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 love The Black Keys. Their bluesy sound and the coolness they have to that music, which is probably supplied by the producer Danger Mouse (one half of Gnarls Barkley). The Black Keys, who hail from Akron, Ohio, have just released their sixth album, Brothers. The album cover doesn’t get any more simpler than that.
You might have heard or seen his name periodically recently thanks to
B.o.B’s “Nothin’ On You” and
Travie McCoy’s "Billionaire". He is featured on both of those top 40 hits, and he sounds great. With those two successful songs, he decided to release an EP album with just four songs. One of them, “Count On Me” has a laid back island feel to it. If you dig Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours”, chances are, you’d like this one, too.
I wish I had seen these guys live when they were in town. I liked their first single, “Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked” when I heard on the radio a year ago, but I never really looked into their album. “In One Ear” has been getting a lot of airplay on the rock radio station, and it’s the kind of song that would sound awesome in a live setting. I thought they might be an UK band, but they are originally from Kentucky (actually they moved to UK after finding more success there).
A lot of people are now comparing the new Christina with Lady GaGa. Sure, the music video is kind of kinky and sexy in a weird way, like GaGa. And the music has the eletro-beat influence, which is also very much like Lady GaGa. Christina still puts on her signature vocal chops, but it lacks the catchiness of “Poker Face” or “Paparazzi.” On her latest album, she worked with a lot of electronic artists, so I’m looking forward to hearing her other songs.
French house DJ, David Guetta’s mega hit album, One Love, containing songs like “
Sexy Bitch” and “
When Love Takes Over” has been out for almost a year now, but he recently released a deluxe version, containing this new mix of “Gettin' Over You” featuring Fergie and LMFAO. It’s a big hit on the dance chart right now.
Jack White’s side project, The Dead Weather, recently released their second album, Sea of Cowards. It hadn’t even been a year since their release of their debut album, Horehound. The first single from the new album, “Die by the Drop” is hard and rocking with Alison Mosshart and Jack White singing back and forth. Now let’s all guess, which band will Jack White work with next – White Stripes? The Raconteurs? Or continue on with The Dead Weather?
If you are into hip-hop, you have been hearing Canadian rapper, Drake’s name this past year, no doubt. He is finally releasing his debut album, Thank Me Later in June. I don’t think there has been any artist that had this many hits before releasing a full album. He has already released several singles off of the album, but my favorite is “Over” which mixes 70s disco/funk sound with marching band.
Despite selling close to 2 million copies, Detroit rapper Eminem’s last year’s album, Relapse was considered a flop. He even raps about it on this track. That’s because he sold insane numbers of albums before that. His latest album is supposed to come out in June. Recently, the album cover and tracklist was announced. Surprisingly there is a track featuring Pink as well as Rihanna. That should be interesting. The first single, “Not Afraid” has already reached #1 spot on the countdown.
I grew up listening to Stone Temple Pilots in the 90s, and seeing them live two years ago was a real treat. And now they have a brand new album. It has been nine years since their last effort, Shangri-La Dee Da. The first single, “Between the Lines” is already a #1 rock hit in the US. I had a chance to listen to the whole album on Billboard.com, but I couldn’t really pick out any stand out radio friendly songs, except for this track.
Is it Travie or Travis McCoy? It seems like Gym Class Heroes frontman has decided to go solo, and is going by “Travie” instead of his real name “Travis.” Whatever his name is, his solo effort is not bad. For the first single, he recruits Bruno Mars to sing the catchy hook, “I wanna be a billionaire, so freakin’ bad” (different F-word for the explicit version, of course). There is no status on what would happen to Gym Class Heroes whether Travie will continue to trek as a solo artist or go back to the group.
B.o.B came out of nowhere and he instantly became everyone’s favorite new rapper. His first single, “
Nothin’ On You” became a #1 track in US, and the second single, “Airplanes” is also a top 5 success. On his album, he has a couple of surprising guest stars including Hayley Williams of Paramore for this particular track, and Rivers Cuomo of Weezer.
UK heavy metal band, Bullet For My valentine has been slowly winning hard-core fans around the globe in the past five years. Their third album, Fever, was released last month, and the single, “The Last Fight” has reached #2 on the rock chart in the US, and the Japanese chart.
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