web analytics

Pop Rock Nation

Blog

  • The Sunday Shuffle: Trying People

    Who knew sitting on your ass could be so exhausting? After a day at the beach, I’m maxin’ and relaxin’ and ready for another edition of the Sunday Shuffle. Let’s get started!!

    Track 1: “Room To Breathe” by Downtown Science
    Downtown Science was a rap group consisting of Sam Sever (who at that point was best known as one of 3rd Bass’s producers) and Bosco Money (who had one of the most unfortunate rap handles ever invented). It took me ages to track this CD down on half.com, as it’s been out of print for ages. This song has a very airy quality to it with a looped piano riff and a fairly easygoing backbeat for the average hip-hop record. I like it more for the beat than anything else. Another thing worth noting is that Bosco Money sounds a LOT like 3rd Bass’s MC Serch. This album is also notable for featuring the recording debut of noted female MC The Lady of Rage. Wonder if she’s still rockin’ rough and stuff with her Afro puffs.

    2. “Everloving” by Moby
    “Play” was Moby’s lightning in a bottle. I haven’t particularly cared for anything before or since (actually, I kinda gave up on him after being completely unimpressed by “Hotel”), but, damn, “Play” is such a good album. This song has a very hazy, new age-ish quality to it, like a very slightly more caffeinated Enigma (without the Gregorian monk chants).

    3. “My Ex-Girlfriend” by Tony! Toni! Tone!
    “Sons of Soul” is one of the five best R&B albums of the Nineties. The smoothness of this track sort of obscures the fact that the chorus of the song goes “My ex-girlfriend is a ho”. It comes off as more funny than misogynistic. It’s got a pretty neat doo-woppy mid-section, too. Damn, what happened to the R&B band? There’s Mint Condition, The Roots, and…

    I guess it ain’t cool for black folks to play instruments anymore.

    Track 4: “I Miss You” by Bjork
    OK, Bjork’s always been kind of weird, but as her career has progressed, her albums have gotten more and more obtuse. Her first couple of albums at least placed her weirdness in a danceable, poppy framework. Now, it’s basically just like “I don’t get it”. I hate most dance music made after 1990, but this and the rest of “Debut” is pretty damn good. Wacky horn part too.

    Track 5: “Diamonds & Pearls” by Prince & the New Power Generation
    This is one of the few songs-perhaps the ONLY song-where Prince plays second fiddle to another artist. In this case, Rosie Gaines hits this one out of the park. It’s one of Prince’s more lyrically slight songs, but this is one of those cases where the feeling overrules the somewhat Hallmark-ish sentiments. I’d post the video, but I don’t want to feel Prince’s high heel in my ass, so let’s just skip it for right now.

    Track 6: “Trying People” by De La Soul
    Hip-hop isn’t exactly overflowing with tearjerkers, but this song is near the top of my list. Over a dreamlike Laura Nyro sample (this song was one of several things that made me investigate her music further), Pos and Dave deliver subdued, mature meditations on life. Sounds simple enough, but man, rarely is hip-hop so nakedly emotional. Yet another stamp on De La Soul’s status as the most criminally underrated hip-hop act EVER.

    Track 7: “Possibly Maybe” by Bjork
    Wow…I wasn’t expecting iTunes to go Bjork crazy on me tonight. After the relative nuttiness of “I Miss You”, “Possibly Maybe” is the calming rain after. Just Bjork and a heartbeat of a drum machine. A perfect way to end this week’s seven. Good night.

  • Chart Chat 8/17/08: M.I.A., ABBA…and a Bad Joke About Miley Cyrus’s Dad!!!

    Happy Sunday all. After skipping a week due to technical difficulties, we are back!! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) the charts remain more or less the same. Read on, my friends…(all chart information courtesy of Billboard magazine)

    The cover of Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A\'s hit album \"Kala\"
      Top 20 Singles

    1) “Disturbia” Rihanna
    2) “Forever” Chris Brown
    3) “I Kissed a Girl” Katy Perry
    4) “Take a Bow” Rihanna
    5) “Paper Planes” M.I.A.
    6) “Viva La Vida” Coldplay
    7) “Dangerous” Kardinal Offishall feat. Akon
    8) “A Milli” Li’l Wayne
    9) “Burnin’ Up” Jonas Brothers
    10) “Closer” Ne-Yo
    11) “A Little Bit Longer” Jonas Brothers
    12) “American Boy” Estelle feat. Kanye West
    13) “When I Grow Up” Pussycat Dolls
    14) “Leavin’” Jesse McCartney
    15) “Bleeding Love” Leona Lewis
    16) “Get Like Me” David Banner feat. Chris Brown
    17) “Lollipop” Li’l Wayne feat. Static Major
    18) “Put On” Young Jeezy feat. Kanye West
    19) “Lolli Lolli (Pop That Body)” Three Six Mafia
    20) “Pocketful of Sunshine” Natasha Bedingfield

      Top 20 Albums:

    1) Various Artists “Mamma Mia Soundtrack”
    2) “Breakout” Miley Cyrus
    3) “Love on the Inside” Sugarland
    4) “Rock & Roll Jesus” Kid Rock
    5) “Tha Carter III” Li’l Wayne
    6) “Viva La Vida or Death & All His Friends” Coldplay
    7) “Lessons in Love” Lloyd
    8) “Camp Rock Soundtrack” Various Artists
    9) “Good Girl Gone Bad” Rihanna
    10) “What Am I Waiting For” Heidi Newfeld
    11) “Jonas Brothers” Jonas Brothers
    12) “C’mon” Keith Anderson
    13) “Now That’s What I Call Music Vol. 28” Various Artists
    14) “Kids Bop 14” Various Artists
    15) “Conor Oberst” Conor Oberst
    16) “Taylor Swift” Taylor Swift
    17) “Untitled” Nas
    18) “Only Through the Pain” Trapt
    19) “Revelation” Third Day
    20) “One of the Boys” Katy Perry (more…)

  • Albums Worth Reconsidering: “Garth Brooks in the Life of…Chris Gaines”

    Hey, I’ll be the first to admit that the setup of this album was way beyond wacky. Chris Gaines was a fictional character that country star Garth Brooks was to play in a film called “The Lamb”. The character of Gaines was born in America to Australian parents, formed a band called Crush out of high school. As soon Garth Brooks as Chris Gaines Greatest Hitsas Crush becomes big, one of the members dies in a plane crash. After a period of seclusion, Gaines re-emerges as a pop superstar, scoring huge #1 albums and winning Grammys. At some point, Gaines gets into a horrific car accident and has to undergo extensive plastic surgery, after which he unveils a new, soul-influenced sound and picks up right where he left off in terms of success. This album was supposed to serve as a “pre-soundtrack” to the album, a collection of Gaines’ greatest hits. If you have finished reading all of this and you still have a straight face, you’re a better person than I.

    Another school of thought is that this was an elaborate scheme cooked up by Brooks and his people to give the biggest country star in the world (and for those who can’t remember, Garth Brooks has sold more records than any solo artist in history, according to the RIAA) to jump into the pop/rock arena like a Shania Twain without sacrificing his country audience. Whatever reason this character was cooked up for, the fact is that “The Lamb” never got made, and Brooks suffered the first “flop” of his career with this album (although it’s still certified double platinum). Copies of this album line cutout bins nationwide. However, I’m here to tell you: it’s nowhere near as bad as the silly movie premise and the so-so sales would have you believe.

    I’m not sure if this was done on purpose or out of naivete on Brooks’ part, but for such an edgy looking and acting “rocker”, the music on this “soundtrack” is middle of the road adult contemporary pop with no edge at all. Not that there’s anything wrong with it-there are plenty of folks who do adult contemporary quite well! First single “Lost in You” is a soulful acoustic ballad-if it reminds you of Eric Clapton’s “Change the World”, it’s because songwriter Tommy Sims had a hand in both songs. It also highlights Brooks’ uncanny vocal resemblance to Kenny Loggins. “It Don’t Matter to the Sun” is an emotional country-tinged ballad. “Driftin’ Away”, the album’s best track, could have easily been covered by a Brian McKnight or Babyface type and turned into a huge R&B hit-I imagine that the reason Brooks sang the living shit out of this song is that he could relate to the disintegrating relationship-themed lyrics. The wistful “Maybe” has more than a hint of Beatles influence and features Brooks singing in a pretty falsetto. I mean, most of the mid- or down-tempo songs on this album are honestly pretty damn good.

    Granted, there are a couple of embarrassments to be found here. “Unsigned Letter” is a bald-faced rewrite of The Wallflowers’ “One Headlight” that’s beyond obvious, and songs like “Way of the Girl” and “Snow in July” are inoffensive pieces of pop/rock that are so lightweight you forget about them as soon as the songs go off. Then there’s “Right Now”, which finds Brooks/Gaines speak-rapping about a litany of political and social issues and then jumping into The Youngbloods’ classic “Get Together” for the chorus. While “Lost in You” became a Top 5 hit (Garth’s only Top 20 hit on the pop singles chart EVER), “Right Now” was the project-killer. Radio and video had absolutely no idea what to do with the song, which is a shame, because while it’s certainly strange (and it’s strangeness is due less to the song and more to the person singing it), it’s not a bad record.

    There was very little contemporary about this album, and I honestly think that the major disconnect was Gaines’ wild-haired, mysterious “image” not really making sense after you hear the album and realize that it’s just a slightly more pop-oriented (well, more like adult-contemporary oriented) Garth Brooks album. This was actually the first album of Garth’s that I ever owned, and I enjoyed it enough that I went back and bought a handful of his country albums. I’ve gotta admit, I still like this one better! Had Garth tossed aside the fictional character and the backstory, I don’t know that the backlash would have been as severe. But I guess we’ll never know…