:: intellectualized ::

I was trying to complete the meme that mr. ej posted on his journal. However, the more I tried to narrow my favourite releases from 2005 down to ten (forget five; it is simply impossible) the more guilty that I felt about discarding other titles. Since I couldn’t make such choices, I decided to simply post my Top 50 Albums: Year To Date. Logically, I had even more difficulty in selecting ten singles, I guess that will happen later in the year.

For a change, my personal charts do not include as much hip-hop or house music as they normally would. I guess there haven’t been many great releases in these genres (at least in my opinion). Likewise, I haven’t heard any Brazilian music that really amazes me thus far. My only Portuguese language album comes from Cristina Branco, a Fado singer from Portugal. There is, of course, the brilliant release by Brazilian Girls, but they are not really Brazilian (and they are not girls for that matter). Spanish music has been even worse so far; most of what has been released is really pop-oriented shit and tropical crap that I cannot stand —I love Cuban music, but nothing has impressed me much these first few months. Only one Spanish album ranks among my top albums for 2005. There are however a couple of French albums that I have enjoyed greatly. They can be found in the 20-30 section of the charts.

Overall, I have found the best albums to come from different fields. There is some rock, some electronica, some Soul, a little industrial, and a bit of pop that definitely needs to be recognised. Without further bullshittin’, the titles are right below. A selected track from each record will be added to my radio.blog by Friday (yes, I do own all of these, even the NIN and the Springsteen CDs… music will be my financial ruin one of these days). And people say that there is no good music these days?

The Best of the Best… So Far – The Top Ten

01. Tori Amos – The Beekeper
02. Thievery Corporation – The Cosmic Game
03. Inara George – All Rise
04. Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth
05. Natalie Imbruglia – Counting Down The Days
06. Garbage – Bleed Like Me
07. Julie Dexter – Conscious
08. Martha Wainwright – Martha Wainwright
09. Chemical Brothers – Push The Button
10. Ivy – In The Clear

The Next In Line – 10 to 20

11. Stereophonics – Language. Sex. Violence. Other?
12. Bruce Springsteen – Devils & Dust
13. New Order – Waiting For The Siren’s Call
14. The Ananda Project – Relight
15. LCD Soundsystem – LCD Soundsystem
16. Mariah Carey – The Emancipation of Mimi
17. Beck – Guero
18. Ben Watt – Buzzin’ Fly, Volume 2
19. Lee Ann Womack – There’s More Where That Came From
20. Vanessa Williams – Everlasting Love

…And the rest… 20 to 50 (All of Them Very Good Though)

21. Kathleen Edwards – Back To Me
22. Faith Evans – The First Lady
23. The Mars Volta – Frances The Mute
24. Cristina Branco – Ulisses
25. Brazilian Girls – Brazilian Girls
26. Camille – Le Fil
27. Ringside – Ringside
28. Anna Nalick – Wreck of the Day
29. Beady Belle – Closer
30. Doves – Some Cities
31. Coralie Clement – Bye Bye Beaute
32. Telepopmusik – Angel Milk
33. Jack Johnson – In Between Dreams
34. Chely Wright – Metropolitan Hotel
35. Pauline Croze – Pauline Croze
36. M83 – Before The Dawn Heals Us
37. Everything But The Girl – Adapt Or Die: 10 Years of Remixes
38. Queens of the Stone Age – Lullabies To Paralyze
39. Lemon Jelly – ‘64-’95
40. Shivaree – Who’s Got Trouble?
41. M.I.A. – Arular
42. Fischerspooner – Odyssey
43. Leann Rimes – This Woman
44. Diana Navarro – No Te Olvides De Mi
45. Brandy – The Best of Brandy
46. Various Artists – Verve Remixed 3
47. Melanie C. – Beautiful Intentions
48. VNV Nation – Matter and Form
49. Daft Punk – Human After All
50. Moby – Hotel

I apologise beforehand to all the indie-heads and dance addicts who will be definitely horrified by the fact that I ranked pop stuff such as Miss Scarey above the likes of The Doves or Q.O.T.S.A.; this is my taste, not an attempt at being a music specialist or a critic of some sort. There were other albums that I intended to include here, but I believed these fifty tiles to be the ones that I have enjoyed most in the past four months.

Feel free to comment, criticise, recommend, etc. I am always open to new musical suggestions.

Given that this lowly blog has been getting many hits from anonymous folks searching “Gaelle Give It Back Lyrics,” I figured that I would please those browsers. Anything to promote one of my favourite albums, and one of the most beautiful works of dance/R&B/electronica to ever be recorded. Here they are (as taken from the album’s booklet).

–Written by Gaelle Adisson & Eric Stamile

–From the Album Transient (2004)

Give it back
You hijacked my mind so

I’m falling in circles
Can’t catch my fall so
I need you to be close ’cause
Where you go I’ll follow
So give it back

In my bed
Sleeping not
I cannot explain what’s in my head
Longing for
an empty thought
But I seem to think of you instead

You blew my mind away
And I can’t let you go

Took it and ran away
Just had to let you know

Just dropped a line to say
that I lost all control

You blew my mind away

(chorus)

In my head
And in my heart
I cannot complain, no one competes
Longing for this pase to stop
Never been the same since you
loved me

You blew my mind away
Now that I’m torn apart

Took it and ran away
Is when you come for my heart

There’s nothing left to say
And I don’t know where to start

Give back my thoughts to me

(chorus)

Today I had one of my main presentations for the semester. It was worth half of my grade and the good thing is that I did quite well on it. My professor told me that I did an “excellent” job, and a couple of my peers told me the same during our break. I guess all my stressing paid off after all.

The topic was “spillover” in Latin America, and my case study was Colombia. The basic concept is that the internal problems/conflicts of a specific nation can potentially be “exported” to neighbouring countries. The topic has become an area of interest to me which I hope to further research next semester. I have posted a basic outline below, just in case anyone wants to see it.

(more…)

Although Mariah Carey’s new effort –”the “interestingly” titled The Emancipation of Mimi–  is not due in stores until the 12th of this month, I have had a pre-release copy of the “special edition” since last Friday. Below is my opinion on this new release, each track is analyzed in one to five words.

The fact remains that I am not a huge fan of most of her music, even though I find her ditzy persona somewhat charming. I also admit that I consider her first two albums to be pop-R&B classics. While every subsequent release has had moments of pop brilliance (singles like “Honey,” “Always Be My Baby,” “Breakdown,” her duet with Busta Rhymes and the largely ignored “Through The Rain” are some examples) mediocrity and commercialism however have been common denominators in her last three efforts (in the same way that it is the ruling force for pretty much any other commercial R&B release –i.e. Ciara, Ashanti, Mario, etc.).

The good thing is that Mariah actually redeems herself through most of the fourteen tracks in this new album. There are two songs that the world can definitely do without, but overall her effort is commendable and (for the first time in about eight years) I can actually listen to her non-single tracks without getting annoyed or bored. Without further ado, here are the tunes:

• It’s Like That: Good beat, pedestrian lyrics.
• We Belong Together: Enjoyable drama.
• Shake It Off: “Bone-Thug”-ish, extremely catchy.
• Mine Again: Hideous song, nice vocals.
• Say Somethin’ (featuring Snoop Dogg): Best duet in this album.
• Stay The Night: Mighty, mighty nice.
• Get Your Number (featuring Jermaine Dupri): Great sampling, love it.
• One And Only (featuring Twista): Another collaboration, pretty boring.
• Circles: Radio friendly but kinda forgettable.
• Your Girl: Dreamy pop, lovely voacls.
• I Wish You Knew: Nicest ballad in this set.
• To The Floor (featuring Nelly): Funky beat, Nelly not necessary.
• Joy Ride: Boring, I could fall asleep.
• Fly Like A Bird: Nice retro sound, good closing.

Being fair, I’d give this album 7 8.5 out of 10 stars (I don’t like the 1-5 scale). Just take away the duet with Twista, remove the atrocious Nelly from the set, and eliminate that sleeping-pill that they added at #13 and you will have a rather good example of what a pop “diva” should produce. I am sure that her true fans will be delighted with this release. Or maybe some of them will find it to be as _______ as the fella at WhatevaSista (his simple eloquence had me cracking up). In case anyone wants to sample it, just take a quick listen to my radioblog (the files are of medium quality to save bandwidth; I save it for my real radioblog).

And that is that for now.