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.
Busta Rhymes' 8th album, Back On My BS took a very long time to get released as he switched labels. The album release was hardly noticed as it didn't generate much sale. Although his last album, The Big Bang did fairly well, thanks to the single, "Touch It", I feel like Busta Rhymes' popularity is going down. He is one of the most dynamic rappers out there with recognizeable uniqueness. But perhaps he does better when he is a featured artist instead of rapping a whole song. It's always a joy to listen to remixes of other rappers and hear him come on and do his crazy thing. This single was released a few months ago, and although I like the beat, it seems to lack the fire Busta once had.
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I've heard this rapper's name before, but I couldn't think of why I knew. I'm not very keen on underground or indie hip-hop, but after hearing the voice, I recognized him from Gorillaz's hit song, "Clint Eastwood." Del is also Ice Cube's cousin. Del The Funky Homosapien became tired of labels not doing much, and albums not selling much, so he decided to distribute his music for free. In exchange? He just wants people to hear his music. I went to his official site, download the album for free, enjoyed it (particularly this track), so the least I could do it is promote it some more.
I really dig Nathan Followill's voice. Nathan and his brothers and a cousin are doing fairly well nowadays as they have moved up to being headline acts in both UK and US. I hadn't heard this track, but a friend of mine has told me he's been hearing it on the radio and suggested it to me. It's a great rock song that I would want to hear live someday.
The music starts out like western gunsling showdown, and nothing matches better than Lily Allen's fast talking, cheeky lyrics about a super nice guy who is just terrible in bed. The song is catchy, fun and gets stuck in your head. What else can you ask for? This track is rising up fast on the UK chart.
My coworker gave me this album and told me that I would probably like it. He first let me listen to this particular track on his computer, and I was hooked. The beat was funky and the rap style was cool. How come I had never heard of this guy before? Then I was told that the rapper was Japanese guy named Tom Shimura. Really? I couldn’t believe it. My image of Japanese rapper was… well, I didn’t have any image of a Japanese rapper. Lyrics Born was born in Japan, but grew up in San Francisco area. He started out as MC name of Asian Born, but later changed it to Lyrics Born because he didn’t want to be known as the “Asian Rapper.” He is currently working on a new album, so I will have to check that out when it comes out.
Maia Hirasawa is Swedish (she’s half Japanese) singer songwriter that has been getting some attention in the US recently. I stumbled this track as it was a free download from Amazon MP3 (the editors there are doing good job selecting great songs), and decided to check out some of her other music. She has so far only released one album. A track, “And I Found This Boy” is a fun piano pop song reminiscent of Yael Naim and Meiko. The music video was cute, too.
Childhood friends, Method Man and Redman are back together again to bring fun back into hip-hop. When these guys get together and rap, it's like two old friends meeting at a bbq and talk and laugh about what they did last weekend. It's a nice laid back rap album with funky beat with a hook reminiscent of Nate Dogg. The track also features Canadian rapper, Saukrates.
I'm a huge fan of Tegan & Sara, and I don't know how other fans feel about this song, but I think it's hilarious. NOFX is a punk rock band from California that doesn't know how to take life seriously. Creeping Out Sara is a song about meeting Sara (or possibly Tegan, since Fat Mike couldn't tell them apart) at one of the big music festival. The song goes on to ask Sara about lesbian orgy sex and drugs. Considering that both Tegan & Sara have great sense of humor, I get a feeling they were able to laugh it off.
Pitbull has recently figured out how to crank out hits. Two years ago, him and Lil Jon sampled Europe's popular dance track, "Calabria" and turned it into "The Anthem." This year, he took last year's hot dance track, "75 Brazil Street" and converted it into "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)". This track is now Pitbull's most successful single to date as it is currently #4 on Billboard Single chart.
A few weeks ago, I reviewed Melody Gardot's latest song and raved about her voice. This new artist, Zee Avi is up there when it comes to "nice voice to listen to." This track was also another free single offered from Amazon MP3, and when I heard it, I thought her voice was beautiful. The album cover didn't show her face, so I had no idea what kind of person was singing this song, until I checked out her official site, and learned that she was a tiny girl from Malaysia (she looks like a kid, but she's apparently 23). She was posting her music on YouTube until she was discovered and signed to Jack Johnson's Brushfire label. She would be cool to see live. I wish her great success.
Before The All-American Rejects and Snow Patrol, there was Better Than Ezra. They are back to prove that they can still create well crafted slow pop rock songs. After spending some time as a songwriter for other pop acts such as Idol winner, David Cook, and Tristan Prettyman, lead singer Kevin Griffin and the band is releasing their seventh album.
Chester French was formed by two students from Harvard University. Both Kanye West and Pharrell became interested in signing the band, and after a bidding war between the two hip-hop giants, Pharrell's Star Trak won. It's odd to think that hip-hop producers were interested in signing them considering that their music is more pop rock oriented. I listened to their entire album, but it sounded like three complete different bands put together the album. A lot of the songs sounded like early Billy Joel, but some sounded like Weezer, Fountains of Wayne type of pop rock. Then there's "She Loves Everybody" which sounds more like UK rock (Arctic Monkeys comes to mind). Maybe these Harvard guys are too smart for their own good, because even though I liked this track, I didn't enjoy their "all-over-the-place" album.
Embodying the rags-to-riches rap dream, Jay-Z pulled himself up by his bootstraps as a... 