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.
This is the story of two Kelly Clarkson’s. You have the Clarkson in white, who is definitely serviceable. Then there is the creepy Clarkson who makes you realize why the dude in the song would drop her for somewhere else. The video oddly reminds me of Owner of a Lonely Heart without the animals and unfortunately she doesn’t force the dude to jump off a building. And as I said before, the song is no Since U Been Gone (or Behind These Hazel Eyes for that matter) but there is something I like about the lyric, “Give me that Sunday school answer.”
Rihanna is good for at least one good song per album. Okay she is good for only one good song per album. But Umbrella definitely isn’t going to be that one for her upcoming release. And you really have to blame Jay-Z, ever since he unretired, everything he has touched has been sub par; Déjà vu with Beyonce was a cheap rip off of Crazy in Love; Kingdom Come was a massive flop, and this song just plain sucks. And as much as I like moderately attractive chicks naked, that body paint made me feel like I was watching some creepy soft-core robot porn.
I would much rather Tom Morello to focus more on continuing the Rage Against the Machine reunion, as his Nightwatchman isn’t nearly as good, but this video is a good watch.
Do we really need a serious song and accompanying video from Bowling for Soup? Probably not. The video is a little too soap opera-y, but effective nonetheless.
Rihanna burst onto the scene last summer with the ubiquitous club hit, Pon de Replay. After that, none of her singles caught fire and it looked as if you would to the one hit wonder wing of the Hall of Fame. Luckily she didn’t give up because with a little help from Soft Cell she looks like she will pull off the rare feat of have the summer anthem in consecutive. But the question is, will the album, A Girl Like Me, fall into obscurity much like here debut did as everyone seemed to download the hit single as opposed to the whole album?
To keep that from happening, her record company even withheld S.O.S. from the major downloading services in hopes that people would buy the album instead of the single when it came out. And surprisingly A Girl Like Me isn’t absolutely horrible. The album eases you with the 80’s influenced smash hit and I wonder if the Tainted Love sample isn’t the only 80’s thing about that song and the lyrics I’ll be you “Take on me, take me on” are based on uber-80’s anthems by A-Ha (she even says the band's name in the song). The next song, Kisses Don’t Lie, even has an 80’s touch with The Clash lyrics asking “Should I stay or should I go?” That is followed by the strong, piano and strings based Unfaithful a song about, you guessed it, being unfaithful. And even when the song goes over the top when she suggests, to keep him from hurting, to “take a gun and put it to his head” it just makes it that much more entertaining, although sadly she decides she “don’t wanna be a murderer.” Oh well.
But the album quickly goes into some clichés from there with We Ride. Personally I rather have my girls sugar and spice and the such and not hear her say “When we ride we ride, it's ‘til the day we die.” I really don’t want my girl (another 80’s reference alert) going down in a blaze of glory. Have we leaned nothing from When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong? This get back on track with the slow reggae jam Dem Haters with help with some dude named Dwane Husbands. Sean Paul shows up later Break it Off, which is better than anything on his latest effort unfortunately the beat isn’t that good.
Everything else on the album is pretty much hit or miss, the acoustic guitar in Final Goodbye sounds like something Dan Fogelberg, which actually isn't a bad thing. P.S. (I’m Still Not Over You) is as cheesy as the title would suggest. The album caps off with a remix of the failed single off Rihanna’s last album, If It’s Lovin’ That You want with a beat stolen from another rap song that I can’t quite pinpoint no matter how long I play the song and and a rap from Cory Gunz who may or may not be related to Peter Gunz who was last scene being sued by Steely Dan for lifting there hook for the great Uptown Baby. So think twice before Download S.O.S. and maybe give the whole album a chance.
Song to Download - S.O.S. (you think I was going to suggest something else?)
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. I advise you to watch them first (the links to the video are the bold headers, inside the post will lead you to iTunes where you can buy the song and in some cases the video itself) before you read my reviews if you don’t want me to spoil things.
Quite possibly the funniest thing ever. I don’t know why any video outlet would show the other version. Well, then again it does have Shakira in it moving like Shakira. They should have thought of doing a dudes only version too because those are the best part especially the ones who thought it was a good idea to film themselves without their shirts most notably the dude during the line, “Don't you see baby, yhis is perfection.” Sadly my tape must have been lost in the mail.
This video would have been more entertaining had it been not for the Shakira video as it has basically the same theme but with actors in scripted situations instead of real people. But the scene with the dudes in the locker room almost makes up for it. The song itself basically ends Kelly Clarkson’s run as guiltiest of all pleasures as her last two songs were no where as entertaining as Since U Been Gone and Behind These Hazel Eyes. Plus she looks nowhere as good in this video either, but I wonder with her constantly moving her hips, was this her submission to be in the Shakira video?
I’m sure this video has some deep meaning to it, but it went way over my head which means it will go over every country fan’s head. But I have a feeling it has something to do with Bush, and his supporters, being morons. Way to continue to alienate your fan base Dixie Chicks. If you understand what’s going on, please fill me in.
Again, I have no idea what’s going on, but I’m not sure I want to. But really you can’t go wrong with weird Chinese chicks with penchants for putting croissants, doughnuts, and raw red meat on random people then have them chased by fat dudes, cops, and a dude in a grizzly suit respectively. The dude from The Flaming Lips was even the dude who got the red meat treatment.
Nothing really special about the video, but this the first real contender to top my Best Songs of 2006 list. And since I plan on buying the album, this is the only place I can listen to it before it’s released because I’m not dropping .99 for a song if I’ll be buying the album later. For those who are not sure who The Wreckers are, it’s basically Michelle Branch and some other chick.
Again, nothing special here with the video, but the song is great, you just can’t buy it yet. And the music industry wonders why people continue to steal their product. Well don’t build up a demand if you cannot supply the product especially if they can get it elsewhere for free. Actually the video is worth watching to see Rihanna go from uber-hot to uber-creepy when she busts out her 80’s look. That is of course because the song samples the Soft Cell classic Tainted Love. I was a little weary when I first heard it but it definitely grew on me. And it looks like she will have the rare feat of having the summer anthem in back to back summers. Granted Pon de Replay grew old as the temperature grew cold and landed at the paltry 69 on my Best Songs of 2005 list. But with the nostalgia feel, maybe S.O.S. will have some staying power.
There are a bunch of cool new things over on iTunes this week. First and foremost is almost all of the Dave Matthews Band studio albums, along with Dave Matthews and Boyd Tinsley’s solo albums, for the very first time. For fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, there is a really cool offer for those who preorder their new album, Stadium Arcadium, you get first crack to get tickets to their summer tour. And for you television buffs, NBC just recently added Scrubs to the iTunes library. I wonder if the show will have a The Office type surge, which, when put up on the service late last year, was one of the most downloaded shows and even saw a ratings boost quickly taking the show from almost canceled to being moved to NBC’s Must See TV lineup. Too bad Veronica Mars is still not on the service that way I could have downloaded the show Thursday morning and watched it later that day, but instead I have to wait until tomorrow to see the episode because it would be wrong to download it threw other means. Of course if I did, it would take until Saturday for it to actually download anyways, not that I know that from experience or anything.
Here are some song to listen to that will fit on a single CD that you can play in your car, at the beach, a barbeque, or anywhere that need some summer music to dance to.
1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Live 8) – Paul McCartney & U2 (I started off this CD with two of my performances from the Live 8 concerts.)
2. Bittersweet Symphony (Live 8) – Coldplay & Richard Ashcroft
3. Fix You – Coldplay (One of the few songs on their latest album that stands up to their earlier work.)
4. City of Blinding Light – U2
5. All These Things I’ve Done – The Killers (This song features one of my favorite lyrics in recent memory, “I got soul, but I’m not a soldier.”)
6. Somebody Rock Me – The Clash vs. The Killers (This is a killer mash-up, lame pun intended.)
7. Son’s Gonna Rise – Citizen Cope & Santana (A cool song that you may recognize from a recent car commercial. This guy should be getting a lot more publicity than he’s getting.)
8. The Harder They Come – Willie Nelson (A country artist doing a reggae song? Only Willie, and a whole lot of pot, can pull that off.)
9. Portions for Foxes – Rilo Kiley (Depressingly sad lyrics dressed up with bouncing music makes this song pop gold.)
10. Me Plus One – Annie (iTunes Single of the Week has been offering up some bland music recently, but my ears pop up when I first heard this. It is quite possibly the best pop song since the 80’s. The song would fit very well in a Tom Tom Club album.)
11. These Word – Natasha Bedingfield (When I first heard this song, I wasn’t very impressed, but by the end I was sing, “I love you, I love you, I love you,” right with the song.)
12. She Said – Brie Larson (Not as good as the previous three in the pop department, but a lot better than the overproduced music clogging the radio these days.)
13. Love Love Love – Tristan Prettyman (Check of my review of her album – I Wish You Couldn’t Take Your Eyes Off of Me.)
14. Spending One of These Nights with Kelly – The Eagles vs. Kelly Clarkson (This is one of the most disturbingly entertaining songs ever created.)
15. Pon De Replay – Rihanna (Introducing this summer’s ubiquitous club anthem. Although if you played it back to back with last year’s ubiquitous club anthem, Move Ya Body, I’m not sure if I could tell them apart.)
16. Go – Common, John Mayer & Kanye West (Hip-hop good boy gets help getting dirty with Mr. You Body is a Wonderland and the Workout Plan King.)
17. Diamonds Are Forever (Remix) – Kanye West & Jay-Z (I mentioned this song a couple weeks ago in regards to its blood diamonds topic, check it out here – Throw Up Your Diamonds Like You’re Bulimic.)
18. Mind on the Road – Reverend Run (Sampling Joan Jett’s I Love Rock n Roll, this song rivals anything he did with Run-DMC. Just skip the cheesy video, but if you must, click here.)
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is still not on the service that way I could have downloaded the show Thursday morning and watched it later that day, but instead I have to wait until tomorrow to see the episode because it would be wrong to download it threw other means. Of course if I did, it would take until Saturday for it to actually download anyways, not that I know that from experience or anything.
