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Hot 100 Roundup—11/21/10

Saturday, November 27th, 2010

Glee Cast
“Teenage Dream”, #8
“Start Me Up/Living On a Prayer”, #31
“Stop! In the Name of Love/Free Your Mind”, #38
“One Love (People Get Ready)”, #41

The Black Eyed Peas—“The Time (Dirty Bit)”
#12
Since I didn’t listen to radio much in the late ’80s, the use of one of the more irritating hits of that period doesn’t bother me as much as it does some others (besides, will.i.am, with far less of a voice, still sings it better than Bill Medley did), but there’s no doubt that this record represents the group running in place, if not retreating a bit. This is nearly as good as anything on The E.N.D., but it doesn’t break any new ground (unless you consider letting Fergie play diva over minimalist dance grooves a step forward). The E.N.D., whatever you think about the music, was undoubtedly one of the more daring albums of the last few years in terms of a band remaking it’s sound and image, so it shouldn’t be a surprise if the Peas spin their wheels a bit this time out.

Kid Cudi
“Marijuana”, #54
“Scott Mescudi Vs. the World”, #92
These are good records—moody, reflective, self-absorbed but intelligent and with little evidence of self-pity. They’re only on the chart, though, because of 1) the tile; and 2) the presence of Cee-Lo Green. In other words, curiosity. Whether or not the audience is paying attention to what these songs, with their honest consideration of substance dependence, actually mean, is open to question. But Cudi deserves respect for putting the message out there.

Lupe Fiasco—“The Show Goes On”
#57
I like the sound of this, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. And I liked the sound a lot more when T.I. did it five years ago.

Jeremih featuring 50 Cent—“Down On Me”
#67
I like the music: a catchy pop mix of dancehall, dubstep, and hip-hop. But 50 Cent’s presence is a waste in more ways than one—even when he isn’t mumbling he utters nothing but cliches. Jeremih himself starts off shaky, but evens out once he gets to the hook. An interesting change of pace, but an uncertain one.

Lady Antebellum—“Hello World”
#70
When they sing about love, Lady Antebellum play it subdued and classy; they’re not great, but it’s a welcome change from the usual over-arranged country blather. Here, though, they’re delivering a message to the world, and they pull out all the stops and pump all the pedals at once. To compound their sins, their obvious inspiration is R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts”, both the song and the video, an exemplar of emotional intensity and restraint they warp and curdle for the purposes of their own soft-headed sentimentality before the end of the first verse. If this is how country music is going to move into the ‘90s, I prefer they stay where they are.

Jason Derulo—“What If”
#76
A power ballad written and produced by J.R. Rotem. Think about that for a minute.

Ke$ha—“Cannibal”
#77
Tastelessness can be a virtue in pop music, but only if you’re funny, or if you’re being tasteless about subjects people are (secretly) attracted to. This isn’t funny, and the cannibal demographic is, as I understand it, somewhat limited. It’s like a big budget version of a zombie movie–the effects are more expensive but somehow less impressive, and all the insane amateurism has been taken out and replaced with studio gloss, resulting in something that’s not only gross but boring.

Twista featuring Chris Brown—“Make A Movie”
#94
Fresh from his bunker, where it’s always 2003, Twista does his best to revive his video-porn fantasies, just like the good old days. Someone should take him aside and explain the difference between being retro and being in a rut.

Bubbling Under:

Sick Puppies—“Maybe”
#101
“Maybe I’m a dreamer/Maybe I’m misunderstood…” What else do you expect from a band that rose to fame via the “Free Hugs” movement? Yuck.

Train—“Marry Me”
#104
Having softened up the AC demographic with two kinda cute, uptempo ditties, Train goes in for the sentimental kill. Chances are, this will be in the AC top ten for the next year. I’ve only listened to it once and I’m already sick of it.

Don Omar & Lucenzo—“Danza Kurduro”
#105
Since I can’t understand the words (and even with a translation would probably miss subtleties that only native speakers would pick up), I’m not a good judge of this record. The music, though, sounds ordinary—the arrangement too busy, the production too harsh. Until I know better, I think I’ll stick with Pitbull.

Eric Benet—“Sometimes I Cry”
#106
This retro-soul number has it’s attributes: it’s not a bad song, and the arrangement has a nice, mid-’90s Prince feel to it. But Benet’s falsetto gets old fast, and when he strains it near the end that’s all you hear: no emotion, just strain.

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Hot 100 Roundup—11/14/10

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

Tim McGraw—”Felt Good On My Lips”
#26
This sounds sexier than most country, and I like the way McGraw changes up the meaning of the title line as he goes along; all very professional. Like a lot of country, though, the lines that are supposed to provide detail and a bit of humor tend to sound forced and out of place; he devotes so much time and energy to describing a mixed drink it’s impossible not to snort. Then it all ends with nothing more than a goodnight kiss. It might make a good joke song if McGraw upped the tempo, or a good romance song if you got the feeling there was the least possibility of romance. As it is, it’s nothing.

Ke$ha—”Sleazy”
#51
The chorus, with its echoes of both classic girl groups and post-punk girl bands, is enough to carry the rest of the song, which is hedonistic without being greedy, a smart move. Is she trying to reclaim “sleazy” the same way the riot grrrls tried to reclaim “slut”? It didn’t work the first time, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying again.

Nicki Minaj featuring Eminem—”Roman’s Revenge”
#56
Oddly enough, this otherwise awful record appears to mark the return of Eminem’s sense of humor. Needless to say, it’s a highly offensive sense of humor, and the laughs aren’t boffo, but he sounds even more on top of things here than he did on Recovery. Minaj, meanwhile, is completely out of her league (Lil Wayne must have been taking it easy on her), and the only good thing about her fake British accent is that it comes after all of Eminem’s bits so you can turn the damn thing off without feeling you’re going to miss something. The less said about Minaj’s choosen name for her alter ego, Roman Zolanski, the better. Slim Shady she ain’t.

Pitbull—“Bon Bon”
#61
“We No Speak Americano” hasn’t come close to finishing its chart run, but that doesn’t stop Pitbull from jumping aboard, and good for him. His perfect timing and sense of humor make the song both more bearable and may even give it some meaning, though since yo no hablo español, I couldn’t say what that would be. Chances are he’s just trying to pick up a girl.

Kenny Chesney—”Somewhere With You”
#67
There are hints of something deep and dark in the lyrics, maybe even a dose of reality, but Chesney delivers it all with his usual well-oiled aplomb, and by the end the record has turned into another one of his lady-pleasing “I wanna sleep with you tonight” songs. Even when he’s trying to be thoughtful the guy can’t resist shameless pandering.

T.I. (featuring Chris Brown)—”Get Back Up”
#70
It’s a surprise that not only is T.I.’s latest apology (or would this be his first?) is so light-hearted, it’s also so lightweight in terms of sound. You’d never know he had a care in the world, a feeling Chris Brown, even with his own history, only enlarges (I’ve never cared for him as a lead, but he’s a great background singer). T.I. is still harping on the haters, but at least he’s picking out the right haters, and not throwing insults out scattershot. I suspect the softness of the sound is an attempt to make him look like a nicer and more thoughtful guy than he may actually be, but at least he seems to be thinking about it.

Ricky Martin featuring Joss Stone—”The Best Thing About Me Is You”
#74
I bet this sounds better in Spanish. And I bet if I spoke Spanish I would think it sounds better in English. I’m glad Ricky Martin came out, but that doesn’t mean I want him to come back.

New Hollow—”Sick”
#86
Wannabe teen sensations steal their song structure from “Creep”, their riffs from The Who, their lyrical ideas from Mudhoney, and their overall vibe from, uh, The Records? Not The Records of “Starry Eyes”, unfortunately. More The Records of “Teenarama”, which isn’t bad, but isn’t great, either. I could do without the hurling sound effect at the end, but this is growing on me. They may not have enough sense to know how tasteless the idea of this song is, but I bet they wouldn’t care if they did. Who says power pop is dead?

Chris Young—”Voices”
#89
Reviewed in Bubbling Under, 11/7/10

Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson—”Don’t You Wanna Stay”
#93
Good singer hooks up with great singer, and together they sing a terrible song and let the arrangement drown out their voices. I couldn’t care less about what Aldean does, but Clarkson deserves better, and there’s no reason to believe she’ll ever go out and get it or even realizes it exists. Her weakness for power ballads appears to be authentic, just like her voice. What a depressing combination.

Toby Keith—”Bullets in the Gun”
#97
This is overwrought and too reliant on cliches, but it’s nice to know that there’s at least one guy in Nashville who’s willing to keep some sort of edge in his songs and doesn’t make pretty in the face of all the women who want to bash in his headlights and gun him down with a shotgun. Despite his jingoistic sins in the past, he make no apologies, knows his own strengths, and refuses to retreat from the masculine turf he’s been plowing his whole career. Hell, he may be the only real man left in town.

Rock Mafia—”The Big Bang”
#98
A weird one. Forget their Disney pedigree for a moment and just listen to this thing: the vocals, Tim James electrically modified so that in some moments he sounds like Amy Winehouse and in others as if he were computer-generated, are odd enough, but the overall sound is an even stranger throwback to sixties movie music, albeit a little funkier. It could be a rejected James Bond theme from 30 years ago. The lyrics, which compare the jolt of lust to the creation of the universe, are out there, too. Then there’s the whistling. Maybe Disney provided them with the one thing many artists don’t realize they need: a leash.

Blake Shelton—”Who Are You When I’m Not Looking”
#99
First line, over gentle acoustic guitar and light brushes on the drums: “My oh my, you’re so good lookin’/Hold yourself together like a pair of bookends”. After an opening like that the song has no choice but to get better, and it does, but not much better. I think I’ve asked this before but I’ll ask it again: what does Miranda Lambert see in this guy, anyway?

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Hot 100 Roundup—11/7/10

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

Ke$ha—“We R Who We R”
#1
Far too reminiscent of “Tik Tok”, only with half the jokes, half the hooks, and a lot less appeal, which leaves you with almost nothing at all. A sop to her fans, and an obvious one, at that.

Taylor Swift
“Sparks Fly”, #17
“Innocent”, #27
“The Story Of Us”, #41
“Dear John”, #54
“Better Than Revenge”, #56
“Haunted”, #63
“Last Kiss”, #71
“Enchanted”, #75
“Never Grow Up”, #84
“Live Long”, #85
What I’m about to say may sound petty, as if I’m just looking for something to criticize in the face of the almost universal adoration of Swift and Speak Now. But it needs to be said. These are all good songs, some of them excellent (though none as good as the preview singles that have come out over the last month), and Swift performs them with an intelligence and emotion that few can match. All the same, this is one of the worst produced pop albums I’ve ever heard. Whether it’s the production itself, the arrangements, or the fact that they’ve been mastered at too high a volume, most of these tracks sound over-loud and shrill, lacking dynamics and bottom, and I find it impossible to listen to more than three or four at a time. This may not be Swift’s fault. Even though she’s credited as co-producer she may not have had a lot of control over the final mastering process, which is 90% of the problem. My worry is that it’s all intentional, that the shiny sound is meant to be a match for Swift’s shiny dresses and golden hair and the whole fairytale aura she surrounds herself—or at least her career—in. She may be more of a Stevie Nicks imitator than most of those who champion her would care to admit. She writes wonderful songs, and the fairytale imagery and plot-lines are disappearing from her lyrics, which is a good sign, but you have to listen past the production in order to hear them. Time for a new producer, if not a re-think of her entire musical approach.

Chris Brown—“Yeah XXX”
#33
This is, admittedly, Brown’s best record since “Forever”, but of course that’s not saying much. Once you’ve made a record like “Douches” “Deuces”, there’s no way to go but up. The only interesting thing about this record is the fact that, considering Brown was once a hip-hop star, it isn’t hip-hop at all. It’s more like a heavily edited early ’90s hardcore dance track, and when I say heavily edited I mean one with all the hooks removed.

Rascal Flatts—“I Won’t Let Go”
#72
It’s hard not to be impressed by an act that’s been as successful as this one has been at rewriting other people’s hits. Last time it was Loggins and Messina’s “Your Mama Don’t Dance”; this time, for a change of pace, it’s The Pretenders’s “I’ll Stand By You”. They barely even bother changing the chorus, just the title. It’s like a karaoke contest where you get to make up your own lyrics as you go along.

Kid Cudi—“Mr. Rager”
#77
Easily Cudi’s best record since “Day ‘n’ Night”, and about roughly the same thing—getting wasted—only from a different perspective. The lonely stoner of the earlier song got wasted to get away from his problems; “Mr. Rager” suggests getting wasted is the problem, though it wisely doesn’t say so straight out. Cudi may be too subtle, though. The record lacks any real tension or sense of emotion, as if the guy were already wiped out and not just considering the possibility. If Mr. Rager is intended to be some sort of Pied Piper, it doesn’t work. There’s no suggestion that anything is being risked, that anything can be lost. I understand what Cudi is getting at, but somehow it doesn’t work.

Ne-Yo—“One In A Million”
#97
Reviewed in Bubbliing Under, 10/17/10

Luke Bryan—“Someone Else Calling You Baby”
#100
Reviewed in Bubbliing Under, 10/17/10

Bubbling Under:

Chris Young—“Voices”
#101
This and the earlier “The Man I Want To Be” paint Young as a concerned, spiritual soul, yearning to live up to an image of manhood taken straight from the Bible, age-old rural wisdom, and whatever his management and record label say will make him a star. All artists pander to their audience to some extent, but Young jumps in with both feet, and he’s a master at it. Either that or this steaming pile of crap is proof that the voices in his head don’t give him a single original idea, or even tell him to choose decent songs.

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Hot 100 Roundup—9/5/10

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

Kid Cudi featuring Kanye West—”Erase Me”
#22
Nerd rap has been around for a while, of course, but so far I don’t think anyone has has taken the trouble to mix it with nerd rock. So here it is: Kid Cudi rapping over what sounds like a stripped down Weezer track, complete with strained falsetto climax in the chorus. Whether this is a good idea or a bad one depends on execution, and here Cudi delivers nothing but cliches, while West creates a fictional woman whom he calls Maria simply so he can use her name to create a pun on diarrhea. Nerd doesn’t have to mean immature, guys, honest it doesn’t.

Jason Aldean—”My Kinda Party”
#54
Aldean’s kind of party appears to be somewhat slow, with the same elegiac rock touches that Kenny Chesney put on “The Boys of Fall”. Does this mean that the old ways are fading, or that Aldean’s just getting old? Unless he comes up with something beside the same old cliches, I guess we’ll never know.

Katy Perry—”Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
#67
In terms of persona, Katy Perry is a naughty girl, but she’s not a dirty one. She isn’t a drunken slut like Ke$ha or a coked-up horndog like the guys in 3Oh!3. Partying isn’t her life, it’s just something that she does when she has some spare time at the end of the week. If she gets arrested, or ends up in a menage a’ trois, it’s not a big deal, they’re just a couple more items on the list of things she does when she gets a little too tipsy. Though I don’t think much of this song (it’s too calculated, and Perry makes the mistake of repeating jokes that should be one-time throwaways), I like its “that’s life” attitude, and how non-judgmental it is—her partying isn’t a point of pride, but it isn’t anything to be ashamed of either. Which suggests that her Christian upbringing wasn’t quite as strict or narrow as people tend to imagine.

YG—”Toot It and Boot It”
#92
The great thing about the current crop of LA rappers, whether they’re jerkin’ or not, is how relaxed and off the cuff they sound. Talking dirty means nothing to them (and this is the first hit on the charts to get anywhere near the general level of horniness of most young underground rap in LA), and the general attitude is one of relaxed acceptance of the good things that come their way. What’s more, most everything that comes their way is good; aside from party anthems these are some of the least negative rap records I’ve ever heard. Here, YG presents a perfect encapsulation of the idea, and if you’re offended by his “fuck ‘em and forget em’” theme, he would like you to know that women can toot it and boot it, too.

Cee Lo Green—”Fuck You!”
#96
What’s so surprising about the reaction to this great record is that after over a decade of graphic rap records finding their way onto the charts, its language still has the power to shock. Largely that’s because this is a pop record—and a great up, at that—and though pop records often deal in broken romance, they rarely deal in the anger stage of the grieving process, and when they do they tend not to sound so bright and catchy. The retro-soul arrangement adds to the effect, by seeming to come from, and pay homage to, an era when those sorts of words never appeared on pop records. Of course, if you do a little digging you can find alternate versions of some big pop hits with amazingly dirty lyrics, often recorded by the original artists as a break from their clean-cut facades (check out Jackie Wilson and Lavern Baker’s “Think Twice (Version X)” some time). Cee Lo’s just working the idea in reverse.

Toby Keith—”Trailerhood”
#97
I’d appreciate the bouncy friendliness of this song a lot more if every verse didn’t start with a promising idea that went nowhere. Just when you think Keith is going to break through a cliche he comes back with another one. Tom T. Hall he ain’t.

Jazmine Sullivan—”Holding You Down (Goin’ In Circles)”
#98
Every time I hear this song I like it more, but every time it seems more like a lost opportunity as well. The problem isn’t Sullivan, who has matured since her last album and will probably make great records in the future, but Missy Elliott’s production, which is too weird and hit and miss to work. There are great moments here, including some of a soulful intensity that’s truly surprising, but too much of the rest, with the constant shoutouts and odd sounds coming from nowhere, is confusing and inexplicable. Maybe someday I’ll understand, but right now this sounds like an experiment that doesn’t quite come off.

Josh Thompson—”Way Out Here”
#100
Yet another country elegy, only this one sounds both pumped up and defensive. It opens and closes with a threat, and in between spouts enough defiant rural cliches to sound like a candidate for a Tea Party anthem. I wonder how Johnny cash would feel about being on Thompson’s list of of what people “way out here” are all about.

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The year so far, ctd.

Monday, July 26th, 2010

When I was doing my half-year summation last week, an idea struck me that I didn’t have time to include. As I said there, the apparent greatness of the year overall hasn’t made much of an impression on the pop charts, at least not in terms of individual records. As the old saying goes, though, a rising tide lifts all boats, and though I think it’s fair to say that there have been few great records on the Hot 100 this year, the quality, overall, has risen.

Quality, however, may not be the right word; freshness may be closer to the truth. Since the crash and burn of the summer of 2008, there has been a slow but steady revitalization. Pop music sounds different than it did three years ago. On the top forty charts, the touchstones are obvious. With Lady GaGa and the revamped Blacked Eyed Peas leading the way, followed by 3Oh!3, Ke$ha, and quickly adapting older artists like Rihanna and Jay-Z, electronica in one form or another has become a staple on the pop charts, to the point where even Disney stars like Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez are jumping on the bandwagon (to be fair to Disney, Aly & AJ were actually ahead of the curve on this). At the same time, the pop embrace of electronica has forced those in the electronic music scene itself to up their game and look for new ideas to separate them from the mainstream (a process aided by the cross-pollination provided by DJ podcasts like those found at Resident Advisor, XLR8R, and Fact Magazine—check out Michaelangelo’s piece in the Guardian for an overview). At the same time, thanks to its exposure on the charts, electronica is garnering an ever-expanding fan base of more adventurous pop listeners.

Hip-hop and rap have also been reflecting the inspiration provided by electronic music. Unlike pop, however, the major changes are coming from smaller scenes outside the mainstream. While stars like T.I. and DJ Khaled fill their records with ever more baroque permutations of fuzzy synths, the whole of hip-hop is being remade from underneath by teenagers with lap tops. From Soulja Boy Tell’em in Mississippi to the jerkin’ movement in LA to Cali Swag District’s “Teach Me How To Dougie”, which puts an LA spin on a dance movement originating in Dallas, the movement in one form or another has gone nationwide. All that laptop rap needs now is an independently-minded genius to blow it wide open (Soulja Boy and New Boyz, unfortunately, have already been absorbed by the old guard).

Beyond the influence of electronica (and yes, I know that phrase is out of date, but find me another that covers the whole spectrum), other genres are being revamped as well, especially country. Up until a couple of years ago, country was ruled by good ol’ boys like Toby Keith and Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, who sang, for the most part, about only one thing: how good it is to be a good ol’ boy. In the last two years, though, women have come back strong: Gretchen Wilson started the ball rolling, with Miranda Lambert following closely behind, then Carrie Underwood (whose “Before He Cheats” provided the ultimate kiss off to the good ol’ boy genre), with Kellie Pickler, Sugarland, Lady Antebellum, Rory and Joey, and a host of others quickly occupying the landscape. In a category all their own are Taylor Swift and Brad Paisley, who have brought an intelligent, charming, good-humored sensibility back to country that it’s been missing for over a decade. The good ol’ boys are still around, but their voices are muted. Many of them are trying to meet the women half way, and the result has been a batch of pleasant, if not always brilliant records that feel far more down to earth and human.

Interesting changes have taken place on the indie and alternative scenes as well, but for the moment none of those have been turning up in the pop charts. Not that that isn’t a possibility. As far as I can tell, the only major difference in sound between Ke$ha and Sleigh Bells is the mix: Ke$ha mixes her distorted electronic explosions down and her voice up; Sleigh Bells does the opposite. They may be on different paths, but they’re heading in the same direction. Everybody is. And somewhere down the road is a convergence point that’s going to blow everybody away.

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New this week—7/4/10

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

Eminem
“Love the Way You Lie” (featuring Rihanna), #2
” No Love” (featuring Lil Wayne), #23
“Won’t Back Down” (featuring P!nk), #62
“Cold Wind Blows”, #71
“Talkin’ 2 Myself” (featuring Kobe), #88
“25 To Life”, #92
I have no doubt that Recovery is a better album than Relapse 2 would have been, and it probably is Eminem’s best since The Eminem Show, but that isn’t saying much. His skills remain amazing: his rap on “No Lie” is a marvel of technique, so much so that Lil Wayne is left with little more to do than stand back and cheer. But his sense of humor has all but disappeared, he repeats himself endlessly (the lyrics read like daily affirmations for victims of Tourettes), his vocals are overloud and overbearing, and he ends up both boring and a boor. I realize he has a lot of crap to work out, and there are occasional flashes of the old Eminem in these songs, but if he keeps up at this rate he’ll need to call his next album Redundant. And after that, dare I say it, Retirement?

Selena Gomez and the Scene—”Round & Round”
#24
While Miley Cyrus makes a big to-do and madly flaps her CGI wings to break out of the Disney mold, Gomez does it effortlessly. My hesitations about anything Kevin Rudolf is involved in disappeared after a couple of plays, and I now think this may be an even better record than “Naturally”. It’s modern dance pop without the controversial bits, more Cascada than Lady GaGa or Ke$ha. I still don’t know what The Scene do, other than appear in her videos, but Gomez, once she shakes off her teen vocal phrasing, looks to have a great career as a disco diva in store for her.

Maroon 5—”Misery”
#44
The groove is tight, I admit, so tight you can barely breathe. But that’s not the same as being too funky, and, based on their previous records, it may be the only groove they have. If it weren’t for Adam Levine, I might mistake them for INXS. Which isn’t a bad thing, but it isn’t a great thing, either.

Sara Barielles—”King of Anything”
#59
Catchy and sarcastic is a great pop combo, but catchy is all the music gets, the lyrics are a rehash of “Love Song”, and when Bareilles isn’t being sarcastic she sounds bored, a feeling she passes on to the listener.

Miley Cyrus—”Stay”
#75
Can’t be tamed, maybe. But domesticated? Sure, why not?

Adam Lambert—”If I Had You”
#94
Lambert makes interesting records, but I’m not sure a mix of modern dance music and hair metal is a good idea, even if the results were more appealing than this. Do we really need an updated version of Journey? Isn’t Glee bad enough?

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New this week—6/13/10

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Drake featuring Lil Wayne—”Miss Me”
#15
It’s hard to determine whether Drake is the real thing or not—or anything at all, for that matter. His inability to shake his influences and come forth as himself is a major problem—first time I listened to this I thought his rap was Wayne’s. His self-consciousness has it’s charms (though not when it’s converted into beats), but it could quickly turn into a detriment if he isn’t careful. Sounding unsure of what you’re getting yourself into isn’t exactly the best concept to build a career around. Neither is the pronouncement that “life isn’t a rehearsal” when you sound like you’re still doing warm-ups.

Taio Cruz
“Dynamite”, #26
“Dirty Picture” (featuring Ke$ha), #96
Just to ask the obvious question, shouldn’t a song called “Dynamite” sound explosive? This sure doesn’t. On the other hand, “Dirty Picture” does sound dirty. It also sounds unclean, though that may just be a matter of personal taste.

T.I.
“Got Your Back” (featuring Keri Hilson), #38
“Yeah Ya Know (Takers)”, #44
“Got Your Back” is surprisingly warm and affectionate, suggesting real love, something that T.I. has never managed, or for that matter ever really tried, before. He also seems to be breaking out of his tendency to overpack his arrangements (if there’s such a thing as baroque rap, T.I. makes it)—compared to his last few singles shows admirable restraint, it’s few lose threads tied up quite nicely by Keri Hilson. I just wish someone could have done the same for “Yah Ya Know”.

Nicki Minaj—”Your Love”
#51
With her day-glo wigs and cosplay fashion style, it’s no surprise that Minaj’s idea of romanticism comes out sounding like Sailor Moon in the hood. It’s an interesting idea, but it doesn’t quite gel, and it gets confusing. One minute she’s talking about the guy’s stacks and the next she’s dreaming about samurai and geishas who speak Thai somewhere up in the sky, and then she tops it all by turning into Supergirl. She may be on to something, but this is both too obvious and too obscure to get over.

Glee Cast
“Good Vibrations”, #69
“Another One Bites the Dust”, #79
“Tell Me Something Good”, #87
“Loser”, #93
“It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”, #95
Two more white rap songs from the crew (three if you count “Loser”), and the joke, which worked on “Ice Ice Baby”, has paled considerably. The less said about “Tell Me Something Good” and “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” the better.

3Oh!3—”Deja Vu”
#75
This makes two songs from these guys I actually kind of like, but whether that means they’ve improved or my tastes have collapsed under the constant barrage of electro synths I can’t say. It’s worth noting, though, that this is the first of their songs to suggest that the party party world they inhabit is starting to bore them a little. Is that maturity or exhaustion? Who knows?

Billy Currington—”Pretty Good At Drinking Beer”
#83
Currington’s last single was an overwrought string of country cliches. This is cliche bound as well, but it’s also clever, and not overwrought at all. As an argument for being a lard-ass, it’s even charming.

Little Big Town—”Little White Church”
#94
They’ve learned enough from Miranda Lambert to be tough and honest, and enough from Sugarland to be cheerful and spunky even while laying down the law. Too bad they haven’t learned enough from either to write more than a passable lyric, though putting “not gonna have your baby” in the list of things she won’t do until he marries her is still a jolt.

VV Brown—”Shark In the Water”
#97
I’ve already expressed my admiration for Brown, who appeals to me not only for her upbeat sound but for the range of her musical references and influences. Here she steals from both Paul McCartney and Lou Reed, while making explicit the thread of near hysterical paranoia that runs through many of her songs. It’s also nice to see that, unlike most of her UK peers, she’s managed her US chart debut without depending on an American rapper to give her a commercial leg up. Here’s hoping she gets the attention she deserves.

Neon Trees—”Animal”
#100
What decade is this again?

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New this week—5/16/10

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Eminem—”Not Afraid”
#1
I’m happy for Eminem; he sounds stronger, sharper, on top of things. But this is not a good record. His delivery is forced and too consciously aggressive, his mix of scatological philosophizing and sentimentality confusing when it isn’t embarrassing, the hooks are dull, and there isn’t a single moment of wit or humor. Maybe this is a lead-up to something better, but he’s still trying too hard and thinking too much. He sounds like a dry drunk.

3Oh!3 featuring Ke$ha—”My First Kiss”
#9
Hate to admit it, but this one’s growing on me. It gets a certain kind of lust just right, and Ke$ha helps to tamper down some of the more offensive edges of 3Oh!3′s masculine aggression. They’re still crude and simplistic, but as long as they’re playing on a level field and the hooks are catchy enough, I have no problem with that.

Glee Cast
“Total Eclipse of the Heart”, #16
“Run Joey Run”, #61
“Ice Ice Baby”, #74
“Physical”, #89
“U Can’t Touch This”, #92
Campy trash like this week’s selections should be perfect for a show like this, but if they had any fun with these songs on the program you’d never know it by the music. They approach these songs with the same stolid seriousness and Broadway earnestness with which they approach everything else. If that seriousness is intended as a joke, it’s never been funny, but I don’t think it is. As far as I can tell the only joke is: “Look, I’m singing those trashy hits your parents get all nostalgic about.” Only “Ice Ice Baby”, which was half a joke to begin with (in retrospect it may be the greatest rap parody ever), comes across.

Drake—”Find Your Love”
#34
This isn’t great, but it’s the first Drake record I’ve heard where I feel I’m listening to Drake, and not his imitation of somebody else. A step in the right direction, if nothing else.

Young Jeezy featuring Plies—”Lose My Mind”
#35
In a way, it’s good to know that people like Jeezy, and even Plies, are still celebrating the thug—or, as they call it, goon—life. As hip-hop has moved further towards dance-pop, and Euro-dance-pop at that, it’s only right that there’s someone on the charts to remind us of how a lot of people still live. Not that Jeezy and Plies take any of that seriously, and this is as trashy and crude as you might imagine, but it’s also clever (“We drink that rozay til we black out/wake up, drink some more, pass back out”), and they’re representing all the same.

Lee Brice—”Love Like Crazy”
#97
This starts off with so much down-home country syrup, especially in the vocals, that it’s hard not to wonder if it might be intended as parody. Then you get to the second verse, where the clean living, hard working, loving, praying small town southern man sells his one man computer business to Microsoft for big bucks, and suddenly you find yourself somewhere beyond parody, where the brushing of nostalgic country cliches against modern life generates a form of artless surrealism. Brice sings the whole thing straight, and I don’t think it’s intended as a joke, which only makes it weirder. It’s one of those odd moments where worlds collide, garishly, in the place you’d least expect.

Theory Of A Deadman—”All Or Nothing”
#99
I have no idea what a theory of a deadman would be, but these guys do inspire me to suggest a new definition of a deadman: a guy whose greatest ambition in life is to be Nickelback.

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New this week—4/18/10

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Jack Johnson—”You and Your Heart”
#20
Jack Johnson hates haters. Ooh, he hates those haters. He hates haters because they do hateful things like have standards and because their hearts are somehow disconnected from their bodies. (Jack Johnson’s heart is connected directly to his body, and he’s got the song catalog to prove it.) He hates haters so much he lets his guitar distort—just a little, not too much—and convinces his band to play like they hate haters, too. He almost sounds angry. If those haters keep hating he might just go insane. Let’s try it and see.

Jamie Foxx Featuring Justin Timberlake & T.I.—”Winner”
#28
Like all of Foxx’s hits, this one gets the credits wrong—it should be “T.I. featuring Justin Timberlake and some other guy”. I’d give Foxx credit this time out for rapping in his own voice, except he doesn’t have one (he doesn’t dare imitate anybody who can actually sing or rap without technological aid). He is skillful at getting good material out of his “guests”, though. Timberlake actually sounds interested, and T.I. walks off with the record, which he treats as if it were his latest comeback single. Considering how his first comeback single is doing, it may well be.

B.o.B.—”Don’t Let Me Fall”
#67
Aside from the fact that B.o.B. can’t sing, isn’t it a little early in his career to be trotting out the rap equivalent of a demographic-widening power ballad? That’s the third single, dude. Second single’s supposed to be the damn!-look-at-how-famous-I-am record. You’re getting everything out of order.

Nickelback—”This Afternoon”
#84
Tempo-wise, these guys have only one gear, second, but they seem to think that being loud and gruff makes up for this. It doesn’t. This is all about chilling on a sunny afternoon, but it doesn’t chill, and it isn’t sunny, and it forces me to the conclusion that their deliberate lack of subtlety isn’t a stylistic choice or commercial calculation–they honestly lack the ability to play any other way. I’d almost feel sorry for them if I thought they were smart enough to recognize it.

Miranda Cosgrove—”Kissin U”
#87
For it’s latest foray into the Disney-owned tween pop universe, Nickelodeon brings out the big guns, hiring Dr. Luke to produce what sounds like a Kelly Clarkson reject sung by a teenage girl who’s been listening to too much Ke$ha. Not that Dr. Luke isn’t constantly trying something new; here he experiments with the idea of a chorus that is actually more sluggish than the verses. Needless to say, this isn’t a good idea, but no one involved with this record seems to have noticed that, or to care.

Alicia Keys—”Unthinkable (I’m Ready)”
#88
Wait a minute—how old is Alicia Keys? She must be old enough to not consider sleeping with somebody as “the unthinkable”. Is this written from a teenager’s perspective? The music, all slow-grind and heavy percussion, certainly doesn’t sound like it. If it’s about cheating there’s no sign of that either. Does she have any idea what she’s doing at all?

Breaking Benjamin—”Give Me a Sign (Forever And Ever)”
#97
I’d have a lot more respect for Christian metal if what I heard of it wasn’t so one dimensional. It’s all about suffering and pain, the sonic equivalent of The Passion of the Christ, with flagellation and crucifixion replaced by headbanging and bleeding ears. I suppose it’s meant to be cathartic, but how can it be when they do the same thing over and over again? Apparently, as that model Christian, Jacqueline Susann, put it, once is never enough.

Kelly Clarkson—”All I Ever Wanted”
#99
God, I wish Kelly Clarkson picked better material. She sings this perfectly, but it isn’t much of a song, and though I don’t expect masterpieces four singles into a Clive Davis-managed pop album this should be better than it is. As a more subdued version of the stuff she did on My December I suppose it could be considered a step in the right direction, but the real problem with that album wasn’t musical overkill (though that was a problem) so much as the weakness of the material. Maybe this will grow on me the way “Already Gone” did. But “Already Gone” stayed in one place and drove its point home. The greatest singer in the world couldn’t save a song as confused as this one.

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Do the Disney Dance

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Despite it’s obvious popularity and impressive sales record, Disney-pop has been a non-starter on the radio. With the exception of Miley Cyrus, no Disney-associated act, including the Jonas Brothers, has been able to make much of an impression. So unless you’re listening to the cable-only Radio Disney (a doubtful prospect if you don’t have children of a certain age), you’re not going to hear the likes of Aly & AJ, Demi Lovato, or Selena Gomez. There is one other place you can find them, however, or at least one of them: dance clubs. Gomez’s “Naturally” (which has almost surpassed Aly & AJ’s “Potential Breakup Song” as my favorite piece of Disney-pop) has been on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart for ten weeks, six of those in the top ten, and last week at number one. This isn’t a surprise—”Naturally” is a near perfect piece of dance pop that would fit seamlessly with the records currently topping the charts (its basic structure owes a lot to Lady GaGa’s “Bad Romance”), if it could ever get some mainstream airplay.

The only reason this record isn’t all over the radio is the Disney connection: radio programmers see it as kids music, and are afraid of turning off their more “mature” listeners (despite the fact that “Naturally” is, in almost every way, a far more mature record than, say, Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok”, or any number of other “adult” pop records). Club listeners, thank God, just want to dance; they don’t care who makes the music. If only radio programmers were as open-minded.

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