(please forgive my awful puns) I’ve said it before…the moment I became a Barenaked Ladies fan for life was when I went with my ex to see the band at Jones Beach in 2001. The entire show was good, but what impressed me the most was that singer/songwriter/guitarist Steven Page had a hell of a set of pipes. By the end of the show, I was wondering why this guy wasn’t on Broadway or performing with the opera. Although I […]
Posts tagged "cd review"
Moonlighting: My Big Boi Review on Popdose
I must admit, I was very surprised by the quality of Big Boi’s debut album “Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty”. Like many people, my brain sort of fooled me into thinking that Andre 3000 was the brains behind OutKast and Big was just kinda the John Oates of the operation. Boy, was I ever wrong. “Leftfoot” is a non-stop funky good time. The production is slamming, Big’s verses are tight, and it’s not overindulgent like even the […]
The Roots Continue to Show How to “Get Over” in the Hip-Hop Game
To say that The Roots have been hip-hop’s most consistently dope act is to do them a disservice. Fact is, the Philly crew has been one of the most consistently dope acts in music PERIOD over the past decade and a half. Despite making slight adjustments to their sound over the years in order to compete in the marketplace, the group’s never made a move that was desperate or ill-advised. Until (unless?) OutKast and the Beastie Boys come back, The […]
After Ingesting the Hype, Thank Drake for Making a Solid Album
Hype is a hard thing to overcome-I’ve said it before. As someone who follows the goings-on of the music industry, I certainly fall victim to heightened expectations and wind up getting disappointed every once in a while. No one’s been the beneficiary of more hype over the course of the past year than Drake. His story seems unlikely in the world of hip-hop. He’s biracial. He’s Canadian. His first name is AUBREY, for Chrissakes. Even more damning, he was a […]
Macy Gray Sells Out…Or Does She?
I’ve been leading y’all off this site quite often recently, haven’t I? I’m sorry. Anyhow, Macy Gray’s back with a new album called “The Sellout”, and it’s actually quite good! I mentioned a week or so ago on our Facebook page how it features a duet with Bobby Brown (yes, THAT Bobby Brown) and it’s actually one of the album’s best tracks! So click on over to Popdose to see what I have to say about the album and check out […]
The Intriguing "Adventures of Bobby Ray"
I think we’ve finally come to the point where mainstream hip-hop has become so insufferable that fans are willing to anoint anyone who goes even slightly off the beaten path as the next big thing. Atlanta rapper/singer/instrumentalist B.O.B. is the latest recipient of those next big thing conversations, and while his debut effort “The Adventures of Bobby Ray”, doesn’t totally live up to the hype, it’s certainly the most noteworthy hip-hop album of 2010 so far, and rivals last year’s […]
Sade's "Soldier of Love": Still Smooth After All These Years
People love to talk about the curse of Grammy’s Best New Artist, but what gets overlooked is the amount of times the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences has gotten it right. Case in point, the 1985 ceremonies. While nominees a-ha, Katrina & the Waves and Julian Lennon were has-beens in America by the end of the decade, eventual winner Sade has maintained a level of popularity for a quarter-century now. This is evidenced by not only the fact […]