For “808s & Heartbreak”‘s third video, Kanye West has enlisted the help of labelmate Rihanna. The singer has made a few public appearances since her alleged beating at the hands of boyfriend Chris Brown (whose recent video blog touting his new album I won’t dignify with more than a sentence here), but this is the first connection to a musical event she’s had since the Brown incident. I can’t say that the video makes a hell of a lot of sense, but Ri-Ri sure does look good. What do y’all think?
Author: Money Mike
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Sending Out an APB for: Remy Shand
What is it with neo-soul singers and their long-ass vacations? D’Angelo’s been missing since 2000. Maxwell just returned after an eight-year break. Let’s not even get into Lauryn Hill. But at least we know where these people are and what they’re up to. Canadian R&B singer/songwriter Remy Shand came onto the scene in 2001, blessed us with one album, and then fell into a musical Bermuda triangle of sorts, never to be heard from again.
Shand’s first single, “Take a Message”, had an old-soul vibe that immediately resonated with “serious” R&B listeners. It was grown & sexy music before the term “grown & sexy” was invented. The multi-talented artist struck paydirt with his album “The Way I Feel”. Scoring Gold sales and earning a handful of Grammy nominations while still a bit under the radar, the future looked bright for Remy Shand.
Nothing has been heard from the man since. In the meantime, he’s been swagger-jacked by Robin Thicke, who has become the Alpha Dog when it comes to fair-skinned soul men. His website has disappeared. No new music has surfaced at all. It’s almost time to stick this guy’s face on the side of a milk carton. Is it possible that Shand quickly grew sick of the machinations of the music industry and decided to fight bears in the woods of Winnipeg? Time will tell if the singer will ever make a return, but in the interim at least we have his (unjustly forgotten) first (and only) album to groove on.
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New Release of the Week 5/26/09: Mandy Moore
When she debuted ten years ago with the pop confection “Candy”, no one thought Mandy Moore had any legitimate staying power. Yet here she is, kicking off her second decade in the biz. Of course, in that time she’s evolved from a teenybopper pop artist into a folk-influenced adult pop singer. Her new album, “Amanda Leigh” (the title is her given first and middle name) comes out today, and it’s the follow up to 2007’s well-received “Wild Hope”. I don’t have a lot of info on the album, but I wonder if her new hubby, Ryan Adams, makes an appearance. Heh. If you’d told me in 2001 that Mandy Moore and Ryan Adams would be husband and wife, I’d have asked for some of what you were smoking.
Here’s Mandy’s video for “I Can Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week”.
Here’s what else you’ll find in stores and online this week.
Marilyn Manson The High End of Low: Everyone’s favorite malcontent is back with a new album. Manson’s returned to the headlines recently after being cited in yet another school shooting, however, his shtick has gotten pretty old by this point, and the shock value has long since died down. Does anyone still care? I guess we’ll find out.
Julian Marley Awake: Bob certainly multiplied, didn’t he? For those keeping score, Julian was once a member of the Melody Makers with his brother Ziggy and two of his sisters. This solo record contains a cameo from the Lost Boyz’ Mr. Cheeks (where has he been hiding?), as well as, of course, several members of the very large Marley clan.
Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix: These indie rockers have built up quite a buzz over the past couple of months. They scored a plum spot as the Saturday Night Live musical guest before even releasing their new album. “Wolfgang” has also gotten great reviews from mags like Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly.
Boyz II Men Cooleyhighharmony: Expanded Edition: You’ve gotta wonder sometimes who decides to make these deluxe album packages. Some of the others coming out in the near future I can understand (like, for example, Charles Mingus’ “Mingus Ah Um” and Dave Brubeck’s “Time Out”, both of which are also released today), but Boyz II Men’s first album? Nothing against the guys, I’m just not sure what value Hip-O Select saw in putting this out. At any rate, it contains two previously unreleased tracks and a shit-ton of remixes, and I’ve written more about it than any album other than Mandy Moore’s, so it must have some value, right?
Check out the entire list of this week’s new releases here.