Deep Album Cuts Vol. 380: Joe Cocker

Friday, March 28, 2025















Joe Cocker is one of 2025's nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Bad Company, the Black Crowes, Mariah Carey, Chubby Checker, Billy Idol, Joy Division/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, Mana, Oasis, Outkast, Phish, Soundgarden, and the White Stripes. 


Joe Cocker deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. Sandpaper Cadillac
2. Change In Louise
3. Do I Still Figure In Your Life?
4. That's Your Business
5. Dear Landlord
6. Hello, Little Friend
7. Give Peace A Chance (live)
8. Space Captain (live)
9. She Don't Mind
10. I Get Mad
11. Performance
12. Lucinda
13. Born Thru Indifference
14. Worrier
15. I Can't Say No
16. Marie
17. Come On In
18. Don't Drink The Water
19. Satisfied
20. You Know It's Gonna Hurt
21. Hitchcock Railway (live)

Tracks 1, 2, and 3 from With A Little Help From My Friends (1969)
Tracks 4, 5, and 6 from Joe Cocker! (1969)
Tracks 7 and 8 from Mad Dogs & Englishmen (1970)
Track 9 from Joe Cocker a.k.a. Something To Say (1972)
Tracks 10 and 11 from I Can  Stand A Little Rain (1974)
Track 12 from Jamaica Say You Will (1975)
Tracks 13 and 14 from Stingray (1976)
Track 15 from Luxury You Can Afford (1978)
Track 16 from Sheffield Steel (1982)
Track 17 from Civilized Man (1984)
Track 18 from Cocker (1986)
Track 19 from Unchain My Heart (1987)
Track 20 from One Night Of Sin (1989)
Track 21 from Joe Cocker Live (1990)

I was a little surprised by Joe Cocker's nomination. He died about a decade ago, and it feels like his hits and his overall style are even further out of fashion now than they were then. He's considered more of an 'interpreter' than an artist, because while he did write songs, virtually every song he's known for is a cover. He could really sing the hell out of some songs and make them his own, though. There are plenty of good Beatles covers, and a few I like as much as original, but "With a Little Help From My Friends" may be the only Beatles cover that I think blows the original out of the water. Of course, I probably watched a hundred episodes of "The Wonder Years" before I ever listened to Sgt Pepper's, so I would say that. 

So I made an effort to highlight Cocker the songwriter here, and the songs he wrote (often with his pianist Chris Stainton) on this playlist are "Sandpaper Cadillac," "Change in Louise," "That's Your Business," "She Don't Mind," "Something To Say," "I Get Mad," and "Born Thru Indifference." In addition to his famous Beatles covers, Cocker also frequently covered Bob Dylan ("Dear Landlord") and Randy Newman ("Lucinda" and "Marie"). Cocker was the first person to release Allen Toussaint's "Performance," later recorded by Aaron Neville, Dobie Gray, and others. 

Cocker is one of those '70s acts whose highest charting album in the U.S. was a live record, and Mad Dogs & Englishmen is pretty killer. Leon Russell, who wrote "Hello, Little Friend" and the hit "Delta Lady" for Cocker's second studio album, was the musical director of that tour, and it included a song he wrote with Bramlett that has never been released elsewhere called "Give Peace a Chance" (not to be confused with the Lennon song of the same name). Russell discovered Matthew Moore, who sang backing vocals on the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour and wrote the fantastic song "Space Captain," and would continue to write songs for Cocker for many years after, including "Worrier," which has an Eric Clapton guitar solo and great backing vocals by Bramlett. His brother Daniel Moore also wrote songs for Cocker, including "I Can't Say No." 

I think it's kind of funny that he released an album called Joe Cocker! and followed it with an album called Joe Cocker -- fittingly, the one with no exclamation point was less successful. My mom had the Joe Cocker Live album in the early '90s, and that was my first exposure to his music outside of "The Wonder Years." It may not be as good as Mad Dogs & Englishmen but I like that record and figured I'd end the playlist with something from that, although he continued to record many more records for a couple decades after that. 

11:41 AM No comment

Movie Diary

Thursday, March 27, 2025

 





a) Anora
I saw and liked Sean Baker's earlier movies Tangerine and The Florida Project at the time and thought Mikey Madison had real star potential on "Better Things," so I was kinda vaguely pro-Anora during awards season to the extent that I get invested in these things at all. Winning a few Oscars definitely raised my expectations, though, and I dunno, I found it a little underwhelming, it was simplistic and Hollywood in some ways but almost not Hollywood enough in other ways. I thought Madison's accent work was dreadful and hackneyed, but it was a good performance otherwise (if anything she deserved an Emmy for season 5 of "Better Things" more if you ask me). Most of the other performances were nothing special, including the guy who also got an Oscar nod. 

b) Blitz
After CODA's Best Picture win and Killers of the Flower Moon's 10 nominations, Apple TV+ was seemingly becoming a consistent Oscars contender, until they landed zero nominations this year for the only movie that had a little awards season buzz, Blitz. Steve McQueen's a remarkable filmmaker and it was great to finally get his first proper feature since one of my personal favorites, Widows. I thought it was a really strong concept, doing a war movie fully from the perspective of civilians in a city under siege, he captured that in such a visceral way. 

c) The Electric State
There's a lot of schadenfreude anytime people who broke box office records with their Marvel movies make an underwhelming streaming movie, and there was even more than usual for The Electric State, which at a $320 million budget is one of the most expensive movies ever made. As usual, I wish the Russo brothers brought someone from the great sitcoms they've worked on to punch up the script, but I thought it was a decent middle tier Netflix popcorn movie, with some fun supporting performances from Ke Huy Quan, Stanley Tucci, and Jason Alexander. 

d) Kraven The Hunter
Speaking of Marvel schadenfreude, it seemed like everybody seemed to take some pleasure in this bombing. Every time I see Aaron Taylor-Johnson in something I'm less convinced that he has any screen presence whatsoever, let alone leading man potential, so I only hope this movie's failure helped take him out of the running to play 007. Christopher Abbott and Ariana DeBose, however, are definitely too good for this movie, I was actually a little bummed out to see them in it. Incidentally, a few months ago, I spent a day in M&T Bank Stadium working on a really stupid cross-promotional Baltimore Ravens/Kraven The Hunter TV spot starring now-disgraced Ravens kicker Justin Tucker (I was pretty much there as a backup in case feeding lines to people before they went on camera wasn't working and they needed a teleprompter and they never did, so I didn't really do any work that day, I just got some hours on my timesheet for showing up and eating at the craft services table set up in John Harbaugh's office). 

e) Personality Crisis: One Night Only
I remember liking Buster Poindexter's "Hot Hot Hot" as a kid and thinking this guy was so hilarious and magnetic in Scrooged and even enjoying the widely panned Car 54, Where Are You? movie on cable, well before I ever listened to the New York Dolls or realized it was all the same guy. So I really enjoyed this 2023 documentary co-directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, kind of David Johansen's last big project before his death in February, which centers on a cabaret show where he essentially performs the music of David Johansen in character as Buster Poindexter. It's one of those ideal music docs that would lay out his whole career well for anyone who's not familiar with him, but also is a lot of fun for fans as well. I particularly like the edits where you'd cut between the same song being performed in different decades, or even the same anecdote being told in different interviews. 

f) How To Have Sex
A pretty strong directorial debut from cinematographer Molly Manning Walker, very much a feelbad kind of coming-of-age movie, but the subject matter is handled sensitively and realistically. One of those movies where you don't even feel like you're watching actors and then realize that the actors are better than you realized. 

g) The Killer's Game
When I reviewed seasoned stuntman J.J. Perry's directorial debut, Netflix's Day Shift, I was impressed and suggested he deserves to book some bigger movies. So I'm glad that his next movie, The Killer's Game, got a theatrical release and was even better, even if it wasn't much of a hit. Dave Bautista has said that he'd like to do a romcom, and this feels like a good bridge in that direction, he has good chemistry with Sofia Boutella. 

h) The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
I feel like both meta comedies where celebrities play over-the-top version of themselves, and the general cottage industry of making fun of Nicolas Cage's mannerisms and eccentricities, probably peaked well before this movie was made. That being said, it managed to work pretty well, like many Nic Cage movies, partly off the sheer commitment of his performance. 

I'll watch anything with Gemma Arterton in it, but this kind of surpassed my expectations, interesting story. This movie does, however, end with one of the worst "easy listening cover of an old hit song" needle drops in cinematic history. 

j) Come Play
I had never heard of this before I caught it on SyFy the other day, but apparently it was actually in theaters in 2020 and was #1 at the box office for one weekend. I don't think the premise and the CGI totally worked for me, but I liked seeing Gillian Jacobs in a horror movie, she could definitely do more horror. 

11:40 AM No comment

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

 




Recently I've ranked the albums of the Meat Puppets, 2Pac, and Matthew Sweet for Spin. 

9:01 AM No comment

Deep Album Cuts Vol. 379: Maná

Friday, March 21, 2025

 





Maná is one of 2025's nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Bad Company, the Black Crowes, Mariah Carey, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Billy Idol, Joy Division/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, Oasis, Outkast, Phish, Soundgarden, and the White Stripes. 

Maná deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. Tu Tienes Lo Que Quiero
2. ¿Dónde jugarán los niños?
3. Latinoamérica
4. Soledad
5. Mis Ojos
6. Tú Me Salvaste
7. Cachito
8. Ay, Doctor
9. Ámame Hasta Que Me Muera
10. Falta Amor featuring Alex Lora
11. Peligrosa
12. Ana (live)
13. Relax
14. La Sirena
15. Selva Negra
16. La Puerta Azul
17. Huela a Tristeza

Tracks 4, 10, and 16 from Falta Amor (1990)
Tracks 2, 7, and 17 from ¿Dónde jugarán los niños? (1992)
Tracks 5 and 15 from the Cuando Los Ángeles Lloran (1995)
Tracks 1, 9, and 15 from Sueños Líquidos (1997)
Track 12 from Maná MTV Unplugged (1999)
Track 8 from Revolución de Amor (2002)
Track 15 from Amar Es Combatir (2006)
Track 3 from Drama y Luz (2011)
Track 11 from Cama Incendiada (2015)

Maná are one of Mexico's biggest rock bands, and it surprised me to see their name on this year's list of Rock Holl nominations, but I get that they're trying to open the door to different sounds and different cultures, and I kinda hope they get in, it would push that door a little further open for other artists. But I wasn't too familiar with their music, so I decided to use this as an opportunity to familiarize myself with it. 

I definitely remember the first time I heard of Maná was when they did an episode of "MTV Unplugged," and the first time I heard them, like a lot of English-speaking Americans, was when they appeared on Santana's Supernatural. Listening through some of Maná's top streaming hits, the ones that really caught my ear the most were "Clavado en Un Bar," "Labios Compartidos," "Te Llore Un Rio," and the Shakira collaboration "Mi Verdad." 

Maná released a self-titled album in 1987, and released two albums under the name Somrero Verde before that, but that stuff's not on Spotify, so I just started with Falta Amor, which was their first charting album. Falta Amor's title track features Alex Lora, frontman of El Tri, who were one of Mexico's biggest rock bands in the '70s and '80s, so that's kind of a nice passing the torch moment. The harmonica part on "La Puerta Azul" contains a little melodic quote of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold," and a few songs give me heavy Police vibes, even some of Alex Gonzalez's drum fills on "Soledad" are very Stewart Copeland. And "Tu Me Salvaste" has my favorite guitar solo on this playlist. 

12:47 PM No comment

The 2025 Remix Report Card Vol. 1

Thursday, March 20, 2025


 



















I did my final 2024 Remix Report Card in early December, and so many remixes have come out since then, this is easily one of my longest RRC posts in the 18 years that I've been doing it. Yes, 18. 

Here's the Spotify playlist:

"AGATS2 (Insecure)" by Juice WRLD featuring Nicki Minaj
"All Girls Are The Same" was Juice WRLD's second most popular song behind "Lucid Dreams," with nearly 2 billion streams. So it was surprising to learn that the song has a sequel featuring Nicki Minaj and co-written by Halsey that his estate waited to release it 5 years after his death. My suspicion is that the song was called "Insecure" and they renamed it long after it was recorded, and it's funny to think that Nicki and Halsey may not have known they were working on something that would have the "All Girls Are The Same" title on it. 
Best Verse: Nicki Minaj
Overall Grade: C+

"Big Dawgs (Remix)" by Hanumankind featuring A$AP Rocky
Hanumankind's "Big Dawgs" was a rare Indian rap song that broke through all over the world, charting on the Hot 100 and going top 10 in a bunch of other countries. "Big Dawg" ends with a beat switch and pitched-down vocals that sound very A$AP Rocky-influenced, so he was a good choice for this remix, and he does verses both before and after the beat switch, I'm not generally a huge Rocky fan but he put in a good effort here. Rocky says "I feel like Afeni Shakur" multiple times and I have no idea what the fuck that's supposed to mean. 
Best Verse: A$AP Rocky
Overall Grade: A- 

"Blick Sum (Remix)" by Latto featuring Playboi Carti
Latto and Carti are probably the 2 biggest Atlanta rappers under 30 right now, and there aren't necessarily a lot of beats they'd both sound good on, but "Blick Sum" fits that description, they definitely chose the right song. But Carti does his verse in that one voice that sounds like a cross between Lil Yachty and a Minecraft villager, which is easily my least favorite voice that he does. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C+ 

"Burning Down (Remix)" by Alex Warren featuring Joe Jonas
Alex Warren is following Joji down the "comedic YouTuber to earnest Top 40 balladeer" pipeline, and "Burning Down" is his first song to get pop radio airplay. I feel like he probably could've done better than the second most popular Jonas Brother for the remix, but I like Joe Jonas's voice more than Alex Warren's, so I'll consider this version an improvement. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B

"cLOUDs (Remix)" by J. Cole featuring Wiz Khalifa
J. Cole's latest song has a hook about smoking weed and an outro that samples an ad lib from an old Wiz Khalifa mixtape song, so it feels like the remix with Wiz was inevitable. Wiz sounds washed on this, though, he tries to adapt his flow to the beat and it just doesn't feel natural. This isn't on the playlist because it hasn't hit streaming but it's on YouTube. 
Best Verse: n/a 
Overall Grade: C

"Embrace It (Remix)" by Ndotz featuring Sexyy Red, Flo Milli, and RJ Pasin
"Embrace It" is British rapper Ndotz's breakthrough single, a top 10 hit in the UK, although outside his accent it sounds a lot more like American rap to me than most UK songs. Sexyy Red raps better than usual here, but Flo Milli still just decisively steals the track, going above and beyond the call of duty with a 24-bar verse. The song's producer, RJ Pasin, didn't have a feature credit on the original but does on the remix, I like the little guitar loop he played on the beat. 
Best Verse: Flo Milli
Overall Grade: A-

"Giannis (Remix)" by Hurricane Wisdom featuring Polo G
Polo G's last album sucked and flopped hard so once again I feel like the artist could've held out for a better guest for the remix of their big hit, but Polo does sound good on this beat. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B

"Heart of a Woman - but you're crying in the rain" by Summer Walker
"Heart of a Woman - but you're drinking wine by the fire" by Summer Walker
Summer Walker's Heart of a Woman (Quiet Storm) EP has her current hit with two new mixes that both have faux-quiet storm radio DJ intros and then just play the standard version of the song with lots of reverb, with rain sound effects added on one version and fireplace sound effects on the other. I'm not really sure what purpose this serves, the whole concept is just kind of hilarious, but to the very small extent that anybody is streaming these mixes, the fireplace one is doing better than the rain one. I was disappointed that she didn't actually do new versions of the track and make a slow and sultry song even slower and more sultry. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C-

"Here We Go (Uh Oh) [Remix]" by Coco Jones featuring Leon Thomas
Leon Thomas has had a pretty cool career arc, going from acting on Nickelodeon to producing music for co-star Ariana Grande and eventually working with other stars like Drake and SZA and now having a hit as a solo artist. I can't say I love his voice or think he makes a great addition to this track, though. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C

"I'd Rather Overdose (Remix)" by Honestav featuring Mod Sun
I already named this remix one of the 10 worst alternative radio hits of 2024, so it goes without saying I hate all this edgy 'toxic' White rapper bullshit. Mod Sun does more of a shouty voice than the mealy mouthed mumble Honestav and someone named Z did on the original song, and I can't say it's any kind of improvement. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: D

"ILBB2 (Remix)" by Jorjiana featuring GloRilla
Jorjiana is a TikTok creator and rapper from Indiana that people started called 'white GloRilla,' which I guess is why GloRilla did a song with her. This is one of the worst songs I've ever heard, though, and even Glo can't do much to save it, I hate that she did something like this when her career is thriving so much, and even helped the song go more viral by flirting with YouTuber Duke Dennis in her verse. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: C

"I'm On 4.0" by Trae Tha Truth featuring Busta Rhymes, Jeezy, Jay Rock, DMX, Ty Dolla Sign, Joyner Lucas, Method Man, D Smoke, Chance the Rapper, and G. Herbo
Trae Tha Truth released the original "I'm On" in 2011, a posse cut featuring Big Boi, Lupe Fiasco, and Wale, with a hook by Justin Bieber's songwriter Poo Bear. Sequels with different guests on variations on the original beat followed in 2012, 2017, and now 2025, with Ty Dolla Sign doing the hook this time. This might be the weakest of the four versions, but it's still pretty good, Meth and D Smoke did their thing. I'm not a reactionary Chance the Rapper hater, but he doesn't sound good on this beat and he kinda goes on too long. I don't like this whole thing with people getting ahold of I guess unreleased DMX verses and putting them on songs he probably never spit on, especially if you're going to just put him right in the middle of a song with 10 rappers, it feels tacky and not a fitting tribute in my opinion. I also find it very irritating when Trae says 'Billy Cyrus' instead of 'Billy Ray Cyrus.' "I'm On 4.0" isn't on Spotify so it's not on the playlist, but it's on YouTube. 
Best Verse: Method Man
Overall Grade: B

"Jodeci (Remix)" by Connie Diiamond featuring Cash Cobain and Vontee The Singer
"Jodeci" samples Jodeci's "Can I Talk To You" in the sexy drill style that's all the rage these days, and Cash Cobain is kind of the king of that scene, so he's a natural choice for the remix and he delivers an excellent verse.
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B+

"Lay Down (Remix)" by OMB Peezy featuring GloRilla
In my mind OMB Peezy works at the Office of Management and Budget. The "Lay Down" beat kind of cracks me up, the drum and synth sounds are so old-fashioned that it feels like something Whodini could have rapped on in the '80s. GloRilla brings some good energy to the song, though, I'd much rather she give features to someone like OMB Peezy than Jorjiana. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B 

"Let's Go (Remix)" by Key Glock featuring Young Dolph
This remix dropped almost a year ago when "Let's Go" was charting, but I missed it at the time and I'd rather cover stuff in this column late than not at all for the sake of having a more complete archive. Of course, Young Dolph had been gone for over 2 years already, so I'm guessing Key Glock just found an unreleased Dolph verse at the same BPM when "Let's Go" became a hit. Glock was Dolph's closest collaborator and is probably trying to keep his memory live as much as anything else, so I don't mind it as much as, say, that DMX verse on the Trae track. And Glock put a new verse on this as well, I'm always happy when the original artist writes a new verse for the remix. 
Best Verse: Young Dolph
Overall Grade: B

"Lizzo (G-mix)" by Moone Walker featuring Kevin Gates and Big Boogie
"Lizzo (Shemix)" by Moone Walker featuring cupcakKe and Layton Greene
"Lizzo 2" by Moone Walker featuring Big Money Blitz and Kevin Gates
Here's something else kind of old that I'm covering now just for the sake of completism, sort of. The original "Lizzo" and the first couple remixes came out in 2022 and 2023, and then in late 2024 Moone Walker released another remix with a new Big Money Blitz verse and the Kevin Gates verse from one of the earlier remixes. I guess he's really gotta milk the only shitty hit he'll ever have. Everybody kicks really sexual lyrics on these lyrics, but Kevin Gates is both a better rapper than any of the others and a bigger pervert than any of the others (most memorable line: "make a fist with your pussy, yes ma'am make it squeeze"). 
Best Verse: Kevin Gates
Overall Grade: B-

"Make A Livin' (Remix)" by MC Lyte featuring Busta Rhymes and Lady London
Lady London is growing on me, I like her verse on this a lot more than the Ciara remix I covered here a couple years ago, it's big that she got a co-sign from Lyte, one of the greatest female rappers ever. 
Best Verse: Lady London
Overall Grade: B

"Move 2.0" by Mello Buckzz featuring Monaleo
I put Monaleo in my top 10 list of 2024 rap albums by women and I'm glad to see she's still killing features, her flow sounds good on a Chicago juke beat. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B 

"Out (Busta Rhymes Extended Mix)" by Ann & Dom featuring Busta Rhymes and Wade Teo
Ann Winsborn is a Swedish pop singer who had a minor hit in her home country and Dominic Bugatti is a veteran UK songwriter who wrote hits for Sheena Easton and Air Supply in the '80s. Last August, Ann & Dom released their first song as a duo, "Out." In October, they released a dance mix by producer Wade Teo, and in January they released a remix with a Busta Rhymes verse and the Wade Teo beat. Unfortunately, this thing is just a total mess, it sounds like Busta recorded his verse to a completely tempo and they just threw it on here without synching anything up and almost making it sound like he's doing a poetry slam free verse flow. I'm embarrassed for everyone involved that this was released to the public, because "Out" is a decent little dance pop song and putting a rap verse on it isn't a bad idea if it was executed properly. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: F

"Please Please Please (Remix)" by Sabrina Carpenter featuring Dolly Parton
I think "Please Please Please" is a pretty good song that's not served well by some of the most annoyingly cutesy retro production of Jack Antonoff's career. Last summer when the song was still new, Sabrina Carpenter released a remix EP with an acoustic version that put her vocals from the original over some nice acoustic guitar and fiddle, and that's been my preferred go-to version of the song. I was hoping the new version with Dolly Parton on the deluxe edition of Short n' Sweet would use that acoustic backing track, but it sort of takes the original track, irritating synths and all, and layers lots of country instrumentation over it and makes it mostly tolerable. I don't think the song necessarily works as a duet, but Carpenter really has some of the spirit of vintage Dolly in her music and it's fun to hear them together. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B-

"Pookie's Requiem [hehe look y'all made it longer]" by Sailorr featuring Summer Walker
Everything about this song is aggressively quirky, I don't hate it but it feels almost like it's pandering to some target audience I'm not a part of. Summer Walker's addition to the song brings it a little closer to a conventional R&B track and I don't know if that improves it or waters it down on some level. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B 

"Popa (Remix)" by Ice Spice featuring Anuel AA
There were some songs on Ice Spice's album that I actually liked but "Popa" was definitely not one of them, and having this 'Latin trap' Trump supporter loser do a verse doesn't help or really suit the beat at all. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: D 

"Pressure (Shawty You Pressure) (G-Mix)" by Big Money Blitz featuring Moone Walker
"Pressure 2 (Shawty You Pressure)" by Big Money Blitz featuring Big Boogie and BossMan Dlow
The better remix with Big Boogie and BossMan Dlow was briefly on Spotify and then taken off for some reason, but you can still hear it on Big Money Blitz's YouTube Channel. Not a great song and not a beat that brings out the best in anybody rapping on it, BossMan Dlow in particular sounds a little outside his comfort zone. 
Best Verse: Big Boogie
Overall Grade: B-

"PTP (Remix)" by Babyfxce E featuring Monaleo
Just as the "Move" remix gave Monaleo a chance to rap over a juke track, "PTP" gives her a chance to rap over some Michigan rap, and it feels like she really leans into that Michigan style of goofy punchlines. When the video dropped, a lot of people were posting clips of just her verse on Twitter, this might be one that really helps turn her into a star. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: A-

"Push 2 Start (Remix)" by Tyla featuring Sean Paul
The early 2000s global crossover of Jamaican dancehall definitely feels like the template, both in musical influence and in business strategies, for this decade's global crossover of African styles like Amapiano and Afrobeats. So it's a shrewd move for Tyla to make that parallel more explicit with a Sean Paul collaboration, and he sounds pretty good on this song. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B+ 

"Rock Out (Remix)" by Trae Tha Truth featuring Busta Rhymes and A$AP Ferg
The original "Rock Out" is one of the worst songs I've ever heard, mostly because of the A$AP Ferg hook, but the beat is also kind of annoying. Busta Rhymes puts maximum effort into salvaging the song, though, doing one of those ridiculously fast flows like he did on Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now." 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B- 

"Rock Your Hips (Remix)" by 310babii featuring Saweetie 
310babii reunited with OhGeesy and BlueBucksClan from "Soak City" for his second biggest hit, but Saweetie is the only guest on the remix. This is definitely one of her better features, she talks her shit. And I guess "I'm the biggest bitch out the west" is more or less true, if you don't count Doja Cat (and I kinda don't consider her a fulltime rapper, so I'm fine with that). 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B

"Shake Dat Ass (Twerk Song) (Remix)" by BossMan Dlow featuring GloRilla
"Shake Dat Ass" appeared on a BossMan Dlow album in early 2023 and then became a sleeper hit after the success of "Get In With Me." I feel like this remix could've been a big deal if it came out earlier, but it just came out quietly as a bonus track on Dlow's latest album a few months after the song peaked, which is kind of shame because it's one of Glo's best verses in recent memory. The way she flubs the word "psychic" is funny, though. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B+ 

"Shake It To The Max (FLY) - Remix" by Moliy featuring Skillibeng, Shenseea, and Silent Addy
Don't love this song, the beat feels kind of flimsy, but the Skillibeng and Shenseea verses definitely fill out the song and make me enjoy it more. 
Best Verse: Shenseea
Overall Grade: B-

"Soft Spot (955 Remix)" by JMSN featuring Sada Baby
Texan Christian "JMSN" Berishaj has been around as a cult artist with industry connections for a while now -- he worked on 4 songs on good kid, m.A.A.d city -- but his 2023 single "Soft Spot" became his breakout hit when people starting making memes out of the video a year after its release. Given the Miami bass feel of the beat and the way JMSN put a Texas area code in the name of the remix, it's kind of odd that he got a verse from a Michigan rapper. Sada Baby sounds pretty good on this track, though, and JMSN's bit on the intro ("it's the remix to 'Soft Spot'/ fresh off the lot") made me chuckle. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B

"Somethin' 'Bout A Woman (Remix)" by Thomas Rhett featuring Teddy Swims
I feel like it's a cliche at this point for country artists and non-country artists to record duets that they can perform together at award shows, and Thomas Rhett and Teddy Swims performed "Somethin' 'Bout A Woman" at the CMAs a few months ago. I think this sounds good and feels like a pretty organic collaboration, though -- they both regularly work with the same producer, Julian Bunetta, and Teddy Swims co-wrote Rhett's #1 country radio hit "Angels (Don't Always Have Wings)" before his career really took off. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B

"Still Believe In Love (Remix)" by Mary J. Blige featuring Jadakiss, Fat Joe, Raekwon, and Vado
Another one from a year ago that I missed at the time and wanted to cover. It's kind of funny that the original "Still Believe In Love" featured just Vado, a former Cam'ron sidekick who's kind of like a replacement level NYC rap "star," but then the remix has three of the city's bona fide legends, and a new Vado verse that's better than his appearance on the original. Both versions of this song were oddly left off Gratitude, though. Jadakiss kills it as usual, he hasn't been in this column since 2022 and it's always nice to hear one of the GOATs of the remix circuit. 
Best Verse: Jadakiss
Overall Grade: B

"10PM In Miami (RMX Again)" by Trillian featuring Busta Rhymes, Honey Bxby, and Connie Diiamond
Trillian is Busta Rhymes's son, and last year I covered a remix of "10PM In Miami" featuring Cash Cobain, but he's since released another remix featuring his old man. Busta does his best to attempt a sexy drill flow, but nonchalance is a big part of that whole style of rapping, and Busta sounds like he can't help shouting his way through his verse a little, it's awkward. Honestly Busta has been in this Remix Report Card a lot and he hasn't really caught a W the whole time, it's sad but he's still a top 5 remix guest. Honey Bxby bringing a little melody to the track really works out well, though. 
Best Verse: Honey Bxby
Overall Grade: B-

"Tweaker (Remix)" by Gelo featuring Lil Wayne
When LiAngelo Ball released "Tweaker" back in January, people instantly latched onto how that catchy "woah-oh-oh" part of the hook reminded people of early 2000s club bangers, some people would bring up Nelly but even more would bring up old Cash Money hits. Very quickly there was talk of an all-star remix, and people like Moneybagg Yo and Boosie Badazz publicly hit up Gelo asking to do verses on the song, but eventually a remix came out with the biggest Cash Money rapper of all, Lil Wayne. Sounded like a great idea on paper, but the verse really sucks, one of Wayne's worst features I can remember, riffing for way too long on rhymes with his signature "remix, baby" ad lib. Def Jam seemed to really push radio to play this version of "Tweaker" instead of the original and it's actively stifled the song from growing into a bigger hit. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: D 

"Way Out The Hood II" by Lil Tjay featuring Polo G
Polo G and Lil Tjay's first collaboration "Pop Out" was really the song that turned them both into mainstream stars six years ago, and they've frequently reunited, by my count this is their 9th song together. But their careers have both kinda stalled in the last couple years and it doesn't feel like this one generated any excitement. Polo G has rapped on so many sad piano loops over the years, including "Pop Out," that there's a whole meme about people calling him 'Piano G,' so I rolled my eyes pretty hard when I heard the sad pianos on "Way Out The Hood," but his verse on this is really good. This is another one that for some reason is not on Spotify but you can listen on YouTube. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B 

"Whites (Remix)" by Masicka featuring French Montana
I feel bad for new artists whose breakthrough single gets remixed with a French Montana verse, clearly someone is just strategizing for the song to get Hot 97 airplay but they didn't really think about every other market outside NYC where French hasn't mattered in over a decade, if he ever has. It's a shame, because this is really one of those Jamaican records that I can imagine a lot of American rappers sounding good on. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: F 

"Worst Behaviour (Remix)" by kwn featuring Kehlani
I feel like both this and the remix of Jordan Adetunji's "Kehlani" have way overshadowed anything from the two solo projects Kehlani has released in the past year, it's like she's a star but doesn't have the hitmaking acumen to make big songs on her own and is better at making other people's songs bigger. She does sound really good on this song, though. 
Best Verse: n/a
Overall Grade: B

12:46 PM No comment

TV Diary

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

 







In my last TV Diary I wrote about "A Thousand Blows," a pretty good new show starring Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty, and both of them are also in this really remarkable Netflix miniseries. Graham plays the father of a 13-year-old boy accused of murder, and Doherty is in one episode as a psychologist assigned to work with the kid. That may be the single best episode of television I've seen so far this year, just incredible writing and acting. Director Philip Barantini made a film starring Graham called Boing Point that was all one 92-minute continuous shot, and a whole lot of the scenes in "Adolescence" last several minutes, maybe longer, I never kept count, but it's really technical impressive stuff on top of the very sobering subject matter and subtle storytelling. 

b) "Dope Thief"
So far in the first two episodes, "Dope Thief" seems to conform to a familiar style of prestige TV, the crime drama where the protagonists are violent criminals who are given enough sympathetic qualities for you to root for them, or at least want to watch what happens to them. And Bryan Tyree Henry is, in my opinion, one of the best actors working today, so I love the idea of him having a Tony Soprano-type antihero to play. But then, in "Dope Thief," Henry and Wagner Moura play two friends who pose as as DEA agents to rob drug dealers, which seems like such an absurdly dangerous hustle that there's really no suspense when a job goes bad in the first episode and they get into some deep shit. Again, though, Henry's performance is just so beautifully nuanced and emotive that I'm enjoying it. And the first episode was directed by Ridley Scott, who's produced a lot of television over the years but hadn't actually directed a TV episode since 1969. 

c) "Long Bright River"
Amanda Seyfried has a pretty good career by any standard, including an Oscar nomination and an Emmy win, but I feel like we should be seeing her in more and better things, she's so talented. "Long Bright River" is a good complex role in a dark story that can really show what she can do as a dramatic actress, she plays a beat cop who's trying to investigate the death of a homeless girl. But it's a very dour and depressing show, I don't find myself in a rush to watch more after I finish an episode. 

d) "Grosse Pointe Garden Society"
"Grosse Pointe Garden Society" is a new show from the creator of "Good Girls" and has a bit of that same vibe of normal suburbanites getting mixed up in some serious criminal situations, but it's a little more soapy in a playful, self-aware way. Melissa Fumero, who was on "One Life To Live" before she starred in "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," probably has the exact perfect background to star in a show like this. 

e) "Deli Boys" 
A pretty good new sitcom on Hulu about two Pakinstani-American brothers who inherit their father's business and learn that it was a front for a criminal empire. Saagar Shaikh is really funny on here, and I always liked Poorna Jagannathan in "Never Have I Ever," happy to see her in another series regular role. 

f) "Good Cop/Bad Cop"
The CW has felt like a zombie network that barely exists anymore, the few new shows they have are imported from Canada or co-produced with networks from other countries. "Good Cop/Bad Cop," for instance, takes place in America but is fully filmed in Queensland and airs in Australia on a network called Stan (which just cracks me up...Stan). But it does star an MVP of The CW's glory days, Leighton Meester, and it's an enjoyably cheesy comedy about two sibling police detectives who become partners despite having very different working methods. 

g) "The Hunting Party"
The NBC drama "The Hunting Party" is about a bunch of prisoners escaping after a mysterious prison explosion, and the FBI agent who then has to track down all the escaped killers and psychopaths, one in each episode, a very hacky and old-fashioned kind of network show. Colleen Foy is really good in the episode where they're tracking down a female serial killer, but it's pretty formulaic stuff. 

h) "Watson"
Morris Chestnut plays Dr. Watson, sidekick of Sherlock Holmes, returning to his medical practice after Holmes's death, but he's a very sexy Dr. Watson who sometimes needs to take his shirt off for half a scene just to change into another shirt. It's a weird mix of generic medical procedural and Sherlock lore, but I dunno, this is exactly the kind of thing CBS should be airing, I think. 

i) "House of David"
This is about David and Goliath, mostly from David's perspective in the run up to their battle, feels like Amazon Prime is leaning into making more shows that will appeal to "The Wheel of Time" and "The Rings of Power" viewers, and this one feels a little more normal scale and not a megabudget waste of money. 

j) "Suits LA"
I watched every episode of "Suits" when it originally aired on USA and it was just this underrated, highly watchable basic cable drama, and I was amused when it belatedly became a huge hit on Netflix. By that point the producers had already attempted one pretty good short-lived spinoff centered on Gina Torres' character, but now that people really think there's money to be made, NBC has a west coast-based spinoff. What really made the original "Suits" work was the cast chemistry, and it doesn't really feel like the "Suits LA" captures that dynamic at all, even if creator Aaron Korsh made the tone consistent with the old show, and a couple of familiar faces from the original "Suits" do show up now and then. I'm happy to see the gorgeous Baltimore native Lex Scott Davis in a lead role, though, wishing all the best for her. 

k) "The White Lotus"
I've never been someone who considers "The White Lotus" one of the best shows on TV, it feels like Mike White is kind of cynically pressing the buttons to make a titillating, zeitgeisty HBO watercooler show. That said, he gets great actors and often gives them really entertaining dialogue, so all he has to do is cast Carrie Coon and Walton Goggins and Parkey Posey and I'm happy on board for another season. I never find the big death scene reveal at the end of the season to be particularly interesting, but I like watching the characters careen towards some kind of climactic catastrophe. 

l) "Reacher"
Still a pretty fun show, not tired at all of the big man getting into scrapes and beating people up, and Alan Ritchson is a good enough actor to make that character not a total caricature. I like that British actress Sonya Cassidy from "Lodge 49" joined the cast this season, but the American accent she does in this show is a lot more over-the-top and fake-sounding than the one she did on that show. 

m) "United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper" 
Most of my teleprompting work is for events, in-house videos for companies, etc., so I only very occasionally work on anything that gets aired on national television. But I spent several days in December and January working on the second season of this CNN docuseries, and I did the prompter for pretty much every host segment where Jake Tapper speaks directly to camera, and some of the ads and a little of the voiceover stuff too. It was an exhausting but fun shoot (great craft services tables too, lots of avocado toast). So far two episodes of the season have aired and it's been cool to see stuff I worked on in the full context of the episode, the Enron episode in particular did a really good job of explaining a story that I never really took the time to understand back when it was all over the news. 

n) "With Love, Meghan"
I have a lot of lingering affection for Meghan Markle because, again, I watched every episode of "Suits," and I don't remotely care about the British royal family enough to understand half the reasons people now love or hate her. But doing a Martha Stewart-style lifestyle show on Netflix definitely seems like a listless experiment in her trying to find some way to stay in show business even if she's no longer acting, I dunno, the vibe is weird. 

A Fox reality show where amateur survivalists are dropped into the Canadian wilderness. Not really my thing but I like that they took normal people who have never been on TV and let them pick friends or family members to be on their teams, I feel like this would become a completely obnoxious show if it involved celebrities or 'reality TV all-stars.' 

The latest ambitious nature doc miniseries from the producers of "Planet Earth" is narrated by Tom Hanks, which was a really great choice. I'm still amazed how they can do so many of these docs around the world and I still feel like I'm seeing some locations and species of animals for the first time, this is stupid to say but wow, Earth is so immense and beautiful. 

This Spanish series on Apple TV+ is about two people who meet at a funeral, a good funny character-driven show with really engaging leads, Veronica Echegui and Joan Armagos. 

One of my favorite things about watching foreign shows on streaming services is that they usually still have the title card with the show's name in the country where it was produced. So when I put on "Berlin ER" on Apple TV+, the title card flashed onscreen as "KRANK BERLIN" (translation: "Sick Berlin"), which I liked a lot more. A pretty good show, if you're enjoying the medical drama adrenaline of "The Pitt" right now and could use more of that, I would recommend this show. 

A charming Polish show on Netflix about an MMA fighter's trials and tribulations as a mother. 

This Taiwanese show is one of the few Asian imports on Netflix that feels like an HBO-grade prestige drama, about the friendships and tensions between several actresses at different levels of success. 

Another Netflix import that feels a little higher quality than usual, based on an Italian novel about the disappearance of a teenage girl, very textured and emotional storytelling, doesn't feel like the kind of formulaic "missing or dead teenager" show I've seen on American TV a dozen times. 

I haven't watched all of this Netflix drama about a famous 1981 bank heist in Barcelona, but the first episode is really well done, I love how they drop you into the action and let you watch it all unfold. 

This telenovela starts out with a good premise but I feel like it went off the rails and lost my attention pretty quickly, it's just not a style of storytelling or pacing that I'm used to. 

This has a similar premise to the movie Return To Me (a person falls in love with a heart transplant recipent who got their dead spouse's heart), but with a supernatural twist where the guy has the memories of the person whose heart is now in house body. Sweet but kinda cheesy. 

This feels a bit like Thailand's answer to "Black Mirror," an anthology series about near future dystopian scenarios involving technology's effect on society. Some of the satire is really heavy-handed, though, even in comparison to "Black Mirror." 

z) "One Hundred Years of Solitude"
I started watching this Netflix series and it was [retty compelling but I dunno, I feel like I should read the novel one of these days before I get through an adaptation. 

12:45 PM No comment

Deep Album Cuts Vol. 378: Bad Company

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

 























Bad Company have been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year alongside the Black Crowes, Mariah Carey, Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Billy Idol, Joy Division/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, Mana, Oasis, Outkast, Phish, Soundgarden, and the White Stripes. 

Bad Company deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. Deal With The Preacher
2. Live For The Music
3. Seagull
4. Too Bad
5. Until The Knot
6. Don't Let Me Down
7. Lonely For Your Love
8. Weep No More
9. Kick Down
10. Heartbeat
11. Simple Man
12. Wild Fire Woman
13. Crazy Circles
14. Sweet Lil' Sister
15. Peace Of Mind
16. The Way I Choose
17. Ballad of the Band
18. Rhythm Machine
19. Fearless
20. If I'm Sleeping
21. The Way That It Goes

Tracks 3, 6, and 16 from Bad Company (1974)
Tracks 1, 8, and 12 from Straight Shooter (1975)
Tracks 2, 11, and 14 from Run With The Pack (1976)
Tracks 4, 10, and 15from Burnin' Sky (1977)
Tracks 7, 13, and 18 from Desolation Angels (1979)
Tracks 5, 9, and 17 from Rough Diamonds (1982)
Track 20 from Fame And Fortune (1986)
Track 21 from Dangerous Age (1988)
Track 19 from Holy Water (1990)

When I think of Bad Company, I think of a favorite old "Kids in the Hall" sketch: "Popular music has been on the wane since 1974, the year of the first Bad Company release." After Foreigner were nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, I wrote about how they were part of a wave of '70s and '80s bands, alongside Journey and Bad Company, that dominated classic rock radio playlists for decades without necessarily commanding a lot of respect. For a long time, the Hall of Fame ignored those bands, but now they all seem to be getting in, one by one, along with other radio-friendly middleweights like Peter Frampton, Steve Miller, and the Doobie Brothers. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, although it feels like the HOF is using these artists as filler inductions so that any given year's class isn't too young, too Black, too niche, or too light on guitar bands. My money is on Boston to be the next one. 

I don't think Bad Company is thought of as a 'supergroup' today, because they wound up being bigger than any of the members' previous bands, but that's how they were looked at when members of Free, Mott the Hoople, and King Crimson formed a new band in 1973. They shared a manager, Peter Grant, with the biggest band in the world at the time, Led Zeppelin. And when Led Zeppelin formed its own label Swan Song, Bad Company became one of the label's marquee acts, really the only the only successful one besides Zep. 

Bad Company never threatened to overtake their label bosses -- only their biggest sellers, their first two albums, sold as much as Zep's least popular album -- but they had several platinum albums, a pretty good run. They have a live album called In Concert: Merchants of Cool, which puzzled me a little, because were they ever considered particularly cool, even when they were popular? A lot of Bad Company's album artwork (including all the covers above) were designed by Hipgnosis, though, and those look pretty great. 

"Bad Company," "Shooting Star," "Ready For Love," "Silver, Blue & Gold," and "Rock Steady" were never released as singles and never charted, but all of those are classic rock radio staples I've heard a hundred times, so I didn't consider them for the deep cuts playlist. But "Seagull" is an album track that's among the band's top songs on Spotify, "Live For The Music" appeared on the band's top-selling best-of compilation, 10 From 6, and "Simple Man" and "Deal With The Preacher" are live staples. 

All four original members of Bad Company participated in the songwriting, and I have a hard time really distinguishing any difference in the writing styles of their two most prolific writers, frontman Paul Rodgers and guitarist Mick Ralphs. Drummer Simon Kirke, father of "Girls" actress Jemima Kirke and "Mozart in the Jungle" actress Lola Kirke, is the only person who's been a concistent member of every Bad Company lineup. Kirke co-wrote the song "Bad Company" with Rodgers and has a few solo writing credits on good Bad Company songs including "Weep No More" and "Peace of Mind." His drumming really elevates some of these songs, particularly "Don't Let Me Down." 

A couple years ago I heard "Electricland" on the radio and it was probably the first time my ears perked up for a Bad Company song that hadn't been in steady rotation for my entire life. That song was the only single from Rough Diamond's the band's sixth and final album with Rodgers, and I think they split before doing any sustained touring for that album so most of it was never played live. I kind of like the piano-heavy sound of that record, though, "Untie The Knot" is so good. 

One thing I didn't realize until recently was that Bad Company reunited in the mid-'80s with a new frontman, Brian Howe, who had singing on Ted Nugent's records. And Bad Company actually continued to be pretty successful with him, so I covered that era in the last three tracks on the playlist. The four Bad Company albums with Howe solid a combined 2 million copies and had spun off top 10 rock radio hits. I listened to the band's Howe-era hits and didn't recognize any of them, even "If I Needed Somebody," which is in the band's top streaming songs on Spotify today. I wouldn't surprised if I had heard some of those songs back in the day and either had no idea it was Bad Company, or had no idea that Bad Company had a different singer than they did before. Howe is a pretty generic soulful English rock singer, he doesn't sound exactly like Paul Rodgers but I feel like he's close enough that at least part of the radio-listening audience didn't even register that there was a lineup change. Bad Company had another singer, Robert Hart, for two unsuccessful albums in the '90s, and eventually reunited with Rodgers for tours and a handful of new songs, but never a full-length album. 

12:10 PM No comment

Monthly Report: March 2025 Singles

Thursday, March 13, 2025

























1. Lisa f/ Raye and Doja Cat - "Born Again" 
Blackpink hasn't broken up or gone on hiatus (they have a world tour kicking off in July) but all four members have released a solo album or EP in the last few months. Lisa's Alter Ego is probably the weakest of those four projects (why is she rapping so much?) but the singles "Born Again" and "New Woman" are probably my two favorite songs to come out of this whole blitz of Blackpink music. And as usual the K-pop that appeals to me the most tends to be the obvious stuff where they just get songs from western hitmakers. "Born Again" is more or less a Raye song but a really good one, makes me think her next album is going to be huge if she can just give a song like this to another artist. Here's the 2025 singles Spotify playlist that I update every month throughout the year. 

2. Kendrick Lamar f/ SZA - "Luther"
Kendrick has a pretty high batting average for melodic R&B-flavored singles even though it's not really the main thing people associate him with, "Loyalty" and "Love" and "Poetic Justice" and "All the Stars" have all aged really well and "Luther" may be even better than any of those. The recent documentary Luther: Never Too Much got into how Luther Vandross was wildly popular in the R&B world and never fully crossed over like Michael or Prince but did want to have a #1 pop hit and never quite got there (the closest he got was a #2 duet of "Endless Love" with Mariah Carey). So it's cool that Twista's "Slow Jamz" got to #1 with a Luther sample while Vandross was still alive, and now we've got another song sampling Luther and named after him a couple decades after his death. 

3. Almost Monday - "Can't Slow Down"
The San Francisco-based indie pop trio Almost Monday has kicked around alternative radio with a few minor hits over the last few years, and "Can't Slow Down" recently became their first #1. I was a little surprised to see recently that it's starting to get pop radio airplay too, not a lot of alternative songs cross over these days and this one didn't strike me as a super slick Glass Animals-type thing that would go Top 40 easily. It's growing on me, though, that little distorted analog synth riff is killer. 

4. Juiicy 2xs - "Leave My Man Alone" 
Back in 2019, Future curated a pretty good compilation of newer and relatively unknown artists, 1800 Seconds Vol. 2. The Cincinnati-born singer Juiicy 2xs had the only track on that album with over a million streams, and she's steadily released more music and built an audience since then, with "Leave My Man Alone" becoming her first charting radio hit. It's a pretty, funny catchy song, a possessive girlfriend's warning to other girls (my favorite line: "Even if it's his birthday, don't tell him happy birthday/ 'Cause why the fuck you happy he's born?"). 

5. Sturdyyoungin f/ Ohthatsmizz and Zeddy Will - "Trippin"
"Clumsy" was the 5th single (and 5th-biggest single) from Fergie's 2006 solo debut The Dutchess, and I didn't think any remembered or liked that song as much as I did. So it was fun to hear it sampled in a fun way on "Trippin," a song by Sturdyyoungin, a teen TikTok creator/rapper from Philly. I don't like this kind of extremely online meme rap all the time, but sometime it really hits. Case in point: Queens rapper Zeddy Will has another song getting spins right now, "Twerkin Wit Ya Friends," that I hate. 

6. Drake f/ Elkan - "Nokia"
I've been annoyed for a while at how Drake's collab albums always have solo tracks by both artists on them, it just felt a little lazy or antithetical to the spirit of the project. And it really turned out to be a pretty bad deal for PartyNextDoor, who's not as famous or established as Future or 21 Savage were when they did albums with Drake. $ome $exy $ongs 4 U has six Drake solo tracks and one PND solo track. And while I don't think I'm generally a good barometer for the taste of Drake fans, "Nokia" was immediately the song I found the most enjoyable and memorable on my first play through the album. Now both the album's big breakout hits, "Nokia" and "Gimme A Hug," are both Drake solo tracks. PND got his first #1 album out of the deal, I'm sure he's rich and happy, but I dunno, I think it kinda sucks for him. And Elkan, the producer from Sierra Leone who did the "Nokia" beat and the goofy, infectiously catchy hook on the second half of the song, could very well get a bigger boost from this album than Party. 

7. Travis Scott - "4x4"
There's a weird paradox of the streaming era where one of the ways you can really measure the level of an artist's stardom is when they have songs that don't even feel like hits but went to #1 on the strength of their fame and the size of their fanbase. Drake and Taylor Swift each have a whole bunch of #1s that their casual fans would not be able to hum, and that's also the case for the several Travis Scott #1s that aren't "Sicko Mode." "4x4" had the biggest drop from #1 in Hot 100 history, but I'm rooting for it to have more staying power than "Franchise" or "The Scotts," though, the beat by Tay Keith and FnZ in really good. They sampled an old video of a college marching band playing "Say Sum," a forgettable single Migos released 8 years ago during a brief dry spell before "Bad & Boujee." That horn sample sounds way cooler than the original "Say Sum." 

8. Debbii Dawson - "You Killed The Music"
I watch a lot of the secondary MTV channels that still play videos like MTV Hits and MTV Live, and it's mostly big obvious hits, but they'll occasionally play some lesser known artists. And this video caught my eye recently, the song is very ABBA and the video matches that with an old school VHS aesthetic, pretty good. 

9. Ella Mai - "Little Things"
Jayson Tatum led the Celtics to an NBA championship last year, and narrative-obsessed fans and commentators have talked a lot since then about how Tatum doesn't have "aura" or is "cringe" or isn't a superstar in some intangible way that goes beyond his talent and accomplishments. But he had a baby with a gorgeous British R&B singer and she sounds completely infatuated with him on her recent songs, so I'm not going to sit here and talk about how Jayson Tatum is corny and uncool, I think he's doing alright. 

10. Joe Nichols f/ Annie Bosko - "Better Than You"
Joe Nichols had his biggest hits about 20 years ago, and "Better Than You" feels like a kind of old-fashioned pop country ballad. So I assumed this song wasn't new when I heard it on the radio for the first time, but it is new, and I really like it. 

The Worst Single of the Month: Falling In Reverse f/ Saraya - "Bad Guy" 
Ronnie Radke is a real piece of shit who's done hard time for his role in a murder and has rape and domestic violence allegations, and his shitty metalcore band just seems to keep getting better as people become more aware of all the gross stuff she's done. He's really started to lean into this and troll people with Falling In Reverse's latest album Popular Monster, which features Radke's mugshot as the cover art (a move reminiscent of the late XXXTentacion) and the single "Bad Guy," Falling In Reverse's fourth #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart, which is just putrid and unlistenable in ways I don't think I could adequately prepare you for. It's absurd that Epitaph Records releases this guy's music and music industry golden boy Jelly Roll is on his latest album and nobody seems to be experiencing any significant blowback for working with him. 

11:27 AM No comment

Movie Diary

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

 




a) Flow
My family have a whole thing about capybaras, we love them and my son has a stuffed capybara. A few months ago I was musing that it's crazy that there hasn't been a big animated movie about a capybara, and then shortly after that I learned about Flow, which is about a cat who befriends a few other animals, including a capybara, while escaping a flood. I was excited to see it after all the raves and the Oscar win, and it totally lived up to my expectations, just an amazing demonstration of what one twentysomething Latvian guy can create with open source animation software, it's really quite an emotional journey by the end. People expend so much energy making talking animal movies with celebrities reciting sassy dialogue that it's refreshing to see someone do such strong visual storytelling with no dialogue and no names and still have this really compelling plot with identifiable characters. 

b) Nosferatu
I get the sense I'm not as amazed by Robert Eggers as some people are, but this was pretty cool, I enjoyed it, some really great gnarly visuals. Lily-Rose Depp won me over with her performance in "The Idol" but I think she was the weak link in this, could've been better with a more seasoned star in that role. 

c) Saturday Night
I have a lot of issues with the formulas and narrative shorthand of decades-spanning biopics, so I much prefer something like Saturday Night, which is basically a real time depiction of the 90 minutes before the first episode of "Saturday Night Live" went on the air in 1975. The cast is almost shockingly good at capturing the essence of a lot of the key players without it feeling like mere impersonation, particularly Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels, and Matthew Rhys as George Carlin. The second half of the movie piles up so many "that definitely didn't happen" moments that it gets kind of ridiculous, though, and Jon Batiste's score, while good and appropriate to the energy of the film, is mixed so loud that it was drowning out way too much of the dialogue, I don't know why they did that. 

d) To Catch A Killer
This movie takes place in Baltimore but was filmed in Montreal, which I always find insulting. The city isn't iconic enough that you need to film on location but you still want to set the story here? Fuck you! It's a decent cat-and-mouse movie about a police officer trying to find a mass shooter, it gets good and intense toward the end, but nothing special. It's Argentinian director Damian Szifron's first English-language film, he definitely has a good feel for building atmosphere and choosing interesting angles in action scenes, hopefully he keeps getting some Hollywood opportunities. 

e) The Beekeeper
I love formulaic Jason Statham movies, I'm so glad they're still making these things. The gas station fight scene kicked ass, and the overqualified supporting cast (Jeremy Irons, Minnie Driver, Josh Hutcherson) does good work. 

f) Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1
The whole ordeal of Kevin Costner reviving his career with "Yellowstone," using that as leverage to get back to directing indulgent passion projects and exiting "Yellowstone" in a huff is kind of more interesting than the movie itself. As one of the few people who actually liked The Postman, though, I thought this was alright, if not compelling enough to justify a trilogy of 3-hour movies. I'm happy that Ella Hunt from Anna and the Apocalypse is starting to book some high profile movies like this and Saturday Night, but her biggest scene feels like kind of old-fashioned gratuitous nudity, and another young actress, Abbey Lee, has a gross sex scene with Costner.  

g) Back In Action
Cameron Diaz settled down and had a couple kids with the weirder-looking Good Charlotte twin and didn't take a single acting gig for a solid decade, which, y'know, good for her, she can do whatever she wants. Coming back to do a Netflix action movie doesn't really feel like much of a power move, but teaming her up with Jamie Foxx and a director who's mostly done straight up comedy was a good idea, it was light and fun. 

h) The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep
It kind of feels like Netflix has really mishandled the Witcher franchise with the loss of Henry Cavill and the forgettable spinoff and all that, but I think the animated one-off movies are pretty well done. It wasn't really clear to me where this took place sequentially in relation to the series but it was kind of a standalone story so it didn't matter too much. 

11:26 AM No comment

Deep Album Cuts Vol. 377: Chubby Checker

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

 





Chubby Checker is one of 2025's nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Bad Company, the Black Crowes, Mariah Carey, Joe Cocker, Billy Idol, Joy Division/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, Mana, Oasis, Outkast, Phish, Soundgarden, and the White Stripes. 

Chubby Checker deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. The Slop
2. The Chicken
3. The Strand
4. The "Mexican Hat" Twist
5. The Pony
6. The Jet
7. The Ray Charles-ton
8. Ballin' The Jack
9. Continental Walk
10. Fishin'
11. Dance-A-Long
12. Hi Ho Silver
13. Let's Dance, Let's Dance, Let's Dance
14. The Shimmy
15. Mary Ann Limbo
16. The Killer
17. Oo-Kook-A-Boo
18. (We're Gone) Surfin'
19. Limbo Side By Side
20. She's A Hippy
21. Let's Surf Again
22. Twistin' Round The World
23. Twist Marie
24. How Low Can You Go?
25. The Girl With The Swingin' Derriere
26. A Lotta Limbo
27. Mother Goose Limbo
28. Run, Chico, Run
29. Doncha Get Tired
30. Sippin' Cider Through A Straw
31. The Doodang
32. Ole Anna
33. Go Tell My Baby

Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 from Twist With Chubby Checker (1960)
Tracks 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 from Let's Twist Again (1961)
Tracks 12, 13 and 14 from It's Pony Time (1961)
Track 15 from Limbo Party (1962)
Tracks 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 from Beach Party (1962)
Tracks 22 and 23 from Twistin' Round The World (1962)
Tracks 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 from Let's Limbo Some More (1963)
Tracks 29, 30, 31, 32, and 33 from Chubby's Folk Album (1964)

At 83 years old, Ernest "Chubby Checker" Evans is by far the oldest and longest tenured artist nominated this year, and he's nominated for the first time. He's said many times that he deserves to be in the Hall, and even protested outside the induction ceremony in 2004, but most people don't seem that eager to take up his cause, even people that champion Black rock & roll trailblazers like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. 

In 2018, the Hall of Fame created a singles category that existed primarily to recognize significant songs by people who hadn't been inducted into the Hall in any of the artist categories, and "The Twist" was in that first set of songs. Nina Simone and Joan Baez are just about the only artist inducted into the Hall proper (not an 'influences' or 'excellence' category) in the last decade who peaked commercially before Beatlemania. Chubby Checker isn't a one hit wonder, because he had over twenty Top 40 hits. But he is a bit of a one trick pony, and an opportunist who just happened to make the biggest version of Hank Ballard's "The Twist" and turn it into a career. 

One thing that surprised me is that "Let's Twist Again" is by far Chubby Checker's biggest song on Spotify, with nearly twice as many streams as "The Twist." In America, "Let's Twist Again" was a moderate hit, his 6th biggest Hot 100 hit, but in the UK and all over Europe it was huge, and was in The Help and I guess has had a pretty big pop culture footprint, although I can't say I remember hearing it much if ever (unlike some twist records by other artists, like the Isley Brothers and Beatles versions of "Twist & Shout" and Same Cooke's "Twistin' The Night Away"). It's a little bizarre to me, because it sounds like one of his most desperate attempts to simply prolong the crazy, the twist is literally "let's twist again, like we did last summer." Imagine Tommy Richman coming out with "Let's Million Dollar Baby Again" right now. 

The availability of Checker's catalog is patchy on streaming services. This playlist covers 8 of his first 11 albums, 7 of which are available in full on Spotify. He made a few albums after the mid-'60s, but I decided I didn't need to check out his 1994 country album The Texas Twist. The only song I'm truly sad I couldn't include was the 1961 deep cut "The Lose Your Inhibitions Twist." Previously the Everly Brothers and They Might Be Giants were tied for the most tracks I've fit into my self-imposed 8-minute cap for deep cuts playlists. And Chubby beat their 32-song record by just one song here. 

I'm kind of used to early rock acts not having very substantial albums beyond the hits and looking at it as an interesting challenge to still scrape together a playlist, but it is pretty comical just how unapologetically narrow and repetitive Chubby Checker's catalog is. When he wasn't making variations on "The Twist," he was covering other dance craze records, pitching new dance crazes, or jumping on other trends like the limbo, surf rock, and, uh, folk music. I particularly enjoyed opening the playlist with a song called "The Slop" because a lot of this stuff is shameless filler that you might, in modern parlance, refer to as slop. "The Killer" is a murderous parody of "Tequila" and "The Ray Charles-ton" mimics the arrangement of "What'd I Say." I often think of the Deep Album Cuts series as a vehicle for trying to find the hidden depths in the catalog of hitmakers that most people have a reductive view of, but I have to admit, there is absolutely no depth to be found here. That said, I don't wanna sound mean, because it's all pretty jaunty, listenable stuff, and I particularly like his vocal performances on "The Chicken" and "The Girl With The Swingin' Derriere." And "Sippin' Cider Through A Straw" has a really interesting melody and rhythm. 

Chubby Checker recorded for Cameo-Parkway Records, which was co-founded by Kal Mann, and which hired Dave Appell as a producer and A&R director. Appell produced "The Twist," and Mann produced the bulk of Chubby Checker's albums. And the majority of the songs on this playlist were written by Mann and/or Appell (with Mann sometimes credited by the pseudonym Jon Sheldon). "The 'Mexican Hat' Twist" was a riff on "The Mexican Hat Rock," a 1958 hit Appell wrote for The Applejacks, so he was really cannibalizing his previous work twice on that one. I did find that Chubby Checker has songwriting credits on two songs on Chubby's Folk Album: the single "Hooka Tooka" (his last top 20 hit until a 1988 "The Twist" remake with the Fat Boys), and the deep cut "Doncha Get Tired." The latter is pretty much just a thinly veiled rewrite of "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)," though. 

9:13 AM No comment