![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koganbotRihanna finally returns to #1, her old accustomed spot two years ago, "Need You Now" having to settle for #2 again. As for new music, I'm kind of... um... well... yes, um. This is about as "um" a week as there's ever been.
Ludacris ft. Nicki Minaj "My Chick Bad": Luda's authoritatively forceful rapping has become so familiar that it's lost its authority, gets upstaged here by the slow-syrup accompaniment. Fortunately, his screwed-and-slowed Mike Jonesy chant is hypnotic as a chorus, and Nicki brings her humorously abrasive racket, but that's not quite enough. BORDERLINE NONTICK.
Lady Antebellum "American Honey": Nostalgia for childhood, lost promise, a lost country, a lost world. Should be better (Miranda Lambert would give this bite, and smarter words), but is passable; I'd like it more if it didn't shrink next to the great Antebellum weeper that's still riding high. BORDERLINE NONTICK.
Drake "Over": Starts off seeming to imitate Weezy in dreamy, wandering, free-associative mode ("What am I doing? Yeah, that's right - I'm doing me."), but without inventiveness. Turns out, when this part shows up again word-for-word, that it's the chorus. Is ridiculous, and I have no idea why this guy is big, but the track is catchy, makes me smile anyway. BORDERLINE TICK.
Kevin Rudolf ft. Lil Wayne, Birdman, & Jay Sean "I Made It (Cash Money Heroes)": An OK melody from Kevin, Jay is even weaker and blanker than when solo, Birdman is only functionally rappish, yet the overall sound is appealing. And when Wayne finally shows up and starts fucking around for real, he's actually funny. "I lay it down so hard I got a bedrash/And I just tell 'em to loaf it when the bread pass." BORDERLINE TICK.
Blake Shelton ft. Trace Adkins "Hillbilly Bone": The rhythm section gives us good bubbling soul-funk, with Blake and Trace up top with a deep reduced drawl that highlights the groove but is a waste of two fine singers, and of the groove. NO TICK.
Ludacris ft. Nicki Minaj "My Chick Bad": Luda's authoritatively forceful rapping has become so familiar that it's lost its authority, gets upstaged here by the slow-syrup accompaniment. Fortunately, his screwed-and-slowed Mike Jonesy chant is hypnotic as a chorus, and Nicki brings her humorously abrasive racket, but that's not quite enough. BORDERLINE NONTICK.
Lady Antebellum "American Honey": Nostalgia for childhood, lost promise, a lost country, a lost world. Should be better (Miranda Lambert would give this bite, and smarter words), but is passable; I'd like it more if it didn't shrink next to the great Antebellum weeper that's still riding high. BORDERLINE NONTICK.
Drake "Over": Starts off seeming to imitate Weezy in dreamy, wandering, free-associative mode ("What am I doing? Yeah, that's right - I'm doing me."), but without inventiveness. Turns out, when this part shows up again word-for-word, that it's the chorus. Is ridiculous, and I have no idea why this guy is big, but the track is catchy, makes me smile anyway. BORDERLINE TICK.
Kevin Rudolf ft. Lil Wayne, Birdman, & Jay Sean "I Made It (Cash Money Heroes)": An OK melody from Kevin, Jay is even weaker and blanker than when solo, Birdman is only functionally rappish, yet the overall sound is appealing. And when Wayne finally shows up and starts fucking around for real, he's actually funny. "I lay it down so hard I got a bedrash/And I just tell 'em to loaf it when the bread pass." BORDERLINE TICK.
Blake Shelton ft. Trace Adkins "Hillbilly Bone": The rhythm section gives us good bubbling soul-funk, with Blake and Trace up top with a deep reduced drawl that highlights the groove but is a waste of two fine singers, and of the groove. NO TICK.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-03-22 11:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-22 11:42 am (UTC)It's been such a strange couple of years: there's the sudden freedom to try out all sorts of styles and rhythms, with loads of ideas and lots of potential, but so many failures too, and who becomes a star and who doesn't almost seems random. But at least Nicki's work ethic is paying off.