Adele-"19" Review

When you first look at Adele, it’s easy to see that she does not fit the mold of well, pretty much anything. While most artists are either perfectly put together or crudely underdressed to increase interest, Adele is simply real. There is no gimmick, just a twenty year old making music. And while she appeared just as Amy Winehouse was losing her grip, both musically and mentally, the world wanted to replace her. Who better than Adele, whose subject matter is basically the same as Winehouse? True there are quite a few similarities between the two British songstresses, but in all actuality, the comparison between them is not fair to either artist.

Amy Winehouse possesses a dark, broadening tone that drags her music into her voice until they become one single entity. Adele is a tad bit brighter, not as concerned with the big band arrangements or the tragic piano and string pieces of Winehouse. Adele opens “19” with its most simple track “Daydreamer”, which only features a couple guitars. And then right in the middle there’s the twinkle of “First Love”, which has a music box accompaniment well suited for the innocence of Adele’s vocal performance. Both of these songs seem endearing, not brooding like Winehouse. Also, Adele doesn’t jump around from a slow, stark ballad, to an exciting Motown jig as much as Winehouse does on her albums. Adele slowly eases you into the more pop-py songs in her arsenal, which sound just as good as her exposed ballads. Nobody can deny the sheer power of “Chasing Pavements” or the exhilaration of “Cold Shoulder”, but after a while, when all is said and done and we’re still not halfway through the album yet, you get songs like “Melt My Heart to Stone” and “My Same”, which are good, but their brilliance is eclipsed by the earlier material. That’s what is bluesy about Adele, not the background music, but the content of her work. She will no doubt keep humming along in sorrow as long as she involves herself with bad relationships.

But not to worry, Adele still keeps a pretty steady pace on “19”, and there is still a variety of styles here, not just whiny proclamations. What ultimately sets Adele apart from Amy Winehouse is that Adele possesses vocal and lyrical maturity, but delivers it with the vibrant youth that the mainstream of 2008 revolves around. In complete honesty, Adele is just one of those rare talents that can’t be compared to anyone. She does not fit the mold, but that’s far okay with potential like this. As she wraps up “19’ with “Hometown Glory”, you can be sure that she is not just a fleeting phenomenon. This album falls a bit flat, but once Adele settles into her skin and is fully confident with her raw talent, a much more invigorating album surely awaits.

Recommended Tracks in Bold:

1. Daydreamer           2. Best for Last            3. Chasing Pavements
4. Cold Shoulder       5. Crazy for You         6. Melt My Heart to Stone
7. First Love                8. Right as Rain         9. Make You Feel My Love
10. My Same              11. Tired                      12. Hometown Glory

The Worst Songs of 2012

So, before I reveal the best songs of 2012 on December 16 (the same day I will post the results of my survey, take it please!!), I think I should inform you about the worst this year had to offer. Now, it's been said plenty of times that each year is the worst year in music. It was said in 2010, 2011, and now 2012 has gotten that bad rep. But, as far as bad songs go, 2012 was actually on the milder side. I mean, there will always be horrid songs each year, whether it be in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, or now, some years are just worse than others. But, without further ado, please enjoy my angry humor on the absolute worst of 2012:

10. Victoria Justice-Make It In America
Okay, so we all know her as Tori of Victorious. This specific song was made for a TV special called "Tori Goes Platinium". Now, I already have a problem with every actress on the face of the planet thinking they have to do it all, act, sing, dance, make a fashion line, make a fragrance, and have her name slapped onto every McDonald's toy around the country, but I especially hate it when they actually can't do any of the things above. Victoria does not have a golden voice, and this song really just highlights her inexperience. When she has alot of drums, guitars, and backing vocals to drown out her voice, then she has a hit (see "Freak the Freak Out" and "Take A Hint", both are really good songs, not because she is a great singer), but songs like this, that just rely on her voice alone, really get irritating the first time you listen to it. The music itself is really generic, and there's really no message to it, just some chick wanting fame. Yeah, because you obviously don't have enough of it already.

9. Psy-Gangnam Style
Oh.My.God. I did it. I did the blasphemous thing by putting "Gangnam Style" on my worst of 2012 list. First of all, I really don't understand all the excitement around this song, you can only understand two phrases: "Gangnam Style" and "Hey Sexy Lady", the dances are actually pretty stupid, and the music is also just generic dance pop. LMFAO or Schwayze could have easily done this and there would have been virtually no difference. I find it absolutely appalling that this song and "One More Night" by Maroon 5 kept so many better songs from reaching number one ("Some Nights" by Fun being the most jipped). Some people have even compared this song to the "Macarena" by Los Del Rio. Not even. That song actually had words you could understand, everybody could do the dance and not feel silly, and plus the song is just so much better and far more catchy than this non-sense.

8. BOB and Taylor Swift-Both of Us
We get it B.o.B, you wanna make the world feel better about themselves. Seriously, we do not need song after song about this. "Airplanes" and "Nothin' on You", both released in 2010, clearly got your message acrossed. And the fact that Taylor Swift was drafted to accompany him just makes this song seem whiny and desperate instead of encouraging. Fortunately, if B.o.B keeps recycling the same old shit over and over, he will soon be erased from the radio because he will finally realize that we are over it.

7. One Direction-What Makes You Beautiful
I know this has been panned to death all year so I'll keep it short. One Direction is just another run of the mill boy band who sing about absolutely nothing but getting girls. We've had to endure this since the 1990s, but this song is really irritating because of its message. Basically saying "Hey you don't know you're pretty, and that's what makes you pretty" is not only confusing, but it's just plain silly. Last time I checked, when someone has poor self esteem even when they're drop dead gorgeous is annoying as fuck, not beautiful. I understand what the boys were trying to say, but it just comes across as cheesy pick-up lines that a 5th grader came up with.

6. PitBull-Back in Time
All this song says is "Back in Time" and "Baby, oh baby", with some non-sensical raps thrown in for shits and giggles. That's it. Can you even classify this as a song? Of all the repetitve shit that's come out within the past decade, nothing gets more repetitve than this. I really don't have much more to say because this non-song is so vapid I can't even make a healthy rant about it.

5. Justin Bieber and Big Sean-As Long As You Love Me
Yep, a Justin Bieber song made it onto my worst of 2012 list. Shocking I know. So the rason why this song is stupid is because it highlights just how un-talented of a singer he really is. He sounds so whiny and strained, like he's trying to give birth. And plus he's just singing about the SAME thing he always does. Apparentley it doesn't matter if they have a home or how poor/rich they are, as long as he is loved by his special girl everything will be alright. *Heavy sigh* This shit is getting really annoying and reptitive, remind me again on how he's still selling millions of records for essentially singing the same song over and over again?

4. Train-50 Ways to Say Goodbye
First off, I despise the whole latin feel they threw into this song. It's about as overdone and as generic as it comes, not to mention the whole latin blow-out of the 90s is over. Then, the song title doesn't really make sense with the song. He's trying to say goodbye, but yet he just tells lies about why she left? And apprently giving back everything he ever bought her is a way of saying goodbye? Plus, there aren't nearly enough "ways of saying goodbye" is this song, just lame-ass excuses for why he broke up with her, or why she left him, the song is still kind of confusing. I love Train, I really do, but their new stuff is just getting more and more tedious to listen to, and quite frankly, annoying.

3. Flo Rida-Whistle
THIS is the song that kept Ellie Goulding's "Lights" from reaching number one? America, WHAT IS WRONG WIT YA'LL??!!! I fucking hate songs that are so vulgar and single-entendred as this. Geez, I wonder what this song is about. Flo Rida wants a girl to blow his instrument used for giving military commands? No. He clearly wants a hoe to suck his dick. Or excuse me, blow his dick. I really don't care which genre it's in, or if a male or female is the one singing it, but even Flo Rida needs to know how appalling this is. And the only reason why this song isn't the worst song of 2012 is because it's undeniably and almost impossibly catchy (can you blow my whistle baby, whistle baby...)

2. Justin Bieber-Boyfriend
Yup. Another Bieber song. He always has two songs on each of my annual worst of lists because he really is that bad. This song aggravates me because of the unrealistic expectations of men it gives 13 year old girls. When they listen to a song like this, coming from whatever boy band or teen heartthrob that throws some cliched lyrics with an even more cliched beat, they automatically assume that this is how men should be. When they grow up, and realize that no man is as perfect as Bieber makes it seem, they get all pissed off and then say that all guys are the same. And then they go one to say: "Why can't you be like Justin Bieber or One Direction??!!". Why? Because no man is going to dote on a woman hand and foot like they always proclaim. I'm sorry, if Justin Bieber was your boyfriend, he would probably see you as nothing more than a sex device that he can parade around at public events. Same thing with all the other male singers who sing about nothing except for how well he's going to treat a lady.

1. One Direction-One Thing
So, even though "What Makes You Beautiful" was very mundane and irritating, I still kind of liked it because it had a great hook. This song is just garbage. "I need that one thing, and you've got that one thing" What?! Are you fucking kidding me??! This song probably has the most simple and reptitive lyrical content ever released this year (even edging out Cher Lloyd's "Want U Back", which is actually catchy and will appear on my best of 2012 list), and not to mention the fact that this song and "What Makes You Beautiful" sound EXACTLY the same. Really, if you were to switch the music for both songs you wouldn't notice any difference. It's songs like this that make me lose faith in humanity. I was very pissed that One Direction got "Best New Artist" at the VMAs this year because they beat out Carly Rae Jepsen, Gotye, AND Fun. All of those artists at least vary their sounds and songs a tad so they're not so indistinct. All of One Direction's songs sound exactly the same, not to mention that they have absolutely no originality.

Anyway, I think you've had enough of my ranting, and I do not want to discuss this crap any further. Stay tuned on December 16 when you can douse your ears with the best of 2012. And as a little disclaimer: all songs made this list because I, and only I, found them to be the worst that this year had to offer. This does not mean that you shouldn't like them, if you do, that's fine. We all have our own opinions, this is just mine.

The Most Over-Played Songs of the 2000s Millennium

Ever since 2000 rolled around, many things have changed in the music biz. The most notable shift is the dominance of rap and dance-pop, which replace the big ballads and light rock of the 1990s. Even more so, popular music has taken on a gargantuan presence on the radio. Songs are now played more often and are available in more places than ever before. So, we get to the issue of the songs that were everywhere, whether they were good or not, they took America by storm and did not leave the radio stations for several years. With the help of my friend Trent, I have come up with a list of the most over-played songs since the year 2000. From 25 to 1, these tunes were played at least 9-12 times a day in every radio station around the country, possibly around the globe. Here they are, the songs that just didn't know when to not play:

25. Kanye West and Jaime Foxx-Gold Digger (2005)
24. Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera-Moves Like Jagger (2011)
23. Neon Trees-Everybody Talks (2012)
22. Justin Timerblake-What goes around comes around (2006)
21. OneRepublic-Secrets (2010)
20. Gavin DeGraw-I Don't Wanna Be (2003)
19. Sean Paul-Temperature (2006)
18. Bruno Mars-Just the Way You Are (2010)
17. Maroon 5 and Wiz Khalifa-Payphone (2012)
16. Coldplay-Viva La Vida (2008)
15. Taylor Swift-Love Story (2008)
14. Neon Trees-Animal (2010)
13. Cee Lo Green-Fuck You (2011)
12. Hinder-Lips of an Angel (2006)
11. Hoobastank-The Reason (2004)
10. Kings of Leon-Use Somebody (2009)
9. Justin Timberlake and Timbaland-SexyBack (2006)
8. Fergie-Big Girls Don't Cry (2007)
7. Finger Eleven-Paralyzer (2007)
6. Alicia Keys-No One (2007)
5. OutKast-Hey Ya! (2004)
4. Natasha Bedingfield-Unwritten (2006)
3. Adele-Someone Like You (2011)
2. Adele-Rolling in the Deep (2011)
1. The Black Eyed Peas-I Gotta Feeling (2009)

I know right? Anyway, my "Greatest Men in Music" list will be arriving shortly. In the meantime, keep on taking my "Best and Worst of 2012" survey! I will post the results of December 16, 2012.
Due to personal conflicts I have pushed the deadline back one day, so keep at it!

Greatest Women in Music

So with my "Best and Worst of 2012" survey underway (please take it if you haven't already), I've decided to countdown the best women in music of ALL time. Starting from the 1930s all the way to the modern day, these women have made the biggest contributions to the music scene and have revolutionized the industry in more ways than one. Without further ado, here they are:

20. The Go-Gos
19. Alanis Morisette
18. Etta James
17. Spice Girls
16. Beyonce
15. TLC
14. Christina Aguilera
13. Britney Spears
12. Ella Fitzgerald
11. P!nk
10. Adele
9. Lady Gaga
8. Shania Twain
7. Whitney Houston
6. Barbra Streisand
5. Judy Garland
4. Cher
3. Aretha Franklin
2. Mariah Carey
1. Madonna

In my honest opinion! Stay tuned for the greatest MEN in music which will be posted later on.

Best and Worst of 2012 Survey

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Ke$ha-"Warrior" Review

 

 

Well whataya know? Kesha actually CAN sing, well sort of.

It’s been two years since the release of her 2010 EP “Cannibal”, and in that waiting period Kesha ducked under the radar, going through a self-proclaimed spiritual journey to find new inspiration. She was also determined to finally knock down the accusations of her vocal talent (or lack thereof). Did it work? In a word, yes.

Perhaps Kesha and Christina Aguilera should have switched album titles, because while Aguilera’s 2012 album “Lotus” mainly focused on being a fighter, “Warrior” focuses more on Kesha’s own rebirth and new found cause to represent the misfits everywhere. The opening title tracks proudly exclaims: “We were born to break the doors down, fighting till the end. It’s something inside of us, it’s how we’ve always been” in a defiant chant. There’s “Die Young” the album’s lead single that holds influences from “Animal” and “Cannibal”, but also steers towards a more tangible sound instead of drum-machines and auto-tune. In fact, auto-tune has been virtually abandoned, even though Kesha didn’t abandon her musical parent Dr. Luke. His perfect pop production keeps the flow, but is now ready to let Kesha, the person, come to the forefront and not her hot mess public image. Instead, she’s a little more put together, a little more cohesive and now has a musical ambition. As calculated and as pop-machined “Animal” and “Cannibal” were, they were a necessary move for Kesha. Now that she’s gotten that out of her system, she now has a cause: to prove to the world she is a credible artist.

 

Kesha may come across dumb, because she is nowhere near stupid. All of her own songs, and songs she’s featured in, are HER creations, with the help of a couple other songwriters. She’s sung back-up vocals for other prominent singers, she’s worked with the best hit-makers in the music business, if there’s anyone who knows how to make popular music, it’s her. And “Warrior” proves she is one of the only artists who can not only add 70s rock and light pop/rock to her track list, but throws them in with her signature style and you ultimately wouldn’t notice any change of pace. She will never be tasteful, that’s for sure, but she’s also continuing to stray away from being crude and is entering into taunting and teasing with the disgusting. She knows exactly what goes into making pop that is irresistible and at the same time is expanding her horizons to lean towards messages besides getting sleazy, partying all night and waking up in bathtubs. “Warrior” may not be as bright as the sun and fun music of “Animal”, and it also may not be well-suited for the clubs like “Cannibal”, but it’s all the more compelling because of it. In “Wonderland”, Kesha finally masters the challenge of a ballad (this is also proven in the deluxe version with her most raw vocal performance: “Last Goodbye”), in “Crazy Kids” she hits glory notes that no one ever would have thought she was capable of. She can’t out-Whitney Whitney, but she can still crank out the hits like her. “Warrior” is the culmination of Kesha’s spiritual journey, and this victory proves that we as an audience may not appreciate her as much as we should. It took eleven months, but this is the first pop album of 2012 that’s enjoyable all the way through.

 

Like it or not, “Warrior” is the best pop album of 2012. Regardless of genre, it’s still up there.

 

Recommended Tracks in Bold:

1. Warrior                    2. Die Young        3. C’Mon

4. Thinking of You        5. Crazy Kids       6. Wherever You Are

7. Dirty Love                 8. Wonderland     9. Only Wanna Dance With You

10. Supernatural          11. All That Matters (The Beautiful Life)

12. Love Into the Light



Poll-The Best and Worst of 2012

Now that 2012 is almost coming to a close, it's time to celebrate the best (and worst) of 2012! Which song was the best? Who was the best new artist? Which album are you the most excited for in the new year? Answer all these questions and more by clicking on the link below! I will post the results on December 15, 2012! Thank You!

http://freeonlinesurveys.com/s.asp?sid=0v3r0zm03kpkfsf164463