Posts Tagged ‘Michael Jackson’

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The Sincerest Form of Flattery: Hot 100 Roundup—4/20/13

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

A surprisingly good week, even if the best of the tracks are imitations of their betters. It’s interesting that many of those being imitated are relatively new artists: The Black Keys, Miguel, and (next week, via Hunter Hayes and We the Kings) Mumford and Sons and fun. A year or so ago, no one would have thought of any of those people as influential in any meaningful way, but now they’re working a sea change on pop radio, one that may be even more profound than EDM. I’m not saying it’s an improvement, but then pop rarely improves, it just sounds different.

Florida Georgia Line featuring Nelly—“Cruise (Remix)”
#8

Technically a chart re-entry, but since it’s more a remake than a remix, I thought I’d review it anyway. It’s terrible. Nelly would record with Alvin and the Chipmunks if he thought it would get him back on the charts, and this adds nothing while losing all the rough and ready charm of the original. The chorus still works, but that’s about it. Low moment: the southern white boys greet their guest with “What up, Nelly?” At least they didn’t say “Whoa”.

Chris Brown—“Fine China”
#52

Even when his records are good (and this is one of his best), Brown’s past continues to haunt him, and it doesn’t help that he keeps reminding people of it. I don’t think he does this intentionally, but he seems oblivious to what the words of his songs mean. The title “Fine China” immediately calls up images of Brown as the bull in the shop, and when he assures his lover that he’s not dangerous all you can do is cringe. Musically, though, this is just about perfect, with it’s mix of a Stevie Wonder-ish distorted bass line, Michael Jackson-style hiccups, and a striking, if overzealous, string arrangement. The arrangement is too busy, but that bassline makes up for a lot. Brown has obviously been paying attention to Miguel, and decorates his slightly subdued vocals with slurs and falsettos, though not always in the right places. His falsetto isn’t as pure as Miguel’s, either, and his lyrical ideas (or the ones he buys, anyway), are as empty as always, even when they’re not cringe-worthy.

Jonas Brothers—“Pom Poms”
#60

This is fluff, but I like it, which is more than I can say of any previous Jonas record. Their inability to maintain a career at Disney, though probably not their fault (Disney is much better at grooming female pop stars), is a kind of merit badge: they went through the pop sausage machine and came out whole, and maybe better than when they started. In a show of business savvy, they even bought back their masters (can we look forward to de-Disneyfied remixes? hope not). It’s odd to find them falling under the influence of The Black Keys, but that influence not only inspired them to write (or steal) a wicked bassline, but to clean up and focus their sound. And unlike the Black Keys, the Jonases have a sense of humor. “Pom Poms” is sheer nonsense, but nonsense has always made good pop, and this is a giant step in the right direction.

Nicki Minaj featuring Lil Wayne—“High School”
#83

This is not only Minaj’s best single since “Stupid Hoe”—and a lot more thought-provoking—but she even got a rap out of Lil Wayne that follows a single train of thought for more than two bars (is she the only rapper in the world he feels challenged by, or is she the only person who can whip him into shape?). “High School” may be about nothing more than sex and dope, but it’s also about Minaj being in total control of the sex and dope (or, more specifically, taking over her lover’s drug business when he gets arrested), which means a lot. It also tells a story, which I haven’t heard any rap song on the pop charts do in a long time. The music is good, too, beautiful but vaguely sinister. This may be a step that will eventually take Minaj off the pop charts, but it’s still the right direction.

Little Mix—“Wings”
#98

This thoroughly enjoyable piece of imitative craftsmanship provides the answer to one of the great mathematical questions of the age: how many people of average talent does it take to almost equal one Beyonce? Answer: four singers, one three-man production team, and fourteen songwriters. And she makes it seem so easy.

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Ghosts and Pitbulls
Hot 100 Roundup—6/16/12

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Justin Bieber—“Die In Your Arms”
#17
A good song, and though I could do without the spoken bits, there’s no doubt that Bieber has grown as a singer. The record as a whole, though, is creepy. Bieber’s adoration of Michael Jackson is well known, but to write a pastiche of early 70s Motown and then base the arrangement on a sample of the real thing (Jackson’s “We’ve Got a Good Thing Going”), with almost identical chord changes, seems like something more than adoration and something less than respect. It’s supposed to be a pleasant, gimmicky little love song, but instead it’s like listening to ghosts. I appreciate Bieber’s talent, but his judgment seems more off-kilter with every release.

Jay Sean featuring Pitbull—“I’m All Yours”
#85
Jay Sean is just behind Taio Cruz in the British eurodisco pantheon, and I was relieved to find that the drum crescendo leads into some straight four-on-the-floor rather than the dubstep breakdown I was expecting, but all the same this is Pitbull’s record, and once his rap is finished (I don’t count his banal return for the middle eight) it may as well be over. Pitbull’s raps, at least on his hits and guest spots over the last couple of years, have been so brief that it’s nice to hear him stretch out and be reminded of how good he is. I just wish he’d done it on a better record.

The Wanted—“Chasing the Sun”
#93
I like this more than “Glad You Came”, even though it comes close to being a cover version while demonstrating even less personality. The arrangement changes up in a more attractive way, and the absence of bald double entendres makes the meaningless lyrics more enjoyable as pure sound. It’s a pleasant little piece of eurodisco-influenced pop, and it would be foolish to expect anything more from them.

Keith Urban—“For You”
#97
Urban is a lightweight talent who takes himself too seriously, so of course when he gets hold of an important subject he bites down hard and grinds slow. The record doesn’t reach the point of actual disrespect through self-absorption, but it does little honor to anyone involved, including the men and women it’s about.

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Toxicity

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

Everybody in dance music, it seems, is signing up for the new Pepsi campaign. I understand why major artists sign endorsement deals, and I realize that Diplo and Skrillex and A-Trak can’t resist the idea of remixing Michael Jackson, but they do realize that what they’re selling is basically poison, right? I mean, selling your soul to a shoe manufacturer is one thing, especially if you get decent music out of the deal, but poison?

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Bubbling Under 8/20/11

Saturday, September 3rd, 2011

Victorious Cast featuring Victoria Justice—”I Want You Back”
#108
This is pure karaoke—the only thing that sounds different from the original is the vocals—but it’s a world away from Glee or the worst of American Idol. Still, it’s a well-crafted curiosity and nothing more. It helps that Justice doesn’t try to do Michael Jackson. More and more, in fact, she reminds me of Katrina Leskanich. I await her version of “Walking On Sunshine”.

Darius Rucker—”I Got Nothin’”
#109
After the warm and sleep-inducing paeans to family life on Rucker’s last album, the bleak desolation of this record comes as a surprise. What may be even more surprising is the way Rucker sings it: there isn’t a trace of country phrasing. If anything, he sounds like a grunge singer dabbling in a different genre (if you ever wanted to hear Eddie Vedder sing country, this may be as close as you get). Not a great record, but better than I would have expected.

David Nail—”Let It Rain”
#115
One of the things that makes country so fascinating right now is the sense of growing stylistic openness; more and more it sounds as if they’re willing to try anything. This may be desperation in the face of imploding sales, but it may also have to do with the broadening of the country audience not just beyond the south (which has been going on for decades), but from a rural and suburban base to one more urban. So now you get more traces of urban styles, even touches of hip-hop and urban soul, besides the obvious blues, southern rock, and easy-listening pop. This record, good but not great, features pumping organ as it’s rhythmic base, along with background vocals that suggest both black gospel and the sophistication of Fleetwood Mac, plus the unfortunately de rigueur power ballad climax (when is someone in country going to fight the loudness epidemic? they, of all genres, should be leading the charge). It doesn’t veer far from the basics, especially in the vocals, but it’s enough to make it sound fresh, and to make you wonder just where country is going to be a few years from now.

Skrillex—”Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites”
#24
The sound of an early-twenties DJ/producer with a love of not only techno but heavy metal, playing at fun and games in the studio (or on his laptop). In other words, nerd music, but with a twist. It’s no surprise when near the end the relatively unfiltered vocals sound as wimpy and wan as Death Cab for Cutie or Owl City, but Skrillex isn’t interested in emphasizing his sensitive side, he’s into creating alter egos that reflect multiple aspects of his personality, even the nasty ones that aren’t that pleasant to listen to. Right now the dichotomy is obvious, jarring, and somewhat off-putting; if he should ever manage a synthesis, though, he could be something.

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Bubbling Under—6/11/11

Sunday, July 3rd, 2011

Colbie Caillat—”Brighter Than the Sun”
#102
I’ve developed a certain respect for Caillat. Her craftsmanship is impressive, even if a lot of it is borrowed from her dad, and though her romantic optimism often sounds cloying, it also sounds as if she believes it. On this record, though, she pushes too far. The opening almost sounds like rock and roll, but after that it devolves into cute rhythm effects, choral background vocals and the usual easy-listening cliches. The Bob Marley reference is particularly irritating. She’s showing off; not a good idea when your forte is laid back romanticism.

The Lonely Island featuring Justin Timberlake and Lady GaGa—”3-Way (The Golden Rule)”
#103
The quality of Samberg’s material seems to depend almost entirely on the quality of the musicians he works with. Timberlake adds a level of sophistication that seems beyond him, and GaGa’s braindead “Wow!” almost saves the helicopter dick joke. All the same, this is only mildly funny; it’s certainly a step up from “Jack Sparrow”, but still not as good as “I’m On a Boat”, not to mention “Dick In a Box”.

Andy Grammer—”Keep Your Head Up”
#108
It figured there’d be a male version of Natasha Bedingfield sooner or later. Figured he’d be worse, too. But this much worse?

Matthew Morrison—”Still Got Tonight”
#124
One thing you can say for Glee, they give their non-singers decent material.

Cee Lo Green—”Bright Lights, Bigger City”
#125
Cee Lo is a talent, but he’s a slave of his material. When it’s great, like “Crazy” or “Fuck You”, then he’s great. When it’s moderate, like this, then he’s moderate. This is a good song, and Cee Lo does a good job of changing up the usual party weekend cliches, but if it wasn’t for the bassline, lifted whole from “Beat It”, I’m not sure I’d pay attention long enough to notice.

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Hot 100 Roundup—4/30/11

Saturday, May 7th, 2011

Lady Gaga—”Judas”
#10
I was preparing a long critique of this record, but after another listen and a more concentrated perusal of the lyrics I decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. “Judas” is such a confused mess that whatever message Gaga is trying to get across is lost in the rehashed disco, rehashed Abba, and rehashed “Bad Romance”. Whether she seized upon the idea of Judas as symbol or allegory (of what?), or as justification (of whose sins?) is impossible to tell (I lean toward Judas representing fame, or maybe the record industry, but the song itself doesn’t provide any clues). She may well be talking to herself more than anybody else, and though her moral confusion is interesting up to a point, it isn’t what I would call fascinating. Gaga may be an instinctual genius, and at the artistic and intellectual level she’s achieved a sort of middlebrow perfection, but if she wants to go any higher—and she does—she’s going to need to think things out a little more, and I’m not sure she’s capable of that.

Kelly Rowland featuring Lil Wayne—”Motivation”
#55
Sex is an everyday feature on the pop charts, but true eroticism is rare. Soul crooners like Ne-yo and Lloyd come close, but you’d have to go much further back to find anything comparable to this, which is guaranteed to make you either melt into a puddle or stand up at attention, depending on your gender/preference. Lil Wayne is in top form, keeping his rap focused and throwing in some subtle cunnilingus references. For the most part, though, this record is all Rowland’s, and after various miscues and less than stellar guest appearances since the demise of Destiny’s Child, she deserves it.

Game featuring Lil Wayne—”Red Nation”
#62
So Lil Wayne gets to appear on both the best and the worst debuts of the week. Can’t say he’s hasn’t got all his bases covered.

Chris Brown—”She Ain’t You”
#90
With it’s sample from “Human Nature” this is being pegged as a Michael Jackson tribute, which makes me wonder why Brown sounds so much like Stevie Wonder on the first verse. Whatever the case, this is well below even Brown’s recent output, much less his models. Sounds a lot like the junk he put out as a teenager.

Hot Chelle Rae—”Tonight Tonight”
#93
Reviewed in Bubbling Under, 4/16/11

Bridgit Mendler—”Determinate”
#94
Just when it looked like Disney was going to allow Nickelodeon to claim the tween-pop crown, they come roaring back with new singers, a relatively new production team (TWIN, a pair of Swedes who have worked together for nearly a decade without having any big hits), and a sound that is both more mature and overtly powerful than much of the Disney pop that preceded it. Even the rap is OK, or at least not embarrassing. And “determinate” itself seems such a perfect pop term I’m surprised it hasn’t been used before.

Jake Owen—”Barefoot Blue Jean Night”
#96
The production is a surprise, at least for a country record, but the song itself isn’t. No doubt the arrangement is intended to make up for that, though it may also be intended to cover up the relative weakness of Owen’s voice, which can be expressive but isn’t as rich as many of his contemporaries. It doesn’t quite work, but I appreciate the experimentation.

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Hot 100 Roundup—2/20/11

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

Because of the larger than usual number of records to hit the chart this week, I decided to split the roundup in half; the Hot 100 today, Bubbling Under tomorrow. Chances are this will become a regular thing. The number of records making the chart each week seems to be growing, even when Glee doesn’t add its weight to the equation, and I’ve enjoyed combing through the Bubbling Under chart for those who have never made the big chart and possibly never will. How long this will continue depends on how much free time I have, but right now I have plenty, so we’ll give it a go.

Lady Gaga—”Born This Way”
#1
Celebratory in all the right ways, if hardly groundbreaking, this represents a shift in Lady Gaga from persona—and not a very nice one—to person. She’s said herself that there is essentially no difference now between Stefani Germanotta and Gaga, a position that allows her to double-down on concept and at the same indulge her personal, real-life loves and opinions without any noticeable division between her human self and her image. It’s impossible to judge where this will go based on only one song, but in its way it’s not much different than what Taylor Swift has done in mixing her life with her art, albeit with a more eccentric fashion sense. It’s a tricky path, and it’s hard not to wonder if some day Gaga will turn into the Norma Desmond of pop music, trapped in her own delusional image of herself. For now, though, it’s working, and though “Born This Way” is more pastiche than anything original, cheering on a victory that for the most part has already been won, it’s still her pastiche, and it comes across as the real thing, even if Gaga herself doesn’t.

Jay Sean featuring Lil Wayne—”Hit the Lights”
#18
The particular strain of British hip-hop that Jay Sean represents, along with Taio Cruz and Tinie Tempah, is, in many ways, almost irresistable. The hooks are insistant, the tempos bright and bouncy, and the overall atmosphere one of mindless but real enjoyment. This song would appear to be about dancing. Lil Wayne adds nothing, but he doesn’t subtract, either, and this bounces along so effortlessly its impossible not to be sucked in. So what else can I say but “here’s another one”?

Colbie Caillat—”I Do”
#23
A lot of people will probably hate this on general principal, and once it becomes a staple soundtrack for engagement ring commercials they’ll have a right. But charming is charming, and this bounces along, lighter than air, with a confidence and optimism that for most people would probably be sadly misplaced. For someone as privileged as Caillat though, it makes perfect sense, and I still say that she’s essentially a Taylor Swift for rich beach-bunny’s and all the girls who wish they were. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to have a soundtrack of their own?

Glee Cast
“Firework”, #34
“Silly Love Songs”, #45
“When I Get You Alone”, #47
“Fat Bottomed Girls”, #56
“P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing), #58
“She’s Not There”, #87

Wiz Khalifa—”Roll Up”
#48
Khalifa’s an interesting case, but I’m not sure I understand the fuss that some are making about him. As a rapper he’s less pop than, say, B.o.B., but a lot more pop than others; his vocals have some of the flat dryness of Drake, but with a smoother, less self-important flow. All the same, nothing much about him stands out. He’s good, but he’s not great, and though I appreciate the believability of the scenario he creates here, and his stuff goes down pleasantly enough, there’s nothing special or new about it, either. I wouldn’t call him mediocre, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to hear him.

Jana Kramer—”I Won’t Give Up”
#75
Weepy-eyed country doesn’t come much more ordinary than this. I’m sure she means well, but nobody ever saved a man by boring him to death.

Lupe Fiasco featuring Skylar Grey—”Words I Never Said”
#89
It’s been a long time since anything so blatantly political has appeared on the Hot 100, and Fiasco wins big points with me by not pulling any punches, including calling both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck racists, which they are. It also helps that he supports common sense rather than any political or philosophical side—berating both Muslim terrorists and right-wing Israelis, and blaming the problems of the inner city as much on those who live there as on the system. He loses me on the 9/11 conspiracy stuff, but fortunately he buries that in the mix. Which isn’t hard to do, since the sound is huge. He knows what he’s talking about, and he rarely slips up. Almost guaranteed to disappear as quickly as it arrived, but this is a welcome breath of fresh air.

Justin Bieber—”Pray”
#91
While Lupe Fiasco works out the details, Justin Bieber, bless his precious little seventeen-year-old soul, only knows things are bad somewhere because he sees the news on TV in his hotel room between personal appearances. So when his handlers presented him with this inspirational poster to the world, he sang it as best he could, trying hard to imagine how it must feel to care about these things (thinking how Michael Jackson did it helped a lot). It’s all part of the job, folks, all part of the job.

My Chemical Romance—”Sing”
#92
An instant anthem, not least because I’d swear I’ve heard it somewhere before. Still, these guys know how to toy with a formula and bring some life to it, and the music and lyrics are gritty enough to get away with the uplift parts. Unfortunately, this might also be another step in their turning into the newest version of Green Day. As long as they keep their sense of humor, that might not be bad thing. If they lose it, though, the way Green Day did, watch out.

Miranda Lambert—”Heart Like Mine”
#95
One of my favorite songs from Revolution, containing what might be the most striking and daring image from that album: Jesus greeting Lambert in heaven with a pair of champagne flutes. Up until this song, Lambert, unlike most of her country contemporaries, has avoided sticking Jesus into her music—he didn’t show up on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend at all—and now that he makes an appearance it’s as a drinking buddy. She’s not just a great singer and songwriter, she’s just the sort of Christian I can get along with. I only hope this doesn’t raise a stink with the fundamentalists.

Ronnie Dunn—”Bleed Red”
#99
The artist formerly known as half of Brooks and Dunn opens his solo career with a sympathy move: “See, I’m still a souful, feeling sort of guy, even without what’s-his-name.” Next time he’ll be picking up cowgirls in honky-tonks over rock and roll guitars just to demonstrate his “range”. A career’s a career. You gotta keep it going somehow.

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Yet another reason to stay away from the TV

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

Michael Jackson Doctor Conrad Murray’s Trial To Be Televised

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That’s what he wants

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

I’ve always considered Bruno Mars a real talent, but now I’m beginning to find myself agreeing with those who believe he’s a good deal more than that. “Marry You”, one of the most charming songs anyone has released in years, has something to do with that, but the clincher may be the first couple of minutes of the clip below (Travie McCoy haters are advised not to watch beyond that). This is from the Z100 Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden last month. It’s one of those old fashioned package shows, full of big stars who get 20 minutes or so to play their hits and make their fans (in this case almost all teenage girls) happy. So what does Mars open with? “Money”, a fifty year-old song whose most recent minor hit version, by The Flying Lizards, was released long before most of his audience was born. Since he started his career as a child Elvis impersonator, I’m not surprised Mars knows the song, though it sounds as if he’s more familiar with The Beatles version than Barrett Strong’s original, but it’s amazing to me that he would play it, even if it was the inspiration for “Billionaire”, and especially on an occasion like this. He doesn’t approach it like it’s an educational moment, either, just “Here’s a cool song I love”. Mind you, it could be a piece of demographic triangulation: he’s already won over the teenagers, so now it’s time to work on their parents. That seems too cynical, though, and cynical is the one thing Mars doesn’t appear to be. He just loves this stuff, and he wants to share it. All I could think while I was watching this is that he may be the most natural pop performer since Michael Jackson, even if his music isn’t yet up to that level; and he obviously enjoys performing in the same way The Beatles did in their early days. Those are outrageous comparisons, I know, but I suspect we’ve only gotten a taste of what Mars is capable of.

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Hot 100 Roundup—11/28/10

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

Glee Cast
“Forget You” (featuring Gwyneth Paltrow), #11
“Singing In the Rain/Umbrella” (featuring Gwyneth Paltrow), #18

Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg and Akon—“Kush”
#49
When a guy spends over a decade making a record about how wonderful dope is, it’s impossible to miss the ironic disconnect. Which isn’t to suggest that Dre is unaware of that irony himself: this is bouncy, funny, and celebratory in all the right ways. As always, Snoop gets off the best lines (“tight as the pants on will.i.am”). Dre has tricks of his own, though, including one of the slyest musical jokes I’ve ever heard, where the piano figure at the end starts coming apart as if it were being played by a stoner searching the keys for notes he could swear he knew just a minute ago.

Rihanna—“S&M”
#53
Having said in interviews that she’s tired of people paying attention only to the dark side of her music, Rihanna opens her new album with a chorus that includes the borrowed joke “Stick and stones may break my bones/But chains and whips excite me”. Mind you, S&M isn’t as dark or taboo as it used to be (though shouldn’t she at least have given us her safe word?), but considering Rihanna’s very public past in regard to sexual relationships, it seems an odd choice at best, a blatant cashing in at worst. This isn’t a bad record, but I find myself hesitant to learn anything else about Rihanna’s sex life, real or imagined. At the same time I keep flashing on Amy Rigby’s song “Year of the Fling”, about a woman who suddenly finds herself enmeshed in the BDSM scene: “At the peak of her binge/A twinge of fear came to unnerve her/But she mastered that/And it served to pervert her further”. What Rihanna went through was horrible and no doubt traumatic, but did surviving it really make her any stronger?

Nelly and Keri Hilson—“Liv Tonight”
#75
I don’t know if it’s this record in particular, or just their overwhelming presence on the charts these days, but I’m beginning to feel as tired of kick drums as I am of electric guitars, if only because they trap artists in a remorseless groove when they might be better off with more rhythmic freedom. That’s certainly true of Hilson, though I have my doubts about Nelly.

Michael Jackson & Akon—“Hold My Hand”
#84
I can understand why people wondered about the vocals on Jackson’s posthumous recordings: he does sound different, though it’s largely because he’s singing in a lower key—his voice was aging, and except for brief exclamations he couldn’t hit those high notes the way he used to. The phrasing, however, is undeniably Jackson, even if it is just an echo of his glory days. What’s more disappointing is his general lack of presence; most likely he hadn’t finished this when he died, but there’s still too much Akon and not enough MJ. What’s more fascinating, and a little creepy, is the homoerotic subtext that runs though the song. I mean, who are these guys singing to? Some unidentified woman? The world in general? Each other? The record is credited as a duet, after all. Who knows? That’s MJ for you—even posthumously, he’s the weirdest guy in the room.

Train—“Marry Me”
#95
Reviewed in Bubbling Under, 11/21/10

Ke$ha—“Blow”
#97
The problem with Ke$ha’s records isn’t that they’re loud and dumb, it’s that she isn’t prepared to go all the way with the concept. When she says that she and her friends are young and bored, it’s a distancing effect that she probably thinks gives the song some sort of satirical meaning and depth. All it does, though, is cement her image as a privileged “artiste” who’s slumming all the way to the bank.

Flo Rida—“Turn Around (5,4,3,2,1)”
#98
Despite the evidence of his previous records, Flo Rida does not live and die by the hook; he lives and dies by propulsive forward motion, so much so that this time he seems to have lost the hook somewhere back on the track. Maybe he should ask Bruno Mars for another one; he’s bound to have a few lying around.

Bubbling Under:

Keri Hilson—“Pretty Girl Rock”
#102
Hilson is an interesting case. Her guest spots can seem anonymous (as in “Liv Tonight”), but her own records are defiantly idiosyncratic, always coming out of somewhere that seems familiar but with a twist that makes them difficult to trace. This one appears to borrow ideas from relatively obscure female artists like Santigold, Lil Jackie, and VV Brown, and at times almost sounds like a tribute record. At the same time it never sounds like anyone but Hilson. At least it would if I could be sure of exactly what Hilson sounds like. I’m still not sure she’s a major talent, but she’s certainly an intriguing one.

Billy Currington—“Let Me Down Easy”
#103
Currington doesn’t have an original bone in his body or thought in his head, but that doesn’t mean he can’t sound classier or more sophisticated than his country-heartthrob competition. He seems like a genuinely nice, laid-back sort of guy. In other words, he’s an old-school country careerist, and if sometimes he’s a little boring, well, that just comes with the territory.

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