Posts Tagged ‘U2’

Hot 100 Roundup—6/11/11

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

Scotty McCreery—”I Love You This Big”
#11
Lauren Alaina—”Like My Mother Does”
#20
At first listen it seems as if the latest American Idol survivors have been granted better material than previous winners. But even though these songs are more specific in detail and less generic in overall tone, they’re still terrible, with lyrics that make you gasp in awe at their utter inanity. McCreery and Alaina make the best of it and deliver what they think is expected of them, but McCreery’s voice lacks seasoning—he needs experience: alcohol, sex, even more religion—while Alaina’s attempts to bend her song to her will result in a lot of growling and screaming and only make things worse. They’ll both do better. Whether either of them has the talent or brains to do much better is still an open question.

Glee Cast
“Light Up the World”, #33
“Pretending”, #40
“For Good”, #58
“I Love New York/New York, New York”, #81
“As Long As You’re There”, #93

Lady GaGa
“You and I”, #36
“Marry the Night”, #79
The pleasure I take in Born This Way is largely a matter of sonics and structure. That’s not a putdown. When you create something that for the most part is collage and pastiche, both musically and lyrically, sonics and structure are what make the difference between bland imitation and creating something new, and GaGa gets them right every single time. And then she boosts them. The drums and guitar on “You and I” may owe their inspiration to Queen, but they outstrip and outboom anything that band ever did, and the fact that they’re tied to a song that borrows from highway rock and roll and even country and western puts it in a league of its own. “Marry The Night”, meanwhile, is more Springsteen-inspired disco, with a coda beamed in from a mid-90s rave. I still have my doubts about her lyrics, which are often blander than they need to be, and I don’t think she’s making anything truly new out of her sources, but her merger of hard rock with disco diva anthems (which is what that ridiculous cover photo is all about, in case you were wondering) is wondrous, even if it ultimately doesn’t lead anywhere. Don’t think of it as something new, but as a well-earned celebration of a greatness we may have missed at the time.

Beyonce—”1+1″
#57
I have my doubts about Beyonce’s soul moves, especially her high notes and the dynamics that accompany them, but thematically this is a breakthrough, the first Beyonce song about a relationship I’ve heard in which she isn’t either asserting her iron-willed dominance or making like a supplicant to her godlike man. That see-sawing from one extreme to another was getting tiresome, and this is a welcome relief. I bet it’s a relief to Jay-Z, too.

Lil Wayne—”How To Love”
#69
I don’t think it’s the softness of sound that has caused so many people to write this song off. Sentimentality is as much a part of rap as any other kind of music, and if anyone has earned the right to a little mellow down time it’s Lil Wayne. What probably bothers hardcore rap fans more is the sense of empathy the song is based on. It isn’t really a love song, and it certainly isn’t a sex song. Instead, it’s a real attempt to understand where this woman is coming from and what she’s feeling, something more along the lines of Prince’s “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” (even though the situation appears to be completely different) than your standard lover man rap. In other words, thematically it’s as far from the mainstream of rap as Wayne’s phrasing and twisting trains of thought have always been. Like the pre-prison “I’m Single”, it’s a record by someone who’s trying to sort out the world in all it’s aspects, not just as it relates to his place, position, and pleasure. Musically, Wayne still isn’t sure what to make of these ideas, so he falls too readily into cliche, but if he should ever figure it out, or find a collaborator who has, then watch out: he may well remake rap yet again.

Reeve Carney featuring Bono & The Edge—”Rise Above 1″
#74
Not sure exactly what I expected a Broadway soundtrack written by Bono and The Edge to sound like, but I wasn’t expecting standard-issue U2, that’s for sure. Way to stretch your stylistic limits, guys. As for Reeve Carney, his Bono imitation is so exact I can only assume he thinks of Spiderman as a warm-up for that more lucrative U2 biopic that’s bound to appear sooner or later. Either that or he has a great future in tribute bands.

Mac Miller—”Donald Trump”
#80
The white version of Wiz Khalifa, or Waka Flocka Flame, or maybe even Big Sean. How did we stand the wait?

Kenny Chesney featuring Grace Potter—”You and Tequila”
#92
Strong, steady, and never overdone, this is as good as Chesney is ever going to get. With Grace Potter playing Emmylou Harris, he almost sounds human. There’s still something that doesn’t come across, though, and the stiff perfectionism of this record keeps it from classic territory. Damn close, though.

Rihanna—”Man Down”
#94
Reviewed in Bubbling Under, 6/4/11

Lupe Fiasco featuring Trey Songz—”Out Of My Head”
#98
Reviewed in Bubbling Under, 5/21/11

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

Sunday night indie fever

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

Now that the speculation as to why Arcade Fire managed to win the Album of the Year Grammy has died down a bit, and all the “indie is dead” jokes have been made, I would like to offer my own theory, which can be summed up in a very few words: U2 didn’t make a record last year. The academy, in it’s basic leanings, has not changed one bit. The Suburbs is the sort of album that has always appealed to them, at least over the last twenty or thirty years: a concept album packed with serious intent put together by an actual band that plays, for the most part, traditional acoustic and electric instruments instead of turntables and sequencers, has a solid footing in the good-old ideas of rock and roll, even if they often deny it, and puts on a great, let’s-make-the-audience-feel-like-they’re-really-a-part-of-the-action live show. Awarding Album of the Year to Arcade Fire was the conservative move, not a daring step into indie land. The fact that the band is on Merge instead of one of the major labels is meaningless. Merge, along with Matador and Sub-Pop, may technically not be a major label, but it’s a major player, in a position not unlike that of 60s labels such as Atlantic and Elektra. People in the industry pay attention to them, and give them far more respect than the indie community itself, if there is such a thing anymore, seems to realize.

At the same time, can we finally put aside the idea that the Grammy voters are all tasteless idiots who care about nothing but pristine studio craftmanship and commercial success? This canard was most obviously in evidence this year in the way so many people began predicting a Lady Antebellum sweep once “Need You Now” had picked up the Song and Record of the Year awards. “Need You Now” is a very good record, maybe even a great one (it certainly has at least one great moment), and it’s the sort of thing that’s catnip to Academy voters. But it’s also far superior to anything else on the album, and the members of the Academy knew it. Now that they can buy them separately, even they can remember the difference between a great single and a great album.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in albums, pop culture | Comments Off

New this week—5/30/10

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Miley Cyrus—”Can’t Be Tamed”
#8
Despite the usually sure handed Amato/James Rock Mafia putting this together, and the added controversy of Cyrus’s first “adult” video (i.e., one with bare legs, cleavage, and faux-Fosse dance moves), this isn’t that interesting of a record. There’s something flat and fuzzy about Cyrus’s voice, and the music follows suit. She certainly kisses off Disney, though, despite still being signed to their label. The video is one part of it, but there’s also a clever double-entendre reference to erections, and the words “go to hell” are followed with a digitally garbled voice that sounds like Donald Duck in one of his fits of frustration. Can there be such a thing as mature Disney pop? It will be interesting to find out, but this isn’t quite it.

Glee Cast
“Dream On” (featuring Neil Patrick Harris), #26
“I Dreamed A Dream” (featuring Idina Menzel), #31
“Safety Dance”, #81
“Bad Romance”, #86
“Poker Face”, #100
After two above average weeks (“above average” in the context of Glee, that is), the cast settles back into their usual sub-karaoke torpor. It’s no surprise that Neil Patrick Harris sings rock and roll better than any of the regular cast (who wouldn’t?), but he’s still worse than just about any other decent rock singer you could name. The GaGa covers are particularly awful, for which the production team is as much to blame as the singers: “Bad Romance” sounds like it’s being played by a lounge act, and whoever decided to use the slow version of “Poker Face” did both the singer and GaGa an incredible disservice.

3OH!3—”Touchin’ On My”
#49
This has it’s clever moments, especially the way the censorship bleeps are worked into the arrangement. For the most part, though, it’s the same old obvious, crude nonsense. Just what kind of self-respecting woman would want to *bleep* these guys, anyway?

Avenged Sevenfold—”Nightmare”
#51
I’m sure the band takes its satanist sentiments seriously, but this is the musical equivalent of an 11-year old trying to scare his little sister by turning off the lights, holding a flashlight under his chin, saying “evil” things, and laughing maniacally. It’s cute in a way, but I don’t think cute is what these guys were aiming for.

Muse—”Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)”
#77
I don’t know enough about Muse to know whether they have a sense of humor, or even any brains. If they do, this is a brilliant piece of parody, a vicious, satiric swipe at Twilight fans and all the ridiculous pseudo-mystical, romantic mumbo-jumbo that surrounds the franchise. If they don’t, this is the most godawful, ridiculous record of the year, an unholy merger of U2, The Killers, and Andrew Lloyd Webber that has to be heard to be believed. Unfortunately, since their latest album includes titles such as “United States of Eurasia/Collateral Damage (Excerpt from Nocturne in E-Flat, Op. 9, No. 2)” and “Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 2 (Cross-pollination)”, I suspect the latter. Still good for a laugh, though.

Christina Aguilera featuring Nicki Minaj—”Woohoo”
#79
I’m probably too hard on Aguilera, who really does try to stretch her own and her audiences boundaries, often in ways you’d least expect. But intentions aren’t the same as achievements, she always sounds to me as if she’s trying too hard, and all the risk-taking in the world doesn’t excuse the fact that she’s made a record about cunnilingus that doesn’t for a single moment sound dirty or even sexy. Nicki Minaj, who you would think would loosen things up, falls into lockstep with Aguilera and adds nothing but product placement and a bad Jamaican accent. Couldn’t she at least have offered to go down on Christina herself?

Zac Brown Band—”Free”
#95
Zac Brown is a country traditionalist at heart, which these days apparently means being firmly rooted in 70s folk/rock, traveling the backroads in a van fueled with nothing but love, phrasing like James Taylor, and borrowing ideas from the pre-Michael McDonald Doobie Brothers (who are starting to become as influential as The Eagles). Aren’t these the people Merle Haggard use to complain about?

Gyptian—”Hold You (Hold Yuh)”
#96
I’ve played this record five or six times in the last week. I just played it again. I still can’t remember any of it.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Hot 100, new this week, singles | 1 Comment »

New this week—5/23/10

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg—”California Gurls”
#2
Unlike some, I’m offended by neither the title nor the spelling, both of which are representatives of a culture that has long since lost it’s power and has already been replaced. Problem is, this is too stodgy and tasteful to make the cut. It must be odd for Perry to realize that in less than two years her place as leading female provocateur has been usurped two or three times over. Melting popsicles isn’t going to cut it anymore. As for Snoop, his investment in ultimate cool is no longer paying dividends, and he sounds as if he knows it.

Glee Cast
“Jessie’s Girl”, #23
“One”, #60
“The Boy Is Mine”, #76
“Lady Is A Tramp”, #81
“Rose’s Turn”, #93
The closer the Glee Cast gets to contemporary music, I thought, the better they should sound. Having grown up with it, they’re bound to have a better idea of how it should be sung. And sure enough, “Jessie’s Girl” and “The Boy Is Mine” both sound like the vocalists actually know what their singing about, while “Lady Is a Tramp” is as horrible as you might imagine. “One” doesn’t work, but more because of the lame arrangement than the singing (it’s ridiculous to complain about oversinging on a U2 song; that’s what they’re for). Broadway, however, will always win out with these guys; it’s what they’re trained for, and “Rose’s Turn” is easily the best of this week’s batch. Not that that’s saying much.

Charice featuring Iyaz—”Pyramid”
#56
I could say that this is a major step up from Charice’s first single, but since “Note To God” was the worst record of last year not made by the Glee Cast, anything would be an improvement. Even generic pap like this.

Lil Wayne—”I’m Single”
#82
Since he’s currently in prison, it makes sense that Lil Wayne’s best single since “A Milli” should be layered with ever deeper levels of guilt and remorse, even if a weapons rap isn’t quite as guilt inducing as the infidelity documented here. The way Wayne twists the usual rap pornography, and even his now patented giggle, into something regretful and forlorn is beyond anything he’s done before, and I can’t think of a single record of his in which the emotions are so basic and so bare. Just like T.I., facing a year in the slammer seems to have focused Lil Wayne in ways he hadn’t anticipated. Unlike T.I., Wayne is a genius, and he goes far beyond T.I.’s bragging about how strong he’ll be when his time in jail is over. Wayne may be stronger when he gets out, as well, but he may also be someone totally different. I just hope he doesn’t get religion.

Enrique Iglesias featuring Pitbull—”I Like It”
#89
Another former superstar enlists the help of a hotter, more contemporary talent to boost his career, and ends up in support of his supposed guest. Pitbull is on a roll right now, and this has it’s moments, but just like Usher’s “OMG”, shaping a guest’s trademark sound to the star’s requirements results in something bloated and off-kilter. A vast improvement over “Do You Know? (The Ping Pong Song)”, but what wouldn’t be?

Justin Bieber—”Somebody To Love”
#98
For what it’s worth, this is Bieber’s best record. Which is only to say that it’s passable. Now he’s sixteen, Bieber’s Chris Brown imitation has a little more heft to it, but it’s still an imitation.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Hot 100, new this week, singles | 2 Comments »

New this week

Saturday, August 15th, 2009

Selena Gomez—”Magic”
#61
As seventies power pop staples go, I’ve never thought much of Pilot’s “Magic”. Pristinely produced by Alan Parsons, it’s a stiff Badfinger rip-off, second-rate Beatles twice removed. Compared to this version, however—part of the Wizards of Waverly Place soundtrack, which also includes covers of “Magic Carpet Ride”, “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic”, and “Do You Believe in Magic?”—Pilot are The Beatles. Even though the remake is shorter than the original, it sounds slower, metalish guitars and plodding drums turning it into a boring slog. It would help if Gomez sang as if she weren’t being forced at gunpoint, but it isn’t all her fault—obviously Disney’s producers are only interested in putting out if they’ve got a share of the publishing.

Madonna–”Celebration”
#71
What year is this? Except for the techno touches, this could have been Madonna’s followup to “Holiday” or “Into the Groove”. Aside from the naughty spoken bit (not dirty, mind you, just naughty) she sounds as if she were 22 again. It’s one of the odd realities of pop music careers: if you stick around long enough, even through the lean times, the culture will always come back to where you started.

Whitney Houston—”I Look To You”
#74
With R Kelly channelling Diane Warren as a songwriter, and the arrangement staying safely in tasteful power ballad territory (will someone please put that drummer out of his misery?), this would be a terrible record if it wasn’t for Houston’s voice. To say it sounds lived in would be an understatement—it sounds as if its been plowed under and dredged back up. For a few moments, especially in the second verse, Houston seems ready to take the song over and drag it to church where it belongs, but the banality of the chorus distracts her, and once she’s lost her focus there’s nothing left but cliche. It could be a lot worse, but it could be a lot better.

Muse—”Uprising”
#81
Though Queen and Blondie have been cited as influences, I hear more Gary Glitter (or Battles) and U2. Whatever the case, add it all up and you get INXS in revolutionary mode. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, especially since you can galumph to it.

Jaime Foxx featuring The-Dream, Drake, & Kanye West—”Digital Girl”
#92
Once again, I have a hard time telling Foxx from his counterparts, especially The-Dream (though I have found at least one clue: whichever voice is thinnest, that’s Foxx). This is a pleasant trifle, and Drake is so hot right now it may even be a hit, but “Blame It” it ain’t. (Oh, and another way to tell the players wihtout a program: whoever makes the most references to having sex in the kitchen, that’s Foxx, too.)

Brad Paisley—”Welcome To the Future”
#98
This may be stating the obvious, but in country terms Paisley is a weirdo, and this may be his weirdest yet. Paisley is a weirdo because, for all his traditional trappings, he’s a modernist, as comfortable with technology and urbanity as he is with rusticity. He may be a good old boy, but he isn’t narrow, he isn’t blindly redneck in his vision, and he isn’t stupid. What makes this song so weird is the way it shifts from a shallow good old boy perspective (“Man, isn’t all this modern technology nuts?”) to something more universal and open (“Wow, isn’t it cool we’ve got a black president?”). He proves how smart he is by turning country sentimentality back on itself (how many country songs praising the civil rights movement have you heard?). Plus, he stages a guitar duel with a synthesizer and let’s the synthesizer win. After his last single, “Then”, I was afraid that Paisley was retiring back into comfortable cliche. Turns out he was just softening up the audience before stretching things even further.

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