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  • Vital Idol: The Cut Down Gets Rough

    I must admit that I don’t usually get into American Idol until the final twelve. This means that I don’t really care who leaves the show until the show really starts. Ok, maybe I’m lying just a little bit. When Sabrina Sloan was kicked off before last year’s final twelve, my heart skipped a beat.

    But tonight? Wow. It’s not like I thought Alaina Whitaker was going to win the entire competition, but she definitely deserved a spot in the top twelve. She is young, has a great look and can sing, yet sadly, she’s gone. Usually, for the most part, America does a pretty good job, but for two weeks in a row Amanda Overmyer played and lost big. Her entire get up, with that big hair and all, was terrible as well. I didn’t think Alexandrea Lushington would necessarily leave either, but she was eventually going to get lost in the shuffle. That’s the problem with this year though. Other than Big Dave Archuleta, no one stands out.

    On the side of the guys, does it matter who leaves at this point, except for Big Dave Archuleta? All I hear are voices. I don’t even really see faces. Big Dave is great at being gracious and egging the crowd on to continue their applause. He’s the definition of “aw shucks” and the audience will eat it up, especially when he can bring it to the table like he did this week.

    Here are some other thoughts thus far:

    • Danny “Danjaya” Noriega needs to stop pretending he’s Sanjaya. His hair isn’t pretty enough.
    • Carly Smithson might be my favorite “voice” in the competition.
    • Kristy Lee Cook was made to wear tight dresses.
    • If Ruben Studdard lost 150 pounds, he’d be Chikezie.
    • Jason Castro’s hair looks ridiculous on that wiry frame, but at least he stands out.
    • While David Hernandez can sing, I never thought his papa could ever be a rolling stone.
    • I think David Cook, Luke “Perry” Menard, and Michael Johns should become one singer named Luke Cook Johns and we can just fast forward one week for the guys.
    • Ramiele Malubay is really growing on me. Where does that voice come from?

    Until next week …

  • Plastic Or Electronic?

    It was this year, during NFL Conference Championship weekend when I finished a project that I had started several years before. I finally cataloged my entire CD collection by year. No longer did I have tons of plastic cases that attracted dust like the blinds in my living room. CDs were tucked inside plastic sleeves in two binders that could now be filed away in a bookcase. Now what?

    I took a long look at what music meant to me. As a kid, I loved vinyl albums. I have memories of holding huge album covers and tugging the albums out from the inside delicately like they were fine china. But when I really got into music, vinyl became like 8 track and was pretty obsolete, only found in garages, except for the hardest of hardcore music fans who will probably always hold onto theirs. CDs were easier to keep around and sounded clearer. I grew up in the CD era of music. Now, as an adult, that CD era for me might be over.

    After loving the fact that I didn’t have plastic CD cases floating around the living room, I decided that it was possibly time for me to stop buying CDs entirely and focus my attention (and money) solely online. Being that I don’t even own a true CD player any longer, it seemed like the smart idea. Would I miss CD covers and the booklets that come with liner notes? Would I miss going into music stores and carousing and getting lost for hours? Sure I would. But would I really miss the music medium that is the compact disc? I don’t think so. With all of my music now on my computer and iPod, it seemed that all along I was already making the transition. It wasn’t going to be hard at all.

    In an article that I read in The San Jose Mercury News (via The LA Times), a report by the NPD Group stated that 48% of teenagers didn’t even buy one physical CD last year. Now, I’m not sure how the data was gathered, since I know that many parents buy CDs for their teenagers, but still, that number was mind blowing to me. Also, according to the report, iTunes is also now the second biggest music retailer in the US, behind only Walmart. That speaks loudly to me. For instance, my kids recently fell in love with Alvin And The Chipmunks because of the movie that was released to theaters late last year. They decided that they wanted a few of the songs from the movie. I gave them the option of picking out one song each, and had to spend only two dollars to calm their chipmunk appetite. I didn’t have to pay $15 for an entire CD of sped up voices that would probably be overkill in a few days. To me, as a customer, that’s efficiency at it’s finest.

    I know that many music heads will probably never go fully online because there are still things you can’t buy on iTunes that you can find as gems in the 99 cent bin at a music store. And I’ll never be a fan of illegal downloading. But I think more and more folks are thinking of leaving the plastic CD cases behind and going full time to the computer like I just did.

    I’m interested in what others think about the topic. If you have an opinion about it, please drop me a comment below.

  • A Good Day To Be An R&B Diva: New Releases 2/26/08: Janet Jackson, Erykah Badu & More

    For everyone who thinks R&B is a one-note “sex you up/sex you down” genre, this week’s three most notable releases almost serve as a reminder of how diverse “urban” music is, and all three could potentially be worth your time.

    First of the three comes from Janet Jackson, whose new Discipline arrives in stores today. It’s her 10th studio album, and it’s interesting to note that as her sales have tanked, the albums have come with significantly more frequency. She released 4 albums in the Eighties, only 2 in the Nineties, and she’s released 4 so far in the Oughts. At any rate, this attempt at a comeback is her first for L.A. Reid’s Island/Def Jam Records and has been preceded by first single “Feedback”. Early reviews point to this being a more danceable, poppier effort than her previous couple of albums, and this album also marks her first clean break from Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, her production partners of 20 years. It could be a solid album, could be a complete disaster-who knows? Hopefully, it’s better than her last album, 20 Y.O., which stood somewhere between mediocre and terrible.

    Next up is the wildly eclectic Miss Erykah Badu. Over the past decade, she’s gone from the new Billie Holiday to the new Chaka Khan, with her mystical image and tunes that straddle jazz, hard funk, hip-hop and even rock. New Amerykah Pat. 1, 4th World War is, well, at the very least an intriguing album title. This album allegedly has much more of a hip-hop vibe than her last couple of albums, which were more on the live-band tip. Production is provided by underground rap giants like 9th Wonder (formerly of the group Little Brother) and the late J. Dilla. This is actually the album of the three I’m most excited about.

    Finally, if you need an album to just chill out to, you might want to check out The Orchard, the third studio album by Atlanta-based singer Lizz Wright. Her first two albums got her some critical notice and were solid pieces of work. Her folky, jazzy style will immediately draw comparisons to acts like Cassandra Wilson and Norah Jones. So if you’re part of the Starbucks set, or just appreciate the power of a pretty voice, give this a shot.

    In the rest of the music world, there are new albums out today from Southern rapper Webbie (definitely not my cup of tea, but his latest single is in the Top Ten, so someone’s checking for the guy), Dolly Parton (after a stint as a bluegrass album, Miss Parton is back singing traditional country, and the title Backwoods Barbie is cheeky in the vein of classic Dolly), Puff Daddy protege Cheri Dennis (with an album that’s been promised release for at least two years and has already been on iTunes for 3 or 4 months), Christian rock act Pillar, jazz legend Dianne Schurr, and so many more.

    Check out a full list of today’s new releases here: http://www.pauseandplay.com/cdfront.htm