VIDEO CLUB: Part "I can't decide whether these work or not"

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

You know when you hear a song, and you know you basically like it, but you can't tell if there's something actually wrong about it which you can't put your finger on which is going to stop you coming back to it, or if it's a grower which you'll totally unthaw to in time? I'm like that with these two songs:

Michelle Williams - We Break The Dawn

I love the bass hit in the chorus, the tune's killer, I think Michelle herself is pretty good on it...it's obviously being sold as her ABANDONMENT OF GOSPEL but there's totally some spiritual uplift going on when she sings "We're holding time in our hands"...hmm.

Jesse McCartney - Leavin'

Um, who was Jesse McCartney anyway? I gather he was...some kind of really uncool teenpop type, then he co-wrote 'Bleeding Love', and now he's got The-Dream and Tricky Stewart on board and is positioning himself as a grown-up sexxxy r&b Chris Brown type? His album's pretty good - as in, the songs and production are really fucking stellar, and I know what's slightly off about it, but I don't know whether this will resolve itself. His voice is...so 90s! It's such a boy-band voice, that slight hint of trying-too-hard hysteria, and I don't have anything against it (like, Backstreet Boys? TOP obv) but it just doesn't seem to have a place in 2008? Because it sound skind of ersatz, Disneyfied in a bad way, compared to singers like Chris Brown, who are making equally catchy, poppy tracks themselves. This might be a minor quibble though. Also he looks like 11 in the video.

YOUR THOUGHTS PLEASE.

(NB: I was going to post the new N*E*R*D video but it's SO FUCKING AWFUL that I don't want to take any responsibility for anyone's adverse reactions to it. God, Pharrell, just fuck off.)

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Lex's deduction skillz right on -- Jesse got his start in Disney-pimped early 00's post-BSB boyband Dream Street, went solo and cultivated an audience through Hollywood Recs and Radio Disney, is now trying to make the great leap forward onto the charts. Not really feelin it. (He may have actually been 11 when he was in Dream Street, btw.)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Michelle Williams's track is nice, but just makes me want to listen to Wynter Gordon's "Surveillance." Though she isn't trying as hard as Wynter (also doesn't need to).

[weasel-seeker.livejournal.com]

I need to give the Williams another listen. It was pleasantly present and a little weird, which suggests to me that it'll be a grower. At the very least, it provides a continuing answer to the trivia question: What are those other members of Destiny's Child up to?

Jesse McCartney had that one song that was friggin' HUGE four years ago...all soft guitar sparkle and "I want to love you for your SOUL not for your external beauty." The shift into sex fiend r'n'b-ville is thus quite amusing, but I think he somehow pulled it off. I'll probably check out the album on the strength of your recommendation.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It's not a huge recommendation! Erm I don't know why I said the songs were stellar, the production is, but then it's no more stellar than...any other given r&b around right now.

[weasel-seeker.livejournal.com]

Ok. Never mind, then. I somehow remembered his old song as rockier than it was. Note this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=synhob08_eA

Technically guitar strumming and stuff, but still very R&B, I suppose. For some reason I recall hearing something that sounded like part of the mid-Aughties credibility grab trend from him. Maybe from one of Frank's lists or Dave's a while ago. Not sure.

It's still interesting for the production, at least. Unless this is run of the mill, production-wise. Am I just not listening to the right stuff? Is most male R&B like this at the moment? Those minimalist beeps and stomping beats, etc. I'm woefully ignorant of Chris Brown, Ne-Yo, The-Dream, etc.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't really call the production run-of-the-mill, though it's not hugely innovative either - most of the album = pretty good examples of/slight deviations from the general Clutch/Sean Garrett sound (and the Clutch are quite versatile themselves). It's definitely towards the jerky electro end of r&b but I don't think there are any straight up 4/4 beats (which is the real big trend now), and there's v little of the hip-pop which Chris Brown mostly does.

Listened to the album again and would actually recommend it! I mean, it's definitely a good album, I guess I just haven't come down on either side of the fence yet.

[oddnumbereven.livejournal.com]

I refuse to watch any Jesse McCaratartenay until he grows back his bitching boy band fringe. That thing could really flop.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Jesse McCartney song= SO NEARLY THERE. I quite liked it when I first heard it but then it dropped off because it just doesn't quite get to wherever I want it to go. Which I suspect is just off in a minor key with a bit more synth and then it would be AMAZING.

Problem of him looking 11 in video also v. valid point, since this makes me feel like a pedophile without even fancying him.

Will investigate Michelle when it loads. I LOVE the 15 seconds of it that I've heard.