2011: Music Highlights and Lowlights

 My Highlights

                  Adele 21

She is on every best of list in some fashion this year and the accalades are well deserved. I have been singing her praises since the release of 19 and am thrilled that this year the fabulousness that is Adele had caught the attention of the masses. No one deserves the success she has had this year more. Number one singles, a best selling Cd,transfixing videos and knock em dead live performances. She found imitation amongst her peers to be the sincerest form of flattery as her single Rolling in the deep was covered by EVERYONE! Yes Adele was everywhere but no matter how many times I heard her on the radio my heart jumped a beat. In a world where music is dominated by dance tracks and auto tune ( and I love those things to when done well) it was wondrous to hear a woman with a great voice telling a story that touches the heart and soul of the listener. A singer songwriter who delivers no matter the area they sing in. Her successes have been tinged bitter sweet though, health issues followed her though out her US tour causing her to cancel numerous dates and ultimately lead to throat surgery this fall. Ugly rumors followed the announcement ( shame on those who perpetrated them!) the seriousness of her illness was more than enough, no further drama needed to be added to it. Luckily everything went according to plan and she is on her way to a full recovery. Still it seems she plans to keep us hanging for a bit when it comes to the next record. Not that that is anything to worry about either. She did take a two years between the releases of 19 and 21. No matter how long it takes I will eagerly be awaiting the release of 23!!
Favorite Tracks : Set Fire to the Rain and Rumor has it ( though the entire album has been on heavy rotation since it's release)



                            The stunning video for Someone like you

 COLDPLAY

They are my favorite band and the release of Mylo Xyloto was my most anticipated music CD of the year. When the first single Every Tear Drop is a Waterfall broke I thanked all the stars in heaven and played it over and over again and cried (ALOT). Paradise the second release speaks to me ( as many of their songs do) in a very personal way. I feel like Chris went into my head, pulled out my childhood and put it into a song. Chris may erroneously believe he is not popular ( and I know they have their detractors) but in the grand scheme on things they are Musical Royalty on the grandest of stages. There are few people in this world I'd give my eyes teeth to see live and Coldplay is right there at the top. I was very grateful for the distraction of their music this year!

       The inspirational and oh so colorful Every Teardrop is a Waterfall

Jessie J : Performing as the House Artist on The VMA's

For me the highlight of this years VMA's was the snip bits of music going in and out of commercials by Miss Jessie J. Born in the halls of the same musical school that gave us Adele, Amy Winehouse and Leona Lewis the girl has the pedigree and a set of pipes!! Even with a boot on her foot she filled the air with rocking mixes of her tunes and excellent covers of others. Over all I found the show to be ho hum. I only watched to see Adele and Bruno whom I knew I'd love and did but Jessie was a little revelation that I had not expected and was thrilled by.

            A bit of her cover of K. Perry's Firework



                         The video for her single - Domino

                                           The Civil Wars:Barton Hollow

I have always said I was born a city girl trapped in the country but this song makes me want to kick off my shoes, find a muddy puddle in the back woods and wallow in it. Not a compliment you say, the hell it isn't. Melancholy and eerie this song is mesmerizing! Their collaboration with Taylor Swift on the song "Safe and Sound" the first single from the soundtrack of the highly anticipated movie The Hunger Games should place them even further in the spotlight.



                              Foster the People - Pumped up Kicks

Got to hand it to Mark Foster, he wrote a song with a kick ass beat, a whistle that ran through your head for days and that people bopped along to even after they realized that the lyrics to the catchy tune were not so pop friendly. It was a statement song wrapped in a pop tunes clothing. Very sneaky and extremely successful. My only issue with the song doesn't lie with it's content but with those in the industry that felt the need to censor the lyrics. Whether it be on MTV, VH1 or on Radio if your going to bleep out gun and bullet because you find it offensive then just don't play the song.



                  Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera: Moves like Jagger

Now Maroon 5 is another favorite band and it has frustrated me to no end that their music gets little radio play ( at least in my market) so when Adam Levine and the boys announced they were postponing their tour to promote Hands all Over so he could do The Voice a lot of people were up in arms. Me I knew that it was a calculated move to put the bands highest profile member back into the spotlight and garner attention to their music. A collaboration with Christina Aguilera that blew up the charts and got ( and still gets) massive amounts of airplay became one of the summers biggest hits and proved that the risk taken was well worth it. Adam's voice can now be heard on a collaboration with Gym Class Hero's the single Stereo Hearts ( another favorite tune of the year) and I have started to hear tracks from Hands all over being played as well. A band that makes top notch Pop music should have a place on radio. It shouldn't be as hard as it seems to have been but I am glad Adam found a way to make it happen!


                              READY TO GO - Panic at the Disco


In 1996 a band named Republica rocked my world with the release of their song entitled Ready to go. Fifteen years later another band, Panic at the Disco releases a song with the same title that garnered the same feeling in the pit of my stomach. I simply can not sit still when I listen to this song. It makes me want to spaz out in the best of ways and I have found myself doing so quite frequently this year.






                                  LMFAO - I'm sexy and I know it

While Party Rock Anthem caused more than a few lost moments, I was obsessed with those damned Dancing Hamsters ( the best commercial in years!! and the long version in theaters was a highlight of the waiting for the movie to start process) it was this song that totally slayed me. In the hands of some other artist a song with this title would have come off pompous and conceited but  Redfoo and Skyblu ( the son and grandson of Motown legendary founder Barry Gordy) make it a hilarious, self deprecating parody that you can not help but laugh at and love.



Mumford & Sons, The Avett Brothers and Mr Bob Dylan at the 53rd Annual Grammy's

Deliciously different from the rest of the show,a bit of homey folk music by men who are bringing the genre to the masses now and one of the legends who has cultivated it for almost fifty years. I reveal in anything just south of what is popular in the music of the day. It is bands like Mumford and Sons and the Avett brothers who make what is old new again and create an opening for voices that have just as much right to be heard as Lady Gaga or Pitbull. The only thing that would have capped this for me is if the Civil Wars had been there to!


           Florence and the Machines - Shake it Out. A end of the year treat....

If I had no voice to speak and could pick one woman to speak for me it is quite possible I would pick Florence. Her music hits the parts of me that are the hardest to reach and the ones that are the hardest for others to understand. Even the darkest places have light and Florence's music shows you exactly where you can find it.



My Lowlights....

JO(ey) al is NOT forgiven. Please don't come back...

Just about anything Lady Gaga... The music was hit or miss, liked Edge of Glory and could stand Born this way but the rest you could keep and I found her antics at the Grammy's and VMA's annoying. The Alter Ego disaster at the VMA's though took the proverbial cake... I am not sure if I have had enough but I'm pretty darn close...

The Justin Bieber baby Daddy Scandal.... I am not a fan of the Beibs but I don't think he deserved to have some random skank come out of the primotial ooze and accuse him of being her baby's Daddy. Not that I don't think him completely capable of having meaningless sex back stage at one of his concerts, he is a man and a teen aged one at that BUT I would like to think he'd have better taste than this
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I feel sorry for that poor baby who has a Momma with no scruples and for Selena Gomez who had to deal with all of this crap.

Christina Aguliera is a HOT MESS! In a year where her Mickey Mouse counterpart seems to have gotten her life back together both personally and professionally Good for you Britney Spears!! Christina felt the need to pick up the dropped torch and go running with it. She flubbed the National Anthem at the Super Bowl ( not the only one to do it this year but considering she has been singing it at events since she was a child she sure as heck was the one who knew better). Almost took a nose dive trying to out diva the other diva's at the Grammy's. Got arrested for public intoxication ( only once but that was just luck. She was fall of her ass drunk on numerous occasions) and should have been arrested for public indecency for constantly going out in public without PANTS. Even her supposed comeback on The Voice has been marred by reports that her Diva attitude and demands have made her personal non grata with those behind the scenes as well as her co-mentors. The biggest issue being her relationship with Adam Levine, which makes their collaboration on Moves Like Jagger ironic as well as successful. A lot has been made of her weight gain. As a big girl myself I got no problem with that. I do have an issue though with her making the rest of us look bad... Big or little it is common decency to wear pants in public, just saying...

and a couple of deeply felt losses....

Amy Winehouse

It cuts both ways when someone with tremendous talent fucks it all up by killing themselves with drugs and booze. You mourn their loss and feel for those who are left behind to grieve for them but you also want to kick their asses for being so stupid. Back to Black is one of my favorite albums of all time. I think Amy was amazing and that the music she put out before her death will live on forever but I wish more than anything she had been able to beat back her demons and clean up her act. It seemed she was taking small steps towards that but a body can only take so much. Hers finally gave out on July 23rd at the age of 27. I feel cheated out of all that she could have been and all she could have accomplished but like so many around her I to knew it was a matter of when not if. I do hope that Amy is at peace.

Steve Jobs

You might have to take a second to think about why Steve would be included here but it shouldn't take long for it to sink it. The founder of Apple revolutionized many aspects of media during his lifetime, changing the landscape of computer technology with the Mac and the Ipad, of Movie animation at Pixar, of the telecommunication industry with the Iphone and of course the music industry with the invention of the Ipod and Itunes. With a single click of your mouse you have access to a vast virtual library of music on Itunes, you can listen, buy and store them all in one place. With another click you can put all of your favorite tunes onto your mobile listening device and take it with you anywhere. I find both of those things truly amazing and the inventions that he coveted and grew have given me countess hours of listening and viewing pleasure. I am forever in the debt of his genius! Mr Jobs past away after a long fight with Cancer on October 5th at the age of 56.