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Tag: Day26

  • Sound Dialogue – R&B In 2008

    Before these last two months, I had only purchased two albums that would qualify as R&B music, which is my favorite genre. Those albums were the up and down Day26 release and Usher’s latest, which is good, though a bit underwhelming. However, with the release of Ne-Yo, Robin Thicke, Raphael Saadiq, and the newly released Evolver from John Legend, R&B is on fire right now. Money Mike and I discussed R&B music in the year 2008 in our latest Sound Dialogue.

    GG: What was going on in the early parts of 2008 with R&B music? I’m sure there were a few releases that I missed, but nothing even tempted me to make a purchase. Are there any underdog R&B stories of 2008 that I missed, or was it just a weak first 7 months for R&B?

    MM: You and I have sort of different tastes when it comes to R&B. There’s a very specific sound you like, which is the male groups and the male solo artists with a less alternative kind of sound. I like that stuff too, so maybe I should just say that we have similar tastes, but there are some artists I dig that you probably wouldn’t go for. There were a couple of sleepers in the early part of the year. Raheem Devaughn’s album was good, as was Van Hunt’s. But as far as contemporary R&B, things were looking bad until last month.

    GG: I guess that’s how I should’ve stated it. Contemporary R&B. Conventional R&B. Whatever you want to call it. But I want to ask you something related. Why hasn’t there been much in the world of female R&B? Or is that another genre that I’m missing out on?

    (more…)

  • No Plastic – Kiss You Back

    As I stated in February, I decided to stop buying actual CDs and buy all my music through iTunes. Let me update you on my iTunes journey.

    The month of April saw me purchase three full albums through iTunes. The first was Diddy’s anti-bitchassness group Day26. The album was standard R&B fare and earned Diddy another number one record, but failed to set the world on fire. But what does these days? Marketed as a new New Edition, the boys from Making The Band put together a few songs that worked like Silly Love, the first single Got Me Going, the dreamy Co-Star, and hard hitting Exclusive.

    Next was Mariah Carey’s not so fulfilling E=MC², which should’ve been titled The Emancipation of Nick Cannon. Just kidding Nick. Actually, I’m impressed that the dude had it in him. Before, I remembered him most from giving the movie audience that serious drumming face in the movie Drumline, but now he’s the guy that put that ring on Mimi’s finger. Though I didn’t like the album much and thought it was smack dab in the middle of her career works, iTunes did give me one extra song that wasn’t on the CD version. Though, I’m not sure if it was a truly bonus or not because it was the track 4real4real featuring Da Brat and though she might’ve been cool in 1994, the words “featuring Da Brat” might be the worst marketing in music today. Ok, that was wrong of me. But actually, at least we know that Da Brat is still working. Also included with the extra song was a digital booklet (iTunes version of the physical CD booklet) and the Touch My Body video, which is impressive for how well a late 30s Mimi looks.

    The third full album was the best of the bunch. Before I even tell you what it is, I have to ask, “Who is the most consistent music group in the game today?” You probably wouldn’t answer The Roots, but if they aren’t the most consistent, they are close. Their latest gem is called Rising Down and it’s probably the best album I’ve bought all year. From the killer Rising Up, with Chrisette Michele on the hook to the Talib Kweli assisting I Will Not Apologize, there’s not a bad song on the record. While they might not have the one or two head turning tracks on this album like they usually have, it’s still just damn good. Also included as an iTunes bonus is their duet with Fall Out Boy, Birthday Girl, which was vetoed off the original album and as first single for not sounding Roots enough. I kind of dig it, but I understand where they’re coming from.

    I also bought a bunch of one off songs. If you remember, April was the month of “Idol Gives Back” and instead of donating money, I bought a few tracks including Carrie Underwood’s George Michael cover of Praying For Time, the group version of Rihanna’s Don’t Stop The Music (my kids can’t get enough of this one), and Snoop Dogg’s Can’t Say Goodbye featuring Charlie Wilson. On that same day, I also purchased Bon Jovi’s Bad Medicine and Fuel’s Leave The Memories Alone with the latter being the theme song to the Nature Boy’s Ric Flair retirement. I just had to throw one wrestling reference in.

    Lastly, I purchased Digital Underground’s silly song Kiss You Back. One day, it was in my head and I decided to get it so I could hear it a few times. Without iTunes, I would’ve had to find a used copy of Sons Of The P, and that wasn’t going to happen without making a trek to a used record store some 30 miles away.

    The next edition of “No Plastic” will feature the return of some Boston boys and a man on a mission to get some grown assed respect.

  • Chart Chat 4/5/07: Day26, Madonna and More!

    Courtesy of the good folks at Billboard (wishing on a star for Joel Whitburn to send me all of his books), here are this week’s Top 20 Singles & Albums charts.
    Top 20 Albums:
    1)”Day26″-Day26
    2) “Pretty. Odd.” Panic at the Disco
    3) Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings” Counting Crows
    4) “Welcome To The Dollhouse” Danity Kane
    5)”Now 27″ Various Artists
    6) “Trilla” Rick Ross
    7) “Consolers of the Lonely” The Raconteurs
    8)”Sleep Through The Static” Jack Johnson
    9) “Mail on Sunday” Flo Rida
    10) “Little Voice” Sara Bareilles
    11) “Funplex” The B-52’s
    12) “The Odd Couple” Gnarls Barkley
    13) “Ego Trippin’” Snoop Dogg
    14) “Taylor Swift” Taylor Swift
    15) “Good Time” Alan Jackson
    16) “Alvin & The Chipmunks” Soundtrack
    17) “As I Am” Alicia Keys
    18) “95/08” Enrique Iglesias
    19) “Jonas Brothers” Jonas Brothers
    20) “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Tour” Taylor Swift
    Top 20 Singles:
    1) “Touch My Body” Mariah Carey
    2) “Love in This Club” Usher feat. Young Jeezy
    3) “4 Minutes” Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake
    4) “Bleeding Love” Leona Lewis
    5) “No Air” Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown
    6) “Sexy Can I” Ray J. feat. Yung Berg
    7) “Lollipop” Lil’ Wayne feat. Static Major
    8) “With You” Chris Brown
    9) “Love Song” Sara Bareilles
    10) “Low” Flo Rida feat. T-Pain
    11) “Don’t Stop the Music” Rihanna
    12) “You’re Gonna Miss This” Trace Adkins
    13) “Stop & Stare” OneRepublic
    14) “See You Again” Miley Cyrus
    15) “Apologize” Timbaland feat. OneRepublic
    16) “Superstar” Lupe Fiasco feat. Matthew Santos
    17) “Independent” Webbie, Lil Phat & Lil’ Boosie
    18) “No One” Alicia Keys
    19) “New Soul” Yael Naim
    20) “Sorry” Buckcherry
    First, a correction: a couple days ago, I mentioned that Madonna had moved into 2nd place on the list of artists with the most Top 10 hits, jumping ahead of Elvis and standing beside The Beatles. I made a boo-boo. Madonna is actually #1 all by herself with the ascension of “4 Minutes”. My bad, Madge. I checked out the video, and was gonna post it for y’all as a treat. But, alas, I can’t find it anywhere. You guys do the dirty work.
    Country star Trace Adkins parlays his 2nd place finish on “Celebrity Apprentice” to the #1 spot on the country charts and the highest pop placement of his career with “You’re Gonna Miss This”. No word about whether Omarosa saw this and decided she wanted a music career.
    Two of the albums in the Top 20 maintain relatively lofty positions despite a good amount of people not even knowing they’re out. The Gnarls Barkley album actually moves up 6 spots in it’s second release (it wasn’t supposed to be out until April 8th), while The Raconteurs album, which was supposed to be out on April 29th, debuts in the Top 10 despite it’s release date being moved up a full month. Pretty ballsy to see these moves taking place, especially at a time when shortsighted music executives seem to place all their chips on hitting a particular first week number.
    Holy crap! Can someone put “No One” by Alicia Keys out to pasture already?
    It’s a good time to be Ryan Tedder. Who the hell is Ryan Tedder, you ask? Well, not only is he the lead singer and songwriter for the band OneRepublic (represented with two singles in the Top 20), but he, along with former teen-popster Jesse McCartney, co-wrote Leona Lewis’s “Bleeding Love”, last week’s #1 single, which gets displaced this week by Hurricanes Mariah and Madonna.
    With those two albums arriving this month (and Usher being moved from mid-June to late-May), is it safe to say that the next few weeks in the music industry will actually be exciting?