What struck me during the new video from Prophets of Rage was where are the rebel rousers of today. The nineties had Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy and many others but nobody seems to rage very hard against the machine these day other than the occasional strongly worded tweet.
Mount Kushmore – Snoop Dogg featuring Redman, Method Man, and B-Real
Oh my goodness, a song with Snoop Dogg,
edman, Method Man, and B-Real may have been the greatest track of 1995. Now, meh. And that has to be the worst Trump impression ever.
Wall of Glass – Liam Gallagher
It seems like I have been talking a lot this year about mediocre music from artists who had they heyday two decades ago (including everyone in this post). Liam Gallagher’s first solo track may be the most mediocre. I wonder if Oasis is going a Creedence Clearwater Revival situation where you assume they will reconcile eventually up until the point one of them dies. But unlike John Folgerty, neither of the Gallagher bothers have released anything worth caring about apart.
Lavender – BadBadNotGood featuring Kaytranada and Snoop Dogg
So I have been hearing about this Snoop Dogg video where he shoots Donald Trump for a week before finally looking at it. How extremely lame. All Snoop does and aims a toy gun at a clown and a “bang” flag comes out. Again lame. Any conservative complaining about this can no longer be allowed to condemn liberals for being snowflakes. I remember when Snoop carried a real gun around him and he was not aiming them at silly clowns.
Super Crip – Snoop Dogg
Now that is more like the Snoop Dogg I remember, even if it is in cartoon form. Well, the Snoop made better music.
Heavy – Linkin Park featuring Kiiara
Linkin Park’s last album seemed to be heavily influence by eighties metal so it is weird just how mellow their new some, even featuring Kiira who is part of a new crop of shoe gazing indie pop scene. Kind of got me interested in a Linkin Park album for the first time… maybe ever.
Believer – Imagine Dragon
C’mon Imagine Dragons, why would you want to get in a boxing match with Dolph Lundgren? Dude killed a guy once in the ring. He will break you. Although, when is there going to be a Creed sequil with Vince Howard taking on Dolph’s kid?
It would be hard for Jenny Lewis to follow up Just One of the Guys, but it looks like she did just that with her new video, this time recruiting SNL vets Vanessa Bayer and Fred Armison along with fellow singer-songwriter Fiest to poke fun as Lewis's time as a child star when she guested on Golden Girls and starred in movies like Troop Beverly Hills and the video game championship epic The Wizard starring Fred Savage (which begs the question where is the reboot starring Luke Dunfey as Fred's son? Actually why is Boy Meets World the only reboot in the Savage clan? Where are the reboots to The Princess Bride, Vice Versa, or Little Monsters?)
After some embarrassingly bad years it is weird hearing Snoop Dogg on an actual hot track. There is one that is kind of good that was also released on his album out last week (the embarrassingly titled Bush) but it is not nearly as hot as this song with Raekwon with its nineties remix posse vibe for the video.
California Roll - Snoop Dogg featuring Stevie Wonder
As for the previously mentioned Snoop Dogg, this is probably the best song off of the new album except that I would actually would like the song much more if the song was just Pharrell and Stevie Wonder instead. And is this video supposed to be a tie in to Tomorrowland?
Photograph - Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran does not really like being in his own music videos (Think Out Loud being the lone exception), it is weird to see he really mugged for the camera as a child.
Brandon Flowers first solo album was met with a resounding yawn. After an album back with The Killers, he is giving going alone another try and the first single may actually be worse than the songs from the first. And no unnecessary dialogue with Rachel Evan Wood is going to save the music video either.
St. Jude - Florence + the Machine
Florence + the Machine have already released three music videos for thier upcoming album and this song may be my favorite of the best because it is the rare song where Florence does not seem to be singing at 10 the entire song. And just like the other videos they have released, this one is kind of weird, not dancing with your doppelganger weird, but weird nonetheless in a why is the Smoke Monster in the video kind of way.
Well it looks like the Snoop Lion era is thankfully over. But then again, Snoop Dogg really has not had many great songs since Drop it Like it's Hot. But like that song, this song was produced by Pharrell. But now I have to wonder, what was the last great song Pharrell was a part of? It certainly not this song. Didn't some crappy third tier RnB group from the nineties already have a crappy song called Peaches and Cream?
Work Song - Hozier
It looks like Hozier is going with the spaghetti approach (throw a bunch at the wall hoping one sticks) in hoping to land a second hit releasing his third music video in as many months this year. Doubtful this will be the one that lifts him out of one hit wonderdom especially since this one does not feature any hot chicks from Game of Thrones, just a bunch of weird people dancing.
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.
I guess a video for a song called Bad Things should be creepy, but still, I will never eat whipped cream ever again. Or get the image of Meiko with a mustache out of my head.
I probably should not like Chvrches. Aside from the unnecessary “V” in their name, I really have not been a big fan of synth heavy music since back when New Wave was actually new. But there is just something transfixing about the lead singer’s voice.
Barely a year after rechristening himself Snoop Lion, the artist formally known as Snoop Doggy Dogg has a new name: Snoopzilla. I guess it is for the best because with all the name changes, I can just pretend Snoop Dogg actually stopped releasing music not long after Drop it Like it’s Hot.
I am getting tired of the shoddily shot music videos (and other mediums) where they are meant to look like two friends documenting their travels to a Paramore concert but were obviously professionally done.
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.
Just last week during my Summer Music Preview I was lamenting the lack of great music this and, boom, the next day Lorde pops up while listening to my library. Supposedly I downloaded this in March and played it once already, but I guess it took a second listen to really get it. The song along with the video reminds me of something that would have been a big Buzzworthy hit during the alternative craze of the mid nineties. Over the weekend I made some slightly hyperbolic statements: that not only is it the best song of the year so far, but it is the best anti-materialistic song since Ante Up, the best song by a teenager since Christina Aguilera, and the greatest song ever to come out of New Zealand. I should probably walk back on a couple of those, Get Lucky is still probably the best song of the year, Royals is probably only the best song by a teenage since Taylor Swift’s Our Song, and the Naked and the Famous could make a claim for greatest song ever to come out of New Zealand with Young Blood. But I fully stand by Royals being the best anti- materialistic song since Ante Up. Nonetheless, this is a great song, the kind of song Lana Del Rey only wishes she could make. And the outro of the video is getting ready for her next single Tennis Courts which is almost as good.
Just a year ago John Mayer released his folk epic Born and Raised but will already have a new album out fifteen months later. I guess he spent a lot of downtime during his voice issues writing. Everyone has already declared this song about a naïve former flame to be pointed at Taylor Swift who eviscerated Mayer in her song Dear John. If correct, Mayer wins this round mostly because Dear John ranks as one of Swift’s worst song ever (do not worry Taylor, your Joe Jonas song was way better than his about you) and Paper Doll is already better than anything on his last album. But enough about the song for now, the chick in this video really creeps me out.
The Postal Service recently their ten year anniversary of their only album and this is one of only two new songs. I still prefer when Ben Gibbard’s lyrics set to a more organic background. But the music video is a great idea.
I am already on record saying that kids as the artists in music videos is always entertaining, but Robyn flipped that concept on its head by casting a kid of an opposite gender to play her which is pretty awesome. I do not know about the female Snoop Dogg though.
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.
Just when Snoop Dogg Lion making a reggae album was not weird enough, he made an anti-gun song for the victims of Sandy Hook. You know they guy who in his first single rapped about gunning down an undercover cop. While talking about Same Love by Macklemore and Lewis, I told a buddy of mind I would much rather listen to a good song with a bad message than a crappy song with a good message. With that said, I need to go cue up Deep Cover now.
A couple weeks ago I joked that Downtown - Lady Antebellum had to use the chick from 2 Broke Girls not named Kat Dennings because they could not get Kat Dennings. You know who could get Kat Dennings in their music video: Hanson. Although I am not entirely sure if she filmed new scenes or if the director just inserted clips of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist.
I mistook the first single from the latest album by The Band Perry as the token angry white chick done wrong song, but I am pretty sure this one is. Plus the video has a fight worthy of King of the Nerds.
I am not entirely sure why, but this Family of the Year video took me back to the nineties, back when music videos were on MTV and seemed to mean something.
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.
I was just thinking at the start of the new Underneath the Sycamore video that it looked like the animation from their Grapevine Fires video with a noir feel to it and then the dude goes in and watches that very video. I guess I was right.
At the start of the new Nada Surf video, I actually thought it was going to be adults being poytrayed by their kid self, but it just turned out to be two kids in school uniforms. Oh well. Still a good song though.
I have long bemoaned what passes as RnB these days but it is nice to see artists like Carl Thomas are still honoring the smooth side of the genre. Sure he blatantly stole Raphael Saadiq’s glasses and do not ask me why he brought Snoop Dogg along.
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- Geto Boys
- Geto Boys
- Leaders of the New School