Thursday, July 31, 2014

Album Review: "The Voyager" by Jenny Lewis


The Voyager by Jenny Lewis
July 29, 2014
(Warner Brothers Records)

To be honest, Jenny Lewis has never actually been on my radar, but with the release of her latest solo album, The Voyager, she's popped up for a reason that you'd never actually guess. Surprisingly, the album cover for The Voyager drew me to the artist. Further critical acclaim and strong word of mouth prompted me to give the album a fair chance. I guess some promotional tactics really do work better than others.

Jenny Lewis actually has a huge discography and musical past, which makes her eventual breakthrough story all the more entertaining. She's released six prior studio albums (only two solo albums proceeding the release of The Voyager), with most of them obtaining critical success. With that being said, the albums were much less successful commercially -- none of them broke past 30,000 in first week sales. With The Voyager debuting at #9 on the Billboard 200 with 25,000 copies, Lewis has proven to be both a solid artist, and have a solid fanbase. Even with the severe erosion of album sales in the United States (both digital and physical), and extremely limited availability in certain regions (there's notably a shortage of the album in the Pacific Northwest), The Voyager has actually outperformed most of its predecessors.

But what's keeping Jenny Lewis afloat (other than her album art)? The quality of her work.

The album's lead off track ("Head Underwater") offers up a decently enticing palate of strummed instrumentals bouncing around desert brushed rounds of gospel tinged voices. Unfortunately, "Head Underwater" does not open the gates of The Voyager in the right way. It feels like a forced effort that, while encompassing the themes and styles of the album as a whole, feels rushed and just downright uncomfortable.
With hopes bordering on disappointment, going on could break the entire album. Thankfully it doesn't.
As the album intertwines between the next several tracks, it progressively gets a whole lot better, with cuts such as "She's Not Me", "Just One of the Guys" and "The New You" being among the album's finer pieces. With upbeat, psychedelic, country twinged guitar solos "The New You" is not only one of the simplest compositions, it's also your typical empowerment track -- which isn't always necessarily a bad thing. "She's Not Me" feels like it could potentially become a multi platform radio smash, with components that feel both special and appealing.

 
Ending on a high note (and the collection's self titled track), The Voyager comes together as a unique experience -- a smoothie like concoction of jazz, soul, classical and pop music bursting at the seams with colorful, southern California styled loops and beats. It's not the most original thing you'll ever hear, nor is it exactly an indie styled collection. It's one of those records that will be a common go to disc for listeners that are ready to stare into the blue sky and soak up a boat load of feelings.
74
Rating (Out of 100)
Positive

Your thoughts on the new disc from Jenny Lewis? Let me know in the comments below.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Song Review: "Bang Bang" by Jessie J, Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande

 

While Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj promoted and teased "Bang Bang" for a number of weeks before the single's release, many speculated that it would become a massive critical failure. Fortunately, everything changed when the single surprisingly came out on top.

While Nicki Minaj remains rightfully in her position as the rapper of the track (delivering a strong, catchy verse), the overlapping vocals between Jessie J and Ariana Grande were honestly very surprising. Jessie J (an artist known for her average soul vocals) was actually the act that really made the song for me, overpowering Ariana Grande (who is known for Mariah Carey-esque, powerhouse vocals). That was the biggest shocker to me, other than the fact that the song itself was actually good.

The entire style of the track is just very unique for this era (as well as being extremely unexpected), making it one of the biggest releases that seems to be both critically and commercially. In a side note, the track is expected to open with a first week upwards of 225,000 copies. It's a perfect ending to the summer season.

86.5
Rating (Out of 100)
Positive/Acclaim

Monday, July 28, 2014

Hot 50 Forecast: Maroon 5 Set For Top Opening, Jessie J’s “Bang Bang”Starts Lukewarm


Now that approximately half the week is gone, it’s time to get down to this week’s forecast. Remember, the Hot 50 forecast is a representation of the first four days of tracking (Saturday-Tuesday) and is not reflective of the entire week.
 
Maroon 5’s just released single, “It Was Always You”, is currently in the lead among new entries this week, ranking among the top 20 this for the week to date (through Tuesday) despite just be released for the first time on Monday night. “It Was Always You” (which follows the group’s #1 peaking “Maps”) previews Maroon 5’s upcoming 5th studio album V. At this point, “It Was Always You” is set for a top 15 finish, which would be a modest start for the band (5 out of 8 of their previously charting hits have opened at #10 or higher). Heading into Wednesday, the track could enter the top 10. While we’re on the topic of Maroon 5, it’s worth pointing out that “Maps” (last week’s leader) is set to command the top of the list for a 5th consecutive week. If it does wind up on top this week, it’ll surpass 2012’s “Payphone (feat. Wiz Khalifa)” as the group’s longest running #1 to date. “Maps” will additionally become the second longest reigning song of 2014, behind Kiesza’s unstoppable “Hideaway”, which topped for 6 straight frames starting in early May.

On the other hand, Jessie J’s Collaboration with Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj (“Bang Bang”) is off to an underwhelming start. With just a handful of first day spins, don’t expect this to amount to much in its first week. When the Social Songs 100 opens up for voting later today, I’m guessing that “Bang Bang” will ride into the top position, which would give it an additional 10 points right off the bat. Still, at this point it’s likely that “Bang Bang” (a track that is actually decently composed) nabs the second highest debut of the week.

The Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga collaboration (“Anything Goes”) could potentially become the third highest debut of the week, with somewhere between #35-45 being a reasonable guess. While that would be a record low start for Gaga (who has tallied 18 weeks at #1), any debut on the Hot 50 would mark a career high for Bennett, who hasn’t released many tracks since the 2012 inception of the CDS Music Chart.

Other tracks that could potentially make a splash include Train’s “Bulletproof Picasso” (from the forthcoming album of the same name), and Secondcity’s “What Can I Do (feat. Ali Love)”. Hillary Duff’s “Chasing the Sun” is currently on pace to fall just short of the official Hot 50.

Come back for more posts!

Sunday, July 27, 2014

CDS Music Chart Hot 50: July 31st, 2014



CDS Music Chart Hot 50: July 31st, 2014
#
LW
2W
PK
WKs
Song
Artist
1
1
1
1
6
***NUMBER 1***
Maps {#1 for 4 Weeks}
Maroon 5
2
2
2
1
13
Hideaway {#1 for 6 Weeks}
Kiesza
3
3
3
3
6
Giant In My Heart
Kiesza
4
5
10
5
13
A+D
Vita Chambers
5
6
7
5
8
Am I Wrong
Nico & Vinz
6
7
8
6
19
Chandelier
Sia
7
8
5
4
24
Rather Be (feat. Jess Glynne)
Clean Bandit
8
4
4
1
12
Undo {#1 for 3 Weeks}
Sanna Nielsen
9
9
6
4
19
Fancy (feat. Charli XCX)
Iggy Azalea
10
10
11
3
18
Latch (feat. Sam Smith)
Disclosure
11
12
15
11
5
I Wanna Feel
Secondcity
12
11
9
5
19
Dare (La La La)
Shakira
13
13
12
9
13
Problem (feat. Iggy Azalea)
Ariana Grande
14
16
16
14
3
She Came to Give It To You (feat. Nicki Minaj)
Usher
15
15
14
6
10
Pills N Potions
Nicki Minaj
16
14
13
11
10
Do It Again
Royksopp & Robyn
17
19
-
17
2
Flashlight
DJ Fresh & Ellie Goulding
18
18
20
18
5
Crying For No Reason
Katy B
19
25
-
19
2
***GREATEST GAINER***
Strange Enough
VERITE
20
21
21
17
8
Satisfaction Guaranteed
Alyssa Reid
21
17
17
16
10
Summer
Calvin Harris
22
22
23
22
6
Boom Clap
Charli XCX
23
23
25
23
9
If I Go
Ella Eyre
24
20
18
2
13
A Sky Full of Stars
Coldplay
25
24
19
5
15
Love Runs Out
OneRepublic
26
27
26
26
4
2 On (feat. SchoolBoy Q)
Tinashe
27
29
27
27
5
Me & My Broken Heart
Rixton
28
28
30
28
4
No Mediocre (feat. Iggy Azalea)
T.I.
29
33
34
29
12
***AIRPLAY GAINER***
Marilyn Monroe
Pharrell Williams
30
26
22
3
23
All of Me
John Legend
31
34
37
31
5
Don’t
Ed Sheeran
32
30
25
21
15
West Coast
Lana Del Rey
33
31
28
28
6
Stay With Me
Sam Smith
34
35
31
1
22
Empire
Shakira
35
32
29
4
21
Magic
Coldplay
36
36
38
36
7
Angel In Blue Jeans
Train
37
38
35
9
15
First Things First
Neon Trees
38
NEW
-
38
1
***HOT SHOT DEBUT***
Ready For the Weekend (feat. Ayah Marar)
R3HAB & NERVO
39
40
41
39
4
Good Kisser (Disclosure Remix)
Usher
40
39
36
25
16
Ain’t It Fun
Paramore
41
37
33
19
17
The Big Bang
Katy Tiz
42
41
45
41
4
My Love (feat. Jess Glynne)
Route 94
43
NEW
-
43
1
Superheroes
The Script
44
42
46
42
4
F For You (feat. Mary J. Blige)
Disclosure
45
49
-
45
2
***STREAMING GAINER***
Only Love Can Hurt Like This
Paloma Faith
46
47
-
46
1
We Are Done
The Madden Brothers
47
48
47
47
3
Break Free (feat. Zedd)
Ariana Grande
48
50
-
48
2
Right Here
Jess Glynne
49
45
39
29
8
Rude
MAGIC!
50
NEW
-
50
1
Black Widow (feat. Rita Ora)
Iggy Azalea
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