Tell Your Friends – The Weeknd – I love the intro, it kinda shudders in and than Abel does broad and swift and small and minor brushstrokes in a self portrait that sounds like two parts deduction with a chorus that doesn’t soar it more likes shakes on the beat.
While we don’t know how the world will to react to the Beatles 100 or 300 years from now, it is a fair bet the perception of their entire oeuvre will change from pop to classical. Like the greatest of the greatest classical composers, like Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky, and maybe Schubert, they will be performed in recital, analyzed, discussed and studied.
Nobody believes that Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon Republican running for President has much in the nature of a chance of getting the GOP nomination, so consider this his reward for dissing Obama to his face at the National Prayer Breakfast over 30 months ago. Currently in a dead heat with Trump in Iowa, he doesn’t have a prayer.
Mireya Alejandra Lopez, 22, drowned her twin two year old sons because, according to AP “she didn’t want them to live with the difficulties she faces (…) Lopez offered several reasons for the attacks, including that her kids were bullied and that her stepbrother rarely ate and was anti-social. She also said she and her twins weren’t loved, investigators said in court records.”
Sure, it gains depth from Chinx’s murder (at the age of 31) earlier this year, and the hook is beyond prescience, but the last words to his children are so real and heartbreaking it takes the track to levels most people don’t ever reach if they live to be 91: “I pray I be OK when I grow up a little bigger, if I don’t tell my babies daddy was a real nigga” – A
R. City? Fair to middling brother songwriters, who’ve cooked up mid-album stuff for the likes of Miley, and top 10 hits for Sean Kingston and the Pussycat Dolls? I am not crazy about the “Do That To Me One More Time” rip, so just tip your hat to Dr. Luke signing up Adam Levine and walk on by.
Around 20% of this is really good and 20% is complete crap and 60% is whatever. It has an ebb and flow, starts off strong, slows to a halt, picks up speed and bows out. Miley needed an editor, and she needed a producer, and instead she got a flaming enabler.
Imaginary Life – Worriers – Indie rockers who have managed an album brimming with tunes and hooks and smarts and shenanigans; just past her first decade in the business, Lauren Denitzio has emerged as a major songwriter
Dooo It – Miley Cyrus – Still working my way through And Her Dead Petz, it deflates half way through, however this first single, a self help call to unbridled hedonism is unimpeachable – B+
A beautiful evening with beautiful songs by a man at the peak of his powers at 67 years of age. Given all the ways James Taylor’s life might have gone, his brother Alex, sweet baby James pop, died of a drug overdose decades ago, that James could have lived through it all and reached this place better than ever? It is a testament
On the cover of Sunday’s paper, they had a report Amber Jamieson go, ahem, undercover, and work as one of those topless painted women who pose for pictures on 42nd street and decided, accurately,that it was entirely harmless. Not only did the Post make the Mayor look like a putz, they made their nemesis the Daily News look like irrational, puritanical maniacs.
Kanye West says he is running for President in 2020 during his never ending speech and Taylor won a ton of awards though nothing much compared to Michael Jackson’s heyday of course.Nothing as exciting from Miley as when I saw her tweaking. At least until the end when she announced you could get her free new album NOW.
Sure, this is all over the damn place but that’s because there is no centrifugal force in pop, it is all on the fringes with pop EDM , country and hip hop vying for the charts and EDM winning by a hair. Later on I’ll figure favorites among the favorites but in pure pop for now people form? The Weeknd is unbeatable.
Admittedly. I don’t much care for the Disturbed album but it is lengths better than that terrible Bryan album. Bryan is the sort of guy Bob Lefsetz points to as the future of popular music because he sells a lot of copies and channels Toto. Having said that, is it worth noting that after a 30 plus year old album and Taylor Swift, a country album is my fave of the week.
The great neurologist and author Oliver Sacks died yesterday at the age of 82. You may remember him from “Awakenings”, which was made into the popular Robin Williams movie in 1990. Or “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat”, stories of neurological disorders so strange and devastating, it made an atheist out of Sacks and for good reason: if your entirely personality can change due to a blow on the head, what exactly is your personality?
I Don’t Like Who I Was Then – The Wonder Years – I’ve had problems with all three new songs but for some reason I’d had the volume kinda low and if you blast it, there is a moment of revelation when it becomes a great anthem of mesed up emotional smash grab – A-
They met at the New England Conservatory and then made a U Turn to cover Youtube cover band extraordinary and last time I saw em they were wowing us at Town Hall as part of T Bone Burnett’s neo folk rave up.
I walked out on the Sting-Simon gig in 2014, I walked out on The Police reunion gig at MSG in 2008, I walked out on a Sting solo gig in the 1990s and a big league Police gig in the 1980s, and I am sure I’d have walked out on them in the 1970s if I’d seen them
Oddly enough, the week in songs doesn’t hold together as well as the week in records, my top three records goes Yo La Tengo, The Weeknd, and either Beal or Monk Parker, The Weeknd has so many strong SINGLES in it it could take over this list but a great single is not a great album. The dark alt country band Mnk Parker are a complete revelation.
This is one of the more interesting weeks of music, Iron Maiden, Public Image Ltd, Travi$ Scott, should all have something of value coming down. A little further in, Against Me! live album has sounded great so far, but it seems to me to be a toss up between happy punks Fidlar and voice of a generation punks The Wonder years. I am going with the Katter despite not being crazy about any of the songs I’ve heard because… well, because they’re the voice of a generation.
We know Yo La Tengo, Foals and The Weeknd are at the top of the class, all three of which are improving the more I listen, but the real shocker is how much better the second ring of releases are: Motorhead, Liam Corcoran, Willis Earl Beal, and the ridiculously excellent Monk Parker, are all good enough to be albums of the week. Every single one will make my best of 2015.
Under You – Willis Earl Beal – We all make mistakes and I make my biggest around 9am on Friday mornings after spending hour upon hour absorbing and reviewing new releases. I think my ears sometimes go wonky and that is definitely the case with this guy who I dubbed a “black Scott Walker” last night, which he is definitely, but then I decided this was a bad thing. How I came up with that assumption I can’t tell you, it isn’t, it is a wonderful thing – A-
I once had my fortune told, I was maybe 15 years old, not much of it was happy, and every thing she said came true. Of course, as CG Jung was mentioned, if 100 billion people have lived, the fact that one has dreams that come true isn’t foresight, it is blind luck.
What Do You Mean – Justin Bieber – I never bought Bieber as the anti-Christ, just a garden variety teenage brat with a whole lotta power to wield his brattishness. But I never much cared for him musically either, so his post teens, post Diplo/Skrillex exercise in grown up EDM, this first single off his upcoming fourth album is an low key and pretty calypso flavored synth track that does the job. Good move – B
Not much going on here, I think I’ll go go with Vince Staples, the Odd Future star, on Fallon, or maybe, nah the Brian Wilson on Conan is a repeat. PS I wonder why Fallon doesn’t have the week off? The Wednesday Fallon? Justin Bieber and Salman Rushdie, as my buddy Drake would put itL you’ve got to love it.
What Went Down – Foals – This song is so great it gives people the wrong idea about the band, we think they’re better than they are because right here they’ve managed a gigantic riff into a whirlwind of sound – A
If you can get past the godawful name, you are left with an album probably as inconsistent as the songs we’ve heard from Jess Glynne this year. Incidentally, and then there was one from 2014, only Sam is left to represent. Incidently, far be it for me to kick at children but if I was to I’d start with Bars And melody.
I just listened to Rachel one more time to make absolutely certain it is the piece of absolute garbage I believe it to be. The cupidity is bewildering and the heartstring manipulations are all so stupid, I can’t believe people take it seriously. Fight Song? Life Song? Awful
Is there anywhere New York feels comfortable with topless women? We don’t want them breastfeeding in parks, we closed down all those topless clubs in Time’s Square back in the 1990s. and now we are back to chasing them from Times Square? Lemme tell ya, anywhere a 14 year old boy can see bare tit for twenty bucks is a good place as far as I’m considered. Hell, screw buying records, I’d have spent my last dime there when I was a teen.
Stuff Like That There – Yo La Tengo – This is exactly how I like my Yo La Tengo, a sequel of sorts to their masterpiece, 1990’s Fakebook , every song here has a reason for being and if none of them is “Did I Tell You” or “Oklahoma USA”, all of it as a whole has the tunefulness and character of the latter: a superb collection of covers, of theirs and others,performed to get every single melodic element out of every single song of those type of songs. And, hey, maybe “Friday I’m In Love” is as good as the Kinks. Their best album since 1997 – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – A-
For those of you unaware of his 90s masterpieces, let me recommend the 1997 The Healing Game, and for completists The Philosopher’s Stone and for everybody else, call in sick and go Morrison crazy loveish!
The worst time I ever saw Prince was also the last time I ever saw Prince and while time changes our memories, I guess it did a real job on mind. I coulda sworn he really sucked, but apparently he only kinda sucked. I’ve seen him so often and loved him so much and this wasn’t bad, apparently it was great, it just doesn’t remember that way. Now back to 2010….
1Train – A$AP Rocky – Great sample to kick it in, this is as clever as you can possibly get when it comes down to money and success with a virtual who’s who of first tier young rappers (I mean two years ago, of course): Kendrick, Action Bronson, Danny Brown… and a great great hook – A
If I had the time and money, y’ll know where I would be tonight? At the Beacon Theatre screaming for Fifth Harmony, the second year third place X Factor harmony band who are like One Direction if One Direction sang pop r&b, were female and there were five em so, yeah, not really BUT look at it this way: they have two good songs, the hit “Worth It” plus the current single “I’m In Love With a Monster”
Wait a second, Tyler doesn’t smoke or drink??? Since when??? Not even weed? Really, shouldn’t we expect a little more from our rock stars. And while I appreciate Christian’s concerns, the truth is who cares what the UK think, there is no reason to ban him if he wrote those lyrics last nights.
With the exception of “You Shook Me All Night Long”, they don’t have a memorable tune to their name and all their lyrics are ephemera, the audience chant hooks but the hooks have no real meaning, so that frees the set up from expectation. Sure “Hells Bells”, “Back In Black” and a coupla others get an especially loud cheer, but really the set just goes from one great song to another to anothe
The cover looks like somewhere between a relay race and Tom Courtney is “The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner”, and the list, is that what he is handing off? It is all very virile man from the late 1950s early 1960s, being masculine with other men -a thrill ride if ever there was one.
This was the first of three times I reviewed Aretha Franklin live for rock nyc. The very next time would prove to be the best show I’ve seen in the 21st century and this one? Pretty good, actually pretty good. maybe Curtis Mayfield was hovering nearby
Burning Bridges – Bon Jovi – This isn’t cute or funny, it is a faux country sing-along, written so Panic At The Disco can accurately claim, they beat the Jersey nitwit senseless – D-
Girls Talk – Dave Edmund – there is no finer expression of edmund’s genius than the way he manipulates costello nightmare relationship into a verse chorus verse rock and roll Rockpile jumped up pop song.. wait for the instrumental break… short but so strong…
I wonder if the Authorities have them dead to rights, at first glance I can’t see what rentboy is doing that backpages isn’t, and they’ve been trying to close down backpages for years to small avail. rentboy.com has been shut down. so you’re on your own tonight.
This is the art of the art, this is how hits are made in 2015 and whether you or I think it is real music, it is really real hit pop. In 2015, at least in theory, on stage the likes of Skrillex will improvise to a setlist and in the recording stufio nothing is ever left to chance.
That is one of the more asinine comments in recent history, the truth is that $250 a shot, Avril should be ashamed she can’t even get within arms length of the poor girl and all Taylor did was like it. I am not an all Taylor all the time guy (at least not this year), but she is miles ahead of nearly everybody not the late great Davy Jones when it comes to the fanbase.
Never before has a press release both spoken for itself so well or been so damn exciting… Van Morrison fans have been decrying the state of the catalog for years and years (hey, me too) and this is incredibly great news. Legacy are the guys behind all those great Elvis Presley re-releases and they will do a brilliant job on Morrison. Read on and cheer loudly!
Since Dave will probably be touring behind On Guitar (it is great by the way) and Nick is always around, and since their music was more or less timeless rock and roll, and since Billy is still in the business, all they need to do is get Terry out of retirement for one more tour: cmon, guys, life is too short not to, there are indeed only seconds of pleasures
“The sun’s not so so hot in the sky today, you know I can see summertime slipping away…” The end of the summer is maybe the saddest season of the year, it brings everything to an end: it is like the embodiment of the end of childhood. Taylor’s masterpiece catches it in aural terms – A+
The Time Of Year: Late August is nostalgia in the form of date, school is back or coming back, working is picking up speed, vacations have ended, and the city has one grows a little older and could look back to an earlier time, just yesterday. To quote Lewis Carroll: “Dreaming as the days go by,dreaming as the summers die”
Fetty Wap has three songs in the top eleven, so that is it… the last time I bet against even ever. O keep pn saying he is gonna bomb and he keeps on having hits. I would make the world’s worst A&R man, when it comes to pop I’m happy if I hit 50%. Otherwise, so little movement!!!
The homeless and bare boobs and bare boobs and the homeless, the streets of New York and no one knows where to look any more. Yesterday 300 women took off theirs bras and walked from Columbus Circus to times Square. The feminist claim that by forcing women to hide their bodies they sexualized women, is a good one. In Islamic States, try showing your ankle in public, your lucky if you don’t get raped. As for the homeless, we don’t know what to do with them, harass them? save them? ignore them? The summer of 2015 right atcha.
Blank Space – Taylor Swift – Her greatest pure pop moment and while I personally have no problem assessing it as also a Max Martin greatest hit, in the end it doesn’t need his whoops and cranes, though you might considered it the difference between 2.5M units moved and 5M units moved – A+
