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Tag: Death Cab for Cutie

  • Chart Chat 5/25/08: Duffy, Keith Sweat & More!!


    Y’all know what it is…here are this week’s Top 20 Singles & Albums, courtesy of the folks at Billboard.

    Top 20 Singles:

    1) “Lollipop” Lil’ Wayne feat. Static Major
    2) “Bleeding Love” Leona Lewis
    3) “Take a Bow” Rihanna
    4) “Love in This Club” Usher feat. Young Jeezy
    5) “No Air” Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown
    6) “Sexy Can I” Ray J. feat. Yung Berg
    7) “4 Minutes” Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake
    8) “Pocketful of Sunshine” Natasha Bedingfield
    9) “Touch My Body” Mariah Carey
    10) “Damaged” Danity Kane
    11) “Love Song” Sara Bareilles
    12) “Leavin’” Jesse McCartney
    13) “Bust it Baby Pt. II” Plies feat. Ne-Yo
    14) “What You Got” Colby O’ Donis feat. Akon
    15) “Say” John Mayer
    16) “Low” Flo-Rida feat. T-Pain
    17) “With You” Chris Brown
    18) “Love in This Club Part II” Usher feat. Beyonce & Lil’ Wayne
    19) “Bye Bye” Mariah Carey
    20) “Forever” Chris Brown

    Top 20 Albums:

    1) “Narrow Stairs” Death Cab for Cutie
    2) “Nothing But the Best” Frank Sinatra
    3) “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things” Jason Mraz
    4) “Rockferry” Duffy
    5) “Spirit” Leona Lewis
    6) “E=MC2” Mariah Carey
    7) “Home Before Dark” Neil Diamond
    8) “Hard Candy” Madonna
    9) “35 Biggest Hits” Toby Keith
    10) “Just Me” Keith Sweat
    11) “Taylor Swift” Taylor Swift
    12) “Division” 10 Years
    13) “Now That’s What I Call Music 27” Various Artists
    14) “Greatest Hits: Every Mile a Memory” Dierks Bentley
    15) “Gavin DeGraw” Gavin DeGraw
    16) “Awake Live” Josh Groban
    17) “Lyfe Change” Lyfe Jennings
    18) “On My Way Here” Clay Aiken
    19) “Juno” Soundtrack
    20) “Sleep Through the Static” Jack Johnson

    *So…um…who the hell is 10 Years? Not that I profess to be the beginning and ending of all things music, but it’s a bit rare for me to have never once heard of an artist in the Top 20. Oh,well.

    *A nice cluster of newbies in the Top 4, including a well-deserved bow at the top from Death Cab for Cutie.I’d imagine the biggest surprise would be from British soul singer Duffy at #4. Her single “Mercy” also rockets up the chart, landing in the Top 30 this week.

    …and is it me, or does this song sound suspiciously like…

    *As tipped off last week, Usher cruises into the Top 20 with his “Love in This Club” remix, which features the beyond-ubiquitous Lil’ Wayne as well as only slightly less ubiquitous Beyonce. Personally, I think it’s time for *both* of them to take a vacation.

    *Clay Aiken, I think it’s time to say bye-bye to your career, eh?

    *Keith Sweat is in the Top 10 of the album charts for the first time in almost a decade (and hits the #1 spot on the R&B albums chart for the sixth time). Proof that begging will *never* go out of style!

    Let’s take it back!!!

  • Chart Chat 5/18/08: Rihanna, Neil Diamond, Luis Miguel & More!!


    It’s that time again! Courtesy of the folks at Billboard, I bring you this week’s Top Singles and Albums charts. Dig the foxy-ass pic of Neil Diamond. He’s pimp!!vKick it, Fred!

    Top 20 Albums:

    1)”Home Before Dark” Neil Diamond
    2)”35 Biggest Hits” Toby Keith
    3)”Hard Candy” Madonna
    4)”On My Way Here” Clay Aiken
    5)”E=MC2″ Mariah Carey
    6)”Spirit” Leona Lewis
    7)”Gavin DeGraw” Gavin DeGraw
    8)”Awake Live” Josh Groban
    9)”Greatest Hits: Every Mile a Memory 2003-2008″ Dierks Bentley
    10)”Complices” Luis Miguel
    11)”Taylor Swift” Taylor Swift
    12)”Lyfe Change” Lyfe Jennings
    13)”Now That’s What I Call Music! Vol. 27″ Various Artists
    14)”Troubadour” George Strait
    15)”Sleep Through the Static” Jack Johnson
    16)”Stand Out” Tye Tribbett & G.A.
    17)”Juno Soundtrack” Various Artists
    18)”Jordin Sparks” Jordin Sparks
    19)”Coco” Colbie Caillat
    20)”Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2″ Tim McGraw

    Top 20 Singles:
    1)”Take a Bow” Rihanna
    2)”Bleeding Love” Leona Lewis
    3)”Lollipop” Lil’ Wayne feat. Static Major
    4)”No Air” Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown
    5)”Love in This Club” Usher feat. Young Jeezy
    6)”Sexy Can I” Ray J. & Yung Berg
    7)”4 Minutes” Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake
    8)”Touch My Body” Mariah Carey
    9)”Pocketful of Sunshine” Natasha Bedingfield
    10)”Damaged” Danity Kane
    11)”Love Song” Sara Bareilles
    12)”Leavin’” Jesse McCartney
    13)”Low” Flo-Rida feat. T-Pain
    14)”Say” John Mayer
    15)”Viva La Vida” Coldplay
    16)”Bust it Baby Pt. 2″ Plies feat. Ne-Yo
    17)”What You Got” Colby O’Donis feat. Akon
    18)”With You” Chris Brown
    19)”See You Again” Miley Cyrus
    20)”Stop & Stare” OneRepublic

    *So, when the news started to hit about Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon getting married, I actually thought to myself, “Self, whatever happened to Luis Miguel?”. Luis was the Latin superstar Mariah dated between Derek Jeter and (allegedly) Eminem. The Top 10 debut for his latest album answers that question for me. I’m pretty sure Mariah and Luis are the only former couple to share space in the Top 10 this week, unless there was some Toby Keith/Clay Aiken hookup that I didn’t know anything about. Ugh. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

    *Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” makes the second biggest leap to #1 in chart history, climbing 51 spots to the top. The holder for the largest jump is Maroon 5’s “Makes Me Wonder”, from last year. So of course, another debut this week is “If I Never See Your Face Again”, by Maroon 5 featuring Rihanna (see how nicely that came together?). I’ll admit, I liked this song a lot without Rihanna, but she does add a bit of sexual tension to the proceedings (and it’s a much better song than the plodding “Take a Bow”). It’s still a little disturbing though, because I’m pretty sure that Adam Levine has at least a decade on Rih-Rih.

    *Neil Diamond, somewhat improbably, scores the first #1 album of his CAREER with “Home After Dark”. This news definitely threw me for a loop, because I remember watching “America’s Top 10” as a kid and I swore that the “Jazz Singer” soundtrack was omnipresent. I’m surprised it wasn’t a #1 album. According to Wikipedia, it peaked at #3. Wow. Well, congrats to Neil and to producer Rick Rubin for bringing forth Neil’s late-career renaissance. Oh, and “American Idol”, which featured Neil as their guest judge a couple weeks back.

    *After a five year wait, apparently people still care about Gavin DeGraw. I am decidedly *not* one of them.

    *How about this one, folks? Danity Kane (at #10 on the singles chart) is the only group to be found in the entire Top 10 of both the singles AND albums charts! Every one else in the top tier of both lists is either a solo artist, performing a duet (or has a “featured” performance), or is a movie soundtrack. Billboard’s Chart Beat Chat acknowledges that it might be the first time in history that’s occurred.

    *Next week, Death Cab for Cutie will almost certainly debut at #1 on the albums chart (managing to break the solo artist trend), while major moves on the singles chart should come from Usher (whose “Love in This Club Part II, featuring Beyonce, was made available for digital download this week) and NKOTB’s “Summertime”, which is on pace to debut in the Top 40, if not the Top 20.

    *Ahh, screw it, let’s just make it a Rihanna Sunday. Here’s the video for “Take a Bow”. For the record, (and to clarify for the Boston Metro writer who called her a 2-hit wonder), this is her 8th Top 10 single. Umm…and what’s up with that neck tattoo? And isn’t this song just “Irreplaceable” with pianos instead of guitars?

  • New Music In Stores & Online: 5-13-08


    Sorry, folks. Last week’s set of releases was so crappy that I just couldn’t bring myself to post. Consider yourselves lucky. You avoided a hearty round of Clay Aiken and Chris Sligh jokes (yep, both former “American Idol” contestants released albums last week).

    Thankfully, this week’s set of releases is much better. Here’s what’s on tap:

    Death Cab for Cutie: Narrow Stairs : It’s kind of hard for me to explain what Death Cab sounds like. Think really strong indie pop with great songwriting. Ben Gibbard is an expressive vocalist, even though he won’t make anyone’s great singers list. Long story short, these guys deserve the hype. I found them with their last album, “Plans”, and if you’re not familiar with these folks, you should start now.

    http://www.deathcabforcutie.com/splash/

    (yes, the video is 8 minutes long. You’ll get over it.)

    Duffy “Rockferry”: It’s not difficult to explain what Duffy sounds like. Think Amy Winehouse. That is all. Amidst the wave of British female singers that have crashed our shores in Amy’s wake, Duffy is the one who has been compared to Wino the most-minus the whole drug addiction thing. Kinda sounds to me like a whitewashed copy, but I’ll be checking the album out anyway.

    Homepage

    Jason Mraz “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things”: Remember Jason Mraz? In the wake of John Mayer, Mraz was the smart-alecky, Boradway kid version of Mr. “Your Body is a Wonderland”. His second album, “Mr. A-Z” overdid it on the pretentiousness, which had already reached fever pitch by that time (remember when he popped up at the Gramy nomination ceremony only to receive ZERO nominations? There were a lot of happy people there). Anyway, everyone deserves a second chance, and this release (which has been preceded by a couple of EPs) might find Mraz dialing down the obnoxiousness a little bit. OK, I just took a look at the website. So, maybe not.

    Jason Mraz — Official Website

    Keith Sweat “Just Me”: It’s been twenty years and Keith Sweat still ain’t too proud to beg. The master of R&B begging is back after a six-year absence, and he’s changed absolutely nothing. Sweat may be approaching 50, but the grooves are still smoove, and Mr. Sweat is still whining and begging for you to love him down, baby!! Keyshia Cole guests.

    http://www.thesweathotel.com/

    Foxy Brown “Brooklyn’s Don Diva”: I say Li’l Kim, Remy Ma and Foxy should have linked up behind bars and put together a group or something. At any rate, with two of the three out of the clink, that won’t happen, so Foxy’s long-delayed fourth album finally arrives (this album has been pushed back so many times that she’s served her entire term since it’s initial release date). If you don’t buy this album, she might throw a BlackBerry or some hair glue at you. Watch out.

    (apparently, Foxy doesn’t have a website)

    Most of this week’s releases similarly come from the “Where The Hell Have YOU Been?” category. Remember Filter? They’re back with an album. How about Ashlee Simpson’s former boyfriend Ryan Cabrera? He’s back with a skeevy new look (and now is dating one of Lisa Marie Presley’s kids) and an independently-released album. And if you’re hankering for some of that mid-Eighties pop/rock flavor, you might want to check out Bryan Adams’ new album, cleverly titled “11”. Hint, it’s his 11th album.

    OH!! Speaking of long vacations, the New Kids on the Block return with their first group release in fourteen years. “Summertime” is available for purchase at iTunes and all the other major subscription/pay-download services. Hangin’ tough!!

    Happy shopping, folks.

    And here’s the full list…
    http://www.pauseandplay.com/cdfront.htm