better than some of the others. It depresses me because of the example it sets, and the new rap paradigm it’s reinforcing. By bragging about her endorsement deals, Minaj is setting up a new standard for success, one based not only on skills or popularity, but also on a rapper’s willingness to be a corporate shill. No doubt she and Lil Wayne (who has the good sense here to brag about his sexual prowess, not Mountain Dew) think of this as buying in, not selling out, but it’s a diminishment anyway—maybe not of Minaj’s skills as yet, but of the audience’s trust in her. I know that every time I see her now I’ll be asking myself what she’s trying to sell me besides her music, and that expectation, which bounces back and forth between the audience and the performer, eventually will diminish her as an artist, as expectations and trust on both sides drop. I hope I’m wrong, but I can’t see this leading anywhere else.

Eric Church—“Springsteen”
#79
I’ve always been a fan of Church, what he sometimes lacks in inspiration he makes up in energy, intelligence, and principal—he may not always know what to do, but he always knows what not to do. This, I think is something of a breakthrough, not just because it’s a great song with an unusual subject (or at least an unusual way of presenting it), but because the sheer craftsmanship involved suggests that Church is capable of even more than he’s done so far. It’s a little stiff in spots, but so what? So is Springsteen. The groove is wonderful, and the emotion overwhelms what at first might seem like a ridiculous, over-sentimental concept. And I love the way he echoes Springsteen without ever directly imitating him. A near perfect record.

Travis Porter featuring Tyga—“Ayy Ladies”
#88
I like these guys, and I especially like their producer. This has a great beat, but their raps were more interesting on their earlier records, and they seem to be settling into a strip club groove that will soon become a rut. As broke, horny guys roaming the streets they were at least funny; now they sound exhausted and too experienced for their own good.

LoveRance featuring 50 Cent—“Up!”
#92
50 still sounds like he enjoys sex as sex, and not just as power, but he appears to be ambivalent about rapping. He slurs so much and speeds so quickly through his bars you’d swear he couldn’t wait to get out of the studio. With company like this, who can blame him?

Future featuring T.I.—“Magic”
#94
The only part of this I like is when Future talks about his accountant having the magic to make his taxes go away. Otherwise, despite Future’s flow in spots, this is ordinary. And what’s happened to T.I.? He’s the dullest thing on here.

Estelle—“Thank You”
#100
Estelle is a true talent, but this is not a good record. The fact that’s it’s such an obvious rip of Sade is one problem, the basic theme another. Thank you for making me a woman? Really? It’s all very stylish and well-polished, but it also sounds uninspired and several steps less than brilliant. She’s trying too hard to be perfect and not letting her real self out.

Listen on Spotify

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Hot 100, Hot 100 Roundup, new this week, singles | Comments Off

Hot 100 Roundup—10/8/11

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris—”We Found Love”
#16
It’s not as great, but this may be Rihanna’s most enjoyable single since “Umbrella”. That said, I do worry, though it’s not surprising, that she’s still using her relationship with Chris Brown to fuel her inspiration. This is obvious not just from the recently released video, but also from her choice of collaborator. Harris, who had one of his beats copied wholesale without credit by Brown last year, must have gotten a lot of enjoyment out of putting this together. I bet Rihanna called him as soon as the story broke. It also explains the icy feel of the track: it’s a dish served cold.

Glee Cast
“It’s Not Unusual”, #65
“You Can’t Stop the Beat”, #67
“We Got the Beat”, #83

Birdman featuring Nicki Minaj & Lil Wayne—”Y.U. Mad”
#68
Good beat, the usual goodness from Minaj (hell, I’d listen to an entire Nickelback album if she were featured on every cut), and Birdman, though he spouts nothing but cliches, is at least in good form. As for Wayne, his rap is nothing special (for him), but for the first time since he got out of prison he sounds awake. Maybe he needs to toss out a few dozen guest spots to get back to form. Or maybe Minaj pricked his conscious with her “female Weezy” schtick.

Demi Lovato
“Fix a Heart”, #69
“Unbroken”, #98
It’s a credit to Lovato’s talents as a vocalist that she can glide over lines like “I just ran out of band aids” and ridiculous rhymes like “you can bandage the damage” and still make them sound musical. And it’s a credit to her strength as a human being that she can write a song like “Unbroken”, where she reclaims and swears by the emotional openness that got her into trouble in the first place. So maybe she won’t turn into Connie Francis. She still oversings, though, and she still has to find better material and put it together with more care: the techno backing on “Unbroken” doesn’t fit her voice at all.

Jason Aldean—”Tattoos On This Town”
#81
For Aldean, this cliched nostalgia bomb is actually a step up—better this than another overloud power ballad. He’s still terrible, though. And I really wish he’d found another way to approach the verse about swinging out on a rope over the swimming hole; the way he does it now I always expect him to describe a lynching.

Eric Church—”Drink In My Hand”
#96
Reviewed in Bubbling Under, 8/13/11

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Hot 100, Hot 100 Roundup, new this week, singles | Comments Off

Bubbling Under, 8/13/11

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Big Time Rush featuring Iyaz—”If I Ruled the World”
#106
The line between teen TV soundtrack music and mainstream pop is now so thin that if it wasn’t for the strained actor’s vocals this would be inseparable from any other pop song with Iyaz on it. In other words, don’t write this off just because it’s for tweens, write it off because it’s mediocre—catchy mediocre.

Ronnie Dunn—”Cost of Livin’”
#107
I’ve never much cared for Dunn, either with his ex-partner or on his own, but this is a near masterpiece. For the most part the lyrics avoid sentimentality, and also politics, sticking only to the essential points and details. Meanwhile the music, dry and precise, drives home the emotional point. The bridge is devastating. I wish Dunn had a better voice, or could make it a bit less plaintive, but that’s a minor quibble. I doubt he’ll ever do anything better.

Eric Church—”Drink In My Hand”
#109
I heard a lot of promise in Church’s first few singles, and though I can’t say this fulfills them all, it comes close. This sounds ordinary at first, but it grows on you fast, and Church shows some interesting flashes of where his inspiration comes from: parts of this sound a lot like Dave Edmunds and Rockpile. Which means it’s more like intelligently recycled rock and roll than country. But then who (besides Ashton Shepard) knows what country is anymore?

Kelly Rowland featuring Big Sean—”Lay It On Me”
#114
Big Sean’s rap on the intro, where he fantasizes about Rowland in a schoolgirl porn outfit, is enough to make me reject this record from the start, and Rowland, who seemed to be onto something with “Motivation”, does nothing to improve matters. And then Big Sean comes back.

Swedish House Mafia—”Save the World”
#117
Whose house again? Journey’s?

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Bubbling Under, singles | Comments Off

Hot 100 Roundup—3/26/11

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Glee Cast
“Landslide”, #23
“Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)”, #57
“Animal”, #62
“Kiss”, #83


Eli Young Band—”Crazy Girl”
#59
I like the sound of this, especially the steel guitars, which go for timbre and intensity rather than the usual sentimental effects, but it isn’t much of a song, and Young isn’t much of a singer. There are times when this reminds me of a male Taylor Swift, oddly enough, but that’s more a matter of melodic construction rather than theme or approach. I’ll be interested in whatever they do next, but I don’t hold out much hope.

Wiz Khalifa—”The Race”
#66
The background here is astounding, with a late 80s/early 90s synth-pop influence like nothiing I’ve heard on a rap record before, and the groove it establishes goes a lot further in justifying this record’s length than anything Khalifa has to say. Though the music suggests emotional depth, the lyrics are pretty much the same as any other rapper you’ll hear. Maybe he’s just mellowinig out a little.

Lupe Fiasco featuring MDMA—”Beautiful Lasers (2 Ways)”
#70
Fiasco has something to say, his anger, intensity, and intelligence shine through, and I’m glad, after all his wrangling with Atlantic Records, that he finally got his album out. Unfortunately, none of that changes the fact that record is both overwrought and derivitave. If he’s going to employ vocal effects, he should find ones that don’t make him sound so much like Kanye West, and the metal guitar solo at the end is just dumb. Which doesn’t mean I won’t give the album a good, hard listen.

Seether—”Country Song”
#74
Since these guys apparently think lyrical vagueness is a sign of intelligence, I can’t quite pin down what this record is about. The title and the country sound are, I assume, ironic, and there are lyrical hints that suggest this is intended as an attack on tea partiers and such. To identify such things with country music as a whole, however, is stupid in all sorts of ways (just ask lifelong democrat Toby Keith), and the fact that the country influences end up making Seether sound smarter than they really are may be the biggest irony of all.

Snoop Dogg featuring T-Pain—”Boom”
#76
Back to bragging about his dope and his women, just like he was born to do. He doesn’t do it with quite the flair he used to, though, and T-Pain, who seems to have lost his talent for hooks, doesn’t help at all.

Eric Church—”Homeboy”
#86
So much for the easygoing dope smoker. Easing back with a joint on a Friday night is one thing, but actual teenage rebellion? Church isn’t putting up with any of that. He isn’t above the crassest emotional manipulation, either, as he assures his little brother that their parents are on their deathbed because their hair is turning grey (why, they may be almost fifty!). The mainstream country audience will no doubt be reassured by this self-superior rant, even if the drums are too loud.

Kenny Chesney—”Live A Little”
#94
Reviewed in Bubbling Under, 10/10/10

Keith Urban—”Without You”
#95
Reviewed in Bubbling Under, 3/19/11

Jennifer Hudson—”Where You At”
#96
Reviewed in Bubbling Under, 2/21/11

Easton Corbin—”I Can’t Love you Back”
#97
Reviewed in Bubbling Under, 3/12/11

Avril Lavigne—”Wish You Were Here”
#99
If Lavigne has to make ballads, this is probabaly the way she should do it. At least it’s better than that soundtrack crap she was putting out a couple of years ago. Not that much better, though.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Hot 100, Hot 100 Roundup, new this week, singles | Comments Off

« Older Entries