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Pop Rock Nation

Category: People

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  • Kanye’s “Love Lockdown” Video: Mr. West Goes Tribal

    Kanye West. Photo by Tyler Curtis.
    Kanye West. Photo by Tyler Curtis.

    With attention building for his upcoming fourth album “808s and Heartbreak” (out November 25th), Kanye West has just premiered the video for his Top 5 single “Love Lockdown”. Typical of the artier-than-thou West’s previous works, this is a pretty arresting video visually. I can see this cleaning up at next year’s VMAs…and it’s so damn refreshing to see a hip-hop video where the ass-shaking is not coming from a sea of bikini-wearing chicks. I’m just glad ‘Ye didn’t decide to do any of the dancing or dress in any of the tribal gear himself. The other thing I realized while watching this is that the song’s kind of monotonous. Nevertheless, it’ll be interesting to see what the always entertaining Kanye has in store for us in just about six weeks.

    Check out the video here and let us know what you think.

  • New Music In Stores and Online10/7/08: The Streets, Sarah McLachlan, Oasis & More!!!

    Obviously I can’t have a record buying bonanza every week, otherwise I’d go broke. Definitely not a good look in today’s economy. So, this week will mark something of a vacation for me, with only one release that I’m nutso about. Here’s this week’s lineup of releases.

    Mike Skinner AKA The Streets. Photo by "realname".

    The Streets “Everything is Borrowed”:
    Folks on these shores (most of ’em) don’t get Mike Skinner or his style of music. Considering I didn’t think Amy Winehouse would cross over, I think Skinner is long overdue for some American love. “Everything is Borrowed” is his fourth, and reportedly the last album he is releasing under the Streets moniker. Expect more personal raps spiced with enough British slang that you might have to IM your best friend from London to ask “what the hell is he talking about here?”

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  • Infatueighties: #82: “Silent Morning”

    The cover of the 12" single for Noel's "SIlent Morning".
    The cover of the 12

    There’s an undercurrent of mortal fear that runs through “Silent Morning”, the 1987 Latin freestyle hit by Noel. The chorus of “silent morning…I wake up and you’re not by my side” is sung with a tangible sadness that rock critic Dave Marsh somewhat accurately connected with the AIDS scourge that was terrorizing the gay community in the mid-late Eighties. A little research reveals that the original title of the song was “Silent Mourning”, underscoring the shock many of the people who were dancing to the song at the height of its’ popularity felt as they saw many of their friends and lovers suddenly dying.

    Like many freestyle hits of the time period, “Silent Morning” isn’t particularly well-known to the general public. However, if you were living in Miami, L.A. or New York during the time period it was out, this song was ridiculously fucking huge. Noel Pagan’s two hits (“Morning” and “Like a Child”) are now fodder for “Oldies” nights at clubs and on radio stations, or freestyle reunion shows in which Noel shares the stage with contemporaries like The Cover Girls and TKA. However, next time you hear this song, keep in mind that some of the folks dancing to it may be doing so in celebration of lives that were lost much too soon.