Robin Thicke goes to court and admits to being so drunk and coked up that he had nothing to do with the song he wrote? What did you think the jury, who are given to dislike the charm bereft pop star for his entire “Paula” debacle, thought of that? One of the writers of the song admits to not writing it.
No matter if you agree or not with the result of the lawsuit, there is a fine line between inspiration and plagiarism and it happens all the time when I listen to new songs, they very often remind me about another song, but do I know music enough to decide if it is total plagiarism?
‘Pharrell wanted to contribute too’, said Steven Ellison (aka FlyLo). ‘But he had issues with the kind of songs to write. He didn’t wanna make a self-fulfilling prophecy… he didn’t wanna write a song about death and then die the next day… and I totally respect that.’
Come Get It Babe – Pharrell – The live version off the Spring Session from Webster Hall and it sounds very good indeed, saving the track from deep album obscurity plus the “heys” now sound like a Williams tic but a good tic (it is all over “Blurred Lines” as well) and the track isn’t hip hop -not even the production, it is funk – A-
Except for the Legend song, this is a plenty good top ten. Both Iggy songs work for me and “Summer” is an excellent song of summer. Nothing else seriously annoys me and if this is what the top ten looks like in 2014, count me in.
“Okay cool. But does that make it off-limits for me to use in a song, especially when the overarching context is that there are good women who also have bad thoughts? If a good woman can have sexual thoughts, is it wrong for a man to have a correct guess that a woman might want something?”
I would miss most things to see Pharrell Williams at the Apollo, which is where he is playing on Tuesday June 3rd. And I would even if I was a lesser fan of GIRL, a great pop album, because you know that after Pharrell tours (he is setting up Europe for the summer) and plays the much larger Barclay Center (as he will later this year or next year), it will be a production number but the Apollo Theatre which be a much straighter production
Can I pick em? No, not at all. I could’ve sworn both Coldplay and Michael Jackson were gonna bomb and bomb big and they both hit the charts in the first week. Avicii produced by the Coldplay song, I just assumed it was Eno!
After seven years in the wilderness, the not best song on Paramore does the trick and gets them back on the singles chart. A fun video helped no doubt. SOrt of pop punk meets pop dance and not a bad polace to put the band. The two Iggys are great… but you already knew that.
Last week a couple of dozen huge and fully grown men graduated from college to the NFL, where they will make millions for a couple of years and let’s hope they save up for a rainy day. If they don’t they will always have the NFL Draft where Mr. Johnny Football got drafted 22nd and Jadeveon Clowney got drafter first and Ha Ha Clinton Dix 21st , thereby giving Jimmy Fallon jokes for years to come.
While simply because of his work at last years “Sinatra In The Park”, Legend has a lot of brownie points in my world, as a songwriter he puts me to sleep. But here, he has a 0.09% beat on Pharrell. I don’t seem I am exaggerating when I call John’s Love In The Future rancid.
Again, not the worst singles chart I’ve ever seen. The Azalea song is a real keeper and one I’d have missed if it wasn’t on the charts, proof positive that our fate lies not in the charts but in ourselves. I bet you wish you’d thought it up. Me? I wish it meant something.
Both Iggy and Future are pretty good albums, though my bet is Future falters fast. Neon Trees –well, it is not as though they were that big to start with and if you ever catch em live your opinion will of em will instantaneously improve.
Everything cools down to room temperature and therefore we are all gonna freeze to death when that happens to the sun. And the axiom is actually true of rock stars. Take a look at Pharrell Williams.
I am enough of a pop fan to give big props to DeRulo and Pharrell, two of the best albums of the years may only have girls on the mind but who doesn’t only have girls on the mind and if all you want is to give props to the playas, do it this well and you’ll get no kick from me.
Not one new entry in the top ten and the top seven are THE SAME AS LAST WEEK and except for Lil Jon and Onerepublica trading places, this is the exact same as last week!!!! BUT coming up soon, as I predicted the minute it was released, Ed Sheeran’s “Sing” will be rocking the charts all summer. Be afraid.
Yeah, no one is shocked that Pharrell is back at # 2 but what is shocking is how much it has sold: 29,000 copies. If all you are selling here is 29K maybe it isn’t really anything very much. Record sales appear to be coming to an end while the new musical equations are more like a polularity than a sales contest.
Produced by Pharrell Williams, this isn’t as good as the stuff on Pharrell’s new album and it isn’t as good as the stuff on Ed’s old album: handclapping, rapping, falsetto singing, synth lines by the dozens, typical lyric
Meet the new chart same as the old chart. Well, at least Aloe Blacc is doing well. Plus you wanna see devolution in action? from “Get Lucky” to “Blurred Lines” to “Happy” (to” Sing” -but it will be a coupla weeks till that one shows). There is devolution in action.
Yeeeeesssss! Lil Jon is back on the charts to tell the truth to power on this real old fashioned slice of EDM heaven. This is House as written with a catchy catchy hook and flying synth lines into the outer stratosphere. Lil Jon said this about the song to Spin: ” It’s amazing, because that’s what I’ve been doing all my career: just getting people amped up and hyped up.” And remember he al… oh wait I already used that line.
166 songs so project out and you are looking at 700 700ish mark for the year, down from last year but not by much. The month itself found two albums just filled with great songs, GIRLS and ABout Last Night, plus the awesome art rocker by Elbow.
The Take Off And Landing Of Everything – Elbow – A sort of uncool, unelectronic, art band on their sixth album and first post-major breakthrough and they manage to top just about anything they’ve even done with the possible exception of “My Sad Captains”
We appear to be in a period of extended mediocrity within the upper reaches of the charts. The album charts are so volatile it has no middle ground any more. In 2011 albums were staying in the top ten for months on end, today the album charts reflect something at all. Meanwhile, the single charts are so conservative and static they seem set in stone. Nothing on this list is good enough. It is a dreadful disappointment
Much better than the singles collection, elbow is growing on me and growing on me. The band broke through a couple of years but never really made it all the way for me till now. Indeed, qute the opposite. But I went back to some of their earlier material and it may have been my ears letting me down. Whatever, this is definitely a keep.
How many times can I express my loathing for “Let It Go”, the standard formusical numbers is so low really ever since “Wicked” made the point and kept to it, that anything that rises from key to key to a full scale scream can be considered a power ballad, we have been heading for this place where everybody has given up on song for spectacle. An abominable, apocalyptic piece of crap.
Listen to “Billie Jean” for a song that seemed everywhere and nowhere, the song is so deep in the closet we still don’t know for certain what closet it is hiding in. Nothing Pharrell does, very little Timberlake, Usher, any of the pretenders do, can get beyond emotional checkers
Yeah, we all knew it would enter the charts at # 1, that isn’t the question. The question is, how will it sustain the position through the year. Meanwhile… what makes the UK charts the UK charts is that Mike “Tubular Bells” Oldfield is still having hits with crappy albums.
Let Her Dance – The Bobby Fuller Four – It is to Bobby Fuller’s credit that Marshall Crenshaw’s cover doesn’t run the band out of town on a pole -indeed, as great as Crenshaw’s cover was, Fuller had all the highlights on this power pop early rock and roll triumph from the beginning – A+
Pharrell came, saw and certainly conquered us just the way he will the charts over the next couple of months. This album should take hi to the next next level! Otherwise, both Rufus hits and DBT in mellow mode are disappointments.
The top four are exactly the same as last week, and the following six are minimal changes and NOTHING NEW made it on AND… Oh, I guess that’s all I got.Proof that the US Hot 100 is the most conservative and reactionary charts in the history of the world. FYI
GIRL – Pharrell Williams – A blast of pure pop for now people from the former Neptune producer who provides one slice of adult bubble gum after another topped not by “Happy” but the Justin Timberlake featured “Brand New”. Williams grabs his moment and doesn’t let go – ALBUM OF THE WEEK – B+
Pharrell’s joyous all dancing all smiling, all aboard performance was the best and Idina Menzel’s “Let It Go”, tailor made for the Oscars, a big bland musical theatre pastiche that, not unlike self evident influence “Wicked”, is simply not good enough musically to matter
There are weeks and then there are WEEKS!! Drive By Truckers 12th album gets pride of place… until I listen to it anyway. I was really thinking of Pharrell instead but I dunno how good Mr. Neptune is when you get right down to it, “Happy” wore out its welcome with me some time last summer
Foxes (aka Louisa Rose Allen) is yet another DJ’s discovery, this time Zedd discovered her and this song is her second hit. The album is dropping May 12th, though whether we get it, and whether we care, is a subject of some debate.
John Legend performs the terrible drag of an “All Of Me” on the Grammy’s once and the next thing you know he has a top ten hits. Legend is Alicia Keys in male drag and he is just as boring a performer though not without a certain amount of charm, true. None of that charm is at work here. None of it.
Not much going on for another week, though I note we haven’t seen a thing for Gaga in awhile and meanwhile Katy Perry is in at # 1!! Lorde has her second hit and I suggest they do the right thing and release “Swingin’ Party” and make Paul some more bucks.
I wonder why the UK single charts is so much more interesting than the US? Not just the superb “Rather Be” which should break big over here at some point, but the extremely soulful Gorgon which hits me as though while the US is having an emo revival, the UK is back with Northern soul.
I’d bet money that Elyar Fox, a youtube cutiepie who the little girls will understand, breaks Stateside. Maybe now Scooter is about ready to give up on Bieber lightning can strike twice. After that, this is a darn good list and bublling under at 22? McMurow!!!
Fuse ODG is rubadub electronic dance music and Control is drums and bass in the modern world plus the rest of this chart shows why the UK remains an important breeding ground for truly great pop music.
Maybe I underestimated the Avicii track, the instrumental bridge is pretty good. I wonder why “Happy” got a second life? That one take video of a woman dancing to it? Maybe??? Otherwise, everything is still place and we wait for the rest of our lives to begin!!
X Factor gets its winner Prison Officer Sam Bailey to the top of the charts and wins the UK Christmas single of the year, something that means not much here!!! People like the sub Celine Dion ululating climb every note to a towering thunder singing of game show vocalists but people are stupid
