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.
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It’s the 25th anniversary of Prince’s Purple rain album, and the music magazine, SPIN decided to do a full tribute album featuring indie artists such as Of Montreal and Chairlift. Although the concept is great, most of the cover sounds like a cheap imitation. It’s Prince. Unless you do something drastically different, it’s tough. There were two noteworthy cover. One was by The Twilight Singers who completely changed the sound of “When Doves Cry.” But my favorite was Sharon Jones take of “Take Me With U.” It’s not the most famous Prince song on the Purple Rain album, but it’s a brilliant cover.
At the first listen you may think, "they sound just like Rage Against the Machine." Well, you are not all wrong. Street Sweeper Social Club is formed by rapper Boots Riley of the The Coup (never heard of them) and Rage Against the Machine guitarist (also lead guitarist of Audioslave), Tom Morello. Instead of social conscious lyrics of Zach de la Rocha, Boots Riley raps about partying. All the songs has killer guitar riffs thanks to Morello, but hearing these songs makes me wish that Rage Against the Machine would get back and record a new album, already.
Sounding a bit like The White Stripes, this Kentucky band found success in UK before generating some buzz in the States. They toured and opened for popular UK rock band, The Pigeon Detectives and gained audience. This single climbed the top 40 chart in the UK and was also featured as iTunes free single of the week several weeks ago.
I was never a huge fan of Dave Matthews Band even during their prime popularity days of mid 90s when “Crash Into Me” was a bit hit. Since then, they have released four album, which I hadn’t really listened to. Their latest effort, Whiskey and the GrooGrux King claimed the #1 album of the week with 424,000 sale, the third highest of the year thus far behind Eminem’s Relapse with 608,00 and U2’s No Line On the Horizon with 484,000. All of their albums since Crash has reached the #1 position. This album was produced by Rob Cavallo who was responsible for My Chemical Romance’s The Black Parade and Green Day’s American Idiot.
Kelly Rowland hasn’t found chart success like her former group Destiny’s Child or bandmate, Beyonce. Although “Dilemma” was a decent success, she was only a featured artist for Nelly. "
Like This" from two years was just ok. Currently between labels, Rowland can be seen as a host on Bravo network’s “The Fashion Show,” and she also had time to record vocal track for famous French DJ, David Guetta (he was voted #5 DJ in the world in 2008). This dance track turned out to be a huge hit in the club scene, it’s been sitting on the #1 position on the dance chart for several weeks. With this success, Kelly Rowland is now seriously considering making her next album dance/electro album.
Already labeled as this year’s “
American Boy” (made famous by Estelle and Kanye West), The Dream does a good Michael Jackson imitation. In fact, I wonder if this song was written for Michael Jackson at first, since there was a rumor that The Dream was working on a song for Michael Jackson a couple of years ago. Kanye spits decent verse for this track, and it’s thoroughly enjoyable, but if I have to compare, I prefer “
American Boy” over this track.
Flo Rida so far has the biggest hit of 2009 with “
Right Round” which sampled Dead Or Alive’s “You Sping Me Round.” His next single samples another popular club track, except this time, instead of from the 80s, he takes late 90s, Eiffel 65’s hit song, “Blue (Da Ba Dee). It’s catchy and it’s ready for the club.
When I saw her album release, I thought she was just another teeny-bopper singing for WB network. Turns out that she’s currently Europe’s biggest selling female solo artist. Born in Georgia (not the State, but former Soviet), but raised in Ireland, and currently a British citizen, Melua is still only 24 years old, despite selling millions of records worldwide (mostly in Europe). She holds the World Guinness record for playing 303 meters below sea level (which she had to get extensive medical tests for), and has great sense of humor. She is currently trying to break in the US market, but considering that I haven’t really heard much about her, I don’t know how well that is going so far.
This is the second time that Linkin Park was asked to create a song for the Transformer movie franchise. Last year, they had a hit with “
What I’ve Done” which was included on the first soundtrack. Actually “New Divide” has a very similar feel to “
What I’ve Done.” Non Linkin Park fan may not be able to tell the song apart (ok, maybe that’s saying a bit much). I do like the song a lot, despite lack of Mike Shinoda’s presence. On recently interview, Shinoda has said that the new album they are currently working on should have a little more of rapping than the previous album. I’m happy to hear that.
“Linda Linda” is a very popular punk song sung by a Japanese punk band called Blue Hearts. Although the official title of this particular song is “Linda Linda (English)” the song starts out with the Japanese verse. The chorus part had been translated into English. Apparently they are not the first band to cover this track, as Andrew WK had covered it before. This song is on MxPx’s latest album containing all cover songs.
Rancid is back with a new album. It’s been six years since their last effort. The lead singer Tim Armstrong had a solo album two years ago, which generated a moderate hit, “Into Action.” But I’m happy to see Rancid back with the same ska/punk style.
I’ve never really thought of Rick Ross as a prime rapper. Sure, he’s had moderate success on the rap chart, but his third album, Deeper Than Rap is actually quite good. “Mafia Music” is the opening track on the album, and unlike most songs, it has no hooks or chorus. Ross just raps and tries to claim his significance. He has a lot to prove as his past as a corrections officer was recently uncovered. That may not seem like a big deal, but to rappers, who feud with cops, corrections officer would put you on the wrong side. Recently he had beef with 50 Cent since he looked at him the wrong way at the BET Award. On this track, Ross disses 50 by rapping “I love to pay her bills/can’t wait to pay her rent/Curtis Jackson baby mama/I aint askin for a cent/Burn the house down/gotta buy another/don’t forget the gas can/jealous, stupid muthafucka.” With beef with 50 and his past as corrections officer aside, the album has slick production, and this track although not the most upbeat tempo, gets you pumped up.
Embodying the rags-to-riches rap dream, Jay-Z pulled himself up by his bootstraps as a... 