Category Archives for Pop

Justin Timberlake – “The 20/20 Experience 2 of 2”

(Photo credit: thelineofbestfit.com)

Grade: B-

Key Tracks: “True Blood,” “Take Back the Night”

It’s rare that the second album in a double album is an improvement over the first (look at the mediocre “Use Your Illusion 2,” “Hypnotize” and the second disc of “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”). But when it does happen, it’s usually because the musician has used up the potential singles and leaves more room to move around. This isn’t necessarily true of this double album, as “Take Back the Night” might be the safest song across either disc, but the ambition is just a little stronger on Part 2. Despite the clunky title.

The second track, “True Blood,” might be over nine minutes and might be about vampires, but the song adds a bit of depth to the beat and achieves that soulful sound Timberlake tried so hard to find on Part 1. And it transitions, beat and all, into “Cabaret,” an equally great and more modestly-long song that has a well-needed guest stop from Drake. Second single “TKO” is a bland seven minutes, but leadoff single “Take Back the Night” is a catchy number, whose horns and moderate tempo call back to Part 1′s “Suit & Tie.” Musically, the album’s more diverse, making it more listenable.

But, like Part 1, it has many faults. The average song length here is around 5:30, as opposed to Part 1′s 7:00. But at 74 minutes, it’s just as long and bloated as it’s 70 minute partner. the album has a lot of great ideas, but the songs are neither experimental enough to be original or conventional enough to be memorable smashes. They exist in a weird in-between, where they’re mainly all great songs that just go on for 2-5 minutes too many. And that’s not good. Also, Timberlake’s lyrics have been consistently mediocre across the two parts. The worst offender here is “Only When I Walk Away,” where Timberlake profanely curses out someone for only loving him when he leaves. Not only does hearing Timberlake swear like this sound uncomfortable, it’s not believable for a man who is so openly in love with his wife. But the worst offender is the other guest spot, Jay-Z. His summer keeps pushing him further and further from the top, and it continues as he raps about Yoko Ono’s vagina (?) on a song called “Murder.” Maybe poorly timed, as Ono just released a much more experimental, and much better, pop album.

Luckily for Timberlake, these two albums are inherently likable. They’re always catchy, the transitions between ideas are strong, and they’re fun. Almost every song stretches far past a comfortable zone, but sometimes you can get lost in it (“True Blood” especially). The only objectively bad song is, unfortunately, the bonus track that closes the album. “Pair of Wings” has both the acoustic tenderness and lyrical cheese of an N*SYNC throwaway. Otherwise, the album is enjoyable. It’s bold, it’s ambitious and it’s good enough to be a very entertaining pop album, reigning in an age of otherwise unoriginal pop singers.

-By Andrew McNally

Elton John – “The Diving Board”

(Photo Credit: The Hollywood Reporter)

Grade: B

Key Tracks: “A Town Called Jubilee,” “My Quicksand”

Elton John understands that he may not be attracting a younger fan base, still writing music for a much older audience now. He’s responded accordingly, releasing a stripped-down, adult album. “The Diving Board” does not feature any members of his regular band, the first album he’s done without them since 1979. Instead, John sat down with Bernie Taupin, John composing the music and Taupin writing the lyrics. They wrote “The Diving Board” in two days.

Musically, “The Diving Board” is a very soft record. A majority of the songs are only John on piano, with some faint drums and/or guitar. Only a handful of songs have added instruments, allowing them sound bigger. But ‘big’ wasn’t the goal – those just help to break up the album a bit. “The Diving Board” is a bare-bones, soft rock record. John shows that, after all these years, he’s still immensely talented. Theatrics aside, John’s voice is still strong, even as he sings deeper than usual on this record.

He is still, predictably, a phenomenal piano player too. One of the album’s tales, “My Quicksand,” ends on a truly haunting piano chord. “Home Again” is centered around some truly beautiful piano work. Often, John takes vocal breaks during the songs that let him play some great riffs and solos. The album has three “dreams,” too, that act as quick, piano interludes where he really gets to shine.

As with most soft rock, it starts to get repetitive. The songs that aren’t the stand-outs start to sound similar, and while they’re never bad, they’re a little too repetitious. Thankfully, the stand-outs are placed throughout the album, so every time a casual listener might get distracted from the album, they’re drawn back in.  Overall, the album could stand to be a little shorter and do with a few less tracks. But “The Diving Board” serves as a welcome return for Sir Elton John, who hasn’t released an album since 2006. The album is beautiful and sparse, and serves as a nice ode to John’s musical origins.

-By Andrew McNally

John Mayer – “Paradise Valley”

(Photo Credit: Rolling Stone)

Grade: C+

Key Tracks: “Dear Marie,” “Call Me the Breeze”

It’s important to note that John Mayer underwent throat surgery last year, which sidelined him from the public eye and lessened the landing of his 2012 album, “Born and Raised.” “Paradise Valley” might suffer a small blow, too, although an extensive tour he’s currently on will help advertise. It’s important to note that because it explains the album’s subdued nature. After recovering from throat surgery, Mayer surely wanted to lay low and take things easy on the next album. There’s no reason to blame him for that. And there are some very quaint and pretty songs on the album, with an unusual eclecticism. But the little energy there is used up by the halfway point. It actually audibly drains out during the sixth track, slightly past the halfway point, and never comes back.

As with some of Mayer’s previous works (and in response to his recovery), the music is the primary focus of the album. It is still resembling of a pop album, but with sections of full instrumentation, often harmonica or guitar. Mayer is, admittedly, a phenomenal guitarist, and many songs feature his rambling, passionate solos. His guitar work proves that a good guitar solo doesn’t have to have any urgency or rapidity to it, as long as the emotion is there. The other good point musically is the slight eclectic nature. There are just enough blues and country elements thrown in to save the album from being too boring.

But it does get pretty boring. While it is often gorgeous, many of the songs are also forgettable. It’s a thin line, and the album falls on the wrong side of it a few too many times. No idea sticks around longer than it needs to, but the ones on the album’s latter half are often boring from the start. A cover of JJ Cale’s “Call Me the Breeze” (often wrongfully attributed to Lynyrd Skynyrd) bolsters the varying elements, and serves as a nice, unplanned tribute to the recently fallen blues hero.

Vocally, Mayer’s voice still sounds good when he wants it to. Again, it isn’t the focus, but adds a nice accompaniment to the music. It is still pop, after all. What may the album’s worst quality is two wasted guest spots. Mayer is alone on nine of the eleven tracks, so his two guest spots already feel a little out of place. The first, a song called “Who You Love” (the aforementioned, energy-draining sixth track) delegates Katy Perry to some harmonious background vocals, most of which could have just been recorded by a session singer. The second spot, “Wildfire,” features Frank Ocean on a song that’s only 1:26 long. Ocean mostly does that somehow-beautiful pitch-singing he does, resulting in what’s basically just an interlude. It’s almost as if Mayer and Ocean recorded the song out of necessity, to sign their names on a continued partnership. Ocean is one of the most talented and interesting people in music today, so the point of the song is largely lost.

Save the guest spots, there is nothing inherently wrong about the album. It eventually succumbs to it’s own dullness and it’s largely unremarkable, when Mayer isn’t strumming away. It often sounds pristine, and it’s a nice listen for someone looking for a smooth and low-key listen. Otherwise, it drags on too long with it’s overly subdued sound. A little energy wouldn’t have hurt.

-By Andrew McNally

The Polyphonic Spree – “Yes, It’s True”

(Photo Credit: Glide Magazine)

Grade: B+

Key Tracks: “Popular By Design,” “Blurry Up the Lines”

“Yes, It’s True” is the fourth album from the vocal-heavy choral-pop-rock band, a genre that is a lot more conventional and a lot less gospel-influenced than it sounds. The Polyphonic Spree currently sits at twenty members, although the album does at times resemble a normal-sized group. The album is heavy on engrossing music and light on inspiring lyrics, but is frequently worthwhile. Former Tripping Daisy frontman Tim DeLaughter is in total control on this album, perhaps even too much. The collective playing behind him is under his spell, following him through his mixed influences.

The album always falls closer to pop than any other genre. Each track plays out like a typical single from one of DeLaughter’s inspirations, from the Beach Boys to Bright Eyes. “Single” is the important word there, though, because every song on the album is “single” standard. In fact, the album’s lead-off single, “You Don’t Know Me,” is not among the album’s better songs. The music on the album is often standard, fun vocal pop. It is a market that has been tapped many times before, but as long as the product is catchy and retains a little depth, it can be done again and again. There are a few tracks were DeLaughter does a back-and-forth in the chorus, exchanging solo lines with group lines from the musicians. It’s all very fun and inspired. The final track, “Battlefield,” ends with an extended synth fade-out that is meant to sound ominous, but almost comes off as anticipation for wanting to record another album.

Lyrically, the album doesn’t hold up nearly as well. Track titles like “Carefully Try” and “Let Them Be” don’t prepare to offer much lyrically. There is nothing more than basic pop poetry here, which can get repetitive. They even sound less inspired alongside the music. It’s rarely an issue, because the album has enough good spirit to make up for this. Also, pop albums nowadays do not seem to be expected to be poetic masterpieces, so it’s expected in a warped way.

Twenty-piece choral-pop groups are hard to come by, but The Polyphonic Spree are doing something right. They may be a collective – their ‘former members’ page on Wikipedia includes forty-five people, one of them being Annie Clark from St. Vincent – but they are having fun in the studio. And when it comes down to it, that is the key to a successful pop group. Things might not work, but if the listener believes enough in the band, they can look past it. And it is very easy to surpass the faults on “Yes, It’s True” and just enjoy the ride.

If you like this, try: “Here” (2012), the second album by Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes. The best of their three, and one that includes a surprising variation of influences into a collective effort.

-By Andrew McNally

Robin Thicke – “Blurred Lines”

(Photo Credit: Rolling Stone)

Grade: D+

Key Tracks: “Take It Easy On Me”

“Growing Pains” indeed. “Blurred Lines” comes out as Thicke is 36, with a three year old son. The album is distinctly more pop-based than his previous albums, showing a backwards trend in songwriting, possible an effort to hold onto the immaturity needed to be a successful pop singer. The result is a bland pop album that suffices as a summer party mix, but is lacking in originality, effective lyrics, big beats and really anything to make it memorable.

Thicke’s inspiration for the album came from growing up under the impression that everything was black and white, right and wrong, etc, but realizing how untrue it is once you grow older. This could really be a strong concept for an album, one that could really show growth for a musician. What Thicke delivers, though, is ego-centric songs of love, sex and passion whose only difference from other pop songs of the last thirty years is Thicke forcibly pushing his ego into them, which ultimately just makes him sound like the massive dick he claims to have.

On some of the album’s more subdued moments, Thicke’s voice is pleasantly pretty, something he didn’t eschew for a pop album. And the collaborations, with Pharrell, T.I. and Kendrick Lamar among the guest spots, often work well to make some balanced songs. Every track on the album falls flat because of the overused and sometimes vainly vapid lyrics. Musically, too, the album is boring. Thicke tries to mix R&B, latin and pop influences, but the result is the blandest parts of all three. The album needs a lot more oomph, and maybe some musicians that at least to try to care about the music they’re recording. “Blurred Lines” is an alright summer album, and will surely be played at pool parties for the rest of the summer. It does it’s job on the most fundamental level, nothing beyond that. And by next summer, all people will remember is the title track and it’s racy (read: horribly sexist) video.

In conclusion, a .gif from the “Blurred Lines” video, courtesy of Tumblr. user jhermann. Click on it to see his phenomenal dance moves, ones that sum up the awkward masculinity of the whole album:

If you like this, try: Really can’t help you on this one.

-By Andrew McNally

Selena Gomez – “Stars Dance”

(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Grade: C

Key Tracks: “Birthday,” “Nobody Does It Like You” (Bonus Track)

No one can blame Selena Gomez for wanting to grow up. She got trapped in the Disney Channel at a young age. And now she has had to watch two former channel-mates attempt the transition into adulthood: The Jonas Brothers, who played the Hanson route of simply growing older without changing anything, and are slowly fading into obscurity, and Miley Cyrus, whose public outbursts flip-flop between emotionally human and dementedly perverse have left bad tastes in the mouths of people who enjoy watching celebrities break down. Gomez, who can legally drink as of only yesterday, found a proper route of simply maturing. Her music and personal life are more mature than previous, without being interesting to the paparazzi. Spring Breakers was a major advancement (and for her co-star, Vanessa Hudgens, who is navigating the same path), placing her in a sexual and bleak, very-very-hard-R-rated movie. But her proper debut album, “Stars Dance” is not very interesting, either. It nails the transition into adulthood, as she creates big-beat dance songs but plays everything safe for the potential younger audience. “Safe” just goes a little too far.

There is a song on the album called “B.E.A.T.” that is vaguely about sex, direct enough for the proper audience but maybe still over the heads of any kid listeners. The chorus actually eschews Gomez’s voice briefly for a repetition of beats that represent something or other, but they are just beats. Lyrically and musically, it is very safe. Gomez never reaches for high notes. In fact, her voice is never even prominently featured. It sounds phoned in at points. The only point where it doesn’t is the bonus track “Nobody Does It Like You,” where she stretches out a little. Her voice, the beats and the lyrics are the three components of the album but none are the focus. Weak lyrics can’t make up for the weak songwriting. All of the tracks are underhand pitches thrown at the listeners. It is all completely average.

That said, it is a transition album, perhaps. It could at least be seen that way. She is still young, and much of her fanbase, younger. Safe may have been the only option. Anything more than that, and she’s the next Miley Cyrus. While the album’s bland nature might sound tedious to some listeners, it might be experimental for Gomez. This is her first time truly branching solo, and the album does a successful job treading the moderate path between Cyrus and Jonas. Unfortunately for Gomez, average is the only safe route for her to take. Blame Disney.

-By Andrew McNally