Year In America August 21, 2008

[koganbot]

Olympic platitudes from Chris and Taylor, David warms up the studio, Yung Berg satisfies Casha but not me.

David Archuleta "Crush": Combo of sugar and anguish similar to Jordin and Chris on "No Air"; his lower register has more feeling than it did on AI; this is generic but far better than he gave us on Idol. Easy TICK.

Taylor Swift "Change": A wave of guitars and cymbals, her tenuous expressive voice as fetching and biting as ever, but the lyrics are boring abstractions - "These walls/That they put up/To hold us back/Will fall down" - and the chorus is a nondescript wash. A TICK for sure, but disappointing.

Chris Brown "Dreamer": His voice is precise against a choppy rhythm, but layered-in African harmonies give this a Kumbaya feel. This is worthless piffle. NO TICK.

Yung Berg f. Casha "The Business": "You know just what to do/You give me the business," sings a delighted Casha. At this point, all r&b sex lyrics sound like parodies. Song takes interesting form, all intros and curlicues, but the result is still dumb and dull. NO TICK.

Comments

[koganbot]

According to Wiki, "Crush" is written by Jess Cates, Dave Hodges, and Emanuel Kiriakou and produced by Emanuel Kiriakou. Cates I don't know anything about, Hodges used to play piano in Evanescence, then co-wrote and co-produced "Because Of You" and "Addicted" on Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway and was her object of affection in "Never Again," Kiriakou has written and produced a whole bunch of stuff, almost none of which has ever come to my attention except for Nick Lachey's "What's Left Of Me," which I can barely remember now. For that matter, the second that "Crush" ends, its melody has evaporated from my memory. Still is a nice bit of music. Watching American Idol I was irritated by David's demonstrating a bubbly personality while holding his actual personality in reserve. Made him seem a blank. On this song he's not a personality either, but that's not necessarily a drawback; it's just several minutes of good sound, not several minutes of identifiably David Archuleta sound, the latter not yet existing.