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.
This track by Mary J. Blige has been released as a single several months ago, but I thought I would review it now that her ninth album, Stronger With Each Tear, has been released a couple of weeks ago. Her last three albums have been debuting at #1 spot, but this time, she had stiff competition from
Susan Boyle
and ended up settling for second place. She still belches out emotional songs, but I tend to like more of her upbeat songs, such as this one which features rapper Drake.
Yes, that is not misspell, this group has 2 “i”s in Miike. Miike Snow is a band from Sweden, and consists of singer song writer Andrew Wyatt and the production team, Bloodshy & Avant, who is most famous for producing Britney Spears’s “Toxic.” I recently came across this song as it was available for free mp3 download on Amazon MP3. The song is catchy and addicting.
Former Aussie soap star had a worldwide hit with “Torn” in 1998. Since then she’s enjoyed mediocre hits such as “Wrong Impression” and “Counting Down the Days” but nothing as big as “Torn.” Chances are, her fourth album, Come to Life won’t bring in any major hits either despite working with Chris Martin of Coldplay. “Want” is the first single, and it is one of the songs Natalie Imbruglia worked with Chris Martin. Compared to her previous clean pop sound, this track has more of Kylie Minogue feel to it. But, is it just me or does she look kind of freaky on this cover?
Columbia University educated band, Vampire Weekend had a clever online marketing for their sophomore album. They posted ads only containing the photo of a woman in polo shirt. When people clicked on it, the link led to Vampire Weekend’s website. The band had this to say to Pitchfork interview: “The first expression that I read into her was some sort of hesitation. We had a lot of discussions trying to figure out how old this person was when the picture was taken-- she could be 15 or 27. The ambiguity of her age and expression made me feel like she was on the cusp of something, which really matches the vibe of the new album.” The lead off single is “Cousins” and has already been getting quite a bit of airplay on the rock stations.
All of Alicia Keys album has debuted at #1 spot, except this one was intercepted by Susan Boyle, who continues to sell her albums weeks after its release. Alicia is riding high on the success of Jay-Z’s “
Empire State of Mind” where she was featured. She even included her version, “Empire State of Mind Part II” on this album. This single, “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart” is not as strong as “
No One” or “Fallin’” but is slowly climbing up the charts.
Animal Collective is a band from Baltimore. Their 8th album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, was placed on numerous magazines’ best album of the year. They sound a bit like MGMT, except less accessible. It’s a decent song, but I was more mesmerized by their album cover. Take a look at one corner of the album and move your eye to the other corner. This cover art is based on Akiyoshi Kitaoka, a famous psychologist from Japan who specializes in visual perception. Check out his
rotating snakes. It’s amazing!
I’ve selected several songs this month that were placed on “best of 2009” list, and by far this was my favorite. It’s catchy and unique at the same time. A lot of the other ones were unique, but not catchy enough for me. I had never heard of them, but they are from London, England, and this is their debut album.
This song was placed on many music publication’s top 20 songs of the year (#2 on Pitchfork, #7 on Rolling Stone). Really?! Sure, it sounds different and unique, but I find the song to be particularly annoying. Maybe my ears are too used to pop music, but if a lot of music critics agree, there must be people that enjoy this music. I thought I would put it on here to see if anyone else would dig it or dislike this choice.
This song was also placed high on numerous “best of 2009”. Despite their band name, there are no girls in the band. I didn’t mind the music so much, but the voice sounded like something from South Park. Now, that’s not necessary a bad thing as that show has put out some brilliant songs (didn’t creators win a Grammy one year?)
I had heard of Gucci Mane before, but I had never really paid much attention to him until he was placed #6 on MTV’s Hottest MC’s In The Game list (following Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Drake, Kanye, Rick Ross). After listening to a few of his songs, I have to say that he does have unique voice and flow. Earlier this month, Gucci Mane released his second studio album titled, The State vs Radric Davis. The lead off single, “Wasted” has gotten solid airplay on hiphop stations and MTV.
Iyaz is a brand new artist that sounds like a mix of Sean Kingston and Akon. His first single has been getting a lot of airplays on the radio in the US and has been sitting on top 10 of the Billboard single chart for several weeks now. Iyaz is from the Caribbean country of British Virgin Islands, and was actually discovered by Sean Kingston after finding his MySpace page. There is also a remix of this song featuring the rapper, Flo-Rida.
Kesha writes her name as “Ke$ha” with a dollar sign. She first hit the music scene when she was featured on Flo-Rida’s #1 hit song, “
Right Round” (she’s the one that screams, “You spin me….”). Kesha’s debut album will be released next month, but her lead off single, “Tik Tok” already hit #1 on the Billboard single chart, which follows Lady GaGa’s footstep for having a #1 single debut song. It does get people excited on the dance floor.
Embodying the rags-to-riches rap dream, Jay-Z pulled himself up by his bootstraps as a... 
