Crawling epic of a beat? Check. Unsubtle dope references? Check. Anthemic hook with a slick car boast? Check, check, check. Like anything else Jeezy does, newest cut “My President Is Black” has all the necessary elements to make it a guaranteed hood rouser. But what makes this one stand out from the rest?
First off, it features a strong guest appearance from one-time beef rival, Nas. Secondly, it’s always nice to hear another rapper getting all political, even if Jeezy’s freestyled (as he stresses not once, but twice, in the opening bit) verse randomly teeter-totters from Barack championing to speaking of his love for spinach dip and his son’s odd Polo addiction. What’s most cool, and quite tender, about this track, though, is how the Snowman defiantly asserts that no matter how the votes unfold come November, in his eyes the “Rack” is already his leader of the free world. Too bad there’s less than a 1% chance that Obama would even think about adopting this for his campaign trail. Now wouldn’t that be the coolest thing ever?
Tucked away as the closing number from the Black Kids‘ Partie Traumatic album, “Look At Me (When I Rock Wichoo)” might have been overlooked by listeners fatigued from all the incessant indie-disco thump, but it ultimately stands out as one of the collection’s best.
It’s vibe set to “permanent giddiness”, “Look At Me” unfolds as the soundtrack to the happy-go-lucky imagination of some ’80’s kid with it’s upbeat strut of cheesy synths and gleeful guitars. Squiggly-voiced Reggie Youngblood tries to muddle up the festivities with some more “can’t get the girl” woes (“You never want to give me some,” he pouts), but his party-killing contribution is needless when planted against the perky chantings of bandmates Ali and Dawn. “When the clock says stop/ We’re all gonna drop/ I don’t care if we get caught,” they infectiously pipe like the most spirited cheerleaders around, and with that, we could care less if Reggie ever makes it to third base with his crush.
It’s useless trying to ignore the fact that Chris Brown’s “Glow In The Dark” is nearly a note-for-note, melody-for-melody re-imagining of Prince’s “Purple Rain”, but blatant song-jacking aside, it represents Reason #432 why the young superstar is outdoing Usher these days (And to think, Chris Brown basically started off by imitating the “Love In This Club” singer).
While Ursh bores us to tears with the bachelor-retiring, “grown and sexy” dribble of his latest album, Chris Brown is finally coming into his long-anticipated “sexual freak” era with this newest leak. Over the track’s “Purple”-ly mix of ominous keyboard chords, electric guitar whines and neck-snapping drum beats, we get to live vicariously through a thankfully un-vocodered Brown invading some girl’s sugar walls for the first time: “Hey there it is/ I can feel your legs trembling/ You feel the sweat dripping from my chest/ And you’re like ‘Oh oh oh/ Baby don’t stop’”. It’s so provocative you almost feel like a dirty pervert for listening to it all the way through.
As one of his better records, it’s sad that it might not ever make it to an official CB album; that is, unless Prince and his ever-busy fleet of lawyers decide to let this one past.
You can’t go wrong when you pair a light, loping reggae groove with a simple cherubic coo (ask Lily Allen), that’s why “Me and Armini”, a delectable new offering from Icelandic singer Emiliana Torrini is deserving of endless re-plays well into the fall.
As an electro-punctuated island rhythm gently sways beneath her, Torrini, probably best known for co-writing/-producing Kylie Minogue’s “Slow” and replacing an at-the-time pregnant Bjork as vocalist on the Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers tune “Gollum’s Song”, hopelessly pines for the return of an ex-lover who has long moved on to someone else. “I know my place/ I belong in your arms again,” she preciously lilts, intent on waiting around for as long as it takes for her beloved Armini to come to his senses and realize that his new bedmate doesn’t hold a candle to her.
Others think she’s “silly” for putting her life on hold and warn her that she’s setting herself up for a “meltdown”, but Torrini could care less, cause deep down she’s sure her love will eventually make his way back into her open arms again (WHOOO-HOOO!!! Crazy Lady!). We would agree that Em needs to seek out therapy before her reconciliation obsession steers lethal, but listening to her tip-toe ever-so-closer to the loony bin here is far too pleasant to the ears.
New York City’s Young Lords are one of those great on-the-rise bands that leave you excited for the new, upcoming rock regime. Trained on the bluesy, twang-tinged rock raucousness of ’60’s giants like the Rolling Stones and Kinks, every one of the guitar-chugging tunes from their solid debut full-length Rodeo Songs (due in October) capture the spirit of what it used to mean to be a rock star: living on the road, getting sloshed, scoring oodles of groupies and in the middle of it all, pushing out golden nuggets of good ol’ American rock n’ roll for hordes of equally sloshed fans to sing along to.
The title track provides a good starting point: Slathered in an urgent pummeling of epic guitar lines and relentless drums that bear the cocky conceit of them already being the best band in the universe while vocalist Blair Van Nort howls for the awaiting pleasures of home (“I gotta see my baby tonight”), “Rodeo Songs” never reaches the apex it’s seemingly gunning for, but it’s endless teasing only makes the song’s self-hyping greatness feel more profound (Plus, name one song you don’t like that features handclaps).
We won’t be surprised if within six months’ time, the Young Lords are being touted by every critic, blogger and hipster around as 2009’s Great Rock Hope.
Rodeo Songs will be available October 7th. Head to their MySpace to hear future treasures “Pretty Little Mess” and “Down So Long”.
Remember when Monica fancied herself Ciara and dropped that out-of-character collabo with the “Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It” boys a few years back? Perhaps it did bump for a second or two, but in the end, it didn’t fuel album sales the way she probably imagined it would (matter of fact, the LP it led off, The Makings of Me, turned out to be the worst selling release of her career). On new single, “Still Standing”, the artist at-once recognized as ‘Miss Thang‘ is once again flirting with trendy conventions to launch a new album era; but rather than urge listeners into some simple-minded snap dance, she uses the triumphant glow of Southern hip hop’s synthesized wall of sound fetish as a prop-up to serve some “real” lyricism.
“This is more than just a song to me”, the singer asserts, following meaty verses that note her perseverance in the face of haters (“I been through the storm/ Had dirt on my name”) and a sad personal tragedy (“I had a lover take his own in front of me/ I asked God, ‘Why is this happening to me?’”). From day one, Monica has always had a strong sense of maturity in her R&B, a trait that helped her stand out amongst the other teenaged diva-to-bes that came about in the mid-to-late-’90’s, and with even more life experience under her belt, the wise words she projects here penetrate the brain with even more weight (“(They say) Whatever don’t kill you make you stronger/ Well I must be the world’s strongest woman”), making this one of her best recorded achievements to date.
With Ludacris putting aside his wacky wordplay for an inspiring guest sixteen, “Still Standing” resonates as the kind of substance R&B is in dire need of these days. Hopefully, urban radio playlist-makers won’t be timid about supporting a tune that doesn’t carry strip-club potential or be afraid to fully support a modern-day message-oriented cut not done by Alicia Keys.
English singer/ songwriter James Morrison is back, and unsurprisingly, for this first single off second album Songs For You, Truths For Me (due in September), he hasn’t budged at all from the softened soul-pop sound that brought him millions of worldwide sales the first time around.
Though it lacks “You Give Me Something”’s subtle Motown flair, the slow-burning “You Make It Real” (a love letter to an understanding ex he yearns to be a part of his life again) could almost be mistaken for his introductory hit. They’re so much alike that once the chorus enters, you almost feel like he’s going to regurgitate “Something”’s hook.
Odds are, many of his fans won’t be bothered by the similarity, though, especially since Morrison’s smoky croon still has such an appreciable calming presence; but fingers are crossed that Songs For You will see him dabbling outside of his box of predictability. We understand the importance of having a distinctive niche, but there’s nothing more annoying than a sophomore album that simply re-writes it’s predecessor.
After getting some web attention with summer cut “Eat Pray Fuck”, a George Michael-esque lost soul ode built on twinkly electronic beats, Brooklyn-based singer/ songwriter/ producer Doctor Rosen Rosen (the winking nod to Fletch is appreciated) is now set to drop a follow-up single in “Weekends”, another ’80’s-reminiscent pop number (this time the influence seems to be INXS).
It’s a little hard to follow the song’s story but what is clear is that someone’s been caught cheating and it’s resulted in broken heart-fueled anger and frustration, a little physical tussling (“Get your hands off my arm/ I’ll explain baby you’re wrong”) and some stinging vengeance spewings (“Let me introduce you to the future…She tastes much better than you”). As the soap operatic melodrama is played out, Rosen cooks up a moody musical backdrop to match, combining an edged industrial stomp with mystical atmospheric washes.
It’s a solid offering (hit up his Facebook page to hear another Maestro favorite, “What You Want”) that’s got us smelling a new dark prince of alt-pop to start rooting for.
Before you press play below, just think about what a Garbriella Cilmi cover of Ne-Yo’s current house-hopper of a single might sound like? Are you a little frightened, a little intrigued or some combination of the two? Well, whatever your imagination strummed up, it probably sounds a lot more decent than what actually comes about.
Cilmi’s take on “Closer” doesn’t start out a complete headache-inducer. Her curly vamping on the jazzified verses form an interesting cool and the way that cheap dance beat slowly fades into play is kinda neat (in a teenaged bedroom beat-maker sorta way); but then the hook arrives, and Cilmi starts shrieking like some discount version of Anastacia and Taylor Dayne at a drag queen karaoke contest and what tiny shred of promise the performance initially had is quickly lost.
Perhaps feeling a bit tired of being old school heads’ choice adult-soul…erm, “child”, Musiq ventures waaaaaaaay left on his surprising new single, “Radio”. The track’s intentions are made crystal clear from it’s title alone: Musiq wants some heavy spins this time around and he’s willing to alienate longtime fans if that’s what it takes.
“Whatever I like/ I put it on my radio,” he chants on the simple hook. Judging by the sounds of this number, I guess his “radio” features lots of Southern bounce cuts. Coming across like something left on Lil’ Jon’s editing room floor, this slice of competent crunk & b probably will satisfy his new career goal, but that doesn’t make hearing the man responsible for beloved classy gems like “Halfcrazy” and “Love” sing about “shawties” and fresh gear feel any less awkward. Let the “sellout” cries begin…
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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