About This Site
Each month I select 20 songs (10 songs twice a month) that I am either hooked on or am curious about. Most of the music I select are rock, hip-hop, R&B and pop songs.
My song selection comes from 20-30 CDs I get from various sources each month, as well as recommendations from iTunes and Amazon. I also check out the charts in US, UK and Japan.
I heard this song played multiple of times while vacationing in Florida this Christmas. This is the Kansas City band’s fourth album (hence Volume 4), and “Spaceship” is the lead off single. It is about partying on UFO with stripper aliens, apparently. It’s not as fun as “She Hates Me” but it’s up there.
Rolling Stone magazine placed this song as the best song of 2009. It was also placed on best songs of the decade list at #36 (the list was topped by Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”). I hadn’t heard of this song from U2’s latest album, so I had to give it a shot. It’s over 7 minutes long. I didn’t think much of it at first, but after a few listen, I found myself diving into their sound more.
Lead singer, Jared Leto is now in his late 30s. He has successfully changed his image from the “actor that used to be on My So Called Life” to “emo band guy with eyeliner.” Many actors have tried to have a successful career, but have failed, and you need to give Leto credit where it’s due. 30 Seconds To Mars’ last album, A Beautiful Lie, has sold over a million album. Four years (and some lawsuits later) they are back with their third album, This Is War. The lead off single, “Kings And Queens” is climbing up the rock chart.
Adam Lambert was the second place finisher during this year’s American Idol. He made headlines last month by locking lips with a male keyboardist on live broadcast of American Music Award. I didn’t watch it, but apparently it was raunchy enough to have the ABC network cancel his appearance on the morning and late night talk show. But last week, he was featured and interviewed on ABC’s Barbara Walter’s 10 Most Fascinating People of 2009. Also on the list were Lady GaGa, Sarah Palin, Michael Jackson’s three kids, and most fascinating went to Michelle Obama. Lambert got a lot of hot producers and musicians to write songs for him (though he co-wrote on several tracks). “Music Again”, written by The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins sounds just like one of The Darkness songs, and “Pick U Up” written by Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo sounds just like one of the Weezer songs, in a good way. “For Your Entertainment” is the first single off of the album, but has not reached top 40, despite all the publicity.
If one artist took over the airwave in 2009, it would be the Black Eyed Peas. Their two singles, “
Boom Boom Pow” and “
I Gotta Feeling” combined has spent more than half of the year on #1 position on the Billboard chart. The third single, which has Fergie in center of the attention is slowly climbing up the chart (currently sitting at #7), but so far hasn’t made the immediate impact like the two previous singles. Personally I’d like to see “Rock That Body” released as their next single.
When I first heard this latest single from the New York rock band, The Bravery, I thought it was a new single from The Killers. When I heard their last popular single, “Believe” I thought it was U2’s new single. With that said, The Bravery still seems to be searching for their own sound. For their new album, they worked with producer John Hill, who has worked with M.I.A. and Shakira for a unique collaboration. The result? It’s very 80s-ish synth rock. I do like this single and hope that they continue to find their sound.
It might a little hard to tell from this new single from jazz-pop superstar, Norah Jones, but she has traded her signature piano for a guitar on her new album. But overall, the music is still nice and mellow and her core audience should still enjoy her music. I personally liked the track, “Even Though” which was cowritten by Jesse Harris who wrote Jones’ biggest hit, “Don’t Know Why”.
OneRepublic lead singer, Ryan Tedder has been busy the last couple of years. His band, OneRepublic took off like a rocket, after their song, “
Apologize” (4th most downloaded song of the decade at 4,439,000 sold) appeared on Timbaland’s album. Since then Tedder has been asked to pen songs for other artists such as Leona Lewis (“
Happy”), Kelly Clarkson (“Already Gone”), Jordin Sparks (“Battlefield”) and Beyonce (“Halo”). As a band, Tedder’s OneRepublic just released their second album titled Waking Up. So far the new songs hasn’t had similar success as “
Apologize” but I get this “All The Right Moves” track stuck in my head.
If you watched Michael Jackson’s “
This Is It” documentary, you may have seen this blonde haired girl playing guitar next to Michael. Unfortunately, she never got to go on that tour, but she was able to release her major studio debut album, Believe. Her music sounds like a mixture of Pink and Kelly Clarkson, and she looks like a typical popstar wannabe, but her guitar playing ability is unbelievable. “According to You” is already a top 10 hit in her native country of Australia, and it is slowly gaining popularity in the US.
Rise Against’s fifth album, Appeal To Reason has been out for more than a year, and their latest single has been out for a few months as well, but I recently heard it for the first time on the radio. I’ve never owned any of their albums (just singles), but I’ve always been impressed with their songs. It’s a great solid rock song.
Malice N Wonderland is West coast rapper, Snoop Dogg’s 10th album. For a rapper to release 10 albums, and all of them making Gold status, that is an impressive feat. To promote his latest album, he even hosted WWE Raw several weeks ago. For this track, he works with The-Dream for another catchy Snoop single.
After monstrous success of first Shock Value from two years ago, super producer, Timbaland is back with the second installment. Similar to last time, he experiments with some rock artists such as Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, The Fray and Daughtry. But overall, Timbaland goes more pop with this album by recruiting Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry. Of course, there are some hip-hop infused songs as well which features Drake or Brandy rapping. Nelly Furtado rocks on this particular track.
Embodying the rags-to-riches rap dream, Jay-Z pulled himself up by his bootstraps as a... 