Yet Another Year In America January 28, 2010
All ticks, but still a basic dullness to the chart with no game-changing inspiration in earshot.
Taylor Swift "Today Was A Fairytale": A Valentine's Day card from the romantic comedy of the same name, the words avoid the complications and conflictedness and hurt that hovered near "Love Story" and "White Horse" and "The Best Day" and everything else she's ever written until this, though I suppose it's interesting the way she heads to the interrogative ("can you feel the magic in the air?"), uncertainty peeking in through the window. Her singing goes from easy warmth to flickering vulnerability, a well-executed trifle that may end up feeling like more the more I hear it, and 'cause it's Taylor. TICK.
Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris "Baby": I think YouTube is only giving me bad rips, since Justin's voice sounds thinner than before, the thinness feeling inadequate inside the spare Tricky-Dreamscape of the arrangement. Pretty singing, and as always I appreciate Justin's ease in front of the mic, though I'm getting antsy with this week's lack of ambition. BORDERLINE TICK.
Jay-Z, Bono, The Edge, Rihanna "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)": The charity single has the week's most adventurous song form: the Edge's quick guitar flicks dramatize Jay-Z's rapping and then the chorus veers into a whole other key, RiRi emerging from a distant precinct to deliver sorrow while Hova tries to figure out theology. Sort of a mess, but gripping. BORDERLINE TICK.
(By the way, if you go by the radio-friendly sound, "Te Amo" would be the obvious next single from Rated R, but I fear that the words'll block that possibility.)
Adam Lambert "Whataya Want From Me": Drones and rockiness and atmospherics, this is well-constructed (credit Pink, Max, Shellback), esp. where the quick guitar strums double Adam's voice - though I'd like to hear the Pink original, if it ever surfaces, since for all the force of Adam's larynx, he doesn't come up with a musical personality, whereas Pink's gargling angst would fit fine. BORDERLINE TICK.
Taylor Swift "Today Was A Fairytale": A Valentine's Day card from the romantic comedy of the same name, the words avoid the complications and conflictedness and hurt that hovered near "Love Story" and "White Horse" and "The Best Day" and everything else she's ever written until this, though I suppose it's interesting the way she heads to the interrogative ("can you feel the magic in the air?"), uncertainty peeking in through the window. Her singing goes from easy warmth to flickering vulnerability, a well-executed trifle that may end up feeling like more the more I hear it, and 'cause it's Taylor. TICK.
Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris "Baby": I think YouTube is only giving me bad rips, since Justin's voice sounds thinner than before, the thinness feeling inadequate inside the spare Tricky-Dreamscape of the arrangement. Pretty singing, and as always I appreciate Justin's ease in front of the mic, though I'm getting antsy with this week's lack of ambition. BORDERLINE TICK.
Jay-Z, Bono, The Edge, Rihanna "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)": The charity single has the week's most adventurous song form: the Edge's quick guitar flicks dramatize Jay-Z's rapping and then the chorus veers into a whole other key, RiRi emerging from a distant precinct to deliver sorrow while Hova tries to figure out theology. Sort of a mess, but gripping. BORDERLINE TICK.
(By the way, if you go by the radio-friendly sound, "Te Amo" would be the obvious next single from Rated R, but I fear that the words'll block that possibility.)
Adam Lambert "Whataya Want From Me": Drones and rockiness and atmospherics, this is well-constructed (credit Pink, Max, Shellback), esp. where the quick guitar strums double Adam's voice - though I'd like to hear the Pink original, if it ever surfaces, since for all the force of Adam's larynx, he doesn't come up with a musical personality, whereas Pink's gargling angst would fit fine. BORDERLINE TICK.