Some Albums Through The Third Quarter of 2010
Wrote this album wrap-up in response to Greg over on my singles thread, so might as well give it its own post. I've let album-listening slide, so I need to do lots of exploring. These are my top five:
Ke$ha's Animal: her vision or shtick is up my alley, and is pretending to come from an alley, but her lyrics could use stronger, more original images, and her voice is opening-act raw; yet somehow she's the only Top 40 star who knows what she's doing this year, the only one to sound like she's riding the current dance-pop mess rather than just trying to grab hold somewhere, balances ugliness and prettiness, storm and calm, etc. "Blah Blah Blah" is my favorite and after that the best stuff hasn't been singles: "Backstabber," a hint of Latin freestyle, the words being a bitch-fest about a gossip but the music bouncing the words around in the rhythm so much that Ke$ha hardly sounds unhappy; "Boots And Boys," which compares boys to boots, loves them both, tries them on, they got her looking rad, while a quagmire bass tries to pull her under but she floats blissfully above it; and "Party At A Rich Dude's House," sounding like Dr. Luke finally getting the loud-blaring-chorus-thing right, the melody lifting the song without blasting our ears off, except Luke actually had nothing to do with the song (is Ke$ha, Shellback, and Benny Blanco; but Luke restrains his own blare effectively on "TiK ToK" and "Take It Off"). In any event, for all the puke-slinging etc. the album is surprisingly pretty.
Marina And The Diamonds The Family Jewels, ridiculous lyrics coming across as if she's just discovered rebellion and originality, and she sounds like a heavily overburdened posh woman in the throes of letting loose, and I'm charmed.
Princesa Más Fuego, which Princesa herself posts on Mediafire for legal free download (all her links are on her Facebook); a reggaeton ball of fire from Argentina, got the ugly reggaeton yammering bit down but also what sounds like grief and dreaminess, even with a rough not particularly flexible voice; you may have heard the title track if you were following Argentina in the Pop World Cup.
E.via Must Have (EP), which even for an EP is scattershot in tone and quality, and through my cultural misunderstandings of Korea and my non-knowledge of the language I'm basically inventing her in my mind, so this account may have nothing to do with reality but... I imagine her as what I wish Gaga were, someone critiquing the sex sell while selling herself sexily in both a cute and threatening manner, and crucially she really can rap with force, while doing all the tuneful Asian chirpy things well.
Various Artists Shangaan Electro, South African speed dance with bubbling "marimba" keyboards; I like the fast burbles and the slow rich voices.
And that's all I've got for you, though I now possess the new Jamey Johnson without having had a chance to listen. Listened once to Chely Wright's Lifted Off The Ground and it feels like a potential grower, she now being more singer-songwriter than country, writing and singing with gentleness. Hurts' Happiness may also be a grower: only has one wonderful "Wonderful Life," but in general their dourness doesn't weigh down their prettiness as much as I'd feared, in fact the two facets sometimes work well together. Also intend to give Traband's Domasa and Kelis's Flesh Tone further listens, 'cause they have good stuff on them though so far they haven't hit me as much as they hit Chuck and Dave, respectively.
Disappointments: Little Big Town, Shontelle, A-Trak, Nina Sky, Lillix, though I've not listened all through the last two and only listened to the first two once.
Ke$ha's Animal: her vision or shtick is up my alley, and is pretending to come from an alley, but her lyrics could use stronger, more original images, and her voice is opening-act raw; yet somehow she's the only Top 40 star who knows what she's doing this year, the only one to sound like she's riding the current dance-pop mess rather than just trying to grab hold somewhere, balances ugliness and prettiness, storm and calm, etc. "Blah Blah Blah" is my favorite and after that the best stuff hasn't been singles: "Backstabber," a hint of Latin freestyle, the words being a bitch-fest about a gossip but the music bouncing the words around in the rhythm so much that Ke$ha hardly sounds unhappy; "Boots And Boys," which compares boys to boots, loves them both, tries them on, they got her looking rad, while a quagmire bass tries to pull her under but she floats blissfully above it; and "Party At A Rich Dude's House," sounding like Dr. Luke finally getting the loud-blaring-chorus-thing right, the melody lifting the song without blasting our ears off, except Luke actually had nothing to do with the song (is Ke$ha, Shellback, and Benny Blanco; but Luke restrains his own blare effectively on "TiK ToK" and "Take It Off"). In any event, for all the puke-slinging etc. the album is surprisingly pretty.
Marina And The Diamonds The Family Jewels, ridiculous lyrics coming across as if she's just discovered rebellion and originality, and she sounds like a heavily overburdened posh woman in the throes of letting loose, and I'm charmed.
Princesa Más Fuego, which Princesa herself posts on Mediafire for legal free download (all her links are on her Facebook); a reggaeton ball of fire from Argentina, got the ugly reggaeton yammering bit down but also what sounds like grief and dreaminess, even with a rough not particularly flexible voice; you may have heard the title track if you were following Argentina in the Pop World Cup.
E.via Must Have (EP), which even for an EP is scattershot in tone and quality, and through my cultural misunderstandings of Korea and my non-knowledge of the language I'm basically inventing her in my mind, so this account may have nothing to do with reality but... I imagine her as what I wish Gaga were, someone critiquing the sex sell while selling herself sexily in both a cute and threatening manner, and crucially she really can rap with force, while doing all the tuneful Asian chirpy things well.
Various Artists Shangaan Electro, South African speed dance with bubbling "marimba" keyboards; I like the fast burbles and the slow rich voices.
And that's all I've got for you, though I now possess the new Jamey Johnson without having had a chance to listen. Listened once to Chely Wright's Lifted Off The Ground and it feels like a potential grower, she now being more singer-songwriter than country, writing and singing with gentleness. Hurts' Happiness may also be a grower: only has one wonderful "Wonderful Life," but in general their dourness doesn't weigh down their prettiness as much as I'd feared, in fact the two facets sometimes work well together. Also intend to give Traband's Domasa and Kelis's Flesh Tone further listens, 'cause they have good stuff on them though so far they haven't hit me as much as they hit Chuck and Dave, respectively.
Disappointments: Little Big Town, Shontelle, A-Trak, Nina Sky, Lillix, though I've not listened all through the last two and only listened to the first two once.