There are basically two types of One Hit Wonders. There are the ones that put out extremely catchy songs, but you know you that do not have a second hit in them (think Lou Bega). Then there are the types whose first singles are so big, radio just doesn’t let them achieve a second hit because they are too busy playing the first one to bother given another of their songs a chance (think Semisonic). And that second route is what happened to Gnarls Barkley when, to this day, radio just keeps on spinning Crazy despite Smiley Faces and Gone Daddy Gone being great songs in their own rights.
One reason why the first group fails is they keep on trying to recreate their one and only hit. But don’t expect to hear anything like Crazy on Gnarls Barkley’s follow up album, The Odd Couple because the duo has already moved on. And they didn’t need to because with Danger Mouse’s seemingly never-ending well of beats, the group doesn’t need to try something they have already done. If there is anything similar to their debut on the new disk is Gnarls Barkley still manages to sound like something you have heard before and nothing you have ever heard before at the same time.
When you push the boundaries as far as Gnarls Barkley does, there is bound to be a misstep or two, for The Odd Couple, that comes in the form of Open Book where it sounds like Danger Mouse created a beat and thought to himself that it would be cool if Cee-Lo would unleash a vocal tirade over a backwards version of it. And sadly there aren’t any subliminal messages in there (or least none that I could distinguish).
Despite nothing as intrinsic as Crazy on the album (not that anyone should expect that) there are plenty of tracks worthy of multiple spins. First on the list is Who’s Gonna Save a Soul, a dark psychedelic trip that cuts so deep it will stay with you long after the album is done playing. On the other end of the spectrum, Run (I’m a Natural Disaster) is a frantic call to arms to anyone who wants to write the group off as too weird complete with cheerleader type shouts with Cee-Lo singing like he is running along side and a children storytelling breakdown in the middle just for fun.
Elsewhere there is Going On that incorporates Hendrix type guitars, gospel organs, and Motown snares that will have you clapping along. Blinds Mary is a bouncy pop song that will male you want to grab the nearest hand and skip along in a park. The album ends with A Little Better and an infectious bass line that is almost as good as Crazy’s but that is where the too seminaries end for the two songs. But the true power of The Odd Couple is that no matter how many times you listen to it, you will hear something you didn’t hear before.
There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I though I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form so here they are courtesy of YouTube. I advise you to watch them before you read my reviews if you don’t want me to spoil things. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available, if not the link goes to YouTube where you can watch the video in full screen). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.
All the videos from the first Gnarls Barkley album were innovative and something to see, this is kind of underwhelming. The 80’s dance party theme has been down before. Foe a more jarring video, hunt down the leaked second single Who Will Save My Soul featuring ?uestlove. Speaking of ?uestlove…
…here is one from his group The Roots in a very Reservoir Dogs kind of video. If this song is any indication, Rising Down is going to be another classic.
My favorite song off of Missy Higgins album (see: Breathe Them Deep into Your Lungs) and thanks to this video, I know have a new way to stalk an ex by sending photo booth pictures to her. I will certainly have to try that out the next time I’m jilted.
Everyone has those songs that take you back to a certain place and nothing says Grade School dance more to me than this song from the Jeff Healey Band. And a melancholy happy trails to the namesake who passed away earlier this week. I never actually knew the guy was blind until I read about his passing. To read more about the life of Jeff Healey, check out this AP report.
While watching Live Earth earlier this year with all the great music, it crossed my mind to come up with the greatest live performances of the past twelve month. And with the Grammy’s, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the thousands of other pat themselves on the back events that the music business throws for themselves, it wasn’t hard to populate a list. I did throw out the talk show performances because 99% of them are just boring rehashes of their album versions. But here are the best of the best of 2007 with links to YouTube where available (and if you have the mp3 of any of them shout me a holla because there are a couple I would like that I haven’t hunted down yet):
1. Gimme Shelter - Keith Urban and Alicia Keys (Live Earth)
2. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley (49th Annual Grammy Awards)
3. Check the Rhyme/Award Tour - A Tribe Called Quest (2007 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors)
4. Like a Star/Coming Home/Gravity - Corrine Bailey Rae, John Legend and John Mayer (49th Annual Grammy Awards)
5. Darling Nikki - Cee-Lo and Foo Fighters (2007 MTV Video Music Awards)
6. Big Bottom - Spinal Tap and an Army of Bassists (Live Earth)
Before I get into some of the most entertaining music videos, I have to first say: Holy Frak! They killed Lamb! Be sure to turn in tomorrow to see my theory on why Lamb isn’t really dead. Now back to your regularly scheduled post:
There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I though I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form so here they are courtesy of YouTube. I advise you to watch them before you read my reviews if you don’t want me to spoil things. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available, if not the link goes to YouTube where you can watch the video in full screen). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.
Norah Jones has gotten a bad rap for making sleep inducing music, but these videos are a complete 180 from their musical counterpart. I’m not sure what is more bizarre, the people in their underwear or Norah in a rat suit. Actually, now that I’ve thought about it, definitely Norah playing piano in a rat suit. You can check out my review of her album here: Love in the Time of War Is not Fair.
Do we really need a black and white Carrie Underwood video? Much like a nine minute Justin Timberlake video, the simple answer is no. With that and the cookie cutter model straight from the J. Crew catalogue and the beach locale it looks like they are trying to rip of the Wicked Game video but with the best parts removed (i.e. hot naked chick covered in sand). But I’ll give Underwood a pass because she is what I like to call moderately attractive. And the song is quite possible my favorite off her album. Take that American Karaoke fans who say I never have anything nice to say about the show or its karaokers. You can check out my review of her album here: Oh, There's Nothing Like Oklahoma.
Is it too early to call Gnarles Barkley the greatest one hit wonder ever? That question could hinge on the band getting another one, which didn’t happen with Gone Daddy Gone. Smiley Faces may lift them out of the category being that it is uber-catchy (though not as near as Crazy was). But at the very least they make some of the best videos around. And how can you not love a mocumentary that features Dennis Hopper and the dude from Quantum Leap?
Some last thoughts and list of 2006. First looking back at this blog, here are the top five post of the past year by page views (a big thanks to MTV for rerunning the first two seasons of Beauty and the Geek that brought in about 100 searchers for each marathon it ran) :
One cool addition to iTunes this year was the ability to add your reviews to each album. Unfortunately there isn’t a minimum amount of word you must write as many reviews on the site are less than a sentence. But then there are people like me who write lengthy reviews for others to read and I copied the ones I do for this site can add them on iTunes. Here are the top five most helpful reviews I put there (click the review title to read it on my site or click the album title to go to its iTunes page where you can buy it or just give me another helpful vote if you like):
As for the artist that made the most impact in the last year here are the ones that showed up most on my Best of lists (for those lists, click on the Best of 2006 label at the bottom of this post):
1. KT Tunstall (Best Songs - 11, 31, 97; Best Albums - 2, 28; Readers Poll - 11) - Tunstall started the year garnishing a rare [Extreme] rating on my Terror Alert Scale and even through in an acoustic album late in the year to boot. Yeah her music has been co-opted by some crappy television shows but that in no way takes away the fact that she produced one of the best pop albums in years.
2. Johnny Cash (Best Songs - 2, 52; Best Albums - 7; Best Videos - 1; Best Mash Ups - 1, 8; Reader’s Poll - 15) - As a long time fan, A Hundred Highways was a great swan song (although Rick Rubin says there may be one more after it) giving a song that not only stands up with any song from the American Recording era, but with anything his back catalog with God’s Gonna Cut You Done.
3. The Killers (Best Songs - 10, 94; Best Albums - 48; Best Videos - 6, 12; Reader’s Poll - 4) - I gave the guys a lot of crap this year on not living up to their own hype, but they did give us the best rock song of the year and two iconic videos.
4. Rhymefest (Best Songs - 25, 68; Best Albums - 10) In a year that wasn’t kind to hip hop (maybe Nas is right) with the failed comeback of Jay-Z and Lupe Fiasco not living up to the hype, this MC, who helped Kanye West write Jesus Walk, just may be the one to resurrect hip hop, well that’s if people start listening to him.
5. Gnarls Barkley (Best Songs - 1; Best Videos - 3, 19; Best Mash Ups - 4, 14, 23; Reader’s Poll - 1) No one has done so much with just one song, a song that is inching closer and closer to the top of the One Hit Wonder pantheon.
Since 1996 I have made a CD of my favorite music from the past year and here is the CD I have made from this past year but I like to put songs in reverse order as so they are counting down to the best song. This CD clocks in at 78:07 (for links to the songs and the full top 100 check out: The 100 Best Songs of 2006).
1. Over My Head (Cable Car) - The Fray 2. Save Room - John Legend 3. The Saints Are Coming - U2 & Green Day 4. Nothing Left to Lose - Mat Kearney 5. Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol 6. Smile - Lily Allen 7. Not Ready to Make Nice - Dixie Chicks 8. Hips Don’t Lie - Shakira & Wyclef Jean 9. Fidelity - Regina Spektor 10. Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield 11. Black Horse and the Cherry Tree - KT Tunstall 12. When You Were Young - The Killers 13. I Will Follow You into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie 14. Hurt - Christina Aguilera 15. Leave the Pieces - The Wreckers 16. One - Mary J. Blige & U2 17. How to Save a Life - The Fray 18. Boston - Augustana 19. Waiting on the World to Change - John Mayer 20. God’s Gonna Cut You Down - Johnny Cash 21. Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
Looking ahead 2007, I'm predicting Lily Allen to be the break out star of next year. Her first single Smile has gotten some buzz behind it so look out for the release of her album stateside later this month. Just remember when she is huge, you heard it her first. Although keep in mind I haven't correctly predicted the next big thing since Hootie and the Blowfish.
My other prediction is the demise of American Karaoke as it will get thrashed in the ratings by Let's Rob Mick Jagger (be sure to check out my contest and watch the show tonight at 9:00 on ABC). Okay maybe wishful thinking but before the latest crop of karaokers hit the stage I had a chance to her a couple of Katharine McPhee's new songs and, well, I'm less than impressed. She's trying to be Mariah Carey but the only problem is that Mariah Carey is still around and does a much better job at being Mariah Carey. There was one decent song out of the bunch, Love Story and you can take a listen for it yourself below.
Since 1996, long before I had a blog, I have made of my favorite songs from that year once it concluded. Sometimes songs near the top of those list haven’t stood the test of time while some songs near the bottom have over the years have become some of my favorites. This year I took a list of 162 songs that caught my ear the past twelve months and came back with my top 100 using a complex racking system that makes the BCS look like Middle School algebra. So here are the songs that you should have been listening to this past year:
Now it is time to unveil the 2006 9th Green’s Readers Top 25 and if you disagree with the list, you only have yourself to blame. For the most part I was pleased with this list because only one song from my Worst Songs of 2006 made the list and a few songs that I hyped here on the 9th Green but didn’t really catch on in the mainstream mad the list. Hopefully this means some of you have taken my advice thought the year. As for the list, Gnarls Barkley blew everyone away to take first out of the over sixty songs that were submitted. If I were to nit-pick I would say that Weird Al's parody out shined Chamillionaire's version and if I were to include a song by The Fray it would have been How to Save a Life. But anyways. Now unto the list, thanks to everyone who participated and be sure to check back out tomorrow to see where, or if, any of these songs show up on my Top 100 of the year.
One of the coolest musical innovations in recent memory is the mash-up. For those that may not be familiar with the term, it can best be described when you take the vocals from one song and place them over the instrumental from a different song. The artform didn’t get as much press this year as it has in past years but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great new mash-ups floating around the internet. And since last year’s list (see Best Mash-Ups of 2005) still brings in decent traffic here naturally I would do another list this year. I tried to give credit to the creator of the mash-up, but due to some poor labeling, some have gotten lost and I even had to create a name for a few mash-ups that I discovered nameless. Also some of these songs may have been created ealier than 2006 but this is a list of songs I’ve found this year. Please do not ask for me to send you any of these songs because for legal reasons I cannot confirm or deny that any of these songs actually exist not that I would illegally download copyrighted material even though that material has been altered from any version that could be bought anywhere. If you want the unaltered album version of the songs, on the second line I will list the main songs that make up the mash-up:
For today’s end of the year spectacular I will be counting down the best music videos of the year. And thanks to YouTube we saw a return to the art form and more videos may be getting viewed that the heyday of MTV when they actually showed them. Unfortynately some record labels are not fond of the idea of free advertisement so some videos have been take off the site yet they always seem to find their way back on the site. I have embedded the top five videos, after that you can click on the title to go to YouTube and view it if available. Also if you are interested in buying the video (or the song) click the iTunes tag, again if available.
There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I though I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form so here they are courtesy of YouTube. I advise you to watch them before you read my reviews if you don’t want me to spoil things. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available, if not the link goes to YouTube where you can watch the video in full screen). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.
My new favorite song that no one else is listening to (overtaking I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)). Just when you think Paris Hilton ruined faux-reggae music forever, here comes Lily Allen to make it entertaining again. And what makes this song great, in a time when Kelly Clarkson is content with getting made at an ex-boyfriend, Allen gets even. The best part is when the intruders trashed the LP’s, but them put them back in the case. Classic.
Okay so the song, a remake of the Violent Femmes song, is no Crazy which may sadly send them to one-hit wonder status, but the latest video by Gnarls Barkley may actually be more entertaining than the other one. Granted nothing beats their Star Wars performence at this year's MTV Movie Awards. But seriously, who doesn’t enjoy watching chick on bug lovin’? And what better message than there is no better hallucinogen then bug spray?
Where Gone Baby Gone video is a chuckler, the new Barenaked Ladies video is laugh out loud funny. As funny as Earl Hickey’s mustache is, this guy’s may actually be funnier. Plus the song includes possibly the best line from any song this year, “I was a baby when I learned to suck but you have raised it to an art form.” And as great as this video is, there are making one that may top it as the group is gathering fan submitted air-guitar videos to be included in a second version.
I really didn’t plan on including two British chicks biting black music, but you got to love anyone who uses Tetris in their video. Granted the song by Jay-Z’s latest find, Lady Sovereign is mediocre at best. Really the only thing worse that white dudes rapping are which chicks rapping. Did she really start sing Phil Collins at the end of the song? So for those keeping at home, as a record executive, Jay-Z is batting .000. No wonder why he is getting back into rap.
![Terror Alert Level: High [ORANGE]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhebDZ0qqwOVKMZj7oFSUe8Hm3ax54U9Hp1fThJPgiddTyzcdwx_5SV6E3b7hkKyxbaDiym4COmUXT2YJnsKCUjBHI_a2xZtNoY7qFQRslP5AGO5gLkJwn2ZbO0wIF80ycbKrgPPA/s400/small_high.png)
on my Terror Alert Scale.
