Salı 5 May 2009, 3:27
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(Left)
Ayo
Lionel Richie
Flo Rida
(Right)
Coldplay
MSTRKRFT
Thunderheist
Roughly, my taste in music has been a bit broadened in the last few weeks and this selection of new CDs is even more unexpected to me than the last time. I've never hated or been against any of these artists above, but at least, it's only recently that I got an idea of buying a Coldplay CD out of pocket.
I've known the guys of MSTRKRFT only for their remix works for such artists as Jesse McCartney and Ayumi Hamasaki, but I just learned that they also released their own albums and that the latest one, Fist Of God, features a lot of Hip-Hop/R&B big names as guest performers. The tracks with E-40, Freeway, Ghostface Killah and John Legend are all hot, but my most favorite one off of this album is "Breakaway," which features vocals by Jahmal Tonge of Toronto-based rock duo The Carps.
Thunderheist, which is made up of Isis (MC) and Grahm Zilla (producer), is a new artist to me. After finding Isis featured on a MSTRKRFT track called "Bounce" along with N.O.R.E., I thought of checking out Thunderheist's own material. Their self-titled debut album Thunderheist was released March and is a great Electro-Hip-Hop record that may remind you of the sound of Baltimore Club music.
Just Go, the latest album from legendary soul/pop artist Lionel Richie, successfully merges Richie's sensitive vocals with modern urban edges and is much more consistent than the previous one, Coming Home. This album features productions from today's super hitmakers such as StarGate, Tricky Stewart (with The-Dream) and Akon (with Giorgio Tuinfort), but they didn't try to make Richie sound too young or too urban but just provided sophisticated melodies and smooth sounds that actually fit to the vocals. Along with Charlie Wilson's latest effort, this will surely be among my year-end list and I'm very amazed that the legends who had a career of more than 40 years still can be so focused on making new music for today's audiences.
I'm sure that some of you don't really like Flo Rida and his music, but all that he has done is to be successful with established rapping skills and well-produced beats that everyone can dance to and sing along with and then I can't really see the point of hating him. You may diss him because his music is not "real," but in my opinion, as long as it's party music that people just dance to, it doesn't matter at all if it's "real" or not. It just sounds reasonable that Luther Campbell aka Luke of 2 Live Crew was his mentor. The new album, R.O.O.T.S., contains a bunch of audience-friendly Hip-Pop tunes and you can definitely enjoy it. The remake of "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" is irresistible.