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  • Infatueighties: #81: “State of the Heart”

    I could have sworn there was a video for this, but I can’t find it on Youtube. Anyway.

    When folks think of Rick Springfield, 9 out of 10 think “Jessie’s Girl”. However, that was far from his only hit single, and good as it is, it’s certainly not his best. He scored a fairly lengthy string of Top 20 singles from 1981-1985, with “State of the Heart” serving as almost the end of the line (he scored one top 40 hit three years later with “Rock of Life”.

    A synth-pop ballad, “State” bears a resemblance to John Waite’s “Missing You” (itself a knockoff of The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”). The fortunate thing, of course, being that “Every Breath You Take” was so good a song that even a second-generation knockoff is good stuff.

    While I don’t know how many vocal sweeteners there were in 1985, something tells me at least a portion of his vocal is computer enhanced. When he performed at Live Aid that summer, he dropped the song down a full octave so he could hit the notes. So while there wasn’t an Auto-Tune, his vocals were either run through an Emulator of some sort OR simply sped up (I’m voting for the latter). Trickery aside, it’s a great song with a hilariously unhinged synth/guitar solo.

    Since I couldn’t locate the actual video and I don’t care much for the Live Aid version, here is Rick lip-synching performing it on a hit Eighties’ TV show.

  • Single Life: Nickelback, Brandy, Fall Out Boy, 50 Cent

    Nickelback “Gotta Be Somebody”

    Surprise-I’m not a Nickelback hater. I can think of 4 or 5 songs by them worthy of appearing on my iPod. Not sure if this is one of ’em though. Chad and company have flirted with a poppier, dancier sound before-I mean, Chad’s Santana duet from last year was pretty much a dance record. This song definitely has “hit single” written all over it. Unfortunately, it’s not that “wow, this is catchy” hit single vibe, it’s more of that cold, calculated hit single vibe. Plus, I wish Chad Kroeger didn’t always sound like he was straining on the toilet. Grade: C


    Brandy “Right Here (Departed)

    Guess what? Brandy’s back! Hey, if her talentless little brother can score a Top 5 hit in ’08, why can’t she? This song reunites her with Rodney Jerkins, who produced “The Boy is Mine” and several other Brandy hits, and it does have a little of that “Boy is Mine” bounce. Brandy’s voice sounds stronger than ever, and she looks good in the video, too. Going with the inspirational theme of the song, the clip shows Brandy as sort of a healing angel. It’s pretty interesting, and the song is solid enough to make some noise, although I don’t know if it’s “hood” enough for urban radio. Grade: B+

    Fall Out Boy “I Don’t Care”

    I could spend hours watching this video. Say what you want about Patrick Stump and Pete Wentz, but these guys know how to write a hook AND they know how to make a video. Although “I Don’t Care” sounds a little too much like Pink’s “So What” for my tastes, the video elevates it from a catchy yet derivative tune into a concentrated pile of awesome. Check out cameos from the likes of Pharrell Williams (who will appear in YOUR video for 50 cents and a lollipop), Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, and others, and watch out for an ending that should elicit at least a snicker. Grade: Video: A; Single: B

    50 Cent “Get Up”
    Not that it surprises me or anything, but our man Fiddy is suffering from severe artistic arrested development. “Get Up” is catchy yeah, but Curtis has been down this road with both “In Da Club” and “Disco Inferno”. This sounds like a Dre production-can’t tell whether it is, but it’s in the same vein as Dre’s seriously lukewarm production over the past two or three years (see-Jay-Z’s “Kingdom Come”). If you really want to know the difference between 50 Cent and Kanye West (even if you don’t like their music), Kanye goes out of his way to push the envelope, while 50 is content to recycle the same hitmaking formula over and over, thinking it will bring forth the same return. Grade: C-

  • Out There!- “Shake For The Sheik”, “Walking Through Walls”, & “I’ll Be There” (The Escape Club’s Lesser-Known Hits)

    We all remember the Escape Club, right?  Back in 1988, none of us could escape The Escape Club and their smash hit, Wild Wild West.  Wild Wild West hit the top of the charts, and was supposed to lift the band to further acclaim.  Sorry, but it didn’t happen! Yet, the Escape Club would be known for another song, but I’ll get to that in a little bit.  Wild Wild West was on pop radio every fifteen minutes, and the video was in heavy rotation on MTV.  One of MTV’s legendary and best-known videos, it featured these strange combo arms and legs (without a crotch) getting down to the beat.   Twenty years later, and I still haven’t gotten those flopping arms out of my head!   The Escape Club consisted of a singer who could pass as Bono’s younger brother (Trevor Steel),  “Booger Presley” on the lead guitar (John Holliday- doesn’t he look like Booger from Revenge Of The Nerds?  If not, how about Eric Bogosian?), the rasta-haired bassist (Johnni Christo) and the quiet Steven Seagal inspired pony-tailed drummer with no personality (Milan Zekavica).  You know what? Even twenty years later, the song still hasn’t aged one bit.

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