High On Sunday 51 – Aimee Mann – Off her last great album, knocking on a decade ago., a song of adultery and desire and a comparison that works all too well: heroin. The shaky morality is a real pleasure and the encroaching disaster sexy as fuck.
Feel Good – Eric Benet feat Faith Evans – Off one of the best albums of 2010, the melody is not the strongest he has written but Evans, one of the most underrated singers, is just terrific.
Titus Andronicus – Titus Andronicus – The most self-reflective song ever written. In Stickles frustration at his inability to write the song, “I’ll write my masterpiece some other day” he snarls, he writes his first undeniable masterpiece. A great song. I still listen to it all the time.
The song shake “Shake” is a hot mess of thumps and bongo stuff peppered with some filth and a nice dash of Mr 305. This thing is six years old released in 2006, it never made it past the #41 spot on Billboard but what the hell do they know about music anyway?
Cat Power’s voice is particularly moving during this long and haunting incantation, which seems to beautifully agonize for some lost love, ‘You don’t miss your water/’Till your well is gone’
How can a man sound so true so many years later? This tale of a small town boy knocked on his ass by the big city is an echoing cathedral of sound. It sounded so wrong for the songs aspirations back in the day, but now its charm lies as much in its inconguity as anything else.
Darlene Love – The first and still the one to beat because of Darlene’s deranged, out of control, ending. There is something very moving about adding heartbreak to holiday and Darlene gets it all.
Acoustic guitar, handclaps, blues singalong, one take on a bus in Minnesota, what’s not like about “Stuck On Fuckin’ You”, Lady Gaga’s Christmas release released gift to her little Monsters.
Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me – Elvis Presley – Remember, you can’t spell elves without Elves. The best part? That ineleuctable bridge where the Jordanaires join him.
a sort of Ramoney fun-fast punk song, with mummy Adrienne Armstrong on vocals, daddy Billy Joe on bass and the two kids on drums and guitar. It’s simple, sure enjoyable, but bubbly and girlie like the color they chose for their CD
It is sure very very different from the original, and you will be surprised by the stripped down rendition of the exuberant bombastic Beyonce song! As he said there are elements ‘useless to even attempt replicating’,
I can hardly bare the sight of lipstick, On the cigarettes there in the ashtray Lyin’ cold the way you left them. At least your lips caressed them while you packed.”
Bemis’ voice almost saves the song, and the instruments feel weak and forced. The lyrics don’t really hold a special meaning and there’s not even a hook. The song isn’t absolutely terrible, because Say Anything can never be anything less that okay
An 8 minute epic of identity, reunion and time as an identity, revolving around a question: “Can’t you see that should’ve been me…” John explains, and the two lovers are dazzled through time, getting nowhere.
Guys, they were so fantastic they literally restored my faith in ‘new music’. Then it all went to heck in a bucket.
Evident here is that there is no flashy showbiz. Just a band of gruffy guys sorta making music. No show. But musically its almost enlightening. Gibbards voice, which can at times be confusing and odd- has never sounded more confident.
The duck lipped girls doing the snake are so bland and bored that I wonder if the band slipped them all ruffies to get them to even get on camera. The cheap location the repetition of the mundane track and the lack of testosterone in the vocal make me wonder how these guys still have a label.
Hurt – Leona Lewis – The X Factor Limey is such a big star, her lack of chart presence feels much like choice. Her new single is mood music, a gorgeous downer of whispering intensity and a signpost for how Lewis wants to maneuver from her late 20s to her early 30s.
their abrasive and aggressive electronic sound feels nevertheless a little bit poppier than ever with the reverb in Alexis Krauss’ sweet voice doubled with some cheer-leading backup vocals
One – Bee Gees – One last time, in 1989, the Bee Gees did it for old times sake, a song as great as anything they had written in 1979. The production by the way is more 21st century.
it sounds like a cross between Matt & Kim, Jessie J, and Nicki Minaj; this is what Karmin describes as Swag Pop. Now, this may sound like quite the perplexing combination of sounds, and trust me: I’m not the biggest fan of Nicki or Jessie, but it is this strange sound that makes Karmin so unique
Please Mr. Post Man – The Beatles – Covering Tamla Motown is always a dodgy business, improving upon the original almost impossible. Here is the rarest of songs, it is more exciting than the Marvelettes original, mostly due to Lennon’s tour de force lead vocal.
This really does nothing but provide some sound in the back ground to which I get the occasional Cuban thunk which actually grabs my attention.
the Marvelettes were the Supremes redux, and forever remembered for the Beatles cover of “Please, Mr. Postman”. But I am in the middle of their greatest hits vol 2, and give em a listen.
Charlotte is such a Daddy’s girl, her Mom, Jane Birkin, is lost in the background somewhere. But if the vocal here isn’t a tribute to Birkin, what else explains the breathy desirability?
One rainy night as Adele stood outside a bar trying to light a cigarette as her boyfriend bitched at her about how she wouldn’t be able to light a lighter while it was raining. Well, she finally did it and upon lighting her cigarette, she calmly walked away
In a nearly speak sing tone Holmes takes on a really odd group of pop songs and tweaks them just enough to not sound like a lounge karaoke.
Dan O’Connor is still the Yukon Cornelius of hardcore a happy lumberjack with a great disposition. Alan looks like a typical blue collar worker, he needs only a lunch box made of metal.
Jilted ugly broad anthems. Something for the sniveling to sit around eating Doritos and watching Dr Phil to while sobbin over the guy that made a run for it.
Chicago’s favorite sons are a rock nyc fave but not one of mine. The opening song off their latest track is a relation to grunge, at least in that it is all playing with pace and tone. The song is hard but not too hard, sorta teen rock.
Roman In Moscow – Nicki Minaj – I found all that Roman crap a drag when I saw Nicki opening for Britney earlier this year. But that notwithstanding, she is a truly great rapper
This kid actually cracks me up. First in what I presume to be a series of "Bedroom Tapes", is Chris Drew of Never Shout Nevers self love on an unmade
It is a crazy one, Stickles is a funny guy, let’s just say that he takes some liberty with the lyrics, and he exaggerates the yeeaaahhhs so much, I thought I was hearing some cats in heat
” it says they’re proud of her, and affirms the choice she made, and speaks to the emotional power of rock n roll. And, it’s just a great, affirmative story song about two old friends who went their separate ways, but the emotional bond is still there”
“Let it be known that I was who I am” is a better benediction than peace on earth or good will to all men. It is nearly impossible to be who you are, how wonderful if you could be.
There are some humongous migraine inspiring bags of crap covers- churned out so the teens will drop a buck on iTunes for a ‘cool’ holiday song.
Now you and I are free to believe what we feel but the truth is, people either have faith or don’t. Much like being in love, you can’t fake it
Danny’s Song – Loggins And Messina – This is soft rock, it floats on a cloud of mellow and all these years later I bet someguy somewhere is singing it to his wife.Full of the hope in young marriage and family at the beginning of a journey. Loggins wrote it for his brother and I wonder how it worked out..
2.
On The Floor – J Lo and Pitbull – When not tooling around L.A. and pretending it’s the Bronx, or wasting her time on American Idol, J Lo can occassional kill it. as in this track with the incomparable PR PB.
They offer up this holiday gift. The typical office Christmas along with Stuart the puppet. I do hope the puppet becomes a regular in their videos, I like it. He had credibility
The instruments are tightly woven together, really making the perfect back track for the clever lyrics. Everything’s so compact, tight, and radio worthy- and then the chorus comes.
The Trouble With Love – Kelly Clarkson – I caught Kelly live early in her career and I didn’t watch AI so I didn’t know who she was. And I was blown away. I am seeing her again tomorrow
Everyone has covered this but no one enunciated it so well. Huge props. Musically, nice little rock bass going on. Angels may just cloud surf to this one.
Like Smoke – Amy Winehouse And Nas – This is a great song, not Amy or nas’s best but the best post-humous Winehouse release. Nas is a great rapper and Amy is very much the essence of desire.
Seems everyone wants some holiday action- but Sparks does this well. Traditional enough but with just a dash of unique…well a smidge.
Default Picture – T-Pain – It is now official, he is the only person in the world allowed to use auto-tune. This is T-Pain at his poppy best only waiting for Justin Timberlake on the remix.
Still very young and trapped in an over saturated genre’ its time The ‘Kids’ get proper representation and go score a name for themselves.
The tune really doesn’t wow me but its great to know the band is still together and functioning. I figure they used up all the cash from “Move Along’, which must have got a ton of attention since it was in the video game Rockband.
Hey There – Harry Connick Jn – A very witty song, Connick recording a “memo to self”, advising himself to forget a girl with “her nose in the air”. Then playing back the recording and berating himself for not listening to his own advise. “Is it all going in one ear and out the other?”
I Found Dream – Marilyn Monroe – Only a verse, but it offers Monroe singing Hungarian(?) folk song very, very purely. Monroe so overshadowed herself, that her ability to be anything but a movie star was invisible. A doomed woman unable to maintain the illusion.
