Ne-Yo’s a talented dude. His pen game is sharp, his voice is pleasant if not powerhouse, and he’s reverent enough to guys like Michael and Prince without going overboard. He’s also got a personality and a sense of humor, something most of his contemporaries haven’t been able to muster. Witness this interview in which he’s asked several questions, including whether Beyonce or Rihanna is hotter (he’s written huge hits for both artists).
He says that he sees Rihanna as a little sister, and calls her “Bighead” because she has a high forehead.
Cute, yeah. But, damn. Bruh, have you seen your own head lately???
Time to bring the mugshot out again…
It’s also funny that after sheepishly announcing Beyonce the hotter of the two, he apologizes profusely to Jay-Z. Man, Jay’s not president of your label anymore. You don’t have to worry about him pushing your album back.
Last week’s releases brought some form of salvation to an ailing record industry as it looks like Li’l Wayne is going to be able to do what Usher’s latest album couldn’t and shift in the neighborhood of a million units in it’s first week. There’s a chance that this can happen in consecutive weeks with the release that kicks of this new music roundup:
Coldplay-Viva La Vida or Death & His Other Friends: I like Coldplay enough that I’d be willing to forgive the uber-pretentious title. Now, will the music be the equal of the band’s three other well-received (and quite good) albums? The title track bodes well for the qualitative value of this album (I’ll admit that I haven’t heard “Violet Hill” yet), and it’ll be interesting to hear exactly how much like U2 Brian Eno makes the band sound. Plus, you’ve gotta give Chris Martin props for resisting possible temptation and not allowing Jay-Z or Kanye West (or Gwyneth, for that matter) to make cameo appearances on the album.
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?
Last week’s releases brought some form of salvation to an ailing record industry as it looks like Li’l Wayne is going to be able to do what Usher’s latest album couldn’t and shift in the neighborhood of a million units in it’s first week. There’s a chance that this can happen in consecutive weeks with the release that kicks of this new music roundup:
