Random Blatherings

name change

2008-06-22T16:30:00.001-07:00

I just changed the name of this blog because I've more or less lost interest in the original purpose of this thing. So I'm just going to ramble about random pop culture things that interest me.

Josh Groban Awake Tour Review

2007-03-03T13:57:00.000-08:00

I decided on a whim to catch Josh's Awake tour here in Boston last night. I didn't have a ticket and bought one at the box office an hour before the show. It's kind of fun to go to a show without any idea of what the set list or banter or opening act will be.

Preshow: The program cost $20, which is more than I've paid for any other concert program I've bought, but it's also the nicest one. It's made out of very high quality paper with fold outs and a blend of matte and shiny photographic finish. I thought it was interesting that Josh has his own merchandising line "Josh Merchandising," so maybe he can have some say over quality control. His opening act Angelique Kidjo was very impressive vocally and charismatically and girl could stomp around and dance too. I looked it up and she's 46. Obviously quite a seasoned performer, even though I couldn't understand the languages in the African-themed songs. The percussion instrumental backing her up was very cool. Opening act set was about 30 minutes then 35 minute break until Josh Groban took the stage at 9:05.

The set up: Josh has a regular six-piece band and also invited a cellist and a violinist as special guests who part of the touring band. Behind the band is an ensemble of 16 or so local orchestra members. The orchestral stage was pretty fancy, sort of clamshell design with an oval screen behind the two halves, while the main stage had staircases with a small balcony on both sides and a little round jut into the audience front center stage instead of a full blown catwalk which also held a teleprompter (to help him with lyrics on the foreign language songs?). There was a lift center stage that Josh rose out of at the beginning of the show to sing "Don't Give Up" and subsequently also rose to reveal a piano when he accompanied himself on several songs. The requisite multiple spotlights and smoke machine were also present and made for a fairly impressive stage production. Mostly the background movie images being played on the ovalscreen were "new agey" sun rise, woods, candles, except for the weird robot during "Machine."

Set list: Josh performed all the songs and the bonus tracks on the special edition Awake CD. The only English song (since I can't ID the foreign language ones) from his previous albums he did on the set was "Remember when it Rained" and of course "You Raise Me Up" was the final encore. He featured the cellist on stage during his rendition of the love theme from Romeo and Juliet and that was pretty awesome. Guitarist Tariq Akoni got a lot of nice solo time both on the Spanish and electric guitars. The violinist (who performed barefoot in an evening gown) had a solo on "Kashmir" while Josh made his way back to the back of the venue and serenaded fans with "In Her Eyes" (the "I'm not a hero, I'm not an angel, I'm just a man" song that's one of my favorites). He shook hands and made his way back onto the stage. He also sat down on the front of the stage and invited fans to come near while he signed autographs and introduced a Broadway song that he proceeded to sing. He also did a duet with Angelique which will be on her next CD, a song called "Pearls," originally sung by Sade. I'm not sure if their voices blended that well (both very loud, plus very loud band) but they did play off each other very sincerely. Instrumental-wise, he played the piano on two or three songs, and the vocoder during "Lullaby" to simulate the acapella singing of the Ladysmith Black Mambazo (the audience was audibly impressed), and during his encore, he played the drums pretty fiercely. Vocally he was very, well, loud. And had to be to sing over the band, which was borderline bandzilla in volume. I don't think some of his high, held notes got as much appreciation from the crowd as they could have because he was competing to be heard over the band. I don't think he's the most nuanced singer I've ever heard, but he may be the most powerful and can definitely hit all his notes, though his falsetto can sound a little strained at times. Maybe nuance will come with time, or a less loud instrumental backing. The acapella "Lullaby" previously mentioned was probably the most impressive vocal showcase because there was nothing obscuring his voice there. He seems to be able to sell "Machine" better live than he did on the album, where his phrasing is a little stilted.

Audience chatter: Groban was quite charming and funny. He hugged a girl who held up a sign saying "Hug me I'm Grobish" and joked "Am I Grobish now too? Do I have Grobanitis?" When he invited the audience to come close (and people came up soliciting autographs), he was like great, why don't you all come up, there's only 14,000 people. He also imitated Mr. Rogers and sang a little big of "it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood" and joked that the stage lift was "magic" when it brought out the piano. After a standing ovation mid-set, he commented Boston had the best crowd (I guess usually Groban concerts don't generally give standing ovations until the end of the show), and there were a lot of screams from the audience. "I love you Josh" was responded to with "I love you more, no really" and when a guy yelled out something indecipherable, he was mock-astonished, "there are guys here?" and commanded them to "Show yourselves!" then proceeded in a tough guy voice to say "Uh, so what's up guys?" Heh. He also pandered to the men in the audience a bit by saying how grateful he was to have all these love songs written for him so he could just use those when trying to impress girls since he's so awkward with words (pretends to stutter), "You know what it's like, guys. So honey, this is how I feel" (pretends to turn on music). He also joked about the title of "So she dances" as something that would be said by a guy with a twirly mustache. He did a pretty good job of moving from side to side on the ginormous stage. There was also a nice bit where they played his visit to South Africa and he discussed how it inspired him as a person and as a musician.

Overall it was an enjoyable show. A nice blend of powerful singing backed up by highly impressive instrumentalists with cute audience interaction that lasted approximately 110 minutes. As usual I didn't take any photos so to spice up this entry I'll post some fun a/v from Youtube of one of my favorite songs from Josh's last tour, his new-age cover of Linkin Park's "My December":

Concert Review--Nick Lachey: What's Left Of Me Tour

2006-10-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I had a chance to see Nick Lachey's What's Left of Me Tour when it came to the Boston Orpheum. I'm not a particular fan of Lachey, though I like the radio single, "What's Left of Me" and its video, and admit to having rented season one of Newlyweds just to see what the fuss is about, but I was browsing ticketmaster the day of the show and second row seats (right center) came up and who am I to turn down second row seats? I've never seen a show from the second row and I like Nick okay, so why not? I don't have pictures, so words will have to suffice.

The opening acts were Dirtie Blonde and Joanna. I have Joanna's record because I was impressed by some of her live performances I saw on YouTube, but I have to say I found Dirtie Blonde far more impressive on the concert stage, the lead singer has excellent stage presence and gritty bluesy rock voice, and they were the only act all night long that had a good instrumental mix that didn't overwhelm the vocals. I had a huge problem with Joanna's band, who were way too loud. I kind of wish I did take a picture of her outfit though, which I can only vaguely describe as a dress that looks like what I imagine a nun's pajama top would look like. Her voice is excellent but her mannerisms seem affected--she was a child star playing the role of Annie in a nationwide touring musical, I believe, and has also spent five years recording her debut album.

Before the show started, there is a kind of cheesy car multimedia system ad starring Lachey driving around and telling the sound system what to play, intercut with the "What's Left of Me" video. Nick came on wearing a suitjacket, and he obviously has a lot of experience singing in front of the crowd (90% female ages 18-35 by my estimate, full house of 3000) and worked the audience really well, playing to the Bostonites by announcing the Yankees' loss to Detroit in the playoffs. The singing was a little hard to hear sometimes because the band was overwhelming, though he seemed to be pretty on the melody of the songs on his current album, and he performed almost all the What's Left Of Me album songs except one or two. He has a lot of fun with the band rocking out on the percussion and bass and took off the suit jacket in favor of the T-shirt underneath, commenting on the hot temperature in the theater, and also encouraging the crowd to take off layers. The first half of the show was almost all WLOM album tracks, but he also sung a song ("Fall in Love Again") from his previous solo album Soul-O and joked with the crowd that it was a limited edition collector's item since the album hadn't sold very well and assured the crowd that he would fall in love again--"just not tonight." First half closed with current radio single "I Can't Hate You Anymore" and Nick went off stage to change.

After Nick changed, the second half of the show started with an acoustic set of Nick singing parts of his 98 Degrees hits, slightly changed up, followed by a Southern rock song. He then did a crowd participation piece where he took off the T-shirt to reveal a black tank top and announced he would go into the crowd to find someone to inspire him to sing the next song, "Slave," which is apparently a song he wrote that didn't make the album. The song is more sultry, R&B and very different in flavor from the pop/rock ballads on WLOM, and cameras followed Nick into the crowd as he held the hand and embraced an audience member (woman in her twenties who seemed pretty composed and played along with the teasing nature of the song by touching his muscles) throughout the song. Lachey then returned to the stage to sing a Led Zepplin cover and introduce the band before saying goodnight.

The lights remained dimmed for the canned encore, the crowd was pretty quiet and were or less waiting for Nick to come out again although there were some scattered "We Want Nick" choruses. He entered with just the piano on "Resolution" and then gradually the other band members came in and joined in. The closer, of course, was the massive radio hit "What's Left of Me," which was changed up slightly to encourage crowd singalong.

All in all it was a fun show, I had a good time dressing up and dancing to the songs, and it's pretty cool to see a show with the main attraction three feet away from me at times and looking straight in my direction.

And since I like embedding videos in every blog entry, here's one I found on Youtube of Nick's Oxygen concert, performing "Everywhere But Here":

Tags: Nick Lachey, What's Left of Me Tour, concert review

How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways: ATDW Album Review

2006-10-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

When Clay Aiken started the journey towards the follow up to 2003's Measure of Man, one of my concerns was that he would make an album that was essentially MOAM, part II, based on the songs he had previewed on the 2005 Jukebox Tour. To put it in analogy form, "Back for More":"Invisible"::"Tears Run Dry":"Run to Me"::"Just You":"No More Sad Song." Now, I actually like those new songs more than the songs off of MOAM, but they didn't represent much of an artistic progression to me. Nevertheless, when RCA records sent wind to the press that the new album would be feature "love songs" and "covers of big songs," I was even more concerned because rather than standing still, this seemed to be a step back towards American Idol. Upon closely listening to the songs closely, however, it's clear that Clay cut and polished a gem of an album with A Thousand Different Ways.

Executive producer Jaymes Foster had promised Clay fans that his voice would sound as fans have never previously heard, a statement met with much skepticism at the time, but which has indeed come to pass. Aiken's voice is far more restrained, employing a airy, lighter approach to several songs that one would typically expect him to belt in full chest voice, most notably "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word" and "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)." These two particular songs also feature unusually pretty choices of accompaniment, with "Sorry" featuring acoustic Spanish guitar and "Everything I Do" arranged in a Celtic style using pan flutes and strings.

Aiken's vocals also make an artistic leap from his previous recordings on the nuanced, understated tracks of "Here You Come Again" and "Everything I Have." "Here" is perhaps the only song on A Thousand Different Ways where Clay has a chance to show the full resonance of his voice, hitting several remarkable low notes. In "Everything I Have," the vocal is contemplative and emotionally laid-bare, in conjunction with its delicate accompaniment, the song is a truly sincere promise of love.

The two biggest artistic achievements on this album are the contemporary pop ballad, "Lonely No More" (not to be confused with the Rob Thomas drum machine-fueled pop single) and a radical rearrangement of Mister Mister's "Broken Wings." The former represents Clay's first official writing credit, while the latter speaks to his imagination to change up a straight up rock ballad to an ethereal, new age effort including spoken word vocals and Celtic drums. "Clay Aiken" is listed as fourth co-writer on "Lonely More" and based on what's known of Aiken's writing style, it seems he likely had a hand in crafting the quiet, evocative lyrics of the verses, while the chorus and music, which are pretty standard pop fare, had been previously written. The layering of vocals on both "Broken Wings" (female Evanescence-type background singer) and "Lonely No More" (Clay singing changeups on top of himself singing the chorus) are aesthetically pleasing, with the majority of the vocals performed in Clay's strongest and most effective range of tones and coloring.

"Lonely No More"
Written by Andreas Carlsson, Samuel Waermo, Mimmi Waermo, and Clay Aiken
Lyrics copied from Quiet1ne's lists and lyrics

Another dream, another day
I've seen too many fade away
So if you wonder how to make it right
Give me everything, everything tonight

'cause I don't want to be lonely no more
I don't want to feel empty no more
Only you could unbreak this heartache I've carried around
Don't want to be lonely no more, no more

Take me in, take me home
I can't stand to be alone
Help me paint the picture of my life
Don't you disappear and leave me here tonight

'cause I don't want to be lonely no more
I don't want to feel empty no more
Only you could unbreak this heartache I've carried around
Don't want to be lonely no more, no more

Can't make no sense of life
No matter how I've tried
'cause something's missing in my heart
Tonight

I don't want to be lonely no more
I don't want to feel empty no more
Only you could unbreak this heartache I've carried around
Don't want to be lonely no more, no more

I don't want to be lonely no more
I don't want to feel empty no more
Only you could unbreak this heartache I've carried around
Don't want to be lonely no more, no more
No more

"Because You Loved Me" and "Right Here Waiting" are noticeably more percussive in sound and more catchy than their originals, but the emotional quality, particularly compared to Marx's yearning in "Right Here Waiting" doesn't quite translate in the new versions. Two new songs, "A Thousand Days" (previewed on the Jukebox Tour and by far my least favorite of the JBT songs due to the plodding music), and "These Open Arms" (even more insipid) play mostly to Clay's stereotypical American Idol bombast. The remainder of the album sticks closer to original arrangements of cover songs, which is particularly evident in "Without You" and "When I See You Smile," and to a lesser extent, "I Want to Know What Love Is" (changed up because it's a duet), and "Everytime You Go Away" (altered mostly by Clay's lighter vocal touch). They all sound fine because it's Clay's remarkable voice, but not especially innovative compared to some other tracks.

Curiously, while RCA Records has been hyping the songs featuring more traditional arrangements and emphasizing the big voice, it's Aiken's own, less mainstream approach on the other songs that are most imaginative in illuminating the uniqueness of his voice and phrasing previously unheard on recordings. These less stereotypic songs are where Clay shows considerable artistic growth via his vocal and instrumental choices, despite the initially limiting context of "love song covers." Nevertheless Clay clearly excels at live performances of the showboat songs chosen by the label as potential singles, "Without You" and "A Thousand Days."

Here's Clay on The View performing "Without You:"

I'd be remiss to not address the two bonus tracks available with certain retail versions of A Thousand Different Ways, "If You Don't Know Me By Now" (from Kmart) and "Lover All Alone" (from iTunes) because they represent different facets of Clay's voice and artistry. "If" sticks fairly closely to the Simply Red arrangement and works with the album thematically as a declarative song about the relationship between "you" and "me," but sonically it's quite a departure from the sweeter vocals on A Thousand Different Ways and more in line with Aiken's bluesy, soulful wailing concert performances. "Lover" is quite another animal altogether, it fits sonically with the album but not thematically because the song is reflective rather than declarative. More importantly, "Lover All Alone" represents the first recording primarily written by Clay Aiken, with music by Warner Music mogul David Foster.

"Lover All Alone"
Written by Clay Aiken, David Foster, and Eman
Lyrics copied from Quiet1ne's lists and lyrics

Maybe I’ve convinced myself
I've really been in love
And I’ve been wrong all along
For all I know the feeling
And the picture that I’ve tried
So hard to find isn't mine

Could be its all just a waiting game
Wanna share my everything

And on my own
It’s hard to tell my heart it will be alright
This love it holds will one day find a home
As hard as love can be
It’s harder still it seems
To be a lover all alone without love

Picking up the pieces makes me wonder if
I only build it all to watch it fall
The faster it can go away it means the less of me
Is gone to stay and I’m ok

But lonesome tomorrow comes anyway
I’m alone for another day,
Another day

And on my own
It’s hard to tell my heart it will be alright
That this love it holds will one day find a home
As hard as love can be
It’s harder still it seems
To be a lover all alone without love

And on my own
It’s hard to tell my heart it will be alright
That this love it holds will one day find a home
As hard as love can be
It’s harder still it seems
To be a lover all alone without love
A lover all alone without love

Maybe I’ve convinced myself
I’ve really been in love
But I’ve been wrong all along

To borrow 43dudleyvillas's words, Clay's writing style appears to "impressionistic," "spare" and "intimate" at the same time. I liken his writing to just dabbing a dot on the surface of water and then watching the ripples. His words are subtle yet emotionally evocative, a startling contrast to most of the "singer/songwriter" pop stars who tend to rely on writing high school level diary entries made over by professional songwriters to have a hook or the "sun, stars, moon" type cliches that many professional songwriters become ensnared in because of easy rhymes. The vocal performance of this song is another revelation altogether. Aiken has been criticized in some circles for being too technically perfect a singer (a crime if there ever was one in this age of digital enhancement), who doesn't convey the proper emotion because his voice is too good, and in this song he shows that he can "get all choked up inside" (tm "The Way") and really bring a deeply emotional tinge to his singing. He just reaches for a few notes to add a catch to his voice, coloring yet not sacrificing the overall quality of the vocal. There are also some stunning moments where he utilizes his vocal to harmonize with the instruments.

On the whole, A Thousand Different Ways (minus bonus tracks) is a very tightly knit project both in theme (declarative love songs) and sound (pop ballads). Clay navigates the various dimensions of his voice within these confines adeptly, but he shines most in the songs that he's truly taken as his own, whether through melodic alterations, changes in vocal style, writing, or re-arranging. Occasionally the sound mix has the instrumentals overwhelming the vocal, which can be a bit annoying, but the primary sound of Clay Aiken remains in tact, unlike the clean, scrubbed up Measure of a Man album where production frequently overwhelmed the voice. Clay's done well within the structure he's been given by Clive Davis, but it's clearly only a slice of his true capabilities. ATDW is lacking particularly in songs highlighting Clay's resonant lower range, other than in a few spare moments, and in this aspect suffers in comparison to 2004's Merry Christmas With Love, which prominently featured Clay's deep voice. Still missing from any of Clay's recordings is the growly, gritty voice that he showcases in concert and some faster tempo songs sung in his lower range that he executed brilliantly in the 50s set of his Jukebox Tour. Maybe next time.

The ways in which Clay has transformed some of these classics and the lyrics he's brought to the table as a songwriter show that he has excellent musical instincts about how to make songs work for him. I'm looking forward to see where he goes next, and in the meantime, I've already listened to A Thousand Different Ways more than Measure of a Man and Merry Christmas with Love combined. It's possibly the most listenable album I've ever owned, the perfect type of music for listening to on headphones with your eyes closed and no distractions while letting the beauty of the voice and complementary instrumentals sink in; a gem in which you can discover a new subtle brilliance everytime you listen.

Tags: Clay Aiken, album review, A Thousand Different Ways

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

2006-09-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

Transcript from Beyond the Sea, the Bobby Darin biopic starring Kevin Spacey:

******
Voice Over: I was a teen idol for a minute and a half but momma's plan was to be bigger than Sinatra. I wanted to do the great standards but my producer thought I was nuts to turn my back on rock and roll.

Scene:
Manager: Bobby, Teenagers aren't going to buy an album of you singing standards!

Bobby Darin: Oh now Ahmet, you're talking out of your ass again. How do you know what teenagers are going to buy, what do you got? A crystal ball up there?

Manager: I've been in this business long enough to know that you don't change your image when you're hot like this.

Darin: Well then you're right. I don't want teenagers to be my only audience so that's perfect!

Manager: Why can't you be satisfied? YOu just did Bandstand.

Darin: Bandstand's mostly for kids! Ahmet, I want the Copa. Listen, With rock and roll I got a thousand other guys out there and you goddamn well know it. I gotta prove that I can sing. I want it all. I want the major leagues. I want nightclubs, I want vegas, movies, Tv. This album will make it all happen fast, faster than you can imagine.
******

The real Bobby Darin, singing his hit, "Mack the Knife:"

Clay Aiken's performance of "Mack the Knife" on American Idol 2:

It's been a few decades since Bobby Darin proved he was a great singer and master entertainer with his re-interpretation of "Mack the Knife," perhaps it's time for Clay Aiken to do the same with classics of his own.

Tags: Clay Aiken, Bobby Darin, Beyond the Sea, Mack the Knife

The VOX is a Drug

2006-08-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

Official album cover, *swoon*:

As much as I enjoy looking at the pretty, my addiction of the day is to Clay Aiken's voice. I downloaded all 14 of the clips that were available earlier today at Sony Music Store and have been playing them nonstop all day. The clips are now hidden on the site but you can listen to them at Marhaven's Musings. I've never heard his voice so delicate and nuanced, particularly on the new song "Everything I Have," which is absolutely gorgeous.

Here's a quick synopsis of the 30 second snippets from A Thousand Different Ways:
Songs I had never heard before and am absolutely loving:

Lonely No More--Very pretty, memorable melody and lovely acoustic guitar work. Future single material.

Here You Come Again--gentle and conveys a certain resignation

Everything I Have--gorgeous melody and woodwind work. Voice is so nuanced and natural on this.

Broken Wings--really cool ethereal arrangement with haunting background singer

Song I've never heard before and is very good:

Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word--mmm breathy, raspy Clay

Song I've heard before and am shocked that I like:

Everything I Do (I Do It For You)--light touch (hardly sounds like Clay in fact), cool flute sound in the background. I was so sick of the original that I thought I'd be happy to never hear the song again, but I like Clay's version a lot.

Songs I've heard before and are very good

Without You--mmmm, lower register Clay

Because You Loved Me--I always liked this song and this arrangment is nice

I Want to Know What Love Is--cool rock instrumentation

Songs I've never heard of and are okay

These Open Arms--Typical belting song, nothing too special

When I See You Smile--ETYGA and WISYM seem so redudant in sound and not especially creative in arrangment

Songs I've heard before and are okay

Everytime You Go Away--ETYGA and WISYM seem so redudant in sound and not especially creative in arrangment

Right Here Waiting--I still prefer Richard Marx's more yearning version

A Thousand Days--I haven't liked this song since Clay debuted it last summer, but it's probably the most rock of all the songs

Overall I love the quality of his voice on these clips, they still lean towards the boybandy sound on Measure of a Man but show more of the dynamic range Clay's vocal capabilities and his unique phrasing. Sooo pretty. *Sigh* I can't wait for the album!

Tags: Clay Aiken, song clips, A Thousand Different Ways

Customers who bought this item also bought...

2006-08-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

So I've been looking at what Amazon.com classifies as music similar to A Thousand Different Ways and am mildly amused at the stuff people who buy ATDW also buy. Of course, due to the relatively large number of internet Clay fans, the total items list is really skewed to all things directly related to Clay Aiken, but looking at just the music section of things that ATDW purchasers also buy yields in addition to stuff related to Clay (including William Joseph here) and American Idol (and related shows) contestants, in order of relevance:

5. Christina Aguilera--Back to Basics*
10. Barry Manilow--The Greatest Songs of the Sixties**
11. Jesse McCartney--Right Here Where You Want Me**
13. Evanescence--The Open Door
15. Lionel Richie--Coming Home**
18. Justin Timberlake--FutureSex/LoveSounds*
20. Tony Bennett--Duets: An American Classic*
21. Stacy Orrico--Beautiful Awakening*
22. Jessica Simpson--A Public Affair*
23. Janet Jackson--20 Y.O.
24. Paris Hilton--Paris*
25. John Mayer--Continuum
27. Beyonce--B'Day
28. Nick Lachey--What's Left of Me
** indicates ATDW is directly linked on the first page of similar albums on the other artist's album page
* indicates ATDW is among the relevant searches of "customers also bought" linked from the other artist's album page

Just in case you were wondering who Clay shares internet album-purchasing fans with. :) A lot are simply top selling new releases from people who probably like to buy a bunch of new CDs at once, but it's still an interesting slice of Clay's fan demographics. *Wonders if any of the ATDW buyers who also bought Tony Bennett bought the Paris Hilton CD as well*

Tags: Clay Aiken, Amazon purchases, A Thousand Different Ways

Album Review -- Christina Aguilera: Back to Basics

2006-08-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

Streaming link here: MTV.com --The Leak
I'm not much of a reviewer so much as an capturer of impressions, so I'll just give some general thoughts here, since I tend to degenerate to listmaking when going track by track.

Before I get into the album, I will preface with the fact that I am not a huge fan of Aguilera's voice. I think she is a tremendous talent, maybe the most vocally talented of her generation of pop divas, but her quality of voice does not intrinsically appeal to me. Her belting register tends to be more growly, while I tend to prefer clear, bell-like tones. Plus, when Christina gets loud, she gets really loud, and occasionally she tends to get overly ornate with trilling, which is not a characteristic in singers I am particularly enamoured with. I have a video of Christina singing the "Star Spangled Banner" from when she was a tiny girl and I prefer it to any of her renditions since she's become a melismatic pop star who adds all kind of (unnecessary) flourishes. On the other hand, she's created some music I've really liked, songs that are catchy, well-constructed, with a self-empowering message, powerhouse vocals, which overall are just a bit different from the generic claptrap they usually play on the radio. I absolutely loved "Fighter" and "Walk Away" from the Stripped album. So that's the viewpoint I'm coming from.

Back to Basics Album Review:

Disc One is primarily R&B with some jazz influence, it’s a fairly consistent body of work, consisting mostly of midtempo songs, but she manages to infuse each track with its own flavor, some more Latin, some more Big Band, and some more gospel, or a mixture of the styles. Disc Two is a bit of a dichotomy, half 40’s styles songs with a modern raunchy twist on the lyrics, and half pure adult contemporary pop. There are some cool sound effects on both discs of record scratching, horns blaring, funky keyboards, song samples, rapping intros, and even muffled vocals (“I Got Trouble”) on songs of similar tempo that keep the double disc from being too repetitive in style. There isn’t a lot of uptempo music, lead single “Ain’t No Other Man” is the fastest on disc one, while “Candy Man” on the second disc is the other notable uptempo track.

Despite the change in style from Stripped, there are a few nuggets for fans of the hits off Aguilera’s sophomore album: “Here to Stay” is the “Fighter” of this album, same kind of pop sound (now infused with horns here) and “be strong for yourself” message. “Hurt” is the “Beautiful” analog on this disc, the big, poignant Linda Perry power ballad. “Still Dirrty” conveys that the message of the original “Dirrty” still holds, but the song style is quite different, not as fast and not as fun, but with funkier instruments. There are also shoutouts to her earlier hits, “Thank You,” a track dedicated to her fans, samples “Genie in a Bottle,” while “Nasty Naughty Boy” borrows some lyrics from “Lady Marmalade.”

Christina shows a wide range of vocal styling, her usual powerhouse wailing is on full display in most of the tracks, but she can rein it in as well. “Save Me From Myself” is a dark, acoustic ballad, where Aguilera’s quiet, whispery phrasing and tone actually reminds me a bit of the Icelandic songstress Bjork. In the verses of “Nasty, Naughty Boy,” she evokes the sultriness of Peggy Lee in “Fever.” She also has some sweet, soft harmonies on “Without You.”

Aguilera’s songwriting is a bit uneven; she ranges from the poignant narration of the breakdown of her mother’s marriage in the lilting ballad, “Oh Mother” to a rather stark, literal description of her own wedding in “The Right Man,” which is brilliantly orchestrated with wedding-march organs. She again tells a compelling personal story in “Understand,” a tale of her finding love and accepting it, but seems just to be dredging up old stereotypes in “Still Dirrty.” The lyrics push a little further than your typical album of love songs—there’s religious influence in her songs “Makes Me Wanna Pray” and “Mercy on Me,” a direction she hasn’t previously gone, and Aguilera and co-writers push the limits of good taste when describing raunchy acts in double entendre in her 40s throwback songs like “Candy Man” and “Nasty Naughty Boy”

The interludes are a little silly and unnecessary—“Back to Basics” seems to be all about doing shoutouts to musical greats, and just oddly literal, and is it really necessary to dedicate an entire interlude to complain about her falling out with producer Scott Storch (F.U.S.S.)? Also an odd choice is “Enter the Circus” to start disc two, as it does not feature a vocal by Aguilera, and is follow immediately by the redundant “Welcome.” The fan voice mails in “Thank You” are also kind of weird. The music would be just as strong and cohesive minus the interludes, but I’m sure her fans aren’t complaining about the extra music. I’m not sure having a double album was a really great idea, it might have been better to break up the similar tempo R&B songs on the first disc with the poppier sound on the second disc for continuous listening, but I can understand the artistic division.

Overall I think this is the third pop album of the year that would win a recommendation from me, following Pink’s I’m Not Dead and Nelly Furtado’s Loose. Each album is distinct in style but manages to be both consistent and eclectic in its own genre and is supported by a strong, unique vocalist.

Because blogs are always more fun with a/v, here's a video of Christina performing "Understand" from B2B:

Tags: Christina Aguilera, album review, Back to Basics

Found on YouTube...

2006-08-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

Nick Lachey and Richard Marx dueting on "Right Here Waiting:"

I'm not sure when this was filmed, but I wonder if it was during Nick L.'s promotional run for "What's Left Of Me," which would have been awfully recent. I actually really love this song and can't wait to hear Clay Aiken take it on, but not as a single, because Richard Marx's original is still played like crazy on the radio.

Another song I loved when I was a grade-schooler that was earlier today rumored to have been on one of the previous iterations of "A Thousand Different Ways" but ultimately didn't make the cut is "If You Don't Know Me By Now" by Simply Red, and you can watch their music video here:

Ah, the 80s, I miss them.

Tags: Clay Aiken, Richard Marx, Nick Lachey, Right Here Waiting, Simply Red, If You Don't Know Me By Now, A Thousand Different Ways

Different Hair, Same Clay

2006-08-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

Clickable:

He hasn't really changed that much. :)

Tags: Clay Aiken, new look, A Thousand Different Ways

Still incoherent

2006-08-04T20:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, maybe someday I'll be able to gather my brain and talk about music again, but in the meantime I'm still trying to figure out how these two photos could possibly be of the same man, taken less than five months apart:

O_O

Kudos to Clay Aiken's team for keeping this hawt new look under wraps. It's been more than 24 hours since I first saw the new PR photo and I still can't stop thinking, "He's sooooo pretty."

So, uh, he sings too?

Tags: Clay Aiken, new look, A Thousand Different Ways

Remember when this blog used to have content?

2006-08-02T22:15:00.000-07:00

Gah. Clay Aiken is soooo gorgeous.

Tags: Clay Aiken, photoshoot, A Thousand Different Ways

Forget logic and expectations

2006-08-01T15:09:00.000-07:00

I just want to sit here and stare at this:
And this:

Tags: Clay Aiken

Radioplay Speculation & Analysis

2006-07-12T20:38:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about Clay Aiken's radioplay prospects for the new album lately. Two very important things have happened since Clay's last mainstream album cycle, one of them being the increasing impact of legal digital single downloads on radiostation playlists, and the second being the Eliot-Spitzer radio payola investigation that will supposedly stop or at least reduce record labels' buying airplay for their artists. Actually, the two go hand-in-hand, because with dimished "independent promotion" from the label, radio programmers don't know what to play and decide instead to look at what the people are buying independent of airplay, as well as the name recognition of the artists in question.

For songs yet to be released downloads, HYPE has everything to do with instant impact in the last calendar year. Obviously if you're a radio darling like Beyonce or Justin Timberlake they play you more than 1000 times a week coming out of the gate just based on name recognition. But even if you've had mixed degrees of success on radio like Jessica Simpson, or no history in the field of music like Paris Hilton but have large amounts of hype for being quite famous, you still have a good shot at good initial airplay. Of course, established artists with past hits under their belt like Madonna and Pink have had their struggles on the pop format lately still had pretty decent receptions for their lead singles, making the top 20 on chr/pop, although they dropped pretty fast after the hype died. That may well happen with the other artists named as well, but we won't find out until their albums actually hit the stores.

Looking at the iTunes vs. airplay chart, there are a few artists of note:

Jessica Simpson actually hasn't been as big a download darling as one might have expected, with "Public Affair" not yet making the top 15 on the overall iTunes chart, whereas JSimpsons' airplay, while high enough to have generated 1400+ bullets initially, has slowed down to about +500, perhaps corresponding to the lower than expected downloads, though I fully expect the release of her much ballyhooed music video to impact both sets of numbers positively.

Paris Hilton's airplay has been holding steady at about +500 almost the entire way through her chart run, as it has been getting pretty decent download numbers, making it to the top 10 at iTunes for quite a few weeks, though the numbers are now dropping and may impact whether "Stars are Blind" makes the Top 10.

The new Christina Aguilera and Gnarls Barkley singles have held up remarkably well in the last month or so on downloads (Top 5 on iTunes). Gnarls Barkley's airplay has been on fire pretty much on every format nonstop for weeks, and while airplay for Aguilera stalled for a while by the July 4th holidays, it has picked up again with a vengence, with spin increases bypassing some of the newer, also highly hyped songs on the chart like Beyonce and Jessica Simpson.

Based on digital sales, I'd also predict that John Mayer, whose single "Waiting for the World to Change," was released to retail just this Tuesday, has already hit the Top 10, even though his primary airplay source is Adult Top 40, a format that hasn't been extremely conducive to generating sales (see the Goo Goo Dolls), is about to get a pretty good push on the pop format (should his record label decide to do so) because radio will see that he is selling based on AT40 play and will then be receptive, even though his hit singles on AT40 in the past have been somewhat hit and miss on pop.

I also found this post from a radio station intern posting at Pulse Music Board that gave some insight to how playlists are generated:
I'm just an intern and from what It seems like... if you make it big then u'll obivously get played... but how to make it big? Well, radio has got to love you... a strong fan base that request the song every hour (Not to mention that radio stations...don't always pick up the phone... and they can care less <--- I'm talking about stations that follow others which is like the majority of the stations in the US because all it takes is to play one song that someone might like that much to switch to the next station... remember "RADIO" is a bizness... most top 40 stations are going to play something that is familiar to ppl ... a lot of stations don't want to be that "GROUND BREAKING MUSIC STATION" b/c it's too risky...you could lose listeners by playing music that's just too 'TRENDY / NEW' and when you loose listeners u start loosing clients, sponsors, etc.... and there goes the biz for that station... Now... how to get those songs played on the station and how to make it become a hit... my guess would be keep on requesting it to those huge stations that compete with each other to get the latest thing out... example KISS FM <- that's one I'm familiar with in the Chicago Land Area....if all the bigstations pick it up... and downloads push the single to the hot 100... and if it breaks into "AT LEAST" top 20-30 the song will be added to every station...My station that I Intern will "ABSOLUTELY NOT" add a song or play a song that is at number 41 + .... that's pretty much the rule I guess for many smaller stations... well my station at least... Believe it or not they wouldn't play X-Tina's new song until it broke into the top 20... :D Huh~ The radio world is so complicated and also so unfair... but that's just how it is .... it's a BIZ~

So what exactly does all of this have to with Clay Aiken? While Clay isn't an established radio darling like some, he has a high name recognition factor and people are curious about him, so I think that alone (assuming all the promotion is in place from the label) can drive a radio single into the Top 20 in the span of two months. The fact that he's well known to have an excellent voice (even some haters and don't likers will acknowledge the voice) will give him a "safe" factor against payola investigations since if someone like Clay gets airplay, the radio programmers can point to his known talent and established following and say there is a demand for his music. As for downloads, there's been discussion/debate of whether one should download the new single instantly when it's made available or wait until an optimal time to help the song peak as high as possible on the Hot 100. I would have to say the case is definitely in favor of the former because that initial download burst of getting the track into the top ten digital songs is what will get the song noticed by consumers and programmers alike, and after that the song has hype (in addition to that generated by Clay's name recognition alone). So I think all the lynchpins are in place for a good showing out of the gate for a new Clay Aiken single, and whether airplay holds up long term for him or any currently hyped artist will then depend largely on the material. Now if only the new music would actually arrive...

Tags: new music, Jessica Simpson, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Gnarls Barkley, Justin Timberlake,Clay Aiken, John Mayer, Paris Hilton, Madonna, Beyonce, radio airplay, digital singles, pop radio

The MOAM song review, first impressions and afterwards

2006-06-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

Confession time: The first time I got my Measure of a Man CD in the mail from Amazon sometime in mid-February of 2004, I listened to it and went WTF? The Clay Aiken I had just heard on my TV singing "Invisible" and "The Way" on Saturday Night Live had a far more rich and textured voice than what I was hearing on the record. Not that it was bad, and in fact probably far more listenable than most other CDs I've subsequently acquired, just not the same energy as Live!Clay--a problem I hope will be rectified on the next CD.

Songs I didn't care much for initially: "No More Sad Song" (what's with the lack of "s"?, even Clay would tack it on there sometimes). Listening to it back now and watching some of the old videos, I do appreciate it as the most rock-edged of the album tracks, however. I was also trying to figure out what these pseudo-Christian songs "I Will Carry You" and "Measure of a Man" were saying and if they were in fact actually Christian. I, incidentally, do not happen to be of the Christian faith and at first these songs kind of bothered me. I have since gotten over this; MOAM won me over pretty quickly for being so pretty, and though I never really got into "rocking" IWCY, when Clay did an acoustic piano rendition on Oprah I loved it:

Songs that were okay to me initially: "Invisible" and "The Way," which I loved on TV but came across a little flat on the record, but I'll always have positive associations with these songs as the first to introduce me to Mr. Aiken. "Shine" was quirky though I wasn't sure what to make of the lyrics. "Run to Me" didn't stick out in my brain at all in the first listen, but it's really become a favorite of mine since the melody is quite pretty and Clay's voice is incredible on this one. It's clearly a very challenging song and he couldn't sing it live without major vocal strain on his first tour, but when he worked it out for the solo tour in 2004, he sounded absolutely amazing and heartfelt. It's quite possibly now my favorite song on the album. Since there's no TV performance of this song and I'm too lazy to look for a good concert video, here's one that's already up on Youtube of RTM:

My favorite initial songs: "This is the Night," "When You Say You Love Me," and "I Survived You." TITN is the song that sounds most like Clay in these album track due to production. Not sure what I think of the cheesetastic lyrics, but I like that this sounds like him, and I nearly always like piano ballads. WYSYLM is a catchy little ditty, I always thought it should have gone to radio, even though it's probably the lest challenging song to sing--Clay frequently zones out and forgets the words on this one because the vocals don't require his concentration. He never took it very seriously in concert, talking on the phone to fans or bringing them up on stage to dance. writer of the song, Savage Garden's Darren Hayes, recording it for himself in Australia and it became a #1 hit. As for "I Survived You," I didn't know about the "damned" situation at the time of Clay's not wanting to sing "I'll be damned if ..." and it had none of the growly hotness that Clay performs the song now with in concert, but I still really liked it. Of course, now I love it exponentially more with the long held note and the growls. I flip-flop sometimes between RTM and ISY as my favorite performance songs overall, as I think they highlight his range best. Here's a lovely performance of ISY on Good Morning America:

Songs that made me WTF: Touch. So totally unlike the remainder of the record it's unclear why it was on there. I didn't mind the song though, it has a nice beat. I guess Clay doesn't care for it though, since he's never sung it live, so no video for this section!

Oops, it occurs to me that I forgot "Perfect Day." I always forget that song. :P

Tags: Clay Aiken, Measure of a Man, CD review

I prefer my pretend boyfriends brainy, thank you very much

2006-06-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

Hee, I know this blog was constructed for my "music musings," but I wanted to squee and congratulate my other pretend boyfriend, Mike "Moose" Mussina of the New York Yankees for notching his 2500th strikeout this afternoon in the Yankee victory over the Florida Marlins. I've been a big fan of his since I was a thirteen-year old girl, which makes it half my lifetime that I've been following his career. He's a very handsome guy to be sure:

But what keeps me addicted to following his career has always been his brains, talent, and wry sense of humor. He doesn't have the 94 mph fastball he had ten years ago, but he's been developing new pitches and grips and is now having one of his most successful seasons this year at age 37. And being the total academic snob I happen to be, I also think he's awesome that for getting his degree from Stanford University in 3.5 years because he knew he would be drafted by a major league team at the end of his junior year (and he was a first round draftee by the Baltimore Orioles, having turned them down when they had wanted to sign him out of high school) but wanted to get his degree in economics anyway, and I have huge respect for anyone who values his education even with all sorts of money and opportunities being thrown at him. Mussina's also famous (or infamous) for being a brainiac crossword junkie, and in fact makes an appearance in the movie Wordplay, which talking about the challenge of solving crosswords in comparison with pitching the majors.

Mike's taken a lot of flack over the years for being a somewhat mentally fragile hired gun that hasn't won a championship by the New York media and fans, but I think he's finally come into his own this year and essentially saved the Yankees' season with his cool effectiveness in the first two months when their other pitchers were having some problems. Plus he's shown a lot fire this year, as you can see from this video, where he yells at manager Joe Torre to keep him in the game, and then nonchalantly tells reporters that yeah, he kinda wanted to finish the ballgame, LOL:

The month of June has been a bit rough for Moose and surprisingly the NYY fans haven't jumped all over him as they had in the past (and as they continue to do people like Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez) and were actually giving him the benefit of the doubt. I guess he's finally earned his pinstripes. And today he had a good outing and earned another win (career win #233), so yay!

Topic: Pretty boys come and go when it comes to catching my fancy, but it's the smart ones who keep my support for life. I've stuck with being a Mike Mussina fan for more than a decade now, and I expect no less for my fandom of that other talented, savvy, intelligent guy I love, Clay Aiken, and I hope to be celebrating Clay's milestones in the very near future. Soon. *g*

Tags: Mike Mussina, Clay Aiken, milestones

Revisiting Clay Aiken on JKL 2003

2006-06-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

I rarely watch any Clay Aiken appearances from before 2004 because I am so accustomed to seeing Mr. Aiken as a seasoned professional that the "old Clay" that looked like a shy sixteen year old (thanks, AI appointed stylists) makes my analytical left brain go all haywire trying to make that image congruent with MY vision of mature, confident Clay Aiken. Luckily, Clay has an incredible learning curve and by November 2003, he was cheerfully sparring with talk show hosts and even a very famous pop star, as can be seen in this funny video:

Tags: Clay Aiken, skit, Jimmy Kimmel Live

2006 Albums Chatter

2006-06-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

So two or three months ago, RCA records had listed (mistakingly) that Clay Aiken's new album was due today, June 20. And we're here now today with still no official news on that project, but I have been listening to some CDs on AOL First Listen, and I really like the new Nelly Furtado CD, Loose, and the new Keane CD, Under the Iron Sea. I tend to like albums that aren't "all sound same" and are fairly eclectic such that the tracks are distinguishable from each other, and both albums definitely fit that bill, although I didn't expect them to. Can't say I'm too impressed with Furtado's live voice, but the beats and melodies on the recording are pretty funky that I would consider picking up her album.

I actually haven't bought a CD all year, although I toyed with getting the Pink album, I'm Not Dead, which is actually a fine album with more solid tracks than most, but unfortunately cursed with an awful album cover and title. Usually at this juncture I would go link the cover art but then I would have to actually go seek it out and I just don't want to because ick. I rarely buy albums that have covers I consider hideous (exception: Evanescence's Fallen, whose booklet I have turned backwards, but I really wanted that album for "My Immortal," and Wind-Up Records does not release albums or singles digitally so I had to get the album) or with dumb titles. I know you shouldn't judge a book (or album) by its cover, but if I have to live with it in my house and look at it from time to time, you bet I'm going to care what the CD art looks like. Plus the politicking Pink does on her album doesn't thrill me either.

I'm a liberal for free speech and all that jazz, but I don't particularly care to have politics mixed in with my music. I have Green Day's American Idiot, but I have to say I pretty much don't listen to the lyrics at all, I just like the guitars and the beat and the vocals. The Dixie Chicks' posturing I don't care for either, but it doesn't really matter affect my buying or not buying their album, since Natalie Maines's voice kind of grates on me after a while. There's a sharpness to her vocal that I can't listen to continuously. I also thought about picking up Jewel's new album, Goodbye Alice in Wonderland, but again I listened to it and the songs are just a little to same-y between tracks to hold my nanosecond attention span.

Upcoming albums for 2006 that I have an eye on:

Back to Basics by Christina Aguilera, August 15th. I'm not sure if I'm going to like this one. I tend to favor her more pop/rock songs like "Fighter" and 30s/40s soul style music doesn't seem to be really my cup of tea, but her single, "Ain't No Other Man," has really grown on me the more I listen to it. Still not crazy about her image, but I didn't like her Stripped image either. I wish just one of these girl pop stars would have a normal hair color and natural looking makeup instead of looking like a mannequin. She does have a great voice though, probably the strongest of the current female pop artists, though in country there are some superior female voices IMO. LeAnn Rimes and Martina McBride in particular. Unfortunately I don't like country music much (though I like Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban) so I only have LeAnn's inspirational album and Martina's Christmas album, but I guess I am now way off topic. Good thing it's my blog.

The Open Door by Evanescence, October 3rd. I'm pretty curious where they are going to go now that Amy Lee has dumped Ben Moody's "commercial"-loving tendencies. She seems to favor the more inaccessible melodies and their material might be too hard rock from the sounds of it, but no lady out there has a prettier recording voice than Amy Lee, IMO, although some have greater strength, power, and range. Her voice is just so pretty, but there's no point if there aren't pretty ballads to showcase it.

FutureSex/LoveSound (or something like that) by Justin Timberlake, September 12th. I'm not actually considering buying this album in any way shape or form since I can't stand JT's boyband voice, but I do plan to chart watch this album very carefully. He charted four singles in the Top 5 at CHR/Pop (plus whatever rhythmic and urban play that I don't track) with Justified but only sold 3.5 million domestic and 7 million overall worldwide. Not that those are small potatoes numbers by any stretch of the imagination, but considering all that radioplay it's not that great compared to some of his contemporaries who also had substantial heavy airplay. He's been away from the music scene for a long time and also had the Janet Jackson fallout, so it will be very interesting to see how he does.

Untitled by Katharine McPhee, December 2006 (probably). I voted for Katharine all season (except for some clunker performances) on American Idol, although I'm not entirely sold on her future prospects in the industry and may or may not buy her album. If she's going the Celine Dion route, forget about it, because her upper register is completely lacking that kind of strength to belt. I might give it a chance if the songs are mostly in her non-screechy range though. I suspect that like Carrie Underwood she will be better in studio than she was on the show because of the nerves from live performance, but we'll see.

???? by Clay Aiken, "soon." If only national security was as diligent at keeping secrets as Team Clay... I'm still really hoping against hope that the remakes on the album that supposedly constitute the majority are relatively obscure and can become hits associated with CA like "Bless the Broken Road" and "What Hurts the Most" have become for Rascal Flatts, but I don't know if that's in the cards since again the fans know nothing. :P But anyway I just hope the album really showcases Clay's voice in all its many dimensions and backs it up with some eclectic sounds. And world domination wouldn't hurt either. *g* I would love for Clay to break into the international market in a big way with the new album. I believe the pieces are all there, with Aiken's force of personality and incredible voice--it takes something damn special for Clay to have 10K fans in Korea, a country he's never been to and has only had a commercial jingle played on air; I just hope the marketing plans back him up!

Tags: new music, Nelly Furtado, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Evanescence, Justin Timberlake,Clay Aiken, Katharine McPhee, Green Day, Dixie Chicks, Keane, Jewel

The Bachelor

2006-06-14T21:29:00.000-07:00

So apparently People magazine has named this year's American Idol, Taylor Hicks, as their "Hottest Bachelor." Here's a scary picture from the photoshoot of TH surrounded by what appear to be sixteen year old groupies. To which my reaction was: WTF and ROTFL. I guess they wanted to try something different. Me, I'll be passing on this particular issue and waiting for them to do an Orlando Bloom with beautiful cheekbones cover because I am shallow. ;)

Anyway, the whole bachelor thing just reminded me of this really funny skit I read a while back, written by Jude at the Clackhouse, which cast Clay Aiken as the celebrity bachelor and his various internet fans as his dates. Here's the link for those who want to revisit for a good laugh: Celebrity Bachelor by Jude.

Tags: Taylor Hicks, bachelor, Orlando Bloom, Clay Aiken, skit

Changing Perceptions

2006-06-11T21:14:00.000-07:00

I consider myself a fairly avid fan of Carrie Underwood. Wasn't a huge fan during her Idol run, but her charm and intelligence in the interviews after her win last year really won me over, and when her album came out I was doubly impressed that her vocals had improved markedly over her Idol days; I even went to her first headlining concert this year in January in Portland, Maine, and I had never traveled to see anyone in concert save Clay Aiken. Great voice, lovely young woman, but somewhat reserved and awkward even in front of an adoring crowd. My associations of her are basically lookswise, a innocent fairy-tale ice princess sort of girl; singing-wise, probably the heir apparent to Faith Hill as a sweet, blonde, pretty, big country-pop ballad belter.

And then today I saw this picture of her:

And suddenly my mental image of Carrie and her future in music shifts dramatically. Maybe she's going to go an entirely different direction than that which I had previously imagined. Instead of sweet and innocent, she now looks hot and rocking. Wow. I'm now wondering if it's possible that she's going to go after the massive Shania Twain audience of being more entertaining, saucy attitude-driven music with a hot look. She has a long way to go in stage presence but she's come so far in so many ways that it's no longer out of the realm of my imagination that it could happen. But I would have never thought of it without seeing that picture.

So if a mere picture could make me rethink about what Ms. Underwood is capable of in her career, I can only imagine the seismic shock that two minutes on TV with a brand new look is shifting musical expectations of Mr. Clay Aiken.

In a related tangent, today at the bookstore I was leafing through the book, Blink , which presented some thought-provoking theories on "first impressions," why sometimes they're right on and other times they're dead wrong. The author presented a case of an aspiring musician who was raved over by music industry executives and live audience alike, but couldn't catch a break because of marketing research, as callout on snippets of his songs were terrible. Basically, what it came down to was that the execs and the live concert audiences could see a slice of the whole package of what the artist presented and loved it, but when they broke his music down to sparse pieces of information, it translated poorly because the testers had the wrong slice of information. This case was presented as analogous to the Pespi/Coke taste test. Pepsi (the sweeter drink) consistently rated higher on sip tests but when people drank whole bottles at home they preferred buying Coke because of brand image and a flavor that held up better when you had to drink a whole can instead of just sipping a taste. It's all very interesting.

There was also an anecdote that I found particularly provoking; that of an art collector who dissects art so much that it's difficult for him to judge what appeals to him after so much analysis that he would have the art locked away for a while and covered in black and then some time later would suddenly uncover the art and instinctively judge based on that flash reveal whether the art was really good or not so great, and then go with that piece of information to decide whether he ultimated wanted the piece or not. Sure made me think a lot of Clay's dramatic reveal after months of nothingness. Here he is, presented in 3-D, judge for what you see in front of you and not based on all your preconceptions that have faded away. I wonder if the people at Strategic Artist Management have read Blink? LOL.

Tags: Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken, Blink, perceptions

Resistance is Futile

2006-06-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I blogged about How I discovered Clay Aiken, but I must admit that it was very difficult shaking off years of being a pop music hater. I grew up playing classical piano for twelve years and classical was the only station my mom ever listened to in the car. When I had my druthers, I would switch to sports talk radio, because I was the teen sports trivia queen utterly obsessed with statistics and sports history. Popular music? Feh. I spent my childhood rolling my eyes at my contemporaries who loved Paula Abdul or NKOTB and my teenage years strongly resisting my best friend obsessed with country music's pleas to accompany her to concerts. My college years, I joined in with the file-sharers who had no respect for record companies. In short: Number of CDs purchased in my first twenty -two years of life: 0. Number of concerts attended in my first twenty-two years of life: 0.

So along comes this Aiken guy with all his charm and wit and talent to turn my world upside down when I saw him on the Tonight Show, but I still couldn't quite take the plunge to buy that CD, because I just don't believe in buying CDs, you know? I was watching the message boards pretty intently by this point, however, and knew that Mr. Aiken had an appearance coming up on Saturday Night Live, and I decided if he could wow me again then, I would *takes deep breath* buy his CD.

And then this happened:

Wow, those clothes look nice on him. What is he doing with his eyes? Gah! And the mic stand moves? OMG! Is that a growl I heard? Squee! You get the picture. I was beyond impressed that not only was this Clay Aiken guy smart, funny, talented and professional, he was most definitely sexy too. Ordered that copy of Measure of a Man from Amazon.com in a jiffy after that. :)

ETA after watching again: How could I forget those eyelashes! And his bopping along while acknowledging the band was too cute.

ETAA to add another video of "The Way:"

I LOVED the lipbite and wide-eyed wonder he shows at the end of the performance here. He's in full pop/rock star mode while performing but just drinks in the crowd appreciation with this incredulous "I can't believe I'm here" look that's positively swoon-worthy.

Technorati Tags: Clay Aiken, Saturday Night Live

More Cute Clay Fan Interaction

2006-06-02T16:58:00.000-07:00

I like lots of music, but the main reason that Clay Aiken remains my favorite singer by a long shot is because he is so fun to watch on stage, regardless of whether he's singing or not, and his concert banter is always so funny. This is a memory from my first concert ever, when I made my mom drive me to the middle of nowhere (otherwise known as Kingston, RI). At this concert, Clay responded to a young fan's sign in the audience asking to pet Raleigh, Clay's dog, and Clay brought the puppy and the fan on stage to meet. I think the little girl got more than she bargained for when Raleigh started licking her face! Also funny: Clay asking Raleigh to say "Nice to meet you" on the microphone and then having to wipe down the mic on his shirt after Raleigh licks that too.

Video compiled from footage by SecretlyLovesClay and buzztechie:

Technorati Tags: Clay Aiken, Raleigh

How I discovered Clay Aiken

2006-05-31T09:42:00.000-07:00

This is a repost of an entry I wrote several months ago at another board, now enhanced with video:

It's January 22, 2004, and I'm watching The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The guests tonight are Jennifer Aniston and Clay Aiken. This is the last season of Friends, which has been a favorite show of mine through my college years, so I will certainly make an attempt to see JA tonight. This Clay Aiken guy, I don't know much about, although I do recall that there was a skit about him on SNL a few weeks ago when Elijah Wood hosted and recall being rather confused about the fascination over him, so I'm a little curious to watch him tonight.

After JA's segment, which had fewer Friends mentions than I had hoped, and I'm watching this Clay Aiken fellow walk onto the set. I don't know much of anything about him, except that he sang "Bridge Over Troubled Water" on American Idol, and that he should have won and his fans made a big deal when he didn't. That's what my mother and the internet tell me, anyway. He is taller than I would have thought, since the last picture I saw of him was in Entertainment Weekly, when he was posing with a giant black man. He settles in easily to banter back and forth with Jay. What surprises me most about him is his sharp wit and the animated expressions on his face. He reacts with such bright alacrity to Jay's teasing and jokes that it's impossible not to be drawn to him. When Jay asks for his driver's license, he hands it right over, and I'm a little surprised that he wouldn't anticipate Jay's showing it to the camera. I burst into giggles when he snatches the license back after Jay jokes about the picture; there's a certain authority about him, an open, natural gutsyness to talk back and say exactly what's on his mind that I can't help but admire, even as he's squirming on the couch while watching a clip from his high school musical. I'm impressed and find it rather difficult to reconcil that he could be a pop star (all of the ones that I've seen are total bubbleheads) and certainly can't imagine his having ever been a reality show contestant considering his laid-back boldness and obvious comfort in front of the camera. I've watched many popular movie stars struggle to be interesting or connect with the host or camera, and this guy is just such an utter professional it blows my mind.

We're back after the commercial break, and he opens his mouth to sing. Damn, I didn't expect that. His singing voice is quite distinct from his speaking voice, so full and resonant and completely different than the usual variety of screaming or whiny voices I hear on these shows when "musicians" perform. I almost always turn the channel when musical guests perform on late night shows because they're almost always awful in my estimation, but this man is unquestionably a singer. And again I can't get over the fact that he could have been a reality show contestant less than a year ago. He has such a connection to the camera and moves with such grace that I honestly can't believe he hasn't been a professional for years. It's absolutely mindblowing for me, a person who has been so completely put off by musical acts for all my teenage and adult life, both by their "talent" and their "too cool for school attitude" through all my years of watching late-night television that I take pride in having never purchased a CD ever or been to a concert. I mean, who would pay money for music when it's A. not worth the money, and B. you can listen to it for free if you really want to by turning on your radio? I don't know what I'll do because I'm actually strangely compelled to seek out more of this "Clay Aiken"'s music that of course I'll turn to my omnipotent best friend, the internet and look for more information about him before I decide whether I can actually take the monumental step of actually purchasing a CD. Google turns up ClaytonAiken.com and its accompanying message board and I begin reading. And so it begins...

Technorati Tags: Clay Aiken, Tonight Show, Jay Leno

Clay Aiken sings with fans!

2006-05-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

Since we're still in the wake of Clay Aiken's watercooler-talk worthy appearance on American Idol Wednesday night where he appeared and sang with a fan, I thought it would be nice to reminesce about the summer of 2004, during Clay's first solo tour. Every night at each venue, Clay would encourage audience participation by selecting a fan to sing on stage with him, which made for some really cute and memorable moments. This video I've linked on YouTube is my favorite of that summer, it's from the Ohio State Fair in 2004, where Clay sings with a little girl named Faith, and their interaction is absolutely pricelss.

Video by va_1587:

Technorati Tags: Clay Aiken, Ohio State Fair

Let's Give 'Em Something to Talk About

2006-05-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

So a couple of days ago I was speculating that Clay Aiken needed to somehow shatter the stereotypes associated with his old image to move forward with his new music, and lo and behold on last night's American Idol 5 finale with 200 million people watching per Ryan Seacrest:

Shock. And. Awe.

On the Clay Aiken fanboards I read, people have speculated about this strategy for some time now, but all of us fans have been thinking it would be more a reveal of the Clay Aiken "we know" as fans to the general public. But he surprised us too. I consider myself a pretty dedicated but decidedly reserved fan of Mr. Aiken who is cool and calm with most career decisions he makes, and the bit on AI hit me like a truck. When the impersonators' segment started I was sinking into gloom thinking "Oh no, here comes a horrible Clay impersonation" *cringe, cringe* "They're going to make Clay's appearance this awful joke" *can barely watch, let alone listen* and then Clay took the stage and I was like WTF?!?! for at least twenty minutes after looking at his hair. Just totally shellshocked.

After some of the feedback from general public, long dormant fans, and even the media came in stunning favor of his new look and showed that people actually understood that Clay was re-establishing his image apart from the ridiculous stereotypes loosely based on his appearance three years ago, my brain started resuming its normal functions. And you know what? I think it's brilliant. Tons of people are talking today about Clay's new look and he's very much been jolted back into the public consciousness again with tons of buzz. Just in time for a new album release announcement, perhaps? Well played, Team Clay, well played.

As for me, I'm slowly coming around to the new haircut. It's kinda endearing after you watch the segment back ten times. And the initial horror of having the impersonator guy sing with Clay has somehow been replaced by an appreciation of how genuinely surprised and happy the kid was at meeting his idol and how professionally and kindly Clay responded. It's sweet really. And squee! Clay's back!

Technorati Tags: Clay Aiken, American Idol 5 finale

American Idol's Final 2 Night

2006-05-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

Boy, talk about anti-climatic. Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee both reprised two songs they did previously on the show and then sang a horrible original song to close the show. I think Katharine was at a distinct disadvantage having chosen two songs she did relatively recently on the show and the far worse of the two awful original songs in "My Destiny." Of course I pretty much have no memory of any songs that Taylor has done on the show since I've had little interest in listening to them back, not being a particular fan of his voice (whereas I've played back Kat's performances numerous times and know them pretty well), so his songs did seem a little fresher to me in addition to being performed earlier in the season, but still. I've watched three seasons of this show, I was laughing at the lyrics of "I Believe" in season 3, cringing at the lyrics of "Inside Your Heaven" in season 4, but last night made me realize that at least those songs had melodies. Taylor's "Do I Make You Proud" only had some semblance of melody in the chorus and Kat's "My Destiny" had none whatsoever. You would think for the number one rated show on television they would have the best songwriters in the world just dying for a chance to have their songs be the final two's singles, but apparently Simon Fuller has a lot of relatives...or something like that. :/

The watercooler moment of the show has got to be Taylor's purple velvet jacket though:

It's not a good thing when that's the most lasting impression the most watch show on TV leaves you with. I definitely think the big winner this season has to be Daniel Powter, whose "Bad Day" got five weeks at #1 on the Hot 100 chart and may very well be the biggest song of 2006. It was pretty weird that they played a montage of contestants in the screen on the background and tried to simultaneously show both the montage and Powter. It seems like it would make more sense to focus either just on the performer (which is what I would want if I were DP) or the montage the audience is watching instead of having weird long shots incorporating both that show no detail whatsoever.

Tonight: Clay and Carrie! And Taylor's inevitable coronation.

Technorati Tags: American Idol, Taylor Hicks, Katharine McPhee, Daniel Powter

New CD, New Image

2006-05-21T15:43:00.000-07:00

Today I was reading the Time cover story on the Dixie Chicks, which featured this particular photograph as one of the accompanying pictorials:
I was thinking "dang!" because in my brain full of mock magazine pieces for Clay Aiken's new album that was one of my concepts. Clay gets so much crap from "comedians" and "journalists" (and filth of the underworld that deserve no specifics other than being tabloid lies) that I thought it would be fitting. But maybe it's too cloyingly playing the victim though (see Kayne West's Jesus crown of thorns Rolling Stone cover). I'm actually kinda sick of the Dixie Chicks' whining already since I seem to encounter an article about them every where I turn. :P

So an alternative more proactive kind of image to project might be Clay with a hammer swinging away to shatter some stereotypical representation of him. That would be kind of hot actually. *Pauses for a moment to imagine the picture* But in any case I would like to see Clay plainatively call those media types on their ridiculous stereotyping and bullying him based on stereotype and thus refusing to listen to or play his music. He already started hitting back at "too cool" interviewers with razor-edge snark and blunt emotion in the articles that were published during last summer's tour, and I'd love to see him tackle the national press with that same attitude. It should be very clear that he's a grown man with real feelings who has paid his dues, won't let anyone take away his inner peace, and is determined to stay in the business because he loves performing.

I guess I'm a little worried about the "love songs" concept CD because I wonder if the label would try for a soft sell of Clay is a nice boy singing pretty songs just like Barry Manilow, and I'm not sure how a tougher, Clay as-an-adult image that I feel is necessary to develop fits with love songs. But there was the TV Guide article from last summer (that I did not love at the time but retroactively understand better) to set it up, so we'll see.

Technorati Tags: Clay Aiken, Dixie Chicks

American Idol Ramblings

2006-05-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

So I've been watching American Idol for three years now--never used to be much of a reality TV watcher, but that adorkable guy with the voice of a god, Clay Aiken, put it on the radar for me back in 2004. I saw him on Jay Leno's show and he absolutely blew me away. His sense of humor had me laughing out loud, and not only that he was this talented, charismatic singer with an unbelievable stage presence that could work a camera better than, well, anyone I'd ever seen musical guesting on a late night TV show. Just such a total professional that I couldn't believe he was an amateur from a talent show less than one year ago. I figured if they could discover a talent like Mr. Aiken, then maybe it might be worth watching. I've since become a huge fan of Ms. Carrie Underwood, another classy, intelligent lovely individual with amazing pipes.

This year, I'm a fan of Katharine McPhee, and am very excited that she's made it to the finals. I'm not terribly optimistic about her chances to win given the judges clear predilection for a male winner this year and the devotion of the "Soul Patrol," Taylor Hicks's fan base, but hopefully it will be close. It's pretty impressive that Kat has even made it this far considering she is from LA and not some place in the south that's mobilized their entire county to vote for her with free text messaging booths like some of her competitors have had. She's also been leading the AOL poll wire-to-wire, so she might have a chance at this thing. I hope so.

Technorati Tags: Clay Aiken, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, Katharine McPhee, American Idol

How "singer/songwriters" are ruining pop music

2006-05-14T19:27:00.000-07:00

Let me say first that I respect the true singer/songwriter/musicians that write and compose all their own music; however, the current trend of all pop stars selling their own personal lives I find rather disgusting. Suddenly they're all "songwriters" churning diary entries about "my life sucks and it's everyone's fault but mine, but don't feel sorry for me because I'm so tough." *Gag, hurl* Not to mention all the songs are really written by professional songwriters lifting the same old hooks and instrumentals and just rearranging them all to make the songs "new." I understand how something can touch you so deeply that you want to share it in song, but when it becomes more about "look at me, I have so much credibility for sharing my personal life" than about the actual quality of music, there's something wrong there. I think this is a big part of why so much contemporary music sucks; everyone is obsessed with spilling their personal lives all over their albums and don't care or realize how poorly written and derivative all of their music is. Ick. Not to mention that some of these people, in addition to not being real songwriters capable of constructing their own music without professional help, are also not good singers. So now instead of rewarding either good singing or good songwriting, the charts are basically rewarding whose sexiest and shares the most from their sad personal life or their polarizing political views. But what about the music? How about original melodies and beats and meaningful lyrics for a change?

Current mood: disgusted

Technorati Tags: singer/songwriter

Idol Musings...

2006-03-26T19:19:00.000-08:00

This journal is for my musings about popular music in America that I enjoy, including that ubiquitous phenomenon known as American Idol, which will be the subject of this blog today.

Music listeners today have more choices than ever about the music they choose to listen. Although commercial radio is increasingly dominated by programs, technology has enabled the people to subscribe to more diverse satellite programming, or even internet music subscriptions tailored exclusively to one's own tastes (my personal choice). Yet a reality television show has managed to capture America like none of its contemporaries, and I have a couple of thoughts about why that could be.

Firstly, live music has an unpredictable factor about it that is completely missing in the contemporary landscape. It used to be that radio programs from way back when (think Big Band era) featured live performances of popular bands and singers, and that is an energy that simply cannot be replicated by recordings, especially those which are played every hour on the hour. I would personally find commercial radio much more interesting if they would devote an hour every week and ask some artists in studio to perform and give listeners a chance to connect to the artist beyond the slickly produced studio recording.

Secondly, the people in this day and age are very cynical (and rightly so) about the current crop of popular music stars in pop, r&b, and hip-hop. Technology is a double-edged sword because it can make medicore singers into slickly packaged stars. Anyone famous with a hefty budget to get hot producers and fancy sound equipment can record and album and market it to even the top of the charts, regardless of singing ability if they have the correct image. Because the audience is primarily exposed to the studio recordings through commercial sources, it's basically impossible to distinguished the truly talented from the hacks. As much as the Idol show is manipulated to the favor the producers' favorites, there's no disguising a questionable voice on live television week after week. While it's far from "what you see is what you get" since the show is basically cast for characters, for the most part, what you hear is what you get.