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  • Chart Chat 9/7/08: Katy Perry, Jason Mraz, Ne-Yo & More!!

    Gettin’ tired of seeing the same names over and over? So am I. However, I still gotta give ya the charts every week, so here goes. As usual, these charts appear courtesy of the fine folks at Billboard Communications.

      Top 20 Albums

    1) “All Hope is Gone” Slipknot
    2) “L.A.X” The Game
    3) “Rock & Roll Jesus” Kid Rock
    4) “A Little Bit Longer” Jonas Brothers
    5) “Mamma Mia Soundtrack” Various Artists
    6) “Tha Carter III” Li’l Wayne
    7) “Now That’s What I Call Country!” Various Artists
    8) “Love on the Inside” Sugarland
    9) “Sol-Angel & the Hadley Street Dreams” Solange
    10) “Viva La Vida or Death & All His Friends” Coldplay
    11) “Breakout” Miley Cyrus
    12) “Good Girl Gone Bad” Rihanna
    13) “The Illusion of Progress” Staind
    14) “Raw Footage” Ice Cube
    15) “Palabras de Silencio” Luis Fonsi
    16) “Camp Rock Soundtrack” Various Artists
    17) “One World-Soundtrack” Cheetah Girls
    18) “Ultra Beatdown” Dragonforce
    19) “Spirit” Leona Lewis
    20) “One of the Boys” Katy Perry

      Top 20 Singles

    1) “Whatever You Like” T.I.
    2) “Disturbia” Rihanna
    3) “So What?” Pink
    4) “Forever” Chris Brown
    5) “Paper Planes” M.I.A.
    6) “Dangerous” Kardinal Offishall feat. Akon
    7) “Viva La Vida” Coldplay
    8) “Closer” Ne-Yo
    9) “I’m Yours” Jason Mraz
    10) “I Kissed a Girl” Katy Perry
    11) “When I Grow Up” The Pussycat Dolls
    12) “Put On” Young Jeezy feat. Kanye West
    13) “Can’t Believe It” T-Pain feat. Li’l Wayne
    14) “Take a Bow” Rihanna
    15) “Leavin’” Jesse McCartney
    16) “Got Money” Li’l Wayne feat. T-Pain
    17) “One Step at a Time” Jordin Sparks
    18) “Get Like Me” David Banner feat. Chris Brown
    19) “A Milli” Li’l Wayne
    20) “Hot N Cold” Katy Perry

    (more…)

  • The Infatueighties Countdown: #90: “Our House”

    The cover of Madness's "Our House" 45.

    “Our…house…is a veryveryvery fine house!” Don’t you love that song?!!

    PSYCH!! I’m not talking about the crappy TV show with Wilford “Diabeetus” Brimley, Chad Allen and Shannen Doherty (pre-Brenda) either.

    Today’s entry comes from the ska/pop giants from the U.K. called Madness. Admittedly, until very recently (like in the past year recently), I didn’t know much about these fellas except for their association with the two-tone moment (I guess that explains the checkerboard design of a lot of their records…wait, that was The Specials. My bad.) and the fact that their lead singer is named Suggs. Yes, Suggs. Granted, that’s not his real name, but still. Seriously. Who names themselves “Suggs”? What exactly is a “suggs”?

    Anyhow, a year and a copy of Madness’s “Ultimate Collection” later, I’m fond of more than one song by this band and if you’re an Eighties’ music fan, you should probably be too. At the very least, you should be madly in love(like me) with this song, which is absolutely fantastic. From the peppy horns (and tasteful strings) to Suggs’ baritone croak to the awesome opening 45 seconds or so before the vocals kick in (easily one of the decade’s ten best song intros), this is good shit, mister. It’s also a bit atypical of much of Madness’s previous work, with a more pronounced pop/rock sensibility.

    And the chorus! Simple and catchy, folks. You’ve gotta love it! Enjoy!

  • New Music: Fall Out Boy’s “I Don’t Care”

    Yet another dirty little secret that might cause you to question my musical taste: I love Fall Out Boy. I think what snared me first was their videos-these guys obviously don’t take themselves too seriously. Pete Wentz is a very likable character, and Patrick Stump can legitimately carry a tune. They’ve sort of transcended the whole “emo” tag and are a damn fine pop/rock group. Can you hum any Panic! at the Disco tunes? Probably not, but you can sing the fuck out of just about every FOB song.

    They’re releasing a new album called “Folie a Deux” in November, and the rumor is that it’s going to be a “political” album.This scares me. A lot. However, the album’s first single, “I Don’t Care”, is so good that it almost allays my fears about the rest of the album. They threw in everything but the kitchen sink here: stabbing synths, a bone-crunching guitar riff (that sounds like some other song that’s right on the tip of my tongue and will frustrate me to no end until I figure out what song it is), and you’ve gotta love any song with the gang-style chanted choruses. Talk about anthemic.

    Check the song out and let us know what you think, while you ponder whether the two guys in Fall Out Boy who aren’t Pete Wentz or Patrick Stump care about the fact that no one knows or cares who the hell they are.