1. Adele - "Rolling In The Deep"
There are few types of acts I'm more reluctant to praise than MOR retro soul by young white British women, but I gotta give it up, this song is just fantastic. Duffy better not turn around and make something worthwhile, though.

2. Marsha Ambrosius - "Far Away"
The first time I really let this play out on the radio and get into it, I was like wow this song really goes on and on and keeps getting better -- apparently local stations are playing the whole 7-minute album version, not just the single edit. Wouldn't have guessed that Just Blaze produced this, but now knowing that I can kinda hear it.

3. Diddy-Dirty Money f/ Trey Songz - "Your Love"
I've been really loving the lingering Last Train To Paris afterglow of spinoff mixtapes and new videos and remixes for practically every song off the album still dropping and Mary J. using one as her new single. "Ass On The Floor" is one of the most recent tracks released as a single and while it's obviously great (although it's not my favorite off the album like it is for a lot of people), "Your Love" is predictably the one getting more spins right now, and I'm actually really enjoying hearing it in the context of radio. It just sounds more bold and arresting alongside all the other Trey Songz hits out right now than it does in the context of LTTP. And like "Far Away," it ends with a great bit of vocoder/talkbox vamping.

4. "Weird Al" Yankovic - "Perform This Way"
My reaction to this was a little muted at first, partly because I feel like Al kind of missed his chance at really capturing the zeitgeist by parodying one of the Fame/Fame Monster singles (for some reason it's just better when he tackles a phenomenon like Nirvana when they're just hitting the big time). But all in all I think this is pretty well done, my favorite part being the "W-H-I-M" line, hopefully he can get past the whole goofy controversy about Gaga blocking and then not blocking the release and make a really memorable video for this.

5. Selena Gomez & The Scene - "Who Says"
I'd given Selena Gomez so little thought prior to this song that when I heard this song for the first time and made a note to myself that it might be worth writing about in this space, I blanked on her name and typed "Serena whatsername." Generally being kind of a Demi Lovato stan and knowing they're friends or were friends I just kind of played favorites and rooted against her career doing better than Lovato's. But this is nice!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 06, 2011 at 12:00 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.