Champagne Symphony

I wrote most of the post a month ago, and then promptly forgot about it.  It's a bit late now, but I figured I might as well give it a touch up and post it. Anyways, 2012 has been an astonishingly bad year for good songwriting.  You'd have to go back more than a decade to find a year that had as little good music.  The good news is that, despite the lack of quality songwriting, music continues to move forward: After almost a decade, R&B has finally stopped trying to sound like Usher's Confessions .  Drake , Frank Ocean , The Weeknd , Miguel , and others have been experimenting with personal lyrics, electronic textures, and warm sounds with very compelling results. Electronic music has gone on a maximalist bent with artists like Rustie and TNGHT . With electronic music moving forward, Pop music has happily stepped in and claimed dubstep as it own .  Also, there's been a lot of very compelling pop music that blurs the line between mainstream and indie (ex. Jes

Songwriting genius usually lasts only a few years.  Take the greatest songwriters of all time, Paul McCartney and John Lennon. They couldn't write a bad song from 1965-1969.  Afterwards, they couldn't even manage another half dozen. Or Eminem. He had the greatest run in rap history from 1999-2002.  Since then, his music output has been almost entirely crap. There are some exceptions.  For example, Bono of U2 wrote great songs at a steady clip from 1984 all the way to 2004.  Unfortunately, Taylor Swift is not one of them.  Over the past half decade, she's had the best run in country music history.  That run ends here.  That's not so say Red is a bad album.  It's not. It's a very good adult pop album. It's just that the genius isn't there anymore. There's no " Teardrops on My Guitar ," no " Love Story ," no " Back to December ."  The best we get is "Begin Again" and "The Lucky One."  Both of them are

Music's been pretty disappointing recently, so, I figure, why not take a look back.  I recently put together a playlist of songs that I feel are absolutely essential.  I'm gonna put that playlist on shuffle, list the 10 songs that come up, and write a sentence or so on each song just for a bit of background.  Maybe I'll turn this into a regular thing if it ends up being interesting. The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 - The greatest song by one of the great 90's bands.  A sweet, unpretentious bit of nostalgia, very much like The Beatles' In My Life. Jay-Z - Dead Presidents II - This is the standout track on Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt, the album that he built his reputation on.  His lyrics have never been more literate and complex than they are here. Mylo - Sunworshipper - This song's a forgotten classic.  It's the sonic equivalent of a perfect, peaceful sunrise. Tyler, The Creator - Yonkers - A brilliant beat with some very interesting rapping.  The vide

So Taylor Swift's just put out the title track from her upcoming album Red.  It's a generic dance pop number that sounds like a limp version of Mariah Carey's Obsessed .  It makes the cute but ultimately mediocre We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together Again sound like a masterstroke.  Why would she resort to doing songs like this? She clearly hasn't lost her touch. Ronan , which she put out a few weeks ago, is absolutely brilliant. Hiring outside writers to make dance pop songs is just wrong for so many reasons. She's already one of the greatest songwriters of our time.  Sure, she's not the best, but I can count on one hand the number of people better than her (Drake, Kanye West, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon, and Matt Berninger of The National). There's no reason to hire help when you're already so damn good at what you do. Dance pop is completely saturated. There's Kesha, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Ellie

This is an old song that I finally finagled into sounding good. The track uses Neon Indian's Fallout and was inspired by Frank Ocean's Strawberry Swing .  As with that song, I stripped the song of its original vocals and used the title as a starting point to craft a story of my own.  Hope you like it. http://www.mediafire.com/?bqv9d7821m7nn7m (I tried posting to SoundCloud, but the fact that I pretty much used a copyrighted track in its entirety did not make them very happy.) Lyrics: [Verse 1] Falling, falling out of control Away we will go To make love, oh how sweet Warm night, city breeze Not so sweet nothings and furtive stares Not the answer to my prayers, but Stagger, stumble through the door Bet tomorrow that’ll make you sore [Chorus] And we’re falling in and falling out of control And we’re falling in and falling out of control [Verse 2] Turn on the night light, not too bright Just enough to set things right, it Won’t go over we

As of about a week ago, with this eloquent note , Frank Ocean became the first major urban artist to come out of the closet. Luther Vandross would be proud. This bit of news, quite justifiably, got the guy a ton of media coverage. To capitalize, his label has just rush released his major label debut, channel ORANGE, on iTunes.  Unfortunately, the album sucks. His earlier mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra , was full of interesting songs that were well written and soulfully sung. Here, the music is still intriguing and soulful, but there's little quality or focus. At least 2/3 of the album sounds like an extended interlude, and the other 1/3 is not particularly memorable either. I like Thinking of You, Lost, and Forrest Gump, but three good songs out of 17 is not particularly good. tl;dr: The first major openly gay urban artist releases his debut to great media fanfare. Too bad it sucks. Go and listen to his old mixtape instead, that shit was off the chain.

Usher - Looking 4 You :   Usher tries to go electro.  To make sure he succeeds, an all star production cast, including Swedish House Mafia, are brought in.  Too bad they forgot to write good songs.  Well, with the exception of " Climax" , which is absolutely phenomenal Justin Bieber - Believe : Believe will certainly make all the Beliebers scream.  Then again, an album of white noise would probably do the same, so that's not saying much.  Most of the album is forgettable pop mush, and there's nothing as stellar as Baby to save it all.  "As Long As You Love Me" (not a cover of the classic Backstreet Boys song) comes close though. Linkin Park - Living Things : I have no idea what happened to Linkin Park.  Everyone in my generation grew up on the first two Linkin Park albums; both albums are near perfect.  "In the End" and "Numb" are stone cold classics.  Then, they went and released the mediocre Minutes to Midnight and the abominable A

So a little while ago, I found this low quality video of some teenage girl rapping via a random Reddit link.  I think I clicked on it because whoever posted it insisted that the girl was a good rapper, and I just wanted to laugh at how wrong the they were.  Turns out I was wrong.  This girl is phenomenal.  The rhyming is on par with the best there ever was, and the lyrics are entirely unique.  I literally haven't heard a rap verse this good since Eminem in his prime.  If I were the head of a record label, the first thing I'd do is lock this girl down.  She's something special.  I've posted the lyrics that I can parse out below.  The first two stanzas have some highlighting just to show where all the rhymes are.  Again, it's pretty fucking impressive. Lyrics: You could be much creep ier I’m pleased with your Chees y words and your feel ings Regarding my cheeks creas ing E ven though I’m greas ier than pizz a More tweez ers , I mean , Jes us M

I was talking to someone about writing a rap, and their response was, "oh, sure, why not, everyone can rap."  It kills me to hear comments like that.  It's the equivalent of saying, "oh, everyone can play the piano, you just hit the keys."  It's not as simple as that.  There's so much to rap both rhythmically and lyrically that people don't pay attention to.  Let's just deal with rhyming.  Take the chorus to Eminem's Without Me, for example. Now this looks like a job for me So everybo dy , just follow me Cause we need a little, controver sy Cause it feels so emp ty , without me There was a comment on a reddit thread deriding this chorus for being incredibly rudimentary, rhyming "me" with itself twice.  Now, that's true, but it completely misses the big picture.  The three "me"'s also rhyme with "everybody," "controversy," and "empty."  On top of that, he throws in

Demo of a song I just finished about graduating.  Thanks to Alec Leverette for the guitar solo.  Someday I'll actually learn how to play that damn instrument myself... http://soundcloud.com/felix-lin/boring-life Lyrics: [Verse 1] Camel lights on your breath and mine Talking ‘bout spring break this time Memories made in dim lit bars Troubles lost in speeding cars Hearken back to halcyon days When we had time to go astray Heady times for dashing thoughts ‘Fore our souls could all be bought [Chorus] Oh I long for the time when life could be boring Now we’re all being blown from our moorings Adrift for now Setting out searching for El Dorado ’94 Camry, no wheel, no throttle No wonder there’s doubt [Verse 2] The doomsday clock is counting down Striking fear without a sound Three more months till that day when From childhood we must wake The caps and gowns they’ll come in June Childhood gone away too soon Cheers in hope of

A decade ago, the U.S. experienced a dance pop renaissance.  The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, *NSYNC and Christina Aguilera broke big and sold records on a scale today's teen idols can only dream of.  They had good looks, MTV-ready personalities, and flashy, choreography-heavy music videos, but, above all, they had great tunes.  Take Britney Spears.  Each of her first two albums had three classic pop songs.  Her first had ...Baby One More Time, Crazy, and Sometimes, and her second had Oops!...I Did It Again, Lucky, and Stronger.  You might still be embarrassed that you know these songs, but you have to admit they are all very good at what they were meant to do. Today's teen pop stars have no such luck.  They're lucky to get even one good song.  Justin Bieber has Baby and Miley Cyrus has Party in the U.S.A.  Luckily, the Koreans have been working hard over the past couple years to plug the gap.  If the U.S.'s teen pop explosion is Michael Jackson's

Pitchfork has this running feature called "5-10-15-20" where people write a little blurb about what music they were in to at 5 year intervals in their lives.  I figured it would be an interesting exercise to try and do this myself.  So here goes: Age 5: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons I can't say I remember much about being five.  I mean, I'm sure some of those scattered memories I have from my earlier childhood were from when I was five, but it's been so long now that they're all jumbled together.  Anyways, it's not like I listened to much music as a kid.  In a stunning display of restraint, my mom had yet to make me a part of the great Asian tradition of classical music education, and my parents were hardly the most musical of people.  I can't remember the last time I heard my dad listening to music, and my mom's musical knowledge barely extends past what shows up in the Yahoo! homepage. However, for as long as I can remember my dad

This is a song that came together last weekend.  One of the only times something has come together quickly for me.  The backing track is a loop of the first few seconds of Ghosts of a Different Dream by Guided By Voices. http://soundcloud.com/felix-lin/never-make-another-sound   Lyrics: [A] I can sing anything when you’re around Please don’t go I would never make another sound ‘Cause you hold the key to my every treasure That key you just tossed away [B] You walk on out the door Shock me to the core Walk on out the door I just hit the floor ‘Cause without you here Nothing feels the same Without you here There’s no one else to blame Without you here Nothing stays the same Without you here There’s no one left to blame [A] [B] [A] [Outro] Oh, I’m going nowhere Oh, I’m doomed to fall (Repeat to End)

So this is the first song I've ever finished, but I've been sitting on it for a few months now.  I just can't figure out how to make the lyrics sound right.  They're just so stupid and saccharine, and they stay that way no matter what I do.  There's also that annoying buzzing in the back ground that's reminding me I need to get a better microphone.  I suppose at least it all sounds really pretty.  Maybe I'm just not meant to write pop songs.  If anyone reading this has any suggestions for improv ement, please let me know.  At the very least, I figure it'll be pretty entertaining. http://soundcloud.com/felix-lin/falling-apart Lyrics: [Verse 1] I can’t believe that old sweatshirt Looks good on you even now Though it seems you’re tearing down my world With what’s coming out of your mouth How could you, goddess, oh Venus Deem it right to strike me so You wouldn’t go for my bridle Guess I have to let you go [Chorus] You wal

Usher - Climax : A song called climax that ironically never climaxes.  Instead, the tension builds through each verse and chorus only to dissipate into nothing.  It's one of the coolest sonic ideas I've ever come across. The best Usher track since Yeah! and the best Diplo beat since since M.I.A.'s Paper Planes . BigBang - Bad Boy : The song is a perfect homage to 90's R&B. It's laid back, melodically brilliant, and has swagger on a hundred thousand, trillion. The best K-pop song to come out since S.N.S.D.'s Gee . Skylar Grey - Coming Home : The original version of Diddy's Coming Home . One of the best choruses of the past few years, stripped of all the abysmal rapping, and fitted with a much more heartfelt and subtle backing track. M.I.A. - Bad Girls : A solid tune up of the original mixtape track from last year. The synth line is stellar and M.I.A. singsong rapping is surprisingly catchy. Also, the music video is easily the best of the year so fa

A few months ago, I made a list of my top 10 songs of the year at that point.  I figure, since 2010 just ended, I'll expand on that and do a list of the top 20 songs of 2011. I've listed them below along with a sentence or two on why I like them.  Also, here's a zip file of all of them. Nicki Minaj - Super Bass : Possibly the greatest pop song of all time.  It was technically released in 2010, but I included it here because no one knew about it until Taylor Swift dug it up in 2011.  Sure, the difficult to understand, rapid fire verses might've prevented this song from hitting #1, but, without them, we would've never gotten this and then this and then this . (Yes, it's basically the same thing, but yes, it's worth watching three times.) The Weeknd - Wicked Games : Abel Tesfaye's uniquely dark, carnal take on R&B has never been more convincing and melodic than it is here. Drake - Marvin's Room : Drake bares his soul in a surprisingly compel