Pop Music Notes

– Recently, I had the pleasure of penning a guest post for Brad over at Wacky On the Junk. He got the idea of asking some of his actual and virtual friends to submit five albums or songs that “changed their lives”, and I was flattered to have him ask me to contribute. Since I don’t ever do anything the easy way, I struggled for a week or so to pull together something that made sense to me until Adele’s “Hometown Glory” came up on my iTunes. From there, it was clear that I would be talking about ballads, and I came up with Five Ballads that Left a Mark.

Among the titles on that list is Prince’s “Adore”, which I described as “my favorite song from my favorite album of all time (Sign o’ the Times).” There’s a reason that BET paid homage to Prince on its BET Awards show last night, and that song, although never a single, to this day gets played on any self-respecting “Quiet Storm” show on R&B stations across the country. While it wasn’t my favorite Prince tribute (that honor goes to Janelle Monae, who I will address in the next couple of days), Alicia Keys did a pretty great version of “Adore” complete with piano climbing and some pretty impressive high notes.

– Tomorrow sees the release of the Scissor Sisters’ Night Work, which looks to be a return to form after the brief diversion that was Ta-Dah. Don’t get me wrong…Ta was a good album, but it wasn’t the stellar work that we were spoiled with on their debut. From what I’ve heard, I really like the more grimy and gritty vibe on Night Work, and a highlight so far has been “Any Which Way”. From what I’ve been told, their performance of “Any” at Glastonbury was one to remember, but maybe that’s because Kylie Minogue showed up and tore it up. Personally, I love Ana Matronic channeling Sandra Bernhard on the bridge.

– With all the musical disappointments in the world (the failure of Mini Viva, Xtina’s new album, Katy Perry at #1), we could use a surprise to cheer us up. Enter Sophie Ellis Bextor, who showed up at NYC Pride yesterday and performed for (and with) the hot, sweaty boys on the Pier. Does this mean that she is going to give the US a go when she releases the next full-length album? Or was she just in the neighborhood and thought she’d just hang out with her gay fans? Either way, who woulda thought?