I Want My Music Television: 4/30/13

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.


How Many Drinks? - Miguel featuring Kendrick Lamar


Is it wrong to like a song that is kinda promoting date rape? If Miguel needs to liquor up chicks to get them home, what hope is there for the rest of us? And what the frack is Kendrick Lamar wearing? It looks like he took that outfit out of my crazy uncle’s closet.


Feel it All – KT Tunstall


I really enjoyed KT Tunstall’s debut album but her subsqueant album veered too far into computerize dancy music, I hope this song is a sign she is going back to a more organic way of making music. But I do hope she did utilize computers when it came to making this music video because it really freaked me out if she was really walking the plank.


Out of My League - Fitz & The Tantrums


Fitz and the Tantrums first album was filled with retro soul and it sounds like they have updated to a New Wave sound for their sophomore outing. Even the music video is very eighties, I was ready for Max Headroom to pop out randomly.


OMYGOD! – Kate Nash


Yeah the stylization of the title is silly, but the new Kate Nash song is ultra catchy.

Words Are Only in My Mouth

Kate Nash rode the wave of neo-pop music coming out of England late last decade following in the footsteps Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse. Her first two albums were filled with fun throwbacks sounding songs filled with enough snark satisfy any jaded music listener. But something happened after that as she dyed her hair darker and started sounding more like a Riot Grrrl than her poppier sound when she released her Death Proof EP where her trademark snark gives way to pure anger.

Her third full length album Girl Talk tends to bridge the gap between her earlier retro-pop style and Death Proof’s angry nineties white girl style. The new album does feature two songs from Death Proof, the title track from the EP and Fri-end which comes after the album opener Part Heart. They are followed by songs like Sister, where she gets screamier the more the song drags on, and fits in very well with her bass guitar heavy darker sound.

But I like it much better when she reverts back to her original sound like on songs like OMYGOD! Cheesy stylization aside, this is where she goes back to her one woman girl group sound. The best is on 3AM which would not sound out of place on those first two album but more danceable. Girl Talk ends with a duo of surprisingly sparse songs (even more surprising than Rap for Rejection where Nash, well, raps). First up is the acoustic sing along You’re So Cool, I’m So Freaky which is followed by Lullaby for Insomniacs which for the most part drops even the acoustic guitar. It ended up being a better turn than the angrier start to the album.

Song to Download – 3AM

Girl Talk gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television - 2/25/13

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.


When I Was Your Man - Bruno Mars


Didn’t Bruno Mars already do the filmed on seventies film look for the Locked Out of Heaven video? I guess he is going for a whole motif for the videos off the album.


3AM - Kate Nash


The first album Kate Nash released was full of ultra catchy snarky pop songs, but lately she has gone all Riot Grrrl, which the fifteen year old version of myself may have liked (he still wears his Bikini Kill t-shirt every once in a while), but I much liked the original. It does sound like she is going back with the release of the first single off her next album, which even lifts the “Girl” character name from the Pumpkin Soup video.


Candles In the Sun - Miguel


I much prefer Miguel when he is in baby making mood (this is certainly no Sign 'O' the Times or even Money Don't Matter 2 Night) but the video is beautifully shot.


Tonight I’m Getting Over You - Carly Rae Jepsen


This month’s installment of Carley rae Jepsen: One Hit Wonder? We get our first look of grown up Carly, singing about getting drunk, wearing skimpy clothes in the bathtub, and laying on a shirtless dude, which is a little creepy considering you could have told me she was as young as fourteen when I first saw Call Me Maybe. As for this being the song that lifts her from one hit wonderdom (depending on how you rule Good Time as being a hit for her or not), much like the four previous singles, I am guessing no; the chorus is the same annoying dance beat in every other song for the past two years and I doubt people want grown up Carly.

The 100 Best Songs of 2010

1. Tighten Up - The Black Keys

2. (Expletive Deleted) You - Cee-Lo

3. The High Road - Broken Bells

4. Power - Kanye West

5. Little Lion Man - Mumford & Sons

6. King of Anything - Sara Bareilles

7. Runaway - Kanye West and Pusha T

8. The Cave - Mumford & Sons

9. Head Full of Doubt / Road Full of Promise - The Avett Brothers

10. Radioactive - Kings of Leon

11. Rolling In the Deep - Adele

12. Airplanes - B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams of Paramore

13. Breakeven (Falling to Pieces) - The Script

14. Mine - Taylor Swift

15. In Sleep - Lissie

16. Kandi - One EskimO

17. Next Girl - The Black Keys

18. Do-Wah-Doo - Kate Nash

19. Beg Steal or Borrow - Ray Lamontange and the Pariah Dogs

20. 40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet) - Bob Schneider

21. Wake Up Everybody - John Legend & The Roots featuring Common & Melanie Fiona

22. No One's Gonna Love You - Cee-Lo Green

23. Tightrope - Janelle Monáe featuring Big Boi

24. Release Me - The Like

25. Ain't No Grave (Gonna Hold This Body Down) - Johnny Cash

26. Thinking 'Bout Somethin' - Hanson

27. American Slang - The Gaslight Anthem

28. Got Nuffin - Spoon

29. I Should Have Known It - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

30. Valentino - Diane Birch

31. The Catalyst - Linkin Park

32. In the Sun - She & Him

33. On to the Next One - Jay-Z featuring Swizz Beatz

34. Laredo - Band of Horses

35. Everlasting Light - The Black Keys

36. Dog Days Are Over - Florence + the Machine

37. Rewind - Diane Birch

38. At or With Me - Jack Johnson

39. Young Blood - Norah Jones

40. Horchata - Vampire Weekend

41. Need You Now - Lady Antebellum

42. Gimme Sympathy - Metric

43. I Know What I Am - Band of Skulls

44. Animal - Neon Trees

45. Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

46. Giving Up the Gun - Vampire Weekend

47. Every Subway Car - Barenaked Ladies featuring Erin McCarley

48. You and Your Heart - Jack Johnson

49. Half of My Heart - John Mayer featuring Taylor Swift

50. I Never Told You - Colbie Caillat

51. Bang Bang Bang - Mark Ronson featuring Q-Tip & MNDR

52. Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare) - Kid Cudi featuring MGMT and Ratatat

53. Love the Way You Lie - Eminem featuring Rihanna

54. If You Let Me - JP, Chrissie & the Fairground Boys

55. Wavin' Flag – K’naan

56. Hey, Soul Sister - Train

57. The Sound Of Sunshine - Michael Franti & Spearhead

58. Howlin' for You - The Black Keys

59. All Summer - Kid Cudi, Best Coast and Rostam of Vampire Weekend

60. Back to December - Taylor Swift

61. When a Woman Loves - R. Kelly

62. The Ghost Who Walks - Karen Elson

63. He's Not a Boy - The Like

64. It's Gonna Be - Norah Jones

65. Misery - Maroon 5

66. Dear God 2.0 - The Roots and Jim James of Monsters of Folk

67. Kush - Dr Dre featuring Snoop Dogg and Akon

68. Infinity Guitars - Sleigh Bells

69. Opposite of Adults - Chiddy Bang

70. Erase Me - Kid Cudi and Kanye West

71. Stylo - Gorillaz featuring Mos Def & Bobby Womack

72. Run Back to Your Side - Eric Clapton

73. Your Easy Lovin' Ain't Pleasin' Nothin' - Mayer Hawthorne

74. Forgiveness - Sarah McLachlan

75. Soundtrack 2 My Life - Kid Cudi

76. Naturally - Selena Gomez & the Scene

77. Bright Lights Bigger City - Cee-Lo Green

78. Undo It - Carrie Underwood

79. Fearless - Taylor Swift

80. Written In Reverse - Spoon

81. Gypsy - Shakira

82. Paris (Ooh La La) - Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

83. Hey World - Michael Franti & Spearhead

84. Pyro - Kings of Leon

85. This (Expletive Deleted) Job - Drive-By Truckers

86. Not Afraid - Eminem

87. Hard Times - John Legend & The Roots featuring Black Thought

88. Maybe - Sick Puppies

89. Do You Love Me - Guster

90. People Say - Portugal the Man

91. Alice - Avril Lavigne

92. Too Late for Lovers - Gin Wigmore

93. Amazing - One EskimO

94. Come and Get It - Eli "Paperboy" Reed

95. Next Best Thing - Nikki & Rich

96. Playing God - Paramore

97. Had It All - Katharine McPhee

98. Heaven and Earth - Blitzen Trapper

99. Unthought Known - Pearl Jam

100. Stop for a Minute - Keane featuring K’Naan

I Don’t Care if We’re Just Friends I Can Hang out with Myself

2006 was a boon year for bratty British singers with Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen breaking out here in the United States with brash and in your face lyrics. Fatigue must had set in by the following year as the debut album from Kate Nash barely made a blip stateside even though she may have had a more bitter tongue than her countrywoman (but unlike the other two, she also lacked the production of Mark Ronson).

Much like Allen, Nash grew up for her sophomore outing, but instead of getting inexplicitly political like Lily, Kate grew up in the form of a steady boyfriend the most likely led to the most vulnerable song on My Best Friend Is You, I Hate Seagulls where she lists everything she dislikes before finally admitting the things she does.

For the few of you that did catch Nash the first time around, don’t worry, there is still plenty of wit and snark flying toward guys mostly about unrequited love like Kiss the Grrrl. The same goes for the standout track of the album Do-Wah-Doo, a sixties girl group inspired song that maybe the catchiest song you may hear all year.

For those looking for something similar Foundations, check out Don’t You Want to Share the Guilt which comes off like a slower version because divulging into a spoken diatribe at the end which is followed guitar fuzz next track I Just Love You More which could have been a lost song from the riot grrl movement of the early nineties. This somewhat prepares you for the spoken word Mansion Song poetry jam that rails against girls that do not respect themselves, a song that may either be your favorite, or worst song on the album.

Song to Download – Do-Wah-Doo

My Best Friend Is You gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television vol. LXXVI

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.


Do Wah Doo – Kate Nash



Just days after Barney Stinson mentioned that stewardess was the hottest profession of the 50’s, here comes a video from Kate Nash where she starts as a 50’s stewardess. Flight Suit Up.


In the Sun – She and Him



From the first single it sounds like Volume 2 from She and Him is going to sound much like Volume 1: kind of bland. But at least the music video is fun with Zooey Deschanel looking her Winnie Cooperest.


Wavin’ Flag – K’Naan



For all the soccer fans out there (or football to all you foreigners) prepare yourself to be hearing this song from K’Naan a lot this summer at is the official song of the upcoming World Cup.


I Wish it Would Rain - Mayer Hawthorne



Pretty cool concept for a video for the latest from Mayer Hawthorne, too bad The Swell Season came up with pretty much the same idea last year.

I Want My Music Television vol. XIV

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.


Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya) - Ashlee Simpson




Hopefully this song isn’t a bad omen for 2008 because it really isn’t the best way to start of the New Year with the mannequin that Ashlee Simpson has become. But then again, I cannot imagine how anyone could make a song worth than this aside from Ashlee herself. It just shows you how messed up the music business is when they are pushing a reputed lip-syncer down our throats again even after her last album bombed as bad as her Saturday Night Live performance. As for the video, if I were Salvator Dail, I would sue.


Us Placers - CRS



Now onto some actual good music. This song appeared on Kanye West’s mixtape last year and even though it is doubtful we will get an actual album from CRS anytime soon, this Thom York sampled track definitely wets the palette and make me reminisce about the early nineties when there actual great rap crews, not just one decent rapper and his crappy friends that populate the rap landscape this decade.


Pumpkin Soup - Kate Nash



In a story I broke yesterday, Kate Nash is the next big thing and here is the best song off her new album (see: You Said I Must Eat So Many Lemons ‘cause I Am So Bitter). Just don’t ask me what is with the creepy human sized cats.


Gravedigger - Willie Nelson



Yes this is Willie Nelson covering Dave Matthews and somehow Willie made it sound creepier than the original.

You Said I Must Eat So Many Lemons ‘cause I Am So Bitter

Apparently January is the month where England exports all their lasses with attitude problems. Last years saw debut albums from Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen and this year’s version is Kate Nash. It is yet to be seen if by the end of 2008 she will be knocked up or in rehab, but unlike her countrymen, she like to tell it like is and in true fiery redhead style. But unlike Winehouse or Allen, Nash actually plays an instrument, the piano to be exact, which makes her sound more Regina Spektor than something produced by Mark Ronson.

Nash does follow the two songstresses’ career projectory so far being a huge hit in her native country, going three singles deep, before having even the slightest bit of name recognition in the states. That should all change with the American release of Made of Bricks. This will mostly be thanks to the first single Foundations, an ode to a broken relationship that Nash just can’t let go of even though he calls her rude names in a crowded restaurants where she responds that she would rather hook up with his mates.

Unlike her counterparts, Nash actually sings about the brighter side of love on Pumpkin Soup where she repeats to a potential beau that “I just want your kiss boy.” The track bounces along thanks to some well placed horns which makes it closest thing to a Ronson produced track on the album. Even though the piano is the main instrument on Made of Bricks, Nash pulls out an acoustic guitar to great effects for the beautifully tender Birds and the heartbreaking Nicest Thing. She goes even more stripped down for (Expletive Deleted)head which is pretty laughable in a good way.

Also different from her predecessors whose albums were full of listenable songs, Nash’s debut is a bit uneven as there are a couple of skipable songs, the opening Play is basically unnecessary and (Expletive Deleted) Song just goes one step too far. With that said Nash may not have the clever lyrics of Allen or the soulful voice of Winehouse, but the musicianship could make her a force in the future. Well that is if she can stay out of the tabloids.

Song to Download - Pumpkin Soup

Made of Bricks gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television vol. VI

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.


Gimme More - Britney Spears



Let’s just get this out of the way quick, the song sucks massively, the video looks like a fan video version they uploaded to YouTube until you see a couple bad wigs and realize it is the official video, and is Exhibit T that will keep her from ever having custody of her kids ever again. And to those that made Gimme More the number one song on iTunes for the last week; you are the reason why the terrorists hate us. Okay, let’s move on to real music.


Dumb it Down - Lupe Fiasco



Last year, Lupe Fiasco rode a wave of hype to the release of his debut album, Food and Liquor, which ended up as a let down. The flow was there but the beats were just too recycled to get mass appeal. Lupe finally lives up to the hype with the release of his new single Dumb it Down with a beat that sounds classic Neptunes and lyrics that definitely don't take the advise of the title. Hopefully the rest of the album, The Cool out December 18th, is more of the same. But as the video goes, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get cast as the corny white dude. Oh well.

Tears Dry on their Own - Amy Winehouse



Say what you want about the personal life of Amy Winehouse while office pools across the nation bet on what month she will kick the bucket (I got March 2011), but the music is scandal proof. This song, built around Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, is just another instant classic from her album. The video is surprisingly dull considering it was directed by David LaChapelle.


Foundations - Kate Nash



For those of you wondering who will be next in the line of British songstress to take America by storm but without the threat of not reaching the age of thirty, look no further than Kate Nash. Nash, much like Lily Allen and Winehouse before her conquered her native country before anyone state stateside, but unlike the two doesn’t have Mark Ronson creating Motown inspired backing tracks for instead going with a Regina Spektor influenced piano based sound, but she still retains Allen’s attitude. But we will have to wait until early next year before we get the whole album stateside.