Take a listen to Maroon 5’s new single, “Payphone” featuring Wiz Khalifa!
Continue reading Ear Candy >> Maroon 5 feat. Wiz Khalifa – “Payphone”
Tag: Max Martin
Carolina Liar’s Chad Wolf Talks Touring and “Going For Broke” on ‘Wild Blessed Freedom’
Chad Wolf, lead singer of Carolina Liar, discusses touring with David Cook and Gavin DeGraw and the band’s latest album, Wild Blessed Freedom.
Continue reading Carolina Liar’s Chad Wolf Talks Touring and “Going For Broke” on ‘Wild Blessed Freedom’
Music Review >> Glee Cast – “New York”
Included in the last batch of Glee tracks which could be heard in last week’s season two finale “New York” were four new original songs, Matthew Morrison’s latest single, and one of the best duets from the entire season.
It wouldn’t truly be Glee without one final mash-up of the season. The mash-up of Madonna’s “I Love New York” with On The Town’s “New York, New York” is interesting. Glee definitely sped up the tempo from the original Madonna song, which gave it more of a pop feel and kind of took away the song’s edge. I did like Cory Monteith (Finn) and Naya Rivera (Santana) on lead vocals together. It’s nice to mix up the Lea Michele/Monteith leads every so often. I like that Glee kind of put in the effort this season to let Rivera shine a little more.
I couldn’t help, but crack up a little at Mark Salling (Puck), Chord Overstreet (Sam), and Kevin McHale’s (Artie) “Bella Notte,” which is from Disney’s Lady and The Tramp. It’s one of those songs that you don’t expect to hear on Glee, but it’s still just oh-so charming. The song is sung well by all three guys. I like that it’s not overtly cheesy, and would fit nicely alongside other tracks on your Glee playlist.
Matt Morrison (Will) took a turn in the spotlight with “Still Got Tonight,” which was co-written by American Idol season eight winner, Kris Allen. The song is Morrison’s current single off of his recently released debut album. Crossover promotion at it’s finest! I really like this song. I think it’s a great mid-tempo pop track that I hope does well for Morrison.
Music Review >> Glee Cast – “Original Song”
In this week’s mix of music, Glee offered up three full-length original tracks, as well as three tracks from Dalton Academy’s Warblers, and a solo from Chris Colfer. To be honest, this was probably one of the best weeks for Glee, musically speaking.
Let’s talk about the original songs, shall we? Both “Get It Right” and “Loser Like 
 Me” debuted after the announcement that there would be original songs on Glee this season a few weeks ago.
Upon first listen, I was semi-horrified at “Loser Like Me.” It’s co-written by the master writer of all pop songs, Max Martin, so I felt like I had to give the song another chance. It’s definitely a Max Martin song. It has a good beat and cheesy, yet catchy lyrics.
I think that it should not have been sung by Lea Michele (Rachel) and Cory Monteith (Finn). I am assuming they were showcased in the song, since it was being used for Regionals, and neither of them were featured in the songs used for Sectionals. I think that Mark Salling (Puck) and Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina) would have been a better fit for the song. Ushkowitz is a wasted talent on the show and deserves her turn in the spotlight.
Michele’s voice on “Get It Right” is phenomenal. I love how her vocals are reined in, and then build up to that wonderful glory note. I seriously got chills while listening to it. I also love how the song related to Michele’s character’s storyline.
The thing with both “Get It Right” and “Loser Like Me” is that they work much better within context of the episode, which is definitely a good thing. I think both songs are pretty good anthems, and hopefully they do speak to the audience. But for me, I probably won’t be singing along to them in my car anytime soon.
“Hell To The No” was the third original song included in with this week’s song releases. Amber Riley (Mercedes) takes the lead on this very much ridiculous track. I just can’t take this song seriously when there’s a line about the previous tots storyline. Also, this is probably Riley’s weakest vocal performance to date. She sounded as if she was shouting throughout the length of the song.
Continue reading Music Review >> Glee Cast – “Original Song”
‘Glee’ to Debut Original Songs On Latest Compilation Album
Glee: The Music Volume 5 is due out March 8 and will include fan favorite tracks like “Don’t You Want Me,” “Need You Now,” and “Take Me or Leave Me.” The compilation album will also feature Gwyneth Paltrow on three tracks.
In a Glee first, there are two original songs to be found on this latest volume of music. The song “Loser Like Me” was co-written by the one and only Max Martin. The song is described as “an energetic ensemble track.” The song “Get It Right” is a ballad sung by Lea Michele. These two tracks will be featured during the March 15 episode of Glee.
This past week was the show’s biggest sales week since it began, with 880,000 songs downloaded. As a result, seven Glee songs found their way to the iTunes Top Songs chart.
Over 24 million Glee songs have been downloaded to date, and Glee has sold over 9 million albums worldwide. Glee: The Music Volume 1 has been certified Platinum, recognizing sales of over 1 million copies sold.
Glee: The Music Volume 5 will be available a couple of Tuesdays from now (March 8). For more information on music from Glee, check out the official music website.
Glee: The Music Volume 5 Track listing:
1. “Thriller”/”Heads Will Roll”
2. “Need You Now”
3. “She’s Not There”
4. “Fat Bottomed Girls”
5. “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”
6. “Firework”
7. “Baby”
8. “Somebody To Love”
9. “Take Me or Leave Me”
10. “Sing”
11. “Don’t You Want Me”
12. “Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)”
13. “Kiss”
14. “Landslide”
15. “Get It Right”
16. “Loser Like Me”
Originally posted on BlogCritics.
Ear Candy: Britney Spears — “Hold It Against Me”
Britney Spears is hitting the music scene again with her first single, “Hold It Against Me” off her seventh studio album slated to be released later this year.
With all the hype for Ms. Spears’ new album coming out this spring, I was expecting her first single to be the best we’ve ever heard from her. Frankly, it’s just not.
“Hold It Against Me,” which is the work of producers, Dr. Luke and Max Martin, is a definite club thumper. The beat immediately makes you want to get up and dance, but maybe not sing-a-long to.
The lyrics definitely leave much to be desired. They seem so amateur and ridiculous in comparison to lyrics from past lead singles. Britney songs aren’t literary masterpieces by any means, but usually they have some kind of substance to them. Also, during my initial listen of the song, I feel like the lyrics are too slow for the song during the verses.
The one part of the song that I did enjoy is the breakdown. The beats are fantastic. I hope that there will be some excellent choreography to be paired with it for the music video.
I really expected a lot more from Britney’s first single. This doesn’t scream to me that she’s back; It actually feels like she picked out a leftover song from 2007’s Blackout. As a longtime fan of Britney’s, “Hold It Against Me” is an absolute letdown.
Take a listen to “Hold It Against Me” below.
Follow me on Twitter! @KirsCoachman
Ear Candy >> Avril Lavigne — “What The Hell”
It seems that Avril Lavigne is continuing to embrace the pop side of her musical self that we were introduced to on her 2007 album The Best Damn Thing. The infusion of pop in her music is continuing to work out in her favor. Her latest single “What The Hell” (co-written and produced by Max Martin) was released earlier this week and climbed to number three on iTunes within a matter of hours.
Lavigne continues to do what she does best, which is make songs that people, especially women, can relate to. “What The Hell” is about tossing caution to the wind in life and relationships, and doing things that we normally wouldn’t do. What person doesn’t at least daydream about doing this?
The melody sounds pretty simple upon first listen, but when you listen closely there are a lot of layers to the track which in turn give it that kick of fun, bop-around-to-it-pop sound.
Overall, the song is produced well, the beat is catchy, and the lyrics are relatable and easy to sing-a-long to. Those are definitely the necessary ingredients of a hit song in the making.
“What The Hell” is available of iTunes now. Avril Lavigne’s fourth studio album, Goodbye Lullaby is due out March 8.
For more information on Avril Lavigne, please visit her official website.
Take a listen to “What The Hell” below.
Originally posted on BlogCritics.
Follow me on Twitter! @KirsCoachman
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