Friday, October 03, 2008
Link me all over
Some distractions to last you the weekend...
:: Tina Fey lampoons Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live… And while it's brilliant, it's neither as funny nor as terrifying as the real thing
:: Here's a free download of Annie's superfantastic cover of Stacey Q's Two Hearts - Click here. Annie's album, Don't Stop, is due out this week, next week, sometime or never.
:: How popular is your name? Check out this site that tracks the popularity of first names (in the US) since 1880.
:: "When you hear a rhythm that is being played by an instrument you can’t identify but wish you owned, you are hearing Timbaland". A great profile of the super-producer, courtesy of the New Yorker
:: I was recently on a plane that was struck by lightning, and I'd have felt just a little bit safer if I'd had this guide to how land a jumbo jet handy.
:: Brad Walsh has remixified Britney's Womanizer and made it available for download. It takes a song that sounds like it was written by a computer program and makes it sound like the computer has had a psychological "episode". Full marks all round, particularly for (muso alert) "breaking it down in the middle 8" .
:: 10 People From Your Past Who Will Haunt You On Facebook.
:: The video for Alicia Keys and Jack White's Bond theme misses out on the one thing that would make it tolerable - footage from Quantum Of Solace.
:: Fans of Ferris Beuller are planning to recreate the film's iconic carnival scene at New York's Hallowe'en Parade on 31st October. If you're going along, get in touch - I'd love to get your photos on the blog at the end of the month!
:: Amazon's computers have begun phase two of their plan for global domination.
[via Photobasement]
:: Tina Fey lampoons Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live… And while it's brilliant, it's neither as funny nor as terrifying as the real thing
:: Here's a free download of Annie's superfantastic cover of Stacey Q's Two Hearts - Click here. Annie's album, Don't Stop, is due out this week, next week, sometime or never.
:: How popular is your name? Check out this site that tracks the popularity of first names (in the US) since 1880.
:: "When you hear a rhythm that is being played by an instrument you can’t identify but wish you owned, you are hearing Timbaland". A great profile of the super-producer, courtesy of the New Yorker
:: I was recently on a plane that was struck by lightning, and I'd have felt just a little bit safer if I'd had this guide to how land a jumbo jet handy.
:: Brad Walsh has remixified Britney's Womanizer and made it available for download. It takes a song that sounds like it was written by a computer program and makes it sound like the computer has had a psychological "episode". Full marks all round, particularly for (muso alert) "breaking it down in the middle 8" .
:: 10 People From Your Past Who Will Haunt You On Facebook.
:: The video for Alicia Keys and Jack White's Bond theme misses out on the one thing that would make it tolerable - footage from Quantum Of Solace.
:: Fans of Ferris Beuller are planning to recreate the film's iconic carnival scene at New York's Hallowe'en Parade on 31st October. If you're going along, get in touch - I'd love to get your photos on the blog at the end of the month!
:: Amazon's computers have begun phase two of their plan for global domination.
[via Photobasement]
Labels: alicia keys, annie, Britney Spears, film, links, Timbaland, tina fey, white stripes
Monday, February 18, 2008
R&B - still breathing, but signs critical
R&B has probably been the most dominant musical form of the early 21st Century. From Crazy In Love to Maneater, the genre has provided some of the biggest anthems of the last five years - and it became a safe haven for pop acts in a time when pop was a dirty word (we're talking Britney, Justin and Gwen here).Musically, 21st Century R&B is a world away from the impassioned soul music which inspired it. The beats are robotic - just listen to the clattering hi-hat on Survivor by Destiny's Child - and the instrumentation is doled out with all the generosity of a fat kid asked to share his fistful of wagon wheels.
Not that that's a bad thing. I've always been impressed at how a song like Kelis' Milkshake basically uses the factory settings on a couple of industry-standard synths to turn out a song that sounds groundbreaking and unique.
But over the last year, R&B's biggest luminaries seem to have stopped trying, or simply forgotten how to "be good" (I believe this is the technical term).
Ideas are being recycled, melodies are thin on the ground, and if I hear a vocoder one more time... Well, who knows what I'll do? I might even start listening to Mika.*
A case in point is the new song by Flo Rida. He's massive in the States at the moment - having been number one for weeks and weeks and weeks with his debut single, Low. His next release, Elevator, comes from the assured hands of R&B supremo Timbaland.
It's safe to say it is not his best work.
Timbo, a notorious musical magpie, brazenly nicks the "ella, ella" bit from Rihanna's uberhit Umbrella, and attaches it to a song of practially no merit. Both vocalists sound like their minds are elsewhere. The drum loop is lifted directly from Nelly Furtado's Say It Right and speeded up a bit. The video is full of booty-shaking dancers and blingtastic product shots of belt buckles and rolex watches.
It is either the last nail in R&B's coffin, or a badly signposted parody.
* I am of course being ironic.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Remix corner
In which we find some of my favourite upcoming singles, retooled by some of the nation's foremost knob twiddlers.:: The Ting Tings - A Great DJ (Calvin Harris mix)
Sproingy disco beats + shouty chorus = arms-aloft party anthem.
:: Duffy - Mercy (Thankful mix)
Better because it is longer.
:: Kylie - Wow (CSS remix)
This doesn't add much, save a few synth noises and a cowbell, but it frames Kylie's vocals much more sympathetically than the original.
:: Snoop Dogg - Sexual Eruption (Fyre Department mix feat Robyn)
Yes, that Robyn! She's turned Snoop's superfly 70s porno talkbox ballad into a europop 90s porno talkbox ballad. "Snoop Dogg, I'm going to sex you up," she trills. Amazing.
:: Janet - Feedback (various remixes)
The R&B one, the dance one, the Timbaland one. They're all here.
Labels: calvin harris, CSS, duffy, Janet Jackson, kylie, MP3, Music, Robyn, snoop dogg, Timbaland, ting tings
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Top 10 Discopop albums of 2007
Happy New Year! And, looking forward at our past, here are the top 10 albums from the Discopop Towers ghettoblaster in 2007.
1) ROBYN - ROBYN
Sounds like: Early Madonna, with better jokes.
The critics say: “Is it any good? No. IT IS FUCKING BRILLIANT!” (popjustice)
We say: Okay, so this came out in Sweden three years ago but it’s still the freshest, deadliest pop album to hit these shores in aeons. Robyn pens a killer hook, but her real skill is in the lyrics, which can be heartbreaking (“It’s a good thing tears never show in the pouring rain”), sentimental (“I would knit you mittens and make you pie”) or out-and-out comedy (“I’ll make your balls bounce like a game of ping pong”). One for the rewind button every time.
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2) ARCADE FIRE - NEON BIBLE
Sounds like: Twelve monks who are, like, really depressed about the future.
The critics say: “A magical kingdom of noise that's equal parts Disney's Fantasia and Echo & The Bunnymen's lavish Ocean Rain.” (Q magazine)
We say: Post-millennial angst you can sing along to. Planes crash into buildings, families are ripped apart by war, a big black tidal wave comes to wipe out the population. Not the cheeriest album of the year, but certainly the most epic.
--------
3) CSS - CANSEI DE SER SEXY
Sounds like: A kids party in a mental asylum.
The critics say: “Lots of handclaps, woo woo backing vocals, and laughs amid funny observations about contemporary urban hipster life reveal an assured and charming debut.” (Stylus magazine)
We say: Hey, it’s another album that’s technically three years old. Did I ever say I was a hip and with-it indie scenester? No, I did not.
Anyway, CSS are brilliant. Bouncy, stupid and colourful – they could only have come from Sao Paolo. The lyrics verge on nonsense (“Am I a mouse? Am I an elephant?!”) yet often reveal something deeper on repeated listens. But Cansei De Ser Sexy (tired of being sexy) is mostly designed for jumping up and down to in a student disco with a bacardi breezer and an ironic t-shirt. Ah, the memories.
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4) AMERIE - BECAUSE I LOVE IT
Sounds like: A modern r&b record that knows its roots.
The critics say: “It would be no exaggeration to call Amerie one of the greatest singers in pop music. Her vocal performances are extraordinary: she catches the fleeting thrills and momentary rushes of intensity that permeate otherwise mundane days, and stretches those feelings out across four-minute songs without ever letting up.” (The Guardian)
We say: R&B is in a bit of a lull these days, which is why it’s so utterly criminal that this sparkling firecracker of an album did so badly. The record company hasn’t even bothered to release it in the US, which means it could be one of the great lost records of our time.
Amerie, who takes on a great deal of the writing duties for her third album, has a fantastic understanding of her soul music forebears and pays tribute to the likes of Smokey Robinson, Issac Hayes and Dozier-Holland-Dozier throughout. Not that this is a Winehouse-esque pastiche of latter-day r&b. Every lesson she learned from those masterminds of composition has been updated and spun in new directions, underscored by that fantastic voice. 2007 didn’t have a better soul workout than Gotta Work, a funkier guitar line than Take Control, or a more sugary pop confection than Crush.
Seriously, you have got to buy this album.
--------
5) GIRLS ALOUD - TANGLED UP
Sounds like: A girl band growing up.
The critics say: “Unbeatable future pop hits.” (NME)
We say: It didn’t seem possible a year ago that a band who would release a tired, by-numbers cover of I Think We’re Alone Now would emerge re-invigorated to produce an album this fresh. The traditional Girls Aloud formula still stands – preposterous song structures, brain-eating hooks – but the mood is a little more melancholy than before. Call The Shots, their best single since Biology, is a minor-key pop wonder, while future single I Can’t Speak French is a sultry mid-tempo sleazefest. Top marks all round.
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6) RADIOHEAD - IN RAINBOWS
Sounds like: A Radiohead album.
The critics say: “The first time I listened to Radiohead's In Rainbows, I loved it, no holds barred. Joy warmed my ears as the album's 10 songs poured forth from a freshly unzipped download.” (Los Angeles Times)
We say: I didn’t wet my pants quite as readily as everyone else, but In Rainbows is a fantastic album, and probably the most direct record Radiohead have released since The Bends. You can hear what Thom Yorke is singing, you can hum most of the tunes, but you’d still be hard pressed to replicate most of the songs on an acoustic guitar. The ones that you can, however, are stunning . Among them are Nude, Faust Arp and Reckoner – some of the most beautifully haunting ballads the band have ever written.
On another note - I never thought I’d see the day when Thom Yorke cribbed lyrics from Madonna’s Justify My Love. But on House Of Cards he really does sing “I don’t want to be your friend, I just want to be your lover”. Amazing.
--------
7) DRAGONETTE - GALORE
Sounds like: Goldfrapp snogging Britney Spears in a strip club toilet.
The critics say: “A 21st Century Eurythmics” (Uncut)
We say: This one crept in under the radar and burrowed its way into our mind with the cunning use of big, fat choruses from planet singalong. Dragonette, a Canadian band managed by the team behind the Scissor Sisters, plough a similar furrow to their New York counterparts. That is to say, glittery synth-driven pop with an undercurrent of sleaze. My particular favourite is Competition – a song about stealing someone from their girlfriend by being better in bed (“Goodness I like this, being your mistress,” purrs singer Martina Sorbara). No-one seems to have heard of them, and the album is rarer than a French beefsteak, but I still love it.
--------
8) SIOBHAN DONAGHY - GHOSTS
Sounds like: A ginger Kate Bush.
The critics say: “Nobody else in 2007 is making records this bold, this big-hearted and this defiantly different.” (Digital Spy)
We say: Siobhan, the first former Sugababe, surpassed the ambition and invention of her former colleagues this year but she paid the price for releasing such a wayward, complex album without the calling card of a radio-friendly single. If you’re going to be Kate Bush or Tori Amos, you need a Wuthering Heights or Cornflake Girl to alert people to your presence. But for those prepared to investigate, this is pop on a grand scale: sweeping strings, icy melodies and choruses like a warm bath (I’m not quite sure what that means, but I think you get the point).
--------
9) TIMBALAND - TIMBALAND PRESENTS SHOCK VALUE
Sounds like: Robot hip-hop from the only producer in the game.
The critics say: “It would be more accurately titled Timbaland Presents Slight Confusion or Timbaland Presents an Uneven Mess.” (Allmusic)
We say: Admittedly, only 11 of Shock Value’s 19 tracks still exist on my iPod, but those tracks are stunning. And, even when the album fails, you have to give Timbaland credit for attempting to broaden his musical palette. Rather than go down the Dr Dre route of calling up all his famous mates (although Justin and Nelly do appear), he has roped in The Hives, Fall Out Boy and Elton John to create some of the album’s stand-out tracks.
My favourite, however, is the UK-only bonus track – Come Around – which features underground rap star M.I.A. Her slinky delivery is, for once, not drowned out by superfluous sound effects and rave sirens as Timbaland gives a masterclass in how to frame a woman’s vocals. The song is only let down by the hip-hop supremo’s own rapping which, at its best, is hopeless. “Baby girl, you and me / Need to go to your tipi”. Oh dear.
--------
10) RIHANNA - GOOD GIRL GONE BAD
Sounds like: A collection of songs assembled by big-name r&b producers and sung by a very lucky lady from Barbados.
The critics say: “Beyonce's superstar status is not in danger, but she should hand her A&R man a copy of this album.” (The Observer)
We say: Umbrella is great. Don’t Stop The Music is great. The rest of Good Girl Gone Bad is very good assembly-line pop. You don’t learn anything about Rihanna, the 19-year-old musical phenomenon with a pretty nose, whose whiny voice will almost certainly begin to grate by the second half of the record. And, with the exception of the one about the precipitation-repelling device, you won't be singing any of these songs three years from now.
If I sound like I don’t like Good Girl Gone Bad, it’s because I’m a little frightened of what it represents – that lots of money can buy you a hit album regardless of your talent. So, while this is my 10th most listened-to album of the year (this list is based on my iTunes play counts) I’d prefer to give the “award” to Stargate, Timbaland, Redzone and all the other production teams, rather than Rihanna who had her photograph taken for the picture on the cover.
...And on that grumpy note, let’s look forward to the next 12 months of music!
Sounds like: Early Madonna, with better jokes.
The critics say: “Is it any good? No. IT IS FUCKING BRILLIANT!” (popjustice)
We say: Okay, so this came out in Sweden three years ago but it’s still the freshest, deadliest pop album to hit these shores in aeons. Robyn pens a killer hook, but her real skill is in the lyrics, which can be heartbreaking (“It’s a good thing tears never show in the pouring rain”), sentimental (“I would knit you mittens and make you pie”) or out-and-out comedy (“I’ll make your balls bounce like a game of ping pong”). One for the rewind button every time.
Sounds like: Twelve monks who are, like, really depressed about the future.
The critics say: “A magical kingdom of noise that's equal parts Disney's Fantasia and Echo & The Bunnymen's lavish Ocean Rain.” (Q magazine)
We say: Post-millennial angst you can sing along to. Planes crash into buildings, families are ripped apart by war, a big black tidal wave comes to wipe out the population. Not the cheeriest album of the year, but certainly the most epic.
Sounds like: A kids party in a mental asylum.
The critics say: “Lots of handclaps, woo woo backing vocals, and laughs amid funny observations about contemporary urban hipster life reveal an assured and charming debut.” (Stylus magazine)
We say: Hey, it’s another album that’s technically three years old. Did I ever say I was a hip and with-it indie scenester? No, I did not.
Anyway, CSS are brilliant. Bouncy, stupid and colourful – they could only have come from Sao Paolo. The lyrics verge on nonsense (“Am I a mouse? Am I an elephant?!”) yet often reveal something deeper on repeated listens. But Cansei De Ser Sexy (tired of being sexy) is mostly designed for jumping up and down to in a student disco with a bacardi breezer and an ironic t-shirt. Ah, the memories.
Sounds like: A modern r&b record that knows its roots.
The critics say: “It would be no exaggeration to call Amerie one of the greatest singers in pop music. Her vocal performances are extraordinary: she catches the fleeting thrills and momentary rushes of intensity that permeate otherwise mundane days, and stretches those feelings out across four-minute songs without ever letting up.” (The Guardian)
We say: R&B is in a bit of a lull these days, which is why it’s so utterly criminal that this sparkling firecracker of an album did so badly. The record company hasn’t even bothered to release it in the US, which means it could be one of the great lost records of our time.
Amerie, who takes on a great deal of the writing duties for her third album, has a fantastic understanding of her soul music forebears and pays tribute to the likes of Smokey Robinson, Issac Hayes and Dozier-Holland-Dozier throughout. Not that this is a Winehouse-esque pastiche of latter-day r&b. Every lesson she learned from those masterminds of composition has been updated and spun in new directions, underscored by that fantastic voice. 2007 didn’t have a better soul workout than Gotta Work, a funkier guitar line than Take Control, or a more sugary pop confection than Crush.
Seriously, you have got to buy this album.
Sounds like: A girl band growing up.
The critics say: “Unbeatable future pop hits.” (NME)
We say: It didn’t seem possible a year ago that a band who would release a tired, by-numbers cover of I Think We’re Alone Now would emerge re-invigorated to produce an album this fresh. The traditional Girls Aloud formula still stands – preposterous song structures, brain-eating hooks – but the mood is a little more melancholy than before. Call The Shots, their best single since Biology, is a minor-key pop wonder, while future single I Can’t Speak French is a sultry mid-tempo sleazefest. Top marks all round.
Sounds like: A Radiohead album.
The critics say: “The first time I listened to Radiohead's In Rainbows, I loved it, no holds barred. Joy warmed my ears as the album's 10 songs poured forth from a freshly unzipped download.” (Los Angeles Times)
We say: I didn’t wet my pants quite as readily as everyone else, but In Rainbows is a fantastic album, and probably the most direct record Radiohead have released since The Bends. You can hear what Thom Yorke is singing, you can hum most of the tunes, but you’d still be hard pressed to replicate most of the songs on an acoustic guitar. The ones that you can, however, are stunning . Among them are Nude, Faust Arp and Reckoner – some of the most beautifully haunting ballads the band have ever written.
On another note - I never thought I’d see the day when Thom Yorke cribbed lyrics from Madonna’s Justify My Love. But on House Of Cards he really does sing “I don’t want to be your friend, I just want to be your lover”. Amazing.
Sounds like: Goldfrapp snogging Britney Spears in a strip club toilet.
The critics say: “A 21st Century Eurythmics” (Uncut)
We say: This one crept in under the radar and burrowed its way into our mind with the cunning use of big, fat choruses from planet singalong. Dragonette, a Canadian band managed by the team behind the Scissor Sisters, plough a similar furrow to their New York counterparts. That is to say, glittery synth-driven pop with an undercurrent of sleaze. My particular favourite is Competition – a song about stealing someone from their girlfriend by being better in bed (“Goodness I like this, being your mistress,” purrs singer Martina Sorbara). No-one seems to have heard of them, and the album is rarer than a French beefsteak, but I still love it.
Sounds like: A ginger Kate Bush.
The critics say: “Nobody else in 2007 is making records this bold, this big-hearted and this defiantly different.” (Digital Spy)
We say: Siobhan, the first former Sugababe, surpassed the ambition and invention of her former colleagues this year but she paid the price for releasing such a wayward, complex album without the calling card of a radio-friendly single. If you’re going to be Kate Bush or Tori Amos, you need a Wuthering Heights or Cornflake Girl to alert people to your presence. But for those prepared to investigate, this is pop on a grand scale: sweeping strings, icy melodies and choruses like a warm bath (I’m not quite sure what that means, but I think you get the point).
Sounds like: Robot hip-hop from the only producer in the game.
The critics say: “It would be more accurately titled Timbaland Presents Slight Confusion or Timbaland Presents an Uneven Mess.” (Allmusic)
We say: Admittedly, only 11 of Shock Value’s 19 tracks still exist on my iPod, but those tracks are stunning. And, even when the album fails, you have to give Timbaland credit for attempting to broaden his musical palette. Rather than go down the Dr Dre route of calling up all his famous mates (although Justin and Nelly do appear), he has roped in The Hives, Fall Out Boy and Elton John to create some of the album’s stand-out tracks.
My favourite, however, is the UK-only bonus track – Come Around – which features underground rap star M.I.A. Her slinky delivery is, for once, not drowned out by superfluous sound effects and rave sirens as Timbaland gives a masterclass in how to frame a woman’s vocals. The song is only let down by the hip-hop supremo’s own rapping which, at its best, is hopeless. “Baby girl, you and me / Need to go to your tipi”. Oh dear.
Sounds like: A collection of songs assembled by big-name r&b producers and sung by a very lucky lady from Barbados.
The critics say: “Beyonce's superstar status is not in danger, but she should hand her A&R man a copy of this album.” (The Observer)
We say: Umbrella is great. Don’t Stop The Music is great. The rest of Good Girl Gone Bad is very good assembly-line pop. You don’t learn anything about Rihanna, the 19-year-old musical phenomenon with a pretty nose, whose whiny voice will almost certainly begin to grate by the second half of the record. And, with the exception of the one about the precipitation-repelling device, you won't be singing any of these songs three years from now.
If I sound like I don’t like Good Girl Gone Bad, it’s because I’m a little frightened of what it represents – that lots of money can buy you a hit album regardless of your talent. So, while this is my 10th most listened-to album of the year (this list is based on my iTunes play counts) I’d prefer to give the “award” to Stargate, Timbaland, Redzone and all the other production teams, rather than Rihanna who had her photograph taken for the picture on the cover.
...And on that grumpy note, let’s look forward to the next 12 months of music!
Labels: amerie, arcade fire, CSS, dragonette, Girls Aloud, Music, radiohead, rihanna, Robyn, siobhan donaghy, Timbaland, top ten
Friday, September 21, 2007
It has not been a very interesting week for music
So the best I can give you for the weekend is this video for Timbaland's new single, Apologize.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
More links for your clicking pleasure
I'm still in the hideous process of packing up everything I own just to move it three miles down the road to a nastier bit of London... The CDs alone now take up three storage boxes, two suitcases and a shoebox. Isn't homeowning great?
Anyway, I've still managed to find a few things worth looking at, even if I can't sit down and write my usual flawless prose (you at the back, stop laughing).
:: The 10 strangest (non-porn) sex scenes, as compiled by movie website Sand and Cotton.
:: Here is an MP3 of a remix of Timbaland's Give It To Me which eschews Nelly Furtado for Jay-Z. Westwood likes it. I reckon it's a beat searching for a song. (cripes, I hope I haven't just started the UK equivalent of rap's calamitous East coast / West coast feud. I don't even own a glock, or nothing.)
:: According to a "rumour" Nadine Coyle dumped Jesse Metcalfe because of his insane jealousy. The article doesn't say whether this was jealousy over other men or her ability to obtain gainful employment. (NB: I totally have an alibi for my whereabouts every time Jesse has been out of the country for the last 18 months).
:: Angelina Jolie says she was "very sexual" at Kindergarten and "created a game where I would kiss the boys". I bet she didn't mention that on the adoption papers.
:: Rap impresario Russell Simmons wants hip-hop artists to stop using the words Nigga, Ho and Bitches, it says here. Snoop Dogg has yet to comment, because his entire vocabulary has been taken away from him.
:: Vanessa Williams out of Ugly Betty (and singer of "Save The Best To Last"), Kristin Chenoweth out of The West Wing and Cassie out of, erm, Cassie have all gone naked and taken their clothes off and been starkers for a magazine. The scandal!
Actually, that reminds me - I've been meaning to write about Cassie for a while. I bought her self-titled debut album in the January sales and it has barely been off my iPod since. However, it appears I am not the only one who missed out on her melodious R&B stylings, as my favourite song on her album - Long Way 2 Go - only got to number 97(!!!) in the US charts.
Mind you, it could have been something to do with the terrible video, which tries so hard to "capture" the "myspace" "market" that it ends up looking like a leering uncle who's suddenly taken an interest in your Star Wars stickers.
:: PS - on the subject of Myspace, I noticed that the fifth most googled phrase that made people come to this site last month was "Myspace - twat directory". Whoever you are, I salute you.
Anyway, I've still managed to find a few things worth looking at, even if I can't sit down and write my usual flawless prose (you at the back, stop laughing).
:: The 10 strangest (non-porn) sex scenes, as compiled by movie website Sand and Cotton.
:: Here is an MP3 of a remix of Timbaland's Give It To Me which eschews Nelly Furtado for Jay-Z. Westwood likes it. I reckon it's a beat searching for a song. (cripes, I hope I haven't just started the UK equivalent of rap's calamitous East coast / West coast feud. I don't even own a glock, or nothing.):: According to a "rumour" Nadine Coyle dumped Jesse Metcalfe because of his insane jealousy. The article doesn't say whether this was jealousy over other men or her ability to obtain gainful employment. (NB: I totally have an alibi for my whereabouts every time Jesse has been out of the country for the last 18 months).
:: Angelina Jolie says she was "very sexual" at Kindergarten and "created a game where I would kiss the boys". I bet she didn't mention that on the adoption papers.:: Rap impresario Russell Simmons wants hip-hop artists to stop using the words Nigga, Ho and Bitches, it says here. Snoop Dogg has yet to comment, because his entire vocabulary has been taken away from him.
:: Vanessa Williams out of Ugly Betty (and singer of "Save The Best To Last"), Kristin Chenoweth out of The West Wing and Cassie out of, erm, Cassie have all gone naked and taken their clothes off and been starkers for a magazine. The scandal!
Actually, that reminds me - I've been meaning to write about Cassie for a while. I bought her self-titled debut album in the January sales and it has barely been off my iPod since. However, it appears I am not the only one who missed out on her melodious R&B stylings, as my favourite song on her album - Long Way 2 Go - only got to number 97(!!!) in the US charts.
Mind you, it could have been something to do with the terrible video, which tries so hard to "capture" the "myspace" "market" that it ends up looking like a leering uncle who's suddenly taken an interest in your Star Wars stickers.
:: PS - on the subject of Myspace, I noticed that the fifth most googled phrase that made people come to this site last month was "Myspace - twat directory". Whoever you are, I salute you.
Labels: cassie, film, Girls Aloud, links, MP3, Music, Timbaland
Monday, November 20, 2006
Check yourself to respect yourself
Remember that fabulous Timbaland track I mentioned last week? Well, Beauty from the Beauty N The Beat blog has taken issue with some of Justin Timberlake's lyrics. It's such a good post, that I'm reprinting a massive chunk of it here, starting with those lyrics in full:
Beauty says: "The first part is clearly about Janet who's not on the charts. The second part is about PRINCE who told the crowd at an Emmy Awards After Party August 27th 2006: 'For whoever is claiming that they are bringing sexy back, sexy never left!'. For the record, Prince just stated the obvious, Justin didn't bring ANYTHING back because 85% of his new album is nothing but Prince's 'LoveSexy' album with a Timbaland touch added to it. Justin is feeling himself WAY TOO MUCH. Dissing two legends in one verse? The very people whom HE TOOK HIS STYLE FROM? Hand that child a cup of shut the fuck up."
Too true.
Unfortunately, Beauty N The Beat has been out of action for a week, and a posting on the site yesterday suggests that the whole thing might be about to come to a grinding halt. I wouldn't be surprised if they've attracted the attention of the RIAA's assk-kicking, name-taking, granny-suing lawyers, given the amount of tracks they've leaked. Even so, it would be a shame to see it go as it's one of the highest quality and most intelligent R&B websites out there. Good luck to them all!
Could you speak up and stop the mumbling
I don't think you're getting clear
Sitting on the top it's hard to hear you from way up here
I saw you tryin to act cute on tv "just let me clear the air"
We missed you on the charts last week
Damn that's right, you wasn't there
If sexy never left, then why's everybody on my shi-it-it?
Don't hate on me just because you didn't come up with it
So if you see us in the club go on and walk the other way
Cuz our run will never be over, not at least until we say
Beauty says: "The first part is clearly about Janet who's not on the charts. The second part is about PRINCE who told the crowd at an Emmy Awards After Party August 27th 2006: 'For whoever is claiming that they are bringing sexy back, sexy never left!'. For the record, Prince just stated the obvious, Justin didn't bring ANYTHING back because 85% of his new album is nothing but Prince's 'LoveSexy' album with a Timbaland touch added to it. Justin is feeling himself WAY TOO MUCH. Dissing two legends in one verse? The very people whom HE TOOK HIS STYLE FROM? Hand that child a cup of shut the fuck up."
Too true.
Unfortunately, Beauty N The Beat has been out of action for a week, and a posting on the site yesterday suggests that the whole thing might be about to come to a grinding halt. I wouldn't be surprised if they've attracted the attention of the RIAA's assk-kicking, name-taking, granny-suing lawyers, given the amount of tracks they've leaked. Even so, it would be a shame to see it go as it's one of the highest quality and most intelligent R&B websites out there. Good luck to them all!
Labels: Justin Timberlake, Music, Nelly Furtado, Timbaland
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
This is amazing!
Timbaland feat. Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake - Give It To Me
From Timbaland's new solo album.
The low quality preview is via Spine Magazine
Email me if you've got a high-quality version and I will repay you handsomely (with a bunch of grapes and a kit kat).
From Timbaland's new solo album.
The low quality preview is via Spine Magazine
Email me if you've got a high-quality version and I will repay you handsomely (with a bunch of grapes and a kit kat).
Labels: Justin Timberlake, Music, Nelly Furtado, Timbaland
