Centrifugal Motion – Harper Blynn
I got busy yesterday and decided to leave my new music releases round up a day. The result? Harper Blynn took Animal Collective’s place as single of the week. This is a major problem with running a music blog: the deadline is always right now this minute and I don’t have the time to listen to a song more than a couple of times the first go round (that’s why I revisit songs on Sundays). Harper Blynn can claim a multi-culti whateverism if they so choose but what they are is the latest in a long line of art-pop bands begun with the Beatles and working its way thru Bad Finger, Big Star and the dB’s to present day bands popsters who can overdub their way to ELO land. “I spoke to her briefly about her fear of centrifugal motion, she said once you find the center we’re all spinning and reeling with devotion.” goes the first couplet and the only problem with it is it is so good how do you follow it up? Centrifugal is the movement AWAY from the center. According to the webster dictionary, it can also be a physiology term meaning “Transmitting nerve impulses away from the central nervous system”. Works either way and it is as literate an exposition on the way a relationship may end as I’ve heard this year and anyway there are certain words that just work in pop songs and from Steelye Dan to Paul Simon, “reeling” is absolutely one. The verses are gorgeous clever clever clink clink jigsaw puzzle guitar parts that don’t obscure the tune and the break has escaped from a Panic! In The Disco song and finally the guitar solo is yet another melodic hook. Which makes three if you’re keeping track pop pickers. Single of the Week.
What Would I Want? Sky – Animal Collective
Perennial Brooklyn mama bear between the sulky and spoiled Grizzly Bears and the over-achieving brainiac Dirty Projectors, the bed has always been too soft for my tastes. They are like Brian Jonestown Massacre with better haircuts and a brand new tie-dyed tee: they mean it maaaan in ways Anton floats above on a cloud of junk brain. But this song off their Fall To Be Kind EP will go a long way towards shutting my fat mouth up. It takes three of its six “is that a sugar cube or is that acid” minutes to get cookin’ but when it does it settles into a lovely pure power pop melody. Suggests to me that maybe the kids are pushing a little hard. There is nothing to prove and so what if there is?
Yesterday – Toni Braxton (feat Trey Songz)
I am a long term fan of Toni Braxton and a new term fan of Trey Songz and though “Yesterday” is a little by the numbers songwise it is a complete tour de force vocally. Braxton has had such a muddled career (in the early 90s I thought she had the potential to be Whitney big) people find it hard to concentrate on her. Here she doesn’t overwhelm the song, Trey is equally impressive with a career best vocal, but it is Toni who is reclaiming her place. Very, very impressive but it’s really pity the song isn’t better.
Learning To Fly (Live) – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
From the overlong Live Anthology, “Learning To Fly” makes me doubt my own instincts. Always a good song, this live version is better than the recorded song: mostly acoustic guitar plus piano solo plus Petty’s deeply felt vocal. I’ll have to buy more and I am praying it sucks because I don’t wann go the bucks for the album.
Photographs – Rihanna and Will. I. Am
Oh for fucks sake Rihanna, don’t become an artist whatever you do. This is a boring piece of crap and Rihanna’s second dog in a row. Even Mr. Am can’t get things moving on his verse. Is Rated R selling? I kinda doubt it because its dour stuff for a dance album.
Did It Again – Shakira
I have another version of this with Kid Cudi but the Kid Cudi one is not half as good and the reason is os because he throws off the pacing and what you need from Shakira is the fuse of sex being lit and smoldering along its way. There is something oddly muted about Shakira’s vocal intensity. You can hear it in “She Wolf” and you can hear it on “Did It Again” -its almost a delaying of gratification on her vocal hooks (the “eeeh, eeeh, eeeh” here). Perhaps the explosion of sexuality, of release, comes in a different medium, live on stage or in videos…
Whataya Want From me – Adam Lambert
Co-written by Pink -who is something of a martyr at the best of time, this is what Adam sings when he wants to play nice. I coulda reviewed the much better “For Your Entertainment” but I chose a weaker song to see what can he do with it. Lambert sings the hell out of the song but so what and it is a good song for his upper register, but he can’t save the song.