The American Idol watchers amongst you will recognize Elliott Yamin from that show. An unorthodox contestant for the show, Yamin nevertheless gained major approval from Simon Cowell, who lauded him as “potentially the best male vocalist ever” on Idol.
With For You is Elliott’s first official single from his forthcoming self-titled album.
Here’s a thing – in my last post I took Beyonce to task for sounding repetitive. Now we move on to Amerie, whose singles have a very similar big snare and swelling horns sound. Unfortunately for Amerie, she has the same problem that her singles sound very, very similar to each other.
Then she has the double problem that her sound is very like the aforementioned Miss Knowles.
After 100 weeks as the UK’s number 1 single with Umbrella, the general public should know who Rihanna is by now. Let’s face it, Umbrella has been the soundtrack for this summer.
In contrast to the smooth R&B of Umbrella, Shut Up And Drive ramps up the distorted guitars and we end up with an infectious fusion of rock and pop.
Well, when she’s not busy getting arrested (and resisting said arrest), Kelis can still churn out some fantastic music.
Never in a million years did I think the shouter singer of Caught Out There could do sensitive. But that’s exactly what she manages to achieve with Little Star. It’s a funky soulful collaboration with Cee-Lo. Funny, but the name Cee-Lo meant nothing to me, until I saw the video and recognised him instantly as ‘the big guy from Gnarls Barkley’.
I’m not afraid to admit that I was an early fan of Destiny’s Child. There was always something aluring about their ‘independent woman’ attitude, infectious tunes and skimpy clothes. Beyonce could kick my ass to the curb any day of the week…
That all changed when Beyonce seemed to become a parody of her sexy self and turned into a loathsome clothes horse as displayed on the pages of Heat magazine every week. Then came the gangsta’s moll phase, when she hooked up with Jay-Z. The girlie Beyonce was replaced by a horrible soft porn version. Not nice.
With the release of Irreplacable, Beyonce seems to have gone back to her roots. And a welcome return it is.
The instrumentation is stripped right back: basically just guitar and a simple drumbeat carrying the tune. A very simple verse/chorus arrangement is enhanced by Beyonce’s most honest vocal performance in recent memory. Beautiful melody in the verses and a chorus so catchy it’ll take a lobotomy to stop you singing it.
Subject matter is a return to Independent Women and Bills, Bills, Bills territory – very much woman on top type of thing.
The video for Irreplaceable carries on the ’stripped down’ theme – Beyonce looking her most natural in ages. The storyline reminds me slightly of the Emotion single Destiny’s Child release a couple of years ago. There’s a little bit of posturing by Ms Knowles, enough to keep the lads happy without being as OTT as her other recent singles.
You mus’ not know ’bout a-me, you mus’ not know ’bout a-me….(contributed by Levee)
