Back from the Sara Bareilles show, and it was amazing. So much good stuff to talk about, so I’ll probably do it in three parts over the next day or so. Most of the pics won’t do it justice, but I got a couple…maybe. Catch up with y’all tomorrow!
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All posts for the month October, 2008
With all my talk about David Cook, I’ve left out mentioning the other David from this season of American Idol. Master Archuleta will be releasing his debut CD on November 11th, and the set should do well, based on the initial success of “Crush”. The song seems to be losing a little bit of momentum on the pop charts, but it’s definitely given the full-length a good head start, compared to other Idols that have preceded him.
Take, for example, Blake Lewis, who came in second in the previous season. “Break Anotha” was a hot song, but it just didn’t catch on, and never even made it to the Hot 100. “ADD” (Audio Day Dream) debuted at #10, and then plummeted off the chart. To date, it’s sold less than 350,000 copies, and BShorty was released from his contract with Arista back in June.
So what can we expect from Archie’s CD? Well, according to unconfirmed sources, here’s the scoop…
OK folks, this is it, David’s unofficial (but pretty sure) new album tracklist. I can’t guarantee the order is correct, but the songs are all supposed to be 100% confirmed…
1 Crush
2 My Hands
3 Touch My Hand
4 Barriers – (No Doubt meets Bob Marley)
5 A Little Too Not Over You
6 Your Eyes Don’t Lie – not sure how to describe (Bonnie Raitt meets country/folk)
7 You Can = Ballad (acoustic guitar) very beautiful melody and lyric, very “david”
8 Running – Midi Mafia – R&B/Pop/Kinda jazzy, Very Cool!!
9 Don’t Let Go – U2 meets the Fray style – pop/alternative (David co-wrote with JC from NSync)
10 Desperate – Big mature sounding power ballad – Desmond Child (Bon Jovi hit songwriter)
11 To Be With You – Ballad #2 (piano) Pretty love ballad
12 Angels – new version – Ballad #3 (David on piano)
13 Works for Me – Bonus Track (Walmart only) – organic bluesy pop – David co-write with Daniel Bedingfield
Okay…Cook gets Cathy Dennis, and Archie gets Daniel Bedingfield. Is Daniel supposed to be a consolation because they couldn’t work it out with him dueting with Natasha? Actually, the coupling makes a lot of sense, with them both having a mild Contemporary Christian vibe going on. The other writing credit appears to be with JC Chasez from NSync, who is just glad to be allowed near a recording studio these days. For a kid who said he’d never written songs prior to the show, that’s not a bad start. Let’s just see how long it takes his Svengali dad to eff everything up.
And if you thought I could let the post go by without some David Cook info, you were wrong. Oh, so very wrong. David will be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live November 1st, which is really primo, considering it will be the last SNL before the election. Rumor has it that Sen. Obama may show up on that episode. In addition, iTunes will start pre-orders for the CD this week, but it’s already available at Amazon, where it’s currently #7 almost a month before its release. Archie’s is currently #33, which still isn’t too shabby.
Pop music is rocking my world big-time at the moment. There really is a lot of good, innovative, groovy music out at the moment that it’s hard to pick standouts. But I’ma try, a’ight?
– Will Young, “Let It Go” (CD) – In contention for album of the year, I can’t get enough of this. I don’t remember the last time I had a CD where four songs on the record were five stars, but this is the one. “Changes” is just a lush, classy track, “Let It Go” does a great job to capture the melancholy that some men feel from time to time, and “Won’t Look Down” has a soaring pop chorus with an optimistic tone that you can’t resist, even if you try. My highlight, though, is “Love”. For those of you who remember back to the golden age of sophisticated Brit pop in the late 80s, you’ll remember a group called Swing Out Sister. “Love” hits all the right notes in tribute to SOS, and it was so unexpected, that I can just listen to it over and over. Can someone see what they can do about giving Swing Out Sister another chance here in the US? They’re still together, and they’re big in Japan. Literally.
– Craig David, “Insomnia” (single) – Yeah, yeah, I know. “Disturbia”, “Forever”, “Tattoo”, “Closer”…it’s like a bastard cousin of all those recent jams. Honestly? I don’t care. Craig hasn’t had a track that resonated as well with his voice as “Insomnia” does since his first record. While it seems like he just released an album a couple of months ago, this track is from his upcoming Greatest Hits compilation, produced by Jim Beanz of the Timbaland camp. Who knows what his record company’s plan for him in the US is, but if the Pop Gods have even a remote amount of reason and justice in mind, they’ll give this record a shot. It’s a hit in the making.
– Ne-Yo, “Nobody” (album cut) – In a marketplace where CDs debut high, only to sink like a stone in the following weeks, “Year of the Gentleman” is really showing some legs, and cuts like “Nobody” have to be helping the cause. This song doesn’t feel like a rip-off as much as it does a tribute to “Off the Wall”-era Michael Jackson. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, but in the “heir to the King of Pop” contest, Ne-Yo is miles ahead of the competition. Folks like Usher and Chris Brown have attempted to make runs at it, but they just don’t have the credentials to pull off the triple threat of singer, dancer AND songwriter. Ne-Yo does all of that, plus he’s got a movie coming out that he’s starring in and producing. Not too shabby!
– Keane, “Perfect Symmetry” (CD) – This record continues to inspire me, although a little bit of the shine has worn off for the moment. I think I played it out a bit too much, but who’s counting, right? Some of my favorites are “Again and Again”, “Pretend That You’re Alone”, “Spiralling”, “Perfect Symmetry”, and “The Lovers are Losing”. If you can find it, I highly recommend the Japanese bonus track “My Shadow”. It’s one of those piano-and-vocal-driven tracks that Keane do so well.
– David Cook, “Light On” (single) – I’m going to take some abuse here, but this song has really grown on me. The chorus has that power pop vibe that I really enjoy, and I’m kind of feeling the perky, upbeat theme. Maybe my recent Chris Cornell encounter is helping fuel my increased love of the track, as he wrote the song. It’s the only track that Cook didn’t have a hand in writing, but I think given the current pop marketplace, it’s a good starting place. Most added at Hot AC radio last week, and the full-length comes out the week before Thanksgiving.
What are you all diggin’ at the moment?
Ah…big city living. How I have missed you so. During my 14 months in Lansing, I only saw one concert (Annie Lennox), and I had to drive to Detroit to see that one. Now that I’ve been back less than 3 weeks, I’ve already got a show under my belt, with at least 2 more coming up in the next 2 weeks. If nothing else, this should give me something to write about.
Last night’s show was one that I wouldn’t have necessarily paid to see, but I’m glad it worked out to see it. Chris Cornell, formerly of Soundgarden and Audioslave, has a new CD coming out that was fully produced by Timbaland and J-Roc. Entitled “Scream”, the record’s release date is now up in the air, but looks like January. It’s being billed as something undefinable, but let’s be honest. It’s definitely Timbaland, whether there’s a screaming guitar or a lush line of synths involved. I kept an open mind, and went into the show with no preconceived notions of what to expect. Good thing I did…
The show started out late. Like almost 10 PM late. Now, it was originally scheduled to go on at 9, but still, this wasn’t at a club, this was at a formal concert theater, so I wasn’t prepared for the nightclub attitude. DJ Freestyle Steve, personal DJ for Timbaland, worked the crowd, and he was a great hype man. Everyone was caught up in the vibe, and I didn’t see anyone that wasn’t into it. Good way to start off the night.
From there, it gets a bit uneven. Tim’s band came out and got set up, and then Timbaland emerged. This setting really seemed to work well with him. The Ogden only holds a couple thousand folks, and the show was sold out, so it really had a high energy with a bit of an intimate vibe.
The set consisted of the expected tracks from “Shock Value”, along with tracks with other artists and a few album cuts I wouldn’t have expected. “Oh Timbaland”, “Promiscuous”, “Bounce”, “Apologize”, “Release”, “Throw It On Me”, “Sexyback”, “The Way I Are”…he covered all of the expected bases, but it was a bit awkward at times. Since he utilizes other artists for all of the singing (and a good chunk of the rapping), there were times that he was standing there, grooving while the backing track with the vocals was playing. However, when he was engaged, he was REALLY engaged. The way he took “Release”, and broke it down instrument by instrument was really cool, and showed a bit of his production skill. That helped make up for his excessive talking in between tracks, which got a bit annoying after a while.
In a little bit of a Timbaland exclusive, he announced “Shock Value, Vol. 2” will release on February 14th. As a sampler, they played “Talk That Sh*t”, which the Interwebs say T-Pain is on, but man, it sure sounded like Lil Wayne on that track.
So we’re pushing up on 11, and the set ends, and the crew takes a half hour to change things over, so it’s LATE. Maybe I’m old, but my back was killing me from standing for almost 3 hours at that point. There was no way I was leaving my first concert back in Denver early, so I just hung in there, and Chris finally made it out around 11:20. Had I done research, I would have known that he was going to play the album from start to finish, but I didn’t, which I’m glad for. Sonically, this is definitely a project to hear live. I’ve gone and listened to some of the tracks that have been released as singles on iTunes, and they pale a bit to the live experience.
As a whole, I enjoyed it. There were a few things that bothered me a bit, but I don’t think they are major. Chris appears to have picked up Tim’s habit of grunting and saying “yeah” at the beginning of tracks. He did that on at least three tracks that I remember. Since I haven’t heard the CD with a track listing in front of me, and the track listing hasn’t been released yet, I can’t fully ID all of the songs, but I will say that some of this DOES sound a bit innovative, but much of it sounds like “Shock Value”. “Scream” might as well be the sequel to “Apologize”, but something like “Part of Me” has potential. Chris seemed to get lost in the mix at times last night, but when he was at full energy, he was awesome. “Watch Out” live had a futuristic Offspring sound to it, while the closing “Two Drink Minimum” even got a bit bluesy and sultry.
All in all, a fun show, even with the little nuisances included. Impressively, the crowd was very much into both sets, which helped. I feared that they would lose some enthusiasm after Timbaland finished, but that didn’t happen. If nothing else, I will be checking out the final version of “Scream” when it is finally released.
It’s tough keeping up with pop music these days. Okay, I said it. There are so many websites and so many blogs and so many forums that you just wonder how you’ll ever fully be “in the know”. On top of that, you read a lot of stuff online where you wonder what their “angle” is, because sometimes it’s pretty obvious that you’re reading a PR release instead of a genuine review of someone.
Having said all of that, there are ways of finding out what “real” folks are grooving to, and my favorite is Last.fm. (“Pop Music Notes is not in any way receiving any compensation or recognition for this endorsement”) They’ve come a long way in the past two years, and I consider them to be a top-notch service that allows me to keep up with friends and their tunes, check out new stuff through recommendations, engage in dialogue on artists and their music, and even blog. Prior to this blog’s inception, all of my American Idol posts were listed there, and the discussions would get a bit heated at times. Sad, yes, but still interesting.
I’m probably preaching to the choir with many of you, and some of you are already friends with me on there. If you’re not, feel free to add me. It would be great to keep up with what everyone else is digging. And in case you’re wondering, here’s what I’m listening to today:
I haven’t talked about David Cook in about 2 weeks (other than to…vent?), so it’s about time for some DC news. First off, Cook picked up a #17 debut last week on the Hot 100 with “Light On”, which has been growing on me quite a bit. The record went to radio last week, so we’ll see how it does, as it’s dropped down to #66 on iTunes at the moment. It’s an interesting strategy to go to retail so soon without building a buzz, but you’ve got to figure the folks at 19 may have a little bit of experience at breaking a new artist.
More importantly, David’s CD comes out November 18th, and they have released a track listing. From ew.com:
Mastering on his self-titled album was completed in New York earlier this week, with Cook personally overseeing the finishing touches on 12 tracks, 11 of which he wrote or cowrote. Other songwriters who made the cut: Goo Goo Dolls’ Johnny Rzeznik, Our Lady Peace singer Raine Maida (who’s credited on four songs), Cathy Dennis (of Britney Spears “Toxic” fame), and, of course, Chris Cornell, who wrote the single “Light On.”
Okay…Rzeznik, check. Our Lady Peace, check. Cathy Dennis…WTF? Seriously? Okay. Just breathe, John. David Cook co-wrote with Cathy Dennis. Nothing to see here. Go on about your business.
Can you tell I’m a fan? The Dennis/Cook collaboration really sounds intriguing, so I’m eager to hear what comes out of it. It says a lot about 19’s confidence in him that he actually co-wrote 11 of the 12 tracks on the CD. Now let’s see him get out there and sell it!
– As predicted, “Womanizer” sprints from #96 to #1, giving her the longest jump up the Hot 100 in history. It may be hard for her to repeat next week, though, given how iTunes, due to a “glitch”, dropped “Womanizer” from its site on Tuesday. The track has been re-upped, but the damage may have already been done for next week’s chart. In other Britney news, she’s going on tour next Spring, and she had a Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate yesterday.
– PMN faves the Indigo Girls have a new CD ready to go sometime in the near future in two formats: with a full band, and just the two of them acoustic. Since they were dropped from Hollywood Records last year (“a real blessing”, says Amy Ray), the duo can pursue any option they want, but plan to stay independent for the foreseeable future. They do have their own label, so they know what they’re doing. BTW, Amy’s solo tour kicks off next week in Nashville.
– Nutty rocker Justin Hawkins, formerly of the Darkness, is out with a new group called Hot Leg. They’ll have a single out next week, and a CD out in January. After having heard his contribution for Eurovision, I’m surprised they let him record anything. The world will look up, yawn, and then go back to filing their nails.
– New releases this week include Keane, Keane and Keane. Does anything else matter? Well, there’s also a lot of Christmas crap getting released, along with Ray Montagne, Kenny Chesney, Ingrid Michaelson, Nikka Costa, and (’cause they need the money) Sixpence None the Richer. Speaking of Christmas, it’s like that for hip-hop fans, with new singles from Fitty, Ludacris, and T-Pain. Other singles of note include more Taylor Swift, John Legend and Fall Out Boy, as well as a pretty cool cover of “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Seal.
If you need one more reason to wonder why record companies are so out of touch with reality, you don’t need to look any further than the case of Tim McGraw. Billboard reported today that Tim actually denounced the release of his “Greatest Hits, Volume 3”, and with good reason. Straight from the horse’s mouth…
“I am saddened and disappointed that my label chose to put out another hits album instead of new music,” McGraw said in a statement. “I’ve only had one studio album since my last hits package. It has to be just as confusing to the fans as it is to me. I had no involvement in the creation or presentation of this record. Sure I love the songs and I don’t want to take anything away from all the creative people who were a part of making those records. But the whole concept is an embarrassment to me as an artist.
“In the spirit of an election year, I would simply say to my fans ‘I’m Tim McGraw and I don’t approve their message,'” McGraw concluded.
You’ve got to wonder what Curb Records is thinking. This guy has carried that label on his back for years, and while they have other artists that do alright, no one’s had the consistent hit power that McGraw has shown over the past 15 years. While they’re not exactly destitute, Curb’s next biggest star is Leann Rimes, who is making some great music, but sure isn’t setting the charts on fire recently. Take a look at the roster to see just how fortunate they should be to have Tim McGraw around.
The craziest part of this to me is that McGraw actually has new material, and wanted to release it before Christmas. That would make most labels squeal like pigs at a trough, but apparently Curb felt another Greatest Hit collection, featuring music that goes all the way back into the 90s, would be a better seller. However, it looks like they will probably lose McGraw AND a lot of record sales this Christmas. It’s not like he and Faith need the money at this point, having staged the highest-grossing country tour of all time back in ’06 (a show that I felt was sadly lacking). I smell a Live Nation deal coming on for Tim.
No, this won’t be a tribute to Ms Abdul, although wasn’t she supposed to have a record out right about now? If there was a good time for her to release some happy dance music, now would be the time to do so. In the face of hard economic times, there are two types of music that really seem to do well. Anything that reminds the listener of a better time (aka oldies) start popping up more, so expect an upswing in “80s and 90s weekends” on your local Adult Contemporary station. In addition, dance music seems to do better in these times, and I think that may be slowly working itself out.
Case in point: the dance opus “Blackout”. (Why does everything come back to Britney this week?) Yes, it’s the least successful Britney CD saleswise, and I’m sure that part of that has to do with leaks and downloads, but if you look at the single releases, they were collectively more successful than “In The Zone”. Britney’s only had one hit bigger than “Gimme More”, and that’s “Baby One More Time”, her only #1. What’s the common theme of the singles on “Blackout”? It’s dance music, bitch.
A month ago, I found myself at 3 am slightly intoxicated at Charlie’s in Chicago, hanging with a good friend who was on the make. After a year of living in Lansing, it was great to be in a big-city club playing big boy music, and I was just taking it in. The music was bangin’ all night, but when “Closer” came on, the place really lit up, and I found myself on the dancefloor by myself for the one and only time of the night. There was something so liberating about that 7 minutes or so of escapism through dance, and I reveled in it. Gone were the worries about the upcoming move, the pending unemployment, and the final cords being cut on a long-term relationship. In their place was joy, exhilaration, and celebration.
“And I just can’t bring myself away
But I don’t want to escape
I just can’t stop”
Dance music has power, and it’s that power that draws people to it in times of despair and crisis. The mental, emotional, and physical release can be healing.
Of course, I look at this as an American, where dance music seems to seep its way underground more often than not, but this is the same country that rallied behind “disco sucks” in the late 70s. I am often jealous of my counterparts in other countries who enjoy dance music in the mainstream on a regular basis. If all goes according to plan, though, the US will be experiencing a dance renaissance not seen since the mid 90s, when tracks from the likes of Real McCoy, C+C Music Factory, La Bouche, Haddaway, and Crystal Waters were ruling the airwaves. I leave you with a video that arguably represents that period better than any other.
Tonight you get two Britney videos for the price of one. First off, here’s the director’s cut on the “Womanizer” video that premiered on 20/20. How many Britneys can you count?
This video puts every video from “Blackout” to shame, and really gives a lot of credence to the phrase “Britney’s back”. Dancing, special effects, skin…it’s got everything that you look for in a A-list music video. I would actually give the song another chance after watching this.
Video #2 is more unexpected, but man, it’s a riveting piece of video for a minute and a half. Check out the promo for Britney’s MTV reality show “For the Record”, due in November.
This clip is fascinating, if for no other reason than the quote at the end of the video. “What the hell was I thinking?” I haven’t been a big booster of the new song, but I really am rooting for her to make a comeback. The fact that she’s asking the question says a lot about her and how far she’s come. This is must-see TV, y’all!
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