01. Far East Movement - Live My Life (feat. Justin Bieber)
02. Melanie Amaro - Respect
03. Big Bang - Fantastic Baby
04. Madonna - Gang Bang
05. Gossip - Perfect World
06. Alexandra Burke - Elephant (Wideboys Radio Edit)
07. Rachel Adedeji - Club Lights
08. Estelle - International (feat. Chris Brown & Trey Songz)
09. JoJo - Disaster (Ming + 2 Beeps Remix)
10. Havana Brown - We Run the Night (feat. Pitbull)
01. Far East Movement - Live My Life (feat. Justin Bieber)
Okay. OKAY. I surrender, okay? Far East Movement clearly feels a little hurt that LMFAO owned 2011 for its irreverant "party rock" -- let's be straight here, they clearly stole "Like A G6" (2010)'s momentum/thunder. While both fall into the guilty pleasure bracket, I will say here and now I'm Team FM, whether or not they decide to bring Canada's Favorite Boy Wonder to the party. As a pop single, it's pretty damn generic, but as a dancefloor sizzler, it gets the crowd moving for that synthy backbeat (ie. the same synthy backbeat that fueled the majority of FM's A-Matieral on Free Wired). Now, GET YO' ASS ON THE FLO'!
She's America's first 'X-Factor Winner', which makes her our version of Leona Lewis (not really but okay). Holy Cow, can this chick wail! Real Talk -- I didn't really bother with much of the X-Factor (Simon + Paula + Nicole Scherzy talking...zzzz), BUT I did watch a few of the auditions (meaning about three shows total) with the intent to cover some of the new talent (I could never be as good as say, Paul is, but was willing to try) and the only real note I have is of Melanie Amaro. Her rendition of Beyonce's "Listen" was admittedly a copy of Beyonce's original but do you know how hard it is to hit all of them crazy melismas? I remember getting goosebumps and saying, "Wow, she's really good. I like her." Two shakes of a kitten's tail later (or however that phrase goes) and homegirl stole the whole show. "Respect" is a dancey version of the Aretha original (I know, I cringed at first thought too, but give it a chance) and is just a mere taste of what's to come from her debut later this year.
NOISY NONSENSE KPOP ALERT. The BBs in BB are really gunning for me to like them, and it's really hard not to after fully digesting their latest EP, Alive. (There's a reason it was the first release in Korean by to land on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart in the US...ever.) It's not that I never did appreciate them before -- it's just their brand of noisy KPOP was something I tended to enjoy more at the hands of their hoobaes in 2NE1. If "Fantastic Baby", the EP's 3rd and most recent offering, isn't 2NE1's "I Am The Best" chopped and screwed as a male remix, I don't know what is, and that, my friends, is a very good thing. I don't know about you all, but I am more than ready for a YG Family American Takeover. BOOM SHACKA LACKA.
04. Madonna - Gang Bang
Alright - let me get this out of the way first. Overall, I wasn't really impressed by MDNA. (Don't mind me while I hide from my music blogging friends.) Ready for it to get worse? I really liked "Give Me All Your Luvin'." AND "Girl Gone Wild". So shoot me (bang bang). Aside from the singles and a ballad here or there, I found MDNA kind of uneventful from a powerhouse like Madonna. EXCEPT for the red herring that is "Gang Bang" -- which sounds unlike anything else on the record (even more so than "Luvin'"). Visceral, aggressive and unrelenting and with a smidgen of brief (but not cliched) dubstep synth in the bridge -- this is how I'd like Madonna from now on, kthanks.
After Beth Ditto's perfect (and too short) EP last year, I gained a new found stanship for Gossip. They returned to us with "Perfect World", the lead release from their upcoming album, A Joyful Noise -- that is said to be produced by...wait for it...Brian Higgins (of Xenomania). Insert BritPop Fans freaking the eff out. "Perfect World" is more subtle than previous singalong Gossip singles ("Heavy Cross", "Pop Goes The World"), but that doesn't make it any less amazing.
I quite like Alexandra Burke. I also love Elephants. Yes, "Elephants" the single is a bit of disservice to what makes A.Burke so arresting as an artist (mostly because it makes her sound like every other chick with a synth machine), but I ask you this -- does it make you dance? Okay. Done and dusted.
Speaking of A.Burke, Rachel Adedeji was a fellow competitor on the X-Factor UK the same year as Alexandra, but didn't make it very far. She auditioned again the following year and finished 9th. However, she has just released her debut EP, Club Lights, which is full of fun dark dance pop, including the self-titled one here. Perhaps this was the dancey direction Alex should have been gunning for?...
Although a Brit herself, Estelle (as a singer, rather than a rapper as she first started out as) is much more familiar to us in the US (if only for that overplayed "American Boy" tune with Kanye West). "International", produced by David Banner, isn't even a single (yet) but shows us a fresh side of Estelle, with a chorus so hooky, its difficult to bang out of your head (Chris Brown pun not intended...kind of).
09. JoJo - Diaster (Ming & 2 Beeps Remix) (official remix video -- this particular remix is not available on YouTube...but is on my Spotify Playlist)
I'm being redudant about awesome JoJo is (see my hearts for "Disaster", "Lie To Me" and "Sexy To Me"). But you know what? It's my blog.
I really want Pitbull to go away, but damn if I'm not a sucker for the majority of the singles he assists on (especially of they are sung by interesting female voices). I blame my love for this dance stomper for that "Run 'em like, Run 'em, Run 'em WHOOP" amongst other hooks. No offense to Havana, but if I were Kat DeLuna, I would be BEYOND supremely pissed. It seems like RedOne enjoys using the model he debuted and developed with Kat with a vast variety of chicks (Jennifer Lopez included!). Sigh...
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