Here are twelve songs that are heating up the charts or will soon catapult to the top of the charts. Download now!
• Broken Strings (James Morrison feat. Nelly Furtado)
• Talk You Down (The Script)
• I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week (Mandy Moore)
• Northern Downpour (Panic At The Disco)
• Feel This (Bethany Joy Galleoti)
• Love and Sex and Magic (Ciara feat. Justin Timberlake)
• Make You Feel My Love (Adele)
• Antukin (Rico Blanco)
• Everybody Knows (John Legend)
• Thinking Of You (Katy Perry)
• Use Somebody (Kings of Leone)
• Smother Me (The Used)
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AMERICAN IDOL TURNS BAD AND DANGEROUS
This week was my first time to watch the Final 13 of the current American Idol season. Although I have watched some of the city audition episodes and selection of the Final 36, I missed most of the episodes because of my hectic schedule. Hence, I know most of them only by face, not by name. Thank heavens for Wikipedia!
This week they featured the songs of Michael Jackson. For the record, I am not a fan of MJ as a person, more of his only his music. After all, that he is the world’s bestselling solo artist must mean something. The hundred millions of people who bought his albums can’t be wrong. He has an impressive musicology that shatters the walls of discrimination and bridges generation gaps.
While some of MJ’s songs are karaoke staples, I was shocked at how most of the contestants stumbled with his songs, even the familiar ones. I saw this happen also in last season’s Mariah Carey week. But that is understandable because of Carey’s range and the difficult rifts and intonations that have become her signature style. With MJ, his songs are proving to be as deceptive and as complicated as his personality. You thought it is simple until you get to sing it. Plus, like what the judges always point out, it is always risqué to sing the legends. You really have to outdo yourself because you will be inevitably compared. You have to bring your own style to the table to one-up the legends (think David Cook’s Always Be My Baby which has been over-killed by local radio).
For this week, the standout was Adam Lambert with his highly-charged version of Black Or White. He took the songs as his own and his stage presence is ever rousing. I also enjoyed Matt Giraud’s rendition of Human Nature, although I was thinking that he was borrowing heavily from Justin Timberlake’s falsetto-laden style of R&B (before Randy Jackson even pointed it out). His expression, lip movement and even his looks eerily mirrors Timberlake’s. But it does work. The third best will be Danny Gokey (the media-proclaimed frontrunner) with his performance of P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing).
The most appalling (ah-poll-ling as Simon Cowell would say it) performance belongs to that Indian guy. He takes Beat It and ruins it to the pulp (pun intended). His voice lacked the emotion needed by the song so there is certain disconnect with the false energy of his singing and his lifeless expression.
I already have my bets on who should end-up as the Final Two. But I won’t say it here because I have a history of jinxing my favourites. But it will be a showdown similar to Cook-Archuleta from last season. But this time both will rock (wink, wink).
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GONE TOO SOON
Last week, local showbiz mourned the death of a local legend. I will be lying (or riding the bandwagon) if I will say that I am a big fan of Francis Magalona. But I have his music on my iPod. For me, his best piece is Kaleidoscope World with its searing yet simple lyrics and its striking sampling of The Beatle’s Here, There and Everywhere. And of course Cold Summer Nights, one of the best I-want-you-back songs.
Francis M will be best remembered for planting the seeds of rap in local music. And how he infused fervent nationalism and social commentary in his songs. Mga Kababayan Ko might probably be his most meaningful project, but the problem with that song is it became very periodic. It was pigeonholed in that era and lacks the timeless appeal of say, Kaleidoscope World. It seems corny if you sing it now, but it was the anthem during the height of its popularity.
Anyway, he had a life well-lived and left his legacy as THE master rapper (I wonder where that places Andrew E). The tributes were everywhere. Even MTV changed their logo as a sign of respect; they juxtaposed Francis M’s face shot in their logo.
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FREAKY MONDAY
What to hear something eerie/freaky?
Last Monday, I had to prepare early for my flight to Cagayan De Oro. I was getting ready to leave Bulacan by 4AM. I dressed and put on my sports watch. Only to find out that it was dead, the face was blank. The battery probably conked out fast because of its pedometer feature.
I left my other watches in my pad in QC. So I decided to wear our corporate watch. It was my first time to wear it because it was only that weekend that I had its strap adjusted. I put it on. The hands were frozen, it was not moving.
The word omen crept into my thought but I hastily pushed it away.
After takeoff, I put my iPod on so I can zone out and sleep. I placed the playlist on shuffle. After three random songs, Kaleidoscope World came up. Images of Francis M lying on a casket. I quickly forwarded it to the next track. Cold Summer Nights. There is 2-in-2,358 chance that those two songs would play on shuffle…1-in-2,358 chance for it to come consecutively!!!
Halfway through the flight to CDO, the pilot announced that we need to do an emergency landing in Cebu. They did not say the reason, but obviously there was something that is compromising our safety. I remembered there was a weird, unwanted sound somewhere near the fuselage when we took off.
To cut the story short, it was an uneventful trip. Insert of sigh of relief here.
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Comparisons are easily done
Once you had the taste of perfection
How do I get better once I had the best?
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