Iman Lababedi

Founding Editor of Rock NYC. Iman Lababedi was a freelance rock critic in the 1980s, took a break of 20 years, and has been writing and editing the music blog rocknyc.live since 2009. He considers this to be in many ways a golden age for pop music and hopes you are enjoying it too.

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UK Top 10 Singles, February 4th, 2012

Well they gave us Rihanna, why shouldn’t Barbados give us Amanda Reifer, lead singer of Cover Drive? They are nothing special, true. But they are glamorous, sexy, on a major label and with the # 1 song in the UK expect the US to tumble next

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MFT 1-30-12

Here is where the song is very different from Dylan’s original: by the end of the original, there is no doubt that Dylan is the man, in Krall’s version, there is no doubt that she isn’t the hooker but a third party and the gender switches at the end confuse the story. It is a beautiful take so why Krall won’t get her hands dirty, I have no idea.

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Singles Going Steady, Week Of January 23rd, 2012

The prolific English master Of Grime has one big problem: he lacks quality control. So despites being an eccellent rapper and a great rhymer, the songs here are all over the place. I count 3 great songs out of 22, and a lot of good ones. And quite a few terroble ones. Grade: B

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MFT 1-29-12

As nasty a piece of misogyny as rock and roll ever manages, as he warns his woman to stop that “Yakkety yak” because he’s “holding a baseball bat” before he hits the road with Tonto. Makes you wonder exactly why he is in such a hurry to leave.

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Spotify Reach 8,000

Spotify have announced that 20% of all free subscribers have become paid subscribers and Facebook have been responsible for 7 million new paid subscribers.

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Only Two Songs Nominated For Oscar

Mary J. Blige twittered her disapproval at being snubbed by the Oscars for her “The Living Proof” song off “The Help” soundtrack. Well, the song sucks, one of her long jorneys into womanhood things, but it is a million times better than these two.

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MFT 1-28-12

Photovoltaic – Jump Into The Gospel – This is about as glam rock as indie pop is gonna get, the lead singer prints his presence on it, and it is subtler than it first sounds, the keyboards emerging as a major player.

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False Erudition And Writing About Music

It is almost like I’m pretending I know stuff I don’t. When all information is at your fingertips, every opinion you offer is corrupted by limitless amounts of other people’s ideas. It goes beyond borrowing, or being influenced, or even counter-uninfluenced, by other writers opinions, or even just an accumulation of information. It taints everything.

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US Top 10 Singles, February 3rd, 2012

“Fire” is, debatably, Adele’s worst song to date: her typical mean spirited nonsense as she goes out of her way to make herself the woman most likely to be a billiuonaire and still not get a date. How can anybody write about love with so little affection: for Adele love is a synonyme for spite.

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MFT 1-27-12

The pain here is so indelibly linked to Tammy’s tone that the words don’t REALLY matter, it would be clear the pain of a lost love is irreperable. I wouldn’t mind plunking Adele in front of this song, just to remind her love is not the same as complaining.

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How Hard Is It To Write Happy Love Songs? Very

The closer we are to people the easier it is to hurt them and we must be very careful to treat them with kindness… or lose them. But there in lies another problem, if love isn’t sturdy how can it survive? So the thing that is bringing us the most pleasure is built upon fault line

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Rolling Stone Takes Care Of Its Own

I don’t think Bruce thinks he is a hypocrite, he is one but he is too stupid to know it. He actually believes this nonsense has meaning, while it actually has no meaning, no position, no point of view, no villain.

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MFT 1-26-12

Miley is unbelievably beautiful on this song off Blood On The Tracks. She gets that it is country and not folk and she is not so young that she can’t grasp the sentiments. Miley takes it easy, undersings it a touch, and lets the melody play itself out.

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Steve Tyler Growing Old Gracelessly

Watching the Joan rRvers and Steve Tylers of the world is just sad. They look terrible. They look plastic. Tyler actually sounded great but he looked awful. Why not grow old gracefully? What would it cost him? He certainly couldn’t look any worse.

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American Idol Viewership Down 27% From Last Year

Two years after Mary Magpie reviewed every single episode of the 2010 season of American Idol, we didn’t mention its premiere in 2012. And this indifference is reflective of a society that is becoming swiftly satiated in its thirst for reality and variety show.

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President Obama Sings Al Green!

Check out the President nailing a couple of lines off the Reverend Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” and doing so with such an infectious smile. This was at a Fundraiser at the Apollo Theater last Thursday

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MFT 1-25-12

Desolation – Lamb Of God – Harder then their last album, the fans claim. But what does that mean? The most ferocious band in the business nail it again, that’s what that means

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Bridgetown Records Winter 2012 Releases

Kevin has written that the D.R.mix casette is one of his three fave releases of all time, though there are no slouches here. From Reighnbeau’s flutterring folkie beauty to Gentle Claw’s quiet ambience, all his new releases are excellent.

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A Futurist Writes

I am a futurist in all things but in music more than in anything else. I am sorry I am gonna die in ten or fifty years because of all the great music I’m gonna miss by not being here.

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"Contagion" Reviewed (More Or Less)

A bat gets mixed up in a pig and a contagious virus knocks off 26 million people while Matt Damon doesn’t get it infected and spends the rest of the movie cock blocking his daughter’s boyfriend, Lawrence Fishburn tries to contain the virus and Jude Law plays one of those low life bloggers and tries to make a buck off it

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Sneak Peaks, Week Of January 23rd, 2012

The story is the return of music after a six week hiatus, this is the sound of a gun being shot off and the race begining. There are people who will already have at least one of these albums among their best of 2012. I would be surprised if Lamb Of God doesn’t survive the year

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MFT 1-24-12

“Fuddum fuddum” -what the heck does that mean? Barclay’s mix tape as excerpted here for over four minutes is a thing of beauty and wonder. It isn’t seamless, indeed, it insists upon you noticing the seams but from an inspired use of the ittitular note on a Buzzcocks to the end it is an amazing achievement.

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UK Top 10 Albums, January 28th, 2012

I kinda forgot about the Vaccines at the end of last year and ignored em on both my album and singles best off. They should have at least made the singles for “If You Wanna”. Meanwhile, Beyonce got a baby bounce and I guess some people get Enter Shakira.

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UK Top 10 Singles, January 28th, 2012

I imagine very big things for “Titanium” -a much better song than that Usher rip off Guetta was lucky he didn’t get sued with. Swedish House Mafia are back on the charts, Pixie Lott a purely English phenim and Coldplay help on earth.

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MFT 1-23-12

This is my big, big, big song at the moment Nothing else has the happiness of this song and happiness is catchy. Incidentally, if writing about happiness is easy, why can’t Kathleen do it more often? Don’t bother, it was a rhetorical.questio

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