Feed Your iPod vol. LXIII: Hey Stephen

Like I mentioned yesterday, these days I spend most of my days listening to hardcore gangsta rap, Taylor Swift and bands no one’s ever heard of. I cover the latter in yesterday’s post and let me tackle the middle today. I know Taylor Swift is much maligned by pretentious music types and some of their critiques are warranted: her live performances are not always on key, most of her lyrics sound like they came straight from the diary of a middle-schooler, and she has horrible taste in boys. But let’s face it, flaws and all, if you hate Taylor Swift you hate America, and you don’t have America do you?

My favorite song of Swift’s may be the song that sounds the least like her. With every successive album her songs get more and more poppier but still have an underlining hint of country be it the addition of some banjo or fiddle, but there is none of that on Hey Stephen. The song is build on a fun groove and you can tell Swift is having fun herself singing along and the softer and smoother delivery perfectly hides any limitations she may have vocally. It is a perfect template if Swift ever wants to transition into adult contemporary, I for one would not mind if she made an entire album that fits this mold.

Hey Stephen - Taylor Swift

I Want My Music Television - 5/25/11

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.

The Story of Us – Taylor Swift



One of the fun games to play whenever Taylor Swift releases a new album is guessing who the songs are about. Joe Jonas was the rumored target of The Story of Us and I wonder if the ironic thick black glasses on the dude in the video all but confirms it because Joe has been seen wearing a similar pair lately. And the preverbal other woman does kind of resembled Camilla Belle, the rumored subject of Better than Revenge. I am really too old to have written this paragraph.


When I’m Alone - Lissie



It is a shame we did not get more scenes in the bingo parlor. But is still another great song from Lissie.


Carousel - Vanessa Carlton



It look like Vanessa Carlton’s transformation into Stevie is almost complete, just a dye job and a voice drop to be complete.


Sister Wife - Alex Winston



Sometime all it takes for me to check out a new video is its name. Such is the case with Sister Wife from newcomer Alex Winston where I wondered if the song was actually about polygamy and it turns out the answer is a resounding yes. And the video is so absurd I just had to keep on watching.

I Want My Music Television - 5/9/11

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.

Mean - Taylor Swift



One thing that always struck me about this song is how Taylor Swift spends four minutes taking some dude to task for being mean, but then calls the dude a liar and pathetic and alone in life, which is pretty mean spirited itself. And isn’t that the chick from Ramona and Beezus in the video (um, not that I actually saw the movie, um, let’s move onto the next video)?


Sadness Is a Blessing - Lykke Li



It’s videos like this that make me want to sit in on some pitch meetings. “Lykke Li, you are going to be in a swanky restaurant taking shots for two minutes, keep in mind we will not start the song yet, and by the time we start the song, you will spend the rest of the video doing weird music.” “Sure, but how about we throw in a dramatic pause in the middle for no apparent reason.” “Brilliant, let’s start the casting.”


L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. - Noah and the Whale



This by Noah and the Whale is one of those songs if it was released in the mid-late nineties it would have been heavy rotation on MTV along with Harvey Danger, Marcy’s Playground and Cake until teen girl came along and ruined the channel. I miss those days.


Poison and Wine - The Civil Wars



Last time I posted The Civil Wars' first single and here is their latest which is my favorite off their album because it is just heartbreakingly beautiful.

I Want My Music Television - 1/18/11

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.

Back to December – Taylor Swift



I though the ten degrees and a foot of snow were bad here in Northeast Ohio, but at least the snow hasn’t come indoors like Casa de Taylor Swift. Though I am not entirely sure what is going on with random dude walking across small town winter landscape.


Rolling In the Deep - ADELE



I get the feeling the production crew just asked for three random situation and they came up with dude fighting in a room full of chalk, someone breaking dinnerware, a room full of glasses, and a drummer playing in a corner. To which the director goes, “not random enough.” “well how about adding miniature city going up in flames,” “brilliant, film it.” Ladies and gentlemen, ADELE’s latest video.


Monster – Kanye West featuring Rick Ross, Jay-Z, and Nicki Minaj



It looks like Kanye West was also a fan of The Walking Dead, and sadly, Twilight. And I wonder when someone is going to point out that Jay-Z just latches on to great beats and really hasn’t spit a great verse since his un-retirement.


Radio - Raphael Saadiq



Not sure what is with the metallic Lady Gaga looking person, but I am excited for the new Raphael Saadiq album.

The 25 Best Live Performances of 2010

1. Wake Up – John Legend and the Roots (Unstaged)



2. King of Anything – Sara Bareilles and the Backbeats (The Sing-Off)



3. Runaway - Kanye West and Pusha T (MTV Video Music Awards)



4. Breathless - Taylor Swift (Hope for Haiti Now)

5. You and Me – Dave Matthews Band (2010 Grammy Awards)

6. Need You Now – Adele and Darius Rucker (CMT Artists of the Year)

7. Hard Times Come Again No More – Mary J. Blige featuring The Roots (Hope for Haiti Now)

8. Blame It – Jamie Foxx, T-Pain, Doug E. Fresh and Slash (Grammy Awards)

9. Dog Days Are Over – Florence and the Machine (MTV Video Music Awards)

10. Shutterbug – Big Boi and the Roots (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

11. Lean on Me – Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock, and Keith Urban (Hope for Haiti Now)

12. Down on the Corner – Streetcorner Symphony (The Sing-Off)

13. Peace / Crazy / Love Train – Yusef Islam, Ozzy Osborne and The O’Jays (Rally to Restore Sanity and / or Fear)

14. Alone and Forsaken – Neil Young and Dave Matthews (Hope for Haiti Now)

15. Earth Song - Michael Jackson, Carrie Underwood, Smokey Robinson, Celine Dion, Jennifer Hudson, and Usher (2010 Grammy Awards)

16. Breakeven – The Back Beats (The Sing-Off)

17. Chasing Pirates – Norah Jones and the Roots (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

18. Yesterday – Neil Diamond and Herbie Hancock (Stand Up 2 Cancer)

19. The House of the Rising Sun – Jerry Lawson and Talk of the Town (The Sing -Off)

20. Mine – Maroon 5 (CMT Artists of the Year)

21. We Shall Overcome – Bruce Springsteen (Hope for Haiti Now)

22. Won’t Back Down – Eminem and the Roots (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

23. Straight Outta Compton – Ice Cube and the Roots (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

24. Send Me and Angel – Alicia Keys (Hope for Haiti Now)

25. Gone – Ben Folds and Streetcorner Symphony (The Sing-Off)

The 25 Best Albums of 2010

If you interested in buying any of the albums below, click on the album title to go to Amazon and the artist name to download it in iTunes. Also check out my orginal album reviews in the link under the album where for those I reviewed.

1. Brothers - The Black Keys

2. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West
Is Hip-Hop Just a Euphemism for a New Religion?

3. Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons

4. The Lady Killer - Cee Lo Green
I Guess He's an X-Box and I'm More Atari

5. Contra - Vampire Weekend
Here Comes that Feeling You Thought You'd Forgotten

6. Catching a Tiger - Lissie

7. Kaleidoscope Heart - Sara Bareilles
I'm Going Down, Follow if You Wanna

8. Speak Now - Taylor Swift
All Those Other Girls, Well They're Beautiful, but Would They Writea Song for You?

9. Wake Up! - John Legend and The Roots

10. Love Letter - R. Kelly
I Want to Bring Love Songs Back to the Radio

11. American VI: Ain't No Grave - Johnny Cash
Until We Meet Again

12. Eric Clapton - Eric Clapton

13. To the Sea - Jack Johnson

14. Infinite Arms - Band of Horses

15. How I Got Over - The Roots
Look How They Got Me on the Def Jam Payment Plan

16. The Velveteen Age - Diane Birch with The Phenomenal Handclap Band

17. Transference - Transference - Spoon
Got Nothing to lose but Loneliness and Patterns

18. The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monáe

19. God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise - Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs
Can I Come Home for the Summer, I Could Slow Down a Little While

20. Court Yard Hounds - Court Yard Hounds
I Was Raising Can, Now I'm Raising Babies

21. Record Collection - Mark Ronson & The Business Intl.
I Only Want to Be in Yoyr Record Collection

22. The High Road - Broken Bells
The Dawn to End All Nights; That's All We Hoped it Was

23. Release Me - The Like

24. My Best Friend Is You - My Best Friend Is You - Kate Nash
I Don't Careif We're Just Friends, I CanHang out with Myself

25. Plastic Beach - Gorillaz

All Those Other Girls, Well They’re Beautiful, But Would They Write a Song for You?

Taylor Swift recently promoted her latest album Taylor Swift (as in or forever hold your peace) on new channel The Hub. Despite there being much more prominent youth leaning channels around, The Hub is appropriate in that it is co-own by gaming king Hasbro because Speak Now includes the biggest game sweeping the nation: What boys are her songs about? Despite promising in her Target advertisement that she would be naming names, only one name appears on the album: John which most everybody has assumed is John Mayer (but I am holding out hope that it is in fact about Judd Hirsch, star of eighties sitcom Dear John).

So all the other songs on Speak Now, we are left to our own devises to figure out who the other songs about. Innocent is a gimmie considering Swift introed the song at the most recent Video Music Awards with last year’s debacle concerning Kanye West. And the lyric about a thirty-two year old (coincidentally the same age as John Mayer) who is still growing up pretty much confirms as much. Also highly likely is Taylor Launder is the subject of Back to December which mentions the first time the subject of song saw her cry was in September, the month of the Kanye incident in which Lautner was on stage for as the presenter. And is the “chain hanging on your door” a leash reference?

The other songs you will have to make your own conjectures, the most interesting of which is Better in Revenge where Swift turns her visceral hate toward the other woman. The girl in question is “not a saint and she’s not what you think, she’s an actress. She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress.” Oh snap. So who has dated a Taylor ex, is an actress, wears vintage dresses, and has an easily rhymable name. Could it be Joe Jonas rebound girl Camille Belle? Of course John Mayer’s expanding harem is too long to hypothesize.

Wondering which song is about who is the biggest problem with Speak Now. Her previous albums were fun because we didn’t have to decipher whose pictures she was burn or who should have said no because they were just random dudes from Pennsylvania. During her cup of coffee with John Mayer, he should have warned her that no one wants to her a concept album about dating and breaking up with Jennifer Aniston, which is also why Counting Crows became not as entertaining a decade earlier. No one wants to hear people sing about famous people

Speak Now is the first album Swift wrote on her own and it shows, but not in a good way. It is clear she still need help with some phrasing and melody. Or just someone to say the title track was not a good idea to write about breaking up a wedding as many lines in the song are just cringeworthy. Never Grow Up is highly skipable or just might as well had been called Fourteen.

With that said, Speak Now is still a solid pop album (her transition away from country is complete here, and the label has only stuck for marketing reasons). The first single Mine is a fun and natural progression of someone who once sung fairytales like Love Story and is ready to grow up. The banjo infused Mean, the closest she gets to country, is a more entertaining attack song than Better Than Revenge where she unloads on the talking heads who rip on her inability to sing live. And Taylor truly grows for Haunted which sonically more stunning than anything she has done before and dabbles in hard rock and may be the greatest song Avril Lavigne has never recorded.

But Taylor, before your next album, you may want to try and find Drew for some inspiration because no one is going to want to hear songs about Jake Gyllenhaal.

Song to Download – Haunted

Speak Now gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television vol. XCIV

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.


Runaway - Kanye West and Pusha T



It should have been Taylor Swift’s week with the release of her highly anticipated junior album, but Kanye West just had to steal her thunder once again by releasing his thirty-five minute film just days before. Runaway is kind of boring and would have worked much better as individual music videos with a common theme. Like the song Runaway is much more digestible as a nine minute video (well the five minute version is more digestible as it cut off the fuzzed out ending).


Dear John - Jessie James



Speaking of Swift, on her new album she has a song titled Dear John that may or may not be about John Mayer (okay, it probably is). The only problem that Jessie James also recently released a song titled Dear John that may or may not be about John Mayer (okay, it totally is considering seventy-five of the lyrics are composed of titles of Mayer songs). Which begs the question, do we really need two songs written about Jon Mayer released in the span of a month?


1983 - Neon Trees



You really cannot go wrong starting a video with a Big reference (even if the movie came out in 1988 and the lead character wanted to be, well, big). Then throw in a lead singer with a Thriller jacket and imitating Billy Idol (at least I think that is what he was going for). Thank you Neon Trees. But what was with the random Corey Feldman sighting?


L.A. Girl - Yeti Beats featuring Fatlip



Even more eighties references, this time from Fatlip (you may better know his group The Pharcyde) reuniting him with Spike Jones who directed the groups seminal Drop video.

The Ten Most Anticipated Albums of Fall 2010

We are coming upon the fourth quarter which means record companies will actually start releasing albums in hopes that you will buy some to giveaway at Christmas. Please note that release dates are subject to change. Click the album name (or album artwork) to pre-order it on Amazon. Click the artist’s name for their iTunes page.

1. Dark Twisted Fantasy (working title) – Kanye West (11/16): He really shouldn’t be this high considering his last album was one of the worst of last decade. But this will be a return to rap, and it is hard not to get excited when the album will be headlined by two stellar tracks, Power and Runaway. I suspect there will be plenty of toasting to this douchebag this fall.

2. Speak Now - Taylor Swift (10/25): And how can you mention Kanye West without Taylor Swift? She gave us a definitive answer at the Video Music Awards to the question of if she would be addressing the Kanye incident from last year on the new album. Between Innocent and Mine, it sounds like Taylor is growing up quickly and moving further away from her country roots.

3. Wake Up! – John Legend & The Roots (Today): Fall 2010 looks like the season of collaborations with Ben Folds teaming with writer Nick Hornsby, Elthon John recording with his idol Leon Russell, and Mark Ronson hooking up with, well, everyone. But the union I am most interested in is this one from The Roots and John Legend covering mostly obscure soul records.

4. Record Collection – Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. (9/28): After bringing retro back in style with Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, and his second album, Ronson has been working with Duran Duran and that comes though in a big way on this album which sounds very synth heavy. Look for appearances by Q-Tip, Ghostface Killer, Boy George, D’Angelo, and Simon LeBon himself.

5. Come Around Sundown – Kings of Leon (10/19): After their breakout with Only by the Night it is interesting how the Followell boys will follow up the success. From the sound of first single Radioactive, it will be more of the same.

6. Hands all Over – Maroon 5 (Today): After a pretty good debut album, every successive Maroon 5 album has gotten blander than the previous one. First single Misery doesn’t give me too much hope that Hands all Over will turn that around, but the album was produced by hair-band uber-producer Mutt Lange, so maybe it will be worth a listen.

7. Second Chance - El DeBarge (9/28): C’mon, who isn’t down with an El Debarge comeback? One can only be disappointed in that he didn’t bring the whole family with him.

8. Lonely Avenue – Ben Folds and Nick Hornby (9/28): Here was an album I had to do a double take when I first saw it announced. Quirky pop master Ben Folds and novelist Nick Hornby. For illiterates like me that are unaware of Hornby, his books that have been turned into movies include High Fidelity (which was number 10 on my list of The 100 Greatest Movies of the 00’s), About a Boy, and Fever Pitch (but do not blame him about the horrible adaptation because his book was actually about soccer). Hornby contributed the lyrics with Folds coming up with the music including a song about Alaska’s least favorite son Levi Johnston.

9. The Lady Killer - Cee Lo Green (12/7): I really was not interested in a Cee-Lo album that didn’t involve Danger Mouse, but after hearing the ultra-catchy (Explative Deleted) You, color me intrigued. But seriously, after this, lets get another Gnarls Barkley album out please.

10. Hot Sauce Committee part 1 - Beastie Boys (TBA): Putting this on the list may be a bit of wishful thinking because there is no release date announced yet, but with Adam Yauch doing better these days, he’s hoping he is well enough to do the rigors that surround promoting a new album.




Other albums of note:

Today
The Sound of Sunshine – Michael Franti and Spearhead
Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time – Santana
You Get What You Give – Zac Brown Band
A Year Without Rain – Selena Gomez and the Scene

September 28
Clapton – Eric Clapton
Invented – Jimmy Eat World
Pete Yorn – Pete Yorn
Le Noise – Neil Young
6: Commitment - Seal
The Dissent of Man – Bad Religion
Going Back – Phil Collins

October 5
Tiger Suit – KT Tunstall
Glow – Donavon Frankenreiter

October 12
Charleston, SC 1966 – Darius Rucker
The Rock and the Tide – Joshua Radin
The Age of Adz – Sufjan Stevens

October 19
Sale el Sol - Shakira
The Union – Elton John and Leon Russell
Libra Scale – Ne-Yo
Fly Me to the Moon... The Great American Songbook Volume V - Rod Stewart

October 26
Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager - Kid Cudi

November 2
...Featuring Norah Jones – Norah Jones
National Ransom – Elvis Costello
Dreams – Neil Diamond
Sidewalks – Matt and Kim

November 16
Born Free – Kid Rock
Loud – Rihanna

November 23
Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes – Social Distortion

Unknown Dates
Songs of Ascent – U2
The Believer – Common
Walk with Me Now and Fly with Me Later – DMX
Give Till it’s Gone – Ben Harper and Relentless7
Nothing – N.E.R.D.

And what would a music preview be without an obligatory this may actually be the season that Dr. Dre releases Detox mention.