Monthly Report: March Singles
1. Keyshia Cole - "You Complete Me"
Sometimes it’s the little things that make me love a song. Here, you’ve got the kind of stuttery triplet beats that have been standard in R&B since the first wave of Timbaland in the mid-90s, but instead of crisp drum machine sounds, you’ve got big plush “live”-sounding kicks and snares that take on a whole new character when programmed in those rhythms, especially when they spill over into fills that never quite land where you expect them to. Add in the synth squiggles and the big hooky strings, and it’s one of the most endlessly listenable slow jams on the radio.
2. Electrik Red - "So Good"
The-Dream’s more explicitly Prince-inspired stuff is usually my favorite, so I have high hopes for his own faceless female protégés, especially when the single is some of his most blatantly Prince-jocking stuff to date. The fact that the main girl sounds exactly like Kelis (at least until she starts doing “hoo-hoo-hoooo” ad-libs and then sounds like a pitch-shifted Terius) is a plus, too.
3. Birdman f/ Lil Wayne – “Always Strapped”
You can’t help but make fun of the whole situation between these guys, if not for the gay jokes then just for the way Baby’s shamelessly hitched his wagon to Wayne as Cash Money’s only remaining star in the past few years. 2005’s Fast Money had four Wayne features, including both its singles, and during those years when they perpetually stalled on dropping Tha Carter III, they instead put out a joint album, 2006’s Like Father, Like Son, and another Birdman solo, 2007’s 5 Star Stunna, which had seven Wayne features, including all three singles. But here’s the thing: Wayne’s records with Baby are way more consistent than his solo output the last few years. Like Father is a better album than Carter III, straight up, and “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy” and “Pop Bottles” are among his best later hits. That’s mainly because Birdman is such a bland monotone figure that he can’t do anything but cold-hearted street rap (his hilarious AutoTune flirtation on the “Foolish” remix excepted); even when the Big Tymers got super goofy he was kind of Mannie’s straight man, no pun intended. So when Wayne gets on a track with Baby, he’s in the lane he’s still best at, the stuff he hasn’t been focusing on regularly for 2 or 3 years now, so I have no problem with a new Birdman album squeezing what it can out of Wayne’s stardom if it’s full of awesome deadpan bangers like this.
4. Robin Thicke - "Dreamworld"
Something Else remains one of my favorite albums of ’08, and it’s a shame that it’s not gonna have a late-breaking sleeper hit to make it a success like his previous album. But I am glad that he finally released one of my favorite cuts as a single, and shot a beautiful grainy dramatic video to go with it. I mean shit, this song sounds so chilling it actually made the end of an episode of “Entourage” seem dramatic.
5. Beyonce - "Halo"
B’Day possessed one of my favorite strings of singles of any hit album the past few years, but so far I Am has been a pretty big dud for me. A lot of people seemed to hype up this song as a would-be smash early on, but while it’s been easily outperformed by that awful “A Milli” knockoff thing, it’s started to really grow on me. In sound and structure it’s almost identical to “No Air,” but I loved “No Air” so this is at least the kind of knockoff I can deal with.
Sometimes it’s the little things that make me love a song. Here, you’ve got the kind of stuttery triplet beats that have been standard in R&B since the first wave of Timbaland in the mid-90s, but instead of crisp drum machine sounds, you’ve got big plush “live”-sounding kicks and snares that take on a whole new character when programmed in those rhythms, especially when they spill over into fills that never quite land where you expect them to. Add in the synth squiggles and the big hooky strings, and it’s one of the most endlessly listenable slow jams on the radio.
2. Electrik Red - "So Good"
The-Dream’s more explicitly Prince-inspired stuff is usually my favorite, so I have high hopes for his own faceless female protégés, especially when the single is some of his most blatantly Prince-jocking stuff to date. The fact that the main girl sounds exactly like Kelis (at least until she starts doing “hoo-hoo-hoooo” ad-libs and then sounds like a pitch-shifted Terius) is a plus, too.
3. Birdman f/ Lil Wayne – “Always Strapped”
You can’t help but make fun of the whole situation between these guys, if not for the gay jokes then just for the way Baby’s shamelessly hitched his wagon to Wayne as Cash Money’s only remaining star in the past few years. 2005’s Fast Money had four Wayne features, including both its singles, and during those years when they perpetually stalled on dropping Tha Carter III, they instead put out a joint album, 2006’s Like Father, Like Son, and another Birdman solo, 2007’s 5 Star Stunna, which had seven Wayne features, including all three singles. But here’s the thing: Wayne’s records with Baby are way more consistent than his solo output the last few years. Like Father is a better album than Carter III, straight up, and “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy” and “Pop Bottles” are among his best later hits. That’s mainly because Birdman is such a bland monotone figure that he can’t do anything but cold-hearted street rap (his hilarious AutoTune flirtation on the “Foolish” remix excepted); even when the Big Tymers got super goofy he was kind of Mannie’s straight man, no pun intended. So when Wayne gets on a track with Baby, he’s in the lane he’s still best at, the stuff he hasn’t been focusing on regularly for 2 or 3 years now, so I have no problem with a new Birdman album squeezing what it can out of Wayne’s stardom if it’s full of awesome deadpan bangers like this.
4. Robin Thicke - "Dreamworld"
Something Else remains one of my favorite albums of ’08, and it’s a shame that it’s not gonna have a late-breaking sleeper hit to make it a success like his previous album. But I am glad that he finally released one of my favorite cuts as a single, and shot a beautiful grainy dramatic video to go with it. I mean shit, this song sounds so chilling it actually made the end of an episode of “Entourage” seem dramatic.
5. Beyonce - "Halo"
B’Day possessed one of my favorite strings of singles of any hit album the past few years, but so far I Am has been a pretty big dud for me. A lot of people seemed to hype up this song as a would-be smash early on, but while it’s been easily outperformed by that awful “A Milli” knockoff thing, it’s started to really grow on me. In sound and structure it’s almost identical to “No Air,” but I loved “No Air” so this is at least the kind of knockoff I can deal with.
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