Allison Iraheta "Friday I'll Be Over U- Single" (7.5/10)
If you couldn't tell, Max (!!!, that's right, he gets triple exclamations today) Martin is one of my idols. He writes some of the coolest, trend-settiest, most interesting music in the pop world today. An example of his brilliance would be the new Allison Iraheta single out today, Friday I'll Be Over U. I was lucky enough to obtain a leaked copy of this song two weeks ago, and it now resides at number 2 on my "Top 25 most Played List" with 107 listens. It's THAT intoxicating.
Over-production is, in my opinion, the bane of the pop industry today. It's why people like Howie Day are one-hit wonders. Because they have no talent, and, through technology, can fool people into thinking they do. But we've heard what Allison can do through the vehicle of American Idol. We know that she could have no production and still bring down the house with a performance.
A lot of people criticize this song for being too "immature." I've seen reviews that want "rock soul songs, not pop ditties about boys." Holy geez, people, she's 17 years old! Just because Idol lives in a state of perpetual oldies doesn't mean their grads have to. Do we really want another David Archuleta, someone who sings "beau" as if it's a foreign language?
In short, Vocals: Awesome. Writing: Awesome. Production: Passable. This equals a song that I think could soon be coming to a radio near you.
The magic of Glee captivated me and lost me within the space of three weeks. I was finally hooked after the "Somebody to Love" episode, and I rode the wave of Gleefulness into the next few weeks. Then "Mash-up" came along and one of my favorite things about television fell apart at the seams. It. Was. Torture. After that heinous episode, I took stock of Glee and what I really thought about it, and came to an unsettling conclusion: the songs kind of suck.
I read a review today that said the producers have basically edited the actor who plays Finn (Cory Monteith) to sound like Cher at this point. Besides being a laugh-out-loud line, it was really true! Even the beautiful voice of Lea Michele, which bursted forth loveliness on songs like "Take a Bow" has been molded into an auto-metronic vocal from GarageBand.
Matthew Morrison is even deeper in the doghouse for his half-hearted "vocals" on mostly rap songs (oh, and back up on Alone, as if that matters). It's disgusting that this one-time Broadway actor has reduced himself to this cheesy role. As if that wasn't bad enough, the producers nixed Jayma Mays' song from the record, leaving her face on the cover as if to say "We'd rather have "Bust a Move on here than your heart-breaking rendition of 'I Could Have Danced All Night.'"
It's not all bad. The aforementioned "Take a Bow" is awesome, as are "Somebody to Love" and "Maybe This Time." Glee just needs to realize that they are succeeding and move on from such obvious choices in musical numbers.
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Unfortunately for the music of Glee, things are not looking up. I saw the track list for the next volume of songs, and it's predictable with a capital P. For instance, Amber Riley singing "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going," Lea Michele on "Don't Rain on my Parade" (incidentally covered recently by Idina Menzel, surprise surprise), and Chris Colfer singing that demeaning Archuleta song "Crush." Things are about to get fugly.
Download this: "Maybe This Time" "Take a Bow" "Somebody to Love" "
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