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Pop Rock Nation

Category: News

music-news-from-breakups-to-the-lastest-buzz

  • Infatueighties #57: Hands to Heaven

    “Hands to Heaven” is light as a feather, from the slow motion synth arrangement to David Glasper’s gauzy vocals. The song’s haunting quality becomes even more apparent when you listen to the lyrics: “so raise your hands to heaven and pray/that we’ll be back together someday”. It’s hypnotic and beautiful.

    In 1988, the year of George Michael, Breathe were one of the most successful British imports. Hands reached #2 on the singles chart, while two more singles hit the Top 10. However, just as quickly as the band’s star rose, it fell. A second album, Peace of Mind, featured two singles that hit the lower rungs of the Top 40. The album strongly featured Glasper (actually, the band was now Breathe featuring David Glasper, and he alone was on the cover), and the strong-voiced Glasper seemed an ideal candidate to carry on with a solo career. It never happened, though,and Breathe disappeared without a trace, never to be seen or heard from again.

    However. they left behind a handful of strong singles, of which Hands to Heaven is by far the best.

  • Enter Sandman: Right Next to My Adidas

    metallica2To no one’s surprise, Metallica and Run-DMC will be inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame in their induction ceremony next month. Their inclusions are, of course, deserved. Metallica is unquestionably the hardest metal band to sustain a multi-platinum career for two decades plus, and although Run-DMC’s reign at the top was brief, they kicked down just about every possible door a rap artist could kick down on the road to success.

    The other inductees are Jeff Beck, Bobby Womack and Little Anthony & the Imperials. Some folks will question those decisions, some people will scoff, some people will wonder what it will take to get The Stooges (and to a lesser extent, Chic) into the Hall of Fame. Any way you look at it, the jam that typically occurs at the end of the induction ceremony should be interesting!

  • The New Music Minute: Will Your Life Suck Without the New Kelly Clarkson Song?

    Now that American Idol is back, you’re gonna see a lot of Idol-related artists and things poking their heads out to create some kind of synergy with the show, and lo and behold, Kelly Clarkson is back. Last we heard from Kelly, she and label head Clive Davis were at loggerheads over the direction of Kelly’s career. He found Kelly’s album My December (which really wasn’t bad) uncommercial, while Kelly was insulted by the fact that Clive wanted her to record with songwriters-for-hire and wasn’t appreciative of her following her muse. My December went on to sell a respectable (these days, at least) 800,000 copies, but her previous album sold 6 million, so we know who won that battle.

    So, Kelly’s gone back into the studio with her tail between her legs, and the first single from her upcoming fourth album is My Life Would Suck Without You. Maybe I need to give the song a few more listens, but I have one fundamental problem with it. It sounds EXACTLY like her breakout hit, the Grammy-winning Since U Been Gone. Um…it also sounds quite a bit like Jimmy Eat World’s The Middle. Not that I’m against artists who have a particular sound and go back to that well on occasion, butseriously: if you were drunk and listening to Suck…, you could fit the words to Since U Been Gone in here. That song was lightning in a bottle, and Kelly’s already proven herself talented enough to vary her sound up a little, so the end result is a little disappointing. Take a listen and tell us what you think.