Pop Rock Nation

Author: Money Mike

New Music In Stores & Online 7/29/08: Wow, This Is Bad

In most years, there’s a period from mid-July to mid-August during which NOTHING comes out. As a record buyer, this is frustrating because you’re walking into record stores and not finding a thing that strikes your interest. On the other hand, with the holiday selling season closer than you think, it might be a good idea to save your money for the deluge that awaits.

Anywhere, here’s my five picks (if I must) out of this week’s releases. How bad is it? I’m actually mentioning one of the same releases this week that I mentioned last week. Thank God for semantics.

Sugarland “Love on the Inside”-The hottest country duo in the land took an interesting tactic with their new release. It came out last week in a “deluxe” edition, while this week marks the introduction of the presumably less-bells-and-whistles containing (and cheaper) regular version. Ten years ago, if you were to tell me that I’d even be considering buying an album like this, I’d have laughed you into September, but I’ve acquired a fondness for modern-day country. Although I’ve not heard much of Sugarland (aside from the godawful duet with Bon Jovi that I mentioned in last week’s column), I could very well be tempted to check this one out.
$Country duo Sugarland\'s new CD \"Love on the Inside\"$
http://www.sugarlandmusic.com/splash.html

Rick Springfield “Venus in Overdrive”-Here’s something that just might freak you out. The guy that teenage girls drooled over in the early Eighties (my cousin had a picture of him hanging in her bedroom back in the day) is approaching 60. SIXTY. Nevertheless, the indefatigable Springfield continues playing and touring. This is Rick’s first album of original material in five years. His last album, “The Day After Yesterday” was an interesting collection of covers. I said “interesting”, not good.

http://rickspringfield.com/

(more…)

July 29, 2008
The Infatueighties Countdown: #104: “Invincible”

There are exactly three movies I remember seeing in the movie theater during the summer of 1985: “Back to the Future”, “Pale

Pat Benatar Invincible Cover

Rider” (who takes a 9-year old to see a Western??), and a little film called “The Legend of Billie Jean”, which, despite the time period of it’s release, was not about a woman who said Michael Jackson was the father of the kid.

While I’ll leave the specifics of the plot to the folks at “I Love The 80s” (ahhh…it involved a stolen bike…thanks Wikipedia), I do remember that it starred Helen Slater (of “Supergirl” fame) and a very young Christian Slater (no, the two are not related, although I thought they were for years). Somewhere along the line, Helen (as Billie Jean) chopped off her long tresses in favor of a blond Joan Jett-esque look and started screaming “fair is fair!” at everyone within a 50-foot radius. To support this sudden lunge into badassitude, the writers of the movie needed a badass theme song, and they knew just who to call: Pat Motherfuckin’ Benatar.

Benatar spends this aggressive rocker emoting like the opera student she once was, snarling lines like “We can’t af-FORD to be innocent! Stand up and FACE the enemy!” with some serious ‘tude. It’s the type of spit-in-the-face-of-authority that attracts every mousy kid who dreams of being a badass. Maybe that’s why I liked it so much.

“Invincible” marked the end of a killer run for Benatar. During the years 1980-1985, she sold millions of albums, scored a handful of Top 10 hits (with “Invincible”‘s #10 placing marking the last of those), and won four Grammy Awards (all for Best Female Rock Performance). This song was pretty much the last gasp for her as an icon, and she quickly lost traction to the likes of Madonna, Whitney Houston and Janet Jackson (and Tina Turner, who owned the Female Rock Grammy for the next several years).

According to Wikipedia (man, I love those guys), “The Legend of Billie Jean” has never been released on DVD. Someone needs to fix that one stat. I’d buy a copy.

One thing I didn’t realize until I was watching one of VH-1’s 80s retrospectives is that Yeardley Smith plays a fairly major role in this movie. Who’s Yeardley Smith, you may ask? Most folks know her better as the voice of Lisa Simpson.

Finally, anyone notice that the bridge of this song sounds almost exactly like the beginning of U2’s “Two Hearts Beat As One”?? Check it out for yourself.

July 28, 2008
“Like I Never Left”-Whitney’s Back!

I’ll admit that I’ve never been the world’s biggest Whitney Houston fan. She’s held my interest for 2 or 3 songs per album, though, and I certainly won’t deny that she’s in possession of an amazing voice. A voice that, to my ears, has gotten better as she’s aged. Her last two studio albums, “My Love is Your Love” and “Just Whitney” found her tackling material that was a bit more mature and substantial than the likes of “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” and those God-awful Michael Masser ballads that she started her career singing.

Whitney Houston in concert, 2007 (Photo: JKevin01)

As anyone on the planet Earth knows, Whitney’s career has been derailed by all sorts of drama: the tempestuous marriage to Bobby Brown and subsequent divorce, problems with various substances that left the former model looking like the sister of Pookie as played by Chris Rock in “New Jack City”, the fact that her daughter Bobbi Kristina is already going to need YEARS if not decades of extensive therapy. However, over the past year or so, Whitney has made several public appearances (usually in the company of her label owner/Svengali Clive Davis) and has looked damn good. While rumors of a new album have been floating for quite a while, we finally get our first taste of the scheduled-for-November release with “Like I Never Left”.

And the verdict? It’s a pretty good song, with a mellow, summery vibe. It’s not a blow-the-doors-open huge single, but Whitney’s in fine voice, the song doesn’t try too hard to align itself with current trends, and Akon (by some strange act of God) turns out to be a pretty decent duet partner. If he can do do this for Whitney, there might be hope for that Akon/MJ collaboration after all.

Take a listen for yourself. What do you think?

July 28, 2008