Further proving why they’re the most lovable nerdy white R&B posers this side of Chromeo, Hot Chip out-bark the Doggfather on this lushed-out remake of Snoop Dogg’s “Sensual Seduction”.
Stripping away the WTF camp factor from the original, Hot Chip’s version sounds like it could be a credible Usher ballad that’s written by R. Kelly and produced by Timbaland. The boys’ relaxed harmonies awkwardly flow across the sea of skittery drums, airy synths and dreamy guitar strums, forming results that are so serene, satisfied sighs will be escaping your system halfway through it’s length.
Tired of using that annoying, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”-playing mobile to put your infant so sleep? Put this on, and watch the entire household fall into a comfy slumber.
Moving away from the brittle, Amerie-funk that made her last album B’Day an acquired taste, recent leak (and possible upcoming release teaser) “Beautiful Nitemare” finds Beyonce venturing down more of a dance-pop path. Does that mean that she’s reducing her trademark widescreen yowls to a near-whispered purr a la Janet or Ciara? Of course not; as always, she beats the track into submission with her juggernaut pipes.
At best an ultra-polished filler tune, Jigga’s better half still gives it her all as far as the songwriting and vocal performance goes, filling in the holes of it’s somewhat generic, spaced out beat with sultry wishes that the fantasy man existing solely in her dreams could find some way to materialize by her side in real life.
It’s nothing too extraordinary, but after a few listens, “Beautiful Nitemare” will start to stick in your brain. Damn, even her C-material bears the potential to be a hit record. No wonder she’s one of the most hated-on figures in R&B.
Even though senior citizen member (and frontman Blaine Harrison’s dad) Henry Harrison has departed from only the live aspect of Mystery Jets (he still contributes in the studio), the London indie rock band’s latest set, the astutely-titled Twenty One marks young men finally relived of their chaperon (and his prog-rock record collection) and ready to have some dumb fun. They’ve hooked up with DJ/ producer Erol Alkan and taken a cleaner pop sound that’s already gotten major hype in ‘08 via the bubbly Laura Marling duet, “Young Love”.
Twenty One album track “Two Doors Down” continues this youthful ride, taking elements from the cheesiest of ’80’s pop, for a hooky nugget about having a crush on a neighbor girl.
His heart skipping a beat every time she starts that late-night drum racket that has the rest of the block fuming, it’s beyond obvious: the squiggly-voiced Blaine has been pierced by Cupid’s arrow. Now all he has to do is stop fantasizing about her dancing in her room to old Television singles and work up the nerve to actually ask her out. “Maybe I should say ‘What’s up’?/ And buy her a round,” he ponders to himself.
His internal giddiness is brought to life in a merry mix of bell-like synths, funky guitar licks from the land of Chic and a sax solo shipped directly from the early-to-mid-80’s. Meanwhile, the sunshine-y chorus soars with the repeated revelation of puppy love being re-birthed over and over. Does he ever break out of his shy shell to confront the female at the center of all the adoration? We never really find out, but it doesn’t matter, because everyone knows the greatest part of a crush arrives in it’s initial pangs anyway.
“She Had The World”, like most of Panic At The Disco’s audience-polarizing tribute to old pop heroes, Pretty. Odd., falls in line with the first halve of the disc’s title. Everything about it is so ear-friendly precious: the well-practiced, quiver-ending vocal lines from Brendon Urie; the harmonious marriage it achieves when paired with Ryan Ross’ more plaintive pipes; the arrangement’s whimsical, medieval-time melody.
Beneath it’s musical theater-like beauty, “She Had The World” strikes a somber mood, revolving around a “poor little rich girl” tale packed with loveless romance and human insecurity, Urie and Ross trading off narratives from the storyline’s male and female perspective (he feels sorry for her because “when I look in her eyes/ I just see the sky”; she doesn’t think she’s worth loving ’cause she thinks of herself as crazy). It’s all gorgeously simple, and lands as the band’s finest attempt at creating timeless pop.
Yet another hopelessly C-rate Timberlake, “Making The Band 4″’s Donnie Klang launches his solo career with “Take You There”, an inevitable exercise in Prince-influenced, electro pop/ eroti-funk that serves some mildly competent clubby production, but is far from establishing much that’s remotely interesting about the Bad Boy solo act behind it.
“If you wanna go far/ Let me take you to the stars/ We don’t even need a car/ If you wanna go to Mars,” Klang eye-rollingly mewls, his paper-thin tenor and breathy, faux-sexy affectations unable to pull much attention from the track’s driving bass grind and veined keyboard touches. Aside from a few falsetto notes towards the end (a move that, if it had been used more, would’ve given this song a slightly more riveting allure), Donnie’s contribution ends up just too blah.
Thankfully, a cameo from Diddy injects “Take You There” with some much-needed personality (even if it’s borrowed heavily from the absurd, “whatever sticks” rhyming playbook of Lil’ Wayne and Missy Elliott), dropping awesomely bad couplets like “Let’s play Pong/ Take off your outfit and let’s be gone”.
After spending nearly an entire album slithering around taut, cheaply-made blues/ rock frames like some trashy, ’80’s sex kitten (NOT a diss by the way), The Kills‘ Allison “VV” Mosshart (alongside partner Jamie “Hotel” Hince) takes a much-needed breather on Midnight Boom’s gorgeous closer “Goodnight Bad Morning”.
Weary uni-sex harmonies softly lie on a measured and melancholy pallet of pianos, drums and guitar for this morning-after ballad, the duo easing anyone within ear reach into a soothesome slumber as they sing of the “beautiful state we’re in”. Conjuring up images of sloppy-drunk strangers from last night’s party, passing out atop one another, the dry stench of ashtray breath and old puke glued to the air, “Goodnight Bad Morning” finds VV and Hotel pausing to reflect on their bedazzling chemistry (“I love you so much, never forget,” they lullaby to eachother) before the sharp headache pangs forces their eyes shut for the bulk of the afternoon.
Like the album it concludes, “Goodnight” serves as a tender ending to another one of their gnarly, all-night benders, a chance to rest up so they can “lose their cool in public” all over again the following evening.
Okay, so after getting us all nervous after the lackluster first couple of leaks from her upcoming “Pimp My Career”-styled album, Hard Candy, Madonna finally gives us something somewhat worthwhile in getting excited over. “4 Minutes” casts Timberlake and Timbaland as her latest boy-toys, and as typical, they overshadow her here on this trendy, albeit overly busy concoction.
Reminiscent of her duet with Britney, the relentlessly percolating (yet ultimately pointless) “Me Against The Music”, “4 Minutes” traps Madge’s stiff, old lady vocal within a bombardment of heavy brass, ficky ficky’s and tumbling drums as she enlists the ever-so-nimble Justin to “speed it up for me, than take it slow”. The opportunity to turn this into some raunchy-fun “MILF-and-her-baby-beau” naughtiness is unfortunately ignored, with emphasis placed on a series of rhythmic hooks whose appeal takes many listens to fully absorb.
Thankfully, Timb saves the day with another one of his huge and swirly synth-pop choruses (a la “Promiscuous” or “Elevator”), with Madonna and Justin tossing the mic back-and-forth to great effect as they prepare to “save the world” through dance music(?). As the only element here that feels at all tangible, the so-hot-you’ll-wanna-hear-it-over-and-over chorus rescues the aimlessness of the rest of the song, slyly convincing you into thinking that “4 Minutes” is better than it really is.
With it’s A-list support, the cut will likely become her first major chart smash in years, but overall, it’s hardly comparable to the mega-influential first singles of her past. So far, if it’s a more urban-aligned Madonna you want, Bedtime Stories (featuring the sorely underrated gem, “Human Nature”) remains the way to go.
Hearing Estelle in a live context makes her vocal limitations painfully obvious (she sounds like a shorter-ranged Mary J Blige, long before the “Be Without You” voice coaching makeover), but the eased jazzy-R&B groove and heavenly harmonies supplied by the accompanying band and back-up singers (and some good ad-lib riffs) make this “Live Lounge” rendition of “American Boy” a splendid one to hear.
Extending the adorable “giddy in love” aesthetic of “American Boy” to her cover choice, Estelle does a fine job on a giggly, gender-flipping remake of Scouting For Girls’ bouncy “She’s So Lovely”, her pipes feeling less strained under the simple, staccato verses (Though, to be honest, not even the worst singer in the world could really mess up that tune).
When a new Outkast joint emerges with both being featured on the same track, you can’t help but let out a sigh. Why? Because before you even hear it, you know hip hop is about to blessed. On “Royal Flush”, the first taste from Big Boi’s upcoming solo effort (sniff, sniff), Sir Luscious Left Foot, our favorite ATL-iens don’t disappoint, but listeners get an added bonus this time around, thanks to the shared wax space with another cherished mic destroyer, Raekwon.
Anchored by a simple bass loop and teasingly brief Isley Brothers sample, “Royal Flush” starts off strong with Big Boi conjuring up a ’90’s-era feistiness as he rants about politics (“Iraq/ Goddamn/ Now he gunnin’ for Iran/ North Korea got that shit that make LA look like Japan”), his somersault rhymes, as always, glazed in cool. While The Chef holds down a sturdy mid-section, it’s no doubt all about Dre here, who takes liberties with an extended third verse that’ll surely strike up heated anticipation for what else he’s got in store on his next solo project.
“Crack and I have a lot in common/ We both come up in the ’80’s/ And we keep that bass pumpin’”, goes one of many memorable lines in a cameo that takes on the trap-rap subgenre (“The rats and mice would give advice/ They say ‘You can paint and crawl/ Get out of here and show them that we’re more than slangin’ raw’”) and brilliantly bridges “Ninteno Wii’s” with “Whopper with cheese”. We’d give Andre an A+ for effort, but even that would feel like we’re shortchanging him.
Damn. This is so good, it’ll make the hardest hip hop fiend tear up.
On their new digital/ vinyl-only Nights EP, L.A.’s Midnight Movies utilize their masterful use of sooty musical textures in a couple fine remakes of the nipples-erecting, Moody Blues love epic, “Nights In White Satin”. In their faithful rendition, one of the highlights of the band’s acclaimed live show, singer Gina Olivier compliments the classic’s flute-assisted, dream-pop shadings in a wispy-voiced performance that takes on a deeper level of mystique in an even more transfixing French-sung version.
The covers bookend this six-song odds ‘n’ sods collection, a tribute to fans who have followed the band’s thematic, indie-psychedelic sound through their 2004 self-titled debut and last year’s musically muscular, more identity-establishing follow-up, Lion The Girl. Two unreleased tracks from the Lion sessions appear here, and while that usually means that the cuts will probably be forgettable, one of the two, “Should Have Known”, proves to be anything but. Busting through the gates with rollicking drums and a wall of guitar effectively penetrated by Olivier’s ethereal vocal, the song’s juxtaposition of the aggressive and sleepy carries a starry magnetism that’ll leave you yearning to be engulfed by it’s stormy haze again and again.
The other two entries offer some solid remixes handled by the likes of Smashing Pumpkins’ James Iha and Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Nick Zinner, who give the band a likable modern electro-zing they really should consider tackling on future projects. Especially on “Souvenirs”, where Zinner slaps a snazzy dance-punk tattoo on the already new-wave-tinged original, causing an explosion of sound that’s nowhere near the confused mess it might sound on paper.
While Lion The Girl remains the Midnight Movies’ most essential release, Nights EP has some intriguing treasures within it’s brief run, making it a decent starting point for the uninitiated and a stopgap “thank you” (as well as a promising glimpse of what could come) for longtime fans.
As nice as it is to get free music, think of how much better your soul would feel if you purchased it the old-fashioned way.
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