Hello,
This is the last of the history of certain placed finishers on "American Idol". Today I am reviewing the first place finishers. Season One: Kelly Clarkson, the one who started it all. One of most successful candidates both sales wise and artisically. She has released 3 CD's, with the first two being fantastic. The third CD is a little more challenging but is good as well. Season Two: Ruben Studdard, he was dropped from the record company he signed with after winning "AI". He has done nothing spectacular since he won. In fact he has done so poorly that "AI" tossed him a bone and had him sing the farewell song for Season 7 contestants. He sang Kenny Loggins' "Celebrate Me Home". Season Three" Fantasia Barrino, she has had relative success. She released a couple of CD's and appeared on Broadway in "The Color Purple". She also sang that powerful song "I Believe" with grace. That is probably one of the best songs ever sung by an "AI" contestant. Season Four: Carrie Underwood, obviously another very successful winner. She has released two CD's and has sold over 5 million CDs, which is very hard to do in this era of downloading. She currently is headlining her own tour, I would love to go see her in concert. Season Five: Taylor Hicks, yet another winner who was dropped from his record label for poor sales. He currently is performing in "Grease" on Broadway. He faded very quickly after Season Five.
Season Six: Jordin Sparks, she has had a successful CD and I am hoping she is in it for the long run. There were fears that she would never be able to sing again. It appears those fears are unfounded, thank goodness. Season Seven: David Cook, obviously it's too soon to tell. Although he did have 11 songs on the iTunes Top 100 when sales were allowed to be counted. (In comparison David Archuletta only had 3 songs in the Top 100). He also released a CD before he was on "AI", it is called "Analog Heart". If you want to listen to it good luck though. Also there is a musician on amazon.com named David Cook, but it is a different singer. Be careful if you are a big David Cook fan.
"American Idol" Season Eight note: The whole "AI" auditioning process starts up in a few weeks. Their first stop will be in San Francisco on July 17th. They are going to many cities for the first time including Salt Lake City and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Here's more of my Top 50 artists of all-time list. As of yesterday I had Journey at my 28th spot. However after seeing clips of them in concert earlier this year, they jumped up quite a bit. They are on their 5th or 6th singer now. He is damn good although a bit goofy. Anyway they sound fantastic in concert. They also have released some new good music, which is rare for an 80's artist. 28) Steely Dan, the 70's and 80's jazz rock band. If you don't have their greatest hits CD yet, go get it. Every song is a classic. Also they have many other good songs that aren't found on the greatest hits list. Also they are still touring. 27) Whitney Houston, she is one of the musicians on this list who haven't produced anything recently. If she had she would probably be higher on this list. She is suppose to have a new CD out around this Christmas. 26) Ronnie James Dio, usually just called Dio, one of the former singers for Black Sabbath. I prefer his solo work much more though. He also appeared on the Queensryche CD "Operation Mindcrime 2". He plays Dr. X.
25) Garth Brooks, the 90's country singer. 24) Billy Idol: One of the biggest stars of the New Wave movement. That was his best work, but his 2005 CD I would also highly reccomend. It is called "Devil's Playground". 23) Michael Jackson, yeah I know he is a freak but no one can deny "Billie Jean", "Beat It" or most of his other hits. One of the greatest innovators in music of all-time. Here's hoping he finds a way to control his urges and can become relevant again. Supposedly he is working on a CD. 22) The Eagles, the 70's and 80's country rock band. Last year they released their first CD in 28 years, the double CD "Long Road Out of Eden". (Hey maybe Axl is trying to break that record, I wouldn't put it past him.)
Some quick notes, currently on Rhapsody I am listening to highlights from the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Check it out sometime. (If you haven't got Rhapsody yet, what are you waiting for?)The two CD set features Simon and Garfunkel, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Jefferson Airplane, The Who and Jimi Hendrix. Some quick movie reviews: "Ghost Rider" starring Eva Mendes and Nicholas Cage. It was an okay movie, a good video movie or On Demand movie. Whatever you do, do not waste your time watching, "P.S. I Love You". A dumb story, poor execution and way too long. When my wife and I were done watching it, I turned to my wife and said that is two hours of my life I will never get back. That's how bad it is. The only thing I liked about this movie is Hilary Swank, who is one of my favorite actresses.
Have the rest of a good Sunday, themusicaddict
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Arctic Monkeys, Barack Obama and songs rocking my iPod
Hello,
Not much going on today. I am at my parent's house right now so I don't have access to Rhapsody or I would be bringing you a longer review of the Motley Crue CD. With a lot of the lyrics are very explicit, I bought the clean version. I should be getting my physical copy of the CD on Monday and should have a review ready Tuesday. It is a great CD though.
Band of the day: Arctic Monkeys. CD of the day: "Whatever You Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" by the Arctic Monkeys. A band that was much hyped a few years ago, however they are a band that deserves the hype as they are an excellent band. They have released two CDs so far and both CDs are very good. Definitely check out the excellent songs "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" and "View from The Afternoon". Both of those are very cool songs.
Also Katy Perry, who is on some Warped Tour dates, has the 1000th #1 song since the beginning of the rock era. Obviously her song is the much talked about "I Kissed A Girl". Unlike the Arctic Monkeys, that song is not worth the hype. The rock era started in 1955. Also according to the June Spin magazine 58% of music that is downloaded is free. With how sucky the record companies have been, I am glad someone still listens to music.
Recent movies I have seen, my family is watching the first three Indiana Jones movies together so maybe we can go see the fourth one in movie theaters. The other day we watched the second one, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". This is such a typical 80's movie. It has really awful special effects. Kate Capshaw plays a whiny singer who Jones rescues. Steven Spielberg directed this movie and he went on to marry Kate Capshaw. Many people say this is the clunker of the first three movies. However an enjoyable movie if a bit outdated.
Another movie I watched recently was "The Gridiron Gang" starring The Rock. (Although he now is going by his actual name, Dwayne Johnson.) I did not expect a whole lot from this movie but I was pleasantly surprised. It is actually a pretty good movie. It has a great and inspiring story, the football looks realistic and the acting is even pretty good, even by Dwayne Johnson. I am interested to see him in "Get Smart". I would suggest you check out this movie, especially if you have Comcast On Demand. There you can see it free. Tonight I think I am going to watch "Ghost Rider", I probably would not watch it if I had to pay for it.
Here are more songs rocking my iPod. This is one of the greatest songs released in the last several years. The song is "Los Angeles" by Sugarcult. It is so good that I am going to check out the CD on Rhapsody. I am not expecting too much, if the whole CD were this good, Sugarcult would be superstars now. I will let you know though. 2) "The Joker and the Thief"- Wolfmother 3) "Some Like It Hot"- The Power Station. If you haven't heard this song for awhile check it out. I had forgotten how good of a song it is. (The 80's rule.) 4) "Something Left To Say"- Roman Candle 5) "High" Madonna. This song is from the "Evita" soundtrack. 6) "For The Girl"- Fratelli's 7) "Oh Yeah"- Morning State and 8) "Paralyzer".
Coming tomorrow the first place finishers of "AI", some spectacular some not. Also I have completed my list of my Top 50 artists of all-time, I will reveal some of that list tomorrow. Also maybe a review of that Sugarcult CD will be forthcoming.
There are a couple of very interesting articles in the June Esquire magazine. One is an article by Charles P. Pierce about his cynicism towards Barack Obama. In the article he does some soul searching. It is very interesting as he goes through his thought process and some of the conclusions he comes to. For the record, this article made me want to vote for Obama more than ever. (Full disclosure in this Presidential election I am 95% probably going to be voting for Barack Obama.)
Also in that same issue there is an article about John Yoo, he is the one who was asked by the Bush Administration to write the infamous "Torture memos". Yoo was given a hellacious job, he was asked to define what the US Government could legally do in interrogations according to the rule of law. A very fascinating article and Yoo was placed in a terrible position. Don't form any opinions about him until you read the article, it is very eye opening. It is also very gutwrenching.
Have a good day, I'll be back tomorrow themusicaddict
Not much going on today. I am at my parent's house right now so I don't have access to Rhapsody or I would be bringing you a longer review of the Motley Crue CD. With a lot of the lyrics are very explicit, I bought the clean version. I should be getting my physical copy of the CD on Monday and should have a review ready Tuesday. It is a great CD though.
Band of the day: Arctic Monkeys. CD of the day: "Whatever You Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" by the Arctic Monkeys. A band that was much hyped a few years ago, however they are a band that deserves the hype as they are an excellent band. They have released two CDs so far and both CDs are very good. Definitely check out the excellent songs "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor" and "View from The Afternoon". Both of those are very cool songs.
Also Katy Perry, who is on some Warped Tour dates, has the 1000th #1 song since the beginning of the rock era. Obviously her song is the much talked about "I Kissed A Girl". Unlike the Arctic Monkeys, that song is not worth the hype. The rock era started in 1955. Also according to the June Spin magazine 58% of music that is downloaded is free. With how sucky the record companies have been, I am glad someone still listens to music.
Recent movies I have seen, my family is watching the first three Indiana Jones movies together so maybe we can go see the fourth one in movie theaters. The other day we watched the second one, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom". This is such a typical 80's movie. It has really awful special effects. Kate Capshaw plays a whiny singer who Jones rescues. Steven Spielberg directed this movie and he went on to marry Kate Capshaw. Many people say this is the clunker of the first three movies. However an enjoyable movie if a bit outdated.
Another movie I watched recently was "The Gridiron Gang" starring The Rock. (Although he now is going by his actual name, Dwayne Johnson.) I did not expect a whole lot from this movie but I was pleasantly surprised. It is actually a pretty good movie. It has a great and inspiring story, the football looks realistic and the acting is even pretty good, even by Dwayne Johnson. I am interested to see him in "Get Smart". I would suggest you check out this movie, especially if you have Comcast On Demand. There you can see it free. Tonight I think I am going to watch "Ghost Rider", I probably would not watch it if I had to pay for it.
Here are more songs rocking my iPod. This is one of the greatest songs released in the last several years. The song is "Los Angeles" by Sugarcult. It is so good that I am going to check out the CD on Rhapsody. I am not expecting too much, if the whole CD were this good, Sugarcult would be superstars now. I will let you know though. 2) "The Joker and the Thief"- Wolfmother 3) "Some Like It Hot"- The Power Station. If you haven't heard this song for awhile check it out. I had forgotten how good of a song it is. (The 80's rule.) 4) "Something Left To Say"- Roman Candle 5) "High" Madonna. This song is from the "Evita" soundtrack. 6) "For The Girl"- Fratelli's 7) "Oh Yeah"- Morning State and 8) "Paralyzer".
Coming tomorrow the first place finishers of "AI", some spectacular some not. Also I have completed my list of my Top 50 artists of all-time, I will reveal some of that list tomorrow. Also maybe a review of that Sugarcult CD will be forthcoming.
There are a couple of very interesting articles in the June Esquire magazine. One is an article by Charles P. Pierce about his cynicism towards Barack Obama. In the article he does some soul searching. It is very interesting as he goes through his thought process and some of the conclusions he comes to. For the record, this article made me want to vote for Obama more than ever. (Full disclosure in this Presidential election I am 95% probably going to be voting for Barack Obama.)
Also in that same issue there is an article about John Yoo, he is the one who was asked by the Bush Administration to write the infamous "Torture memos". Yoo was given a hellacious job, he was asked to define what the US Government could legally do in interrogations according to the rule of law. A very fascinating article and Yoo was placed in a terrible position. Don't form any opinions about him until you read the article, it is very eye opening. It is also very gutwrenching.
Have a good day, I'll be back tomorrow themusicaddict
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Barnes & Noble music section sucks, Numbers 38-29 artists revealed
Hello,
I have been promising to write about this for awhile. Previously I had blogged about death of the local, independent record store and some of the issues they face. I will now expound on why the Barnes and Noble CD section sucks. (I know it is hard to believe, but will there ever come a day when the record store will actually disappear?) First they only have a music section in a small selection of their stores. The reason I went and shopped there is because I had one of their gift cards I received recently for a prize. I had been saving it as I knew exactly what I wanted to buy. I wanted to buy the new Motley Crue "Saints of Los Angeles" CD. It was out Tuesday and I went to buy it yesterday. They did not have it in, not only that but none of their local stores have yet received their orders. I was dumbfounded, it is a significant release. Those are just two of their problems, another problem is how expensive their CD's are. Most of their CD's are damn expensive, many retailing at $16.99 and higher. That is $4 to $5 more than most any other music retailer for the exact same CD!
I understand what their strategy is, they are taking advantage of the foot traffic they have from people coming in and looking at books. They think they can charge higher prices as people are going to buy music on impulse. Their then is a higher profit margin on the music bought. So that is a good strategy only if they actually have the CD's in stock and have CD's at a higher percentage of stores. If my experience yesterday is any indication of the effectiveness of their strategy, it isn't working.
Here are more of my Top 50 artists of all-time.
38) Elton John: The 70's and 80's rocker who has had so much success due to his songwriting partnership with Bernie Taupin.
37) Billy Joel: John's sometime touring partner and fellow 70's and 80's rocker. Over the last several years he has turned his songwriting to writing classical music.
36) Alanis Morissette: The female singer who exploded in the mid-90's with her classic debut CD, "Jagged Little Pill". Unfortunately since then she has been unable to equal that success or artistic acheivement. These three artists would be higher on my list if some of their recent music had been better or more relevant.
35) The Rolling Stones: Their most recent CD, 2005's "A Bigger Bang" is actually a pretty good CD. Probably the best band to come out of the late 60's British Invasion.
34) Styx: Another oldies act whose best days are behind them. Although their most recent CD of original music, 2003's "Cyclorama", is very good. From that CD you need to check out the excellent song, "Together".
33) Peter Gabriel: I like his solo work a lot better than what he did with Genesis. Also he was recently named one of Time's 2008 100 Most Influential People for his work with human rights. So that is pretty cool.
32) Sarah Brightman: This may seem like an odd choice to some people. However she has one of the most incredible voices ever. If you don't believe me, check out her work in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera". What an amazing voice. She also has many great songs besides her Broadway songs.
31) The Violent Femmes: The 80's new wave/ alternative band. Their debut CD is one of the best ever. Check it out, it is self-titled.
30) Duran, Duran: Another 80's and 90's band, forgive me I am 41. They are trying to remain relevant by working with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, but it wasn't that successful.
29) The White Stripes: Here's a great band from this decade. As they continue releasing solid music they will continue to climb up this list. They and Pink are the two most recent artists on my Top 50 list.
I have figured out numbers 50-29 and my top ten. However I am having problems filling in the middle of the list. The rest of the Top 50 list will be out soon.
Tidbits: CD of the day: "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill"- Lauryn Hill. What an amazing CD. Definitely check out the songs, "Lost Ones", "To Zion" (written for her son), and "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You". Band of the Day: Five Eight. This is an Atlanta based band which was introduced to me by my brother. I am not sure if they are even together anymore. However they have some great songs, seek out "Criminal", "Guitar" and "Magnetic Fields". All three of those songs come from their circa 2003self-titled CD.
Here's some more free music for you from the band Crimea. They are giving away their debut CD, the MP3 version obviously, at thecrimea.net. I haven't listened to it, but I will usually give any free music a shot. I will give you a review of their CD soon. Another band I will be checking out is a duo who are called The Rosebuds. They have a pretty interesting sound from what I have read about them. In addition, I would like to welcome Michaela McManus to the cast of "Law & Order: SVU".
Have a great day, I'll be back Saturday, the musicaddict.
I have been promising to write about this for awhile. Previously I had blogged about death of the local, independent record store and some of the issues they face. I will now expound on why the Barnes and Noble CD section sucks. (I know it is hard to believe, but will there ever come a day when the record store will actually disappear?) First they only have a music section in a small selection of their stores. The reason I went and shopped there is because I had one of their gift cards I received recently for a prize. I had been saving it as I knew exactly what I wanted to buy. I wanted to buy the new Motley Crue "Saints of Los Angeles" CD. It was out Tuesday and I went to buy it yesterday. They did not have it in, not only that but none of their local stores have yet received their orders. I was dumbfounded, it is a significant release. Those are just two of their problems, another problem is how expensive their CD's are. Most of their CD's are damn expensive, many retailing at $16.99 and higher. That is $4 to $5 more than most any other music retailer for the exact same CD!
I understand what their strategy is, they are taking advantage of the foot traffic they have from people coming in and looking at books. They think they can charge higher prices as people are going to buy music on impulse. Their then is a higher profit margin on the music bought. So that is a good strategy only if they actually have the CD's in stock and have CD's at a higher percentage of stores. If my experience yesterday is any indication of the effectiveness of their strategy, it isn't working.
Here are more of my Top 50 artists of all-time.
38) Elton John: The 70's and 80's rocker who has had so much success due to his songwriting partnership with Bernie Taupin.
37) Billy Joel: John's sometime touring partner and fellow 70's and 80's rocker. Over the last several years he has turned his songwriting to writing classical music.
36) Alanis Morissette: The female singer who exploded in the mid-90's with her classic debut CD, "Jagged Little Pill". Unfortunately since then she has been unable to equal that success or artistic acheivement. These three artists would be higher on my list if some of their recent music had been better or more relevant.
35) The Rolling Stones: Their most recent CD, 2005's "A Bigger Bang" is actually a pretty good CD. Probably the best band to come out of the late 60's British Invasion.
34) Styx: Another oldies act whose best days are behind them. Although their most recent CD of original music, 2003's "Cyclorama", is very good. From that CD you need to check out the excellent song, "Together".
33) Peter Gabriel: I like his solo work a lot better than what he did with Genesis. Also he was recently named one of Time's 2008 100 Most Influential People for his work with human rights. So that is pretty cool.
32) Sarah Brightman: This may seem like an odd choice to some people. However she has one of the most incredible voices ever. If you don't believe me, check out her work in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera". What an amazing voice. She also has many great songs besides her Broadway songs.
31) The Violent Femmes: The 80's new wave/ alternative band. Their debut CD is one of the best ever. Check it out, it is self-titled.
30) Duran, Duran: Another 80's and 90's band, forgive me I am 41. They are trying to remain relevant by working with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, but it wasn't that successful.
29) The White Stripes: Here's a great band from this decade. As they continue releasing solid music they will continue to climb up this list. They and Pink are the two most recent artists on my Top 50 list.
I have figured out numbers 50-29 and my top ten. However I am having problems filling in the middle of the list. The rest of the Top 50 list will be out soon.
Tidbits: CD of the day: "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill"- Lauryn Hill. What an amazing CD. Definitely check out the songs, "Lost Ones", "To Zion" (written for her son), and "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You". Band of the Day: Five Eight. This is an Atlanta based band which was introduced to me by my brother. I am not sure if they are even together anymore. However they have some great songs, seek out "Criminal", "Guitar" and "Magnetic Fields". All three of those songs come from their circa 2003self-titled CD.
Here's some more free music for you from the band Crimea. They are giving away their debut CD, the MP3 version obviously, at thecrimea.net. I haven't listened to it, but I will usually give any free music a shot. I will give you a review of their CD soon. Another band I will be checking out is a duo who are called The Rosebuds. They have a pretty interesting sound from what I have read about them. In addition, I would like to welcome Michaela McManus to the cast of "Law & Order: SVU".
Have a great day, I'll be back Saturday, the musicaddict.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
AI Second Place Finishers, Motley Crue
Hello,
R.I.P. George Carlin.
Here is the list of the very unimpressive second place finishers from "American Idol". Season One: Justin Guarini, he's doing that "AI" review show. And of course (sarcasm alert) he was in the hit movie "From Kelly to Justin". I'm not sure why his career hasn't taken off yet as he has an amazing voice. It is almost goosebump good. After having David Archuletta shoved down my throat for a whole season compare him to Guarini. There is just no comparison. Guarini is 10 times the singer and there also is no daddy in sight. Season Two: Clay Aiken, here is the most believeable thing about him, he is going to be a father. In the June 9th, 2008 Newsweek it was revealed that his sperm artificially inseminated a friend of his and he's going to be a proud poppy. I think all of his music sucks, but he did get a role in Spamalot. So he gets props for that. Season Three: Diana Degarmo, apparantally she is in the witness protection program. Season Four: Bo Bice, I honestly don't much about him other than he has two CD's out. One thing that can be said for him is that he is not Kid Rock.
Season Five: Katherine McPhee, she is easily one of the most gorgeous "AI" contestants ever. Her first CD isn't terrible, but it isn't great either. She was dropped from her record label 18 months after being signed. Season Six: Blake Lewis, the absolutely lame beatboxer. How did he become that season's second place finisher? According to rs.com, he has been dropped by his record label, Arista. His first CD didn't go gold, which is the reason given why he was dropped. He sold about 300,000 copies of his first CD, to be gold you have to sell 500,000 copies. Of course 300,000 copies is about 299,998 copies more than I thought he would sell. It also didn't help him that he sucks. Season Seven: David Archuleta, again one of the funniest things I have recently read is he is busy writing songs for his debut CD. I predict he will be dropped from his label about this time next year. He will have huge initial sales of his debut CD, but I think he will fade quickly after that. He will have a very similar trajectory to Taylor Hicks' career.
But here is the most exciting news of the day, the new Motley Crue CD is out today. I just finished listening to it thanks to my friends at Rhapsody. I will be giving a full on review this week sometime. However here's my quick one word review: awesome. The only drawback with this CD is it is extremely explicit. The F-bomb is liberally dropped all over the CD. It is kind of cool that they sing about their history, which is a melodic history. But without a doubt this CD rawks! It is so much better than 98% of the music out there.
CD of the day: Bruce Springsteen's ode to NYC after 9/11, "The Rising". Not only is this CD very emotionally uplifting, every song is great. This might be his best CD, 11 of the 15 songs are classics. Band of the day: Rush. Yeah I know they have been around forever and have had much success. However I listened to their R30 live CD the other day and that is a fantastic collection of their musicianship and all their great songs. If you had a subscription to Rhapsody you could check out that CD, plus the new Motley Crue. (Note: Rhapsody is not paying me a dime. I stumbled over them by chance. I absolutely love how I have access to so much great music through them.)
Songs rocking my iPod: 1) "Twilight"- ELO 2) "Big Mouth Strikes Again (Live)"- Morrissey. If I had to choose one song that most accurately describes me, I would have to pick this song unfortunately. 3) "Spiral"- XTC 4) "Luckenbach, Texas (Back To The Basics of Life)- Waylon Jennings. This is truly a great song. 5) "Red Hill Mining Town"- U2 6) "Black Boys On Moped" a very nasty, angry vent at the England government. It is also a great song. 7) "Baby Don't Forget My Number"- Milli Vanilli (yes that band) 8) "19"- Paul Hardcastle 9) "Run Like Hell (Live)" 10) "Stages"- ZZ Topp 11) "Sin"- Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor,back when he was at his best. 11) "Breathe Today"- Flyleaf 12) "Teenage Grafitti"- The Pink Spiders.
Have a great day! Be looking out for the next Rolling Stone magazine, they will have a big article on "Chinese Democracy", from what I understand. themusicaddict
R.I.P. George Carlin.
Here is the list of the very unimpressive second place finishers from "American Idol". Season One: Justin Guarini, he's doing that "AI" review show. And of course (sarcasm alert) he was in the hit movie "From Kelly to Justin". I'm not sure why his career hasn't taken off yet as he has an amazing voice. It is almost goosebump good. After having David Archuletta shoved down my throat for a whole season compare him to Guarini. There is just no comparison. Guarini is 10 times the singer and there also is no daddy in sight. Season Two: Clay Aiken, here is the most believeable thing about him, he is going to be a father. In the June 9th, 2008 Newsweek it was revealed that his sperm artificially inseminated a friend of his and he's going to be a proud poppy. I think all of his music sucks, but he did get a role in Spamalot. So he gets props for that. Season Three: Diana Degarmo, apparantally she is in the witness protection program. Season Four: Bo Bice, I honestly don't much about him other than he has two CD's out. One thing that can be said for him is that he is not Kid Rock.
Season Five: Katherine McPhee, she is easily one of the most gorgeous "AI" contestants ever. Her first CD isn't terrible, but it isn't great either. She was dropped from her record label 18 months after being signed. Season Six: Blake Lewis, the absolutely lame beatboxer. How did he become that season's second place finisher? According to rs.com, he has been dropped by his record label, Arista. His first CD didn't go gold, which is the reason given why he was dropped. He sold about 300,000 copies of his first CD, to be gold you have to sell 500,000 copies. Of course 300,000 copies is about 299,998 copies more than I thought he would sell. It also didn't help him that he sucks. Season Seven: David Archuleta, again one of the funniest things I have recently read is he is busy writing songs for his debut CD. I predict he will be dropped from his label about this time next year. He will have huge initial sales of his debut CD, but I think he will fade quickly after that. He will have a very similar trajectory to Taylor Hicks' career.
But here is the most exciting news of the day, the new Motley Crue CD is out today. I just finished listening to it thanks to my friends at Rhapsody. I will be giving a full on review this week sometime. However here's my quick one word review: awesome. The only drawback with this CD is it is extremely explicit. The F-bomb is liberally dropped all over the CD. It is kind of cool that they sing about their history, which is a melodic history. But without a doubt this CD rawks! It is so much better than 98% of the music out there.
CD of the day: Bruce Springsteen's ode to NYC after 9/11, "The Rising". Not only is this CD very emotionally uplifting, every song is great. This might be his best CD, 11 of the 15 songs are classics. Band of the day: Rush. Yeah I know they have been around forever and have had much success. However I listened to their R30 live CD the other day and that is a fantastic collection of their musicianship and all their great songs. If you had a subscription to Rhapsody you could check out that CD, plus the new Motley Crue. (Note: Rhapsody is not paying me a dime. I stumbled over them by chance. I absolutely love how I have access to so much great music through them.)
Songs rocking my iPod: 1) "Twilight"- ELO 2) "Big Mouth Strikes Again (Live)"- Morrissey. If I had to choose one song that most accurately describes me, I would have to pick this song unfortunately. 3) "Spiral"- XTC 4) "Luckenbach, Texas (Back To The Basics of Life)- Waylon Jennings. This is truly a great song. 5) "Red Hill Mining Town"- U2 6) "Black Boys On Moped" a very nasty, angry vent at the England government. It is also a great song. 7) "Baby Don't Forget My Number"- Milli Vanilli (yes that band) 8) "19"- Paul Hardcastle 9) "Run Like Hell (Live)" 10) "Stages"- ZZ Topp 11) "Sin"- Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor,back when he was at his best. 11) "Breathe Today"- Flyleaf 12) "Teenage Grafitti"- The Pink Spiders.
Have a great day! Be looking out for the next Rolling Stone magazine, they will have a big article on "Chinese Democracy", from what I understand. themusicaddict
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Alanis Morrisette's New CD, "Flavors of Entanglement" (Updated July 15th, 2013)
Welcome to my 50th post,
Today I'm reviewing Alanis Morissette's "Flavors of Entanglement" CD. I'm reviewing the 17 track CD version that you could only get when you pre-ordered it from the iTunes music store. The extended version has 17 songs and the original version has 11 songs. The extended CD is 74 minutes long. If interested, you can buy the MP3 CD at amazon.com for $8.99. From what I had read this is suppose to be a harder edged CD. I would have to disagree with that assessment. Do you realize this is her 7th CD? She was writing this CD when her relationship was breaking up with the actor Ryan Reynolds, who is now dating Scarlett Johansen.
My favorite song on the CD is the first song, "Citizen of the Planet". It's a hard to understand the lyrics and the ones you can understand are a bit trippy and psychedelic. Although the lyrics are bizarre, I really like this song. This is one of the best songs of her entire career. The second song on the CD is the first single "Underneath" It's an okay song, however I would have chosen "Citizen of the Planet" to be the CD's first single. The third song, "Straitjacket" hearkens back to her first CD, at least lyrically. She sings things like "this shit is making me crazy, the way you let fireworks off in my head". "Straitjacket" has a techno, rock edge and Nine Inch Nails feel to it. It'ss one of the few harder edged songs on the entire CD.
The fourth song is another highlight of the CD, it's "Versions of Violence". She sings that, "versions of violence are sometimes subtle, sometimes clear". She follows up those harder edged songs with "Not As We", a ballad. She sings "Day One. Day One start over again. Step one, step one". The lyrics don't make much sense.
She switches to a midtempo melody for the sixth song, "In Praise of the Vulnerable Man". She sings, "I bow down, bow down to you". This is the first real clunker on the CD and easily could have been left off. It doesn't add anything to the CD as a whole. She proceeds with a slower paced sons for the next song "Torch". Unfortunately this isn't a highlight of the CD either.
On the next song the quality gets better and it's another mid-tempo song. It's titled "Tapes". She sings "All these tapes swirl around in my head. All these songs in my head are my own wreaking havoc". The tenth song has a real autobiographical feel to it. In "Incomplete" she sings "one day I will be healed". (We can guess she is healed, as she's in a new relationship.) It's a bittersweet song. On the regular CD she closes out with another sweet ballad "Orchid".
The next six songs are bonus tracks and only on the extended version of the CD. It starts with "The Guy Who Leaves (Bonus Track)", which is a mid-tempo track with techno flourishes. She sings, "Until I am to get what am I to get". For those of you keeping track at home the thirteenth song is "Madness (Bonus Track)". Another ballad that has an autobiographical feel to it especially when she sings, "see the madness in me is brought out in the presence of you". It seems the title refers to how long this song is. At 6:21 the song runs on for about a minute too long.
Out of the CD's previous five songs, four are ballads including "Limbo No More (Bonus Track)". She's made a decision, is sticking with it and is in "limbo no more". This is one of three or four songs on the CD in which she sings about a list of things. The fifteenth song has a real playful feel to it. The title is "On The Tequila (Bonus Track)". She's evaluating herself against friends from high school and when she lived in Chicago. (This is a similar feel to her campy remake of "My Humps" on Youtube.) Song 16 is about the frustration of growing old, although she's only 33. "It's A Bitch To Grow Up" (Preorder Only). (That's a sentiment I agree with, there isn't anything fun about getting old.) The seventeenth and last song is "Moratorium". Another mid-tempo song. She sings, "I need a breather from the flavors of entanglement". It's a slowly building song.
This CD is a three song rated CD. The three songs on my iPod are "Versions of Violence", "Citizen of the Planet" and "On The Tequila". Although the last song "Moratorium" came close to making it on to my iPod as well. Out of all the CD's I've rated so far, this is one of the best. It is the third best behind Guns 'N' Roses "Appetite For Destruction" and R.E.M.'s "Accelerate".
Band of the Day: Eisley. They play slow but bouncy songs, you would have to hear it to understand. Seven of the twelve songs on their debut CD "Room Noises" are 5 star rated songs by yours truly. This is one of those great unknown bands/CD's, if they had a chance to be played on the radio they'd be a popular band.
CD of the Day: Neil Young's "Sleeps With Angels". This is one of Young's most unappreciated CD's. By my reckoning ten of the twelve songs are classics and the other two songs are near classics. The song you would probably be most familiar with is the rocking and funny, "Piece of Crap". I'm listening to this fantastic CD. Check out the songs, "Driveby", "Safeway Cart", "Trans Am" and "Change Your Mind".
See if this sounds familiar. The following comes from the Jan. 25th, 2007 Rolling Stone. "In an open letter to fans posted on Guns n' Rose's official website, Axl Rose gave a tentative release date of March 6th, 2007 for the thirteen-years-in the making "Chinese Democracy". It's the first time any specific date has been given out by the band or its management. Quoting Axl Rose here 'To say the making of this album has been an unberably long and incomprehenible journey would be an understatement.'" You think! You can never put too much faith in what you hear about the release of this CD, even if it is from Axl himself!
I'd like to respond to the current issue of Entertainment Weekly. They've picked the new classics in music, books, movies etc. New classics are defined as being released in the last 25 years. Here's the top 10 and my thoughts on each one.
1) "Purple Rain" Prince And the Revolution, 1984 This is truly one of the greatest CD's of all-time, there is no doubt. But I'm pretty certain it's not number 1.
2) "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" 1998. Again this is one of the best CD's over the last 25 years easily, but number 2 is a bit high for it. If you don't have this CD you need to go get it, it's a must have in any true music lover's collection.
3) "Achtung Baby"- U2, 1991 How can you argue with a CD that has "Even Better Than The Real Thing", "One", "The Fly", "Until the End of the World", "Mysterious Ways" and "Acrobat" on it? A great CD!
So the first three CD's I'll mostly agree with and all three are easily in the Top 100 CD's of the last 25 years. But...
4) "The College Dropout"- Kanye West, 2004. Please!
5) "Madonna"- Madonna, 1983. A great CD, but I don't think it's Madonna's best CD. How about "True Blue" or "Like A Virgin"?
6) "American Idiot" Green Day, 2004 I'd agree with the placing of this CD. It's a great, great CD. When are we going to get another CD though?
7) "The Blueprint"- Jay Z, 2001. Again I completely disagree. Hip-hop is vastly overrated. EW ranks Run-DMC's "Raising Hell" at number 38. Thatss by far the greatest rap-hip-hop CD of all-time. 38th?
8) "Graceland"- Paul Simon, 1986 I disagree with this selection as well. Although "You Can Call Me Al" is truly one of the great songs of all-time.
9) "Back To Black"- Amy Winehouse, 2007 A great CD, but we need to wait a few more years to see if this CD holds up. It's definitely one of the best CD's released in the last couple of years.
10) "In Rainbows"- Radiohead, 2007 Again I completely disagree with this pick. Radiohead is one of the most overrated bands of all-time. Probably the two most overrated bands of all-time are Radiohead and Nirvana. (Ironically their eleventh ranked CD is Nirvana's "MTV Unplugged In New York". In fact their eleventh to twentieth rated CD's are a large amount of crap.)
They rated "Appetite for Destruction" at #30. Has the EW staff actually ever heard that CD? Another disagreement: Neil Young's "Sleeps With Angels" isn't even on this list, which is a travesty. Of course it's a CD that has fallen by the wayside as it didn't have any "hits". No, it only has 12 great songs back to back to back. Delete "The College Dropout" from this list and put "Sleeps With Angels" in it's place.
Two final notes I saw "The Illusionist" on Comcast On Demand. It's a good and very cool movie. Two great performances by Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti.
I've fallen madly in love with Rhapsody. For just a few dollars or mycokerewards points a month you can listen to Rhapsody all you want. They have 5 million songs available, it's a great way to listen to great music you may be interested in buying. This is a way to find out if these CD's are worth your hard earned money. Rhapsody has saved me a lot of money so far and has kept me away from some crappy music as well. I'm going to check out the band Interpol tomorrow on Rhapsody. I don't know a lot about Interpol but I've heard many good things about them.
Have a great week, I'll be back Tuesday.
themusicaddict
Today I'm reviewing Alanis Morissette's "Flavors of Entanglement" CD. I'm reviewing the 17 track CD version that you could only get when you pre-ordered it from the iTunes music store. The extended version has 17 songs and the original version has 11 songs. The extended CD is 74 minutes long. If interested, you can buy the MP3 CD at amazon.com for $8.99. From what I had read this is suppose to be a harder edged CD. I would have to disagree with that assessment. Do you realize this is her 7th CD? She was writing this CD when her relationship was breaking up with the actor Ryan Reynolds, who is now dating Scarlett Johansen.
My favorite song on the CD is the first song, "Citizen of the Planet". It's a hard to understand the lyrics and the ones you can understand are a bit trippy and psychedelic. Although the lyrics are bizarre, I really like this song. This is one of the best songs of her entire career. The second song on the CD is the first single "Underneath" It's an okay song, however I would have chosen "Citizen of the Planet" to be the CD's first single. The third song, "Straitjacket" hearkens back to her first CD, at least lyrically. She sings things like "this shit is making me crazy, the way you let fireworks off in my head". "Straitjacket" has a techno, rock edge and Nine Inch Nails feel to it. It'ss one of the few harder edged songs on the entire CD.
The fourth song is another highlight of the CD, it's "Versions of Violence". She sings that, "versions of violence are sometimes subtle, sometimes clear". She follows up those harder edged songs with "Not As We", a ballad. She sings "Day One. Day One start over again. Step one, step one". The lyrics don't make much sense.
She switches to a midtempo melody for the sixth song, "In Praise of the Vulnerable Man". She sings, "I bow down, bow down to you". This is the first real clunker on the CD and easily could have been left off. It doesn't add anything to the CD as a whole. She proceeds with a slower paced sons for the next song "Torch". Unfortunately this isn't a highlight of the CD either.
On the next song the quality gets better and it's another mid-tempo song. It's titled "Tapes". She sings "All these tapes swirl around in my head. All these songs in my head are my own wreaking havoc". The tenth song has a real autobiographical feel to it. In "Incomplete" she sings "one day I will be healed". (We can guess she is healed, as she's in a new relationship.) It's a bittersweet song. On the regular CD she closes out with another sweet ballad "Orchid".
The next six songs are bonus tracks and only on the extended version of the CD. It starts with "The Guy Who Leaves (Bonus Track)", which is a mid-tempo track with techno flourishes. She sings, "Until I am to get what am I to get". For those of you keeping track at home the thirteenth song is "Madness (Bonus Track)". Another ballad that has an autobiographical feel to it especially when she sings, "see the madness in me is brought out in the presence of you". It seems the title refers to how long this song is. At 6:21 the song runs on for about a minute too long.
Out of the CD's previous five songs, four are ballads including "Limbo No More (Bonus Track)". She's made a decision, is sticking with it and is in "limbo no more". This is one of three or four songs on the CD in which she sings about a list of things. The fifteenth song has a real playful feel to it. The title is "On The Tequila (Bonus Track)". She's evaluating herself against friends from high school and when she lived in Chicago. (This is a similar feel to her campy remake of "My Humps" on Youtube.) Song 16 is about the frustration of growing old, although she's only 33. "It's A Bitch To Grow Up" (Preorder Only). (That's a sentiment I agree with, there isn't anything fun about getting old.) The seventeenth and last song is "Moratorium". Another mid-tempo song. She sings, "I need a breather from the flavors of entanglement". It's a slowly building song.
This CD is a three song rated CD. The three songs on my iPod are "Versions of Violence", "Citizen of the Planet" and "On The Tequila". Although the last song "Moratorium" came close to making it on to my iPod as well. Out of all the CD's I've rated so far, this is one of the best. It is the third best behind Guns 'N' Roses "Appetite For Destruction" and R.E.M.'s "Accelerate".
Band of the Day: Eisley. They play slow but bouncy songs, you would have to hear it to understand. Seven of the twelve songs on their debut CD "Room Noises" are 5 star rated songs by yours truly. This is one of those great unknown bands/CD's, if they had a chance to be played on the radio they'd be a popular band.
CD of the Day: Neil Young's "Sleeps With Angels". This is one of Young's most unappreciated CD's. By my reckoning ten of the twelve songs are classics and the other two songs are near classics. The song you would probably be most familiar with is the rocking and funny, "Piece of Crap". I'm listening to this fantastic CD. Check out the songs, "Driveby", "Safeway Cart", "Trans Am" and "Change Your Mind".
See if this sounds familiar. The following comes from the Jan. 25th, 2007 Rolling Stone. "In an open letter to fans posted on Guns n' Rose's official website, Axl Rose gave a tentative release date of March 6th, 2007 for the thirteen-years-in the making "Chinese Democracy". It's the first time any specific date has been given out by the band or its management. Quoting Axl Rose here 'To say the making of this album has been an unberably long and incomprehenible journey would be an understatement.'" You think! You can never put too much faith in what you hear about the release of this CD, even if it is from Axl himself!
I'd like to respond to the current issue of Entertainment Weekly. They've picked the new classics in music, books, movies etc. New classics are defined as being released in the last 25 years. Here's the top 10 and my thoughts on each one.
1) "Purple Rain" Prince And the Revolution, 1984 This is truly one of the greatest CD's of all-time, there is no doubt. But I'm pretty certain it's not number 1.
2) "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" 1998. Again this is one of the best CD's over the last 25 years easily, but number 2 is a bit high for it. If you don't have this CD you need to go get it, it's a must have in any true music lover's collection.
3) "Achtung Baby"- U2, 1991 How can you argue with a CD that has "Even Better Than The Real Thing", "One", "The Fly", "Until the End of the World", "Mysterious Ways" and "Acrobat" on it? A great CD!
So the first three CD's I'll mostly agree with and all three are easily in the Top 100 CD's of the last 25 years. But...
4) "The College Dropout"- Kanye West, 2004. Please!
5) "Madonna"- Madonna, 1983. A great CD, but I don't think it's Madonna's best CD. How about "True Blue" or "Like A Virgin"?
6) "American Idiot" Green Day, 2004 I'd agree with the placing of this CD. It's a great, great CD. When are we going to get another CD though?
7) "The Blueprint"- Jay Z, 2001. Again I completely disagree. Hip-hop is vastly overrated. EW ranks Run-DMC's "Raising Hell" at number 38. Thatss by far the greatest rap-hip-hop CD of all-time. 38th?
8) "Graceland"- Paul Simon, 1986 I disagree with this selection as well. Although "You Can Call Me Al" is truly one of the great songs of all-time.
9) "Back To Black"- Amy Winehouse, 2007 A great CD, but we need to wait a few more years to see if this CD holds up. It's definitely one of the best CD's released in the last couple of years.
10) "In Rainbows"- Radiohead, 2007 Again I completely disagree with this pick. Radiohead is one of the most overrated bands of all-time. Probably the two most overrated bands of all-time are Radiohead and Nirvana. (Ironically their eleventh ranked CD is Nirvana's "MTV Unplugged In New York". In fact their eleventh to twentieth rated CD's are a large amount of crap.)
They rated "Appetite for Destruction" at #30. Has the EW staff actually ever heard that CD? Another disagreement: Neil Young's "Sleeps With Angels" isn't even on this list, which is a travesty. Of course it's a CD that has fallen by the wayside as it didn't have any "hits". No, it only has 12 great songs back to back to back. Delete "The College Dropout" from this list and put "Sleeps With Angels" in it's place.
Two final notes I saw "The Illusionist" on Comcast On Demand. It's a good and very cool movie. Two great performances by Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti.
I've fallen madly in love with Rhapsody. For just a few dollars or mycokerewards points a month you can listen to Rhapsody all you want. They have 5 million songs available, it's a great way to listen to great music you may be interested in buying. This is a way to find out if these CD's are worth your hard earned money. Rhapsody has saved me a lot of money so far and has kept me away from some crappy music as well. I'm going to check out the band Interpol tomorrow on Rhapsody. I don't know a lot about Interpol but I've heard many good things about them.
Have a great week, I'll be back Tuesday.
themusicaddict
Friday, June 20, 2008
More "Chinese Democracy" rumors
Hello,
Here are some more "Chinese Democracy" rumors. According to rollingstone.com, billboard.com and several other websites 9 remastered tracks allegedly were briefly on the internet yesterdayThey were at fellow music blog antiquiet.com. (As with anything about this CD take it with a mountain of salt, not a grain of salt.) Of the people who allegedly heard these tracks, the response is mixed. Their were only two reactions, either they absolutely loved them or absolutely hated them. So who knows if this is real or yet just another tease on the 13 year journey of making this CD. I am secretly hoping this CD will be like the Raconteurs last CD. In that one day it was announced it was going to be released and then it was available the next week. Also according to the blogger at antiquiet.com the 9 tracks he heard yesterday were pretty good. I say after waiting 13 years the CD better be fantastic. But then again the new Indiana Jones took 19 years to make and it was disappointing, so who knows. Keep here for more updates. Unless it is absolutely terrible here is my review, this CD rocks.
Last night I remembered why I love rock and roll and specifically "Guns 'N' Roses. Although I have a fairly easy job, when I am at work all day I still get tired. So last night I am coming home about 12:30 and I have the radio on, where it is rare anymore to hear an outstanding song anymore. I had just flipped the station and "Paradise City" had just started. I turned up the radio and rocked out. What a fantastic song, that was a nice reminder why I love music so much. Music has helped me keep my sanity during some unpleasant times.
Here is one more quick movie review thanks to Comcast On Demand. I watched the 1978 movie "F.I.S.T." the other day. This movie stars Slyvester Stallone and the Mom from "A Christmas Story" as his girlfriend/eventual wife. It is an okay movie, definitely a video movie.
Today's band of the day is Wolfmother. So far they have only released one CD, the self-titled, "Wolfmother". This is a CD that you must buy, most of the songs are good. But there are five songs that are great, "Apple Tree", "Joker and the Thief", "Dimension", "Tales" and "Mind's Eye". Seriously if you don't have this CD you must buy it asap. Classic CD of the day, "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac. I see a lot of you out there rolling your eyes. I know what you are thinking but I am not saying this is the best CD of all-time. I am saying it is a damn fine CD. A lot of the band members were breaking up from significant relationships while making this CD. That is sad, but the art that came out of that is remarkable. This CD includes the songs, "Dreams", "Don't Stop", "Go Your Own Way", "The Chain" (the best of all Fleetwood Mac songs, the live version from their reunion CD "The Dance" is simply amazing), "You Make Lovin' Fun", "Gold Dust Woman" and the obscure but great "Secondhand News". This is practically a greatest hits record. Thanks to my Rhapsody account, I was able to listen to this fantastic CD twice this morning.
Also with it being Friday, amazon.com has five reduced CD's for only $5. They have the Robert Plant/ Allison Krauss "Raising Sand" CD. I have this CD and it is okay. They also have CD's by the Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Andrea Bocelli and Linkin Park. If you want any of those MP3 CD's at that price you have until Monday to get them. Also with the new Coldplay CD coming out Tuesday, they have had the deeply discounted CD's this week being CD's by Coldplay. Today you can get Coldplay's "Brothers and Sisters" for only 99 cents. (Hey amazon.com can you run the same promotion for Motley Crue when their new CD comes out next week?)
Also goombah.com has several songs highlighted today for it's Free Friday promotion. The highlights of those songs are the songs by the female blues musician, Janiva Magness. She has 7 songs available free at goombah.com. She has a lot of great songs, including some real blistering blues songs. So you definitely should download those, all 7 of those tracks are free.
Songs rocking my iPod: 1) "Myriad Harbor"- New Pornographers 2) "Drop Dead Gorgeous"-Republica. 3) "I Will Survive"- Gloria Gaynor (Is that old school enough for you?) 4) "Hang On Girl"- Favourite Sons 5) "Skyway Avenue"- We The Kings 6) "Illegal"- Tim McGraw 7) "B***** in Tokyo"- The Stars 8) "No Myth"- Michael Penn -9) "Strutter"- Kiss 10) "Modern Swingers"- Pink Spiders 11) "Last Resort"- Papa Roach and 12) "Creepin' Up The Back Stairs"- The Fratellis.
A couple of final notes. Right now, again thanks to Rhapsody, I am listening to the most recent Tori Amos CD, "American Doll Posse". I am not a big fan of Tori Amos, but this CD is pretty darn good. Obviously her first CD "Little Earthquakes" is a classic. Unfortunately I think she will be one of those many artists who never top their first CD. Although this CD comes close. Upcoming, next week reviews of both the "AI" second and first place finishers and what has happened to them since their experiences. I will also announce more of my Top 50 artists of all-time. I have been working on this list, but I keep on changing my mind. So I am going to think about it some more. Also I have the review of the new Alanis CD. Next week is the release of the new Motley Crue CD, "The Saints of Los Angeles" and I will be reviewing that as well. I will also be writing about why the Barnes and Noble CD section sucks so bad. As always any questions or comments please send them in.
Have a great weekend, themusicaddict
Here are some more "Chinese Democracy" rumors. According to rollingstone.com, billboard.com and several other websites 9 remastered tracks allegedly were briefly on the internet yesterdayThey were at fellow music blog antiquiet.com. (As with anything about this CD take it with a mountain of salt, not a grain of salt.) Of the people who allegedly heard these tracks, the response is mixed. Their were only two reactions, either they absolutely loved them or absolutely hated them. So who knows if this is real or yet just another tease on the 13 year journey of making this CD. I am secretly hoping this CD will be like the Raconteurs last CD. In that one day it was announced it was going to be released and then it was available the next week. Also according to the blogger at antiquiet.com the 9 tracks he heard yesterday were pretty good. I say after waiting 13 years the CD better be fantastic. But then again the new Indiana Jones took 19 years to make and it was disappointing, so who knows. Keep here for more updates. Unless it is absolutely terrible here is my review, this CD rocks.
Last night I remembered why I love rock and roll and specifically "Guns 'N' Roses. Although I have a fairly easy job, when I am at work all day I still get tired. So last night I am coming home about 12:30 and I have the radio on, where it is rare anymore to hear an outstanding song anymore. I had just flipped the station and "Paradise City" had just started. I turned up the radio and rocked out. What a fantastic song, that was a nice reminder why I love music so much. Music has helped me keep my sanity during some unpleasant times.
Here is one more quick movie review thanks to Comcast On Demand. I watched the 1978 movie "F.I.S.T." the other day. This movie stars Slyvester Stallone and the Mom from "A Christmas Story" as his girlfriend/eventual wife. It is an okay movie, definitely a video movie.
Today's band of the day is Wolfmother. So far they have only released one CD, the self-titled, "Wolfmother". This is a CD that you must buy, most of the songs are good. But there are five songs that are great, "Apple Tree", "Joker and the Thief", "Dimension", "Tales" and "Mind's Eye". Seriously if you don't have this CD you must buy it asap. Classic CD of the day, "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac. I see a lot of you out there rolling your eyes. I know what you are thinking but I am not saying this is the best CD of all-time. I am saying it is a damn fine CD. A lot of the band members were breaking up from significant relationships while making this CD. That is sad, but the art that came out of that is remarkable. This CD includes the songs, "Dreams", "Don't Stop", "Go Your Own Way", "The Chain" (the best of all Fleetwood Mac songs, the live version from their reunion CD "The Dance" is simply amazing), "You Make Lovin' Fun", "Gold Dust Woman" and the obscure but great "Secondhand News". This is practically a greatest hits record. Thanks to my Rhapsody account, I was able to listen to this fantastic CD twice this morning.
Also with it being Friday, amazon.com has five reduced CD's for only $5. They have the Robert Plant/ Allison Krauss "Raising Sand" CD. I have this CD and it is okay. They also have CD's by the Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Andrea Bocelli and Linkin Park. If you want any of those MP3 CD's at that price you have until Monday to get them. Also with the new Coldplay CD coming out Tuesday, they have had the deeply discounted CD's this week being CD's by Coldplay. Today you can get Coldplay's "Brothers and Sisters" for only 99 cents. (Hey amazon.com can you run the same promotion for Motley Crue when their new CD comes out next week?)
Also goombah.com has several songs highlighted today for it's Free Friday promotion. The highlights of those songs are the songs by the female blues musician, Janiva Magness. She has 7 songs available free at goombah.com. She has a lot of great songs, including some real blistering blues songs. So you definitely should download those, all 7 of those tracks are free.
Songs rocking my iPod: 1) "Myriad Harbor"- New Pornographers 2) "Drop Dead Gorgeous"-Republica. 3) "I Will Survive"- Gloria Gaynor (Is that old school enough for you?) 4) "Hang On Girl"- Favourite Sons 5) "Skyway Avenue"- We The Kings 6) "Illegal"- Tim McGraw 7) "B***** in Tokyo"- The Stars 8) "No Myth"- Michael Penn -9) "Strutter"- Kiss 10) "Modern Swingers"- Pink Spiders 11) "Last Resort"- Papa Roach and 12) "Creepin' Up The Back Stairs"- The Fratellis.
A couple of final notes. Right now, again thanks to Rhapsody, I am listening to the most recent Tori Amos CD, "American Doll Posse". I am not a big fan of Tori Amos, but this CD is pretty darn good. Obviously her first CD "Little Earthquakes" is a classic. Unfortunately I think she will be one of those many artists who never top their first CD. Although this CD comes close. Upcoming, next week reviews of both the "AI" second and first place finishers and what has happened to them since their experiences. I will also announce more of my Top 50 artists of all-time. I have been working on this list, but I keep on changing my mind. So I am going to think about it some more. Also I have the review of the new Alanis CD. Next week is the release of the new Motley Crue CD, "The Saints of Los Angeles" and I will be reviewing that as well. I will also be writing about why the Barnes and Noble CD section sucks so bad. As always any questions or comments please send them in.
Have a great weekend, themusicaddict
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Top 50 artists of all-time continued, "AI" third place finishers
Hola mi amigos,
Here are the next few names on my Top 50 artists of all-time.
43) James Taylor: the great singer-songwriter.
42) Alabama: the great country music group who sadly is no longer together.
41) Blondie: one of the early great punk/ new wave bands. As a kid they were my favorite band. My kid top 3 filled out with ELO and Cheap Trick.
40) Johnny Cash: The great country music singer who had a career resurgance thanks to Rick Rubin. Unfortunately he passed away a few years ago.
39) Jimi Hendrix: The great and revolutionarily talented guitarist. I am reading an article about him from the 2006 Mojo magazine. When he came into England he overwhelmed everybody. He made Pete Townsend consider giving up playing guitar because Hendrix was so amazing. Not only that but he was also a great songwriter. He has at least 20 songs that are classics.
"American Idol" third place finishers. Season One: Nikki Mckibbin, where have you gone Nikki our country turns our lonely eyes to you? (My apologies to Simon and Garfunkel.) Season Two: Kimberly Locke, she may end up being the most successful third place finisher ever, although her competition isn't that strong. I highly reccomend you get her first CD, "One Love". Season Three: Jasmine Trias and Season Four: Vonzell Soloman. See Season One. Season Five: Elliot Yamin, I know he has released at least one CD. He also sang on last season of "American Idol". I had heard so much how great his voice was, however I was very disappointed. And the song he sang was terrible. Season Six: Melinda Doolittle, probably my favorite third place contestant. Unfortunately she hasn't received a record contract yet. 19 Entertainment prefers to throw away its money on David Archuletta. Please. Someone please someone sign Melinda Doolittle asap. I know at least one person who would buy her CD. Season Seven: Syesha Mercado, the irrepresible one, the one who never gives up and always keeps on fighting. You have got to admire her heart. I am hoping she has an Alicia Keys type career.
Band of the Day: Pipettes old school soul music mixed with modern sounds. They are great. If you like Duffy, you will love the Pipettes. Check out their most recent CD, "We Are The Pipettes". Also June is Black History Month. To honor that amazon.com is giving away 9 soul songs, including Little Richard's "Good Golly, Miss Molly", for free. As my pappy always says, "You can't beat free." I went and watched the excellent "Incredible Hulk" yesterday. After the high quality "Iron Man" Marvel Comics as a movie studio is two for two. Go check out "The Incredible Hulk" and you'll enjoy the surprise cameo at the end. It seems Marvel Comics has an excellent strategy in place. Also thanks to Comcast On Demand, I watched the very good and intense, "The Bone Collector". This movie stars Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. I am not a big Angelina Jolie fan but she does a great job in this movie. She plays her role perfectly. Also Metallica has announced the name of their new CD "Death Magnetic" and it will be released in September sometime. (Just like the Jennifer Hudson CD- yeah.)
Finally songs rocking my iPod 1) "Maureen"- Fountains of Wayne 2) "Crushcrushcrush"- Paramore 3) "Kickstart My Heart"- Motley Crue. (Only 6 more days until their new CD, "Saints of Los Angeles".) 4) "Anticipation"- Carly Simon 5) "Pink Triangle"- Weezer 6) "Life Is A Lemon (And I Want My Money Back)"- Meat Loaf.
I will be back on Friday with the new Alanis CD review. Have a great day, themusicadd
Here are the next few names on my Top 50 artists of all-time.
43) James Taylor: the great singer-songwriter.
42) Alabama: the great country music group who sadly is no longer together.
41) Blondie: one of the early great punk/ new wave bands. As a kid they were my favorite band. My kid top 3 filled out with ELO and Cheap Trick.
40) Johnny Cash: The great country music singer who had a career resurgance thanks to Rick Rubin. Unfortunately he passed away a few years ago.
39) Jimi Hendrix: The great and revolutionarily talented guitarist. I am reading an article about him from the 2006 Mojo magazine. When he came into England he overwhelmed everybody. He made Pete Townsend consider giving up playing guitar because Hendrix was so amazing. Not only that but he was also a great songwriter. He has at least 20 songs that are classics.
"American Idol" third place finishers. Season One: Nikki Mckibbin, where have you gone Nikki our country turns our lonely eyes to you? (My apologies to Simon and Garfunkel.) Season Two: Kimberly Locke, she may end up being the most successful third place finisher ever, although her competition isn't that strong. I highly reccomend you get her first CD, "One Love". Season Three: Jasmine Trias and Season Four: Vonzell Soloman. See Season One. Season Five: Elliot Yamin, I know he has released at least one CD. He also sang on last season of "American Idol". I had heard so much how great his voice was, however I was very disappointed. And the song he sang was terrible. Season Six: Melinda Doolittle, probably my favorite third place contestant. Unfortunately she hasn't received a record contract yet. 19 Entertainment prefers to throw away its money on David Archuletta. Please. Someone please someone sign Melinda Doolittle asap. I know at least one person who would buy her CD. Season Seven: Syesha Mercado, the irrepresible one, the one who never gives up and always keeps on fighting. You have got to admire her heart. I am hoping she has an Alicia Keys type career.
Band of the Day: Pipettes old school soul music mixed with modern sounds. They are great. If you like Duffy, you will love the Pipettes. Check out their most recent CD, "We Are The Pipettes". Also June is Black History Month. To honor that amazon.com is giving away 9 soul songs, including Little Richard's "Good Golly, Miss Molly", for free. As my pappy always says, "You can't beat free." I went and watched the excellent "Incredible Hulk" yesterday. After the high quality "Iron Man" Marvel Comics as a movie studio is two for two. Go check out "The Incredible Hulk" and you'll enjoy the surprise cameo at the end. It seems Marvel Comics has an excellent strategy in place. Also thanks to Comcast On Demand, I watched the very good and intense, "The Bone Collector". This movie stars Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. I am not a big Angelina Jolie fan but she does a great job in this movie. She plays her role perfectly. Also Metallica has announced the name of their new CD "Death Magnetic" and it will be released in September sometime. (Just like the Jennifer Hudson CD- yeah.)
Finally songs rocking my iPod 1) "Maureen"- Fountains of Wayne 2) "Crushcrushcrush"- Paramore 3) "Kickstart My Heart"- Motley Crue. (Only 6 more days until their new CD, "Saints of Los Angeles".) 4) "Anticipation"- Carly Simon 5) "Pink Triangle"- Weezer 6) "Life Is A Lemon (And I Want My Money Back)"- Meat Loaf.
I will be back on Friday with the new Alanis CD review. Have a great day, themusicadd
Monday, June 16, 2008
Guns 'N' Roses review, 12 Shots of Testosterone
Hello,
I have done 5 CD reviews and so far only one of them has been complimentary, that CD being R.E.M.'s "Accelerate". Some people might begin to think I am really a music hater. To show that I am not a music hater I am going to review Guns 'N' Roses classic debut "Appetite for Destruction". This obviously is one of the greatest CD's of all-time. It is because of this CD in why I am holding out out hope that their "Chinese Democracy" will actually see the light of day and maybe even be half as good. I am hoping for close to perfection just like "Appetite for Destruction" is.
"Appetite" starts off with one of the most classic riffs of all-time in the rocking "Welcome To The Jungle". This is a classic song and not even the best song on the CD. Following that blast of testosterone we have three classic rockers back to back to back. They are "It's So Easy", "Nightrain" and "Out Ta Get Me". All three of these songs absolutely kick butt. They are setting the stage for the greatest Guns 'N' Roses song of all-time, "Mr Brownstone". I don't know what more can be said about this song. Everything about it is perfect. One of their concert highlights. What a great song. How many CD's have started out with 5 great songs as good as these? Maybe 7 or 8 other CD's, maybe. And this CD still hasn't even reached the halfway point. I am sure when people first bought this CD back in 1987 and heard these first five songs, their worlds were rocked. I wish I could experience that with a 2008 CD, I just don't think that is going to happen though. Probably back in 1987 they thought the quality would be going down soon. Logically, how could it not? There are so many CD's that have 5 or 6 great songs on them but the rest of the CD is filler. However in this case the sixth song is "Paradise City" of course. So far 6shots of testosterone and probably 3 of the 100 greatest rock songs of all-time. So far 6 for 6 on great songs so the seventh song has got to suck right? No the seventh song is "My Michelle". Another great shot of testosterone rock and roll.
All 7 songs so far have kicked butt. I know I keep on writing this line but what a great CD. The next song is "Think About You". Are you kidding me, another great song. The ninth song is "Sweet Child O' Mine". Probably another one of the Top 100 rock songs of all-time. This is not my favorite song, but I know a lot of people love this song. Then this CD doesn't take a rest for the final three songs. It closes out on the rocking notes of "You're Crazy", "Anything Goes" and "Rocket Queen". Have I already mentioned what a great CD this is? As I write this review I am listening to this CD. Now some things that seemed so great in the 80' have not done so well since then. They have not stood the test of time. (For instance, "Legal Eagles" and I heard two people say that "Star Wars" hasn't stood the test of time. What insanity!) However I don't think anyone can argue that "Appetite For Destruction" hasn't stood the test of time. If this CD was released now what a fresh breath of air it would be. It would blow away so much of the crap that is considered "rock" music now. One more note last year Rolling Stone had a big article about the 20th year anniversary of this CD, you should definitely check it out at rollingstone.com. I also would like to thank my brother for bringing this CD to my attention.
After a review of "Appetite for Destruction" the only way I can go is down. So here are the mixed bag of 4th place finishers of "American Idol". Season One: Tamrya Gray, she released a CD shortly after that first season. It is called "The Dreamer". and it is a pretty good CD. I bought it a couple of years ago. Out of the 12 songs on the CD, 7 of the songs are fantastic. (Not as good as "Appetite For Destruction" but still pretty good.) Season Two: Josh Gracin, he has went on to have a quality country music career. He had a big country hit with the excellent song, "Nothin To Lose". So the first two fourth place finishers have actually done pretty well for themselves. Season Three: LaToya London, if she has done something since the end of Season Three, I am not familiar with it. Season Four: Anthony Federov again not much going on from him. Season Five: Daughtry, out of all the fourth place finishers here he is the superstar. For the 2007 year he sold the most CD's of anybody. Not only does that CD have a lot of sales, it is fantastic as well. (How did he lose out to Elliot Yamin and Taylor Hicks?) Finishing in fourth place might have been the best thing to happen to him. He was able to make his style of CD and it paid off magnificently. Season Six: Lakisha Jones, another great singer who has appeared in "Rent". Season Seven: Jason Castro, it is going to be interesting to see what kind of career he is going to have. I think he will be in the middle of the pack of all "American Idol" contestants. The fourth place finishers have had a lot more success than the fifth place finishers as well as more success than the third place finishers.
A few more brief notes, last night I was able to watch "The Great Debaters". A good movie and Denzel Washington is fantastic in it. He both starred and directed it. It is a "Hoosiers" like show about debating though instead of basketball. It is an enjoyable movie, but nowhere as good as "Hoosiers". Last week there was a flurry of Lil' Wayne news. Now I don't understand all the hype, but somebody sure likes him. Apparantally he sold 425,000 units of his latest CD on the first day of release. Also within the first week it is estimated he will sale 850,000 to 950,000 units of this CD. We will know final sales tallies Wednesday. That just blows me away that he is doing so well, and I couldn't tell you the name of any of his songs. I guess that's the price of being 41.
Band of the Day: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Again thanks to my friends at Rhapsody, I listened to their Greatest Hits CD this morning. There are 4 or 5 great songs on here with the rest of the material not being that inspiring. Although it is very strange to hear her version of the Mary Tyler Moore theme song. This is one of those CD's where it makes more sense just to buy the 4 or 5 good songs than the whole CD. Speaking of Rhapsody, I am really loving them right now. I can listen to almost any song I want. Just this morning I have listened to Whitesnake's "Live-Living In The Shadows of the Blues" and Joan Jett's "Greatest Hits". I also listened to Jakob Dylan's debut CD "Seeing Things". It is a pretty dreary CD. Currently I am listening to "Appetite for Destruction" for the second time. Also I suggest if you don't have the Whitesnake or Guns 'N' Roses CD's you should definitely pick them up asap. In addition if you are a collector of mycokerewards.com points you can actually listen to Rhapsody for free. It is great to have access to all their songs, especially if one is a music blogger. Also thanks to Rhapsody I was able to listen to five hours of Eraykah Badu before seeing her in concert. That helped make the concert all that much better.
One final note, Pearl Jam started an 11 date tour on the East Coast last week. As with their past few tours you can go to pearljam.com and buy these bootlegs. They come in three different formats, MP3, FLAC (if someone knows what that is, I would appreciate an explanation) and you can get the actual physical copy of the CD as well. The MP3 and FLAC will be available about two weeks after the actual concert, and you should be getting the physical CD about 3 weeks after the actual concert. You can preorder now. For more information, go to pearljam.com.
That is it for now, I will be back Wednesday. themusicaddict
I have done 5 CD reviews and so far only one of them has been complimentary, that CD being R.E.M.'s "Accelerate". Some people might begin to think I am really a music hater. To show that I am not a music hater I am going to review Guns 'N' Roses classic debut "Appetite for Destruction". This obviously is one of the greatest CD's of all-time. It is because of this CD in why I am holding out out hope that their "Chinese Democracy" will actually see the light of day and maybe even be half as good. I am hoping for close to perfection just like "Appetite for Destruction" is.
"Appetite" starts off with one of the most classic riffs of all-time in the rocking "Welcome To The Jungle". This is a classic song and not even the best song on the CD. Following that blast of testosterone we have three classic rockers back to back to back. They are "It's So Easy", "Nightrain" and "Out Ta Get Me". All three of these songs absolutely kick butt. They are setting the stage for the greatest Guns 'N' Roses song of all-time, "Mr Brownstone". I don't know what more can be said about this song. Everything about it is perfect. One of their concert highlights. What a great song. How many CD's have started out with 5 great songs as good as these? Maybe 7 or 8 other CD's, maybe. And this CD still hasn't even reached the halfway point. I am sure when people first bought this CD back in 1987 and heard these first five songs, their worlds were rocked. I wish I could experience that with a 2008 CD, I just don't think that is going to happen though. Probably back in 1987 they thought the quality would be going down soon. Logically, how could it not? There are so many CD's that have 5 or 6 great songs on them but the rest of the CD is filler. However in this case the sixth song is "Paradise City" of course. So far 6shots of testosterone and probably 3 of the 100 greatest rock songs of all-time. So far 6 for 6 on great songs so the seventh song has got to suck right? No the seventh song is "My Michelle". Another great shot of testosterone rock and roll.
All 7 songs so far have kicked butt. I know I keep on writing this line but what a great CD. The next song is "Think About You". Are you kidding me, another great song. The ninth song is "Sweet Child O' Mine". Probably another one of the Top 100 rock songs of all-time. This is not my favorite song, but I know a lot of people love this song. Then this CD doesn't take a rest for the final three songs. It closes out on the rocking notes of "You're Crazy", "Anything Goes" and "Rocket Queen". Have I already mentioned what a great CD this is? As I write this review I am listening to this CD. Now some things that seemed so great in the 80' have not done so well since then. They have not stood the test of time. (For instance, "Legal Eagles" and I heard two people say that "Star Wars" hasn't stood the test of time. What insanity!) However I don't think anyone can argue that "Appetite For Destruction" hasn't stood the test of time. If this CD was released now what a fresh breath of air it would be. It would blow away so much of the crap that is considered "rock" music now. One more note last year Rolling Stone had a big article about the 20th year anniversary of this CD, you should definitely check it out at rollingstone.com. I also would like to thank my brother for bringing this CD to my attention.
After a review of "Appetite for Destruction" the only way I can go is down. So here are the mixed bag of 4th place finishers of "American Idol". Season One: Tamrya Gray, she released a CD shortly after that first season. It is called "The Dreamer". and it is a pretty good CD. I bought it a couple of years ago. Out of the 12 songs on the CD, 7 of the songs are fantastic. (Not as good as "Appetite For Destruction" but still pretty good.) Season Two: Josh Gracin, he has went on to have a quality country music career. He had a big country hit with the excellent song, "Nothin To Lose". So the first two fourth place finishers have actually done pretty well for themselves. Season Three: LaToya London, if she has done something since the end of Season Three, I am not familiar with it. Season Four: Anthony Federov again not much going on from him. Season Five: Daughtry, out of all the fourth place finishers here he is the superstar. For the 2007 year he sold the most CD's of anybody. Not only does that CD have a lot of sales, it is fantastic as well. (How did he lose out to Elliot Yamin and Taylor Hicks?) Finishing in fourth place might have been the best thing to happen to him. He was able to make his style of CD and it paid off magnificently. Season Six: Lakisha Jones, another great singer who has appeared in "Rent". Season Seven: Jason Castro, it is going to be interesting to see what kind of career he is going to have. I think he will be in the middle of the pack of all "American Idol" contestants. The fourth place finishers have had a lot more success than the fifth place finishers as well as more success than the third place finishers.
A few more brief notes, last night I was able to watch "The Great Debaters". A good movie and Denzel Washington is fantastic in it. He both starred and directed it. It is a "Hoosiers" like show about debating though instead of basketball. It is an enjoyable movie, but nowhere as good as "Hoosiers". Last week there was a flurry of Lil' Wayne news. Now I don't understand all the hype, but somebody sure likes him. Apparantally he sold 425,000 units of his latest CD on the first day of release. Also within the first week it is estimated he will sale 850,000 to 950,000 units of this CD. We will know final sales tallies Wednesday. That just blows me away that he is doing so well, and I couldn't tell you the name of any of his songs. I guess that's the price of being 41.
Band of the Day: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Again thanks to my friends at Rhapsody, I listened to their Greatest Hits CD this morning. There are 4 or 5 great songs on here with the rest of the material not being that inspiring. Although it is very strange to hear her version of the Mary Tyler Moore theme song. This is one of those CD's where it makes more sense just to buy the 4 or 5 good songs than the whole CD. Speaking of Rhapsody, I am really loving them right now. I can listen to almost any song I want. Just this morning I have listened to Whitesnake's "Live-Living In The Shadows of the Blues" and Joan Jett's "Greatest Hits". I also listened to Jakob Dylan's debut CD "Seeing Things". It is a pretty dreary CD. Currently I am listening to "Appetite for Destruction" for the second time. Also I suggest if you don't have the Whitesnake or Guns 'N' Roses CD's you should definitely pick them up asap. In addition if you are a collector of mycokerewards.com points you can actually listen to Rhapsody for free. It is great to have access to all their songs, especially if one is a music blogger. Also thanks to Rhapsody I was able to listen to five hours of Eraykah Badu before seeing her in concert. That helped make the concert all that much better.
One final note, Pearl Jam started an 11 date tour on the East Coast last week. As with their past few tours you can go to pearljam.com and buy these bootlegs. They come in three different formats, MP3, FLAC (if someone knows what that is, I would appreciate an explanation) and you can get the actual physical copy of the CD as well. The MP3 and FLAC will be available about two weeks after the actual concert, and you should be getting the physical CD about 3 weeks after the actual concert. You can preorder now. For more information, go to pearljam.com.
That is it for now, I will be back Wednesday. themusicaddict
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Leona Lewis CD review, Happy Father's Day
Hello,
Happy Father's Day to all those Fathers out there. I will start off this blog with a review of the disappointing Leona Lewis CD, "Spirit". This CD has 13 songs on it only a few of them are good though. I was wanting to like this CD so much. This CD starts off with one of the best songs of this year, that of course is "Bleeding Love". What a great song that is, but unfortunately this CD falls off considerably after that. The second song is called, "Better In Time". While this CD is a bit dreary, it is a lot more upbeat than Duffy's "Rockferry". "Better In Time" would be one of the peppier tracks on the Duffy CD. On this song she sings, "I'm gonna smile because I deserve to" and "Love gets better in time". This song is a mellow slow burner. The third song is titled "I Will Be". I rate this song a 4 on the scale between 1-5, it is one of the stronger songs on this CD. She sings, "There's nothing I could say to you...to make you see what you mean to me." She's being proactive in her relationships, which doesn't happen a lot for women in pop music. She next sings, "I'm You", again another mellow song. Also her voice and the way she sings reminds me a lot of Mariah Carey, this song certainly has that Mariah Carey vibe. She tells her man to "Wipe away your tears, ain't nothin' for you here". She next asks her man to "Forgive Me", this song shows one of the main flaws of this CD. Although this song is one of the stronger songs on the CD, she repeats "forgive me" several times. The fifth song is "Misses Glass" and it is very depressing. She sings, "This love has left me broken like glass". (I listened to this CD right after I listened to the Duffy CD, so at this point I had listened to 15 straight depressing songs. Those English women are sure happy!) She repeats "broken like glass" several times. You know Leona we get it already, it only takes three or four times.
Then for the sixth and seventh song, we are in for two more depressing songs. First we have "Angel" and then "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". On "Angel" her voice is one of the strongest things on this song and the CD as a whole. She does have a great voice. "Angel" is a super sappy song where she repeats "you're an angel" at least 20 times. Yes, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is the same song that Simon Cowell picked for David Cook. Lewis's version is a drawn out, boring version. It is 4:27 long, take off about a minute and this song would have been much more bearable. It doesn't really fit in to today's hip-hop tinged music. The song is sort of boring but she sings the hell out of it. The eighth song is "Yesterday". When I first saw this title, I was afraid it was going to be about the 1 millionth version of the Beattles classic. So thank goodness it isn't. Again there is the pervading theme of depression when she sings, "I can't believe your gone". (I would be too if she was this depressing all the time.) The next song is the mid-tempo track "Whatever It Takes". She sings, "I want to be whereever you are". Then she says to her man to "Take A Bow" as "he has taken everything else". Although "the scars are all faded".
For the twelveth song of the CD, she sings "Footprints In The Sand", this is obviously based on the famous poem talking about Christ carrying us through our hard times. This is the second song from this CD that made its way on to my iPod. She then closes out the song with the dreary song, "Here I Am". She sings, "I'll always be your friend, if you need someone to love here I am". (I see several hands going up in response.) So this is a 2 song rated CD. It has 13 songs and it would have been improved by deleting two or three of the weaker songs. This album wouldn't have missed a thing if "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" hadn't been included. As I write these reviews I listen to the CD again, this CD has grown on me from the first to second listen quite a bit. So I may change my opinion of this CD in the upcoming months. But a of right now, it is a two song rated CD.
Band of the day: Whitesnake. Thanks to my rhapsody membership I listened to part of their live CD "Live-Standing In The Shadow of the Blues" last night. I am not going to kid you this CD kicks butt. Recorded live in 2005, David Coverdale still has that fantastic voice. The musicianship is unbelieveable. Although the bands changes members frequently, they just find great new musicians as players. (Stat of the day: Kiss is on their 9th lineup since inception.) While writing this it makes me want to go listen to whole CD again, I will do that tomorrow.
Thanks to Comcast and On Demand, my lovely wife and I went in the way back machine last night to the mid-80's. We watched the Robert Redford movie, "Legal Eagles". This movie has not held up very well in the 20+ years since it has been made. You can skip this movie. Also obscure music sighting of the year. I was watching the George Lopez show last night and out of the blue the Commodores show up. First of all I am not sure why I was watching the George Lopez show and then how did they get the Commodores? Of course it could have been just someone playing the Commodores. The Commodores have some great songs, including the song they played last night "Brick House".
I will be back tomorrow and again have a Happy Father's Day, themusicaddict
Happy Father's Day to all those Fathers out there. I will start off this blog with a review of the disappointing Leona Lewis CD, "Spirit". This CD has 13 songs on it only a few of them are good though. I was wanting to like this CD so much. This CD starts off with one of the best songs of this year, that of course is "Bleeding Love". What a great song that is, but unfortunately this CD falls off considerably after that. The second song is called, "Better In Time". While this CD is a bit dreary, it is a lot more upbeat than Duffy's "Rockferry". "Better In Time" would be one of the peppier tracks on the Duffy CD. On this song she sings, "I'm gonna smile because I deserve to" and "Love gets better in time". This song is a mellow slow burner. The third song is titled "I Will Be". I rate this song a 4 on the scale between 1-5, it is one of the stronger songs on this CD. She sings, "There's nothing I could say to you...to make you see what you mean to me." She's being proactive in her relationships, which doesn't happen a lot for women in pop music. She next sings, "I'm You", again another mellow song. Also her voice and the way she sings reminds me a lot of Mariah Carey, this song certainly has that Mariah Carey vibe. She tells her man to "Wipe away your tears, ain't nothin' for you here". She next asks her man to "Forgive Me", this song shows one of the main flaws of this CD. Although this song is one of the stronger songs on the CD, she repeats "forgive me" several times. The fifth song is "Misses Glass" and it is very depressing. She sings, "This love has left me broken like glass". (I listened to this CD right after I listened to the Duffy CD, so at this point I had listened to 15 straight depressing songs. Those English women are sure happy!) She repeats "broken like glass" several times. You know Leona we get it already, it only takes three or four times.
Then for the sixth and seventh song, we are in for two more depressing songs. First we have "Angel" and then "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". On "Angel" her voice is one of the strongest things on this song and the CD as a whole. She does have a great voice. "Angel" is a super sappy song where she repeats "you're an angel" at least 20 times. Yes, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is the same song that Simon Cowell picked for David Cook. Lewis's version is a drawn out, boring version. It is 4:27 long, take off about a minute and this song would have been much more bearable. It doesn't really fit in to today's hip-hop tinged music. The song is sort of boring but she sings the hell out of it. The eighth song is "Yesterday". When I first saw this title, I was afraid it was going to be about the 1 millionth version of the Beattles classic. So thank goodness it isn't. Again there is the pervading theme of depression when she sings, "I can't believe your gone". (I would be too if she was this depressing all the time.) The next song is the mid-tempo track "Whatever It Takes". She sings, "I want to be whereever you are". Then she says to her man to "Take A Bow" as "he has taken everything else". Although "the scars are all faded".
For the twelveth song of the CD, she sings "Footprints In The Sand", this is obviously based on the famous poem talking about Christ carrying us through our hard times. This is the second song from this CD that made its way on to my iPod. She then closes out the song with the dreary song, "Here I Am". She sings, "I'll always be your friend, if you need someone to love here I am". (I see several hands going up in response.) So this is a 2 song rated CD. It has 13 songs and it would have been improved by deleting two or three of the weaker songs. This album wouldn't have missed a thing if "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" hadn't been included. As I write these reviews I listen to the CD again, this CD has grown on me from the first to second listen quite a bit. So I may change my opinion of this CD in the upcoming months. But a of right now, it is a two song rated CD.
Band of the day: Whitesnake. Thanks to my rhapsody membership I listened to part of their live CD "Live-Standing In The Shadow of the Blues" last night. I am not going to kid you this CD kicks butt. Recorded live in 2005, David Coverdale still has that fantastic voice. The musicianship is unbelieveable. Although the bands changes members frequently, they just find great new musicians as players. (Stat of the day: Kiss is on their 9th lineup since inception.) While writing this it makes me want to go listen to whole CD again, I will do that tomorrow.
Thanks to Comcast and On Demand, my lovely wife and I went in the way back machine last night to the mid-80's. We watched the Robert Redford movie, "Legal Eagles". This movie has not held up very well in the 20+ years since it has been made. You can skip this movie. Also obscure music sighting of the year. I was watching the George Lopez show last night and out of the blue the Commodores show up. First of all I am not sure why I was watching the George Lopez show and then how did they get the Commodores? Of course it could have been just someone playing the Commodores. The Commodores have some great songs, including the song they played last night "Brick House".
I will be back tomorrow and again have a Happy Father's Day, themusicaddict
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Beginning of Top 50 Artists of All-Time
Hello,
Just like I promised I am back, whether that be for good or bad. To make my Top 50 list, I first wrote down a list of about 400 artists covering all genres. I then condensed that list down to 117 names, then to 77 names and then to 43 names. The 43 names are the names of the bands that I knew for sure were going to be in my Top 50. I then went back to the 77 names and whittled that list down from number 50 to number 44. Now this list is a constantly changing list. I am sure I have left out someone that might make my Top 50. First I will list some other bands that missed my Top 50, bands I really like but not top 50 artists. These artists include Kelly Clarkson, Queen, Run-DMC, Morrissey, Simon and Garfunkel, Boston, Bon Jovi, Rush and Nine Inch Nails.
Also here are some dorky stats. The letters I have come up with most artists are 1) S with 40 artists 2) M with 38 artists 3) B with 35 artists 4) C with 32 artists and 5) Tied with 21 artists are are the letters D, J and P. The bottom 5: 46) I only has 4 artists listed. I was surprised but the only 4 artists I could think of are INXS, Iron Maiden, Billy Idol and Incubus. (There is obviously Insane Clown Posse but they suck so much as not to be even considered. With 400 bands I thought of, they wouldn't even make my Top 500.) 47) Y has 3 artists (Yaz, Neil Young, Paul Young) and tied at 48 are the following 3 letters, all have two bands listed. 48) U (U2, Carrie Underwood) Z (ZZ Topp, Zwan) and X (X, XTC). Also if I could only pick 1 letter for the desert island, it would be the letter M. That way I would still have Madonna, Motley Crue, Morrissey, Alanis Morrissette, Metallica, John Mellencamp, Motion City Soundtrack, Meat Loaf, Mighty, Mighty Bosstones, Tim McGraw plus many other great bands. The letter M unfortunately does not include my all-time favorite band. Just one more note: if I had a hard time picking between two bands I went with the artist I would most rather see in concert when they were in their prime.
So without any further adieu, here is the start of my Top 50:
50) BB King: the second greatest blueman
49) Pink: she has quite a bit of solid work and she is great in concert.
48) Pat Benatar: see above
47) Meat Loaf: brings an air of theatrics to the rock world
46) Cinderella: good luck with the paralyzed vocal cord Mr. Kieffer
45) Bob Seger: A great singer with a lot of excellent songs. My favorite: Main Street
44) Whitesnake: Yes I know a copycat of Led Zeppelin, but if you are going to copy someone, who else would it be besides Led Zeppelin? And if you doubt their chops, check out "In The Still Of The Night" again.
Out of those currently Pat Benatar, Whitesnake, BB King are all on tour. Cinderella were on tour until June 11th when lead singer Tom Keiffer injured his vocal cords in warm up. When I saw Whitesnake in concert, they were disappointing, and their new CD is kind of lame. A review of it will be coming soon. I also saw Cinderella back in the day and they kicked butt. I still remember Tom Keiffer coming down from the rafters playing the piano and singing, "Don't Know What You Got Until It's Gone".
Again this list will change, it might even be from blog to blog, I am going to let the Top 43 percolate in my head until at least Tuesday. I already know my top two but you are going to have to wait.
One band that did not make my Top 50 list was Kiss. However the other day I realized I only owned two of their songs. I wanted to buy a greatest hits collection of theirs. So I wrote down a list of 12 songs that had to be on that CD. These songs are "Rock 'N' Roll All Night", "Detroit Rock City", "Beth", "Strutter", "Lick It Up", "Heaven's on Fire", "I Was Made For Lovin You", "Shout It Out Loud", "Calling Dr. Love", "Love Gun", "Christine Sixteen" and "Deuce". So on iTunes I found one CD that had all these songs except for "Heaven's On Fire". Not only does this CD have 11of my must have songs, their are 10 additional songs as well. The CD is "The Very Best of Kiss" and I paid $11.99 for the CD. I bought the single, "Heaven's On Fire" also. I immeadiately moved 6 of those Kiss classics to my iPod. Although they have a lot of great songs, when I saw them in concert I was not impressed.
Since this has been such a long blog, I am going to put off the Leona Lewis CD review. If you are dying to know, buy "Bleeding Love" and you will have every essential song off the CD. Also a new feature: band of the day. Today's band of the day is prog rockers Blue Oyster Cult. Check them out. Here's a quick couple of reviews. Yesterday I finished reading, "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith. This is his first book and it is fantastic. It has one of the best twist endings since "The Sixth Sense". I am not going to say anymore. Also I watched "American Gangster" the other day. This movie stars one of my favorite actors, Denzel Washington. It also stars Russell Crowe. The movie is pretty good but the acting of Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington is fantastic. Check the movie out just for that. One final thing: you have got to read the review by Vince Horiuchi in the Salt Lake Tribune about "The Happening". It is one of the funniest reviews I have ever read. You can read it at sltrib.com. It sounds like Shymalan has fallen down since the critical success of his first couple of movies.
Have a good day, I will be back tomorrow. themusicaddict
Just like I promised I am back, whether that be for good or bad. To make my Top 50 list, I first wrote down a list of about 400 artists covering all genres. I then condensed that list down to 117 names, then to 77 names and then to 43 names. The 43 names are the names of the bands that I knew for sure were going to be in my Top 50. I then went back to the 77 names and whittled that list down from number 50 to number 44. Now this list is a constantly changing list. I am sure I have left out someone that might make my Top 50. First I will list some other bands that missed my Top 50, bands I really like but not top 50 artists. These artists include Kelly Clarkson, Queen, Run-DMC, Morrissey, Simon and Garfunkel, Boston, Bon Jovi, Rush and Nine Inch Nails.
Also here are some dorky stats. The letters I have come up with most artists are 1) S with 40 artists 2) M with 38 artists 3) B with 35 artists 4) C with 32 artists and 5) Tied with 21 artists are are the letters D, J and P. The bottom 5: 46) I only has 4 artists listed. I was surprised but the only 4 artists I could think of are INXS, Iron Maiden, Billy Idol and Incubus. (There is obviously Insane Clown Posse but they suck so much as not to be even considered. With 400 bands I thought of, they wouldn't even make my Top 500.) 47) Y has 3 artists (Yaz, Neil Young, Paul Young) and tied at 48 are the following 3 letters, all have two bands listed. 48) U (U2, Carrie Underwood) Z (ZZ Topp, Zwan) and X (X, XTC). Also if I could only pick 1 letter for the desert island, it would be the letter M. That way I would still have Madonna, Motley Crue, Morrissey, Alanis Morrissette, Metallica, John Mellencamp, Motion City Soundtrack, Meat Loaf, Mighty, Mighty Bosstones, Tim McGraw plus many other great bands. The letter M unfortunately does not include my all-time favorite band. Just one more note: if I had a hard time picking between two bands I went with the artist I would most rather see in concert when they were in their prime.
So without any further adieu, here is the start of my Top 50:
50) BB King: the second greatest blueman
49) Pink: she has quite a bit of solid work and she is great in concert.
48) Pat Benatar: see above
47) Meat Loaf: brings an air of theatrics to the rock world
46) Cinderella: good luck with the paralyzed vocal cord Mr. Kieffer
45) Bob Seger: A great singer with a lot of excellent songs. My favorite: Main Street
44) Whitesnake: Yes I know a copycat of Led Zeppelin, but if you are going to copy someone, who else would it be besides Led Zeppelin? And if you doubt their chops, check out "In The Still Of The Night" again.
Out of those currently Pat Benatar, Whitesnake, BB King are all on tour. Cinderella were on tour until June 11th when lead singer Tom Keiffer injured his vocal cords in warm up. When I saw Whitesnake in concert, they were disappointing, and their new CD is kind of lame. A review of it will be coming soon. I also saw Cinderella back in the day and they kicked butt. I still remember Tom Keiffer coming down from the rafters playing the piano and singing, "Don't Know What You Got Until It's Gone".
Again this list will change, it might even be from blog to blog, I am going to let the Top 43 percolate in my head until at least Tuesday. I already know my top two but you are going to have to wait.
One band that did not make my Top 50 list was Kiss. However the other day I realized I only owned two of their songs. I wanted to buy a greatest hits collection of theirs. So I wrote down a list of 12 songs that had to be on that CD. These songs are "Rock 'N' Roll All Night", "Detroit Rock City", "Beth", "Strutter", "Lick It Up", "Heaven's on Fire", "I Was Made For Lovin You", "Shout It Out Loud", "Calling Dr. Love", "Love Gun", "Christine Sixteen" and "Deuce". So on iTunes I found one CD that had all these songs except for "Heaven's On Fire". Not only does this CD have 11of my must have songs, their are 10 additional songs as well. The CD is "The Very Best of Kiss" and I paid $11.99 for the CD. I bought the single, "Heaven's On Fire" also. I immeadiately moved 6 of those Kiss classics to my iPod. Although they have a lot of great songs, when I saw them in concert I was not impressed.
Since this has been such a long blog, I am going to put off the Leona Lewis CD review. If you are dying to know, buy "Bleeding Love" and you will have every essential song off the CD. Also a new feature: band of the day. Today's band of the day is prog rockers Blue Oyster Cult. Check them out. Here's a quick couple of reviews. Yesterday I finished reading, "Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith. This is his first book and it is fantastic. It has one of the best twist endings since "The Sixth Sense". I am not going to say anymore. Also I watched "American Gangster" the other day. This movie stars one of my favorite actors, Denzel Washington. It also stars Russell Crowe. The movie is pretty good but the acting of Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington is fantastic. Check the movie out just for that. One final thing: you have got to read the review by Vince Horiuchi in the Salt Lake Tribune about "The Happening". It is one of the funniest reviews I have ever read. You can read it at sltrib.com. It sounds like Shymalan has fallen down since the critical success of his first couple of movies.
Have a good day, I will be back tomorrow. themusicaddict
Thursday, June 12, 2008
5th place "AI" finishers, CD reviews
Hello,
I am in the process of making my Top 50 music artists list. I have come up with about 100 artists so far and I am adding more all the time. Here are a few artists that will not be on the list: Beattles, Nirvana (the most overrated band of all-time), Radiohead or Bob Dylan. I have never been big fans of these artists. Although I will be eternally grateful to Dylan for writing "Knockin' On Heaven's Door". Guns 'N' Roses turned it into one of the greatest covers of all-time. Also this song use to be a highlight of their live shows.
For this blog I have listened to and reviewed 5 CD's so far for this blog. Here they are in order of quality: 1) "Accelerate" R.E.M. Out of all the CD's this is the only I would reccomend to buy out of all of them. 2) "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings"- Counting Crows 3) "Spirit"-Leona Lewis This reveiw is coming Saturday. 4) "Rockferry"- Duffy and 5) "The Slip"- Nine Inch Nails.
Here is the review of Duffy's "Rockferry". Unfortunately this is a very lame CD. It is not worthy of you listening to even for free. Duffy is full of emotional anguish specifically about her lack of love life. The CD starts off with "Rockferry", it is a slow, mellow song. This song is actually one of the best songs on the CD. The lyrics are hard to understand, based on the other lyrics that is a good thing probably. The CD goes from one lame song to another lame song. The second song is "Warwick Avenue". The theme of this CD is in the following three lyrics from this song. 1) "I'm leaving you for the last time baby." 2) "I've showed you the answers, now here's the door". 3) "You don't love me, I want to be free." The third song is "Serious" in which Duffy sings, "I'm an accessory". She also sings that she is "a joke at my expense in front of your friends all the time." Then we have the fourth straight mellow song in a row, as well as one of the weaker songs on a weak CD. It is "Sleeping Stone". I like the sentiment of the song though. It seems it took awhile for Duffy to come to the point where she could stop people from stepping on her. She tells her man to "take it all or leave me alone". Then the fifth song is another dreary, mellow, boring song. This song is titled "Syrup and Honey". She tells her man not to be wasting on all his money on "syrup and honey." Duffy also list of instructions of how to keep her happy in a romantic relationship. It seems like she has had at least one happy relationship in her life. Although I am thinking it was a short relationship. Really this song is terrible and about now I wouldn't blame you if you are looking for a noose.
Unfortunately this CD does not improve with the next five songs. "Hanging On Too Long" is the sixth song on this CD. It is also how I am feeling listening to this CD. It is yet another slow, mellow, dreary song. Then the calvary comes in to save the day on the 7th song. This is the song, "Mercy", which is the song from this CD receiving all the airplay. This song is a great song, but sounds nothing like nothing else on this CD. She sings "I don't know what you do, but you do it well." Then to close out the CD with 3 more lame songs with "Delayed Devotion", "Scared", and "Distant Dreamer". "Delayed Devotion" is actually listenable whereas the other two aren't.
So skip this CD at all costs, buy the single for "Mercy" but anything beyond that is a waste of money. Whoever is Duffy's man please take care of her and love her. Let's hope Duffy can make a similar improvement that Amy Winehouse made from "Frank" to "Back To Black". If not she may join the very long list of one hit wonders. So my rating is 0 songs. Let me explain my rating system. I usually listen to and review these songs on my iPod while I am at work. Then the number of songs is the number of songs that I actually keep on my iPod when I am done reviewing the CD. By the way I listened to this CD while writing this review. I did not like it anymore the second time.
By that criteria R.E.M.'s "Accelerate" has a 8 song rating, the Counting Crows "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings" has a 4 song rating and Nine Inch Nails "The Slip" is 0 songs. I am surprised how many Counting Crows songs survived on my iPod because I did not like that CD that much. A preview of Leona Lewis' CD is a 2 song rating. That will be coming this Saturday. The Muddy Waters CD review will be coming next week.
Now here goes with the "American Idol" fifth place finishers. I am not sure why but the fifth place finishers are such a weak group of performers. Season One: RJ Helton, I have not even heard of him. Season Two: Trenyce, from what I understand she has a great voice, but again she has not done anything that I know of. Season Three: George Huff, again nada. Four: Scott Savol, apparantally he is quite arrogant but apparantally doesn't have the talent to become a great singer. Five: Paris Bennet, again nada. Season Six: Chris Richardson, one of the worst "American Idol" contestants of all-time. He has no singing ability and he is an idiot. Boy what a surprise he has done a total amount of ZERO! Season Seven: Brooke White, from this uninspiring bunch do you see why I am wishing you luck. White released a CD before her "AI" experience and it is not terrible. I think she has the best chance of these seven contestants to become successful. Good luck Brooke. Next up Saturday, the fourth place contestants aren't that impressive either, but definitely a class above the fifth place finishers. Also in the fourth place finishers we have one of the Top 3 sales leaders of all the "American Idol" contestants.
Here are today's songs rocking my iPod. 1) Again Van Halen's "Black and Blue" 2) "Umbrella"- Marie Digby. Yes this is the same as the Rihanna song, it has already been remade. 3) "Hell or High Water"- Tinsley Ellis 4) "Down In The Neighborhood"- Marcia Ball 5) "The Best Damn Thing"- Avril Lavigne 6) "Take On Me"- A-ha The video for this song is one of the all-time best videos. 7) "Keep On Rockin' In The Free World"- Neil Young 8) "Meglomaniac"- Incubus 9) "Hey You" (Live)- Pink Floyd 10) "I'm A King Bee"- Muddy Waters 11) "Iron, Lion, Zion"- Bob Marley 12) "Set You Free"- Black Keys 13) "Send The Pain Below"- Chevelle 14) "Time of the Season"- The Zombies 15) "Billie Jean"- Michael Jackson 16) "Seven Days of Lonely"- I-Nine 17) "Still"- The Commodores 18) "Paralyzer"- Finger 11 This song features one of my favorite lyrics of the year: "If your body matches what your eyes can do". 19) "Bang Your Head" (Metal Health)- Quiet Riot RIP Kevin Dubrow 20) "Behind These Hazel Eyes"-Kelly Clarkson 21) "I''m Gonna Be (500 Miles)- The Proclaimers
Also remember goombah.com is highlighting 15 of their always free MP3's tomorrow. amazon.com will be back with five MP3 albums that can be downloaded at $5 a piece for the next week. Also they have a reduced MP3 album available everyday at a deeply discounted price. Yesterday, they had Madonna's new CD "Hard Candy" available for only $3.99. Now I have been a huge Madonna fan since back in the day. Her last few CD's have not been real great, however getting this CD for only $3.99 I could not resist. Alanis Morissette's "The Collection" is available today for only $4.99. If you are interested in her and have not heard any of her music, this is a good primer. I have been a big fan of hers since "You Oughta Know" came out.
Have a great Friday, I will be back Saturday. themusicaddict
I am in the process of making my Top 50 music artists list. I have come up with about 100 artists so far and I am adding more all the time. Here are a few artists that will not be on the list: Beattles, Nirvana (the most overrated band of all-time), Radiohead or Bob Dylan. I have never been big fans of these artists. Although I will be eternally grateful to Dylan for writing "Knockin' On Heaven's Door". Guns 'N' Roses turned it into one of the greatest covers of all-time. Also this song use to be a highlight of their live shows.
For this blog I have listened to and reviewed 5 CD's so far for this blog. Here they are in order of quality: 1) "Accelerate" R.E.M. Out of all the CD's this is the only I would reccomend to buy out of all of them. 2) "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings"- Counting Crows 3) "Spirit"-Leona Lewis This reveiw is coming Saturday. 4) "Rockferry"- Duffy and 5) "The Slip"- Nine Inch Nails.
Here is the review of Duffy's "Rockferry". Unfortunately this is a very lame CD. It is not worthy of you listening to even for free. Duffy is full of emotional anguish specifically about her lack of love life. The CD starts off with "Rockferry", it is a slow, mellow song. This song is actually one of the best songs on the CD. The lyrics are hard to understand, based on the other lyrics that is a good thing probably. The CD goes from one lame song to another lame song. The second song is "Warwick Avenue". The theme of this CD is in the following three lyrics from this song. 1) "I'm leaving you for the last time baby." 2) "I've showed you the answers, now here's the door". 3) "You don't love me, I want to be free." The third song is "Serious" in which Duffy sings, "I'm an accessory". She also sings that she is "a joke at my expense in front of your friends all the time." Then we have the fourth straight mellow song in a row, as well as one of the weaker songs on a weak CD. It is "Sleeping Stone". I like the sentiment of the song though. It seems it took awhile for Duffy to come to the point where she could stop people from stepping on her. She tells her man to "take it all or leave me alone". Then the fifth song is another dreary, mellow, boring song. This song is titled "Syrup and Honey". She tells her man not to be wasting on all his money on "syrup and honey." Duffy also list of instructions of how to keep her happy in a romantic relationship. It seems like she has had at least one happy relationship in her life. Although I am thinking it was a short relationship. Really this song is terrible and about now I wouldn't blame you if you are looking for a noose.
Unfortunately this CD does not improve with the next five songs. "Hanging On Too Long" is the sixth song on this CD. It is also how I am feeling listening to this CD. It is yet another slow, mellow, dreary song. Then the calvary comes in to save the day on the 7th song. This is the song, "Mercy", which is the song from this CD receiving all the airplay. This song is a great song, but sounds nothing like nothing else on this CD. She sings "I don't know what you do, but you do it well." Then to close out the CD with 3 more lame songs with "Delayed Devotion", "Scared", and "Distant Dreamer". "Delayed Devotion" is actually listenable whereas the other two aren't.
So skip this CD at all costs, buy the single for "Mercy" but anything beyond that is a waste of money. Whoever is Duffy's man please take care of her and love her. Let's hope Duffy can make a similar improvement that Amy Winehouse made from "Frank" to "Back To Black". If not she may join the very long list of one hit wonders. So my rating is 0 songs. Let me explain my rating system. I usually listen to and review these songs on my iPod while I am at work. Then the number of songs is the number of songs that I actually keep on my iPod when I am done reviewing the CD. By the way I listened to this CD while writing this review. I did not like it anymore the second time.
By that criteria R.E.M.'s "Accelerate" has a 8 song rating, the Counting Crows "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings" has a 4 song rating and Nine Inch Nails "The Slip" is 0 songs. I am surprised how many Counting Crows songs survived on my iPod because I did not like that CD that much. A preview of Leona Lewis' CD is a 2 song rating. That will be coming this Saturday. The Muddy Waters CD review will be coming next week.
Now here goes with the "American Idol" fifth place finishers. I am not sure why but the fifth place finishers are such a weak group of performers. Season One: RJ Helton, I have not even heard of him. Season Two: Trenyce, from what I understand she has a great voice, but again she has not done anything that I know of. Season Three: George Huff, again nada. Four: Scott Savol, apparantally he is quite arrogant but apparantally doesn't have the talent to become a great singer. Five: Paris Bennet, again nada. Season Six: Chris Richardson, one of the worst "American Idol" contestants of all-time. He has no singing ability and he is an idiot. Boy what a surprise he has done a total amount of ZERO! Season Seven: Brooke White, from this uninspiring bunch do you see why I am wishing you luck. White released a CD before her "AI" experience and it is not terrible. I think she has the best chance of these seven contestants to become successful. Good luck Brooke. Next up Saturday, the fourth place contestants aren't that impressive either, but definitely a class above the fifth place finishers. Also in the fourth place finishers we have one of the Top 3 sales leaders of all the "American Idol" contestants.
Here are today's songs rocking my iPod. 1) Again Van Halen's "Black and Blue" 2) "Umbrella"- Marie Digby. Yes this is the same as the Rihanna song, it has already been remade. 3) "Hell or High Water"- Tinsley Ellis 4) "Down In The Neighborhood"- Marcia Ball 5) "The Best Damn Thing"- Avril Lavigne 6) "Take On Me"- A-ha The video for this song is one of the all-time best videos. 7) "Keep On Rockin' In The Free World"- Neil Young 8) "Meglomaniac"- Incubus 9) "Hey You" (Live)- Pink Floyd 10) "I'm A King Bee"- Muddy Waters 11) "Iron, Lion, Zion"- Bob Marley 12) "Set You Free"- Black Keys 13) "Send The Pain Below"- Chevelle 14) "Time of the Season"- The Zombies 15) "Billie Jean"- Michael Jackson 16) "Seven Days of Lonely"- I-Nine 17) "Still"- The Commodores 18) "Paralyzer"- Finger 11 This song features one of my favorite lyrics of the year: "If your body matches what your eyes can do". 19) "Bang Your Head" (Metal Health)- Quiet Riot RIP Kevin Dubrow 20) "Behind These Hazel Eyes"-Kelly Clarkson 21) "I''m Gonna Be (500 Miles)- The Proclaimers
Also remember goombah.com is highlighting 15 of their always free MP3's tomorrow. amazon.com will be back with five MP3 albums that can be downloaded at $5 a piece for the next week. Also they have a reduced MP3 album available everyday at a deeply discounted price. Yesterday, they had Madonna's new CD "Hard Candy" available for only $3.99. Now I have been a huge Madonna fan since back in the day. Her last few CD's have not been real great, however getting this CD for only $3.99 I could not resist. Alanis Morissette's "The Collection" is available today for only $4.99. If you are interested in her and have not heard any of her music, this is a good primer. I have been a big fan of hers since "You Oughta Know" came out.
Have a great Friday, I will be back Saturday. themusicaddict
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Some quick tidbits.
Hello,
Here's two people that I don't quite understand why they are so popular. John Mayer is on the cover of the most recent Rolling Stone as one of the guitar greats. He may be a great guitatist but his songs suck. When he was just beginning he had a couple of good songs including "You're Body is A Wonderland". That is a great song and it is apparantally written about Jennifer Love Hewitt. His first song was the excellent "No Such Thing". However he has not released any good music since then. Both "Daughters" and "Waiting For the World To Change" are boring. (One of the songs that David Archuleta sang on "AI" this season was "Waiting For The World To Change", does that tell you how boring his music is?)
Also in looking at rs.com they are calling Lil' Wayne a superstar, which makes we ask what is their definition of a "superstar". My definition is that no matter what genre you're in, most music fans should be able to name at least one or two songs of your songs. I cannot tell you the name of any Lil' Wayne song and I don't frankly care. What makes him a superstar then? Especially in this time of immense hype why he is considered a superstar? Also isn't the Lil' nickname about wore out as a rap nickname by now? I am so ready for rap/hip-hop to go away, even though I don't think I will.
I read something funny the other day. In no surprise to anyone, Jeff Archuleta signed with 19 Entertainment, uh I mean David Archuletta. That is the same company that David Cook signed with after winning "AI". This is the funny part: according to this report he is currently writing his own songs. Can you imagine how crappy these songs are going to be? However songwriters everywhere are applauding as he will at least reduce the number of their songs that he will ruin. Honestly he probably has a couple of songwriters he is working with, realistically he will be lucky to have more than one of "his/Daddys" songs on the CD. I am also sick of him, his 15 minutes of fame are over. Fortunately 2nd place "AI" contestants don't stick around for long. If you don't believe me, from memory name two of the 7 besides Archuleta.
Also in this era of hype and style over substance, when artists like David Archuleta, John Mayer and Lil' Wayne are getting hyped, some great artists are being skipped over. Along with Lil' Wayne, Alanis Morissette, Jakob Dylan another band releasing new music today is a band called the Fratelli's. Their new CD is "Here We Stand". If you haven't heard their first CD you need to check it out, it is titled, "Costello Music". They don't get the hype, the radio play or other publicity. But they are much better than more popular bands like the Killers et al. About the only other relatively new band I would compare them to in terms of quality is Panic at the Disco. The Fratelli's new CD is available for $7.99 at amazon.com, they have don't have the MP3 available yet. iTunes is selling the MP3 for $9.99. Also the new music Foxboro Hot Tubs is releasing today is the actual record and that record comes with a bonus CD. For those of you under 30 ask an adult what a "record" is. Also the Foxboro HotTubs MP3 is still available at amazon.com for $7.99. I also listened to the amazon.com snippets of all the songs on this CD. It sounds pretty good.
Last night I finished the book "Atonement" by Ian McEwen. I had started reading it before I watched the movie, watching the movie made me want to finish the book. What a great book, good movie and terribly depressing end. It is one of those movies/books that stays with you for awhile and you keep on thinking about it. As you think about it, new insights keep on coming to you. Also I went and watched "Iron Man" with a couple of my boys today. That is easily the coolest movie this year so far, much cooler than Indiana Jones 4. I would definitely you reccomend that you go see it. Although as you may or may not know Marvel Comics is now taking its comic book heroes and making the movies about them now, not passing that on to movie studios. So their next movie is a remake of "The Incredible Hulk", the movie that was a complete bomb a few years ago. Anyway this new "Hulk" movie looks very cool, but unfortunately the story looks about exactly the same as "Iron Man". One more movie note M. Night Shymalan's new movie is out this Friday. I don't have my hopes up but this movie looks very cool, it is called "The Happening". He is the director behing "The Sixth Sense", "Signs" and then a bunch of crap. (I also liked the comic book movie but can't think of the title now.)
According to Jimmy Page, via rollingstone.com, Led Zeppelin is considering reuniting and touring during the autumn of 2009. Apparantally Robert Plant is the hold up, Jimmy Page is all for it. I am guessing so is John Paul Jones. In fact Jones and Page joined the Foo Fighters for a couple of songs in concert the other night. For video proof, see rs.com. As much as I would like to see that, I am expecting that to be as realistic as Guns 'N' Roses ever releasing, "Chinese Democracy".
Here is some more music news: Jennifer Hudson released her new single today. The title of the song is "Spotlight". It is a nice funky jam, her voice is so awesome. Also on iTunes she has another song available, it is her remake of Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed". This is a great song, her singing complimented by the musicianship of Jamie WilliamS makes this a great remake. (Yes he spells his name WilliamS.) I would reccomend you buy both. If you can only buy one, buy "Overjoyed". One more thing I am going to make a reccomendation that I cannot make believe I would be making a week ago. I reccomend you buy the CD of Poison remakes of old songs, it is titled "Poison'd". They have picked a bunch of great songs and they rock all these songs. It is much better than Def Leppard's "Yeah".
Upcoming on Thursday reviews of the new CD's by Duffy and Leona Lewis, both are very disappointing. Also coming Thursday is a review of the Muddy Waters new live CD, "Breakin It Up, Breakin' It Down". I am also thinking about tossing in a review of Guns 'N' Roses "Appetite for Destruction" as well. I want to show that not all my CD reviews are negative. I also just want to tell you how much joy reviewing music sucks out of the music. Also why does Barnes and Noble's record section suck so bad and why are their CD's so damn expensive? Also songs that are rocking my iPod and "American Idol" fifth place finishers. I am working all today tomorrow at my job, so I will be back on Thursday.
have a great week, themusicaddict
Here's two people that I don't quite understand why they are so popular. John Mayer is on the cover of the most recent Rolling Stone as one of the guitar greats. He may be a great guitatist but his songs suck. When he was just beginning he had a couple of good songs including "You're Body is A Wonderland". That is a great song and it is apparantally written about Jennifer Love Hewitt. His first song was the excellent "No Such Thing". However he has not released any good music since then. Both "Daughters" and "Waiting For the World To Change" are boring. (One of the songs that David Archuleta sang on "AI" this season was "Waiting For The World To Change", does that tell you how boring his music is?)
Also in looking at rs.com they are calling Lil' Wayne a superstar, which makes we ask what is their definition of a "superstar". My definition is that no matter what genre you're in, most music fans should be able to name at least one or two songs of your songs. I cannot tell you the name of any Lil' Wayne song and I don't frankly care. What makes him a superstar then? Especially in this time of immense hype why he is considered a superstar? Also isn't the Lil' nickname about wore out as a rap nickname by now? I am so ready for rap/hip-hop to go away, even though I don't think I will.
I read something funny the other day. In no surprise to anyone, Jeff Archuleta signed with 19 Entertainment, uh I mean David Archuletta. That is the same company that David Cook signed with after winning "AI". This is the funny part: according to this report he is currently writing his own songs. Can you imagine how crappy these songs are going to be? However songwriters everywhere are applauding as he will at least reduce the number of their songs that he will ruin. Honestly he probably has a couple of songwriters he is working with, realistically he will be lucky to have more than one of "his/Daddys" songs on the CD. I am also sick of him, his 15 minutes of fame are over. Fortunately 2nd place "AI" contestants don't stick around for long. If you don't believe me, from memory name two of the 7 besides Archuleta.
Also in this era of hype and style over substance, when artists like David Archuleta, John Mayer and Lil' Wayne are getting hyped, some great artists are being skipped over. Along with Lil' Wayne, Alanis Morissette, Jakob Dylan another band releasing new music today is a band called the Fratelli's. Their new CD is "Here We Stand". If you haven't heard their first CD you need to check it out, it is titled, "Costello Music". They don't get the hype, the radio play or other publicity. But they are much better than more popular bands like the Killers et al. About the only other relatively new band I would compare them to in terms of quality is Panic at the Disco. The Fratelli's new CD is available for $7.99 at amazon.com, they have don't have the MP3 available yet. iTunes is selling the MP3 for $9.99. Also the new music Foxboro Hot Tubs is releasing today is the actual record and that record comes with a bonus CD. For those of you under 30 ask an adult what a "record" is. Also the Foxboro HotTubs MP3 is still available at amazon.com for $7.99. I also listened to the amazon.com snippets of all the songs on this CD. It sounds pretty good.
Last night I finished the book "Atonement" by Ian McEwen. I had started reading it before I watched the movie, watching the movie made me want to finish the book. What a great book, good movie and terribly depressing end. It is one of those movies/books that stays with you for awhile and you keep on thinking about it. As you think about it, new insights keep on coming to you. Also I went and watched "Iron Man" with a couple of my boys today. That is easily the coolest movie this year so far, much cooler than Indiana Jones 4. I would definitely you reccomend that you go see it. Although as you may or may not know Marvel Comics is now taking its comic book heroes and making the movies about them now, not passing that on to movie studios. So their next movie is a remake of "The Incredible Hulk", the movie that was a complete bomb a few years ago. Anyway this new "Hulk" movie looks very cool, but unfortunately the story looks about exactly the same as "Iron Man". One more movie note M. Night Shymalan's new movie is out this Friday. I don't have my hopes up but this movie looks very cool, it is called "The Happening". He is the director behing "The Sixth Sense", "Signs" and then a bunch of crap. (I also liked the comic book movie but can't think of the title now.)
According to Jimmy Page, via rollingstone.com, Led Zeppelin is considering reuniting and touring during the autumn of 2009. Apparantally Robert Plant is the hold up, Jimmy Page is all for it. I am guessing so is John Paul Jones. In fact Jones and Page joined the Foo Fighters for a couple of songs in concert the other night. For video proof, see rs.com. As much as I would like to see that, I am expecting that to be as realistic as Guns 'N' Roses ever releasing, "Chinese Democracy".
Here is some more music news: Jennifer Hudson released her new single today. The title of the song is "Spotlight". It is a nice funky jam, her voice is so awesome. Also on iTunes she has another song available, it is her remake of Stevie Wonder's "Overjoyed". This is a great song, her singing complimented by the musicianship of Jamie WilliamS makes this a great remake. (Yes he spells his name WilliamS.) I would reccomend you buy both. If you can only buy one, buy "Overjoyed". One more thing I am going to make a reccomendation that I cannot make believe I would be making a week ago. I reccomend you buy the CD of Poison remakes of old songs, it is titled "Poison'd". They have picked a bunch of great songs and they rock all these songs. It is much better than Def Leppard's "Yeah".
Upcoming on Thursday reviews of the new CD's by Duffy and Leona Lewis, both are very disappointing. Also coming Thursday is a review of the Muddy Waters new live CD, "Breakin It Up, Breakin' It Down". I am also thinking about tossing in a review of Guns 'N' Roses "Appetite for Destruction" as well. I want to show that not all my CD reviews are negative. I also just want to tell you how much joy reviewing music sucks out of the music. Also why does Barnes and Noble's record section suck so bad and why are their CD's so damn expensive? Also songs that are rocking my iPod and "American Idol" fifth place finishers. I am working all today tomorrow at my job, so I will be back on Thursday.
have a great week, themusicaddict
Saturday, June 7, 2008
6th place American Idol finishers.
Hello,
Here are the 6th place "American Idol" finishers and what they have done so far, if anything. By the way what I mean by mainstream success is an artist is receiving attention and one does not have to go look for it. For example: I could care less about the "Sex and the City" movie, but I have been inundated with several stories about it. Season One: Christina Christian, I don't remember hearing anything about her at all. I have never heard her name. She's barely an "AI" footnote. She has a couple of singles available at amazon.com and that's it. Season Two: Carmen Rasmussen, she and I went to the same high school, though I attended about 20 years before her. She has actually released two CD's "Carmen" and "Nothin' Like The Summer". "Summer" was released last August. She has also written a book about maintaining her values in the entertainment industry. In spite of those releases, she has made little impact on the mainstream. Season Three: John Stevens, there appear to be two musicians with this name. But it looks like the "AI" contestant has released two CD's, again no impact on the mainstream. Season Four: Constatine Maroulis, he also has a couple of CD's available. He released a solo CD and has released a CD with his band. Again no impact on mainstream sales. Season Five: Kellie Pickler, now this is what I mean by mainstream success. She has had hit songs and hit CD's. She has had much success so far. Season Six: Phil Stacey, again he has released a CD. Now he really hasn't made mainstream success but he and his CD have received some attention. He also has made at least one music video, with his wife as a co-star. He also seems like a good guy and I hope he continues to do well. Season Seven: Carly Smithson. Not only is she easily my favorite sixth placed contestant of all-time, she is one of my all-time favorite "AI" contestants. She released her debut CD in 2001 under the name of Carly Hennessy. That was received poorly, before being forgotten completely until this year's show. However I think she has an amazing amount of talent and I hope she goes on to have a superstar career. Next up the extremely lackluster 5th place contestants. (Good luck, Brooke.)
Upcoming CD's: This Tuesday we have a very diverse group of musicians releasing music. (I gathered this information from amazon.com.) Alanis Morissette, Jakob Dylan (of Wallflowers fame), the Fratellis are all releasing new CD's. Also the Foxboro Hottubs are releasing a double CD of their recent CD, "Stop, Drop and Roll". I wasn't able to find the details on what is on the second CD though. Also my favorite titled CD of the year is coming Tuesday as well. That being Martha Wainwright's "I Know You're Married, But I Have Feelings Too". I did a preview of these songs yesterday, and I was not very impressed. Also on June 17th the new Coldplay CD "Viva La Vida" will be released. It is available as a MP3 on iTunes now. Then the CD that I am most excited about: On June 24th Motley Crue releases, "Saints Of Los Angeles". I will be buying that the same day.
Also one more quick note: I watched "Dan in Real Life" with my lovely wife last night. That is a movie you can skip. It is one of those movies that if a misunderstanding is resolved at the beginning of the movie, there would be no movie. Please do not support crap.
Have a great weekend, themusicaddict
Here are the 6th place "American Idol" finishers and what they have done so far, if anything. By the way what I mean by mainstream success is an artist is receiving attention and one does not have to go look for it. For example: I could care less about the "Sex and the City" movie, but I have been inundated with several stories about it. Season One: Christina Christian, I don't remember hearing anything about her at all. I have never heard her name. She's barely an "AI" footnote. She has a couple of singles available at amazon.com and that's it. Season Two: Carmen Rasmussen, she and I went to the same high school, though I attended about 20 years before her. She has actually released two CD's "Carmen" and "Nothin' Like The Summer". "Summer" was released last August. She has also written a book about maintaining her values in the entertainment industry. In spite of those releases, she has made little impact on the mainstream. Season Three: John Stevens, there appear to be two musicians with this name. But it looks like the "AI" contestant has released two CD's, again no impact on the mainstream. Season Four: Constatine Maroulis, he also has a couple of CD's available. He released a solo CD and has released a CD with his band. Again no impact on mainstream sales. Season Five: Kellie Pickler, now this is what I mean by mainstream success. She has had hit songs and hit CD's. She has had much success so far. Season Six: Phil Stacey, again he has released a CD. Now he really hasn't made mainstream success but he and his CD have received some attention. He also has made at least one music video, with his wife as a co-star. He also seems like a good guy and I hope he continues to do well. Season Seven: Carly Smithson. Not only is she easily my favorite sixth placed contestant of all-time, she is one of my all-time favorite "AI" contestants. She released her debut CD in 2001 under the name of Carly Hennessy. That was received poorly, before being forgotten completely until this year's show. However I think she has an amazing amount of talent and I hope she goes on to have a superstar career. Next up the extremely lackluster 5th place contestants. (Good luck, Brooke.)
Upcoming CD's: This Tuesday we have a very diverse group of musicians releasing music. (I gathered this information from amazon.com.) Alanis Morissette, Jakob Dylan (of Wallflowers fame), the Fratellis are all releasing new CD's. Also the Foxboro Hottubs are releasing a double CD of their recent CD, "Stop, Drop and Roll". I wasn't able to find the details on what is on the second CD though. Also my favorite titled CD of the year is coming Tuesday as well. That being Martha Wainwright's "I Know You're Married, But I Have Feelings Too". I did a preview of these songs yesterday, and I was not very impressed. Also on June 17th the new Coldplay CD "Viva La Vida" will be released. It is available as a MP3 on iTunes now. Then the CD that I am most excited about: On June 24th Motley Crue releases, "Saints Of Los Angeles". I will be buying that the same day.
Also one more quick note: I watched "Dan in Real Life" with my lovely wife last night. That is a movie you can skip. It is one of those movies that if a misunderstanding is resolved at the beginning of the movie, there would be no movie. Please do not support crap.
Have a great weekend, themusicaddict
Friday, June 6, 2008
7th placed American Idol Contestants
Hello,
As today is Friday, that means two things. First, the website goombah.com chooses 15 of their free MP3's to highlight. This week they did a good job, with an emphasis on alternative music. They also have 3 free songs available by a rapper named MC Chris. Now rap music I usually stay far away from. There are some exceptions though like the Beastie Boys and the greatest rap CD of all-time, Run-DMC's "Raising Hell". Here is another exception, goombah.com has three free songs available by rapper MC Chris. This is a new kind of rap called nerdcore, I only know this because I read about it in Spin or Blender. The three free songs available are all pretty good and I would definitely reccomend you add them to your collection.
Also amazon.com highlights 5 new MP3 CD's each Friday. Here are the five CD's for this week: 1) "Accelerate"- R.E.M. (I would definitely reccomend you take advantage of this sweet deal.) 2) "Hotel California"- The Eagles 3) The new OneRepublic CD. 4) The debut CD by She and Him. and 5) "In Rainbows"- Radiohead. Also today's drastically reduced MP3 CD is "Attack and Release"- The Black Keys. You definitely need to check out this CD. Before purchasing you can always preview all the tracks with 30 second snippets on either amazon.com or iTunes.
Now on to the 7th place "American Idol" contestants. Season One: Ryan Starr, I haven't heard of anything she has done. Season Two: Kimberly Caldwell, she is doing that "AI" behind the scenes show. Season Three: see below Season Four: Anwar Robinson Season Five: Ace Young Season Six: Sanjaya Malakar (ick!) Other than Sanjaya being the butt of a joke by Jimmy Kimmel on this season's "AI" finale I have not heard anything from those three. Season Seven: The gorgeous Kristy Lee Cook, I think she will be the second most successful of all the 7th place finishers. Upcoming a review of the 6th place finishers and they have had more impact than the 7th place finishers besides Hudson.
Season Three: Jennifer Hudson, obviously she is one of the most successful contestants to ever appear on the show, irregardless of place finished. It didn't just seem right to put her with her much less successful 7th place finishers. Also to show that "American Idol" is only mediocre in predicting the best candidates, here are the "AI" contestants who finished in front of Hudson. Sixth place: John Stevens, Fifth place: George Huff, Fourth Place: Latoya London, Third Place: Jasmine Trias, Second Place: Diana DeGarmo. I am guessing those six contestants, and this is a rough guess, have sold a total of 72 CD's. I can't believe she finished in 7th place, was she too talented? Did she have too good of a voice? Were the producers beginning the hype for David Archuleta early. (This should give you hope Syesha Mercado, Carly Smithson, Brooke White, Kristy Lee Cook and Jason Castro.) She has that big fantasic voice. Let's review her accomplishments so far. She won the Oscar for best female supporting actress in "Dreamgirls". She is one of the best to ever sing that song, "And I Am Telling You I Am Not Going". She is currently starring in last week's #1 movie, Sex and the City". She is currently working on her debut CD, which will be available in September. Also her new single "Spotlight" is available Tuesday. In all likelihood you will be getting my review probably that same day.
Here are some other notes. Comcast has a 1985 concert of R.E.M. on demand from Germany. This is probably a waste of your time. They hadn't written most of their great songs yet, they weren't very good performers and the German audience was lethargic. Also I definitely reccomend you pick up the new Rolling Stone magazine, the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. (Here's a little preview: The number 100 song is "Vicarious" by Tool. That is a song I am not familiar with.) Also I had the chance to watch the good Keira Knightley movie "Atonement" the other night. I reccomend this movie, although it is unbelieveably sad. A few months ago I had started reading the book and I resumed reading it last night. The author, Ian McEwen, is a fantastic writer. So reading the book is well worth your time also.
I am going away for the weekend to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. I am going to try and write tomorrow before we leave. If I am unable to write tomorrow I will definitely post a blog Sunday night. Then after that my next blog will be Tuesday. I hope you have as much this weekend as my wife and I do. themusicaddict
As today is Friday, that means two things. First, the website goombah.com chooses 15 of their free MP3's to highlight. This week they did a good job, with an emphasis on alternative music. They also have 3 free songs available by a rapper named MC Chris. Now rap music I usually stay far away from. There are some exceptions though like the Beastie Boys and the greatest rap CD of all-time, Run-DMC's "Raising Hell". Here is another exception, goombah.com has three free songs available by rapper MC Chris. This is a new kind of rap called nerdcore, I only know this because I read about it in Spin or Blender. The three free songs available are all pretty good and I would definitely reccomend you add them to your collection.
Also amazon.com highlights 5 new MP3 CD's each Friday. Here are the five CD's for this week: 1) "Accelerate"- R.E.M. (I would definitely reccomend you take advantage of this sweet deal.) 2) "Hotel California"- The Eagles 3) The new OneRepublic CD. 4) The debut CD by She and Him. and 5) "In Rainbows"- Radiohead. Also today's drastically reduced MP3 CD is "Attack and Release"- The Black Keys. You definitely need to check out this CD. Before purchasing you can always preview all the tracks with 30 second snippets on either amazon.com or iTunes.
Now on to the 7th place "American Idol" contestants. Season One: Ryan Starr, I haven't heard of anything she has done. Season Two: Kimberly Caldwell, she is doing that "AI" behind the scenes show. Season Three: see below Season Four: Anwar Robinson Season Five: Ace Young Season Six: Sanjaya Malakar (ick!) Other than Sanjaya being the butt of a joke by Jimmy Kimmel on this season's "AI" finale I have not heard anything from those three. Season Seven: The gorgeous Kristy Lee Cook, I think she will be the second most successful of all the 7th place finishers. Upcoming a review of the 6th place finishers and they have had more impact than the 7th place finishers besides Hudson.
Season Three: Jennifer Hudson, obviously she is one of the most successful contestants to ever appear on the show, irregardless of place finished. It didn't just seem right to put her with her much less successful 7th place finishers. Also to show that "American Idol" is only mediocre in predicting the best candidates, here are the "AI" contestants who finished in front of Hudson. Sixth place: John Stevens, Fifth place: George Huff, Fourth Place: Latoya London, Third Place: Jasmine Trias, Second Place: Diana DeGarmo. I am guessing those six contestants, and this is a rough guess, have sold a total of 72 CD's. I can't believe she finished in 7th place, was she too talented? Did she have too good of a voice? Were the producers beginning the hype for David Archuleta early. (This should give you hope Syesha Mercado, Carly Smithson, Brooke White, Kristy Lee Cook and Jason Castro.) She has that big fantasic voice. Let's review her accomplishments so far. She won the Oscar for best female supporting actress in "Dreamgirls". She is one of the best to ever sing that song, "And I Am Telling You I Am Not Going". She is currently starring in last week's #1 movie, Sex and the City". She is currently working on her debut CD, which will be available in September. Also her new single "Spotlight" is available Tuesday. In all likelihood you will be getting my review probably that same day.
Here are some other notes. Comcast has a 1985 concert of R.E.M. on demand from Germany. This is probably a waste of your time. They hadn't written most of their great songs yet, they weren't very good performers and the German audience was lethargic. Also I definitely reccomend you pick up the new Rolling Stone magazine, the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time. (Here's a little preview: The number 100 song is "Vicarious" by Tool. That is a song I am not familiar with.) Also I had the chance to watch the good Keira Knightley movie "Atonement" the other night. I reccomend this movie, although it is unbelieveably sad. A few months ago I had started reading the book and I resumed reading it last night. The author, Ian McEwen, is a fantastic writer. So reading the book is well worth your time also.
I am going away for the weekend to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. I am going to try and write tomorrow before we leave. If I am unable to write tomorrow I will definitely post a blog Sunday night. Then after that my next blog will be Tuesday. I hope you have as much this weekend as my wife and I do. themusicaddict
Happy Birthday Stefanie!
Happy Birthday Stefanie, I love you. Have as good as possible birthday. Craig
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Death of the local, independent record store.
Hello,
I have my birthday coming up soon and as always I get a very generous gift from my brother and sister-in-law. So this and Christmas are typically the only time I can buy new music. So I went to the local, independent music store yesterday. The best one is Graywhale. Graywhale is my preferred place of choice for physical copies of CD's. Unfortunately my experience yesterday was mediocre.
I walked into the store with a list of 15 CD's. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to buy them all, I just like to have options. They didn't have 7 of the CD's that were on my list. (Now granted two or three of the CD's they didn't have are obscure, so I will give them a pass on those.) However they didn't have the new Def Leppard, Cult, the new remastered version of "Let It Be" by the Replacements or "Live After Death" by Iron Maiden. Independent stores should at least have plenty of Cult and Replacements CD's. (They did have plenty of copies of CD's by Judas Priest though. Why are they having a Judas Priest promotion? Maybe next week they can have a promotion for Spinal Tap.)
Then three of the CD's I didn't want to buy there as they were too expensive. The Raconteurs, B52's, and the Foxboro Hot Tubs new CD's were all at least $13.99. Frankly that is too much in this era when Wal-Mart is in the process of forcing CD companies to lower prices on all CD's across the board. Also you can get the MP3 copies of these CD's usually for at least $3 or $4 less than at the store. I don't have to go anywhere to buy these MP3 copies. Right now I can go to amazon.com and buy the MP3 of the Foxboro Hot Tubs CD for $7.99.
I have a Graywhale card which saves me $1 on all new CD's and $2 on video games. However I only saved $1 on all 4 CD's for various reasons. I ended up buying the following CD's 1) "Spirit" by Leona Lewis for $13.99 2) "Rockferry"- Duffy $8.99 3) "Pretty. Odd."- Panic at the Disco $9.99 and 4) "Good to Be Bad (with bonus CD)- Whitesnake $14.99. Also my son was able to get a PS2 game for only $1 with my Graywhale card saving us $2 on that game. He was very happy about that.
So that part was disappointing however the people there were very nice and helped me as much as they could. I only had one frustration there. I asked someone about the new Erykah Badu CD and they guy didn't know anything about her at all. He asked me what kind of music she sang and I explained. He had never heard of her. Badu is a fairly obsccure artist so I was willing to give him a pass on that as well. So after making my purchase my son and I walked out to our van. I looked at the advertising posters at the front of their store. One of the posters was for Erykah Badu's new CD. So it seems all the employees should know at least the artists they are advertising.
Especially if that artist had been in concert the night before, people usually come in looking for music from an artist after they see them in concert. I know I do at least, unless I have all that artists music first. I think independent record stores should set up a wall of all the music of upcoming and recent concerts. That will both increase sales and also can cross promote the fact that Graywhale sells concert tickets as well. In order to survive independent record stores need to play up the local angle as much as possible. That is one thing that iTunes or amazon.com can't touch. I prefer to have the physical copies of CD's. Graywhale didn't do well on selection or price yesterday though.
Don't get me wrong I would prefer to buy all my music from Graywhale going forward but they have some serious issues they need to address. I think they need to get much closer in price to online music retailers. They need to hire music geeks as well who live and die music and have a wide taste of all kinds of music. (For instance the kind of person who would blog about music.) Again they need to do better on pricing as they will probably never be able to match either amazon.com or iTunes in price or conveinance. Two examples of that quickly, yesterday I bought the new Black Keys CD, "Attack and Release" for only $2.99 at amazon.com. Today I bought the new Marie Digby CD for only $1.99. Now I have never heard of Digby. I previewed all the tracks on the CD it is definitely worth $1.99. Also for those who buy the CD at amazon.com, you get an exclusive amazon.com only track. (Again I could do that from the comfort of my home, didn't have to go anywhere and don't have to pay additional for gas. Also online music stores are open 24/7.) Graywhale there is still hope but you need to act quickly.
Upcoming: Reviews of the new Duffy, Leona Lewis, Black Keys, Marie Digby, Erykah Badu, Whitesnake, Panic At The Disco CD's. I was able to buy the Badu CD for only $9.99 at amazon.com. It is hard to run out of digital copies. Also I will be reviewing those three Wolf Parade songs as well. Also the "American Idol" 7th place finishers. One of these people is having a spectacular career, think "Dreamgirls" and "Sex and the City".
Have a great day, themusicaddict
I have my birthday coming up soon and as always I get a very generous gift from my brother and sister-in-law. So this and Christmas are typically the only time I can buy new music. So I went to the local, independent music store yesterday. The best one is Graywhale. Graywhale is my preferred place of choice for physical copies of CD's. Unfortunately my experience yesterday was mediocre.
I walked into the store with a list of 15 CD's. I knew that I wasn't going to be able to buy them all, I just like to have options. They didn't have 7 of the CD's that were on my list. (Now granted two or three of the CD's they didn't have are obscure, so I will give them a pass on those.) However they didn't have the new Def Leppard, Cult, the new remastered version of "Let It Be" by the Replacements or "Live After Death" by Iron Maiden. Independent stores should at least have plenty of Cult and Replacements CD's. (They did have plenty of copies of CD's by Judas Priest though. Why are they having a Judas Priest promotion? Maybe next week they can have a promotion for Spinal Tap.)
Then three of the CD's I didn't want to buy there as they were too expensive. The Raconteurs, B52's, and the Foxboro Hot Tubs new CD's were all at least $13.99. Frankly that is too much in this era when Wal-Mart is in the process of forcing CD companies to lower prices on all CD's across the board. Also you can get the MP3 copies of these CD's usually for at least $3 or $4 less than at the store. I don't have to go anywhere to buy these MP3 copies. Right now I can go to amazon.com and buy the MP3 of the Foxboro Hot Tubs CD for $7.99.
I have a Graywhale card which saves me $1 on all new CD's and $2 on video games. However I only saved $1 on all 4 CD's for various reasons. I ended up buying the following CD's 1) "Spirit" by Leona Lewis for $13.99 2) "Rockferry"- Duffy $8.99 3) "Pretty. Odd."- Panic at the Disco $9.99 and 4) "Good to Be Bad (with bonus CD)- Whitesnake $14.99. Also my son was able to get a PS2 game for only $1 with my Graywhale card saving us $2 on that game. He was very happy about that.
So that part was disappointing however the people there were very nice and helped me as much as they could. I only had one frustration there. I asked someone about the new Erykah Badu CD and they guy didn't know anything about her at all. He asked me what kind of music she sang and I explained. He had never heard of her. Badu is a fairly obsccure artist so I was willing to give him a pass on that as well. So after making my purchase my son and I walked out to our van. I looked at the advertising posters at the front of their store. One of the posters was for Erykah Badu's new CD. So it seems all the employees should know at least the artists they are advertising.
Especially if that artist had been in concert the night before, people usually come in looking for music from an artist after they see them in concert. I know I do at least, unless I have all that artists music first. I think independent record stores should set up a wall of all the music of upcoming and recent concerts. That will both increase sales and also can cross promote the fact that Graywhale sells concert tickets as well. In order to survive independent record stores need to play up the local angle as much as possible. That is one thing that iTunes or amazon.com can't touch. I prefer to have the physical copies of CD's. Graywhale didn't do well on selection or price yesterday though.
Don't get me wrong I would prefer to buy all my music from Graywhale going forward but they have some serious issues they need to address. I think they need to get much closer in price to online music retailers. They need to hire music geeks as well who live and die music and have a wide taste of all kinds of music. (For instance the kind of person who would blog about music.) Again they need to do better on pricing as they will probably never be able to match either amazon.com or iTunes in price or conveinance. Two examples of that quickly, yesterday I bought the new Black Keys CD, "Attack and Release" for only $2.99 at amazon.com. Today I bought the new Marie Digby CD for only $1.99. Now I have never heard of Digby. I previewed all the tracks on the CD it is definitely worth $1.99. Also for those who buy the CD at amazon.com, you get an exclusive amazon.com only track. (Again I could do that from the comfort of my home, didn't have to go anywhere and don't have to pay additional for gas. Also online music stores are open 24/7.) Graywhale there is still hope but you need to act quickly.
Upcoming: Reviews of the new Duffy, Leona Lewis, Black Keys, Marie Digby, Erykah Badu, Whitesnake, Panic At The Disco CD's. I was able to buy the Badu CD for only $9.99 at amazon.com. It is hard to run out of digital copies. Also I will be reviewing those three Wolf Parade songs as well. Also the "American Idol" 7th place finishers. One of these people is having a spectacular career, think "Dreamgirls" and "Sex and the City".
Have a great day, themusicaddict
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Erykah Badu brings the funk...finally
Hello,
Readers of my blog know that I attended the Erykah Badu concert last night. It was at the Depot in Salt Lake City. I would like to thank my brother for taking me, it was an excellent concert. I don't agree with all of Badu's politics but she is an excellent performer. According to Rhapsody Badu means " to manifest truth and light" in Arabic. She did both of those things last night, she also brought the funk. I would also just like to stress in advance, other than a five hour listening tour of her music Monday, I have never been exposed to Badu's music before. So there are going to be mistakes and inaccuracies in this blog, I apologize in advance for those.
The show was suppose to start at 8:00. She didn't have an opening act. Unfortunately Badu gave into the rock star impulse and the show started much later. About 8:40 the lights started turning off. They played some mash-ups including someone on a recording rapping over AC/DC's "Back In Black". Then the band came on the stage and about 9:05 the back up singers came on the stage. The excellent band gave us some blistering funk for about 10-15 minutes. Finally Erykah Badu took the stage about 9:15 and the funk was pretty instataneous.
Badu took the stage in comfortable clothes, a funky hat and with a funky look on her face. I am sure if that look was suppose to be funny or defiant or a mixture of both. I am not sure what the name of the first song she sang was. But the second song she sang was "Amerykahn Promise". This song was a funky start to this excellent concert.(My notes are not real great, so I apologize.) The first song I know the title of she sang is "Me" which is a funky slow jam. Badu then sang a song about "hold on my people" followed by a drum solo. She next sang a song titled "Twinkle" in which she sings about "freckles" and herself. We then had a bit of a bluesy guitar solo and I was hoping she would break out some Muddy Waters like blues at that point. However she didn't and that was okay. She then sang a song about "on and on". Then Erykah Badu did a little drum pad/ synthesizer solo.
She mostly skipped her slow stuff and stayed funky and continued with that on "On and On Like A Rolling Stone" (probably not the actual title, but my notes are not exactly clear.) Badu and her funky band kept up the momentum on "I Want You". They then played a recorded blues track, that was sort of a break for Badu and her band. After that brief break, she sang "Don't Worry" and a song that states that we should, "stand like a soldier". (This is not to be confused with her "Soldier" song, which she sang later.) Unfortunately this song rambled on too long. She then followed that up with "Stay On" and a slow, bluesy "Troubled Waters".
Another break for her band and Badu gave her "Vortex" speech, talking about a vortex located in Salt Lake City and the people of this city are beautiful. Unfortunately then came one of the lowlights of the concert. She sang "Mama's Gun" which unfortunately was boring and too long. She then talked about occupation and resistance, including an experience about both that was peacefully resolved in Mexico. After which she shouted for Obama "to hold on". She also talked about how amazing his making such a successful run for the President is. She continued with a new song, "Soldier". She had audience participation with "only if you agree sing 'misery'",of course we complied. She then asked the individual members of her band, "Are You somebody?". All of them replied in the affirmative, including my favorite response, "Damn right!"
She turned it over to the band for a few minutes and let the band rock it out, including some excellent work on the turntable. She followed that with a song combining "vegetables", "I'm lonely" and "a fine line between love and hate". She then closed out her show with "Love Can Make Me Better" where she and some of her band went out into the audience. Badu was done about 11:30 and her band played a little bit more. There was another mash-up based off the Police classic "Roxanne".
Don't let this poorly written review be misleading, her concert was much better than this review. Somewhere in all this she sang the very funky, "Boogie Nights/ All Night" and the excellent "Other Side of The Night". Again she was in good voice and so were here 4 backup singers. Also her band is excellent, they brought the funk all night. Also she likes to tell her band to "stop" and "hold on" while she does a little solo thing. I have never seen an artist do that so much.
I only had three minor quibbles: 1) how late she started, 2) sometimes the concert lost a bit of the momentum with some slower songs and 3) she didn't sing my favorite song of hers "Tyrone". However again those are all minor quibbles. I would give this concert a ranking of 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. For those living in her upcoming tour stops of Phoenix and New Mexico to go check her out.
The next concert that I am going to is Celine Dion in November, I have a feeling that won't be quite as funky. Have a good day, themusicaddict
Readers of my blog know that I attended the Erykah Badu concert last night. It was at the Depot in Salt Lake City. I would like to thank my brother for taking me, it was an excellent concert. I don't agree with all of Badu's politics but she is an excellent performer. According to Rhapsody Badu means " to manifest truth and light" in Arabic. She did both of those things last night, she also brought the funk. I would also just like to stress in advance, other than a five hour listening tour of her music Monday, I have never been exposed to Badu's music before. So there are going to be mistakes and inaccuracies in this blog, I apologize in advance for those.
The show was suppose to start at 8:00. She didn't have an opening act. Unfortunately Badu gave into the rock star impulse and the show started much later. About 8:40 the lights started turning off. They played some mash-ups including someone on a recording rapping over AC/DC's "Back In Black". Then the band came on the stage and about 9:05 the back up singers came on the stage. The excellent band gave us some blistering funk for about 10-15 minutes. Finally Erykah Badu took the stage about 9:15 and the funk was pretty instataneous.
Badu took the stage in comfortable clothes, a funky hat and with a funky look on her face. I am sure if that look was suppose to be funny or defiant or a mixture of both. I am not sure what the name of the first song she sang was. But the second song she sang was "Amerykahn Promise". This song was a funky start to this excellent concert.(My notes are not real great, so I apologize.) The first song I know the title of she sang is "Me" which is a funky slow jam. Badu then sang a song about "hold on my people" followed by a drum solo. She next sang a song titled "Twinkle" in which she sings about "freckles" and herself. We then had a bit of a bluesy guitar solo and I was hoping she would break out some Muddy Waters like blues at that point. However she didn't and that was okay. She then sang a song about "on and on". Then Erykah Badu did a little drum pad/ synthesizer solo.
She mostly skipped her slow stuff and stayed funky and continued with that on "On and On Like A Rolling Stone" (probably not the actual title, but my notes are not exactly clear.) Badu and her funky band kept up the momentum on "I Want You". They then played a recorded blues track, that was sort of a break for Badu and her band. After that brief break, she sang "Don't Worry" and a song that states that we should, "stand like a soldier". (This is not to be confused with her "Soldier" song, which she sang later.) Unfortunately this song rambled on too long. She then followed that up with "Stay On" and a slow, bluesy "Troubled Waters".
Another break for her band and Badu gave her "Vortex" speech, talking about a vortex located in Salt Lake City and the people of this city are beautiful. Unfortunately then came one of the lowlights of the concert. She sang "Mama's Gun" which unfortunately was boring and too long. She then talked about occupation and resistance, including an experience about both that was peacefully resolved in Mexico. After which she shouted for Obama "to hold on". She also talked about how amazing his making such a successful run for the President is. She continued with a new song, "Soldier". She had audience participation with "only if you agree sing 'misery'",of course we complied. She then asked the individual members of her band, "Are You somebody?". All of them replied in the affirmative, including my favorite response, "Damn right!"
She turned it over to the band for a few minutes and let the band rock it out, including some excellent work on the turntable. She followed that with a song combining "vegetables", "I'm lonely" and "a fine line between love and hate". She then closed out her show with "Love Can Make Me Better" where she and some of her band went out into the audience. Badu was done about 11:30 and her band played a little bit more. There was another mash-up based off the Police classic "Roxanne".
Don't let this poorly written review be misleading, her concert was much better than this review. Somewhere in all this she sang the very funky, "Boogie Nights/ All Night" and the excellent "Other Side of The Night". Again she was in good voice and so were here 4 backup singers. Also her band is excellent, they brought the funk all night. Also she likes to tell her band to "stop" and "hold on" while she does a little solo thing. I have never seen an artist do that so much.
I only had three minor quibbles: 1) how late she started, 2) sometimes the concert lost a bit of the momentum with some slower songs and 3) she didn't sing my favorite song of hers "Tyrone". However again those are all minor quibbles. I would give this concert a ranking of 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. For those living in her upcoming tour stops of Phoenix and New Mexico to go check her out.
The next concert that I am going to is Celine Dion in November, I have a feeling that won't be quite as funky. Have a good day, themusicaddict
Monday, June 2, 2008
8th placed contestants of "AI", Bo Diddley
Hello,
Thanks to my brother, I will going to be seeing the new soul singer Erykah Badu tomorrow night. There will be a review Wednesday morning. I will be honest, before he asked me I don't think I had ever heard any songs she sang. So I have been listening to music on Rhapsody to catch up a little bit. She is pretty good and she has this hilarious song called, "Tyrone". Now you may wonder why I am going to this concert if I don't know any of her music. Two reasons: 1) I can hang out with my brother and 2) I love going to concerts. The last concert I went to was Billy Joel back in November. The last concert I saw before that was about 3-and-a-half years ago. Back in the day I use to go to three or four concerts a year.
American Idol 8th place contestants, again not the most sterling bunch of people. Season One: A.J. Gill: I have not heard anything about him. Season Two: Rickey Smith, same as Gill. Season Three: Jon Peter Lewis, too many names and not very much fame. Season Four: Nadia Turner, same as previous three. All four of these contestants seemed to go away as soon as their "American Idol" journey was over. Season Five: Bucky Covington. Hey he has actually done something. He has had some success on country music radio. If memory serves me correctly, he is on tour right now. Season Six: Haley Scarnato, Gorgeous but talentless. I think her 15 minutes of fame is up. Season Seven: Michael Johns. I think if he sticks to the bluesy rock thing he will be okay and he might have some success. He seems like a decent enough guy so I wish him the best of luck.
Also here the ten artists to watch for 2006 according to Rolling Stone magazine. (I am not trying to mock Rolling Stone, they are the main music I read. So that is why I am always quoting them. That is my favorite music magazine.) Some of these seem laughable, some of these seem right on and some of these are forgettable. This rapper was called the "next 50 cent". His name is Saigon, remember him? Did you even hear of him in 2006? Well now Siagon should change his name to Saigone. The second artist is "The Go! Team", they are a much hyped band on alternative radio. However they still have not broken through, at this point will they? The next artist is Sia, as in Sia later. Then three more bands that haven't done anything noticeable are Yummy Bingham, Matt Pond PA and Giant Drag. Apparantally she is not too yummy, its dirty Pond water and Giant Drag seems to be accurately named. The 7th band on this unimpressive list is a band called Wolf Parade. Again I have heard of them but I haven't heard them. As you probably know, I check out download.com everyday as they have at least 1 song available free each day. Ironically enough the band today was Wolf Parade, they have 3 songs available on download.com for free. I have yet to listen to those songs yet, but I will give you a preview once I do. One cool piece of info about Wolf Parade is they were discovered by Isaac Brock. He is the lead singer for Modest Mouse. So those 7 bands haven't really panned out. If you know any more information I would love to hear it.
So now here are the three bands that have broken out of the 2006 Rolling Stone Top Ten pack. Now the first band is The Magic Numbers, now this band may not be familiar to you, but on a whim I actually bought their first CD about a year ago. I have to tell you they are very good. Their first CD is self-titled. I would highly reccomend that you check it out at least. Nine of the thirteen songs on this CD are pretty good. The two best songs are "Love Me Like You" and "Love is a Game". (Yes there are a lot of relationship songs on this CD)
The next singer is Damian Marley Jr. He had a big hit a couple of years ago, it is called "Welcome To Jamrock". This song was all over the place a couple of summers ago. This is a pretty good CD, although not the kind of music I normally would listen to. I also reccomend you check out this CD. "Welcome to Jamrock" is not the only good song on the CD. Other good songs are "We're Gonna Make It" which is actually my most played song from the whole CD. Other good songs are "Road To Zion" and "All Night".
Then arguably the most famous and successful of the ten is James Blunt. Of course he is most well know for his great song, "You're Beautiful". (Yeah I know you are sick of that song.) That is just a great song. Both of his CD's are pretty good, most of his songs are worth several more listens. His two other best songs are "High" and "Give Me Some Love". If you are the kind of person who likes to listen to mellow music from time to time I definitely reccomend you buy both CDs.
So if I am being charitable they predicted correctly 3 of the 10 bands. I would say that is a good grade. Music is so subjective and it is hard to tell what is going to be great and what is not going to work out. There are a lot of great bands who have never broken out of the unknown. I mean honestly after hearing "Loser" who didn't think Beck was going to be a one hit wonder? He is still going at a pretty high level now. I do have to admit I have never been a big fan though.
Also songs rocking my iPod: 1) "Just Like Heaven"- The Cure 2) "Rock and Roll (Live)"- Led Zeppelin 3) "Superstar"- The Carpenters This is truly a great song. 4) "Joyride"- Roxette 5) "Warrior"- Scandal 6) "Fighter"- Christina Aguilera. This song kicks butt and her voice is so powerful on this song. 7) "Modern Swinger"- Pink Spiders. 8) "Always Be My Baby"- David Cook 9) "What's A Girl To Do?"- Bat for Lashes 10) "Question of Time"- Depeche Mode 11) "Fire and Rain"- James Taylor 12) "I Owe"- Living Things 13) "Take Me With You"- Prince and the Revolution. This is off one of the best soundtracks of all-time "Purple Rain". 13) "Cool The Engines"- Boston. This song is off the great 80's CD, "Third Stage". 14) "10:00am Automatic"- Black Keys. The Black Keys and Danger Mouse were working with Ike Turner on this and other songs before he died. Once he died, the Black Keys finished the song and released them under their own name. Their new CD is a great CD. 15)"Spirit Of Radio"- Rush 16) "Against All Odds"- Ramiele Mulubuy. Yes the singer from Season 7 of "American Idol". I really like her version. 17) "Silent Lucidity"- Queensryche and 18) "We Looked Like Giants"- Death Cab For Cutie.
Two other final quick notes. Blues legend Bo Diddley passed away at age 79 today. Also I previously had listed that the new Weezer CD is going to be out on June 17th. However in this day of rapidly changing release dates, this CD is actually going to be released tomorrow. Again as always contact me with any comments or suggestions. That's it, themusicaddict
Thanks to my brother, I will going to be seeing the new soul singer Erykah Badu tomorrow night. There will be a review Wednesday morning. I will be honest, before he asked me I don't think I had ever heard any songs she sang. So I have been listening to music on Rhapsody to catch up a little bit. She is pretty good and she has this hilarious song called, "Tyrone". Now you may wonder why I am going to this concert if I don't know any of her music. Two reasons: 1) I can hang out with my brother and 2) I love going to concerts. The last concert I went to was Billy Joel back in November. The last concert I saw before that was about 3-and-a-half years ago. Back in the day I use to go to three or four concerts a year.
American Idol 8th place contestants, again not the most sterling bunch of people. Season One: A.J. Gill: I have not heard anything about him. Season Two: Rickey Smith, same as Gill. Season Three: Jon Peter Lewis, too many names and not very much fame. Season Four: Nadia Turner, same as previous three. All four of these contestants seemed to go away as soon as their "American Idol" journey was over. Season Five: Bucky Covington. Hey he has actually done something. He has had some success on country music radio. If memory serves me correctly, he is on tour right now. Season Six: Haley Scarnato, Gorgeous but talentless. I think her 15 minutes of fame is up. Season Seven: Michael Johns. I think if he sticks to the bluesy rock thing he will be okay and he might have some success. He seems like a decent enough guy so I wish him the best of luck.
Also here the ten artists to watch for 2006 according to Rolling Stone magazine. (I am not trying to mock Rolling Stone, they are the main music I read. So that is why I am always quoting them. That is my favorite music magazine.) Some of these seem laughable, some of these seem right on and some of these are forgettable. This rapper was called the "next 50 cent". His name is Saigon, remember him? Did you even hear of him in 2006? Well now Siagon should change his name to Saigone. The second artist is "The Go! Team", they are a much hyped band on alternative radio. However they still have not broken through, at this point will they? The next artist is Sia, as in Sia later. Then three more bands that haven't done anything noticeable are Yummy Bingham, Matt Pond PA and Giant Drag. Apparantally she is not too yummy, its dirty Pond water and Giant Drag seems to be accurately named. The 7th band on this unimpressive list is a band called Wolf Parade. Again I have heard of them but I haven't heard them. As you probably know, I check out download.com everyday as they have at least 1 song available free each day. Ironically enough the band today was Wolf Parade, they have 3 songs available on download.com for free. I have yet to listen to those songs yet, but I will give you a preview once I do. One cool piece of info about Wolf Parade is they were discovered by Isaac Brock. He is the lead singer for Modest Mouse. So those 7 bands haven't really panned out. If you know any more information I would love to hear it.
So now here are the three bands that have broken out of the 2006 Rolling Stone Top Ten pack. Now the first band is The Magic Numbers, now this band may not be familiar to you, but on a whim I actually bought their first CD about a year ago. I have to tell you they are very good. Their first CD is self-titled. I would highly reccomend that you check it out at least. Nine of the thirteen songs on this CD are pretty good. The two best songs are "Love Me Like You" and "Love is a Game". (Yes there are a lot of relationship songs on this CD)
The next singer is Damian Marley Jr. He had a big hit a couple of years ago, it is called "Welcome To Jamrock". This song was all over the place a couple of summers ago. This is a pretty good CD, although not the kind of music I normally would listen to. I also reccomend you check out this CD. "Welcome to Jamrock" is not the only good song on the CD. Other good songs are "We're Gonna Make It" which is actually my most played song from the whole CD. Other good songs are "Road To Zion" and "All Night".
Then arguably the most famous and successful of the ten is James Blunt. Of course he is most well know for his great song, "You're Beautiful". (Yeah I know you are sick of that song.) That is just a great song. Both of his CD's are pretty good, most of his songs are worth several more listens. His two other best songs are "High" and "Give Me Some Love". If you are the kind of person who likes to listen to mellow music from time to time I definitely reccomend you buy both CDs.
So if I am being charitable they predicted correctly 3 of the 10 bands. I would say that is a good grade. Music is so subjective and it is hard to tell what is going to be great and what is not going to work out. There are a lot of great bands who have never broken out of the unknown. I mean honestly after hearing "Loser" who didn't think Beck was going to be a one hit wonder? He is still going at a pretty high level now. I do have to admit I have never been a big fan though.
Also songs rocking my iPod: 1) "Just Like Heaven"- The Cure 2) "Rock and Roll (Live)"- Led Zeppelin 3) "Superstar"- The Carpenters This is truly a great song. 4) "Joyride"- Roxette 5) "Warrior"- Scandal 6) "Fighter"- Christina Aguilera. This song kicks butt and her voice is so powerful on this song. 7) "Modern Swinger"- Pink Spiders. 8) "Always Be My Baby"- David Cook 9) "What's A Girl To Do?"- Bat for Lashes 10) "Question of Time"- Depeche Mode 11) "Fire and Rain"- James Taylor 12) "I Owe"- Living Things 13) "Take Me With You"- Prince and the Revolution. This is off one of the best soundtracks of all-time "Purple Rain". 13) "Cool The Engines"- Boston. This song is off the great 80's CD, "Third Stage". 14) "10:00am Automatic"- Black Keys. The Black Keys and Danger Mouse were working with Ike Turner on this and other songs before he died. Once he died, the Black Keys finished the song and released them under their own name. Their new CD is a great CD. 15)"Spirit Of Radio"- Rush 16) "Against All Odds"- Ramiele Mulubuy. Yes the singer from Season 7 of "American Idol". I really like her version. 17) "Silent Lucidity"- Queensryche and 18) "We Looked Like Giants"- Death Cab For Cutie.
Two other final quick notes. Blues legend Bo Diddley passed away at age 79 today. Also I previously had listed that the new Weezer CD is going to be out on June 17th. However in this day of rapidly changing release dates, this CD is actually going to be released tomorrow. Again as always contact me with any comments or suggestions. That's it, themusicaddict
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Adam Duritz needs to be taking his Prozac.
Hello,
I am back on this warm Sunday afternoon. I previously mentioned my job, I count people on the Front Runner train in SLC. There is a lot of down time with this job. In this job that is actually good as I am able to listen to music, read in both novels and magazines and also prepare my upcoming blog entries. Also if my computer wasn't 150 years old, I would be able to surf the 'net as well. That would of course mean a blog every day. Anyway the reason I am telling you all this is that yesterday I started writing up a list of classic songs and CD's. I am doing that because I am thinking about coming up with a Top 500 CDs and Top 500 singles list. Now I realize this is an ambitious project, and not something that will happen quickly. I plan on working on this project for 6 months to a year. So if you have any suggestions, please pass them on.
For individual songs I really have no rules. My criteria will emphasize quality over popularity. (So not too much Britney Spears). On CDs I only have one rule. That is no greatest hits CD's unless they have a cohesive feeling to it. For instance, that is why Bob Marley's "Legend" will be on my Top 500 (actually more like Top 50), whereas Journey's Greatest Hits CD won't be. (Although there will be probably at least two or three Journey CD's on the list.) I am using this same criteria for live CD's as well.
I know one CD that won't be making my Top 500 list, that is the new Counting Crows CD. This CD, "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings" starts out strong but fades quickly. Someday hopefully I will be a lot better writer and I can write a cohesive CD review, like you find in magazines, but for now I am just going to review the songs in running order. So here goes:
1) The first song is "1492", this CD starts off with a blast of rock and roll. This is a very non-typical Counting Crows song, but it is still a great song. However the theme of this CD begins in this song. Adam Duritz, lead singer and the band's main songwriter, has some serious issues. Thus the title of this blog. There is a lot of anger in this song. In one of his lyrics he declares himself "King of everything, king of nothing". This sense of melancholy and frustration runs through the whole CD.
Duritz is depressed but this is still a great song. The second song is another great song. It is "Hanging Tree". There is a sound effect at the start of this song, I am not sure if it is suppose to be a cough. It may also be a motorcycle starting, as there is a motorcycle sound at the end of the song. A lyric in this song is, " She brings a friend so that we don't have to be alone". (Let the pity party begin.) The chorus is this "Dizzy life is hanging me up all the time". So two songs and both songs have an angry, melancholy feel to them. What is Adam Duritz so angry about? He is one of the most autobiographical songwriters we have in rock music and seemingly things have not been going well. He is still a great singer and his voice is a voice that sings with authority and experience.
For the third song on this CD, there is another excellent song. So far the Counting Crows are 3 for 3 for quality songs on this CD. The third song is "Los Angeles", this is a song about his own celebrity. He sings, "I'm just trying to make sense about me." The guitar is really featured, indeed all the musicians in this song are featured. He has mixed songs about LA in this song, but he is trying to talk someone to move there. Unfortuntely this song runs on for about 45 seconds too long. At the end he starts rambling and closes the song with this line, "It's really a good place to find a taco".
Then on the fourth song this CD hits its first speed bump. The song is "Sundays". A mellow song with Duritz's melancholy raises its head again. He sings, "You think that you can do without me?" He repeats that lament several times. Also he sings, "I don't believe in Sundays and I don't believe in anything at all." He repeats that several times. There is too much repeating on this CD. On the fifth song, this CD has one of its last highlights before heading straight downhill. The song is "Insignificant". This is yet another pessimistic, mid-tempo song. (Who is this the Counting Crows or David Archuleta?) I won't list any lyrics from this song, but I think you know by now they are depressing.
The sixth track is "Cowboys", one of the better songs on this CD. It is a good rock song, but he is back to the same boring theme when he sings, "I am not anything". (Seriously dude is life really that bad, you are whining as much as a teenage girl.) This is also the first of several songs that should have been edited. This CD has 14 songs and a running time of 59:51. So far a passable CD, but the next song has a high degree of suckiness. This song, "Washington Square" is so boring and pointless that it shouldn't have been on the CD. I am wondering if in this song he is making some reference to the Henry James novel. But this isn't the type of song I want to waste any more time of my life on, so I am not going to find out. So one boring, slow, depressing song in a row wasn't enough so here comes another one. In "On Almost Any Sunday" Duritz continues his woe is me outlook. Then it is the third straight boring song in a row, "When I Dream of Michaelangelo." (Adam it's cool you dream about famous artists, but please don't bore us with the details.) By this point I am hoping this CD finishes quickly or goes out strongly. Unfortunately neither one of my hopes is fulfilled. Then with the tenth song "Anyone But You", not only is this song boring but it runs on at least two minutes long. In the back-ground, the band is singing something like "Ba Ba" while repeater man sings "true" over and over again.
Then the CD makes a little bit of an uptick with the eleventh song, "You Can't Count On Me". (Um Adam we had that figured out a few songs ago.) By song number twelve, I am really missing "Mr. Jones" and "A Long December". Instead of greatness Duritz serves up the very pretentious "Le Ballet d'Or". In it he sings, "I'd be lying if I didn't tell you the truth". By this point I am thinking the record company gave them a certain length of time this CD had to be, so the Crows are putting all their songwriting ideas on this CD. A lot of these songs are much more ideas than actual songs. By this point I want this CD to finish as quickly as possible. For song thirteen we have almost 5 minutes of slow dreary music, where Mr. Duritz sings "Come back to me" at least 30 times. (Not only is this CD excessively dreary, but they repeat that dreariness on nearly every song.) This song, "On A Tuesday in Amsterdam" should have been left off the CD as well. The Crows had hit their quota of slow and boring songs and so they have a semi-strong finish to this CD. The fourteenth and finally last song on this CD is titled, "Come Around". This is a much happier song, not the best song on the CD though. This is about the 5th or 6th best song though. Then thankfully this CD is over.
Now here are some disclosures, I am a humongous Counting Crows fan. I have seen them in concert two or three times and they are a great live band. Their first two CD's are near classics. Also I own all their CD's in some form. So that being said, I still did not like this CD. This CD is at least 4 songs and 20 minutes too long. They should have taken the first, second, third, fifth, sixth and fourteenth song and released it as an EP. Also I know you now can't wait to buy this CD, it is available in MP3 format at amazon.com for $5 until next Thursday night. My opinion, unless you are a humonguos Counting Crows don't buy it. Actually you can get by with just buying the first three songs. This is why iTunes is so cool.
Upcoming CD reviews include Duffy's "Rockferry", this CD is getting a lot of hype right now, I am going to find out if it is worth it. Also I may be going and seeing Erakyu Badu in concert on Tuesday night. I am not real familiar with her music, do you have any suggestion of songs or CD's of hers I can check out. Thanks in advance, themusicaddict
I am back on this warm Sunday afternoon. I previously mentioned my job, I count people on the Front Runner train in SLC. There is a lot of down time with this job. In this job that is actually good as I am able to listen to music, read in both novels and magazines and also prepare my upcoming blog entries. Also if my computer wasn't 150 years old, I would be able to surf the 'net as well. That would of course mean a blog every day. Anyway the reason I am telling you all this is that yesterday I started writing up a list of classic songs and CD's. I am doing that because I am thinking about coming up with a Top 500 CDs and Top 500 singles list. Now I realize this is an ambitious project, and not something that will happen quickly. I plan on working on this project for 6 months to a year. So if you have any suggestions, please pass them on.
For individual songs I really have no rules. My criteria will emphasize quality over popularity. (So not too much Britney Spears). On CDs I only have one rule. That is no greatest hits CD's unless they have a cohesive feeling to it. For instance, that is why Bob Marley's "Legend" will be on my Top 500 (actually more like Top 50), whereas Journey's Greatest Hits CD won't be. (Although there will be probably at least two or three Journey CD's on the list.) I am using this same criteria for live CD's as well.
I know one CD that won't be making my Top 500 list, that is the new Counting Crows CD. This CD, "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings" starts out strong but fades quickly. Someday hopefully I will be a lot better writer and I can write a cohesive CD review, like you find in magazines, but for now I am just going to review the songs in running order. So here goes:
1) The first song is "1492", this CD starts off with a blast of rock and roll. This is a very non-typical Counting Crows song, but it is still a great song. However the theme of this CD begins in this song. Adam Duritz, lead singer and the band's main songwriter, has some serious issues. Thus the title of this blog. There is a lot of anger in this song. In one of his lyrics he declares himself "King of everything, king of nothing". This sense of melancholy and frustration runs through the whole CD.
Duritz is depressed but this is still a great song. The second song is another great song. It is "Hanging Tree". There is a sound effect at the start of this song, I am not sure if it is suppose to be a cough. It may also be a motorcycle starting, as there is a motorcycle sound at the end of the song. A lyric in this song is, " She brings a friend so that we don't have to be alone". (Let the pity party begin.) The chorus is this "Dizzy life is hanging me up all the time". So two songs and both songs have an angry, melancholy feel to them. What is Adam Duritz so angry about? He is one of the most autobiographical songwriters we have in rock music and seemingly things have not been going well. He is still a great singer and his voice is a voice that sings with authority and experience.
For the third song on this CD, there is another excellent song. So far the Counting Crows are 3 for 3 for quality songs on this CD. The third song is "Los Angeles", this is a song about his own celebrity. He sings, "I'm just trying to make sense about me." The guitar is really featured, indeed all the musicians in this song are featured. He has mixed songs about LA in this song, but he is trying to talk someone to move there. Unfortuntely this song runs on for about 45 seconds too long. At the end he starts rambling and closes the song with this line, "It's really a good place to find a taco".
Then on the fourth song this CD hits its first speed bump. The song is "Sundays". A mellow song with Duritz's melancholy raises its head again. He sings, "You think that you can do without me?" He repeats that lament several times. Also he sings, "I don't believe in Sundays and I don't believe in anything at all." He repeats that several times. There is too much repeating on this CD. On the fifth song, this CD has one of its last highlights before heading straight downhill. The song is "Insignificant". This is yet another pessimistic, mid-tempo song. (Who is this the Counting Crows or David Archuleta?) I won't list any lyrics from this song, but I think you know by now they are depressing.
The sixth track is "Cowboys", one of the better songs on this CD. It is a good rock song, but he is back to the same boring theme when he sings, "I am not anything". (Seriously dude is life really that bad, you are whining as much as a teenage girl.) This is also the first of several songs that should have been edited. This CD has 14 songs and a running time of 59:51. So far a passable CD, but the next song has a high degree of suckiness. This song, "Washington Square" is so boring and pointless that it shouldn't have been on the CD. I am wondering if in this song he is making some reference to the Henry James novel. But this isn't the type of song I want to waste any more time of my life on, so I am not going to find out. So one boring, slow, depressing song in a row wasn't enough so here comes another one. In "On Almost Any Sunday" Duritz continues his woe is me outlook. Then it is the third straight boring song in a row, "When I Dream of Michaelangelo." (Adam it's cool you dream about famous artists, but please don't bore us with the details.) By this point I am hoping this CD finishes quickly or goes out strongly. Unfortunately neither one of my hopes is fulfilled. Then with the tenth song "Anyone But You", not only is this song boring but it runs on at least two minutes long. In the back-ground, the band is singing something like "Ba Ba" while repeater man sings "true" over and over again.
Then the CD makes a little bit of an uptick with the eleventh song, "You Can't Count On Me". (Um Adam we had that figured out a few songs ago.) By song number twelve, I am really missing "Mr. Jones" and "A Long December". Instead of greatness Duritz serves up the very pretentious "Le Ballet d'Or". In it he sings, "I'd be lying if I didn't tell you the truth". By this point I am thinking the record company gave them a certain length of time this CD had to be, so the Crows are putting all their songwriting ideas on this CD. A lot of these songs are much more ideas than actual songs. By this point I want this CD to finish as quickly as possible. For song thirteen we have almost 5 minutes of slow dreary music, where Mr. Duritz sings "Come back to me" at least 30 times. (Not only is this CD excessively dreary, but they repeat that dreariness on nearly every song.) This song, "On A Tuesday in Amsterdam" should have been left off the CD as well. The Crows had hit their quota of slow and boring songs and so they have a semi-strong finish to this CD. The fourteenth and finally last song on this CD is titled, "Come Around". This is a much happier song, not the best song on the CD though. This is about the 5th or 6th best song though. Then thankfully this CD is over.
Now here are some disclosures, I am a humongous Counting Crows fan. I have seen them in concert two or three times and they are a great live band. Their first two CD's are near classics. Also I own all their CD's in some form. So that being said, I still did not like this CD. This CD is at least 4 songs and 20 minutes too long. They should have taken the first, second, third, fifth, sixth and fourteenth song and released it as an EP. Also I know you now can't wait to buy this CD, it is available in MP3 format at amazon.com for $5 until next Thursday night. My opinion, unless you are a humonguos Counting Crows don't buy it. Actually you can get by with just buying the first three songs. This is why iTunes is so cool.
Upcoming CD reviews include Duffy's "Rockferry", this CD is getting a lot of hype right now, I am going to find out if it is worth it. Also I may be going and seeing Erakyu Badu in concert on Tuesday night. I am not real familiar with her music, do you have any suggestion of songs or CD's of hers I can check out. Thanks in advance, themusicaddict
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