Every month, I'm going to highlight a few new songs (singles/album tracks) which have piqued my interest in a good way or a bad way. They will be split into three categories (like SPIN's song list)- "Excellent", "Worthy Of Attention" and "Utter Trash". Here is this month's list (in no particular order):
Dimmu Borgir- Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse (Nuclear Blast)- With a touch of Iron Maiden and some pretty gruesome but clear death metal vocals, Dimmu Borgir have created one of the year's most anthemic and engaging singles. There's more of the same on the album which this song comes off of- "Death Cult Armageddon"- more anthemic, enthralling death metal songs which prove that, ten years after Dimmu Borgir started up, they are still one of the industry's leading acts.
Fall Guy- Join Tha Fall Guy (Garageband.com)- What a way to introduce themselves. This is the kind of energetic, engaging single from the rap-rockers that would get people to stand up and pay attention. It's bold ("who needs a rhythm section when you got this much heart/who needs a record label when you got this much smarts"), brash and highly entertaining, the kind of "this is who we are- take notice" single that rap-rockers everywhere should be emulating.
Toby Keith- Whiskey Girl (Dreamworks/Universal)- Combining a Dire Straits-inspired song about the joys of knowing a distinctive "whiskey girl" with extremely expressive and emotive vocals, Toby Keith shows that he does have feeling and isn't always the "ra-ra" kind of guy the media makes him out to be (the albums also showed that, but the media doesn't listen to those). This song is more of a combination of both ideas- singing a song about a girl being "ragged on the edges" but expressed with great emotiveness by Keith's voice that it gets its own depth. Keith's best single to date.
The Rasmus- In The Shadows (Motor Music/Interscope/Universal)- The Rasmus formed in their native Finland in 1995 because, in their view, the English music scene in Finland "sucked". Well, they make a great case in correcting that problem, as "In The Shadows" is a super-catchy, very energetic and highly danceable dance-rock song. You hear it once, you can't get it out of you're head- you'll be grooving this for not just months, but years.
Jewel- 2 Become 1 (Atlantic/Warner)- Perhaps seeing how "0304" went nowhere (despite being pretty good) and that the only dance-inspired pop song that charted was "Intuition" (somehow), Jewel figured it would be best to release a song from 0304 that was like her previous alt/pop work. It sounds a bit too much like Howie Day's "She Says", but it's still a standout single.
Jimmy Rankin- Butterfly (Song Dog)- Canada's reigning folk-pop king comes out with another song which continues his soul-searching journey, in this case involving a beautiful butterfly. It's not as immediate as his first single off "Handmande", "Morning Bound Train", but it's still a very beautiful song.
J-Kwon- Tipsy (Arista/BMG)- Yeah, this rap song is discombobulated and rather confusing (with slurred raps and even more disjointed beats); but the messiness creates something that's oddly interesting and very catchy. Even he was caught off guard by this single's success- could you blame him?
A Perfect Day- Happiness (Isba/BMG)- With an uptempo, sunny pop beat and such head-slappingly bad lyrics such as "Happiness/Is not being by your side/Happiness/Is needles in your eyes", they win the award for "Biggest Identity Crisis For A Pop Song", not to mention they sound like horrible Lillix clones. *sigh*
William Hung- She Bangs (XL/Koch Records)- As if the original Ricky Martin version wasn't bad enough, we get it redone by someone who sounds like one of those laughably bad karaoke singers of whom only his friends and family really pays attention to. Okay, I know Hung was charming in his American Idol audition, but he doesn't have an ounce of musical talent, and Koch's shoddy production work here only reinforces the "karaoke-reject" title Hung has been given. Really, did it need to get this far?
-DG