It's Russ 2.0's first birthday, so I'm home today. I'm writing some during naps, and the rest after he's in bed.
KKCK:
Alicia Keys "Doesn't Mean Anything"
I'm not sure how long it's been since Ms. Keys' last CD, but for me it
was too long. This song reminds me a bit of "No One" but only slightly.
Iyaz "Replay"
It's a rare occasion when I have absolutely no opinion about a song,
but this song pulls that off. It hit #40 on Monday, and it's the only
song in the top 40 we weren't playing. So, I thought I'd give it a
go. Sometimes the process is really that uninteresting.
Mariah Carey "I Want to Know What Love Is"
Until I heard Mariah sing this, I never thought of this old Foreigner
song as one that would sound like a song Mariah Carey would sing.
Mariah uses her entire vocal range on this track, and she does her best
to own it. The only knocks are that she's not had the best luck
remaking rock songs (her Def Lep cover was pretty bad) and the original was one of VH1's "awesomely bad love songs" or some other such nonsense.
Death Cab for Cutie "Meet Me on the Equinox"
Look, I'll be frank here. This is a shameless attempt to cash in on all the New Moon hype. Sure, it gives us an excuse to play DC4C
again, but the song hasn't grown on me yet. It does sound better with
each listen, so if I wrote these after more distance from the add date my write-up would probably be different.
Pick to click: Alicia Keys
A few quick notes about a few albums.
Cobra Starship's Hot Mess is going in one ear and out the other.
All their albums do, but for some reason I keep buying them. Perhaps
my subconscious is a big fan.
Laughin' and Cryin' with the Reverend Horton Heat might be the best RHH
album I've heard since Lucky 7. Granted, since then there have only
been two. Still, this might be the second best album I've ever heard
from the Reverend Horton Heat. I highly recommend it if you like
punk-a-billy in the least.
Endgame by Megadeth
has gotten rave reviews, and after listening I wonder if I didn't read
too many. I was ready for an album that had gotten some comparisons to
Rust in Peace, but this album just didn't grab my attention like I
thought it would. I'm not ready to give up on it, but as of right now
I think I liked their last two (United Abominations and The System Has
Failed better).
Sick of Sarah's self titled debut is
very enjoyable female alt-pop-rock. There are a few moments on the
album where I'm reminded of the dearly departed Sleater-Kinney, but I wouldn't say they sound a lot like Sleater-Kinney. This could be my dark horse candidate for album of the year.
After reading MTV's James Montgomery rave about how great it was, I
gave The Fame by Lady Gaga a listen. Near the end I was reminded of
his glowing recommendation of Animal Collective, which I just couldn't
get into at all (one of the few albums I deleted from my iTunes
library). I still give Mr. Montgomery's opinions some consideration
because without him I wouldn't have given Against Me a chance, and now
they're one of my favorite bands.
Also, "CNR" might be the best song/video "Weird Al" has done since
"Amish Paradise". No foolin'. It's on the new Internet Leaks EP, and
it is by far the highlight.
I'm off to continue the celebration of Braeden turning one. It doesn't seem like a year already, but calendars don't lie.