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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Popular Music 9/11/12


The xx- Coexist
Genre: Alternative
There are two lead singers in this band: a guy and a girl. We like that, and it’s pretty in right now.  
Some of the lyrics on this CD are too repetitive for us. This stuff is quiet, haunting, peaceful, and understated. It left us feeling like a nap. It’s not something we’d want to listen to all at once again. Some of these songs might belong on a good mixed CD. This isn’t upbeat stuff. Sunset is as upbeat as it gets. But we feel relief when songs aren’t as beat-driven these days, because that’s starting to wear on our nerves. We wouldn’t call this CD melodic either. This isn’t our taste, but it’s not awful.
Grade: C

Carly Rae Jepsen- This Kiss, single
Genre: pop
This song is destined to annoy at least one of us for the next six months. It’s not special. Carly’s decent voice is kept in one annoying place the entire time. The background is very electronic and beat-driven. Get used to it. It sounds like the next radio hit.    
Grade: C

David Guetta- Nothing But the Beat 2.0
Genre: Dance
Well, we know what we are getting with David Guetta and an album with this title. It’s the same album with a few new songs. Our favorite new song is She Wolf (Falling to Pieces) featuring Sia. We love her voice, even if we hate the instrumental stuff right after the chorus.
Grade: B-

Fifty Shades of Grey: The Classical Album
We can’t believe this is a thing.
Grade: A+ for the music. F for the concept

Group 1 Crew- Fearless
Genre: Christian and Gospel
This is like pop/hip hop, only Christian. Musically, it’s damp. It sounds like everything else on contemporary Christian radio. Flat melodies, the same chords Christians usually use (the easiest ones to play on the guitar that worship leaders learn first), and that lame, wet blanket sound that makes it easy to identify contemporary, popular Christian music. The lyrics are upbeat/positive, which is always nice, but some of them are rip-offs of clichés.
Grade: C-

Lifehouse- Between the Raindrops featuring Natasha Bedingfield, single
Genre: Pop
Okay, we love Lifehouse and we also love Natasha Bedingfield. Both of the artist and the group are Christians, but they know not to be heavy handed or preachy. They also know to have their own sound and not just copy and water down the today’s popular music. You know it’s them when they are singing. They are doing their own thing, but they have the deep, positive lyrics we like in some Christian music. When we saw that they did a song, we were excited to hear it. It didn’t disappoint. Yeah, it could have been better, but we enjoyed this song. They sounded great together.
Grade: B

Dave Matthews Band- Broken Things
Genre: Rock
You know what Dave Matthews song we really like? Gravedigger. That’s a good song. This album doesn’t have convert-winning standout songs, but it’s good enough to more than please longtime fans of the group. To them, this band can do no wrong, especially if they are making music much like the albums that came before. It’s a nice album. We just don’t love this band like its major fans do.
Grade: B

Norah Jones is also back to bore us with her coffee shop crooning. We’ll never get her. If you like Amanda Palmer, her new album is really cheap in Amazon’s mp3 store. No real standouts/nothing too interesting this week.

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