Album Review: Britney Spears – Femme Fatale

Posted on April 7, 2011 by bgibs122

One of my favorite groups of the past decade is Gorillaz. Damon Albarn started the virtual group as a commentary on current music culture (or something British like that), and while there have been social overtones to the project, I’ve always thought “What if someone made Gorillaz with a real person?” That’s to say, what if there was a pop artist out there who wasn’t an artist, but a pop music construct for a rotating list of musicians, producers, and writers to work under? What would that look like?

One credible answer would be Femme Fatale, Britney Spears’ seventh (holy shit) studio album. Granted, her artistic control has never extended past  a dozen songwriting co-credits over as many years, but Femme Fatale has some 22 or 23 credited producers/songwriters. Among this fleet of industry insiders are familiar Britney collaborators Max Martin, Shellback, Alexander Kronlund, and Bloodshy & Avant, newcomers Dream Machine and Billboard, and personal pop music villains will.i.am, Ke$ha,  Benny Blanco, and worst of all, Dr. Luke.

Not appearing in these credits: Britney Spears.

I know that not every pop star has hand in their own music, but Britney pretty much isn’t there on most of Femme Fatale. Most times when a large studio ensemble gets together for an album, the focus is on the pop star (Rihanna, Katy Perry, Taio Cruz, etc). But with Britney, the producers put the music first, and hey, if she can be worked in then sure, that’s fine. She never fights to be ahead of the music, her voice is altered all over to fit into the electronic storms behind her, and frankly, she sounds bored most of the time.

Which is kind of odd, considering that this is such a club record. Yeah, there’s a few dubstep moments thrown in (chiefly the bridge of first single “Hold It Against Me”), but this album is a slightly beefier version of exactly what her past two records have done: hypersexual, superstuffed club jams. To be fair, Britney Music Factory does produce some fun tunes; opener “Til the World Ends” is pretty decent, and I never had anything bad to say about “Hold It Against Me” aside from it’s safeness (which yes, you’ll be hearing about a lot ).

In fact, the whole of Femme Fatale is incredibly one-note. True story, the first few times that I listened to it as a whole, both straight through and on shuffle, I wasn’t able to make it all the way through. Not the album is entirely bad, but the monotony of it was overbearing.

There are some highlights. “Til the World Ends” is a unified, crazy catchy hit where Britney doesn’t get too amazingly overshadowed. “Trip To Your Heart” is the slowest moment here, and it’s kind of sweet and pretty in that artificial way. But far and away, the weird, aggressive “How I Roll” (produced by Bloodyshy, who also did “Toxic”) is the album’s best song. Comparatively stripped down and unconventional with stretched out synths and a manic drum kick, Britney actually sounds like she’s having fun, and the result is refreshing.

But in other places, the album’s everything snobs beat up on pop for. The Dr. Luke and Co songs (“Inside Out”, “Seal It With a Kiss”, “Gasoline”) are exactly what you’d expect: obnoxious synths leading the way for forcefully “catchy” hooks with a so-so result. But Femme Fatale is truly burdened by two middle album cuts: “(Drop Dead) Beautiful” and “Big Fat Bass”. The former sounds like a bad Ke$ha knock off with the most vapid rap verse I have ever heard, and…will.I.am is responsible for the latter. “Big Fat Bass” is bad Black Eyed Peas with the sleaze turned up to ten.

Femme Fatale is baffling in that it manages to be incredibly uniform, yet a complete mixed bag at the same time. The super aggressive club sound that was noteworthy for Blackout and Circus is all but rote, and with lyrics this shamelessly overt, Britney’s usual assault of whispers, coos, and moans is more of a joke than anything else. Still, though, there are some solid moments, and a little real fun goes a long way. Three stars out of five.

tl;dr: When it’s fun, it’s fun, but when not…oh, God. Three out of five.

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Radio Rant: Adele – Rolling In the Deep

Posted on April 5, 2011 by bgibs122

Oh, look at that. It’s time for another Radio Rant.

So, do you want to listen to a good song this week?

I’m not talking about a song where it’s not so much “good” as much as “Well, listening to it left me with faith in humanity”, but a genuinely kickass song. Like a surprising number of good songs that chart, it’s also by a relatively unknown artist. British singer Adele was signed as a teenager after some record execs heard her on MySpace. She quickly became a huge hit in England, yet never made it past the iPods of college girls with arty haircuts in America. This seems to happen a lot.

But Adele’s looking to beat those odds, mostly on the strength of “Rolling in the Deep”, her first Top 20 hit, and the subject of this week’s Radio Rant.

“Rolling in the Deep” begins with some acoustic strumming under Adele’s opening line, “There’s a fire starting in my heart/Reaching a fever pitch, and it’s bringing me out to dark”, a strong line. One of my favorite things about Adele, and a lot of naturally talented vocalists, is that she makes singing this well sound easy, but even more importantly fun. As the verse continues, her voice hits highs and lows, but it’s never showing off. Soon, the song gets more of a rustic blues feel as a basic drum beat kicks in, then some piano joins in on the prechorus.

And the tension built-in the first minute of the song gets released on one of my favorite choruses I’ve heard this year. It’s a hell of a hook that manages to be everything good at once, as well as being cathartic. The fact that Adele just lets loose on it sweetens the deal. The first couple of times I heard the chorus, I thought it had a passing resemblance to Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”, but over time the hook has come into its own (although the two sound great together). “Rolling in the Deep” is quickly becoming one of those songs I’m hearing everywhere, and I’ve enjoyed the chorus every single time.

I love it when we get left-field pop hits like this, because they’re an all around breath of fresh air. The vocals are from a natural talent, and the song’s crafted with care. For one thing, “Rolling in the Deep” acoustic instrumentation, making the music every bit as natural as the vocals. And while a lot of pop songs sound like a few measures being repeated over and over, this song’s instruments ebb and flow; building energy, but then releasing it with deadly precision.

That precision’s more than apparent on the transition between the second chorus and the bridge, when the instruments drop out for a hand-clap and vocals breakdown. At this point, the song’s revealed itself as one part break-up and one part revenge, and there’s some great back and forth between Adele and the fantastically located backing vocals. Other instruments work their way back in, building up to one last great chorus, and the delivery is better than expected.

So yeah, it should come as no surprise that I really like “Rolling in the Deep”. In addition to flat out being a great bluesy song with a strong beat with Adele’s powerhouse voice, it’s also catchy as all get out, a blast to (try to) sing along to, and it’s impossible to stay still while listening to it. In short: how to be a good song while also being a knockout pop song.

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Album Review: Sum 41 – Screaming Bloody Murder

Posted on April 1, 2011 by bgibs122

Growing up is a sneaking thing. You go from two bottles of Mt. Dew a day to drinking coffee, your friends start getting engaged instead of breaking up every few weeks, the acne finally slacks off, and no, dammit, I can’t go out tonight because I work tomorrow. At other times, singular statements can make you feel old.

To wit: Sum 41 has been around for a decade.

Perhaps “survived” is a better phrase. Sum 41’s origins are in the pop-punk heyday of the early 00’s, and they’ve gone on a zigzag of a career. After being “like blink-182, but with guitar solos” for three albums, the band released Chuck, their most promising album to date. The loss of one guitarist and a marriage to Avril Lavinge later came Underclass Hero, a return to pop-punk that wanted to be important, but was really a poor man’s The Black Parade, and an even poorer man’s American Idiot.

The four years between Underclass Hero and Screaming Bloody Murder make up the longest gap between Sum 41 releases. Using opener “Reason to Believe” as evidence, the group’s come up with lots of ideas during the interim; the song begins with Chuck style distorted guitars, left turns into a punk chorus, and then throws the brakes for a piano and acoustic guitar outro. The title track turns that outro into an intro before becoming a pretty decent rock out track, complete with a breakdown and furious guitar solo. All of this comes through loud and clear, because the production values for this record are stellar.

Screaming Bloody Murder‘s sonic blueprint is a mix of Chuck and Underclass Hero; metal-bent punk rock as a default with some experimentation/imitation tossed in for variety. Not a bad idea on paper, but it essentially translates to “muted intro, let the rest of the band in, throw the two ideas at each other, and end”, leading to overstuffed and under-thought song structures. It works best when the band commits one way or the other; while middle songs like “Sick of Everyone” and “Skumfuk” are interesting but wholly unnecessary.

And it’s those songs that end up sinking the album. In a classic case of “ambition vs. execution”, Screaming Bloody Murder‘s biggest dealbreaker is arguably its length; 48 minutes is taxing on a band that starts feeling stretched past the half-hour point. I can’t really blame the band for wanting to experiment, but at the same time, you’ve gotta rein it in, otherwise…well, you get Screaming Bloody Murder.

Not to say that the experimentation doesn’t pay off. The drama of “Holy Image of Lies” absolutely rocks, and as mentioned, the genre roulette of “Reason to Believe” gets the record started on an exciting note. While there are shadows of frontman Deryck Whibley’s divorce from Avril Lavinge all over, no track handles them as directly nor as well as “Crash”, a genuinely affecting piano ballad that begs to duet with some of the better songs off Goodbye Lullaby.

Then there are times where Sum 41 gets in full rock band mode. The best of these–if not the best on the album–is “Jessica Kill”, which sounds like classic Sum 41 (wow, there’s a phrase I thought I’d never use). “Back Where I Belong” thrashes, but is best taken out of the context of the album, where it isn’t weighed down by being so far along. The band falls flat in other places; “Time For You To Go” wants to be Green Day so bad it hurts, and “Baby You Don’t Wanna Go”‘s classic rock posturing is only amusing on the first listen.

The amount of enjoyment you’ll get out of Screaming Bloody Murder is directly proportionate to how much you like Sum 41. If you’re already a dedicated fan, then you’ll find plenty to love. If you wrote these guys off already, then it isn’t likely that anything is going to change that, 3/5 stars.

tl;dr: Lotta killer, some filler, 3/5 stars.

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Radio Rant: The Black Eyed Peas – Just Can’t Get Enough

Posted on March 29, 2011 by bgibs122

Radio Rant time! Also, I’m implementing an idea I should have had sooner today; from now on, you can click on the single cover art to listen to the song I’m covering this week.

Yep, the Black Eyed Peas are back on the menu this week. I’m not especially fired up about it, but I’m not opposed to dealing with them again. “The Time (Dirty Bit)” was a terrible song, but it didn’t really catch on in the U.S., and the Peas were soundly mocked for their lackluster Superbowl performance. As a penance, they’ve been pretty quite for awhile, so I’m ready to look at them again, even if it is with low expectations. Anyway, time to give the blandly titled “Just Can’t Get Enough” a spin.

This…this is different. Fergie’s hook is actually kinda catchy. Part of that might be that, despite will.i.am’s efforts to hide it, Fergie can actually sing. The piano behind her is a nice touch, too.

Oh, right, here comes will.i.am, slathered in Auto-Tune. I know I’ve said it before, but will.i.am has never done anything as a rapper that’s impressed me. His flow never stands out, he doesn’t have a new bend to offer to any of what he’s saying, and he often finds the dumbest ways to saying it. Let’s just pull a line or two from his verse:

“Honey got a sexy all steamin’/She givin’ hotness a new meanin’/Perfection mama you gleamin’/Inception, you got a brother dreamin’, dreamin'” A minor offense in the grand scheme of things, but “got a sexy” makes me twitch every time. And Will? Do you want to call the hot girl “Mama”? See, that happened to a guy once, and…well, it didn’t end well for him.

However, for the total shortfall that is will.i.am the Rapper, we have will.i.am the Producer. as a producer, will.i.am can be pretty hit and miss, but when he hits, it’s pretty solid. Such is the case with “Just Can’t Get Enough”, a bass-heavy slice of electronica. It’s the sound of the late night party being over, and hanging out with a few buddies afterwards; chilled out, enjoyable, and inviting. So after another round of chorus, we get another will ver–

Wait a minute. Wait one minute! Is that…yes it is…

Taboo actually gets a verse! Y’know, this guy. The one that always gets knocked for never saying anything. At least I think it’s him, his voice is so drowned out in Auto-Tune that he barely sounds any different from will.i.am. Most of his verse is…well, there’s a reason that he doesn’t get to say a lot; none of his lines really stand out, but he’s not especially bad, either. He does err towards trying too hard, though.

But overall, I’m liking this song. The chorus is good, the production is solid…hell, even the rapping’s not that bad. So far, we’re about 3/4 done with the song, and while it’s not my favorite thing, it is proving that the Peas don’t always have to be terrible. I’m content to just ride the wave until the end of the–

“This…is mega switch up”

Pardon?

Wait, what? Why is the tempo…

Oh no. No, no, no.

Are you kidding me?

Not content to let one of their singles actually be an enjoyable start-to-finish listen, “Just Can’t Get Enough” says “Fuck it” about 3/4 of the way through, and speeds up into a so-so club jam with app. de.ap (fuck whoever named this band) muttering some non-sense I can’t hear over his own Auto-Tuning. And there’s this computerized voice that keeps shouting “Switch up!”, as if to remind us that the song took a dive. “Just Can’t Get Enough” nose dives in the third act harder than Sucker Punch did, a feat I didn’t even think was possible.

About a month back, I did a Radio Rant for the Far East Movement’s “Rocketeer”, a pretty song that, while functionally inert, was still enjoyable. A lot of what I said about that song also applies to “Just Can’t Get Enough”; the chorus and production are doing all the work, the Auto-Tune is a stylistically confusing and wholly unnecessary add-on, and the rapping is bland. While the Peas’ newest trick of suturing two songs together wasn’t enough to take me off of “Just Can’t Get Enough”, it did knock the song down in my book. Still, it was a surprisingly enjoyable ride.

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