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Tag: John Legend

  • GG’s Top 10 Albums Of 2008

    I will never pretend to be the complete music connoisseur that others on this site are. I like certain styles of music and will continue to buy those styles all year round. I’m the guy who bought LL Cool J’s latest album even though I expected it to be trash (and it was). I will give new artists a chance only if they are suggested to me by people I know and trust. You can say I’m in my own musical bubble. Thus, my top 10 albums are very much in the pop/R&B/hip hop genres and even in those genres, you won’t find any surprises. With that kind of introduction, how can you not want to read this list?

    10. Day26 – Day26

    Diddy’s new New Edition was probably a bit overrated coming out because their musical debut was marketed through the television show Making The Band, but I think they have a chance to succeed as long as Diddy sticks with him. Diddy has shown that he’s willing to drop members of the group like he did in Danity Kane. But I think these guys have the right chemistry necessary in today’s fickle music world. Not to say that they’ll become legendary, but I think they have a chance to make a few more albums. On their debut, they show definite promise. Give me more Co Star, Got Me Going, and Exclusive and I think I’ll continue buying their records.

    9. Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak

    It’s really a crime that I have to score Kanye’s latest album so low. It’s creative, inventive, emotional, introspective, and he should get credit for stretching his boundaries. But the singing is terrible. The song writing is good in spots though terrible in others. The production is top notch and you won’t catch everything unless you listen closely and with headphones. But I can’t get over the overuse of Auto-tune and simple bad singing.

    8. Brandy – Human

    Though I think she’s naked without the likes of Wanya and Mase around her, I do still like Brandy. With this album she opens up a lot about relationships of yesteryear and there’s a lot that I can relate to, including the song Long Distance. Having been in a long distance relationship myself, she taps into all the emotions you go through when you love someone who doesn’t live close to you. Right Here (Departed) and The Definition are also really good songs.

    7. John Legend – Evolver

    This is one of the few albums that I liked far more when I heard it the first few times than I do now. There’s something about Legend with this third album that slightly bothers me. His last album was near perfect and I guess I expected too much from him. Green Light was a fun single with Andre 3000, but It’s Over with Kanye West was a miss. There is definitely good stuff on this album including Everybody Knows, Cross The Line, and I Love, You Love, but what’s missing from this album is the non-skippability his last album had. I found myself skipping through the album a lot more than most albums on this list. I kept telling myself, “But this is John Legend.” But it didn’t work. I still skipped.

    6. Q-Tip – The Renaissance

    Being a huge fan of A Tribe Called Quest, this album was right up my alley. There’s just something about Tribe. Q-Tip has always been an original kind of MC and you can’t paint him into any corner. Many former hip hop fans came out of the woodwork and just loved this album. And the reason for that? This album is fun. I want you to find a more fun song this year than Move.

    5. Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See It

    When this album came out, Money Mike said that the reason he likes it is because he’s supposed to like it. I feel somewhat the same way. However, it can’t be the only reason I like it. While this album has the old Motown feel all over it, it’s not only for that reason either. I guess I just like the throwback vibe to the simpleness of music. I’m a sucker and a half for a nice slow jam and Oh Girl does it for me.

    “I promise I won’t let you down
    I’m gonna make you so proud
    I’ll keep you here next to mine
    And I’ll be everything you need
    Believe me girl”

    Usher's album - Here I Stand
    Usher’s album – Here I Stand
    4. Usher – Here I Stand

    I spent much of 2008 telling Mike how disappointed I was with Usher’s new album and here it sits at number four on my list. And then I got it. The gaudy dance singles are missing. He’s still on the freaky tip a bit too much for my taste. But what you see is individual growth. You can hear it in Moving Mountains and even in the interlude to his son, Prayer For You Interlude. I think the gem is the hidden track Will Work For Love.

    “Excuse me you two, got love to spare?
    Search my whole heart, ain’t none in there
    Pardon me sister, I’m on my last
    Don’t have no love, that’s OK, God bless”

    3. Robin Thicke – Something Else

    Robin Thicke came out of the box strong with Magic and stayed strong with The Sweetest Love. In a perfect world, Dreamworld would blow up and be a strong single for 2009, but somehow I don’t see that happening. What this album suffers from is too much of the same. You hear the same Thicke for much of the album, which is fine for those who can sit there in the zone with him. Thankfully, I can.

    2. The Roots – Rising Down

    This isn’t anything new. I think the last three Roots albums that were released were either my first or second favorite hip hop album of the year. They are definitely the most consistent hip hop act going and you could argue that they are the most consistent performer in all of music when it comes to quality. Though they missed with Birthday Girl (I still liked it), they hit huge with Rising Up which is probably one of my five favorite songs of the year.

    1. Ne-Yo – Year Of The Gentleman

    I’m sold. I always wondered if he was going to be the type of recording star that he could become or if the fact that he writes a lot of material for others would cause him to never have that one great album. Well, in only his third try, he’s found that great album. It’s one of the best relationship albums I’ve ever heard. He hits on a bunch of different angles in love and loss and love again. There are even two bangers in Closer and the Michael Jackson-esque Nobody to fit around all the love and heartbreak. I keep coming back to this album when I get tired of new music and I imagine it will be in heavy rotation come 2009 as well. In The Way has a special tug on my heart.

    “Baby the world keeps getting in the way
    With you is where I wanna be, but it just won’t let me
    Cause it keeps getting in the way    ”

  • Sunday Seven: Loving The Aliens

    Here’s a dirty little secret about what’s on my iPod:  I, almost exclusively, put singles on it.  It’s probably not the most appropriately music-snobby approach, but it serves a couple of purposes.  One:  it gives me a strict, easy-to-adhere-to criterion for editing down a library of more than 20,000 mp3s (3200 CDs, 400 LPs) to fit onto an 80 gig iPod.  The other purpose is that at the times when I’m listening to the iPod – at work, on walks, at the gym – I want some easy – meaning familar – listening.  Now, just because something was a single doesn’t mean it was popular (or if it was, that it still is today), and just because it’s familiar – easy – listening for me, doesn’t mean it is for a whole lot of others, so there’s still plenty of obscure shit to be heard.  And, of course, every rule was made to be broken.  Or bent.  For instance:
    1.  “It’s Alright” by Chicago (1986)
    Never released as an A-side in its own right, this lively Bill Champlin song about a consolatory one-nighter, which originally appeared on Chicago 18 was certainly worthy.   My first concert (actually my first three) was Chicago touring behind Chicago 18 and I remember this as one of the few new songs the band trotted out between classics like “Saturday in the Park” and “25 or 6 to 4” (which they’d recently re-recorded as 18‘s introductory single).  The song was an instant sing-along, even with the older audience, and I always felt it deserved to be a single.   Alas, it merely turned up as the b-side to Chicago 19‘s third single “You’re Not Alone”.  As further proof that this song might have been a contender for single consideration, check out this (obviously lip-synced) television performance of the song.

    2.  “Abracadabra” by The Steve Miller Band (1982)
    This was the song that introduced me to the Steve Miller Band.  It also came out right around the time that I was really starting to pay attention to the radio (as opposed to playing the hell out of my parent’s records and having my older sister make mix tapes for me from hers).  I think it was the number one song the first time I ever listened to Casey Kasem’s weekly Top 40 broadcast.  (Incidentally, Chicago was near the top at the same time with their comeback single “Hard to Say I’m Sorry”, the song that introduced me to them.)
    3. “Everlasting Love” by Robert Knight (1967)
    Not as popular as the early-disco-era version recorded by Carl Carlton (it was also covered by Gloria Estefan in the 90s), Robert Knight’s “Everlasting Love”  – a Top 20 hit in its own right – boasts punchier, more accented vocals and a fatter horn arrangement.  Otherwise, the two versions are so similar that at a quieter volume, their indistinguishable.
    4.  “I Saw the Light” by Todd Rundgren (1972)
    I like a lot of Todd Rundgren’s work as a performer, as a producer, and as the leader of the band Utopia, but I love very little of it.  I like this song.  That is all.
    5.  “No Other Love” by John Legend (2008)
    A nice reggae-tinged song from his fine third album Evolver.  Nothing mindblowing here, but the fact that John Legend not only exists, but thrives in today’s AutoTuned pop and R&B marketplace is cause for hope.  He did a bit of campaigning for Barack Obama this fall.  Maybe the President-elect could invent a cabinet post to appoint John Legend to.  Secretary of Soul?
    6.  “Another World” by Hoodoo Gurus (1989)
    One of the great, unsung bands to come out of Australia in the 80s, the Hoodoo Gurus released this adorable, and oh-so-catchy love-song to an extra-terrestrial as the second single of their fabulous 1989 album Magnum Cum Louder.  Awesome stuff.

    7.  “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” by Pat Benatar (1980)
    Last week, I picked up a new compilation from the Numero Group called It’s All Pop, chronicling the brief and disheartening history of a Kansas City indie label called Titan Records.  Formed by a couple of friends in the mid-70s, Titan’s complete discography amounted to six (beautifully packaged) 7″ singles, and a label sampler LP.   It’s a fascinating story, with some pretty good music to go with it, but one thing I noticed was that there were no women!  Where are all the girls in power-pop (besides in the song titles)?  (Actually, one of Titan’s most notable acts was a quartet from Nebraska who called themselves The Boys and dressed themselves in a – err, gender-ambiguous manner.  Courage, my friends, courage.)  But, oh yeah, Pat Benatar.  “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”.  You could never fit Pat Benatar’s work into a subgenre as narrowly defined as power-pop, but “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” is the quintessential (girl-)power pop song.
    And thank you, Paul, for taking us on a trip through your iPod! I’m jealous because you have more music than me, though. Join us next Sunday when (hopefully) we’ll have another guest take us through their music collection on the Sunday Seven!!!

  • 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…)