November 2007 Archives
Blake Lewis & Lupe Fiasco: Together At Last?
Blake Lewis feat. Lupe Fiasco: "Know My Name"
from Audio Daydream (19/Arista)
Blake Lewis was hardly spared a skewering during the weekly Kill Your Idols chat Jon Caramanica and I shared after each episode of "American Idol" this year (New season and chats coming soon!) Now that Lewis' album, the preposterously-named Audio Daydream, nears release, we're left to parse his 311-meets-Seattle hip-hop-meets-Maroon 5-meets Billy Joel-meets Rahzel stylings. The wonders of pitch correct have done quite a number on Lewis' slim falsetto here and he's landed a surprisingly fun, unexpectedly slippery verse from Lupe -- no small feat as Fiasco often has a problem taking himself too seriously. But the real story is Ryan "Alias" Tedder, astoundingly self-serious frontman for drip-rock Timbaland affiliates OneRepublic and the primary architect behind Lewis' album. He's also penned Leona Lewis' emerging "Bleeding Love" and Jennifer Lopez's peppy "Do It Well." Daydream is wildly scattershot -- lead single "Break Anotha" is among the year's worst -- but Tedder has a graceful way of dabbing MOR songwriting onto rhythmic pop, essentially the only mode Lewis can operate in. "Know My Name" is probably the best thing here -- if you can handle the beatboxing.
Usher: It's Been a Long Time
Usher feat. Ludacris: "Dat Girl Right There"
from Usher's forthcoming untitled album
It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you, but I was stymied by the perilous Interweb and all its trappings. But nothing could bring me out of blog hiding like a perplexingly weird R&B production. And damn if that isn't exactly what Usher's new (maybe) single is. The driving sound, a synth that sounds like Tinkerbell dancing on a epically out-of-tune guitar, is maybe the weirdest I've heard since The Notorious B.I.G.'s postumous mixtape cut "Jeans and Sneakers." What makes it stranger is Usher is a MAJOR star, in a way R&B singers aren't right now. He's also been hiding, albeit for years now, since his last album Confessions became one of the decade's best-selling. So "Dat Girl Right There" feels risky. But if people warm to its weirdness, it could well become a song as strangely intoxicating and ubiquitous as Andre 3000's "Hey Ya" or one of those Gorillaz singles. Never underestimate the public's desire to be weirded out.
