Bruno Mars–Today My Life Begins

Not a single, and this is from his 2nd album (yet to be released).

Ah, finally this is more like it, I think! I haven’t been too turned on by Bruno Mars’ music, despite his strong voice, at least in the way of much of the content off his debut album Doo-Wops and Hooligans; Just the Way You Are is a large pile of sugar that, for me, is unbearably saccharine (though I can understand why people may like it), and Grenade, though technically sound is still somewhat overdramatic. Quite a number of people have made Marry You chart, but I personally find that song completely unlistenable as in terms of sugar it is even worse than Just the Way You Are. Nevertheless, I did enjoy Grenade, and The Other Side which featured Cee-Lo Green and B.o.B went down pretty well with me. Of course, not forgetting the successful, saccharine and yet good Nothin’ on You with B.o.B. I like this song, despite its sweet, generic message; it’s much in the vein of Firework. The sugar level is pleasurable without being overbearing.

Could this be a continuation of a storyline? Together with B.o.B, they fell in love with girls on Nothin’ on You and Bruno took a step further, going Just The Way You Are. He then angsted over it with Grenade and broke out of the withdrawal phase with Today My Life Begins! Heh.

Vocally, he’s good as always, the production is simple, very generic, but sound. It’s an empowering song, and excellent for me to practice singing to too. I’m quite pleased with this output. As far as I’m concerned, probably his best song yet.

OVERALL SCORE = 6.5 / 10
Today My Life Begins is a pretty solid offering from Bruno Mars. It’s quite a generic song, but a good one nonetheless.

Usher–More

Released November 22, 2010.
US: #70 (album version)
UK: #26 (RedOne remixed version)

I’ve liked quite a bit of Usher’s songs, as mentioned in my previous post, I enjoyed There Goes My Baby and also DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love. He had four other releases in 2010, if I recall correctly – Papers, Hey Daddy (Daddy’s Home) ft. Plies, Lil Freak ft. Nicki Minaj and OMG ft. will.i.am. The quality does range a lot; Papers was good and pretty much in the style of Burn and Moving Mountains, though the latter is still my choice for relationship troubles it was pretty decent. Hey Daddy is pretty middle of the road for me, with this questionable line:

And tonight we’re gonna do a lot of sexin’ – Doesn’t that sound insidious.

A little disturbing, and though it was kinda fun to listen to Plies when he did Bust It Baby (Pt. 2) with Ne-Yo, it seemed to up the disturbing factor a little; his shouty bridge here didn’t work for me. Lil Freak was admittedly fun and the heavy bass beats were good, though there’s unnecessary swearing, the lyrics are about a threesome, and Nicki Minaj releases 2 questionable lyrics:

I’m hotter than 100 degrees – Somehow this wouldn’t appeal to some of the Americans, or the scientists, for that matter.
…
Everybody loves Raymond! – HAHA, he’s Usher Raymond, yes……

Nevertheless, it was enjoyable. And then we had OMG, which was just… a rather weird mess, which though on a critical level I found horrible, actually wasn’t really that unlistenable at all! He hasn’t been doing badly, even on the weaker releases.

This one’s somewhat in between the best and the worst, but as far as I’m concerned doesn’t disappoint. Firstly, the RedOne version. Very danceable, as most of the producer’s releases have been, but is that ‘LET THE BEAT ROCK’ I hear in the vocal bridge section or something else? What exactly is that sound? I do not need to be reminded of Boom Boom Pow, and furthermore this sample was already used in OMG! Or am I hearing things?

The album version, second. Actually I think this is somewhat better than the RedOne remix, it’s more to my preference, I guess, with the harder, sharper, clearer drum hits, better introduction (I think so personally). But I still seem to hear some mechanical-ish voices in the background during the bridge. I don’t think it’s ‘LET THE BEAT ROCK’, something more like ‘GG-GIVE IT MORE’, but it’s annoying and I find detracts from the song.

Either way, I’m pleased by the vocal performance here. It’s strong, commendably timed and not easy to follow; at least he wasn’t wasting his pipes as much as compared to OMG or Lil Freak (though in the latter case I don’t mind, the track was fun nevertheless). Both versions are rather solid club-bangers; I can’t say whether I prefer this or DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love, both are very, very passable. Pitbull’s better than those irritating mechanical voices, but More (album version) has a beat I prefer.

Lyrically, this is one egotistical song, which isn’t a problem in and of itself, and the chorus though nonsensical (bring out the fire? Light what up and take what up higher? Push what to the limit???) is actually quite nice, I think. That said, there are bits that strike me wrongly, mainly in the pre-chorus sections.

Know y’all been patiently waiting, I know you need me, I can feel it,
I’m a beast, I’m an animal, – Somehow this sounds better done by Ke$ha.
I’m that monster in the mirror, – Why am I reminded of Man in the Mirror? Not good.
The headliner, finisher, I’m the closer, winner.
Best when under pressure one second’s left I show up – I see why this was used for the NBA, but… I don’t know what you’re trying to get at!

Despite the prechorus which I’m still confused about, most of it’s a good song, it’s definitely catchy. I’m a bit concerned with all these high ratings I’ve been awarding, but I guess it’s more normal for me to want to write about good songs, so the average would be quite a bit higher than 5.0 which is more like an average across the board for singles, whether I like them like Airplanes, fail to understand them, like, well, Teach Me How to Dougie, see them as overhyped (Airplanes (Part II), for one), or what.

OVERALL SCORE = 6.0 / 10
More is a solid club-banger that doesn’t disappoint. It’s slightly lighter in production than DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love (I’m talking about the album version) and it’s highly danceable, though it doesn’t do much more than come off as a by-the-numbers performance to me. Nevertheless, Usher by the numbers is still relatively good.

Singles Picks from the 2010 Year End Chart

I’m picking my Top 10 singles from last year’s Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart. Honestly, this year I’ve found there’s quite a dearth of singles that I’ve really enjoyed – unlike 2009, where I would have a big headache choosing what I like. To keep the list a bit more interesting, I’ve disqualified any songs that charted on last year’s Billboard year-end chart too. So no Down, Use Somebody, or I Gotta Feeling, three songs I can remember that ARE repeated, and all were reasonably enjoyable, and would beat Hard which is my #10 pick for this year. Anyway, thus my top 10 from this year’s chart. Some of these songs in terms of position or rating will have shifted quite a bit from when I first heard them – being exposed to them for a while has caused some to grow, and has caused me to be repulsed by others.

10. Hard, Rihanna ft. Young Jeezy (#49)
This is one fun track, especially when the music video is considered – we have precision drills, rather awkward cleavage, and Rihanna in Mickey Mouse styled ears sitting on the barrel of a pink-coloured tank. It’s hilarious really, though seriously considering it, I’d find it merely decent. Jeezy’s featured section is nice, though, especially this little gem:

See my Louis chucks, Louis bag, Louis frames –
Louis belt, what that make me, “Louis Mane”?

A rather amusing diss to Gucci Mane. The way it’s phrased, it hardly fails to crack me up. Score point for Jeezy! The song as a whole is a pleasurable egotistical explosion for me. 6.5 / 10

9. Replay, Iyaz (#25)
As the song itself claims, it’s left a melody in my head, though it wouldn’t be stuck in my MP3 player on replay-ay-ay-ay… Anyway, since when does a song replaying sound like THAT? Nevertheless, I find Replay a generic but fun summer pop song that, well, is good enough for me to pay less attention to the lyrics. It’s a very good (and fierce) DDR track too, it seems. As a relaxed song, it fits the bill. 6.5 / 10

8. Take It Off, Ke$ha (#59)
The Billboard #1 single of the year, somewhat infuriatingly and somewhat hilariously is TiK ToK by Ke$ha, which I must admit is catchy, though she’s not good as a rapper and the lyrics… well I think more than enough has been said about brushing teeth with Jack, and the P. Diddy and Mick Jagger references. I still think TiK ToK is decent, though I slightly prefer this one, partly because she doesn’t rap and chooses to sing instead. Not to mention the incredible music video with its glitter-filled explosions. Go hardcore… and there’s glitter on the floor, indeed. The message is a little questionable, yes (I’ll regret in the morn… But tonight, I don’t give a, I don’t give a…) but nevertheless I’ve found the song enjoyable. You could say this is a bit of a guilty pleasure, but it’s sufficiently good as a track to enable me to tolerate the rather uncomfortable lyrics. It’s a fun listen. 6.5 / 10

7. Whataya Want From Me, Adam Lambert (#45)
Decent work, and it has a powerful, rousing chorus – though personally I think a certain song released later this year (but too late to reach this year’s Year-End chart), Katy Perry’s Firework does it better. Nevertheless, this is also a good song and much better than the awkward For Your Entertainment or pass track If I Had You. The score given may seem a little low for 7th place (only 6 out of the 100 charting songs would score 7.0 or more), but I really haven’t heard much on this chart that I like this year. There have been good tracks this year, but I’ve found most of them to be non-singles, or non-charters. 6.5 / 10

6. Nothin’ on You, B.o.B ft. Bruno Mars (#11)
I originally rated this one 7.5 out of 10, though in hindsight that was rather generous because the song gets grating after much listening. I still enjoy the song, and some parts are cute (and all the bad thoughts – just let them go (go!) go (go!) go!) but this song being a mountain of cheese is still a problem. Airplanes is much better, for B.o.B, and although pretty much all the songs I’ve listened to by Bruno Mars are cheesy, I actually prefer the probably even more ridiculous Count on Me. It’s a solid song nevertheless. I won’t change the original rating, though if you asked me now I’d probably go with 7.0 / 10.

5. There Goes My Baby, Usher (#83)
Over many years of releasing a wide variety of tracks, I’ve been quite impressed by Usher’s ability to perform different kinds of songs very well. I’ve enjoyed the lighter dance tracks like Yeah!, You Make Me Wanna and even DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love, as well as his incredibly powerful vocals on the more ballad-like songs like Confessions Part II and especially the epic Moving Mountains, which probably remains one of my favourite tracks, partly because of its ridiculous video and partly due to the incredible range he shows off. This one’s more of the latter type, and is very powerful as well, though the lyrics are… nothing special, at all. It’s good, though I still prefer Moving Mountains. Nevertheless, with nothing much good this year, this is a solid charter for me too. 7.0 / 10 

4. Meet Me Halfway, The Black Eyed Peas (#58)
Personally, I find their work goes all over the place in terms of quality, with good hits like this one and I Gotta Feeling, and egregiously bad ones like Boom Boom Pow, Imma Be; the most recent one The Time left me really ambivalent more than anything. From The E.N.D., though, in my opinion this is the standout track. It’s an enjoyable mid-tempo dance track, Fergie’s voice sounds good, and the mutualistic love story is actually quite compelling. The video is epic too, with an elephant on the moon, a journey to the sun and a seeming forest paradise. 7.5 / 10

3. If I Die Young, The Band Perry (#92)
This might sound somewhat generic, but it’s highly pleasing to the ear, and again does well in terms of lyrics. It’s pretty thought provoking about the ephemerality and vulnerability of life, it’s well sung, and the instrumentals are also very well executed. It’s really pretty solid all round, and I guess for me is probably the most balanced example of a song that I would award 8.0 / 10.

2. Find Your Love, Drake (#32)
Reminds me pleasantly of Heartless, one of my favourite songs from Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak album. His voice sounds vulnerable, which is effective for the song! It’s simple, yet really good. It’s much to my preference relative to some of his other songs (Forever with Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem, and Best I Ever Had). Not to mention the video was enjoyable, if a little over-dramatic. 8.0 / 10

1. Airplanes, B.o.B ft. Hayley Williams (#6)
Read the full review here, but I still can’t seem to get enough of this song. It’s a rather surprising choice for a young rapper like B.o.B in terms of lyrical content but it’s an absolute winner in my book! Still find the song pretty nice and inspirational, though some of the original glow it might have had when it was first release has faded. Nevertheless, for me I guess it remains the best song of a (well, radio-based) musically generally unimpressive year. 9.0 / 10

Honorable Mentions:
Telephone, Lady GaGa ft. Beyonce
Teenage Dream, Katy Perry
Club Can’t Handle Me, Flo Rida ft. David Guetta (this has grown on me)
Only Girl (In The World), Rihanna
Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart, Alicia Keys
Lover, Lover, Jerrod Niemann