When she debuted ten years ago with the pop confection “Candy”, no one thought Mandy Moore had any legitimate staying power. Yet here she is, kicking off her second decade in the biz. Of course, in that time she’s evolved from a teenybopper pop artist into a folk-influenced adult pop singer. Her new album, “Amanda Leigh” (the title is her given first and middle name) comes out today, and it’s the follow up to 2007’s well-received “Wild Hope”. I don’t have a lot of info on the album, but I wonder if her new hubby, Ryan Adams, makes an appearance. Heh. If you’d told me in 2001 that Mandy Moore and Ryan Adams would be husband and wife, I’d have asked for some of what you were smoking.
Here’s Mandy’s video for “I Can Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week”.
Here’s what else you’ll find in stores and online this week.
Marilyn MansonThe High End of Low: Everyone’s favorite malcontent is back with a new album. Manson’s returned to the headlines recently after being cited in yet another school shooting, however, his shtick has gotten pretty old by this point, and the shock value has long since died down. Does anyone still care? I guess we’ll find out.
Julian MarleyAwake: Bob certainly multiplied, didn’t he? For those keeping score, Julian was once a member of the Melody Makers with his brother Ziggy and two of his sisters. This solo record contains a cameo from the Lost Boyz’ Mr. Cheeks (where has he been hiding?), as well as, of course, several members of the very large Marley clan.
PhoenixWolfgang Amadeus Phoenix: These indie rockers have built up quite a buzz over the past couple of months. They scored a plum spot as the Saturday Night Live musical guest before even releasing their new album. “Wolfgang” has also gotten great reviews from mags like Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly.
Boyz II MenCooleyhighharmony: Expanded Edition: You’ve gotta wonder sometimes who decides to make these deluxe album packages. Some of the others coming out in the near future I can understand (like, for example, Charles Mingus’ “Mingus Ah Um” and Dave Brubeck’s “Time Out”, both of which are also released today), but Boyz II Men’s first album? Nothing against the guys, I’m just not sure what value Hip-O Select saw in putting this out. At any rate, it contains two previously unreleased tracks and a shit-ton of remixes, and I’ve written more about it than any album other than Mandy Moore’s, so it must have some value, right?
Check out the entire list of this week’s new releases here.
Yep, I know this column has been gone for a long time. A combination of laziness and sickness has prevented me from doing this for about 6 weeks, but I am back with a new sense of purpose. Plus, I wiped out my entire iTunes and started from scratch this weekend. I had my iTunes connected to my external hard drive, on which I have the vast majority of my music. I eventually realized that I was wearing out the “skip” button, because songs kept coming up that I either did not recognize or didn’t care to listen to. So I figured it was better to back up the good files onto my actual computer and sync my iPod to that. That way, I didn’t have to flip through the 10 crappy tracks on Rod Stewart’s “Blondes Have More Fun” (for example) to get to “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” (OK, I didn’t say it was the best example). So this week I’ve only got about 2,000 tracks to choose from, and all of them should be quite familiar to me, so I don’t have to worry about bullshitting my way through this column. Not that I’ve done that before or anything. So away we go…
Track 1: “Stuck with You” by Huey Lewis & the News (from “Fore, 1986)
So, what should I talk about here? Should I discuss the fact that “Stuck” was the second of Huey & the News’ three #1 hits? Should I talk about the cool video? Should I talk about Huey Lewis’s legendary endowment? (apparently the news was in his pants). How about none of the above? I think these guys get shafted-they were one of the better singles acts of the Eighties, and for some reason, they always remind me of summer. Maybe it’s the fact that all their videos seemed to be set at the damn beach. If you’ve ever seen these guys tackle the national anthem at a sporting event, you know that they’re no joke vocally, either. So, give it up for Huey. He deserves your props.
Track 2: “The Look of Love” by ABC (from “The Lexicon of Love, 1982)
Ah, a classic from the glory days of British pop. There was a 2-year span when we got the best of Duran Duran, Culture Club, Yaz, Soft Cell, The Human League, Spandau Ballet, Heaven 17 and these guys-all more or less blue-eyed soul acts, and all hit at virtually the same time, thanks to MTV. It was an explosion of hairspray and makeup and accents. Martin Fry’s delivery on this song is very much in line with the hyper-dramatic flair many of these bands here. If you believe those VH-1 pop culture specials, apparently the spoken part of this song was suggested by David Bowie. Interesting, eh?
“If you judge a book by the cover, then you judge the look by the lover”…truer words were never said.
Lordy, is this video gay.
Track 3: “Water Runs Dry” by Boyz II Men (from “II”, 1994)
Remember when Boyz II Men were all over the place? They were at #1 on the charts seemingly every week, were winning every award in creation, and seemed to be unstoppable? This was probably their finest moment of that era, although they had bigger hits. I love the airy harmonies and the acoustic instrumentation. This is actually one of Babyface’s better written songs, and it doesn’t sound (much) like every other ‘Face song in existence.
That Motown covers album restored BIIM’s luster a little bit. I’d love to see them come back with some new material.
Track 4: “Change Your World” by Anthony Hamilton (from “Ain’t Nobody Worryin’”, 2005)
There was a point in time when I was jocking Anthony Hamilton HARD. I’ve had the extreme privilege of seeing this guy in concert twice, and believe me when I tell you he puts just about every other male R&B singer out there to shame. Not only can he sing his ass off, but he brings a gospel-like fervor to his stage performance. He catches the Spirit for sure. This track is from the album before his most recent one, and it’s a beautiful, old-school styled ballad. Nice to know they still make songs like this these days.
Track 5: “Break My Heart” by Common (from “Finding Forever”, 2007)
How did Common fall off so hard in just a couple of years? Success didn’t agree with the dude. After he broke through, he officially began to suck, and that’s a shame, because for a long time Common was one of the hottest emcees out. This smoothed-out song is much better from a musical standpoint than it is lyrically. The first verse is almost embarrassing. Although nowhere near as embarrassing as 90% of the material on “Universal Mind Control”, his latest piece of shit album.
Track 6: “Theme From Shaft” by Isaac Hayes (from the “Shaft” soundtrack, 1971)
OK, now what the hell am I supposed to say about this? Do I make a joke about “They say that cat Mike…he’s a bad mutha-SHUT YO’ MOUTH! Well, I’m talkin’ about Mike. Well we can dig it”? Nope, because that would be lame. Ah, here’s something. There was this album cover from the Seventies, I’m not sure which one it was, but I know for a fact that it was Isaac Hayes. I used to be scared of it. I was a pretty jumpy kid. Prince’s “Dirty Mind” cover scared me too. And that was BEFORE I heard the music in between the covers.
Go ‘head, Jesse. And what the fuck is Ike wearing?
Track 7: “Frontin’” by Jamie Cullum (by “Twentysomething”, 2004)
Yup, this is a cocktail jazz remake of the Pharrell/Jay-Z song that was huge five or six summers ago. This song actually lends itself well to the jazz arrangement. I like Cullum, he’s pretty cheeky. If you’re gonna do that kind of music, you might as well bring something different to the table, right? He hasn’t put out an album in a while, I wonder what happened to him.
Here’s an interesting fact. Jamie’s the guy that got me into Jeff Buckley. I’d actually had a copy of “Grace” for years, but never really got into it until Jamie covered “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over”. Then I went back to “Grace” and finally heard what everyone else had heard ten years before. Hey, we can’t be on time for everything, right?
I would LOVE to see this kid live. Maybe an Anthony Hamilton/Jamie Cullum double bill? I’d probably be the only person in the audience for both sets-ha!!
Money Mike and Paul live blogged the Grammy Awards earlier today. I’m on the West Coast so I get to watch the show on the dreaded tape delay. And just to make sure we have that West Coast point of view on the show, I’m going to give you the play by play as well.
The last few years that I’ve blogged this show, I’ve mentioned the need for coffee. Last year I made it all the way through without coffee. I’m going for two years in a row. But I may need toothpicks to hold my eye lids open by the end of this thing.
What’s this story that’s out about Chris Brown and Rihanna in a domestic dispute? I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but if any of this is true, it just shows that he has more in common with Papa Joe Jackson than Michael Jackson.
U2 opens up the show and I think Fat Albert should sue for gimmick infringement. Hey, hey, hey.
Whitty Houton is the first presenter for Best R&B Album and she has those boobs pushed up just about as far as they can go.
Jennifer Hudson won the award for her very bland debut album. I think people forgot that And I’m Telling You… was actually on the Dreamgirls album first.
There’s no better hype man than the Rock. I was waiting for him to say, “Uh huh, yeah!”
I wonder if in 1992, Boyz II Men would’ve thought they’d be relegated to singing back up for Rev Al Green and Justin Timberlake in 2009? Well, maybe Wanya.
The only thing I got out of that Chris Martin/Jay-Z duet is that both of them dudes need haircuts. Since when was fuzzy in?
There was a Diddy sighting! I think he said, “Uh huh yeah!”
Carrie Underwood is performing Last Name and for some reason, she didn’t know his last name. Uh, sweetie, his last name was Romo.
I think she’s also decided to get even skinnier for this performance as a last second dig at Jessica Simpson. Word to Jess – don’t wear high waist jeans.
LeAnn Rimes’s cheeks are so sunken in, she could be the third Olsen twin.
I wonder if when Al Green saw Duffy while waiting to present with her said, “So that’s what Duffy looks like.”
Duffy at Hovefestivalen 2008
Viva La Vida won for Song Of The Year, which is deserving even though I liked nearly every other song on the list better. They were all pretty decent songs.
Hey, Kid Rock’s here. Wait, I thought he was directing Ice Cube movies. Whoops! That’s Fred Durst. Sorry.
Taylor Swift! Miley Cyrus! Together for the first time! When Average Happens!
Miley slanted her eyes for the song, but only because she was trying to hit some notes and had to squint.
Even though the song was entirely bland, Jennifer Hudson pulled through. With all that she’s been through, she definitely has a ton of charisma and is going to stick around. That Dreamgirls thing was no fluke y’all. She’s the real deal.
Wait, was that Stevie Wonder with the Jonas Brothers? So my favorite artist of all time with my kids’ favorite band? Only in America.
I think if the hip hop heads knew how much I was enjoying this, I’d get my card taken away.
Ok, I didn’t enjoy the Jonas’ doing Stevie’s Superstition as much as I enjoyed him doing Burnin’ Up.
Also, what’s the over/under on how many times Stevie’s performed this song at the Grammys or American Music Awards? 25?
Speaking of over/unders – where do we set how many more albums Katy Perry records that anyone ever listens to? One?
Since when did Kanye West get the same haircut as Apollo Creed from Rocky III? If the back was a little juicy, I’d have said the dude from Full Force.
Is it me or does Estelle look like Venus Williams? I bet she hits a helluva forehead. I mean forehand.
I want to apologize to Kenny Chesney for fast forwarding through his performance. I’m trying to catch up to live TV. I’ll get you next time Ken.
Diddy, Herbie Hancock, and Natalie Cole are together on screen to present for Record Of The Year. Hancock doesn’t look too happy. I think Diddy just told him he was going to remix Rock It.
Alison Krauss’ cleavage and Robert Plant won for I’ve Never Heard This Song In My Life.
I’m very uncertain about the Swagga Like Us performance. I think I need like an entire book to state my thoughts. From M.I.A. performing with that basketball underneath her sheer outfit to the black and white look, to T.I. eating the mic, to Jay-Z looking old enough to be everyone’s dad except for Kanye. I’m just really confused right now.
“Should I give up, or should I just keep chasing pavements?” That is the question.
Gwen Paltrow is much better spokeswoman for the no food and diuretics diet than Whitty Houton.
I’m unsure how I feel about Jamie Foxx, Smokedog Robinson, and Ne-Yo being a part of the Four Tops. Would any of the Four Tops have made a song with Adina Howard called T-Shirt & Panties?
I know, I haven’t written anything in the last 20 minutes. John Mayer, B.B. King, Neil Diamond, and Gary Sinese. They do all the crazy stuff early in the show.
The only way Robin Thicke gets on the Grammys is as a hook singer? Well, it is a helluva hook.
Jeez Lil’ Wayne is short. I guess that’s just not a clever name.
Who is that sitting next to T.I.? Wait, that’s the light skinded chick from Xscape. Is that one of his baby mamas? Xscape publicity shot
I bet you the last thing you thought you’d see in a 2009 Grammy Awards post was a picture of Xscape.
Alison Krauss’ corset and Robert Plant just won Album Of The Year.
Wait, this is it? They’re not going an hour over like usual? Well, they just said Stevie Wonder is going to end the show. Steve might go for a half hour himself if they let him.
By the way, my favorite album and performer of the year, Ne-Yo was shut out of the big categories. I think they docked him for having that terrible thin mustache.
If I was too harsh, I apologize, and you can blame Money Mike. It’s his site. Ha!
