popmusic
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You are viewing stuff tagged with popmusic.
Ellie Goulding’s ‘Home’ is a song with a tide. It washes out to low tide, and you are left with stripped down melody: guitars, vocals. It rises to high tide, and you get powerful crashes of synthesizers and hip-hop inspired backbeats. Her voice has no sharp edges, just round corners.
I was leaving the rec center yesterday, and I heard the radio edit of Rihanna’s song “S&M” echoing from a few blocks down frat row. (Or, as the City of Minneapolis calls it “Greek Letter Chapter House Historic District”.)
The title track of Radiohead’s 2000 album Kid A is incredible. There’s an ambient feel to it (echoing synth-marimbas), unique rhythm, electronic scratches and pops. Yet it’s more than the sum of those parts. Until recently, I’d never listened to it and I don’t know why. I mean, I loved “In Rainbows”, so I don’t know why I didn’t give Radiohead’s previous albums a better listen.
Sasha Frere-Jones blogs music at the New Yorker online, and he provides interesting details about about Britney Spears’ latest album.
Perhaps to offset consumer anxiety generated by Spears’s well-documented personal struggles, she and her advisory committee have spared no expense and have exhibited exceptionally good taste in hiring. The songwriters and producers who contributed to “Blackout” are as close to an all-star team as pop has right now: the producer Nate “Danja” Hills, a protégé of Timbaland who co-produced many of Timbaland’s recent hits; the proven songwriters Sean Garrett and Kara DioGuardi, as well as the up-and-coming and increasingly reliable songwriter Keri Hilson; the once dominant, now dormant super-producers the Neptunes; and, best of all, the Swedish production duo Bloodshy & Avant, responsible for older songs such as “Toxic” and “Me Against the Music,” which made Spears as deservedly ubiquitous as she wanted to be.
Those would be the power-chorded caramel-smooth perfectly processed guitars on the first track of Avril Lavigne’s album “The Best Damn Thing.”
I unashamedly acknowledge my enjoyment of this poppy sugary snack. Let the emasculation of my character commence!
On the local classic rock station, I heard a song by Carlos Santana today; luckily, I thought I had it in my iTunes library. Headed home, checked, and there it was: “Oye Como Va” from the Best of Santana album. Naturally, I wanted to learn a little more about the guy … I knew he had been around a while and experienced a resurgence in the 90’s. I didn’t realize that his album Supernatural was essentially all collaborations, and pretty good ones, too.