TwoFiveOhTen.
Justin Bieber .
An old soul is the last thing you would expect to find inside Justin Bieber. But all it takes is one listen to the 15 year-old soul-singing phenomenon to realize that he is light years ahead of his manufactured pop peers.
After posting dozens of homemade videos on YouTube in 2007, where the multi-talented Bieber put his impeccable spin on songs from artists like Usher, Ne-Yo and Stevie Wonder, Justin racked up over 10,000,000 views purely from word of mouth.
Justin Bieber's Debut Album May Feature His Mentor, Usher
By Jocelyn Vena (MTV.com)
Justin Bieber is Usher's protege, so one would think there's a good chance that his mentor might make an appearance Bieber's debut album, My World, which hits stores on November 17. But if he does, Bieber isn't exactly letting info about the collaboration out of the bag.
"You might just see Usher on the album - you'll have to see November 17," Bieber told MTV News. And as for any other collaborations, he also kept his answer vague: "Again, you'll have to see November 17."
The 15-year-old promises that although the album will sound a lot like his single "One Time," a catchy, up-tempo pop tune, it will also touch on subjects other than puppy love. "It's basically about my world and what I want in my worldkind of thing. ... There's a lot of different songs about girls. Yeah, a lot about girls," he added. "But there's a lot of stuff about real life and stuff that I've gone through. Just stuff [that] teens in general can relate to."
He says that his choice to sing about subjects that go deeper than teenage crushes stems from his own life experiences and the fact that he doesn't see enough of other artists his age doing that. "There are a lot of people, especially young artists, that are just, like, they make songs that are cookie cutter - everything is perfect - and real-life things aren't perfect," he explained.
"There's a song on my album called 'Down to Earth' that is just, like, my relationship with my dad and how my mom and dad split up ... at a very young age," he continued. "So there's just a lot of stuff that they can relate to and it's just going to be a lot of fun."
2nd Review
Nicole Scherzinger, The PussycatDolls.
They’re the women every man wants, and every woman wants to be.
Meet Nicole Scherzinger, Jessica Sutta, Ashley Roberts, Melody Thornton and Kimberly Wyatt, together known as the mega-hot, mega-sexy and mega-selling Pussycat Dolls.
The Pussycat Dolls exploded on the pop music scene in the summer of 2005 with their worldwide smash hit, the booty-shaking, girrrl-power packed “Don’t Cha.” Their debut album, PCD, sold over 7 million copies internationally on the strength of other hit singles like “Buttons,” “Stickwitu” and “Beep.”
They’ve toured the globe as a headline act, shared the stage with the likes of The Black Eyed Peas and Christina Aguilera, and picked up a slew of awards along the way, including Best Dancing in a Video at the recent 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.
And now, it’s time for Chapter 2 of their journey.
In Doll Domination, the follow-up album to PCD, the Pussycat Dolls collaborated with the hottest producers in music, including the ever prolific Timbaland, Cee-Lo and Sean Garrett, among others. The first single, “When I Grow Up,” is steadily storming up the charts with its tongue-in-cheek lyrics and infectious melody.
In fact, PCD fever has also taken over the upcoming 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards, with the babelicious quintet nominated for a whopping 4 categories: Act of 2008, Best Act Ever, Headliner, and finally Most Addictive Track for “When I Grow Up.”
Looks like Doll Domination is already sweeping across the globe.
3rd Review
Tokio Hotel .
Tokio Hotel's Bill Kaulitz Immortalized -- In Wax -- At Madame Tussauds In Berlin
By Jocelyn Vena (MTV.com)
Bill Kaulitz's signature rock-star style has been immortalized by the artists at Madame Tussauds wax museum in Berlin.
On Tuesday, a figure of the Tokio Hotel lead singer made its debut. Fans turned out to get a look at Kaulitz's wax doppelganger - and some even got, er, intimate with him ... er, it.
Rocking a cropped leather jacket, a chain-link-and-leather choker and black fingernails, the Kaulitz doll got plenty of love from the ladies who showed up in the band's home country to show their devotion.
And although the singer's appeal certainly loses nothing in translation, Tokio Hotel recently told MTV News that translating their lyrics from German into English is proving to be one of the biggest challenges on their forthcoming album, which the band is currently hard at work on.
"You know it was really hard to do a set, or even to do interviews in English, because in Europe, we always had a translator with us," 19-year-old Bill Kaulitz said. "I think it's really hard for me ... to sing in English, because it's not my mother tongue. I really wanted it to sound natural [on the album], so it took some time in the studio, and we always wanted to do it this way: first in German, then translate everything into English. The English record is a part of us, and we really wanted to go ahead with that."
Bill also explained the difficulties of properly interpreting German slang without it sounding funny. "We translate, or we want to, everything," Kaulitz said. "Of course, our German phrases like, 'big cinema,' it's 'grosses Kino' in German. This red carpet is grosses Kino. It's like, 'beautiful,' 'awesome.' "
4th Review
Lady Gaga .
Lady Gaga Wants 'New Sonic Energy And Lyrical Style' On Next Album
By Jocelyn Vena (MTV.com)
The Lady Gaga of today isn't the same Lady Gaga who released "Just Dance" off her album The Fame in 2008. This Lady Gaga promises that when she releases her next LP, the follow-up to her recent release The Fame Monster, it will be completely different than what her fans are used to.
"Well, I'm going to write new music ... that's the beauty of writing your own music - you don't have to rely on songwriters and producers to write hit songs for you," she told MTV News. "So I'm going to write a new album and I'm going to have new ideas."
Gaga, who is currently on her Monster Ball Tour, thinks the trek could inspire her new album just like the last one did. "Most certainly I have no f---ing clue what they're going to be yet, because I'm just starting this tour, and I wrote The Fame Monster during the last tour, so ... I assume that it will inspire some kind of new sonic energy and lyrical style," she explained.
"I find The Fame Monster to be completely different than The Fame," she added. "I've evolved, but artists should evolve. In the '70s and the '60s, artists evolved all the time - from album to album the music was changing, the feeling was changing, the artists seemed almost entirely different than who they were five or six years before."
Gaga's producer RedOne recently spoke to MTV News, teasing about what the duo have in store for the next album. "I don't want to say, because you always want to shock people," he said. "And you don't want to let people know, so that when they hear it, [they go], 'Oh my God.' "
5th Review
Kelly Clarkson .
Kelly Clarkson
All I Ever Wanted
Choice Cut : My Life Would Suck Without You, I Do Not Hook Up, Long Shot, Whyyawannabringmedown
Official website: http://www.kellyclarkson.com/
Arguably the most successful American Idol winner yet, Kelly Clarkson is back with her fourth album All I Ever Wanted.
A catchy anthem that permanently etches itself in your mind is always a good way to start off an album, but the good impression eventually wears off after a string of otherwise cookie-cutter style forgettable songs. Worse still, the opening riffs of certain tracks halfway through the album start to sound similar to pop hits by other artists out there.
"My Life Would Suck Without You", the aforementioned catchy tune, speaks of the kind of relationship many will be familiar with - the love-hate type. Lyrics are penned accurately to capture the frustration felt in such relationships but at the same time, allowing the vulnerability of still being in love to show through. Extremely marketable and memorable, it is easy to justify this hit's radio success all over the world.
Sadly, this resonance does not carry through to the album's subsequent songs. "I Do Not Hook Up" may be a favorite with fans but may prompt a few snorts from skeptics who find it hard to believe that the pop songstress will practice what she preaches in this number.
Continue down heartbreak central and halt with a crash at songs "Already Gone" and "If I Can't Have You". The openings of these two songs resonate with such strong familiarity to Beyonce's "Halo" and Miley Cyrus's "Fly on the Wall" that you will have to stop to remind yourself that this is a Kelly Clarkson CD.
This apparent lack of originality is compensated by the attitude-laden "Whyyawannabringmedown?." A surprising choice of melody for the country-pop crossover singer, this tune has a rough, hip-hop edge to it, right down to the deliberate spelling and phrasing of the song title.
More could have been done to show off the vocal range that Kelly Clarkson is famous for; instead this album seems to be a further extension of her previous two, still focusing more on steering her image in a new direction. All I Ever Wanted ends on a rather somber and uninspiring note with the underwhelming ballad "If No One Will Listen".
(EXTRA)!!!
6th Review
Beyonce .
Beyonce gets a little conceptual and reveals a little bit of both sides on her third studio album, I Am… Sasha Fierce, which hits stores and online tomorrow, November 18th.
♫ ALBUM REVIEW: BEYONCE - I AM… SASHA FIERCE ♫
Monday, November 17, 2008
LISTEN UP:
♫ BEYONCE - DISAPPEAR
♫ BEYONCE - VIDEO PHONE
♫ BEYONCE - HALO
I Am… Sasha Fierce is probably some of Beyonce’s most impressive work to date. Much different from her previous releases, 2006’s B’Day or her acclaimed 2003 debut, Dangerously In Love, Beyonce explores uncharted territories, especially on the ballad-heavy, pop-driven I Am… side.
With the leaking of her first singles, “♫ If I Were A Boy” and “♫ Single Ladies,” bloggers, fans, stans and haters alike knew that it would be time for the Beyonce media blitz.
Collaborating with the likes of Ryan Tedder, (responsible for OneRepublic and Timbaland’s huge hit, “Apologzie,” as well as Leona Lewis’s “Bleeding Love”) on the second single, “Halo,” as well as Toby Cad, Amanda Ghost, and the production team known as Stargate, Beyonce really delivers some of her most straight-forward vocal performances ever, over beautifully produced tracks. Stand-out tracks from the I Am… side include the Tricky Stewart & The Dream-assisted “Smash Into You,” the airy and eerie “Satellites,” the huge popera, “Halo,” and the very understated beauty of “Disappear.”
Sasha Fierce was a little hard for me to get into at first. When Beyonce announced that this would be a more “dance”-driven side, I assumed Sasha would be offering up a flurry of bombastic, techno-driven Europop sounds much like the leak, “Beautiful Nightmare,” which was retooled and renamed “Sweet Dreams” for the album.
Instead, Beyonce taps into her more edgy, urban side on tracks like the Bangladesh-produced, Sean Garrett-penned “Diva,” her stab at Lil’ Wayne’s boast and gloat, “A Millie.” She chants: “Na-na-na, diva is a female version of a hustlaaaa…” and raps lines like, “Fifty million ’round the world and they say that I couldn’t get it/I done got so sick and filthy with Benjis, I can’t spend it!” as well as “Video Phone.” The high points on this side of the album, for me, however, lie in the techno-synth ode, “Radio,” the confidently pleading, “Hello,” and the Jim Jonsin/Rico Love knocker, “Sweet Dreams.”
All in all, I’m glad that Beyonce stepped it up and stepped out her shell a little bit for the album. She definitely put something on there for everyone, from your pop ballads, to your hood anthems and dance numbers. I Am… Sasha Fierce seems like it will turn out to be my favorite Beyonce effort yet.
