Sometimes, you see something that becomes popular, but you just can't figure out why. Going over this week's Top 10, that wouldn't really apply, but we'll get to it afterwards anyways.
10. Stompa - Serena Ryder
9. I Knew You Were Trouble - Taylor Swift
8. Feel This Moment - Pitbull ft. Christina Aguilera
"Feel This Moment" might be flawed-the sample is blatant, and it's still dumb club music-but it's miles above Pitbull's last effort in "Don't Stop The Party". You see, Pitbull's music is listenable when it flows together and is danceable. "Don't Stop The Party" was a disjointed, undanceable mess. "Feel This Moment", on the other hand, is a great listen for when you just want to have dumb fun. However, some people aren't fans of dumb fun. Your mileage may vary.
7. Inner Ninja - Classified ft. David Miles
6. Daylight - Maroon 5
5. Ho Hey - The Lumineers
4. Just Give Me A Reason - P!nk ft. Nate Ruess
Similar to Pitbull, anything would be better than P!nk's last effort. The complete cash-grab that is "Try" is currently one of my most hated songs of the year. However, "Just Give Me a Reason" is surprisingly ambitious for the singer, though perhaps not for fun.'s frontman, who provides guest vocals. Either way, it may be because I like fun. so much, or because anything would seem better than "Try", but this is actually a really good effort. The lyrical subject matter shifts from the usual empowerment balladry of P!nk's recent career to a surprisingly touching love song, and she actually sounds interested in the verses! I mean, the verses still don't flow into the chorus, but they're actually decent for once! I'd dare say this sounds more like a fun. song than a P!nk song, and that's a good thing.
3. When I Was Your Man - Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars is apparently channeling Elton John in this recent song. It's not quite the euphoria of "Locked Out of Heaven", but it's not at all bad. Bruno has a great voice, and possesses great command of the four chords of pop music. The lyrical subject is interesting, as appears to be the recent trend. It's good to have Bruno back, after his epic fall from grace. He's a talented musician, and I can't wait to hear what he has in store for us next.
2. Thrift Shop - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Wanz
1. Stay - Rihanna ft. Mikky Ekko
Have you ever heard the expression, "a broken clock is right twice a day?" That might not be the perfect comparison here, as "Stay" is actually quite the departure from Rihanna's other work, but I can only assume it was a stroke of luck, given her recent tendency to release average songs on autopilot. This is probably the sweetest song Rihanna's ever released. She has some excellent chemistry with Mikky Ekko, which just adds to the greatness of the song. It's easily the most ambitious song Rihanna's released in years. It's not perfect-some of the lyrics don't make much sense-but it's a beautiful song that has Rihanna sounding the best she has in years. I may sound like I'm repeating some things, but this really is the best Rihanna song I've heard in a long time, if not ever. It's different ground for her, but it really works. Here's hoping she creates more great stuff like this in the future... and not more crap like "You Da One" or "Birthday Cake" last year.
Now, I promised something at the start, so I'll keep that and talk about... Harlem Shake.
Harlem Shake - Baauer
I don't know if it's something with the genre or just with the one artist, but Baauer genuinely sounds like he only half knows what he's doing. Let's go down the list, shall we?
What Baauer understands: A strong bass beat often helps support a dance song, A drop needs to be built up to.
What Baauer doesn't understand: The drop needs to be satisfying, the buildup needs to be evenly paced, the beat needs to be more engaging than a couple random synths and a sparse bass.
The trend is dumb, but what's even more staggering is that it's based around this barely-danceable song. It's boring and poorly paced. The drop happens within the first 15 seconds of the song, but it's just some dull bass with mildly annoying synths on top. At times it almost seems enjoyable, but then there's a tiger growl, a voice saying something in Spanish, or a sudden change in the beat that breaks the groove. Also, when the song tries to change the beat, it almost always replaces it with something worse. Maybe I'm being too hard on it, maybe it's just not my genre. I still don't like it.
Song to look out for: Radioactive - Imagine Dragons
For some reason, the official video isn't embedding... Oh well. I'll leave you on that note. Remember, this is based on the Canadian Hot 100, not the American one, so there's songs that may not have appeared. See you next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment