Best of 2009: May #4 - #1

Kpop and Glee in the same post? Yes, be very excited.

#4: Glee - Don't Stop Believing

I, like many other people, fell trap to Glee this year. It's infectious, it's cool and dammit, the covers are brilliant. Even with all the craziness they've done this year (including a cover of Jannifer Paige's signature 90's hit Crush), this cover of Don't Stop Believing released for the pilot episode is still my favorite from the series - after I first saw it I was killing to watch the next episode but obviously I had to wait months for it. Still, I got goosebumps with the vocals on this song that dammit, there was no way I was gonna let this out of the list.

#3: Elliot Yamin - Don't Be Afraid(view my review of the album)

Need I say more? Gorgeous melody, gorgeous vocals - GORGEOUS.

#2: 2PM - I Hate You

2PM. They've been through a lot this year and even though I have my favorite on their new album, I still prefer I Hate You. It's infectious, the vocals are great and although the instrumental is a bit boring, it's a kpop hit.

#1: Industry - My Baby's Waiting

Kpop may have ruled May for me but majority of the stuff I was listening to was from years prior. After all, I had to lay down a sense of history before I started religiously listening to the new stuff - I had to know where they all came from. SO, Industry's debut take it's place as my favorite song for May. Pop brilliance.

Industry - Burn

I need to unwind - I just finished writing a 24-page paper in my native tongue about how our culture should be ours and no one else's. Great.

Industry are most probably God's gift to pop music this year - everything about this band shows how good pop music can be. I only have one problem though, the girl who sings the most has a voice with parts that I get sick of after one listen. I'm dead serious - if you make the two guys sing one whole song without the girl, I'd fall at the song's feet and never want to listen to anything else again. But her voice can be insanely brilliant most of the time.

That aside, the song is a masterpiece. Whoever wrote this song should be put on a pedestal and worshipped for eternity.

The piano part is insane - whoever thought of making it go on throughout the whole song is a genius. It's a very nice buffer - gives the song another dimension and softens everything up. The processed stuff don't seem so fabricated after all and there are parts that can pass for a lullaby in my book.

The second verse is so-so to my ears but the middle-8 is brilliantly scream-y. Yes, the notes are really, really high but the melody makes me melt every time. Like hell.

My favorite part of the song? The first verse. Before everything gets manic and the girl screams all over the place, this is the reason why I love Industry. They can do big, monstrous and pop all the way but they can be reserved and faint-worthy. That voice - I can die right now and not have any regrets. And it's processed at all the right points. Not excessively, it's just enough to soften and smoothen the high notes. That's what auto-tune is supposed to do.

Will this be number one? I sure hope so - it deserves to be but judging by the fact that I never get these things right, it may not.

5/5

Mitchel Musso + Industry

Mitchel Musso's debut album is shaping up to be quite interesting and somehow fantastic - a new song just leaked a few hours ago and it's by far the most brilliant song I've heard since I left for camp. Hey is a song that if tweaked a little would sound a lot like something on Hilary Duff's early albums. In short it's ultra Disney pop/rock and yet there's a part of it than can put him beside all the other male AC/pop artists. I don't know if it's his voice or the song itself but it's not something Disney would put on all their soundtracks and advertise like mad(which they probably won't seeing as this guy isn't as big a star as Miley or Selena) and I'm kinda thankful that it won't.

It's extremely catchy(I sang along when I first listened to it!) and it's actually a good song if you take the thing apart. A lot of commercial appeal outside Disney which is good for him. And the video. I took a film class last semester(and topped it, thank God) so I think I'm slightly qualified to talk about the video and may I say, I love the effects and the whole vibe is very current. Kudos to whoever made the video - brilliant.

Uh, 4.8/5

I put a comment on Poster Girl's post on this song after listening to it once but when I listened to the new Industry song AGAIN, I realized it has quite a few strong points. The main thing is that the bridges are absolutely divine and when I say divine I mean it. Add that to the extremely Swedish pop-like chorus and the only thing that's actually wrong with this song is the fact that the girls are screaming all throughout the not so good verses. It can get annoying at times but the only thing that keeps me sane while listening to this song are the gorgeous bridges. But I do love the way you can still

Oh, and a little info about this band - one of the girls(Michelle if I remember correctly who is apparently a very popular Irish model) was rejected by Louis Walsh and instead formed Industry. Just an observation though - the guy singing the bridges sounds a lot like Brian McFadden at certain parts.

4/5