My Bro-In-Law Requests

Mario's "Go" worth the long wait? Well, it's a good album. I'm not jumping up and down, though, and you know I'm very capable of that kind of response to new music. There are definitely some very good songs (esp. "Music For Love"), but none tops "Kryptonite", the clear standout track, which I've already been listening to for months and months now.

Mario has a very strong voice. When I listen to all the songs as a unit, though, I get really bored.

Also, someone decided he needed to sex himself up a lot on this one to compete with R. Kelly and Akon. "Let Me Watch" doesn't really add anything to this album. I love "I Wanna [Love] You" and "Freaky in the Club" in spite of their lyrics - it's not just that I'm a self-respecting female. Mario is just much better* when he's going for old-school, inspirational ballad R. Kelly (as in "Do Right") than when he's aiming for (um, ok, probable) sex-offender R. Kelly. Ironically, Akon produced "Do Right". Someone's got to fill that niche now that R. Kelly's left it behind.

*Ok, ok, "Go" - another kinky track on this album - is hot. I think we can thank the Neptunes.


Must buys - and these sound even better when you don't listen to them as part of the album overall:
1. Kryptonite
2. Music for Love
3. Do Right (this will do well on pop radio - moms will dig it)
4. Go (produced by the Neptunes)

Other memorable songs:
5. Crying Out For Me (but you know that)
6. Skippin'
7. How Do I Breathe (the first single, but I don't know... I go back & forth on this one. This song bores me.)
8. No Definition (Timbaland produced - not Tim's best, but it's ok)
9. Right and a Wrong Way (good cover of Keith Sweat)

Blogging... who me??

Hello. This is my first foray into the world of blogging. I read a bunch of blogs. I write lots of e-mails that oddly kind of sound like blogs. Still, up until now, I have been resisting taking the Blogger free open mic for some improv of my own.

For some reason, though, tonight I said to myself, "why not?" I've sent enough impulsive, unsolicited e-mails to friends raving about this new song I can't stop playing on repeat or that surprisingly awesome opening act. It seems like it'd be a better idea to post all these things in one spot, where people can go and read what I've got to say if they want to and when they want to.

Maybe in 10 years, it'll be amusing to have a record of the soundtracking I tend to lay over my life -- to chuckle at whatever random songs or artists I fall in ...and often out... of love with. And if I help others find music they like along the way, that'd make me really happy.

So, yeah, this is going to be mostly a music blog, because my most tenacious impulses to gush tend to be about music. But... I have been known to be called "research gal" for reasons that go beyond my obsessive MySpace/Rhapsody/professional music blog treasure hunts and my current gig as a PhD student. So don't think I'm going to be able to refrain from posting about other stuff that you might just NEED to know. Like the excellent Van Gogh & Expressionism exhibit at the Neue Galerie (esp. Egon Scheile). Or the 150% that the incomparable Liev Schreiber is putting out there every night in Talk Radio. Or the fact that next Tues. April 17 from 12 pm to 8 pm is Ben & Jerry's Free Cone Day (thanks Emily!).

We'll see how it goes...

in the meantime, I have to:

1) shut down my iTunes and stop bopping around to Devin the Dude's "What a Job" (feat. two of my old favs, Snoop & Andre 3000) and the leak of Mario's "Kryptonite" (feat. Rich Boy) [link to stream, c/o Authorize TV].
2) go to sleep so I can get up in time to go running, since my husband, Rich, & I recently committed to running a half-marathon (yep, the above 2 songs are going on my running playlist. Def don't think I could do this half-marathon thing w/out EITHER of my beloved training buddies... Rich OR my IPod Shuffle), and
3) send a shout to JShep, a *real* (and really amazing) music writer/blogger, who has been encouraging me to start a little blog for a while now... and to my fav Amman-bound future awesome architect, who has been seconding JShep's call and leads by example in the domain of following one's bliss. YOU LADIES INSPIRE ME.