1. My Story – R. Kelly (featuring 2 Chainz) – Same old poverty to riches but Kelly is well on top of his game, rhyming “hocus pocus” with “focus” and throwing down lo-fi r&b still more melodic than any one else including Ocean has managed – A-
2. In A World Like This – Back Street Boys – Melodic pop proto-hit, should be big but probably won’t – B+
3. Walk Us Uptown – Elvis Costello And the Roots – Sounds better out of headphones, but this is nothing vaguely new from Costello, this bluesy walker and tough ass vocal is a blueprint to boredom. There better be more than this under the hood – C
4. Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F) – Katy Perry – Debatable the best song off her last album, stands up as a pure confection of naughty (if not bad) behavior – A-
5. Mama Said Knock Me Out – Five Finger Death Punch With Tech N9ne – This is absolutely superb, a hard ass hard rocking, metal meets rap smack about LL Cool J must be proud of – A
6. Just For One Day – Emblem3 – A modern day LFO searching for their “Summer Girls” – C+
7. Summer Girls – LFO – “I’d take her if I had one wish…” Tinged with tragedy after Rich Cronin’s early death at 36 years old, I saw em live once and they were fabulous. A great song – A-
8. Can’t Believe It feat Pitbull – Flo Rida – Good hook, playing off a bubble yum bum, Pitbull is having fun – B
9. One Day A Week – Buddy Guy with Keith Urban – This kinda sucks – C-
10. Mars – Jay Sean Sean with Rick Ross – Ho hum falsetto bass Maybach music – C