Pictured above is the promotion Best Buy is running for the release of GH: Metallica; you buy the game, and you get a free “fake tattoo sleeve”. Seriously, Best Buy? Seriously?
Note to anyone that wears this shit: You are a tool-bag. I will mock you openly if I see you wearing such a ridiculous thing. A major part of tattoos is going through the process of getting it, oh that, and the fact that it is permanent. A pantyhose on your arm is truly loser-making material. You’ve been informed, so there is no excuse.
I feel like I have been singing Adele’s praises for ages now, but honestly, I don’t think that I could ever sing them enough. After seeing her last week, I have been flying high on this amazing Brit’s debut album, 19, and I wanted to post one of my absolute favorite songs of hers. This song is full of emotion, drama, feeling, and power. I love how she makes her voice crack, which really represents the broken heart that she is singing about. She performed this song flawlessly in concert, and if you still haven’t gotten on the Adele bandwagon by now, this is just me shaking you, again, and telling you to get with the program. Adele is amazing!
I’m not normally a big fan of country, and while I used to only listen to it back in the day, I attribute that to being mostly a product of my environment *cough*hick from North Carolina*cough*. I remember when Carrie won American Idol, and I was really excited, because she was one of the first ones that had pipes as amazing as Kelly Clarkson’s, and even though she was country, I just knew that her amazing show stopping version of Alone by Heart would grace her debut. Well, it didn’t, and instead of making me happy, she went full tilt country, which, while it does serve her voice beautifully, it just didn’t “do it” for me (also songs like Jesus Take the Wheel just make me want to roll my eyes… no offense). Now, let’s cut to last week when she appeared on the Idol stage again to sing this Randy Travis remake; I’m not going to lie, I fucking wept. This song is beautiful, and her voice gave me chills all over. Country or not, this girl can SING, and she sings this beautiful song amazingly; both live, and on her Carnival Ride CD. Note: I didn’t post the version she re-released with Randy Travis (also last week), mostly because Randy is just so outshone that I felt a little bad for him. I LOVE this song, and I am glad that Carrie chose to cover it.
This is another fantastic discovery that I can thank BBC Radio One for; they have been playing this song for a couple of weeks now, and I have found myself liking it more and more with each listen. The neo-soul guitar strumming, and popping beats really compliment the lead singer’s sweet voice (which has a resemblance to Eartha Kitt; without the kitty growls, of course). This infectious track has the upbeat sensibilities of the Ting Tings, and while it is a bit repetitive lyrically, it isn’t enough to turn me off. I can’t wait to see what the new Noisettes album will be like; if it is anything like this fantastic track, I am sure that I will love it.
I may make a few enemies with this one, but hear me out; YES, the original version is awesome, amazing, and several other praise-worthy words. It won an Oscar. See? I agree. However, this version, which harnesses the amazing vocals of Miss Pussycat Doll herself, Nicole Scherzinger, is just too perfect to ignore. A.R. Rahman’s Oscar-winning song gets the English treatment, and instead of being a “replacement” for the original Indian hit, I think that this version will just get more people interested in the original. I personally LOVE this song, and love that I can sing along with Nicole, because, call me crazy, but I like listening to music that has lyrics that I can actually understand; catch me catch me catch me!!! So again, the original – fantastic; and so is this version, which I cannot stop playing and dancing around to!!
To end today, we are going full tilt gay. We have covered a lot of ground today(soul, country, bollywood, now disco!!!), but this is disco bananas, and it is fantastic. Alcazar are a Swedish dance group that have been around for a decade, and recently, they released a massive double disc album that is chock full of dance floor fillers. This is my favorite song from that album, which is appropriately called Disco Defenders; because if anyone is going to successful in advocating for the fabulousness of disco, it’s definitely these guys. This song is upbeat, happy, and throw-your-hands-in-the-air dancetastic. Songs like this make me want to dance all night long, and HOW can that be anything but great?! Sometimes, it’s nice to just have a little fun, isn’t it? Well, that’s definitely something you can do by listening to Alcazar!
This week marked the official return of America’s first Idol, as Ms. Clarkson released her latest album, All I Ever Wanted. While I was initially a little hard on the album, I have since given it a few listens, and I have only been able to find fault with a few tracks (and honestly, if she would have left them off, the album would be even closer to the high quality pop album that Breakaway is). The album has tons of radio ready up-tempo tracks, and several soothing ballads that once again highlight Clarkson’s writing skills. This song falls somewhere in the middle, and for me, it is one of the best tracks on the album. As penance for trash talking the album before I had given it a proper chance, I felt compelled to post this track this week, in order to give credit where credit is due. Kelly’s back, y’all, and not only has she made a darn fine record, but she proved that she is definitely back when she performed live on Idol the other night. 
This is one of those songs that came on the radio, and I wanted to change it, but I decided instead to see where it would go. Then, the riff of the chorus cut in, and I was instantly glad I stuck around; it is brilliant!! White Lies reminds me a lot of fellow Brit rockers, the Kaiser Chiefs, the lead singer’s voice sounds very similar to Julian Hamilton of the Presets. This fast paced post punk rock track is just a lot of fun, as I mentioned, it was that jangly guitar riff that reeled me in, and I can’t get enough of it. I listened to the rest of their album, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the rest of the tracks are quite good as well. This song was a great random find, and I am excited to be featuring it this week.
I will be honest; when I found out that this was the new Peter Bjorn and John song, I was extremely disappointed. It was almost annoying, and is a real departure to their uber-catchy previous album (which made my year end list for 2007). However, I couldn’t seem to escape this track, because it kept coming on the radio, and as such, I got pulled in by the pops and claps, and slowly, I really warmed up to this song. After seeing the silly video, I was sort of hooked. It was almost like a light switch in my brain; I hated it at first, and now I am listening to it on repeat. It’s weird how that works sometimes, isn’t it? I can’t wait to hear the rest of the album, which should be out soon; I only hope that it is something that I will enjoy instantly, and if not, something worth giving the time to get into it properly.
Based on the type of music that I typically post, I bet that it would surprise many of you that I used to listen to dance music almost exclusively. I was a DJ in college, and I had pretty much every hot dance track that came out, and kept my insatiable appetite for new, hot dance music afloat by having several friends (and another DJ) who were into the same club pounding beats. I attribute my constant hunger for dance music to the fact that I used to go dancing a lot, but as I have gotten older, my time at the clubs as diminished. I still love dance music, and still have a LOT of it on my ipod, but it isn’t the only thing I listen to anymore (which again, is evident when you look at my music suggestions here on this blog). However, I still know when I have heard something amazing, and this is one of those songs that just gets me moving. I heard it on BPM earlier this month, and I am glad to have discovered this track, so that I can add it to my massive and wonderful dance music collection. We all need to dance every once and while, and with great dance music like this, it’s hard not to!
Perhaps this will further lend insight into my all-dance music, all-of-the-time previous listening habits. I first heard this song when I was in Europe in the winter of 2000, where it was climbing the charts, and being played everywhere I seemed to be in London. Well, I bought a great mix compilation (they have so many GREAT ones in the UK… why don’t we have any good ones here?!) that had this song on it, and I literally played it on repeat for months. I have been talking about how I have been going back through my massive music collection in an attempt to pay well deserved attention to many of my “forgotten” favorites for a few weeks now, and I remembered this track, and recently threw it back on my ipod. The UK Garage beat of this track is what I was attracted to, and is a type of dance music that I am surprised never caught on over here in the US. It is fast, fun, and totally dance. I love some Posh Spice, and for me, this is definitely one of the best things she has ever contributed to musically. 
