Audio post with 53 notes - Played 40 times
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Kelly Clarkson - The War Is Over (Smoakstack Sessions Version)
I should know by now that every Kelly Clarkson album must contain at least one song that is a total gut-punch to me. My December had Maybe, All I Ever Wanted had its title track, and now Stronger has The War Is Over. This acoustic version of the song from the pre-order exclusive Smoakstack Sessions EP is similar to the album cut (enough so that I wonder why Kelly didn’t pick a track that would be a bit more different acoustically) but the slightly stripped back production gives Kelly a chance to deliver a vocal performance that’s a bit less bombastic but has more emotional nuances. Each time she hits that chorus, you can feel the determination in “I won’t let you pull me in…” coupled with the resignation and relief in “but the war is over”. This song (along with I Forgive You) has been my main entry point into Stronger, which I initially found disappointing but which has been growing on me with a few more listens.
Video with 1 note
Robyn- Love Kills (live in Amsterdam)
I got to see Robyn for the 2nd time on Saturday, and while the show may not have been as incredible as the Philadelphia show in August, it was an excellent performance. The setlist was mostly similar to that show, with the obvious addition of Body Talk Part 2 material as well as Show Me Love to close out the concert. Love Kills was my favorite of the new songs performed, although Hang With Me turned into a much more epic song than I was expecting live and was also pretty excellent. I’m still partial to the acoustic version though, so that colors my view. We Dance To The Beat was mixed with pieces of Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do for an interlude that was interesting but dragged on about a minute too long. Still, Robyn deserves some time to catch her breath after the high energy show she puts on with minimal tricks and no back-up dancers, something I can’t see the other pop stars of the moment pulling off (Madonna could, and has, though. Exhibit A, Exhibit B) so I can’t fault her too much for drawing out that mix.
The performance of The Girl and the Robot was noticeably better than before, a definite highlight of the night and a great way to lead into Dancing On My Own. In My Eyes live was an improvement over the studio version, but it’s still not a song I think I’ll ever love. The new mix of Be Mine that’s performed live also desperately needs to be released somewhere, it’s a great reworking of the song that adds a new dimension of anger to the song and takes it to an entirely different place. I do hope Robyn starts performing Criminal Intent live since that’s one of my favorites and it was MIA. I also was a little disappointed that Indestructible didn’t end the show, but I assume Robyn is saving live performances of that for when the dance version comes out. It wouldn’t have fit the mood of this show as well as Show Me Love did though, since it was a perfect sing-along ending that sent everyone home on a high note.
Audio post with 4 notes - Played 10 times
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Whitney Houston- I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Acapella)
Tumblr, I want at least 10 remixes of this, the most perfect of pop songs, on my Dashboard by next Thursday. Don’t let me down.
I never noticed it until Fluxblog pointed it out but “Tik Tok” totally steals a hook from Kylie Minogue’s “Love at First Sight”. My near immediate love of Tik Tok makes a lot more sense now, since Love at First Sight is by far my favorite Kylie track.
My favorite thing about the song is unrelated to the beat though: it’s that the song is a love song to a band/pop star or music in general, not a person, or at least not a “real” attainable person. What matters is the music, and that’s more than enough.
And everything went from wrong to right
And the stars came out to fill up the sky
The music you were playing really blew my mind
It was love at first sight
‘Cause baby when I heard you
For the first time I knew
we were meant to be as one…
Video with 1 note
Madonna- Mer Girl/Sky Fits Heaven (Drowned World Tour 2001)
For this performance, which was part of the geisha/anime portion of the Drowned World show (Madonna’s most artistic and least hit-heavy tour), Madonna took inspiration from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and staged an anime-esque dance battle with aerial stunts. I believe she was the first pop star to do aerial work like this, and it’s since become somewhat standard (see: the last two Britney Spears and Pink tours), but only Madonna has the balls to KILL two people in her dance battles. Mer Girl, performed in 2 parts around Sky Fits Heaven, has surprisingly intimate and dark lyrics/imagery for a Madonna song but its theme of running fits with the battle that happens, marking it as a dramatization of the internal battle in her head. That closing shotgun blast symbolizes Madonna choosing to stop running away, kill the demons in her head, and returning to her self, wonderfully dramatized with the ripping off of the black wig to reveal her iconic blonde hair.
This concludes my “Happy Birthday, Madonna” postings, at least for now. There may be more tomorrow, but then it’ll just be because I’ve fallen into a youtube hole tonight, not for her birthday.
Video with 2 notes
Madonna- Get Together (live at Koko Club 2005)
This performance is a bit rough vocally, but it’s really interesting to see Madonna doing a performance with such minimal choreography, letting her be much looser than usual. You can tell how much she loves performing here, that smile on her face while she’s doing those Wonder Woman spins from 3:40-3:46 is one of pure joy. It doesn’t matter that the vocals aren’t perfect, the beat and her presence are strong enough that the crowd’s in rapture and Madge feeds off of it.
It makes me sad Get Together was never a big hit, it’s one of the best tracks off of Confessions On A Dance Floor, and one of the best examples of the “future disco” sound Madonna was going for on that album.
Video with 1 note
Madonna- Like A Prayer (Sticky and Sweet Tour)
I can’t believe I almost let Madge’s birthday go by without any sort of commemoration. She still puts on the best big show of any artist, and I think, more than anything else, it’s because she’s always had that special “it” factor where no matter what else is going on, your eyes are drawn to her the entire time. So many other acts get overwhelmed by the big stage extravaganzas they come up with, but that’s never been a problem for Madonna. No other performer has the level of charisma she does.
My favorite moment of the entire performance is at 3:01 when she sends the dancers forward with her arms raised like she’s some super-villain puppet master sending off an army of minions. It’s ridiculous and completely perfect.
Audio post with 5 notes - Played 40 times
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Katy Perry- Circle The Drain
Remember what I just wrote about how matching the right persona to a pop song can result in perfection? Well, the reverse is true as well, and matching the wrong persona to a song can easily drag it down from decent to shitty. Such is the case with Katy Perry’s OTHER new song, “Circle The Drain” (written/produced by Christopher Stewart, Katy & Monte Neuble), which is never going to be amazing but could be significantly better performed by someone else. This attempt at an angry break-up song, complete with generic rock guitar that seems about to go into the Beat It riff at a moment’s notice and gratuitous cursing, would fit in nicely on the last two Kelly Clarkson albums (it even has that echo effect on the last word of many lines that Kelly overuses) but it feels completely false coming out of Perry, especially since the other two singles from her upcoming album are pure bubblegum pop with no edge. She’s trying her damnedest to summon up some real venom, but just can’t get there. The lyrics alternate between bitterly specific and completely generic, and while this usually results in a revenge-pop masterpiece, the generic complaints don’t have that sing-along quality that has made You Oughta Know, Like I Do, the Fleetwood Mac catalog, and many many others karaoke staples. There’s gossip blog buzz that this song is about Katy’s relationship with the guy from Gym Class Heroes, but if anything, that make this come off as tacky and mean since she’s obviously moved on to bigger and better things (number 1 singles, engaged to another celebrity, cover of Rolling Stone) and he’s still toiling in comparative obscurity. A miss from Perry that stops her hot streak at 2.
Video with 2 notes
Katy Perry- Teenage Dream
OK, I think I’m kinda addicted to this song. I’ve listened to it like 10 times in the last 24 hours, and have been trying to figure out why I’m so enamored with it. I am far from a Katy Perry fan, not liking any singles from her first album and begrudgingly conceding that California Gurls is extremely catchy, but my sister was blasting this all through our trip to Chicago and it took over my brain. It’s not flawless, with verses featuring completely awful lyrics and far too thin and high vocals (making this song something that will undoubtedly be painful to hear drunk sorority girls sing for the next 6 months), but once the effects come in on Perry’s voice at the end of “we can dance until we die”, the song overcomes those flaws and heads into a transcendent fist-pumping second chorus perfect for shouting along to. It follows the usual Dr. Luke/Max Martin template, but somehow transcends the formula to be potentially their best work post-“Since U Been Gone”
Lyrically, there isn’t much to hang onto here except for a few lines. “we can dance until we die, we’ll be young forever” Isn’t that secretly the best part of teenage love, thinking you can be with someone whose mental image of you is always going to be you at your peak, fresh-faced and beautiful, having fun and dancing instead of the adult you, who probably is better overall but isn’t as open or free? There’s something powerful in knowing that there’s someone out there who will always see you the way you want to be seen instead of the you that exists in present reality; it keeps the dreams and memories from fading. The other notable lyric is “Let’s run away, and don’t ever look back”. Even in the idyllic portrait the song paints, they’re still running away from something. I don’t know about you guys, but my teenage relationships had an us vs. the world feeling to them that’s juvenile and unhealthy but also kinda fun and romantic, and this song manages to throw that feeling in there offhandedly but in a great way. It’s also nice to see a contemporary pop song where the girl wants sex as much as the guy does but isn’t portrayed as a harlot or skank.
What really pushes the song head and shoulders above the glut of other Dr. Luke/Max Martin productions in the last few years is that Katy Perry is the perfect performer for it. Hers is the only current pop persona that could’ve pulled this song off, and in the hands of another singer, it would’ve fallen apart. It’s too simple and sweet for Gaga, Britney would’ve done her sex kitten routine and ruined it, Ke$ha’s too dirty, it just wouldn’t fit Kelly Clarkson, and the younger breed of popstars (Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, all those Disney girls no one over 13 can tell apart) still can’t convincingly sing about sex without creeping everyone out. Perry’s slighty dirty but mostly innocent and ditzy persona matches the song’s tone and elevates it past greatness and into near perfection.
Audio post with 3 notes - Played 26 times
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Best Coast- Goodbye
So I know that Best Coast is all anyone’s talked about the last couple days and the full-on backlash is about to begin, but Pitchfork is actually right about this record. It’s a lot of fun and a very good indie beach album. The simplicity and obviousness in its lyrics are indicative of pop genius, not stupidity, since the key to a good pop song beyond a great hook is relatable lyrics, and
I lost my job
I miss my mom
I wish my cat could talk
Everytime you leave this house, everything falls apartWell, I don’t love you, and I don’t hate you
I don’t know how I feel
are absolutely things everyone has thought or felt at some point. (Come on, you know you wish your pets could talk. My sister and I frequently talk about what our dogs would sound like, complete with accents and goofy speech patterns, when we get bored.) The same holds true for the lyrics of the rest of the album. Even on first listen, these songs felt familiar, because the lyrics are things I think every time I’m in a dysfunctional relationship, which is you know… a lot of the time. The simple repetitive lyrics fit with the musical tone of the record, which sounds less like the “classic indie pop” Larry Fitzmaurice makes a vague comparison to in his review, and more like 50s/60s girl group pop updated for 2010 and given a little stoner haze in the production.
Do I think the record is going to be an enduring classic? Absolutely not, but it’s enjoyable to relax and chill with, making for a light and fun counterpoint to the heavier, pretentious, and drama-laden songs I usually listen to. This record is so unpretentious that it almost loops back around and becomes pretentious in its simplicity, which is the source for a lot of the negativity around it I think, but let’s just listen to some music that’s fun and focus on just enjoying things for once. I almost can’t believe I said that, since I’m king of over-interpreting stuff (see: all my Tori Amos posts), but sometimes it’s nice to listen to something and appreciate it at face value, and that’s what Best Coast songs are designed for.
Matt Marks- I Don’t Have Any Fun On My Own
Seth Colter Walls seems to think this clip needed a little bit of time to grab viewers, but I was pretty sold 15 seconds in. (Not that this is flawless, that ending is just ugh, but maybe it’s better in context) Actually I was sold from the headline promising a “Post-Christian Nihilist Pop Opera” and if that isn’t something that appeals to you, well then I have nothing more to say, Sir.
Of course I was behind on my internet reading because of my road trip/”other stuff” and missed the article while it was current, so I didn’t get to see Matt Marks’ workshop of “The Little Death Volume 1” at St. Mark’s Church, even though I was in New York with nothing too specific to do besides fuck around. Moral of the story, kiddos: Check The Awl nonstop. Refresh before the auto-refresher even!
(I guess I could go see it tomorrow, but I’d rather go to Siren Festival instead.)
Quote with 1 note
People are always calling me a mirror and if a mirror looks into a mirror, what is there to see?
-Andy Warhol
Andy, I love it when I alternate between finding you completely trite and completely profound.
Audio post reblogged from Prose; pop! with 6 notes - Played 84 times
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Eden’s Crush, “Get Over Yourself (Goodbye)”
What a critically overlooked gem. In the grand scheme of things: “Flash Delirium” by MGMT < “Get Over Yourself (Goodbye)” by Eden’s Crush < “Kids” by MGMT.
I completely un-ironically love this song. Also great: the Eden’s Crush version of The Glamorous Life which is > Sheila E.
Source: ohrohin
