Kelly Clarkson is a vanilla-scented tornado when it comes to pop-rock-country slammers like this "Single Ladies"–style ode to locking it the heck down.
Not that it matters at all, but the ACTUAL WORDS to this song: "If you want me, I'm accepting applications / So long as we can keep this record on rotation / You know I'm good with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation / Breath me in, breathe me out / So amazing." Maybe Selena can get Harmony Korine to write not just her dialogue but her lyrics, too?
Joey Bada$$'s breathless, mind-boggling '90s fetishization — the kid was born halfway through the decade — rolls on. I mean, I don't know for a fact, but I'm pretty sure the last person to have said the phrase "word is bond" had just unironically purchased limited-edition Brand Nubian vinyl and was wearing an upside-down/backward Puma visor.
In 1865, a druggist from Waterloo, New York, named Henry C. Wells proposed a day to commemorate the massive loss of life in the Civil War. By the next year, with the support of General John B. Murray, the very first Memorial Day was held; by last century, Memorial Day had become a day to honor all members of the armed services who lost their lives in combat. But you were planning on commemorating the occasion by dragging a beach chair up to your friend's neighbor's roof and drinking Corona Lights all day, weren't you? Well, look, that's all fine and good. But maybe we can take this opportunity to remember some stuff, too. For example, here's Kendrick Lamar's crew Black Hippy giving Rocko's radio hit yet another makeover. The original featured the Rick Ross verse, in which he alluded to providing women with Molly without her consent, got him in hot water and dropped by Reebok. On the Hippy version, it's Schoolboy Q addressing the situation: "Molly in her drink ... but she asked me for it." Talk about learning from others' mistakes! See, remembering stuff is fun.
It's pretty baldly manipulative for Kelly Rowland to nab The-Dream and make a sultry confessional about an abusive ex-boyfriend that's also about her complicated relationship with Beyoncé and call it, with all the subtlety of a closed fist to the eye socket, "Dirty Laundry." That doesn't make it any less ballsy or interesting, though; please, listen now. In related news: Hiring The-Dream to write your songs for you is always a good idea. Hell, hiring The-Dream to do anything for you is probably a good idea. I'd pay that guy an exorbitant amount of money to clean my rain gutters.
Bowie's new video depicts, among other things, priests partying and a touch of stigmata; as you might have expected, the Catholic League was not amused. Writes the League's prez Bill Donohue, "The switch-hitting, bisexual, senior citizen from London has resurfaced, this time playing a Jesus-like character who hangs out in a nightclub dump frequented by priests, cardinals and half-naked women ... in short, the video reflects the artist — it is a mess." I might be reading this wrong, but is it at all possible — considering the strangely jovial and florid word choices above — that Bill Donohue is all aggy right now because his MP3 blog never took off?
I’m disinclined to declare the next MGMT record a make-or-break moment for these erstwhile synth-poppers-cum-weirdo psych-rock doodlers. As a defender of 2010’s little loved Congratulations — “Flash Delirium” is a lost jam! — I think MGMT’s not wholly successful attempt to subvert the immediacy of early singles like “Kids” and “Electric Feel” in the form of druggy, wanky, hook-deficient, multipart song suites ranks among the most fascinating post-success freak-outs of the last decade. But, sure, from a commercial standpoint, the new “Alien Days” — which doubles down on the inscrutability of Congratulations — suggests MGMT’s days as a festival headliner are probably behind it. Nevertheless, I welcome further freak-outs from these guys.
After oodles of anticipatory action, the full Daft Punk x Pharrell single is finally here, and so now the Internet can start arguing about it (vis-à-vis the correctness of the hype cycle, over/underratedness, classic dance music vs. neo-EDM, etc. etc.). Don't fall into the trap! Just put this on blast, on repeat, find a friend, and do something along the lines of this here for a while:
Queens of the Stone Age’s forthcoming ... Like Clockwork is my favorite album of 2013. Now, I haven’t actually heard ... Like Clockwork yet, other than the first single, “My God Is the Sun,” released this week. But I’m confident that “My God Is the Sun” will end up being only the fifth- or sixth-best track on the record. Because, while the song is pretty good, the album will be amazing — it has Dave Grohl on drums, Elton John on piano, Trent Reznor on Satanic vibes, Nick Oliveri on sub-Satanic vibes, and it has Josh Homme, the finest pop-metal tunesmith of his generation, back for the first time in six years making electrifying alt-rock kibble for nonexistent alt-rock radio stations. The only way this isn’t my album of the year is if the Homme-produced Mickey Melchiondo solo joint sees the light of day before ’13 is through — at which point my ecstatic 23-year-old self will rise from the dead and feast on the discarded pizza scraps of the living.
In the past week, brothers Jeff and Eric Rosenthal of sketch comedy duo ItsTheReal have released a DJ Drama–hosted mixtape, Urbane Outfitters, with the likes of Hannibal Buress, Bun B, Maino, Lil Jon, and Freeway; been written up in a variety of outlets, from the New York Times to Billboard to Fast Company; and retweeted Macklemore nine times. To close out their week, they're doing our Songs of the Week, because it's the final step in "making it."
Jeff Rosenthal: These are the things that go “tadow” for French Montana: his chopper, her ass, his money, and his bling. I don’t know if it’s a sound or an adjective or a combonomatopoeia, but it’s certainly something I’m adding to my everyday-speak.
Rembert Browne: Why aren't you guys in the N.O.R.E./P.A.P.I. video for "Built Pyramids”?
This week we're handing the Songs of the Week mic over to Claire L. Evans, sci-fi sage, sometime model, and one half of the conceptual pop group YACHT. Those of you in the Los Angeles area can catch them this weekend headlining at the Santa Monica Pier for 98.7's All Bands on Deck! show, and everybody else with a working Internet connection can download their impossible-not-to-dance-to single "Second Summer" on iTunes. Take it away, Claire!
If Reincarnated — the genuinely moving new documentary about Snoop Lion (née Dogg) going to Jamaica to express his longstanding belief in peace, love, and smoking weed out of hollowed-out carrots, in the style of Bunny Wailer — is to be believed, there's a song on his upcoming record about eating a grapefruit for the first time. The best mise-en-scène in the movie is Snoop leaping ineffectually at low-hanging fruit in a tropical citrus grove, backdropped by a literal mountainside of wild-growing marijuana, real Jamaican chalice-herb. I wish I could quantum leap to this summer, because I already know this record is going to be the soundtrack.
Lil Wayne ft. 2 Chainz, "R.A.F."
First things first: In a new video released to TMZ, Lil Wayne shows himself for the first time since his terrible seizure scare, says he's "more than good," and actually seems like he is. I mean this is a person we all thought might actually die a week ago, and now he's eating lollipops and announcing tours and palling around with T.I.? He's also totally indifferent about his new record I Am Not a Human Being 2 coming out ("my bum-ass album coming out March 26 ... it's 26? You're gonna get that shit or you won't. If not, it's whatever"). Is it because it's secretly a contractually mandated, mailed-in release? Is it because, as is necessitated by any brush with death, he's had all his priorities radically transformed and now just wants to live and think and appreciate ladybugs? Or is it because he knows his last album, Tha Carter IV, sold nearly a million copies its first week despite not being very good, meaning our dude is at a point of lifelong, tween-based fame where he could release the pencil-scratch noises from the latest Trukfit zebra-print-hoodie design session and still move major units? Oh, also: above, his new, surprisingly kind of dope new single.
I have a beard, I own both What's Going On and Thriller on vinyl, my collection of rap magazines with Rick Ross on the cover is impressive, and on overcast days I'm usually posted up inside the crib, making cat videos. This clip settles it: I am only a skull-candle (and several bazillion dollars’ worth of jewelry) away from being Rick Ross.
Karen O says the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, Mosquito, was recorded during "dark times" — while guitarist Nick Zinner was going through a breakup, O herself was working through an "identity crisis" after moving back to New York from L.A. for a while. (Meanwhile, drummer Brian Chase had to put up with two depressed people.) O: "So whenever we'd go into our studio space, we would just try and play music that was as uplifting and cheerful. The music is more of a prescription for what we were feeling. It was like a pep talk." On this, Mosquito's first single, we have Karen working it out alongside the yearning blast of a gospel choir swell, shaking and strutting her blues right off. Now this is quality therapy on the cheap.
No, Kendrick didn't get the Janet Jackson cameo he so rightly desired, but this clip is certainly still worth your time, at the very least as a chance to bask in the warm glory that is Kendrick's extended victory lap: This is either the third or fourth single (depending on if you count "The Recipe," which ended up being relegated to bonus cut status) off Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, and how can you be mad at one of the best albums of last year seeing this kind of long-lasting action? Also, this is a really good chance to reexamine the wondrously complete Drake-iness of Drake's verse: advocacy for improved relationship communication? Poems about "fun sex"? Sundresses?! Perfect.
