Selecting 20 songs each month - Rock, Pop, Hip-Hop, R&B, etc (with big 500x500 pixel album covers)
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 am really digging this UK folk rock band, Mumford & Sons. I was really excited to hear that they had covered Vampire Weekend’s “Cousins” on BBC’s Radio1 Live Lounge (I love that show). The original song is unique enough, but with Mumford’s twist, it is even more unique, and makes me love the song even more. Check them out performing live on this video clip.
This year’s Grammy had most number of viewers in the recent years, and there were some good performances. One of the stand outs was the Michael Jackson tribute. The 3D footages of natures was not appealing, but having the all star artists from various different genres singing one of Michael’s beloved songs was something. Even amongst vocal powerhouse like Celine Dion or Jennifer Hudson, Michael’s voice comes across very strong. A lot of the performances from the Grammy’s is available for download from iTunes, but so far this song is not. It’s a shame.
Lady GaGa opened the Grammy show with “Poker Face”, and went into this medley of her song “Speechless” mixed with Elton John’s “Your Song.” From shouting, “Take my picture, Hollywood!” Lady GaGa shows that she owns the crowd. And how long has she been in the business? At least as a signed performer, not too long. Whether you like her or not, you have to give her credit for her showmanship. Elton John performed with Eminem several years back, and he proves once again, that he can collaborate with any performer out there.
The massive earthquake in Haiti killed over 150,000 people in the Caribbean nation. To help raise awareness and money, George Clooney gathered bunch of friends for a charity telethon. All of the performers either sung their originals or cover song, but Jay-Z and U2’s Bono and The Edge created an original song for the occasion along with the producer Swizz Beatz. The digital only track sold 131,000 downloads in matter of two days. This studio version and the live version performed on the live telethon both appear on the album.
I purchased the charity album, Hope For Haiti Now, for $7.99 on the day it came out from Amazon MP3 (they had it before iTunes). There were a couple of songs that just didn’t work (Alicia Keys sounded a little off, which is rare) but for the most part, everyone sounded amazing. My only gripe about this album was that it was more ‘depressing’ than ‘uplifting’. One of those examples is this cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (is it just me, or has this song been covered way too many times in the last couple of years?). Although it’s not my favorite track on the album, this song was #1 on iTunes download chart for a few days after it was released, so I figured I’d feature it here. For those of you wondering who Matt Morris is, he’s a son of country singer Gary Morris (I’ve never heard of Matt nor Gary either).
A lot of artists are donating their time and music for the Haiti effort. Rihanna performed Bob Marley classic on Oprah Winfrey show, and the live recording was available on iTunes with all the proceeds going to the Haiti relief. Rihanna may not be the greatest singer, but hearing this song makes me realize how good the song is. Rihanna actually does a decent job (she’s not the best live performer, but this one is pretty good).
There are a lot of great songs on the charity album, Hope For Haiti Now, but I decided to narrow it down to just three songs for this blog. I chose Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake’s songs as those two were America’s top 2 choices. For the third one, I debated between Madonna’s inspiring cover of “Like A Prayer” with choirs or Sheryl Crow’s acoustic take on one of the most covered songs in the universe, Lean On Me. Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock have performed together on numerous occasions (notably for a duet single, “Picture”), and add country superstar, Keith Urban (who is married to Nicole Kidman) and the track sounds amazing.
Coldplay is currently on their huge global tour, and I had a chance to go check them out, actually my first time. I’ve heard many people tell me that they sound great live, and that they put on energetic show. Unfortunately I was seated a little far to tell the energy, but I appreciated their effort in moving the stage occasionally to get closer to other parts of amphitheater. I was also impressed that they covered “Billie Jean” in memory of Michael Jackson’s death. Coldplay has released numerous hits in the past, but this song got the biggest cheer and audience participation, chanting, “oooooh ooooh ooh oooh.” It is a great song, especially hearing it live on summer evening. This entire live album is available for a free download from their official website, but an actual CD was also handed out at the concert.
I was looking for a track in honor of Michael Jackson’s death, but was surprised to find that iTunes or Amazon MP3 were not releasing any tribute album for a good cause. I didn’t watch the entire Memorial Service, but some of the performances such as Mariah’s “I’ll Be There” didn’t sound as good as she did 15 years ago. I was happy to find this version with Jamie Foxx and Ne-Yo did at this year’s BET Music Award, which had a lot of tribute for Michael Jackson, including Ciara doing “Heal the World.” Maybe in several months, iTunes will do a similar thing they did for Frank Sinatra, where the contemporary artists cover the legend’s hits.
I never got into Phish, but I can see how so many people could get hooked on this band. They are a popular jam band, often compared to The Grateful Dead. Most of their fans will tell you that don’t bother listening to their studio albums, because they shine during a live show, where they jam and improvise, sometimes extending a three minute song into a thirty minute jam session. In 2004, Phish broke up to pursue solo career and other projects. I actually saw Trey Anastasio perform live at Bumbershoot festival one year during their breakup. Earlier this month, Phish got back together for a three night weekend concert. What was most impressive was that, the band recorded all of the three shows and uploaded free MP3 of the entire concert on their livephish.com website. MP3 was available within a day after the concert, and they were available for free. Now that is being dedicated to the fans. On this song, toward the end, you can hear the band jam and improvise. I especially like when the keyboardist goes off to wraps up the song.
Grammy award show has always brought some surprise and memorable performances. Eminem and Elton John together or Paul McCartney joining Jay-Z and Linkin Park. But in the past couple of years, especially this year, I feel like there was no surprise. The only surprise happened off stage when Chris Brown got arrested for beating up his girlfriend, Rihanna on the morning of the award show (they were even supposed to perform, which they had to cancel). I was trying to pick the best performance from this year’s show, but I honestly couldn’t think of one. Coldplay and Jay-Z sounded good, but it was predictable, and so was Radiohead with USC marching band.
This duet between Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus is nothing special, but I’ve been sort of intrigued by Taylor Swift recently. This week marked her 10th week being #1 album in the US. Why is she selling so many records? I normally don’t listen to her music (or Miley’s) but after listening to this song and learning that Taylor Swift actually writes her own songs, I got a better idea of why teenage girls love her music so much. She’s a great story teller. To be able to do that at her age, that is impressive. It’s not enough to get me to buy her album, but at least I should mention about her. Another thing I noticed from this performance was that Taylor Swift sings with some kind of emotion, whereas Miley just sings it.
I love Radio 1’s Live Lounge series. I’m a huge fan of the program. I used to be able to stream it online, but I am no longer able to. The program invites current popular bands, and ask them to perform their hit, and a cover of another popular band. Normally the bands cover current hits, but The Script chose to cover Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” The Script is a new band from Ireland. Last year their debut album, The Script became multi-platinum. What’s impressive about this cover is that the lead singer Danny O'Donoghue actually sings through this song in melody.
Last month My Chemical Romance released a special DVD of their Black Parade concert. The DVD includes two concerts, one from big arena in Mexico City, and other from smaller venue in their hometown, New Jersey. It also contains audio tracks from the Mexico City concert. I attended the Black Parade concert last year, and it became one of the most memorable concerts. A lot of the songs on this live album sounds very close to the studio album, but slower tracks such as this track shines as a live track. What a dramatic pause in the ending.
On April 9th, American Idol broadcasted “Idol Gives Back” a charity show where bunch of famous people such as Brad Pitt, Bono and a few WWE wrestlers and NFL’s Manning brothers came on urging viewers to donate money for the good cause. The show was 2.5 hours long and managed to raise over 20 million dollars. There were several performances on the show by big name artists like Annie Lennox, Gloria Estefan, Mariah Carey and actress Teri Hatcher covering Carrie Underwood’s song, and Underwood doing a song of her own. Everyone did sort of inspirational songs that suited the show, but Miley Cyrus did two of her pop songs that didn’t really seem to fit the “let’s donate money for the people in Africa theme.” And to add, she sounded terrible. And who would’ve thought to see Snoop rapping for charity? He brought Charlie Wilson with him to sing “Can’t Say Goodbye” which is also on his latest album, Ego Trippin’. A lot of rappers don’t sound that great live, but Snoop is always so smooth. All the live performances from the night are available on iTunes with all the proceeds going to charity. I decided to put my 99 cents for this song.
I really dig Duffy’s vocal style. She was recently on UK’s popular radio show, Radio 1’s Live Lounge, which is an excellent show where the guest artist plays acoustic set of their hit and covers somebody else’s hit. Earlier this month, Duffy covered Hot Chip’s “Ready For The Floor”, which sounds more like reworked than covering it as the popular dance track turns into more sad soulful song. I really loved the arrangement.
This performance of her hit single at the 50th Annual Grammy was one of the highlights of the show. I'm not a huge fan of John Mayer, but when he comes on toward the end of the song and rips on his guitar, it makes the song even more powerful.
UK's popular radio program, Radio 1's Live Lounge, released a second album featuring many popular artists covering other artists hit songs. Arctic Monkeys does a cool cover of Amy Winehouse's single. Other cool covers from the CD worth noting are: Biff Clyro doing Umbrella, The Fray doing Hips Don't Lie and 30 Seconds to Mars covering Kanye's, Stronger.
Two years ago Kanye West and Jamie Foxx had one of the most memorable performances at the Grammy Award, and this year, Kanye does the same with the help from Daft Punk.
Daft Punk's last year's "Alive" tour was voted as one of the best concert of 2007. How could two electronic DJs have the best show? Do a quick search on YouTube for some of the clips, and it looks amazing. I wish I had gone. This song mixes two of their biggest hits "Around the World" and "Harder Better Faster Stronger" which Kanye West sampled recently on his hit single, "Stronger".
Jay-Z performed all of his tracks from his latest album, American Gangster on VH1 (the video is available online). This song was my favorite performance, so I recorded. I think it sounds better live than from the album.
Last month My Chemical Romance released a special DVD of their Black Parade concert. The DVD includes two concerts, one from big arena in Mexico City, and other from smaller venue in their hometown, New Jersey. It also contains audio tracks from the Mexico City concert. I attended the Black Parade concert last year, and it became one of the most memorable concerts. A lot of the songs on this live album sounds very close to the studio album, but slower tracks such as this track shines as a live track. What a dramatic pause in the ending.
On April 9th, American Idol broadcasted “Idol Gives Back” a charity show where bunch of famous people such as Brad Pitt, Bono and a few WWE wrestlers and NFL’s Manning brothers came on urging viewers to donate money for the good cause. The show was 2.5 hours long and managed to raise over 20 million dollars. There were several performances on the show by big name artists like Annie Lennox, Gloria Estefan, Mariah Carey and actress Teri Hatcher covering Carrie Underwood’s song, and Underwood doing a song of her own. Everyone did sort of inspirational songs that suited the show, but Miley Cyrus did two of her pop songs that didn’t really seem to fit the “let’s donate money for the people in Africa theme.” And to add, she sounded terrible. And who would’ve thought to see Snoop rapping for charity? He brought Charlie Wilson with him to sing “Can’t Say Goodbye” which is also on his latest album, Ego Trippin’. A lot of rappers don’t sound that great live, but Snoop is always so smooth. All the live performances from the night are available on iTunes with all the proceeds going to charity. I decided to put my 99 cents for this song.
I really dig Duffy’s vocal style. She was recently on UK’s popular radio show, Radio 1’s Live Lounge, which is an excellent show where the guest artist plays acoustic set of their hit and covers somebody else’s hit. Earlier this month, Duffy covered Hot Chip’s “Ready For The Floor”, which sounds more like reworked than covering it as the popular dance track turns into more sad soulful song. I really loved the arrangement.
This performance of her hit single at the 50th Annual Grammy was one of the highlights of the show. I'm not a huge fan of John Mayer, but when he comes on toward the end of the song and rips on his guitar, it makes the song even more powerful.
UK's popular radio program, Radio 1's Live Lounge, released a second album featuring many popular artists covering other artists hit songs. Arctic Monkeys does a cool cover of Amy Winehouse's single. Other cool covers from the CD worth noting are: Biff Clyro doing Umbrella, The Fray doing Hips Don't Lie and 30 Seconds to Mars covering Kanye's, Stronger.
Two years ago Kanye West and Jamie Foxx had one of the most memorable performances at the Grammy Award, and this year, Kanye does the same with the help from Daft Punk.
Daft Punk's last year's "Alive" tour was voted as one of the best concert of 2007. How could two electronic DJs have the best show? Do a quick search on YouTube for some of the clips, and it looks amazing. I wish I had gone. This song mixes two of their biggest hits "Around the World" and "Harder Better Faster Stronger" which Kanye West sampled recently on his hit single, "Stronger".
Jay-Z performed all of his tracks from his latest album, American Gangster on VH1 (the video is available online). This song was my favorite performance, so I recorded. I think it sounds better live than from the album.
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