Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Boom Boom Wow!
After a considerable length of time since the hit-filled "Monkey Business" stormed the charts in mid-2005 The Black Eyed Peas are back with their ambitious new record "The E.N.D."
Smash lead single "Boom Boom Pow," which has spent nine weeks and counting atop the Billboard Hot 100, is surprisingly the group's first single to reach #1. And why shouldn't it be? It aims for something fresh and original and succeeds. Interesting verses intertwine with the chorus in restrained but relentlessly hooky, choppy melodic fashion. Fergie and will.i.am sound like they are having the time of their lives. The latter's production skills just short of wizard-like.
There are many more hits here, including "Rock That Body," which will grab the attention of DJs and club-goers worldwide, and the gorgeous, rollicking "Meet Me Halfway," an upbeat ballad where Fergie digs desperately with emotion with the tenacity of a soap opera queen. "I Gotta Feeling" is an easy, breezy summer hit in the making with Fergie's evocative vocal leading the way. The lyrics and melody are surprisingly simplistic, but in this case less is more.
This stuff is highly individual yet also retro-friendly with 80's-inspired synths and loose, spaced-out vocal effects, and the majority of the tracks live up to the album's full title - "The Energy Never Ends" - although some like "Party All the Time" and "Showdown" fail to live up to the standard set by some that appear earlier. "Imma Be" and "Missing You" fall short with limp melodies and lack solid hooks, but other filler tracks such as the chorus-deprived "Alive" are still listenable.
"Electric City" is an intriguing if unmelodic experiment in snazzy, tech-savvy wordplay ("Hit `em with the sound/Shoot `em with the bass") and "Now Generation" both criticizes and celebrates the knee-jerk lack of patience that characterizes the information generation. will.i.am name-drops Google, Wikipedia and Facebook as Fergie yells "I want it now!" "One Tribe" is a colorful track with a fluid, downbeat, international vibe as will.i.am waxes on the strength of diversity but calls for unity, not division. The track is a fine listen and escapes sounding like a preachy PSA.
Not everything works on "The E.N.D." On the second half of the record the melodies tend to grow weaker and the sound effects louder. Still, it has some seriously solid tracks and will continue to spawn hits for a long while. There is a limit to its success, but this is nevertheless the sound of a band anxious to forge new ground. Other groups may be phoning it in lately, but not The Black Eyed Peas.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Gaga for This Lady
Stefani Germanotta, a.k.a. Lady Gaga, has pulled all the right strings to stir mass attention and create quite a buzz at retail and radio. It just so happens that she has single-handedly given pop music a stinging shot in the arm. Late 2000s pop needed an intriguing figure like Gaga to come along - a rearview mirror on this decade in Top 40 land makes for a relatively unmemorable glance. Or at least it did until now.Her public persona may absolutely ooze pretense, but quite the opposite goes for Gaga's music itself - "The Fame" has a healthy serving of sticky, summery, track-repeat-button-beckoning pure pop confections. Save for Kylie Minogue and Britney Spears, no pop performer this decade has succeeded so well at delivering tunes that so squarely hit the musical sweet tooth - treats that are not guilty pleasures but simply pleasures. Gaga, however, outdoes her contemporaries in that she is the principal writer behind her material and creator of her style and persona, even if the music itself is not entirely original - nor need it be.
The opening foursome of "Just Dance" featuring Colby O'Donis, "LoveGame", "Paparazzi" and "Poker Face" are all the stuff of pure pop bliss with melodies that not only thoroughly entrench themselves in the cranium but do not irritate from overexposure or wear out their welcome. They at once demonstrate Gaga's gift for scintillating melodies and sexy, club-friendly lyrics. Choosing RedOne and Rob Fusari as producers was a stroke of genius. These tracks serve as a reminder of an important truth that seems to be eluding not only the general public but the entertainment industry as well - at its best, pop songcraft is as valid a musical endeavor as any other.
"Just Dance" and "Poker Face" have both been solid #1 hits, and "LoveGame" is headed in that direction, currently sitting at #22. With its slinky, sultry beats and yearning, tugging melody, "Paparazzi" is unlike Gaga's current hits in that it is not straightforwardly club-ready but instead benefits from a starker treatment, showing off her particular vocal versatility and grace. Its nearly twisted, dreamy take on unrequited love is wholly original.
Elsewhere, the quality of the album takes a small but noticeable dip. Tracks like the muscular "I Like It Rough" and "Money Honey" are choppy and energetic but instantly forgettable, while the flighty "Summerboy," which catches a ride on an awesome electric guitar, is quite fun yet falls substantially short of being in the league of the album's opening tracks, or, for that matter, substantially differentiating itself from much of the material that pads the middle of the album, "Boys Boys Boys" being a prime example.
"Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" is also a sprightly little piece of pop that renders itself completely innocuous. Other tracks such as the breathy, downbeat "Brown Eyes" and the title track attempt to demonstrate Gaga's versatility but show her creative palette wearing a bit thin. Her eagerness to please the listener is never in question, but that these tracks are not worth repeated spins - especially when given such a strong bunch of radio hits at the beginning of the record - is neither.
"The Fame" is not an out and out homerun, but it shows exciting potential for a rare new talent who is already deserving of the title 'pop star.' Gaga knows what people like and she demonstrates unrestrained determination to deliver it. Many young female entertainers draw comparisons to the entertainment powerhouse that is Madonna (Spears and Katy Perry chief examples), but in Gaga the public now has one who is truly worthy of such a comparison. It is a premature stage, of course, but if "The Fame" is any indication Gaga's engagement entertaining pop listeners will be long and fortuitous.
Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3O8YT41TDXL0B?ie=UTF8&sort_by=MostRecentReview
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