Telephone – The Morning Pages – These are the Brooklyn based rockers behind the “My Name Is Lion” song last month and the song is the Lady Gaga one, and the cover is a rootin’ tootin’ hard rock extravaganza replete with solo. And here’s the moral: “Telephone” is a great song and you can do anything to it and it”ll work, and Madonna’s songs after the Music album aren’t and don’t.
I Learned The Hard Way – Sharon Jones And the Dapkings – Jones’ is bristling at the retro handle and I can see why but not entirely. She is retro the way Amy Winehouse (with whom she’s shared a band) is retro. It takes place now using a form not currently in vogue. Production, mixing, multi-track 8 Track, all state of the art for a sound not timeless: seeped in time, seeped in sixties r&b. Not retro, not nostalgia, but a continuation of a musical heritage in disarray. SONG OF THE WEEK.
Ready To Go – Kaiser Cartel – Brooklyn duo (via England I believe) with an old fashioned pop song and a great wordless hook. Stick with it till the tambourines and you’ll be hooked for life.
The Gaudy Side Of Town – The Gayngs – An atmospheric rock song, all echo and reverb for this Minneapolis super group who name check 10cc though this is more like a (sometime gang member) Bon Iver getting his soul kicks and drm machine doing double time than “Rubber Bullets”. Promises well for this debut album.
Umm Hmm – Erykah Badu – Poppier than she has been in years, all its disco polluted soul in the service of a plentiful hooky chorus. Second killer off her newbie.
This Charming Life – Joan Armatrading – Forty years after she thanked us for taking her dancing, this sounds more youthful than that did. An old fashioned but energetic singer-songwriter pop song sung… omg… in soprano and I bet that’s Joan playing the electric guitar solo.
Apartment – Shirley Bassey – Off her finally released in the US 1997 classic The Permormance and, no, it isn’t live, but the material here is worthy of Bassey’s distinctive and beautiful growl and thundering vocal.
No Tears To Cry – Paul Weller – Every time I hear him I am in a suspended sense of dread: which Weller now? Last year’s 22 Dream was really awful (a smash in the UK, but what does that get ya?). “Tears” off his soon come Wake Up The Nation is pretty great. You could well imagine hearing it on the radio in the mid-sixties, it has that steady swingin’ sixties back beat to a white boy soul which (even by Weller) is often tried and often failed. The break is a bit iffy but otherwise it’s like the Zombies covering Burt Bacharah,
By The Sword (feat Andrew Stockdale) – Slash – Todd said I missed this song (actually, he said I missed the entire album but this song specifically) in my dismissal of Slashs’ solo album. The Wolfmother lead singer has a great hard rock voice no doubt, and Slashs’ solo three minutes in is tasty enough. Maybe the second best on the album. Happy now, Todd?
Tattoos and Tequilas – Vince Neil – Here’s something you don’t know: if you’re gonna be trashy be THIS FUCKING TRASHY and you’ll get away with it based solely upon camp appeal. Neil isn’t serious, I’m not serious, but at 2am in a bar in Murray Hill it’ll sound good comin’ outta a jukebox.
Winner (feat Justin Timberlake and T.I.) – Jamie Foxx – Speaking of not serious. This is nothing much more but pure fun and any way, there are only robots on it except for T.I. who can’t help adding humanity to everything he touches right now. Now here’s a question: when is Timberlake gonna hook up with David Guetta and release a new album?
Hello Good Morning (feat T.I.) – Diddy – The difference between -this and Foxx is Foxx is Hip Hop plus dance, and Diddy is dance plus hip hop. The BPM’s here are excellent -this is where Diddy’s work from back in 2002 with We Invented The Remix kicks in. Seriously better than Foxx because it is serious dance music. Plus, plus, plus? T.I. is on fucking fire.