Yet Another Year In America March 11, 2010

[koganbot]

Taio Cruz wtf? He jumps out of nowhere (well, out of Britain) to nab number 1, denying Lady Antebellum their rightful place. "Rude Boy" at 4 looks like it's going to be Rihanna's first sustained hit from Rated R. A couple of country tunes, one by Blake Shelton and one by Easton Corbin, are just bubbling under the Top 40.

Taio Cruz ft. Ludacris "Break Your Heart": Cruz writes good tunes, but as a singer he's just a mannequin. Of his seven tracks that hit in Britain, only one, "Come On Girl," garnered a tick from me over on poptimists, and it shouldn't have. So now here from among the nonticks is "Break Your Heart," in a remix with Ludacris. It fits the DeRulo-Iyaz-Sean pretty-sugar-boy AutoTuned dance-r&b dance amalgam that's been hitting the top; nice Hi-NRG synths rolling along in the back make this less deadening than those others, and Luda adds a jolt of energy. Unfortunately, Cruz's mediocrity drains the song before it finishes, but I do think I underrated it the first time. BORDERLINE TICK.

Justin Bieber "Never Let You Go": A singer with a light touch on a light song and he still sounds strained, though I'm not finding a stream of the actual single. In any event, this is the first really good song he's released since "One Time," pleasing sweetness that doesn't douse us in sugar. BORDERLINE TICK.

Jason DeRulo "Ridin Solo": Instantly likable, like all his singles; then, like all his singles, it slowly dies as uninflected syllables follow one upon the other. NO TICK.

Daughtry "Life After You": The prettiness and cragginess in his voice cancel each other out this time. I could imagine this as a not-bad pop country song, though you'd have to give it to a singer who doesn't need to drag it complaining through the Cave Of Dark Feeling. NO TICK.

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The Taio remix is utterly pointless. Also I believe there is some sort of conspiracy between Jason DeRulo and Iyaz to confuse me: Jason does a song called 'In My Head' which I cannot think about without humming 'shawty's got a melody IN MY HEAD da-da-da etc'. Now Jason does a song called 'Ridin Solo' just after Iyaz does a song called 'Solo'. All made worse thanx to presence of Jason Mraz which is the product of squishing together Jason DeRulo and Iyaz. DUDES YOU SOUND ENOUGH LIKE EACH OTHER ALREADY.

[koganbot]

I assume the point of the remix is to get the song on the U.S. charts, which it does admirably well; this is Cruz's first U.S. single, and the song went number one in two weeks, which is amazing. I wonder if there are some tie-ins and visibility that I don't know about. How did this happen? The track is only 26th on top 40 radio, 19th on rhythmic radio, not in the upper 40 on urban radio, AC, or hot AC. So something is firing up downloads, and I'm curious what it is.

[koganbot]

You forgot to mention Jay Sean and Sean Kingston, not to mention Jay Sean's "Do You Remember" featuring Sean Paul and Lil Jon; as you recall, Lil Jon produced and was featured on the YoungBloodZ' excellent "Damn," the YoungBloodZ consisting of J-Bo and Sean Paul, who is a different Sean Paul.