Bad Romance vs Poker Face

Maybe not everyone would agree with me, but I have an opinion.

Bad Romance sounds abit like Poker Face.

Okay, not exactly a ground-breaking or Nobel prize-winning revelation, but just thought I would like to share. I'll back up my statement with a juxtaposition of the lyrics.

Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah!
Roma-roma-mamaa!
Ga-ga-ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance

P-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face
(Mum mum mum mah)
P-p-p-poker face, p-p-poker face
(Mum mum mum mah)

I want your ugly
I want your disease
I want your everything
As long as it's free
I want your love
(Love-love-love I want your love)

I wanna hold em' like they do in Texas Plays
Fold em' let em' hit me raise it baby stay with me (I love it)
Luck and intuition play the cards with Spades to start
And after he's been hooked I'll play the one that's on his heart

You know that I want you
And you know that I need you
I want it bad, your bad romance

Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-e-ohh-oh-oh
I'll get him hot, show him what I've got
Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-e-ohh-oh-oh,
I'll get him hot, show him what I've got

I want your love and
I want your revenge
You and me could write a bad romance
(Oh-oh-oh--oh-oooh! )
I want your love and
All your lovers' revenge
You and me could write a bad romance

Can't read my,
Can't read my
No he can't read my poker face
(She's got to love nobody)
Can't read my
Can't read my
No he can't read my poker face
(She's got to love nobody)

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance

Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-e-ohh-oh-oh
I'll get him hot, show him what I've got
Oh, oh, oh, oh, ohhhh, ohh-oh-e-ohh-oh-oh,
I'll get him hot, show him what I've got

Try sing it and hear it for yourself :D

Aaadum.

I'm addicted to Adam Lambert's If I Had You.


Yeah babe! You know that it's time for miracles!

Mark my words.

CHAIRLIFT will be BIG.

Big, I tell you. BIIIIIIGG....

The awesome Chairlift

The man with the looooooow voice

The versatile lead singer

Of apples and songs

I'm amazed at how certain ads can catapult an artiste to fame. You don't need to slog it out in the music scene, counting pennies and the days to your next bar gig. You just need to get your music picked for an advert.

And then you're more famous than the bar you last gigged at, the one where the waitress was hitting on your drummer.

I'll focus on Apple ads, given the company's knack for effective advertising and their ads' widespread reach.


Caesar was a Swedish band that was relatively unknown outside their homeland. When their song, Jerk It Out was chosen to go with Apple Shuffle's ad in 2005, the band finally got the worldwide exposure they were looking for. Until now, the band's most famous track is still the song made famous by Apple's iconic dancing silhouette ad.



Australian band, Jet was introduced to the US through an Apple iPod ad which featured their hit single, Are You Gonna be My Girl (Vodafone also used the same song in their ad). Thanks to Apple, Are You Gonna Be My Girl was nominated for Best Rock Video, Best New Artist and Best Editing in a Video for 2004 MTV Video Music Awards.



Even when the company changed the concept for their iPod ads, the powerful influence of the ads never stopped.


Canadian singer-songwriter Feist was just another obscure name in the industry, playing from band to band, and then releasing LPs that only received attention from the genre's audience. When her 1234 (not to be confused with Plain White T's 1234) got selected for Apple's 3rd generation iPod Nano ad, 1234 instantly became a surprise hit, reaching No. 8 in the US on download sales alone - a remarkable but rare achievement for an indie musician.



Then last year, Apple's 4th gen iPod Nano advert did the same thing for a Brooklyn band, Chairlift. The band was initially a project between two of its original members to create background music for haunted houses (?!!!). Now, on their Myspace page, Bruises, the song used in the Apple advert, has logged 7.7 million plays. What's more, they are also nominated for MTV VMA 2009 Breakthrough Video Award.




So go get your song on an ad!!!

Steve Jobs!!! Here's my demo!!!!

Just blabbing

Yay! No need to do feature!! One less thing to do.

Albums hot on rotation:

The Kills Midnight Boom
La Roux La Roux
Ladyhawke Ladyhawke
Lady Gaga The Fame

Still haven't warmed up to Little Boots. I must be so outdated, I didn't know her face was plastered all over Channel V Featured Artist. I still thought she was obscure here in Malaysia. Her New in Town makes superb clothes boutique music. I was bopping along to the shamelessly poppy tune while observing a young, frighteningly obese Middle Eastern girl dancing to the song while trying on what must have been her 37th piece of clothing that night.

If you're 5 days away from your Aunt Flo (The Big Great Red Bath) and you're feeling a little tight on those nasty hormonal changes, then it's worth checking out Jackson Waters' Center of Attention. It's such a perfect song for indulging in melancholy. They're not available on Youtube, but they can be found at Myspace.

The Kills

Phewww... yesterday wuz fun.

Assunta Install, then Karnival Samad, then Mid Valley, then the Curve, then Tesco. Macam tak nak balik rumah je....

(Yeah I know, the Tesco sounds a bit out of place)

Half dead when I got home...

So I'm taking a Slow Sunday today.

The Kills' Midnight Boom has been on excruciatingly heavy rotation. They make such addictive music. A London-based garage, lofi band, their sound is very stripped down and sparse, fused with jangly riffs, repetitive choruses and uncommon lyrics. Great stuff.

Ryan Tedder

A thought hit me while I was doing dishes.

Ryan Tedder seems to write songs mostly for female artists. The bigger their voices, the better. They're usually voluptious women too...

Beyonce (Halo), Kelly Clarkson (Already Gone), Leona Lewis (Bleeding Love), Jordin Sparks (Battlefield)....

Who's next? Rihanna?

Swallow that. I checked Wikipedia, and yes, he is working on Rihanna's latest album. And Hilary Duff's, Daughtry's, Mario's, Marie Digby's and Whitney Houston's as well. (!!!!)

Whoa, he's gota slow down. No wonder he's getting a little pudgy these days. All those gruelling hours in the studio are bad for his back. A studiopotato....

studiopotato (noun) (stoo-dee-aww-poe-tet-taww)
a person who spends his days and nights holed up in a studio producing and writing material for artists.

But he's an immensely talented man, and I respect him for that, studiopotato or couchpotato. His songs have a similar style, and can be easily identified - midtempo, big ballads with catchy choruses (usually a repetitive hook).

Don't get what I mean?

Keep bleeding, keep keep bleeding love...
I keep bleeding, keep keep bleeding love...
Leona Lewis, Bleeding Love

Halo, halo, halo, HALOOOO,
Halo, halo, halo, halooooo.....
Beyonce, Halo

Already gone, already gone,
There's no moving on,.
So I'm already gone....
Already gone, already gone....
Kelly Clarkson, Already Gone

It's too late to apologize, it's too laaaaaate....
I said it's too late to apologize, it's too laaaaaaate...

OneRepublic, Apologize

Get my point now? And what made me think of this whole thing while doing dishes, I really don't know.

Music Buzz

I'm currently digging Bat for Lashes' hot new single, Daniel. It has a straightforward, uncomplicated melody heavily laced with synths, with distorted strings interjecting in between bridges and loads of echo effect on Natasha Khan's breathy, melancholic vocals. A clever cross between the styles of Kate Bush and Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Lovely.



Bat for Lashes is the pseudonym for Brighton-based musician, Natasha Khan, who also happens to look like a dark version of Lily Allen. Vocally, Khan is superior. On Youtube you see people dissing Lily Allen below Bat for Lashes' videos and I'm like, Come ON!!!!

I'm not biased. I love both Bat for Lashes and Lily Allen. You can't compare both. They're too, tooooooo, TOOOOOO different. One is this goth-inspired, dark, mysterious brand of music while the other is freewheeling, in-your-face, tongue-in-cheek, polished-to-perfection sweet sort of stuff.

And I especially love Lily Allen's new album, and even more so this cheeky song on that album, F*** You. I don't need to elaborate further. The infamous four-letter word can't be more saccharine sweet than this.

Do Re Mi

YEN PENG WAS IN THE CHOIR!!!

For the past four years, I have been kutuk-ing our school choir teruk teruk and damn, I'm in the choir now. What goes around comes around. And I think we did not fare too bad. At least we spared the audience from the bore of sitting through renditions of A Whole New World and other corny Disney tunes.

Except for the school song.

Belajar berbaktiiiii....
Kami berikrar taat setiaaaa....
Menegakkan motohhh....
Sekolah Sultan Abdul Samaaaadd...
Rajin dan berusahaaaaa....
Mengejar cita-cita murNEEEEE!!!!!!
Kita menjadi rakyat yang berguna
Untuk memimpin nusa kitaaa... deng deng deng.

The "murni" went sumbing. Damn high lah the note.

I never knew that I can sing. Or more like, I never knew that I CAN'T sing.

Went for Samad Leo IR. Congrats Chi Cheng!!! Success!! The MC is as lame as lame can be but it was hilarious. The dreadlocks... sexayyyy. Dressing up as Captain Jack Sparrow? Even sexieeerrrrr....

One HUGE lesson I learnt from this IR: Badges are a HUGE hit with the Leos. So when's the next IR huh? I'm gonna go peddle my IU badges there.

Ahahaha...

I'm so stupid. I can never seem to download a proper version of Jason Mraz's I'm Yours. Every mp3 file I downloaded of that song is either cacat, acoustic, fuzzy or another wannabe destroying the song.

What's wrong with limewire these days?

And yeah, I know... the song is not just ancient, it's been played to death since August last year. Or even earlier.

Deja Vu

Bones.

It's just another one of those words you don't usually find in song titles. But guess what? There's...

Natasha Bedingfield's Pirate Bones
Elbow's The Bones of You
Nina Nastasia's Counting Your Bones
Teeth and Tongue's There is a Lightness to My Bones
Iron and Wine's Innocent Bones
The Killer's Bones
Robin Thicke's Lazi Bones

These tracks are all in my MP3 and heck, I even have Yeah Yeah Yeah's Show Your Bones album.

I should upload the whole season of Bones next. You know, to complete the whole package.

Another thing that fazes me is the song Take a Bow. Madonna pioneered it, moping about how her lover should win an award for his pretending. Then Rihanna took it and "put on quite a show" that "really had me going" uhuh....

Now it's Britain's current favourite darling, Leona Lewis' turn.

Really, the theme of all the three songs are the same. What's worse, they share the same name. They talk about the same thing.

Get some originality, people. Rehashing ideas is just not the real deal. That's why I love indie music. I'm so tired of listening to all those heavily-produced,mass-manufactured, coated-with-syrup tracks out there on airwaves these days.

NOTPOP.CO.UK

Been busy... so here's another irresponsibly-squeezed-between-breaktime post.

Has anyone of you been to WWW.NOTPOP.CO.UK?

No? Well then, what are you waiting for?

Warning: Only for discerning music lovers who absolutely hate the kind of music played on the radio.

According to the blog itself, Not Pop "is designed to give you the heads up on artists that I come across that maybe you haven’t heard of".

Means it's all about alternative music, people. None of all that Jordin Sparks and Panic in the Disco crap.

Out of the hundred over artists in their archive, I only know about 20.

Let us see how many YOU know... heehee...

Voices and Accents

You may have a sexy voice, but that alone is not enough. An accent can be alluring or inhibiting, intriguing or dismal. I generally find British, Irish and Australian accents sexy, even if that means having my eyes glued to the subtitles when the speech gets too thick!

So here's my LIST, in no particular order and regardless of gender, of celebrities who have been blessed with THE VOICE and THE ACCENT. They speak so good, they make me drool without even looking.

Gerard Butler
Scottish accent, raspy voice. i don't need to go further. Seen him in PS, I Love You? Then you'll agree with me.

Elaine Cassidy
She has a unique voice - low, sweet, slightly gravelly. When paired with an Irish accent, the words come out of her mouth like music.

Kate McKinnon
I like American accent, as the pronunciation is much clearer and discernible. So Kate McKinnon here not only has a lovely American accent, she has this pleasant medium-pitched voice that makes it easy for me to forgive her continuous rambling.


Naomi Campbell
Seriously, this woman has got to stop exhibiting her temper, an act which is clearly overshadowing the fact that she has such a low, elegant voice that compliments her British accent.


Antonio Banderas
English peppered with Spanish slang... and his voice inflections are insanely delightful to the ears.


Cate Blanchett
She's Australian, but she speaks like a British dame. I just love watching her interviews. She can go on and on about making potato salad but I won't budge from the speakers. Can't explain it. Just Youtube her, won't you?


Carmine Giovinazzo
This dude from CSI:NY has this rugged accent which has sparked many lovers and haters. Count me as a member of the former.

Missy Higgins

Missy Higgins is HUGE in Australia, but here she's nobody. Barely a mention at all, save for her Malaysian fans. I can't even find her CDs here. Which is really sad actually, as Missy Higgins is a great musician.


Her music is a nice balance of mainstream and alternative, possessing adequate commercial appeal but never attempting to sell itself out. Taking the popular singer-songwriter route, she distinguishes herself from among the sea of artistes out there with her soulful voice that has this sharp, crisp quality when hitting the high notes, and is soothingly dreamy when singing at lower tones. Multifaceted? I believe so.



The song is Secret, in which she so deftly handles the high and low notes. She has won 7 ARIA Awards (Australia's equivalent of the Grammy Awards) to date and even had her single, Where I Stood appearing in Grey's Anatomy.

And that Australian accent she sings in? Irresistibly sexy.

Estrella

Alright people, this is an album review of Estrella's self-titled album released in December 2007.



At first I intended to give it a 2 out of 5. I wasn't happy with what I heard - shaky vocals, almost tuneless melodies, similar-sounding songs. I even fell asleep towards the end of the tracklist. I was close to dismissing it, until I gave it one more try (and made sure I had enough zzz the night before) and doi, magic happened.

I started to like the album. Now I LOVE it.

And now I'm hooked. Who can ever give the mesmerising Stay a pass? Or not relate to the lovesick lyrics in Ternyata? Once you've gotten to know the songs, it's sing-along time. And the lyrics are pretty easy to come off the tip of the tongue without much thinking. I can sing "My Morning" while memorising physics formulas! Maybe that's why I did so badly in the first place.

Just beware of the urge to throw away the CD after 2 plays. Play it 2 more times, and you'll find that the material here is not as bland as you initially thought. The thin, shaky vocals can throw you off too, but once you get over the fact that the lead singer might have snorted too much crack into her nostrils, it's all good from there.

PS: Right, I know I'll be thrown some flak for that crack thing I said, but really she sounds so... frail. Perhaps voice training would do some good.

Helpless Newbie!

Right, so I've bitten the bait and plunged myself into the blogging world.

It ain't so bad, is it?

Plus typing is much, much easier than writing. My fingers press so hard on the unfortunate pen, that (gasp!) the ink stops flowing. How that happened, only Faber-Castell knows.

Shouldn't blame the pen.

You can't scold the worker who couldn't get a word out thanks to having a ferocious boss.
You can't hate the apple for turning bad due to the onset of oxidation.

The same way why my parents shouldn't reprimand me for sleeping up to 11 in the morning. It's just as normal for teenagers to sleep in as it is for rabbits to sleep around.

Anyway, I have been checking out some really awesome (alternative) music. Elbow, Be Your Own Pet, Nina Nastasia, Sandi Thom, Laura Marling. They create some really beautiful music that's really worth the price of the CD (or in my case, internet bills) and yeah, I should introduce some of them to you.

So, here I have included a video of Be Your Own Pet's rather rad single, Becky (from Get Awkward). Behind the rather sweet voice of the lead singer lies a deep hatred for an unloyal friend. Violent times call for violent ways, some say, and the back-stabbing prick got murdered by the angry betrayee.



And I just love how the name "Becky" was repeatedly behind the chorus.

I heard you talked a lot of shit about me
to your new best friend
Doesn't matter anyway, cuz I've got a brand new friend, okay
Me and her, we'll kick your ass,
we'll wait with knives after class!

But you know, I gotta say
I really loved going to your slumber party
It's too bad you got so lame
You told my secrets and it caused me a lot of pain

Now I'm going to juvey for teenage homicide
It'll would've been cool if you stayed by my side
And you know that you wouldn't have had to die,
but now every single night I cry

If only what you wrote in my yearbook was true--
then I wouldn't be stuck in fucking cell block 2
But I don't regret what I've done,
'cuz in the end, it was fun!