Iman Lababedi

Gospel – Robbie Williams – Big time pop songs and about reuniting with the love of your life years after she dismissed you, indeed never had you, or an extended metaphor about artists and audience and either way, a kiss off that sounds like a history lesson – Grade: A

Here’s a question: “You Make Loving Fun” or “Second Hand News”. Not that easy, right? Peersonally, I’d go with the former. And I would take either over just about anything Nicks has ever done except MAYBE “Landslide”. Cerainly I don’t go to FM psyched to see Stevie.

Eternal Father, Strong To Save – Choir Of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church – Having spent years at English Boarding Schools when just a wee tot, English Hymns play like nostalgia trigger for me. Something compounded by being in the UK right this minute (but not as I write). I always thought it was me who could only ever remember “For those in peril on the sea”, but listening to it here, that’s still all I can remember becausethe words are muffled – Grade: A

Far be it from me to dis god on the 35th year anniversary of Slowhand. But I will. I know Slowhand. I have listened to Slowhand and Slowhand, my friend is NO 461 Ocean Blvd.

Are We All We Are – Pink – It sounds like she’s saying olly olly oxen free and I guess that kids game is at the heart of the way Pink deals with love and life. There is something insolent and aggressive but fun loving and bouncy – Grade: A

88 – Digsy – A study in being 17 years old and looking back on a hip hop world you were never a part of. This is first rate piece of teen-hop with a dream of a future, or a past not unlike the Reverand’s himself – Grade: A

El Scaro told the UK tab the Daily Mail ” “We didn’t get paid for the Olympics – we funded it ourselves, costumes and everything. It just goes to show how much we do get on and do like each other.” It also shows just how bonkers they are.

Rita Ora is everything Nicki Minaj wishes she was as a pop sar (thoug obviously not as a rap star) and in 2013, Rock-a-fella will make sure we all get the message. Plus the male Kardashian claiming Rita slept with twnety (count em) of his friends couldn’t hurt.

Jesus Piece – Game – This is Game’s second killer album in a row and with the entire rap world here to join him, there was every chance his born again move was gonna be a major disaster. But goddamit if it doesn’t pay off on song after song, from game changer title track (in which he name checks Coltrane for obvious reasons) to “Celebration” with its advise we’ve heard before (“get high”), this seems to find Jesus in its sinfulness – Grade: A

All I’ve Got To Do – The Beatles – Easily the most mature song on their second albu. Lennon, of cause, who speeds yp at the break as if, as Tim Reilly once noted, as though the entire claim of love and responsibility is real. Which it might not be with a vocal so fragle it seems bound to crack – Grade: A+

Underwood will be 30 years old by the time filming starts. She climbs a tree and scrapes her knee??? Underwood???? At it’s not just age, I once saw her OPEN for Keith Urban and she changed costumes six times in half an hour. She is a mega-rock star egomaniac without an ounce of innocence left in her.

Well, if you’ve stopped throwing up in your mouth, any bets to just how badly this is gonna suck? Anyone at all? Paramore are the Cranberries of power pop, they aren’t bad human beings, they are just bad songwriters.

Expect a 2013 solo tour from one Jimmy Page, a guitarist. Due to Robert Plant’s intransigence, the opportunity for Led Zeppelin to reform came and went with just a lousy live album and video to show for the efforts.

Keys To The City – Spider Bags – Not only does it include the line of the year, “I’ve Been cheating on my girlfriend with my ex-wife”, it is also a true loser anthem to never leaving, not running. Incidentally, as Dan mentioned me, not at all what happened to him.

Pete said that the word “substitute” was a buzzword because Smokey used it in “Tracks Of My Tears” . The line is, “though she may be cute she’s just a substitute” and I love words like that. I was writing about strong words just the other day. The new Taylor Swift song has “ruthless”, and “good and right”. Very strong words.

Bruno has a hit on his hand and the album will follows but I really prefer thinking about the Lumineers and fun. who appears to have just happened out of nowhere.

Three Christmas albums, two Country albums, lots of modern pop. So a not untypical chart to end the year. But only Red will change your lfe. Here’s to a better 2013…

The Autumn Carnival (Anton Newcombe remix) – The Dandy Warhols – Remember when there was that second (or is that fifth) wve of nyc rockers spearheaded by the Strokes? nothing much came of it, it was like our version of Brit Pop. The dandy warhols were a messy pro-rock psychedelic dingum then and this, produced y Mr. Brian Jonstown and sworn enemy of all things Dandyish himself, doesn’t begin to sound good – Grade: C

So to see this highly touted and not unimpressive folkie in the confines of Bowery Ballroom -you gotta think, right? Might be worth the price of admission? I think so. And it hasn’t sold out by the way. Incidentally, here in lies a question. Why didn’t he follow Ed Sheeran’s lead and do a set at Mercury Lounge, nothing gives you more heat than a first US gig you can’t get a tix to

Crystalline (Omar Souleyman remix) – Bjork – I’m a simple man, you say remix, I say more bass. but it is 2012 and today things can get weird. especially when dealing with Bjork. The rest of bastards leaves me a little whatever, but this Middle eastern flavored rethinking is masterful; – Grade: A

$20 get you on both night and attention must be paid. Amazingly, the owners have gone from being teens to married men wih their label, pretty soon they will be taking their kids!

Coming Up – Paul McCartney – Macca goes disco and does a pretty great job of . He wrote an enormously catchy bass lick and had all the other instruments play it for the backing track, then he added the beat and sang on top of it. Easy peasy – Grade: A

If you can get over Taylor Swift owning a plane big enough to travel from nyc to London, her flying Harry Sykes back home while leaving the rest of the band “stranded” in New York (apparently all flights had been cancelled? Whatever) has her branded the Yoko Ono of 1D.

I missed “Yes I Do” till I watched the movie, but it is a pretty good facsimile of a Holland-Dossier-Holland by producer OAK. Actually, I missed Cohen, Solange, and FGL on the first coupla spins and only caught up with them later.

Warrior is honor bound to enter the US Top 10 and Red is back at number one -probably because it makes a great stocking stuffer though I gave a copy to Mary Magpie who roundly ignored it. Taylor has sold an astounding 2.2M copies so far and to put this in perspective, five years ago that would have been 5 million.

Sure, I loved the Outkasts, they were awesome the one time I saw em live. But Big Boi has been a little too far out there for me as a solo act so far. Still, I broke my heart I didn’t hear about Saturday’s afternoon gig till it was too late. Bruno Mars? I have gone one for one on songs off the new album, but it is a biggie nevertheless.

Ghost – Cat Cosmai – Blue eyed soul by a big voiced woman doing it old style. The song is killer though the back up singers come on a little Supremes though they could have been brought down a little mix. The bridge is a glorious construction, expanding the verse and leading her on. The voice? The voice is special – Grade: A-

Olly Murs did himself nothing but favors at Jingle Ball with a lively, pleasant, dance oriented two song set. In the UK this is his second week at the top of the charts! PS, the Robbie Williams album was released Stateside and it is instantaneously one of the best of the year.

The UK is another country, they do things differently. For instant, this weeks # 1 is a cover of an old Frankie Goes To Hollywood song, the sort of bathetic overblown ballad I bet Celine Dion is eyeballing as I write) most right thinking people (and dogs with acute hearing) hide under tables to get away from) but stick it on a sickly sweet advert selling you crap for the holidays (John Lewis Department stores) and whomp there it is.

Border Crossing – Trail And Ways – Berkeley grads sound like Ennio Morricone as played by a run of the mill indie band only even better than that sounds like. Dig the whistle!! – Grade: B+

o.n.i.f.c – Wiz Khalifa – Who says marijuana doesn’t effect your brain. On the Weeknd featured track “Remember You” the beats are so bubdued its like they are covered in linoleum, and the sound has the hazy lazy weed-y drag that appears to be taking trip hop and dubbing it downwards. It doesn’t suck quite, it just bores. Like this rest of this album – Grade: C

Last year Fitz And The Tantrums, the great neo-soul and r&b,band brought in the New Year at Gramercy Theater, this december this will be opening for Jason Mraz at MSG this Monday. So go erly and leave only. You won’t regret it.. And when they ask you to get down, then mean get dooooown.

Kiss You – One Direction – This is the pop flame off the newbie, a r completely hot drum pattern and ear candy chorus (and ear candy verse) with the boys comfortably in their midrange except here and when Harry is in the mood, he goes up an octave at the end of a verse – Grade: A

The 3D “Life Of Pi” is a stunningly beautiful movie about a young Indian boys search for God. After leaving his native India for Canada on a steamer, the ship is sunk in a storm and Pi’s entire family drowns . Only Pi and the tiger survive.

I thought both Ree Ree and Mars were gonna dog with these songs so what do I Know. I alsi thought the Lumineers weren’t gonna do squat with this catchy rock song. And finally, I thought the name of the Ne-Yo song was so irritaing people would ignore it en masese.

The Keys album is a crime against nature, and the three Christms albums are awful, especially the two country one. And while I get that I’m the only person who likes 2012 pop, all three here (Ree Ree, Swift and 1D) are keepers