New Music!

Haven't been posting, sorry about that. haha.

• The new Lady Sovereign album is out. Haven't heard the whole thing yet but I'll try to whip up a review in the next few weeks.
• There's a new JLo's new single is apparently a recently leaked song, Hooked On You. I like it, it's very... American, very JLo. I love the melody, the arrangement's fine and her vocals are so-so as always so am looking forward to the new album!
• I FINALLY found the last Liberty X album! Yay! Have been listening to it for the past few days, it's amazing as always!
• There's a new Corbin Bleu song out as well but I'm not convinced. One the outside it sounds like a fairly good song but there's something about the melody that makes me uneasy, that makes me not want to listen to it. Moments That Matter is still the standout track so far. Amazing stuff, but I'm not so sure if there's enough amazing stuff on his new album to pull it through.
• Am currently addicted to Shontelle. It's late, I know but I just got a hold of her album recently and I only got the chance to listen to it a few days ago. I LOVE the songs, she's very contemporary and she sounds like all the big singers at the moment but she's not. She's got her own identity and she's got a grip on what music is right now. She's almost as amazing as Karina for me..
• Jesse McCartney's re-release is slowly coming together. There's a live version of a rumored song on it, Body Language and may I say, he's amazing. He's R&B and yet he's being himself, the artist we saw in his first two albums. Can't wait! haha!
• This year's American Idol is not that they promised us it would be, amazing. There have only been about four or five good performances so far and even those weren't as good as last year plus the fact that one guy during the first week didn't get in just because he had no 'personality' but his voice was gorgeous. I'm scared for the show, to be honest. The contestants cannot just keep on murdering these amazing pop songs and make them bland, off-key and horrible performances.
• The Black Eyed Peas have a new song out. Not a big fan, but you gotta admit, it's a very BEP song and it'll most probably be this huge hit. They're good technically, they've mastered the craft but they're personally not my taste, that's it. I do however love how after a lot of new artists keep coming out, they still manage to give us something worth listening to and something that's them.
• Am currently in love as well with the piano mix of Alesha Dixon's Breathe Slow. Love the original song but the piano mix has an even bigger contrast than the original. Alesha's voice isn't exactly smooth and the piano just flows, I LOVE it! haha. It has a lot less instruments as well.. yay!
• There's a new Mary J Blige song out, What Love Is and I'm slowly falling in love with it. Very mellow compared to Just Fine but the melody is just brilliant, it makes ma want to listen to her other albums now! Amazing vocals as usual, she better release more new stuff soon!
• Rihanna's got a new song as well, following the Chris Brown incident. It's so-so, but I've stopped liking Rihanna for a long time now. Not that I'm saying she's not a good singer or anything but I do think she's too overrated. She releases songs, she's a singer just like everyone else in the industry and she may be a good performer and all but there are people better than her.

I promise to post a little more than this past week, I've been to busy with schoolwork and getting sick and all. Will be back tomorrow with another post!

Liberty X - No Clouds

OK, so the one that was on the Maxi single isn't the one I'm reviewing but I like how this cover looks! haha.

I've always said that Liberty X are much, much better than Hear'Say(but Hear'say's kind of a guilty pleasure for me..) but with this song they can go head to head with Hear'Say.

You know, whether they like it or not, I'm always going to compare them to Hear'Say because Hear'Say were the winners and they were the losers but who won a BRIT? Liberty X! haha.

At first listen it sounds a lot like a Hear'Say song and it's got certain elements that make it like that but you listen to it more and more and you hear a Liberty X song. Hear'Say songs are kind of one-dimensional, they are what they are but Liberty X songs make you curious, they make you think, and that's something I like about them.

I said it last night that this song is like a less sanitized Same Difference plus a TLC/3LW-type girl group song and that still stands. It's a sweet pop confection with edge, and it's got the most amazing melody.

RATING: 5/5! For sheer brilliance.

I'M BAAACK!

OK, so I said I'd take a week break but I actually just slowed down on the posting. This was a happy week for me music-wise(DO NOT ask about how my Math 8A and 8G exams were, DO NOT.), mainly because of quite a few new stuff I've discovered and some old sought-after albums finally found. hmm..

• I know I ranted about RedOne recently but I can't help myself, their new song is AMAZING. I'm dead serious. I know the formula is too obvious and repetitive and they can't manipulate it well yet but it's a pretty darn good formula. Jada's American Cowboy is actually quite good, but the title kinda sucks. Oh, and the girls kind of sound like Lady GaGa as well during some parts.
• Speaking of Lady GaGa, I heard somewhere that her next single is Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) but only in Australia and New Zealand. Hmmm. I do like the song. haha.
• There's a new Leona unreleased track out called Stay, and it sounds a lot like a song someone from the Natalie generation would put on an album. You know, the piano-backed R&B ballad plus the thin, airy voices? Yeah. It doesn't actually go anywhere but the melody's nice. Nothing special or ground-breaking though.
• I'm now officially addicted to a Liberty X song, No Clouds. Not in the 'I like it, it's good' then I won't listen to it for the next few months kind of way, I ADORE IT. And it's all I've been playing today(OK, maybe not but it sure seemed like that!) but I haven't gotten sick of it. It's pop, I think that's the best way to describe it. Think a less sanitized Same Difference plus an early 2000's R&B girl group song. BUT, the melody's so addictive that I was actually singing it after like 2 plays. Will have to review it sometime this weekend.
• There's a new Lady Sovereign song out and may I say, I'm liking her new image much more than her old one. She's like Lily Allen mixed with Lady GaGa, at least that's what So Human is telling me.
• Calvin Goldspink, yes Calvin from S Club 8, posted a couple of songs on his MySpace and I'm loving them! I must say though, he sounds nothing like he used to(as if I actually heard him.. OK I did but it's just an excuse 'coz I kind of forgot what he sounded like during the I Dream era..) and the songs are amazing! Think an edgier sounding, smoother-voiced James Morrison.
• I'm addicted to another of these Chris Brown unreleased stuff, Takes Time. It's very commercial, I can imagine it on the ad for some kind of family-related product. I don't know, I think. haha. I love the melody though, even if the song itself is kind of short(2 minutes?).
• I've got a hold on a not so good copy of the Spectacular! soundtrack, am listening to it at the moment and I'm liking what I'm hearing. Will review it this weekend.
• I know it's all over the place but Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You has a video AND is number one in the US! Yay! I think that they're trying too much to re-create Since You've Been Gone with the video and all(look at it, it looks almost exactly like SYBG!), but it's something they'll never, ever, NEVER be able to do. Since You've Been Gone defined the generation and although I do think that this is a brilliant song, it's not as good.

Hmm.. I guess that's it, will get to the reviews now! haha.

Liberty X - Thinking It Over

Something I haven't done in quite a while, a single review! haha.. here goes..

I've never really paid attention to Liberty X as much as the other Popstars contestants (Hear'Say, Girls Aloud, Six), so it's a bit out of the ordinary that I'd post something about them.

If my memory serves me right, they were the five who didn't make it into Hear'Say, but they were certainly the better band. I love the cheesiness of Hear'Say songs, but it wears off, the edginess of Liberty X however, doesn't. It sounds like Hear'Say's music is stuck in the time period it was created in, and no effort whatsoever to make it the least bit timeless.

But reality show winners constrained to record company and TV executives come to learn that they're not about making music that's edgy and timeless, they're about selling records. Music, after all, has become a business. That just doesn't cut it for people like me, who look at the music side and not the business.

Look at what's happening to the companies now, they're being outwitted by people like Steve Jobs, who created iTunes, and countless pirates. The problem with the bosses is that they're not creative enough to think of ways to get people to buy the music. They're using the same tricks they were using ten or twenty years ago, but we're not living in the 80's or 90's, it's the 2000's already for heaven's sake. Are the stuck in a time warp or something?

And that's why I think Liberty X are an amazingly good band, and which is most probably why they won a BRIT instead of Hear'Say. Hear'Say could never have won a BRIT, even if they had lasted longer. With songs that cheesy, but none of them really standing out, they were left with two not so bad albums and maybe one good single. Liberty X however, just creamed the living daylight out of them, making better songs and eventually lasting longer.

Thinking It Over is just amazing, and it's miles better than Pure And Simple(although I liked the Girl Thing version). It's very 2001, but it sounds like it could've been released later, say 2006 or 2007 and it would still be a hit. The song sounds like Craig David's Fill Me In(not as good as that, but still amazing..), but they have their own take on it, and they made a song that kick-started their entire career, the career that outlasted Hear'Say.

RATING: 4.8/5