mixtape maestro (2.0)

After being embraced wholeheartedly by the music blog community with his 2008 pop twist on Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights” (re-dubbed “I Want Those Flashing Lights”), it was looking like Canadian singer-songwriter-producer Colin Munroe was on the fast-track to doing big things. Following the release of the equally-adored mixtape, Colin Munroe is the Unsung Hero, later that year however, Munroe-as-solo-act faded from the scene, only popping up on occasion via guest spot gigs in the time since (including collabos with Black Milk, Slum Village, Travie McCoy and Kidz In The Hall) with little word on when his official debut project was to arrive.

This week, Munroe contacted us via e-mail to explain what the bleeping deal was: “There were some things that needed dealing with and that dealing is almost done.” A bit cryptic, but, hey, at least we know that the album is still on the way (hopefully sooner rather than later)…and look at that, he’s even opted to bring his solo hiatus to an end with an offering of a brand new cover. Of Prince’s “I Would Die 4 U”, no less.

Admittedly, it’s not as amazing as the Kanye re-do nor as dynamic as the Purple Rain original (it’s impossible to beat Prince), but Munroe’s thumping, electro-shimmered production against his plaintive, Auto-tune-tweaked croon creates a fairly pleasant ethereal allure, making it an easy-to-appreciate re-introduction to the man’s appeal.

Nice to have you back Colin.

Hear it below, or simply pick it up here.

Colin Munroe – I Would Die 4 U (Prince Cover)

BONUS DL: Wale featuring Colin Munroe “Bittersweet” (alt)

Five years after bursting onto the music scene earning all kinds of critical fanfare for their self-titled debut‘s boy/girl harmony-sweetened stabs at happy-go-lucky (at least on the surface) ’60′s folk-pop, and four years after losing much of that breakthrough momentum on a hastily released sophomore album (2006′s Those The Brokes) bogged down by over-long track lengths, English indie pop quartet The Magic Numbers have returned, armed with third project The Runaway and, likely, the hope that it will have the power to restore them to their debut heights.

So far the outlook isn’t looking so bright, but even if Runaway isn’t bringing in much praise as a whole, the set still manages to delight on individual moments.

Early album offering “Why Did You Call?” is one of those moments, nicely seeping its way into the ears with a driving, ’80′s MOR groove and the ghostly whisper-coos of female members Angela Gannon and Michele Stodart triggering an inviting late-night ambiance (while also recalling the melody of Womack & Womack’s oft-covered “Teardrops”).

Caught off guard by an ex’s phone call late one evening, Gannon and Stodart’s mesmerizing encircling vocals share the role of a woman reduced to a pile of weak-kneed mush by the sound of her former love’s voice at the other end of the line, all the headway she had achieved in getting over him dissipated in mere seconds as she regretfully finds herself unable to resist sharing one more “dance with the sinners tonight”.

This one NEEDS to be a single.

The Magic Numbers – Why Did You Call

BONUS DL: The Magic Numbers “Crazy In Love (Beyonce Cover)” (alt)

Just as they’ve hit the road as opening act for the American leg of Chromeo‘s Business As Casual Summer 2010 tour, NY duo Telephoned have gifted fans with another serving of their fetching not-quite-covers/ not-quite-mash-ups record re-imaginations with new mixtape Keep Their Heads Ringin’.

Doing just what the collection title promises, Ringin’ features vocalist Maggie Horn taking on everything from Rihanna’s “Rude Boy” and Led Zeppelin’s “What It Is and What Should Never Be” to a spliced-together reading of Gucci Mane’s “Lemonade” and Sleigh Bells’ “Rill Rill”, with some, like a surprisingly awesome minute-long merging of The Cure’s “Friday I’m In Love” atop Young Money’s “BedRock” instrumental, begging for lengthier treatments.

Peep out two of our favorites below, remakes of Chromeo’s “Night By Night” (set to the soul sample lushness of Big Boi’s “Shine Blockas”) and Yeasayer’s “O.N.E.” (gone reggae over Gyptian’s “Hold Yuh”), or simply grab the entire mixtape through Fools Gold.

DL: “Night By Night (Chromeo x Big Boi Cover)” (alt)

DL: “O.N.E. (Yeasayer x Gyptian Cover)” (alt)

Whether Lauryn Hill‘s newly unleashed “Repercussions” is something new or old doesn’t really matter. It’s L-BOOGIE DAMMIT, and hell, we would go nuts over it if all it featured was her simply breathing atop a lone drum loop.

Thankfully, “Repercussions” actually involves lyrics and some production, with Hill’s much-missed husky alto wading through a shimmering sea of spacey neo-soul groove, reflecting on her own mortality (“Time has moved on/ And death has grown a little closer”) and offering a few pearls of wisdom along the way.

There’s, sadly, no rapping, and in the grand scheme of things, “Repercussions” likely won’t land as an essential part of the Lauryn Hill catalog (at least as is, this might just be a demo), but whatever, between the song’s unearthing and the earlier-this-summer announcement of Hill headlining next month’s 2010 Rock The Bells festival, we’re just happy to have a couple new reasons to keep celebrating our girl.

Grab “Repercussions” below, alongside a live performance of Hill taking on the 1970 Curtis Mayfield soul classic, “The Makings of You”.

DL: “Repercussions” (alt)

BONUS DL: Lauryn Hill “The Makings of You (Live – Curtis Mayfield Cover)” (alt)

New York singer-songwriter/ The Knocks road dawg Samuel has long been touted as a future pop sensation in the making amongst the music blog scene (we hyped him here two years ago), and later this year we’ll finally get to see if those predictions prove correct once his Columbia/ Startime-backed debut Trains To Wanderland arrives.

Current single “I Heart NY” (from Samuel’s new EP, available here and here) hints that mainstream success shouldn’t be that tough of a hurdle, its sugary ice cream truck plinks, infectious “da-da-da”‘s and charming lyrical snapshots of growing up amongst the “street lights” and “golden summers” of the Big Apple all adding up to one hard-to-resist summertime soundtracker; but if that’s somehow not reason enough to keep your ears tuned to what Samuel’s cooking, you might at least get a kick out of hearing him tweak Drake’s Top Ten ballad “Find Your Love” into a fuzzy, lite funk-pop groove.

Grab both below.

DL: “I Heart NY” (alt)

DL: “Find Your Love (Drake Cover)” (alt)

A blues-rock take on Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” doesn’t sound like the most necessary thing to exist, but once the weighted, banjo-aided stomp to this semi-cover of the track by curious Roc Nation signee Hugo drops, any trace of exasperation towards just the idea of this will quickly subside.

Beck and Jack White are just a couple of the many names that will boil to the brain’s surface while listening to Hugo’s rambling, slightly addictive and “sure-to-soundtrack-the-ending-credits-to-True Blood-one-day” “Problems”, and while we aren’t completely sure we could handle an entire album’s worth of these “gangsta rock” novelties, knowing that Jigga was intrigued enough by this cat to sign him up has definitely piqued our interest in what’s to come once his debut album (Old Tyme Religion) drops later this year.

As bonus love, catch The Prince of Ballard‘s riDONKulously awesome Dap Kings-featured remix of “99 Problems” below (alongside another PoB favorite…just because):

BONUS DL: Jay Z & The Dap-Kings “99 Problems (Prince of Ballard Remix)” (alt)

BONUS BONUS DL: Rye Rye & M.I.A. “Bang (Prince of Ballard Remix)” (alt)

Alt-country-tinged indie-pop singer-songwriter Lissie has received plenty of acclaim within the past year, winning over critics with last year’s Why You Runnin’ EP, then sending the blogosphere all gaga over her rustic renditions of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”, Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” and Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness”. That adoration should only continue as more ears become enamored over the Fleetwood Mac-evocation and heartland charm found within her newly dropped major label debut Catching A Tiger, a surefire bet for Best New Artist attention come next year’s Grammy’s.

On stand-out album track “Stranger”, Lissie nicely blends her classic C&W influences with the dense ’60′s girl group shimmer of Phil Spector “Wall of Sound” pop, but she manages to avoid the doe-eyed girlishness that typified most of those acts, her whiskey-soaked delivery presenting her as no dainty pushover as she dismisses the advances of a wannabe suitor.

Instantly turned off when she notices the ring on his finger (“I thought you said/ That you were single,” she dryly growls), Liss does her best to make him feel as silly and small as possible over the next three minutes, hitting him with a series of turn-downs that build from the simple and direct (“You’re not the kind of man that I wanna give my love”) to menacing threats (“This thing goes, you’ll just be rubble”) as he continually refuses to acknowledge her non-interest in him.

As salty as her lyrics get, though, the arrangement’s twinkling gallop and churn coasts along nicely, ending on an anthemic high of twangy bliss that only heightens the independent woman pride (“I’m not yours, I am mine”) she fades out with.

Lissie – Stranger

BONUS DL: Lissie “Bad Romance (Lady Gaga Cover)” (alt)

Here’s the video to current Catching A Tiger single, “When I’m Alone”:

Sheryl Crow and Justin Timberlake semi-duetting?…On a cover of Terence Trent D’Arby’s sexy 1988 smash “Sign Your Name”?…That’s done in the style of ’70′s-era Al Green? No doubt we’re sold, if only because the younger generation deserve to know about the artist formerly known as D’Arby (now Sananda Maitreya), a late-80′s breakout superstar who at one-time was showered with straight-faced praise of being the “new Prince” and “next Michael Jackson”.

Beyond that though, this tune (found on Crow’s new album, the vintage soul-themed 100 Miles from Memphis) is a sheer delight from start to finish, with Sheryl and a background vox-supporting Timberlake proving to be a far better-than-imagined white soul team-up, and its production work handling a spot-on re-creation of the lush Memphis R&B magic Al Green and producer Willie Mitchell reigned with throughout the 1970′s.

Wouldn’t mind if Justin opted to wrap his trademark falsetto on this old-school sound as well for his next project (Hint, hint).

100 Miles from Memphis, also featuring a cover of The Jackson 5′s “I Want You Back”, drops July 20th.

Sheryl Crow (feat. Justin Timberlake) – Sign Your Name (Terence Trent D’Arby Cover)

On “You Don’t Shock Me Anymore”, Cee-Lo is captured expressing his disappointment toward today’s music scene (“I believed in magic once upon a time/ When something had to be special/ Couldn’t see it online”; “Now all the rock stars are regular people”; “The glory days are gone/ I can’t hear my heartbeat with the radio on”) and while digesting his words, it’s easy to take on a similar sunken feeling in the pit of one’s stomach.

Not necessarily because you agree with the details of Cee-Lo’s bemoans (which we do), but because “Anymore” seems to hint that by not being so inspired by his contemporaries and the current ways of the industry and public music consumption, Cee is pondering an early retirement (in the words of KC & The Sunshine Band, and later…err, Double You and KWS, “Please don’t go” Cee-Lo).

Thankfully the track, one of many highlights from the all new cuts-pimping Stray Bullets mixtape Cee quietly released last month (pick it up via OnSmash), isn’t entirely depression-inducing, thanks to a 70′s supper-club soul/ classic TV theme song breeziness that compliments his soulful pipes perfectly.

Grab the cut below, then check out the (NSFW) video to the first single from Cee-Lo’s next (and hopefully not final) album Cee Lo Green is The Lady Killer, a cover of Band of Horses’ 2007 Cease To Begin single “No One’s Gonna Love You”.

DL: “You Don’t Shock Me Anymore” (alt)

You’ve got to have some major balls to take on The Spinners’ Stevie Wonder-produced-and-co-penned 1970 R&B classic “It’s A Shame”, not only because it stands as one of Motown’s most vibrant creations ever (bringing about instant feelings of joy with its opening guitar flutter and sunny horn blasts, and the group’s sterling background harmonies), but then-frontman G.C. Cameron just rocks the joint, his five-octave range bringing an awe-inspiring theatricality to the lyric’s cheated-upon protagonist role, veering effortlessly from heart-bruised falsetto to gruff soul-man belts.

Old-school R&B enthusiast Raphael Saadiq steps up to the challenge on this Levi’s Pioneer Sessions-supporting remake, and while we’re not all the way sure that’s him pulling off the falsetto notes, he nonetheless passes with flying colors, beautifully re-capturing the original arrangement’s spirited jubilance, while committing a stellar vocal performance (especially towards the fade-out) that has us itching for the man to release another (hopefully retro-themed) solo album as soon as possible.

DL: “It’s A Shame (The Spinners Cover)” (alt)