A few pinches of freshness

[credoimprobus]

I've been meaning to post a couple of album tracks from Ashanti's new The Declaration for a number of weeks, but she totally beat me to the punch by making one of them the second single!

Production courtesy of Jermaine Dupri, smashing stuff. The 'wooo!'s = gold. And adorable video! The visual style suits the song to a T.

(The other track I had set up is Rodney Jerkins brainchild So Over You: kind of turn-of-the-millennium retro, and a right stomper.)

Elsewhere, summer movie season brings us this:

The tinkly/sparkly backing is sort of completely addictive, and the beats are killer. Keri Hilson's contribution is pretty minimal; mostly she provides atmospherics (if very effective atmospherics!). [Produced by poptimist favourite Polow da Don; he's really shaping up as a producer of the year, isn't he?]

Speaking of Keri Hilson, we FINALLY have a debut solo single:

It borders on the nice but eh until the moment in the chorus when that THRUM (like the one in Danity Kane's Is Anybody Listening! read: OMG) slides in under the music, and the emotion just SWELLS -- and then that middle eight, omg! It's been a looong wait for her official solo career launch, but this certainly fulfills all the heightened expectations I've built up over all that time. CANNOT WAIT FOR THE ALBUM.

Comments

[koganbot]

I think the only thing "We Break The Dawn" needs is a different singer. And maybe - maybe - I'd have made it a tad longer, extending the "hold back the sun"/"we break the dawn" call-and-response mashup at the end until it's compulsive and mesmerizing.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I listened to it again this morning and I think I agree, I'm trying to think of who could have pulled it off better than Michelle - maybe someone like Jennifer Hudson, someone with a big, generous voice.

[koganbot]

Toni Braxton or Mary J. Blige? Both can do the slow burn and the gospel eruptions. Mariah? (This would be a stretch, but she often responds well to being stretched.) Taylor Swift? (That would be a real stretch, since she can't do gospel eruptions to save her life, but she could find the latent fragility and neediness in the song, trying to hold back the dawn in a desperate, frail chant.) Daveigh Chase? (My newest discovery: Don't know anything about her or the TV show she's part of, but I decided that if she could make this song compelling, she could do anything.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think MJB could do it, but it'd be a different song then. Toni Braxton might be a bit too dignified? Like, she always seems a bit repressed, even when she erupts. Anyway I have actually just realised who the perfect singer for this is: FANTASIA BARRINO. Holy shit how good would that be.