L'attirail

When it comes to pop music, we can say that things are quite predictable: a catchy beat, some lyrics about a heartbreak or about a party and, of course, a video with some sexy girls dancing as naked as possible on the beach – especially since we are talking about summer hits. Yes, that seems to be the recipe of success. But fortunately enough, it seems that this year, there might be some “intruders” on the music scene, meaning debutants with different beats, different lyrics and, luckily, different videos.

Who are these new faces in the music scene? Well, most of them seem to come from the rainy Britain. We all heard (the probably evergreen) Grace Kelly song from new artist Mika. We all heard Lily Allen’s Smile and Rehab from Amy Winehouse.

Well, all these artists seem to promise the top music hits for this summer, so you can count on Mika’s Love Today, on Lily’s Alfie and on Amy’s Back to Black to make it to the top of the charts. Somehow, these artists approach the classiest pop and jazz, which might be surprising, considering today’s R&B must-have trends, but they seem to gain more and more fans. After all, pop music makes the best summer hits.

OK, now let’s think and predict: which artists that we know and love will manage to offer us those hot and spicy summer hits? But in order to establish that, let’s take a look at what the guru says, meaning the Billboard singles chart.  Read more...

The extremely talented Jazz artist Lenny White has released him most recent CD on the Wounded Bird Records recording label, entitled Venusian Summer.

It’s a rare day indeed that I get a CD from an artist that I can truthfully say does not have a bad track in the bunch. I’m more than happy to announce that’s exactly what I must say about this one. There simply is NOT a bad one in the bunch. No fillers here at all, with each song standing tall on it’s own.

Venusian Summer has a nicely varied, mix of 6 tracks that are very well written songs by this clearly superb artist. With many of the songs displaying a lot of the kind emotion that makes for a really great listen. Clearly drawing from what I can only imagine are him own personal experiences. At different points touching on the most real emotions like love, and the pain of failed relationships can certainly be heard.

I give Venusian Summer my highest recommendation. It just plain belongs in any serious music collectors collection regardless of genre preference.

While the entire album is really very good some of my favorites are track 2 – Away Go Troubles Down The Drain, track 4 – Prelude To Rainbow Delta, and track 6 – Prince Of The Sea

My Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore [...as in "Stuck On REpeat"] is track 1 – Chicken-Fried Steak. This is a great track!  Read more...