The Singles Guy 10.19.09: Who Called It?
Posted by Jacob Crogie on 10.19.2009
Every once in a while I am so right that it scares even me. Down With Webster, you may have heard of them, you may have not, but if you live in Canada you soon will. We also get the latest from Britney & 30 Seconds to Mars, but nothing tops DWW!
What to put here...I got nothing. It's been another average week with little that stands out, other than the fact that the Leafs still suck and my Sens are playing phenomenally.
Hot 100
Britney Spears- "3"
There are moments in which I feel there is no hope for the music industry, that good bands and great songs will never reach the top while cookie-cutter pop/dance/rap dominates the scene. This past week, I had one of those moments when this horrid track debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. This song takes all the worst elements of dance and Euro-pop and mashes them together over Robo-Britney's increasingly annoying vocals. Incredibly stupid lyrics punctuate this mess of a track, and for those scoring at home, its about threesomes. Remember that when you see a 12 year old girl chanting along with the straight out of the playground hook. I'm already disgusted by this track and can't believe or understand its drawing power.
The Arbitrary Rating of Goodness: 0/5
Like It? Listen To This: "If You Seek Amy"- Britney Spears
Rock
30 Seconds to Mars- "Kings And Queens"
I use the term "Rock" very lightly in this sense although I must confess myself to be a fan of "The Kill". This track lacks the punch of that track but is a solid enough single in its own right. Although, I find the lyrical styling throughout to be overly ambitious and often seem tired. They are trying to hard in other words. The screaming dashed throughout is pretty impressive though and provides a solid backbone for the track to be built off of, but it never really gets going. The instrumentation is merely average, dwelling as usual on sparkling guitar work and a modest sprinkling of piano. It's generic and a tad over the top, but still a good enough track that I won't change the radio station when it comes on. When I'm as rich as Jared Leto, I'll buy my own band as well.
The Arbitrary Rating of Goodness: 2.5/5
Like It? Listen To This: "From Yesterday"- 30 Seconds to Mars
Dance
Cazwell- "Tonight (Day & To-Nite Mix)"
I received this track a little while back in my inbox, and immediately I was both impressed and unimpressed with it. The lyrics and hook are retro to the max and sound like they could have been on Dance Mix 95, and that isn't a bad thing when putting together a dance track. Problem with this one is the mix, why bother trying to rip off Kid Cudi's Crooker's remix? Surely there was a better mix available. To me, this seems a blatant attempt to cash in on the success of the aforementioned mix, and as such decreases the overall effect of the track. Solid lyrics, terrible mix, altogether very fixable with someone else at the production helm.
The Arbitrary Rating of Goodness: 2/5
Like It? Listen To This: "Day & Nite" (Crooker's Remix)- Kid Cudi
Well. Not posted on youtube...look it up at your leisure.
Country
Eric Church- "Hell On The Heart"
Keith Urban wannabee Eric Church is back on the charts this week with this terrible song which is saved only by the banjo in the background. Terribly cliched lyrics ie. the hook, "she's heaven on the eyes, hell on the heart". What separates this from the mass of other country ballads about wild girls? The answer is nothing, its absolutely generic in every possible way. Let me tell you, that makes it very hard to write anything poignant or critical about it. There is no substance to this track.
The Arbitrary Rating of Goodness: 1/5
Like It? Listen To This: "Trying To Stop Your Leaving" - Dierks Bentley
Canadian Content
Down With Webster- "Rich Girl$"
These guys are another one of my personal favorites and I would simply like to mention that I was waaaaay ahead of the curve. Read through some of my older columns and you will see the love for DWW, we were blaring their tracks all over 3M in Saugeen long before they made any kind of radio impact. This track is not as good as the older stuff, it seems to be too polished and radio friendly. How cool is sampling Hall & Oates though? Its not like that happens everyday. The guitar solo is pretty awesome though, and the lyrics are classic DWW. They still have the party feel going for them, there just seems to be something missing on this track in comparison to phenomenal tracks like "Grind" and "Ten". They sound more along the lines of Stereos than they should though.
The Arbitrary Rating of Goodness: 3.5/5
Like It? Listen To This: "Grind"- Down With Webster
The Jacob Crogie Seal of Awesomeness
Down With Webster- "Odies"
Might as well go all out...again. It's about getting drunk, stoned and having no preconceptions. Fucking. Epic.
So that's it for another week, be sure to tune in same time next week when we get all the latest and the greatest plus all the crap that everyone else likes...
