on Blair Gets Eurotrashy! Watch Leighton Meester's Music Video! at 05:53 11/09/2009

The production on this song far outweighs the other aspects of it. The lyrics are a horrible mixture of overused pop music phrases (like "key to your heart"), lazy rhyming, and vagueness. I also think that Leighton should have avoided using primarily pitched speaking on her first single from her album. Because everyone who is remotely famous is now able to make an album if they want to, Leighton needs to really make an effort to show that she's not just jumping on the bandwagon and actually deserves to have a record deal. The song is listenable as background music, but I think solo female artists are going to have to do a better job of coming out with guns blazing if they are going to try to follow on the heels of the recent break-through female acts of Lady Gaga, Leona Lewis, and Amy Winehouse.

on Aussie's Don't Like It When You Lipsync, Britney! at 13:16 11/06/2009

There is no excuse for any of these artists who get paid millions to be lip-synching in shows. The ticket price is less important to me than the fact that someone is too lazy to train him-/herself to to be able to sing live. Britney Spears is obviously not exactly known for a terrific singing voice...but that doesn't mean that she should be exempt from singing live. Imagine if you went to a Broadway musical and the cast fell into lip-synching on every musical number. It would be completely unacceptable. Considering that Britney is getting paid FAR more than most Broadway singers, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask her to work just as hard as they do.

on Rihanna Continues To Disappoint With Second Single! at 06:32 11/02/2009

I know some die-hard Rihanna fans are going to dismiss me as a "hater" and make ignorant comments like "where's your record deal?". That's fine. So here's the thing: Rihanna should not be a recording/performing artist. She (which may be read "her record label") puts out albums so frantically that I can't believe people have yet to catch onto this. If you are putting out albums that close together...the chances are that you are trying to keep yourself relevant and you are not actually putting in the necessary time to develop as a person and an artist between albums. Rihanna needs to take the time to seriously develop her voice carefully-prepared-for voice lessons before she puts out another album. Her terrible vocal ability is always apparent...but it's far more obvious in her horrid ballads. She would also benefit from some strong music theory training so that she could learn to pen smash hits. It really isn't that hard to come up with catchy melodies and harmonies. The reason I believe Lady Gaga (for example) will be able to stand the test of time is that it's very clear that she is far more musically educated than almost any popular musician out there. Rihanna and the musically-challenged businessmen/-women at her label need to take a step back and give her the chance to possibly become a real artist. Otherwise....singles (and probably *albums*) of this caliber are destined to happen.

on New John Mayer! at 15:50 10/21/2009

It actually doesn't sound like a U2 rip-off. Of course, I doubt Perez would actually be able to provide us with a detailed musical analysis as to why it sounds like U2 to him. Perez is a musical idiot. He may be famous (or INfamous), but that is no reason to believe any of his statements about music.

on New Alicia Keys! at 05:06 10/19/2009

This is probably my least favorite of all of Alicia Keys' singles. I'm expecting that it will be lucky to crack the top 10, although I felt the same way about "You Don't Know My Name" and it was a huge success. I just think that she should have made the song build more from the beginning through the bridge, but instead, it feels as if it is almost flat-line the entire way through. I don't quite dislike the song, but I'm surprised that this is the first single off of Alicia's new album this far into her career. It makes me worried that the "sophomore slump" that she avoided has finally come 2 studio albums late. There was also something "off" about her song with Jack Black for the James Bond soundtrack, and I don't really like her new song with Jay-Z. I don't know what's going on with her, lately. I'm wondering if the only 2 albums from 2009 that I'm going to be thoroughly happy with are Rob Thomas' and Nikka Costa's. This is just not a good year for music.