all-about-musicians-and-the-people-who-help-them-make-music
Simon Cowell’s Favorite Audition
A day after making UK headlines by badmouthing auditions of hit show The X Factor, Simon Cowell anointed a Susan Boyle successor yesterday.
Britain’s newest star and the Internet’s latest viral video belongs to handsome 27 year old Danyl Johnson. No, Daryl Johnston is the football announcer. Danyl is a guy who sang With A Little Help From My Friends and then proved he only needed four friends when the judges cooed, oohed […]
First Look: Jay-Z’s “Run This Town”
Jay-Z’s “Blueprint 3” is only a few short weeks away from release. Will it be an artistry-affirming masterpiece like the first “Blueprint” was? Or will it be an overambitious, ego-driven mess like “Blueprint 2”? Two singles in, I’m not so sure of the answer.
Joined by proteges Kanye West and Rihanna (whose presence almost automatically predicts chart success), “Run This Town” is one of Jay’s most commercial efforts to date. The song itself? It’s okay. Rihanna’s […]
BLACKsummersnight by Maxwell
In, “BLACKsummersnight,” his 4th studio album, Maxwell scraps every single construct that has made him popular. The warm, afro coifed R&B god that could have passed for a fashion model is gone, replaced by a clean cut, moody man with a serious case of the thirty somethings. In place of the smooth, up tempo funk that seemed ready made for urban coffee houses is a darker sound; more attuned to low chords and minor keys; […]