I Want My Music Television: 7/24/13

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


Black Skinhead – Kanye West


Okay, the above video is just Kanye West’s performance from Saturday Night Live a couple months ago because the actual music video is not embeddable. And if you thought Yeezus was inaccessible, the music video is even harder to get into. The rapper posted the interactive on KanyeWest.com except when I went there, it was only a picture of what looked to be a picture of three black dudes in black KKK hoods. After about five minutes of nothing I figured maybe Chrome was the problem and dusted off Internet Explorer which had a launch button. But when I clicked on it, the music started playing, but there was no video. Supposedly the interacted video can “synched, posted and shared” so videos will probably pop up on YouTube any minute now (and probably already have by the time you have read this) and I may check a few up is I still care by then.


Wasting All These Tears - Cassadee Pope


It was a big week for The Voice last week as the most recent winner Danielle Bradberydropped her first single just days before season three winner Cassadee Pope released her first country music video. Both songs are your typical boring pop-country fare (Pope's is just a pop-rock song with a banjo and whiskey soaked intro) that will probably have minor success on country radio but not interesting enough to cross over unless The Voice audience gets curious about them (maybe Blake should have gotten his wife Miranda Lambert to help write something more interesting). I would slightly give Danielle the first round, but neither song is as good as Inventing Shadows (speaking of Dia Frampton, she just released a song via YouTube called Footsteps which is better than anything on her first solo album and certainly better than the above two songs).


Slow Down - Selena Gomez


On her previous albums, Selena Gomez songs ranged from catchy to non-offensive and even the first single off her new album falls within that catchy category. The rest of Stars Dance really ranges between annoying to painfully bad and the new single definitely falls somewhere on that spectrum (this will probably serve as my official review of Stars Dance). At least Selena had the wherewithal to leave Spring Breakers half way through the movie. Maybe she should stick to acting or at the very least bring back The Scene.


Sky High – Ben Folds Five


When can I get Ben Folds Five to play in my living room? Granted I would probably request A Song for the Dumped and end up trashing my own place so it may be for the best if they do not.

A Monster Is About to Come Alive Again

When you are dealing with a genius, you are going to have to put up with some eccentricities, be it Prince changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol or Van Gough cutting his ear off. Then there is the case of Kanye West. His trilogy school themed albums stand up against the first three albums of any artists ever. But after Graduation, West’s mother died and he broke up with his longtime girlfriend and instead on continue his college esthetics of those first three albums, he instead made an emo-rap album more depressing than any of the horrible shoe gazing of the time.

It was also around this time when even I as one of Kanye’s most ardent defenders was having trouble sticking up for the guy after stunts like the Taylor Swift incident and the ill-timed “George Bush doesn’t care about black people comment.” But after his emo opus, Kanye was back on point with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Watch the Throne and even Cruel Summer had a couple hot tracks (if you are able to edit out Big Shawn). Apparently more accessible Kanye albums come in three because out next is Yeezus which one Rolling Stone writer said “makes Radiohead's Kid a look like Bruno Mars by comparison.” I believe he meant it like a compliment, but this listener did not take it that way.

Like most people, my first experience with Yeezus, was when West performed New Slaves and Black Skinheads on Saturday Night Live, not really the best idea considering the show’s legendary poor audio for musical guest, but considering the lo-fi feeling of the songs, it actually might have been appropriate. Based on the two songs alone, it sounded like he was trading in the annoying emo rock of the 00’s that he aped on 808’s and Heartbreaks for an even more darker time period with the new wave sound of the early eighties with bands like Joy Division.

As it turned out, those two songs were some of the most “musical” songs on the album Yeezus instead starts off with On Sight which sounds like it samples some Artari games from the eighties. And most of the songs follow that sparse industrial that throws in even weirder effect like the screaming in I Am a God or the weird almost air-horn distortion in Hold My Liqour, does turn into this psychedelic trip at the end that sounds like a hip-hop Pink Floyd (Guilt Trip also has a trippy Pink Floyd feel to it).

Yet the most surprising song on the album is the closer Bound 2 which musically sounds like classic Kanye with its sped up soul sample (looking back this was foreshadowed with snippets in On Sight and at the end of New Slave) but he still sounds as angry as he does on the rest of the album and some dark synthesizers seep through by the end of the song. I am not sure if the ending means that things are not as bad as the first nine tracks on Yeezus would suggest or it itself suggest on his next album Kanye will revisit his backpacking days. Either way, rumors suggest we will learn that answer sooner than later be it Watch the Throne II or Cruel Winter as soon as by the end of this year.

Song to Download – Bound 2

Yeezus gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

The Five Most Anticipated Albums of Summer 2013

It has not been a very good year for music. If you think about this time last year we had Fun. and Gotye blowing up while The Lumineers were still bubbling up. This year: nothing. There is not even anything this year as annoyingly catchy as Call Me Maybe (sorry Macklemore). It is probably not a good sign that were are almost halfway through the year and my personal favorite album so far was a traditional country album (Kacey Musgraves debut). Hopefully that will change soon, possibly as early as tomorrow as there are a few worth wild albums coming our way in the second half of 2013. Unfortunately most of them are currently listed under the dreaded TBD which usually means we will not get them until around Christmas. Here are five or six albums that we should hear before the leaves start turning.

1. The Civil Wars – The Civil Wars (August 6): The duo put out one of the best debut albums this decade but a couple months ago they canceled their tour due to “internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition.” They were not breaking but it was ominous nonetheless. But as Fleetwood Mac showed “internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition” can lead to great music. You could not claim anything on their debut to be cheerful, but first single The One That Got Away (as in I wish you were the one that got away) actually sound darker than their first batch of songs. Who knows if we will ever get a third album (The Mac did manage to release six after Rumours), but the second one is shaping up nicely.

2. From Here to Now to You – Jack Johnson (September 17): Jack got some early promotion for the new album when he filled in as the headliner for a last minute cancellation by Mumford and Sons. First single I Got You is another laid back acoustic, sitting on the deck at the end of the day song that Johnson excels at. It is too bad we will have to wait until the end of the summer to hear most of the rest of the album.

3. The Blessed Unrest – The Blessed Unrest - Sara Bareilles (July 16): I am not totally sold on the first single Brave which was co-written with one of the dudes from Fun, but Sara’s first two album s were solid, so hopefully there are better things to come on her third.

4. Yeezus – Kanye West (Tomorrow): This would have been number one on my list, and then I heard Kanye perform two songs on Saturday Night Live and got a horrible 808's and Heartbreaks flashbacks. But instead of the crappy emo and auto-tune drenched songs inspired by the mope rock of last decade, New Slave and Black Skinhead sounded like Kanye was listening to way too much Joy Division and other moody new wave acts of the early eighties. Not a very good first impressions. Hopefully the rest of the album is much better.

5. Haim / Churchill (TBD): Neither new band has had the bust out moment that Gotye or Fun had last year, but both released solid four song EPs over the past year and are both are aiming at a full length debut later this year that hopefully live up to the early hype building around both bands.

And here are the rest of the albums worth at least one stream on Spotify coming your way this summer. Click on the album name to pre-order the album on Amazon or the artist’s name to go to their iTunes page.

Tomorrow
Anthem – Hanson
More Light – Primal Scream

June 25
Love Is the Future – John Legend
Vh1 Storytellers – Alicia Keys
One True Vine – Mavis Staples
Moonlander - Stone Gossard
Sound The Alarm – Booker T.
Gifted – Wale

July 4
Magna Carta Holy Grail - Jay-Z

July 9
Dont Look Down – Skylar Grey
My Name Is – Pusha T

July 16
Last of the Great Pretenders – Matt Nathanson
Where Does This Door Go – Mayer Hawthorne
Amelita – Court Yard Hounds
Electric – Pet Shop Boys
Lickety Split – Robert Randolph & The Family Band
Walk Through Exits Only – Philip H. Anselmo and The Illegals
White Teeth, Black Thoughts – Cherry Poppin' Daddies
One – Sarah Miles

July 23
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Stars Dance – Selena Gomez
A New Era Begins – Mariah Carey

July 30
In a World Like This – Michael Franti & Spearhead

August 6
Give The People What They Want – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

August 13
Paradise Valley - John Mayer

August 27
Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action – Franz Ferdinand
Electric Slave – Black Joe Lewis
Age Against the Machine – Goodie Mob

September
Mechanical Bull – Kings of Leon
Wise Up Ghost – Elvis Costello and The Roots
The Last Ship – Sting
New Constellations – Toad the Wet Sprocket
Hesitation Marks – Nine Inch Nails
Spreading Rumours – Grouplove
The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You – Neko Case

October
Mountains of Sorrow, Rivers of Song – Amos Lee

TBD
& Then You Shoot Your Cousin – The Roots
The Last Zulu – Q-Tip
Speak a Little Louder – Diane Birch
The Electric Lady – Janelle Monáe
A Better Tomorrow – Wu-Tang Clan
The Diving Board – Elton John
James River - D'Angelo
Girl Power – Cee Lo Green
Fly International Luxurious – Raekwon
Fading West – Switchfoot
Crystal Meth – Method Man
Blackout 3 – Method Man & Redman
Matangi – M.I.A.
Broken – Nelly Furtado
Street King Immortal – 50 Cent
All Over the Place - Avril Lavigne
AC/DC
Arcade Fire
Beck
Beyoncé
The Black Keys
Broken Bells
Eminem
Foster the People
Lauryn Hill
Pearl Jam

And of course, let me end with the obligatory this may be the season we finally get to hear Detox by Dr. Dre.

The 50 Best Music Videos of 2012

I have embedded the first couple, for the rest, you can click on the link to be taken to YouTube. If you would like to purchase the music video or the song, click the iTunes button next to the name to be taken to the store.


1. The Baddest Man Alive - The Black Keys featuring RZA


2. Do it Anyway - Ben Folds Five


3. Mercy - Kanye West featuring Big Sean, Pusha T, and 2 Chainz


4. Somebody That I Used to Know - Goyte featuring Kimbra


5. Leave the Lights On - Meiko


6. Lost in the Echo - Linkin Park

7. Pyramids - Frank Ocean

8. Bad Girls - M.I.A.

9. Stray Heart - Green Day

10. Bottom of the River - Delta Rae

11. Simple Song - The Shins

12. No Church in the Wild - Jay-Z and Kanye West featuring Frank Ocean

13. Every Single Night - Fiona Apple

14. Happy Pills - Norah Jones

15. Mustache Man (Wasted) - Cake

16. Sweet Talk - Jessie Ware

17. Easy Way Out - Gotye

18. Warrior - Kimbra, Mark Foster, and A-Trak

19. Man on Fire - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero

20. Sixteen Saltines - Jack White

21. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together - Taylor Swift

22. Brendan’s Death Song - Red Hot Chili Peppers

23. Curtain - Eve 6

24. All the Rowboats - Regina Spektor

25. Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men

26. (Expletive Deleted) in Paris - Jay-Z and Kanye West

27. Dance in the Graveyards - Delta Rae

28. All I Need Is Love - Cee-Lo Green featuring the Muppets

29. Diversity - Family of the Year

30. Payphone - Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa

31. Some Nights - Fun.

32. Princess of China - Coldplay and Rihanna

33. Ships in the Night - Mat Kearney

34. Queen of California - John Mayer

35. Ho Hey - The Lumineers

36. Knock Knock - Band of Horses

37. Duquesne Whistle - Bob Dylan

38. Let's Go - Matt and Kim

39. One Woman Army - Kate Earl

40. I'm Shakin' - Jack White

41. Heartbeat - JJAMZ

42. Houdini - Foster the People

43. Hurts Like Heaven - Coldplay

44. Ray Charles - Chiddy Bang

45. I Knew You Were Trouble - Taylor Swift

46. Don't Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas) - Regina Spektor

47. One More Night - Maroon 5

48. Cherokee - Cat Power

49. Cheerleader - St. Vincent

50. Tongue Tied - Grouplove