In this time of economic uncertainty, high unemployment, pop culture run amok and general mass hysteria, it’s nice to know that there’s always James. Five minutes of James and everything is better. Five minutes of James can balance the national budget, provide jobs and healthcare for all, and inspire Kim Kardashian to go back to school and find the biophysicist within. Don’t believe me? That’s fine. You don’t have to take my word for it. Instead, you can watch the testimonials given by the beneficiaries of James’s healing qualities in this strangely affecting video for their single “Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)”, from the Manchester band’s 2001 album Pleased To Meet You. The cleverness of the video is one thing – getting random folks on the streets of New York City to both “testify” and sing along to a song that I can’t imagine any of them had heard prior to their fateful meeting with a camera crew. But the timing of it – just months before 9/11 – haunts the video; and frankly, everything that’s happened since – the war, the economic collapse, George W. Bush legitimately winning a second term in office – also haunts the video. My personal favorite moment is the old couple on the street at about 0:58 singing happily to each other “We’re insured.” They look so happy! You can’t underestimate the healing power of that moment. I feel frickin’ awesome already. Thank you, James! A thousand times, thank you. All six or seven of you!
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The Monday Night Awesome: James “Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)” (2001)
James – Pleased To Meet You (2001) -
First Look: Iyaz “So Big”
It was just about a year ago when most of us first heard of Iyaz via his debut single “Replay”, which ruled the airwaves all last fall ultimately reaching the top of the Billboard Pop chart. The Beluga Heights (j-j-j-j-j-r) artist and Sean Kingston protege (wait, Sean Kingston’s old enough to have a protege?) followed that song up with the lovely “Solo”, which copped a hook from Janet Jackson but failed to really take off at radio this spring; he’s since made guest appearances on singles by two teen pop newcomers, Charice and Auburn. Here he’s returning with his third single, another summery sweet, and squeaky clean Carribean-flavored dance pop dittie that should go over well with all the kiddies. And by kiddies, I mean toddlers. How big is Iyaz’s love for you? Sooo big! How big is Iyaz gonna spend it up? Sooo big! How big a hit is this song going to be? Sooo… err… well, we’ll see. (Aww, man, not “we’ll see”! I hated when my mom said that!)
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First Look: Miranda Lambert “Only Prettier”
Election season is ramping up and many commentators are pointing to 2010 as a pivotal year for women in politics, what with Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann and Sharron Angle and Carly Fiorina, and that one from South Carolina that was accused of having an affair but couldn’t possibly have had an affair because she’s, like, totally married and stuff and her husband is totally hot. Haters just be jealous. Miranda Lambert is taking notice with the fourth single off her latest album Revolution. As a former Nashville Star finalist (she placed third in the show’s debut season), Lambert has certainly experienced her fair share of the vicissitudes of the Amer’can voting public. “Only Prettier” is a gloriously old-school country rocker, a stomping celebration of catty girl politics loaded up with adorably venomous one-liners and winking, semi-sincere appeals to hatchet burial, echoing the same promises politicians trot out every election season – “oh, let’s shake hands and reach across those party lines.” Oh yes, let’s do. And let’s spike the punch while we’re at it. The song’s perfectly complimentary video finds Lambert and her band on stage playing at a 50s era high school prom where two rival cliques – the debutantes and the bad girls, both played by the same quartet of actresses led by Lambert herself – go head to head (under a gymnasium arc d’ballon) in a battle for social supremacy. And as it turns out, they’re all just two sides of the same coin.