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Luckier and Luckier: Hot 100 Roundup—5/4/13

Thursday, May 9th, 2013

Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams—“Get Lucky”
#19

Good music is its own justification, and “Get Lucky” is OK, but I still find myself questioning its necessity. It’s more of a museum piece than a pop record, a careful reconstruction and distillation of everything that made disco enjoyable with all the rough edges that made it vital removed. Though I can’t exactly explain what I mean by this, to me it sounds very French. Or like smooth jazz with a beat. Even Nile Rodgers’s guitar sounds generic. And its debut in the top twenty seems like the last gasp of a movement that lost its energy long ago.

will.i.am featuring Miley Cyrus—“Fall Down”
#58

How did I miss the fact that what will.i.am really wants to be isn’t a pop star, or even a pop empresario, but the Brian Wilson of EDM? The big influence here isn’t some piece of European minimalist disco, but Beach Boys’ records like “Good Vibrations” or Smile. Maybe I’m only realizing it now because this is the first time one of his musical collages hasn’t sounded like a cut-and-paste job designed to save a batch of disconnected ideas. Or maybe the strings tipped me off. There’s a big difference between will.i.am and Wilson, though (besides the fact that Wilson didn’t have to hire out the singing): Wilson didn’t just slap together stray parts, he thought out great parts and then meshed them into something more. Great as the combinations were, as Smiley Smile proved, even the oddest fragments could be separated from the body of the piece and still be enjoyable. The various parts of this record are improved by being heard in conjunction with the others, but not by much, and they could never stand on their own. Also, Wilson got decent lyricists to write his words for him, words that added to the music, rather than limply decorating it. This is an unfair comparison, I know, but will.i.am invites it, because his ambitions are that big, even though his talent is much smaller.

Jason Derulo—“The Other Side”
#75

A hopeless rehash of Usher’s “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” hampered by the brash mindlessness of the beat and the simple fact that DeRulo can’t sing. And I don’t mean as well as Usher. I mean he can’t sing.

Calvin Harris featuring Ellie Goulding—“I Need Your Love”
#76

Who needs hooks when you have Ellie Goulding’s voice to work with? Baby-doll innocent one moment, Bjorkishly weird the next, breathy and sincere in between, she constantly creates tiny, micro-pitched melodies between the usual notes that are either pleasurable or irritating depending on your point of view, but captivating either way. Harris, pro that he is, throws in some hooks of his own, just for spice, and the result is the best record from him I’ve heard.

Miguel—“How Many Drinks”
#88

This seems cold and callous at first, and it is, but it’s also respectful in its own single-minded way. Miguel is more than willing to play the game, he just wants to know what the results will be beforehand. Of course, he’s also betting that telling the truth and self-serving candor will work as a seduction technique. If I were his chosen companion, he’d probably have me at the end of the first verse, when he rhymes “get in your pants” with “am I going too fast?” But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t want to hear the rest of his line.

Robin Thicke featuring T.I. & Pharrell—“Blurred Lines”
#94

This is so perfectly realized that I keep thinking there must be something seriously wrong with it, but aside from a certain level of slick calculation and the usual mild sexism, I can’t find anything. Thicke and Pharrell’s voices blend so perfectly that half the time I can’t tell them apart, and the record is so beautifully constructed that it doesn’t make any difference anyway. The high-point, though, is T.I., who first nails the beat and then toys with it like a master. It’s his best rap in years.

Sean Kingston featuring Chris Brown & Wiz Khalifa—“Beat It”
#98

Kingston is a one-shot artist who’s career was fading long before his accident, so though I respect this attempted comeback, I don’t see much chance of success, and certainly not with material as generic as this. Meanwhile, Chris Brown continues to be trapped, or to flaunt, sexual metaphors that remind us of the darkest moments of his past. He won’t just “Beat It” for you, girl, he’ll “beat it up”. Is he that callous, or that oblivious? Is there a difference? Does it even matter anymore?

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Mediocrity is a Spongiform Virus from Outer Space: Hot 100 Roundup—4/6/13

Thursday, April 11th, 2013

The main symptoms of which are ennui and procrastination, hence the lateness of this. It isn’t just that mediocre records are hard to write about, though they are, but they drain whatever energy you have for writing, as well. And so far this has been a very mediocre year. There’s not a single record this week—and this is the biggest debut week so far, in terms of the number of records—that I have any strong feelings about. It’s been that way for three months now, which is why my Best of the Hot 100 playlist only has four songs on it (and one of those is over a year old). Even though it’s still early in the year, there’s little sign of it getting better. I wonder where the real action is?

will.i.am featuring Justin Bieber—“#thatPOWER”
#42

Since I’m expecting the usual will.i.am haters to raise a fuss about the lift from Daft Punk and the emptiness of Justin Bieber’s vocal, it’s probably a waste of time to mention that this is easily the best thing will.i.am has produced since The E.N.D., way back at the dawn of the EDM era he helped create. It’s nowhere near as good, partly because it’s a rehash, and partly because of Bieber, but just like The E.N.D. it’s better than most people will give him credit for. Me, I respect him for sticking to his electro guns, and just want to point out that Bieber sounds a lot more alive than Britney Spears did, though not as much as Fergie.

Justin Timberlake—“Pusher Love Girl”
#64

The news that Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience is essentially a contractual obligation album—though for a performance contract rather than the usual recording contract—explains a lot. The length of the songs, for one thing (just like “Mirrors”, “Pusher Love” runs over eight minutes): when you need to put an album together in a hurry, there’s nothing like extended breakdowns, intros, and codas to make it look like you’re giving your audience their money’s worth. It also explains the relative shallowness of the lyrics, and occasionally the music. No doubt Timbaland has a ton of beats and backing tracks piled up on his hard drives, but lyrics, and even lyrical themes, can be harder to come by. “Pusher Love” could almost be a case in point. It features a lengthy and unnecessary orchestral intro, an even lengthier and perhaps even less necessary breakdown and coda, and, in between all that, a B+ level beat and lyrics that add nothing. All the same, this is the best track from 20/20 to hit the charts so far, and a decent radio edit could work wonders. It’s good enough, in fact, to make you wonder why it wasn’t released as the first single instead of “Suit & Tie”. I assume it had something to do with branding the upcoming tour, and maybe to lower expectations for a project Timberlake doesn’t have much of his heart invested in. The question is how much respect he’s willing to lose. He’s certainly lost a lot of mine.

Tyga featuring Cedric Gervais, Wiz Khalifa & Mally Mall—“Molly”
#66

Sometimes I like Tyga, sometimes I hate him, this time I don’t care.

Lil Wayne featuring 2 Chainz—“Rich As Fuck”
#78

A couple of lines suggest that Wayne may have some brain cells left, but then it winds down into the usual rap misogyny, which used to be unusual for Wayne. The beat’s dull, too.

J Dash—“Wop”
#82

“Another J. Dash production!” Are we supposed to have remembered the last one? I don’t. Though it’s harder to create a one-word hook than it might seem, it isn’t that hard. Besides, Dash doesn’t put anything worth hearing between the hooks. I thank him, though, for reminding me of The Coasters “Turtle Dovin’”. I wonder if Dash has heard it.

Zedd featuring Foxes—“Clarity”
#86

Another small step in the direction of turning EDM into just another form of pop music, as opposed to a revitalization. This has it’s moments, but the music is so loud that the vocals get stretched out of any recognizable emotional range in compensation, which the music, ironically enough, isn’t full enough to hide.

Jake Owen—“Anywhere With You”
#92

For some reason I keep confusing Jake Owen with Luke Bryan, which is unfair to Bryan, who has some brains and is willing to experiment. Owen’s a hack, but country radio must love him because he’s managed to milk Barefoot Blue Jean Night for over a year now, even though each single has been duller than the one before it. Maybe it’s because he’s so willing to pander: the opening line may be the most egregious and ridiculous example I’ve ever heard.

Kip Moore—“Hey Pretty Girl”
#97

Eric Church may use Bruce Springsteen as a symbol of romantic nostalgia, but Moore goes a step further: from his cover pose in a leather jacket, Fender in hand, to the careful, repetitive folk plainness of his style, it’s obvious Moore wants to be Springsteen. That he fails isn’t a surprise, but it’s also for reasons you might not expect. “Hey Pretty Girl” goes on too long and repeats itself too much, but that’s the least of Moore’s problems. The big issue is his inability to break out of the country straitjacket, which forces him to pay the usual lyrical homages to family and motherhood and true love, even though the music is speaking Springsteen’s language of thwarted dreams and diminished hopes. If he wants to be Springsteen, or even get close, Moore is going to need to go all the way. Either that or try something else.

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Best of the Hot 100, 2012

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

There seems to be general agreement that 2012 was not a good year for pop music—musically, commercially, or for those who cover it. I have my doubts about this (I have my doubts about the whole concept of good and bad years in general, but that’s another discussion), but there’s no doubting the negatives.

The commercial aspect is obvious: CD sales continue to drop, and digital sales aren’t rising fast enough to compensate. Individual track sales are booming, but LP sales are still far behind.

For critics, while the opportunities to publish, or at least self-publish, continue to expand (which may be part of the problem), the possibility of getting paid has dropped. The two most obvious signs of this decline—the firing of Maura Johnston at the Village Voice in favor of the snarky, listicle-based, and largely out of touch music coverage featured in the other Voice Media papers (disclaimer: by extension, I was one of the victims in Maura’s firing); and the failure of Uncool to find crowd-sourced financial backing (largely their own fault, but still)—suggest that support for decent music writing exists, for the most part, only among decent music writers, and stretches not much further than their families and friends.

As for the music, this has been a transitional year, though I wouldn’t call it a complete disaster. The collapse of hip-hop as the reigning genre, a process that started back in 2008, became a general part of the discussion this year, as the music all but disappeared from the top ten. Older stars like Usher (and Beyonce in 2011) found it almost impossible to scale the pop charts, even after they modernized their sound. Of the younger artists, only Nicki Minaj and Rihanna have managed to stay near the top of the charts, but both had established themselves in the years before, and there were no big breakout artists.

In rap, though a number of new artists in the older mold (Wiz Khalifa, 2 Chainz, Big Sean, and others) scored decent hits, none of them have made much of a mark on the pop charts. Far more successful, and claiming the most critical interest over the last year, have been artists like Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, and Future, who follow in the wake of the album that broke the old form’s dominance: Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreaks. 808s is not only one of the markers for the commercial collapse of hip-hop, but has become far more influential musically than anyone expected. West, not surprisingly, is also the only established rapper who continues to have major pop hits.

So far, though, even as hip-hop has faded, nothing has stepped up to take its place, at least not in in comparison to the total domination hip-hop enjoyed for over a decade. Instead, we have three different streams rising up and sharing the spotlight.

The one that has gotten the most attention, and certainly the most press, is the dance and party music that has been stuck with the name EDM. EDM made its first major appearance on the pop charts via The Black Eyed Peas in the late oughts, just as hip-hop was starting its swan dive. The electro-based minimalism of BEP has been largely replaced by various types of eurodisco (Calvin Harris, David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia), and dupstep (Skrillex, Diplo, Zedd, and many others).

Over the last year it was dubstep that got the most attention. Skrillex’s singles, though never large pop hits, stayed on the lower reaches of the Hot 100 through most of the year, and he sold out everywhere he played (which was pretty much anywhere, and almost every night). Then came Usher’s Diplo-produced “Climax”, one of the best singles of the year and a number one r&b record, but not a big pop hit, most likely because it was too subtle to come across on top forty radio.

After that, it was as if the floodgates had opened, and every wave contained another “drop”. By the end of the year, dubstep had found a place in almost every genre. Not just in r&b and hip-hop, but in sensitive singer-songwriter balladry (Alex Clare’s “Too Close”, produced by Diplo), teen-pop (Carly Rae Jepsen and Justin Bieber), and even, if you stretch the definition a bit, country, in the form of Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” The most garish and obvious cash-in came on Pitbull’s “Back In Time” (produced by RedOne). Laying the wobble on Mickey and Sylvia’s “Love Is Strange” created one of the most joyfully ridiculous pop moments this year, and it continues to mystify me that the record wasn’t a bigger hit.

Just behind EDM was teen-pop, mostly in the form of the effervescent Jepsen and the somewhat beleaguered and bipolar (in a relationship sense) Swift. The Disney factory, which for all intents and purposes created teen-pop as a genre, was for the most part silent this year, with only the rehabbed Demi Lovato’s “Give Your Heart a Break” scoring big, although Bridgit Mendler continues to hover on the lower reaches of the Hot 100 with the readymade “Ready Or Not”.

The Disney gap was largely filled by Brits. Boy band One Direction turned the Disney blueprint into gold, pumping out one bright, snappy pop/rock track after another, while Cher Lloyd toughened the stance without losing the cheeky corniness of the genre (if anything she amplified it). “Want U Back” is too mature to fit the Disney mold well, but follow-up single “Oath” could have come off the soundtrack to any Disney Channel musical of the last five years (“Oath” wasn’t a big hit, but it was scooped up by a lot of teens with their iTunes gift cards after Christmas—enough to give the record it’s highest chart placement after it had fallen off the Hot 100 two weeks before; the next week it was gone again).

The third stream produced big hits but hasn’t, as far as I can see, gotten much publicity, or what it has gotten has been for a different reason. I call it the “new seriousness”, though that can hardly be considered a genre name. Most of these records came from what usually get called “indie bands”, though that label becomes more meaningless all the time (and it never meant much). The biggest hits, by Gotye and fun., (Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” started the ball rolling in late 2011), feature intense self-reflection and -doubt, with a heightened, though intellectualized, sense of musical melodrama.

These records aren’t to everyone’s taste, obviously, but the fact that lesser artists (Mumford and Sons, The Lumineers, Of Monsters and Men, Ed Sheeran, even American Idol winner Phillip Phillips), have been able to make hits along the same basic lines suggests that there’s a growing sense of—dare I say it?—personal responsibility building in the pop audience. The real proof may come later this year, when the new Arcade Fire is released. If they get a hit single, I’d say the “new seriousness” is officially a trend. If not, it’s a blip. (Meanwhile, the record I thought would be the next big “serious” hit—Passion Pit’s “Take A Walk”—continues to hover in the lower reaches of the chart. It’s dropped off a couple of times over the last three months, but it always comes back).

But was 2012 a mediocre year? I don’t think any year that contained “Call Me Maybe”, “Climax”, and “Adorn” could be called bad, and these judgments are best made in retrospect anyway, so I’m only prepared to go as far as calling it average and transitional. The pop audience is still making up its mind as to what will follow hip-hop as the dominant paradigm, but I would assume it will be a mixture of all three streams, an idea already explored by artists like Robyn and on Jepsen’s critically praised but commercially disappointing album Kiss (again, Arcade Fire’s new album may work as a test case, though I doubt there’ll be much teen-pop influence).

At any rate, my picks for the best songs to make the Hot 100 in 2012 are below. Basically, anything that would deserve a B+ or better—if I bothered to grade records, that is—is included. The only track missing from the playlist is Swift’s “Begin Again”, which isn’t yet available on Spotify. These are not in order of quality, though a lot of my favorites ended up at the beginning and the end, with the slightly lower quality stuff tossed about in the middle. The mix is a mess, but then the year was a mess, and at least this gives a sense of how scattered it was stylistically.

My choices make up slightly less than ten percent of the records that made the chart this year, and as could be expected, some of the inclusions and omissions are questionable, not just by you, but by me as well. Still here it is. (Ten percent, by the way, is what I would consider average. If it were fifteen it would be a good year, twenty a great one. Anything much below ten, though? I don’t even want to think about it).

Enjoy.

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Winding Down
Hot 100 Roundup—12/22/12

Wednesday, December 19th, 2012

Now that the Bruno Mars and Wiz Khalifa albums are out (and Big Boi, too, though his chart presence is not exactly commanding at this point), we can say that the year is truly at an end. There’s still one record I’m hoping will make the chart, though, Kacey Musgraves’s “Merry Go Round”. It’s been number one on Bubbling Under for two weeks, and if it wasn’t for The Voice might have made the leap by now. Here’s hoping. It would make a good finish to the year.

Tamar Braxton—“Love And War”
#57

The production is so weird that it almost makes “Love and War” worth listening to more than once. Huge drums here, lush strings there, a lot of heavy dynamic shifts and soul flourishes. Braxton sings well, too. Not much of a song, though (the mixed metaphors in the lyrics don’t help), and I expect Braxton’s career as a reality star has more to do with it’s appearance than anything else.

Bruno Mars—“When I Was Your Man”
#69

There are a lot of good songs and great moments on Mars’s new album, Unorthodox Jukebox, and “When I Was Your Man” is one of them. The pleasures are largely technical, though. Mars’s command of different styles is impressive, but there’s an airlessness to the music—it’s too perfect, too carefully constructed. There’s isn’t a false moment on “When I Was Your Man”—the lyrics are surprisingly sharp and honest (no one writes enough about Mars’s lyrical skills; he’s one of the best around right now), and Mars sings it beautifully, with phrasing that nods toward both Smokey Robinson and Sam Cooke. But somehow it doesn’t connect as strongly as it should. Mars knows his stuff back to front, but he hasn’t learned how to make it sound natural. He’s too much of a pro. Give him time, though. He’s just getting started.

Maroon 5—“Daylight”
#77

Each successive single from Overexposed has been more tolerable than the last, but that only means Maroon 5 been moving towards mediocrity, not that they’re any better. The only thing about “Daylight” that stands out is Adam Levine’s stilted delivery on the first verse. He sounds like he’s doing an Owl City impersonation. I doubt that was his intention, but whatever the case it does draw you into the record. Too bad there’s nothing to keep you there.

Terry McDermott—“I Want To Know What Love Is”
#84

The Lumineers—“Stubborn Love”
#85

What makes The Lumineers so terrible isn’t their jumping on the Mumford & Sons bandwagon; they would be terrible all on their own, without the support of a trend. The music is, indeed, Mumfordish: skeletal songs beefed up with lots of tempo and dynamic hocus-pocus. But the lyrics are the real kicker. “When we were young, oh oh, we did enough/When it got cold, ooh ooh, we bundled up”. What could those lines possibly mean, and what possible connection do they have to each other? Then there’s this: “The opposite of love’s indifference”. No it isn’t. Indifference is the absence of both love and hate. It means you don’t care about something either way (it originally meant you weren’t biased between two outcomes or sides, but the meaning has changed over the years, until it’s become roughly synonymous with “disinterested”). Example: “I am not indifferent to ‘Stubborn Love’. I hate it.”

Wiz Khalifa featuring Akon—“Let It Go”
#87

I’m not sure what’s most depressing about this record: Akon’s latest attempt at a comeback, or Khalifa’s willingness to provide him a boost. Khalifa’s own career is only two albums old, and he hasn’t had a huge hit since “Black and Yellow” (he hasn’t had a track as good, either). This starts with a banal string arrangement (I keep mistaking it for one of the tracks from The Voice on my playlist), a mediocre hook from Akon, and Khalifa making dumb jokes and laughing at them himself. It then progresses into a self-reliance rap you’ve heard many many many times before. This will do nothing to revive Akon’s career, and it may not help Khalifa’s either.

Nicholas David—“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
#96

Future—“Neva End”
#99

Is this the new rap sincerity? And if it is how much can we trust it when it’s lathered in electronic vocal effects? The beat is good, but I’m unsure about the effects, which make Future sound as if he’s sobbing, or on the edge of a nervous breakdown, throughout the track. Now that he appears to have found the perfect woman he was searching for on “Turn On the Lights”, why does he sound as broken down as he did before? Future is putting out a lot of interesting music, but it doesn’t always work. This time he’s overdoing it.

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The Voices In My Head
Hot 100 Roundup—12/8/12

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

After three years of running rampant on the Hot 100, it appears that Glee has finally lost its touch. Last season the show was putting three to four songs on the chart every week. So far this season, after eight episodes, only one track (Coldplay’s “The Scientist”) has sold enough to make it, with no sign that there will be any more.

Still, all silver linings come with their black clouds, and in this case it’s the replacement of Glee on the charts, at least for now, by The Voice. I decided in The Voice’s first season that I wouldn’t review any tracks from the show that made the chart, and the same goes for X Factor and any other singing competition. I still listen, as it’s my painful duty to do, and though the quality of singing from The Voice contestants is higher than Glee, the arrangements and production are worse, and the level of vapidity is roughly the same. This is another instance of the single as souvenir, and my only hope is that the show will be over with quickly and they’ll all go away (except for Cee Lo, but he’s leaving the show anyway).

Cassadee Pope—“Over You”
#25

Melanie Martinez—“Seven Nation Army”
#86

George Strait—“Give It All We Got Tonight”
#94

“Give It All We Got Tonight” is fairly standard George Strait, which means it’s smoother and better crafted than most anything else on the country chart right now. It just doesn’t have much life to it. And the crags in Strait’s voice, especially on a ballad like this, are becoming more pronounced. He turned sixty this year, which in country means that he could easily carry on his career for another fifteen years, at least. But if he does that he may need to find a new style that fits more closely to the contours of his voice. He might also want to pick songs less obviously designed for twenty-somethings.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals—“Stars”
#95

It’s not fair to judge Potter by “Stars”, which has reached the chart thanks to being featured on The Voice. Her specialty lies more in country, rock, and blues, where she’s impressive if not always great. This is in the same ballpark, only it’s less impressive , and nowhere near great.

Amanda Brown—“Stars”
#97

Wiz Khalifa featuring The Weeknd—“Remember You”
#98

The Weeknd is destined to go down in history as the guy who gave falsettos a bad name. A technique that’s normally used to express the extremes of emotion—love, passion, ecstasy, frustration, longing, etc.—is turned in his hands into nothing more than another manipulative tool, a way of getting his chosen one into bed. Not that falsettos haven’t been used this way before, but this is the only way The Weeknd uses it. Underneath the crooning, lover man facade is a hardcore, old school misogynist, who expects you to do whatever he wants, and lets you know that if you don’t meet his expectations he won’t even remember you. Not that he’d remember much of you anyway, especially your name, but at least you’d have some glimmer of reward from your night with a future star. That’s something, right? Oh, wait. You say this is a Wiz Khalifa record? I didn’t even notice.

Hunter Hayes—“Somebody’s Heartbreak”
#100

Hayes gets some points for being a teen prodigy who doesn’t emphasize his age or pick songs that flaunt it. Unfortunately, that also means his music needs to avoid the sexual openness of modern country, and much of it sounds generic and uninspired. And when the youthfulness of his voice does come through the disconnect can be overwhelming. He’s a careerist for sure, and he’ll most likely be around for a while, but I’m not hearing anything promising.

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Red and m.A.A.d.
Hot 100 Roundup—11/10/12

Monday, November 5th, 2012

Taylor Swift
“22”, #44
“I Almost Do”, #65
“Everything Has Changed” (featuring Ed Sheeran), #67
“All Too Well”, #80
“Stay Stay Stay”, #91

Red see-saws between relationships in bloom and relationships that have wilted, with a couple of turns into more generic themes, and the five tracks that make the Hot 100 in its debut week reflect that as much as the preview singles did, if not more so. Despite this thematic unity, the album can hardly be called cohesive, since stylistically it jumps all over the place, and the frequent returns to Swift’s more familiar mode of confessional songwriting never bring it together. More than any of her previous albums this one boils down to individual songs. They’re a mixed bunch. I would enjoy “22” more if Swift didn’t open it with a Ke$ha impersonation, and I’d enjoy “Stay Stay Stay” more if it weren’t so giggly. As for the serious songs, they’re high-class singer-songwriter material perfectly crafted and played, but rarely anything more. None of which worries me as much as Swift’s tendency to get swept off her feet by any man who shows even the most basic level of politeness (just because a guy carries your groceries or opens the door for you doesn’t mean he’s the one). Then there’s her affection for duet partners whose appeal consists of the ability to sound sincere and nothing more. For the first time, I question her taste. No wonder she has relationship problems.

Kendrick Lamar
“Poetic Justice” (featuring Drake), #76
“m.A.A.d City” (featuring Mc Eiht), #94

Lamar may be from Compton, but he’s not of it. He observes it from inside and outside at the same time, which allows him to shift perspective without losing his connection to the truth. Sometimes this takes the form of changes in vocal approach and texture, often with the aid of pitch shifting and filters. Sometimes, as in “m.A.A.d. City”, the whole song changes direction, throwing in an entirely different beat and feel. The result is music that covers life from a half-dozen different perspectives in the same song, many of them coming from inside Lamar’s own head as he sorts out his place in the world. That goes for a love lyric like “Poetic Justice”, as well, which has more intelligent romance charging through it than any rap I’ve heard this year. At least, that is, until Drake shows up. Lamar has so many voices he barely needs guest spots, and Drake’s unshakable sense of self-importance doesn’t fit the song. He’s outclassed in every way. Other than that, two great tracks from a great album.

Sam Palladio & Clare Bowen—“Fade Into You”
#92

I’m not sure how seriously to take this record. An original song with production by T-Bone Burnett should be given some consideration, even if I don’t like it much. But this one comes from the new TV series Nashville, and though I’ve heard good things about the show, the music suffers from the same problem that infects Glee: actors as singers, pop songs turned into showtunes. “Fade Into You” sounds nothing like mainstream Nashville, but at the same time Burnett’s production sound has become as much of a cliché as countless country radio hits, so it’s hardly an improvement. It isn’t terrible, but it’s badly flawed, and if more tunes from the show make the chart, and are no better in quality, I may need to give some thought to whether or not I want to continue reviewing them. It will be interesting to see if these have staying power on the charts, or turn into short-lived souvenirs like the Glee tracks. But that won’t change their quality one way or the other.

Meek Mill featuring Kirko Bangz—“Young & Getting’ It”
#95

Here’s another way in which hip-hop reminds me of country these days: it’s packed with moderately talented, minor artists who put out an endless succession of records that are well-crafted musically, demonstrate a high level of vocal and lyrical talent, and share barely a single idea between them.”Young and Gettin’ It” sounds good but means nothing, at least nothing more than other records by 2 Chainz, Wiz Khalifa, Fabolous, Big Sean, Kirko Bangz, and endless others (dare I add Lil Wayne to the list?). Most of whom appear on each other’s tracks anyway, so why bother trying to tell them apart?

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A Week of Near Misses
Hot 100 Roundup—10/19/12

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012

One Direction—“Live While We’re Young”
#3

I have nothing against party music or teen lust, and I could even forgive the Clash rip-off of the intro, but this is crass and insulting. “Let’s get some” is not something you say to a sexual partner, even a one-night-stand, it’s something you say to your brain-dead buddies when you go out looking for sex. Since finding willing partners is no longer a problem for these guys, it may not seem to matter to them what they say, but in reality it matters more. Either they don’t understand that, or they don’t give a shit. Plus, they didn’t give The Clash credit for that intro, so fuck ‘em.

Taylor Swift—“Red”
#6

Taylor Swift loves words. She loves the way they flow and mesh and swerve and can double up meaning and emotion with the slightest change in emphasis. She loves them so much she overstocked “Red” with them and then felt she had to come up with an arrangement to match. Her willingness to experiment is appreciated, but this goes too far. And not all the words work: the Maserati reference is wrong for her, and some of the similes fall flat. Still, I wish half the songwriters in America tried this hard.

Adele—“Skyfall”
#8

Not only the best Bond theme since Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die”, but the best thing Adele has ever done as well. The lushness of the string arrangement is perfect for her, allowing her voice to cut through like a knife, and a vast improvement on the harsh sound of her previous records. Not having to fight with the arrangement let’s her focus on the emotion of the song in a way she hasn’t in the past, and gives her a chance to be subtle instead of pounding the listener over the head with the power of her voice. The song itself is something of a pastiche, especially the arrangement, but it’s a great sound, and if it encourages Adele to sing like this I’m all for it.

Bruno Mars—“Locked Out of Heaven”
#34

I actively enjoy a lot of Mars’s music, and the fact that he has a working knowledge of the entire history of rock and roll only makes me like him more. That knowledge hasn’t yet synthesized into a personal style, though, so when he decides, as in this case, to base a song on the early days of The Police, all he comes up with is pastiche. It’s alright to wear your influences on your sleeve, but if you don’t rise above them you end up looking like a hack.

Brad Paisley—“Southern Comfort Zone”
#73

Paisley walks a very fine line on “Southern Comfort Zone”, which is easily his best single since “American Saturday Night”. Like that song, this is about expanding the horizon of country music, admitting, and even enjoying, the existence of a world outside the rural stereotypes that dominate the genre. The deepest moment comes at the end of the second verse, when Paisley says that he knows what it’s like to be in the minority. It’s a plea not just for a broadening of outlook beyond the south, but for greater tolerance at home as well. He’s careful, though, to soften the message as much as possible, layering spoken bits from The Andy Griffith Show, Nascar, and The Grand Old Opry over the intro and the outro, emphasizing that he always wants to come back home, and assuring his fans that a life outside the south doesn’t automatically lead to debauchery, since the only “west coast girl” he’s kissing is his wife. I have my doubts about the choir singing “Dixie”, though. It’s a musical triumph, especially when it’s paired with his guitar solo, and for Paisley it’s obviously the ultimate form of southern pride, but to a lot of people, including me, it’s also a symbol of the Confederacy and the antebellum south. Paisley has already declared his hatred of racism, and it may only be a sign of my own narrow point of view that I’m bothered by this, but I worry that Paisley thinks he’s living in a post-racist world where southern pride has been safely cleansed of the memory of slavery. I wish he was right, but he isn’t. Still, Nashville needs more songwriters who love the tradition but also question its flaws and weaknesses. I only hope that Paisley’s influence will be as powerful as his music.

Kid Cudi featuring King Chip—“Just What I Am”
#74

A hymn to self-delusion, this may be as deep as a pro-marijuana song can ever get. While dope rappers like Wiz Khalifa are just having fun, Cudi is self-medicating, hoping to alleviate the mental issues that his therapists and prescription medication don’t. Whether that’s because they can’t work or Cudi lacks the patience to let them is open to question. His defiant tone suggests the latter. Whatever the case, Cudi sounds more focused and on top of things than in the past, as if his anger at his situation had cleared away some of his confusion. If he is self-medicating, though, I wouldn’t count on it to last.

Gary Allan—“Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)”
#78

If you’d written a song encouraging someone to start over again after a bad breakup, and filled it with images of storms lifting and new beginnings, would you base the arrangement on an earlier song that embraces death? Neither would I. Then again, after 35 years of being inured to it on oldies radio, most people have probably forgotten what “Don’t Fear the Reaper” is about, and those chord changes are a perfect fit with the Allan’s storm metaphors. So, hell, why not? Most people won’t even notice the disconnect, but whenever Allan sings about standing on the edge and setting yourself free over those doom-laden chord changes, all I hear is an invitation to suicide. And I can’t help but wonder if that message isn’t being conveyed even to those who aren’t familiar with Blue Oyster Cult. The music has it’s influence, after all, regardless of the lyrics. Not that I’m expecting a wave of suicides below the Mason-Dixon line if this becomes a hit, but a surge in depression statistics wouldn’t surprise me.

Glee Cast—“The Scientist”
#91

Mumford & Sons—“Lover Of the Light”
#97

Another muddle of personal relationship and religion, and though Mumford sounds like he knows what he’s singing about, I doubt if anybody else does. That includes the band, who go through their regular soft/loud, stop/start business regardless. The instrumental break may be the most vacant thing they’ve ever produced.

DJ Drama, 2 Chainz, Meek Mill, Jeremih—“My Moment”
#99

A better than average rap uplift song, but the arrangement is too busy and the meaning, such as there is, gets lost. I’m still trying to determine whether Drama’s shout at the end is intended as a parody of DJ Khaled or just a following along. I hope it’s the former; Drama’s too talented to waste on Khaled’s brand of nonsense.

Randy Houser—“How Country Feels”
#100

This is as ordinary as country-rock gets, but at least Houser has the good taste not to stress the double entendre of the title. Then again, maybe that’s why this is so ordinary.

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Here Comes the Stampede
Hot 100 Roundup—10/5/12

Thursday, September 27th, 2012

As we ease, or force, our way into October, the release schedule continues to ramp up, and probably won’t ease off until Thanksgiving. It would be easier to be happy about this if the music were better. This week is a mixed bag, not just between different tracks but on the records themselves (nothing has exhilarated and disappointed me at the same time as much as the new P!nk single). Next week is more promising. Maybe I’ll feel better about rap by then.

Christina Aguilera—“Your Body”
#34

Aguilera still oversings, and her love of meaningless bombast is undiminished, but “Your Body” is easily her best record since 2006. She sounds on top of things again, and her voice, which has deepened and toughened with the years, makes up for a lot of the oversinging. It’s also worth mentioning that she was onto EDM back in 2008, and though all the records she released in the style up until this one tanked, she was ahead of the curve. So far ahead, in fact, that now she’s behind. I have strong doubts about the message of this song, though. I have nothing against celebrations of sexual pleasure by women in the their mid-thirties, but the cougar-on-the-prowl idea has been overworked, the song lacks sensuality, and Aguilera’s sexual aggressiveness sounds forced and unpleasant.

P!nk—“Try”
#56

The verses on “Try” are so beautiful that there’s a palpable let down when the track devolves into yet another of P!nk’s motivational choruses. Up until then, this is almost a textbook example of how experimental influences can be folded into pop music to create something both stunning and comfortably familiar. It’s one of the things pop is best at, but P!nk makes the mistake of not trusting her instincts and falling back on old ideas. In commercial terms, it will probably work, because no one else is better at this sort of thing, but “Try” could have been much more.

Swedish House Mafia featuring John Martin—“Don’t You Worry Child”
#68

Have you ever wondered what Coldplay would sound like if they went the EDM route? Wonder no more.

Kanye West, R. Kelly—“To the World”
#70

The beat is excellent, as always, and West politely gives R. Kelly the floor, limiting himself to a few of his usual boasts, allowing Kelly enough room to flip off the entire world. My only question: who gives a fuck? The level of willful self-delusion and fallacy on this record is unbelievable. Kelly talks like his inability to break a pop record anymore is all about his artistic principle and his determination to go his own way. But of course it isn’t. The quality of his music is as high as it ever was, and even flights of ridiculous fancy like the endless Trapped In the Closet wouldn’t put people off of him in large numbers if there weren’t other things to consider, like the fact that he videotaped himself peeing on a fourteen-year-old girl. Face it, Mr. Kelly, you are never going to live that down, and it has nothing to do with your talent or your artistic principle. Shut up. As for West, I await the day when he stops bragging about how rich he’s become and what a great artist he is and starts making some real art again. Besides, I don’t trust anyone who labels himself a tastemaker while foisting Big Sean on the world. That may be the greatest fuck you of them all.

Game featuring Chris Brown, Tyga, Wiz Khalifa & Lil Wayne—“Celebration”
#82

At a certain point the quality of the beats, the flow, even the words, no longer matters. Just like country singers and their pickup trucks, I don’t care if I hear another rapper bragging about the high life ever again. There are always exceptions, of course, but this isn’t one of them. In its own way, “Celebration” is as soft and self-satisfied as a Jimmy Buffett record, only nowhere near as smart, and without a hint of irony.

Carly Rae Jepsen featuring Justin Bieber—“Beautiful”
#87

Kiss is such a kaleidescope of pop styles that even an obvious Colbie Caillat/Jason Mraz imitation like “Beautiful” fits right in. It helps that it’s better than its influences in almost every way, and that Beiber sings as well as he ever has. The style is perfect for him (it should be, he wrote it), though I’m not sure it fits Jepsen as well as it might. Still, “Beautiful” is a good deal better than her pairing with Owl City.

Usher—“Numb”
#97

Usher deserves credit for absorbing modern dance music into his style, but I’m beginning to wonder if he’s been paying as much attention to modern R&B. After Frank Ocean’s “Novocane” it’s hard to believe anyone would use the term numb as a symbol of personal liberation or sexual exploration. As far as Usher is concerned, though, you can’t really feel until you can’t feel your face, or something like that. He may just mean letting yourself be taken over by the music, but even then numb is the wrong word, especially on a record that drives as hard as this one. There are times when I think Usher doesn’t even know, or care, what he’s singing about, a major flaw when you consider your vocals as important as your beats. In the clubs no one is going to care, and the Swedish House Mafia beat is better than just about any David Guetta or Calvin Harris track you care to name, but the disconnect is still puzzling.

Kip Moore—“Beer Money”
#99

Since country is embracing Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty these days, I suppose it makes sense to include John Mellencamp as well. But unless you’re imitating Mellencamp at his most inspired, all you’ll come up with is insipid pseudo-rock like this. The lyrics are clever in spots, and Moore’s last single, “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Truck” was far better, so I’m not giving up on him completely, but he might want to aim his sights a little higher.

Greg Bates—“Did It For the Girl”
#100

Love the intro, but it’s stolen from Smokey Robinson, and after that “I Did It For the Girl” turns ordinary fast. If you’re going to steal from the best, you may as well keep going. And a country version of “You Really Got A Hold On Me” could sound pretty good.

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Anybody Can Do This—Even Glee
Hot 100 Roundup—5/12/12

Monday, May 14th, 2012

Wiz Khalifa—“Work Hard, Play Hard”
#17
The most pop-oriented track from Khalifa since “Black and Yellow”, the first in over a year that doesn’t emphasize his dope smoking, and, no surprise, his best in a while. It’s very controlled for a rap brag track, almost stately, and ends with a little bit of self-help advice. Despite the repetition of “nigga” in the opening verse, it seems custom made for radio, and gives off the feeling that Khalifa is holding back more than he’s giving out. But then, the idea of self-control is the unspoken heart of the lyric, so maybe that’s the point. Not a great record, but a very smart one.

Flo Rida—“Whistle”
#64
Flo Rida has two things going for him: a mastery of hooks, and a gift for meaningless flow that never gets in the way of the hook or the beat. As pop rap intended purely for dancing it couldn’t be improved. Which means, of course, that it can only get worse, especially as the vagaries of pop taste lean toward lyrical clarity and force him to make his words more explicable. It’s not that he doesn’t have a gift for them—his flow wouldn’t work if he didn’t—it’s that he has no sense of taste when it comes to subject matter. Following the rough sex endorsement on “Wild Ones”, he comes up with yet another record, following “Down”, about oral sex. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, even if it does sound somewhat obsessive, but the sing-songy, teen-pop emphasis, combined, once again, with the sexual power-play aspect of his approach, makes it more than a little creepy. I’m not suggesting that Flo Rida actually is a leering, lisping sociopath, but that sure is what he sounds like.

Glee Cast
“How Will I Know”, #65
“It’s Not Right But It’s Okay”, #92
It’s been easy to ignore Glee this year: overall, the quality of the music has dropped below even their minimal standards, and I’ve found it difficult to listen to most of the tracks all the way through, much less more than once. Their a capella version of “How Will I Know”, though, is the exception that proves the rule, and can be taken as further evidence for one of the maxims of pop: anybody can make a good record. It’s too smooth, but if anyone else has come up with as good of a Whitney Houston tribute I haven’t heard it. It’s greatest strength is that it actually sounds like what Glee is supposed to be about: a bunch of kids who love music getting together and making it as best they can. This is polished and honed far beyond the abilities of most high-schoolers, but the concept holds, and it raises this far above anything else Glee has produced. If only everything they did was as graceful, dignified, and intelligent.

Usher—“Scream”
#70
No one expected Usher to top “Climax”, which may be the greatest thing he’ll ever do, but after all his talk about the new album and how different it would be, this is surprisingly ordinary. It’s not terrible, but it’s a standard Usher track with a slightly more electronic backing than usual. He’s trying to have it both ways—the old R&B Usher and the new, electronic Usher—and as should be expected the result is neither. I wouldn’t call it half-assed, exactly, but if he’s going to embrace a new style he should go at it full-force, not in baby steps like this.

Calvin Harris featuring Ne-Yo—“Let’s Go”
#89
I have a hard time understanding how Harris manages to get hits out of records that are so musically uninteresting, so lacking in the ebb and flow of melody and structure that create enjoyment and meaning in pop music. All he has is a beat and occasional shifts in dynamics and texture (most of which, in this case, are provided by Ne-Yo’s vocals, not the music). Which doesn’t mean he’s a minimalist: it just means that he’s dull. It’s sad to see Ne-Yo, who’s career has been in a stall for a couple of years now, being wasted on music that ignores his melodic and rhythmic gifts. He’s a better singer than Harris to be sure, but on records like this what difference does it make?

Hunter Hayes—“Wanted”
#99
When it comes to teenage country singers, I prefer Scott McCreery (not to mention Taylor Swift, though she isn’t a teenager anymore). McCreery has major flaws, but at least he doesn’t sound like he was made in a country-pop factory and delivered cellophane-wrapped and ready-to-serve.

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Good Records From Bad People
Hot 100 Roundup—5/5/12

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa—“Payphone”
#3
The sheer hackery of this record is revealed by the very elements that are designed to disguise it. That is, the subject matter itself—just mentioning payphones these days is guaranteed to get people’s attention: “Who uses those, anymore?”—and the expletives in the chorus, which in the era of “Fuck You” sound as false and clichéd as moon June spoon. And I hope never to hear Adam Levine’s falsetto again. The most irritating and possibly the worst record of the year; certainly the worst to make top ten.

Linkin Park—“Burn It Down”
#30
As long as they’re driven by decent hooks and can be taken as metaphors for personal drama, I can just stand Linkin Park’s apocalyptic scenarios. When the music drones loudly like this, however, and when their need to say something important overwhelms any sense of proportion they may possess, they’re unbearable. This is only half way to unbearable, but that’s far enough for me.

Mac Miller—“Loud”
#53
A mixtape cut, which means Miller’s turn from old-timey samples to electronics may not mean anything in the long run. Not that Miller’s records mean anything, anyway. He’s isn’t a terrible rapper, but he sure isn’t a great one, and he has nothing original to say. He does have diamonds on his chain, though. No, really, he has diamonds on his chain.

Rick Ross featuring Drake & French Montana—“Stay Schemin’”
#58
I find the slow motion chorus intriguing, and Drake is rapping better than ever, but this sounds exactly like what it is: a mixtape track that got enough attention from fans and bootleggers, largely because of Drake, that the label decided to issue it as a single. In other words, a rip-off. But hell, why shouldn’t an otherwise free track make you some money off of those who aren’t in on game while at the same time thwarting those pesky bootleggers who had the idea first? That’s what scheming’s all about, isn’t it?

Kanye West featuring DJ Khaled—“Way Too Cold”
#86
What may be most fascinating about Kanye West right now is how unpredictable he’s become. Most artists at this point in their career start to smooth things out: their music becomes more polished, which many often mistake for maturity, capitalizing on their strengths while limiting experimentation to those ideas that can easily be folded into an existing sound. West appears to be doing the opposite: his records are getting rougher and more outrageous every time out. He seems to be running on pure instinct. The result is throwaway tracks like this, a fast moving, unpolished rant that builds and builds and gives you the feeling that it could get even bigger. Until, that is, DJ Khaled steps up to the mike and starts reading the names of Chicago neighborhoods off a gazetteer. Without Khaled, this is a near perfect record. I would have been happy to hear that great beat bump along for the last minute and a half without any more raps at all. Did West owe the guy a favor or something?

Chris Brown—“Sweet Love”
#89
I go back and forth on this one. Brown’s vocal is as irritating as he’s ever been (is there anyone in pop who sounds more self-satisfied?), but the music is amazing: brash and energetic, with a lilt that adds a pleasant and unexpected romantic tinge to the whole. It’s messy, but it works. Couldn’t producer Polow Da Don have given this beat to somebody else? Anybody else?

Toby Keith—“Beers Ago”
#95
After demonstrating, on “Red Solo Cup”, how a country beer-drinking song should go, Keith now focuses on the subject of country teen nostalgia, which once again features beer. It’s almost as if he’s presenting a masters class on how to rejuvenate tired country themes. Rule number 1: include as much realistic and humorous detail as possible. Rule number 2: don’t lose count of your beers.

Gotye—“Eyes Wide Open”
#96
It’s not fair to make a judgment after only two singles, but this record helps to confirm my belief that Gotye is the Gerry Rafferty of our era: a talented, intelligent, well-meaning guy who has his flashes of inspiration but isn’t a genius, and who will make a number of enjoyable but unimpressive records and one or two great ones. He’s already made a great one. If he’s lucky he’s got one more left. This isn’t it.

John Legend featuring Ludacris—“Tonight (Best You Ever Had)”
#97
If this had been released five years ago, I would say that Legend was talented but a couple of years behind the times. Now I’m not sure what to say, except that Ludacris is even further behind.

Future—“Same Damn Time”
#100
A lot of this is fairly standard Atlanta rap, and Future, though he has something of a gift for words, doesn’t have that much different to say from everybody else (two girls at once? amazing!). The vocals, however, are something else. He goes from straight shouting to a flow obviously based on T.I. to electronically stretching his voice to the breaking point. If you’re not listening closely, it sounds like he has lousy breath control, and maybe the idea was to recreate the sound of someone trying to speak while their lungs are full of smoke. Which isn’t all that meaningful of an idea, either, and though I’m willing to give him credit for possibly trying to get at something more important, I have no clue as to what that would be.

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