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Music on Facebook 12/30/10

12/30/2010

Recent facebook statuses I've posted regarding music:

"I just heard "That's My B****" with Kanye West and Jay-z....when do I get to be called your girlfriend, spouse or friend and not your bitch?!!"

"I imagine that if God could sing, He'd sound like Marvin Gaye. If God is a woman, she sounds like Whitney Houston." -Robin Thicke

“…if I was going to be successful, I had to be successful at myself. I couldn’t be successful at what other people were doing…I had to do what felt true to me. The worst thing to be is successful as someone else. That’s a difficult thing to upkeep and it’s very tiring. I feel sorry for someone who has to walk out the house everyday as someone else to make this art and to make something that people connect to, and whatever you made is not you. You’re not happy about it, but it’s successful….that has to be draining and a very sad existence…”- Jay-z

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Dirty Money: Last Train to Paris

12/15/2010

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Album Review.
Overall: An interesting project that is more impressive than I thought it would be. It’s worth trying on.

“Last Train to Paris” from Diddy’s latest concoction, Dirty Money, is a surprisingly intriguing project that is fairly innovative and has a consistent concept. Clearly, someone in Dirty Money is lovelorn, as majority of the album illustrates the grim side of romance. I can appreciate a consistent theme, but if you’re going to talk about the EXACT same issue in every song, then you need to get creative and come up with a different perspective or way to present it each time. Despite the redundancy issue (which extends itself to the overuse of the expletive m**** f*****) and the occasional problem with being concise, a good portion of the album is written moderately well. The production is just superb to me. The sound is diverse and experimental, as it cleverly marries hip-hop (the popular music of the last decade) with electronic-techno dance (the new mainstream sound). “Paris” has only a slight hint of R&B, which I think is a major disadvantage to the singers in the group, Dawn Richard (formerly of Diddy’s pop/R&B group Danity Kane) and Kalenna Harper; they may have been able to vocally display more with a stronger R&B/soul influence. It’s difficult to shine vocally with up-tempo music, and there isn’t much singing in hip-hop, so the ladies didn’t have much of an opportunity to demonstrate their vocal abilities.

Speaking of Richard and Harper, I think that Dirty Money is misrepresented. I was under the impression that they were a hip-hop/R&B group, and that I would equally hear all three members on the album. Not the case. Richard and Harper visually and audibly have the aura of background singers instead of intricate parts of the group. Guest artists, like Chris Brown and Trey Songz dominated their respective feature songs more than the Dirty Money girls did the whole album! Now that I’m on guest features, there were too many of them. There were times where I was thinking “Who’s album am I listening to?” All and all, I enjoyed this record more than I expected to and if Dirty Money improves the weaker aspects of this album they’ll be good to go.

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Kanye West: My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy

12/15/2010

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Album Review.

Likes: All of the Lights, Blame Game, Runaway
Dislikes: So Appalled, Monster
Overall: Good album. I need a facebook “like” button.

Kanye West’s 5th album, “My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy,” let’s us inside his mind as he reflects on the black experience in America, hip-hop, his struggle to preserve his art, his love life and resisting being swept up in the dark side of fame. From the lyrics to the sound, “Beautiful” is definitely darker and far less jubilant and triumphant in comparison to West’s albums before “808’s and Heartbreak.” The record is almost kind of depressing to listen to. West isn’t even as arrogant as he used to be lyrically. He still brags on himself and there are shreds of the usual hip-hop materialism, but if you listen closely, West isn’t as pleased with himself as he used to be (or at least that’s the impression I got). On “Gorgeous”, he implies that he feels duped by the music industry and is disappointed by his inability to break free of manipulation. On some of his tracks about relationships (ex. “Hell of a Life”& “Runaway”), you hear West negatively critique himself as a romantic partner and how he resorts to the cold, numbing, self-abusing world of celebrity and excess to cope. In addition, he depicts an inner struggle to embrace the simple, pure and feeling versus the glossy, stereotypical life of a rapper (ex. “All of the Lights”). The musical production is dramatic and abrasive, and I absolutely adore the use of live instruments (I always do). The orchestrations on the “All the Lights” interlude and “Runway” are just beautiful to me. As for further comments on specific tracks, most people enjoyed “Monster,” but I didn’t find the lyrics impressive or interesting. “Who Will Survive in America” is a poetic, intense, hard, realistic look at the minority, cross-cultural experience in America that I feel many will relate to.

I enjoyed running around inside of Kanye’s mind for an hour, and, as always, I appreciate him sharing such an introspective moment with us on wax. He is truly an artist whose work reflects his personal view. I hope he figures everything out and the walls of his room stop spinning. Although I prefer previous Kanye albums, this one is a great piece of music.

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Chrisette Michele: Let Freedom Reign

12/14/2010

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Album Review by Michael Jones
Note: The ideas expressed in this review may not rlefect those of j.says herself.

Likes: “Fairy Tales and Castles” (part 1), “I Don’t Know Why, But I Do”, “So In Love”, “If Nobody Sang Along”
Overall: Her previous work is better. This album is solid but lacks cohesion and memorable moments.

Over a year after her sophomore release “Epiphany,” Chrisette Michele is back with “Let Freedom Reign,” in which she focuses on love, music, and sociopolitical conflict. The conceptual aspect of the album is quite intriguing; however, the execution of these concepts ultimately ends up lackluster, especially in comparison to her previous albums. The enticing intro gives a promise of viewing society and the world like a dream, so that we can stand back and see our own greatness in the light of freedom. The lead single, “I’m A Star,” is quite forgettable in terms of melody and sounds like a watered down version of Keri Hilson’s “Pretty Girl Rock.” Unfortunately, “I’m A Star” isn’t the only song that sounds recycled. “Number One” sounds like “Fragile” from her “Epiphany” album. “Goodbye Game” sounds like a remix of “Blame It on Me,” the melody on “So Cool” is extremely similar to “Playing Our Song” and “I’m Your Life” sounds like a mix between “Mr. Right” and “Lovesick” by Priscilla Renea. Many of the songs on “Reign” fail to be memorable, but there are a few highlights. “So In Love” featuring Rick Ross is catchy (although one may find themselves fast-forwarding through Ross’s two verses), and “If Nobody Sang Along “is emotional and introspective. The title track is also a winner.

“Reign’s” main issue is that it lacks the catchiness of “Epiphany” and the sultry, soulful attitude of “I Am” that solidified Michele’s artistic image. Vocally, her voice seems to be diminishing; it’s not as strong it was before, which would explain the record’s odd, over-produced sound that Michele fans may not be used to. The material is not sonically mainstream, but it’s not completely soul-underground either. The oddest adaptation a listener may have is the few songs that feature vocal auto-tune, as well as the experimental genre styles. “Reign” is a solid effort overall, but there is not much cohesion (after the second “Fairytales and Castles, “the interludes come off as random) or memorable moments that’ll get stuck in your head. This album, at best, is Michele’s crossover album, showing her fans that the sound of “I Am” may not be back for awhile. This could be either a good or bad thing, depending on the supporter. It’s hard to conclude whether Michelle is moving forward or backward artistically.

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Ciara: Basic Instinct

12/10/2010

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Album Review.

Likes: Gimme Dat, Yeah I Know
Overall: Didn’t like it. Awful.

Sigh. Ciara, Ciara, Ciara. SMH. I listened to this album several times, trying to give it a chance, but every time I listened I couldn’t wait for it to be over. The lyrics are mind numbingly simple and have no substance. The writing is just plain poor. The production is decent, but great production isn’t enough to cover up awful writing and mediocre vocals. From start to finish, this album is a failure. With the intro “Basic Instinct (U Got Me)”, Ciara raps and sings, seemingly describing how she’s going to make a fierce comeback with this record. The song itself is catchy and the premise is cute; however, when she starts to sing, the lyrics change from being about a comeback to a breakup, which is random and inconsistent. The rest of the tracks have nothing to do with the intro’s concept. Next, you hear the strongest tracks on the album, “Ride” and “Gimme Dat.” From there, is lots of agitating blasé` material, mostly about sex. “Girls Get Your Money” borderline promotes exchanging favors with men for money, which is repulsive. On “You Can Get it”, Ciara recites what is supposed to be a phone number, but she only says 6 digits, which makes her look dumb. “Turn it Up” is a colossal failure as pop-dance track; that type of music doesn’t fit Ciara at all. “I Run It” sounds wonderfully sensual, but the lyrics are whack.

I think Ciara’s mistake is that her sound has gotten too far away from what made her popular: great pro-girl and dance tracks (the fastest tempo song is “Gimme Dat”). She has gradually turned from a crumpin’ “crunk n’ b” tomboy into an R&B sex doll, and it’s not working for her. I think her former image and self made her fairly distinctive in a sea of sex-selling R&B singers; now she’s just lost in the shuffle. I’m going to go on a limb and say that more than likely her record label is behind the change in her sound and image. I might be wrong, but I think if Ciara had more creative input and control, things would look and sound different, but I digress. This album wasn’t worth listening to.

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Rihanna: Loud

12/9/2010

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Album Review.

Likes: Man Down, Raining Men, California King Bed, Love the Way You Lie (Piano Version)
Dislikes: What’s My Name
Overall: If you want light-hearted, flirty tracks, this is the album for you. If you want edge or depth, not so much.

Some reviewers found “Loud” to be refreshing in light of the dark, intense material featured on Rihanna’s previous album, “Rated R”, but I found “Loud” to be too much of an opposite. As a general rule, I feel recording artists should take the best of their previous work and build on it and improve the weaker aspects. The best part about “Rated R” is that there was a lot of metaphoric and symbolic lyrical content. The worst part was the persistent, “I’m so tough” theme that wasn’t believable. “Loud” wasn’t as pretentious, but the material went so far into light-hearted fun land, that album ended up lacking depth. “California King Bed,” “Complicated” and “Love the Way You Lie” have the best lyrical content (although “California” is oddly titled). “Man Down” would’ve been lyrically stronger if it had more of a storyboard to it. I appreciated Rihanna getting back to her island roots with “Man” and “Raining Men”; it was a nice touch. “S&M” and “What’s My Name” annoyed me; I’m tired of Rihanna telling me that she’s horny and wants it rough. How many songs are you going to make about that? Vocally, Rihanna is about the same: fairly weak and annoying at times, but tolerable. She didn’t do anything impressive or different vocally (except for a little rock rasp on “S&M”.) Loved the guitars on “California” and “Skin”.

* Love the Way You Lie (Piano Version) can be found on ITunes.

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Beyonce`: I Am...World Tour CD/DVD

12/9/2010

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Fan’s Perspective Review.

Ever since I attended the “I Am…World Tour” in the summer of 2009, I eagerly anticipated its DVD release. And now that it’s finally here, I’m largely disappointed. I do not feel like the DVD did the concert I saw justice. Beyonce` and her team’s goal was present an intimate, documentary-like view of the tour; integrating personal video journals, performance footage from around the world and close up stage shots. Team Beyonce` defeated their own purpose, however, because of how they edited and shot the DVD. The excess in close-ups keeps the viewer for being able to have the “concert experience” as you don’t see the entire stage set or background for the most of the film or the transitions between songs. The missing transitions make the film, and its accompanying audio CD, look and sound jagged. Furthermore, it takes away from feeling the intimacy of the show because you don’t see Beyonce` communicating with the audience as much. You also don’t see any dancer or band breaks, which made the concert a little less theatrical and entertaining. The choppy editing hurts the DVD musically because you don’t get the full effect of the dynamic arrangements.

Vocally, Beyonce` didn’t sound bad, but a lot of the time she under or over-sang. There were moments where she was restrained and should have sung with full power and vice-versa. Beyonce’s video journals don’t enhance the DVD like they should because they are, in my opinion, misplaced in sequence and are too short to reveal anything substantial. This also goes for the 24-minute behind-the-scenes bonus feature “Mic and Light.” The feature is in more of an interview format with clips versus a candid, reality-show style. The ABC Thanksgiving special, which promoted the DVD, was better pieced together and was more revealing and emotive. I anticipate that the average person will probably enjoy the DVD fine; the average hardcore fan, however, I think will have problems with it, especially if they went to the tour.

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Music on Facebook 12/30/10

Dirty Money: Last Train to Paris

Kanye West: My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy

Chrisette Michele: Let Freedom Reign

Ciara: Basic Instinct

Rihanna: Loud

Beyonce`: I Am...World Tour CD/DVD

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