chris cornell

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What I’m Diggin’

Posted by John on October 19, 2008
Posted in: reviews, singles, songs. Tagged: , , , , , . 6 Comments

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?

Make Me Wanna “Scream”

Posted by John on October 18, 2008
Posted in: concerts, reviews. Tagged: , . 1 Comment

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.