Rihanna ft Jay-Z - Umbrella
When you're in the business of commenting on music, the first lesson is not to argue with popularity. As I mention last week, you're probably never going to win. Coming a close second would be to not to argue with a transatlantic hit. 19-year-old Rihanna's Umbrella is spending a second week at #1 in the UK and vaults #42-#1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week. Unlike any other mere pop song you might hear on the radio, this one will definitely catch your attention with its distinct refrain of, "Umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh". She's a strange one because despite having huge hits (Pon de Replay, SOS, Unfaithful), she's not been a huge album seller. It's probably due to the fact that she releases her albums too damn soon after one another. I hated the song the first couple of times I heard it, but after repeated forced listens (it's everywhere) and her appearance on TRL, I'm sold. It's this summer's anthem. Miss out on this and it's your loss.
Good Charlotte - Dance Floor Anthem
I'm repulsed at how slowly it's been taking the public to warm up to Good Charlotte's current album. Keep Your Hands Off My Girl, which was supposed to an iconic single for the band, didn't quite take off because of the lack of support from punk rock fans in general. Lead singer Joel Madden revealed that the direction for the current album was slightly different, saying that, "We wanted to make it a little more dancey. I have been influenced by doing my DJ gigs, so I wanted to incorporate that energy. It is not a dance album at all, but it is a lot dancier." You can read the rest of the interview here. Dance Floor Anthem is the third single, and in my opinion, should do a pretty good job of getting fans of their previous hits like Girls and Boys, back. I love the track and it gets me hooked from beginning till the end. The video itself is nothing special though.
Linkin Park - What I've Done
If you've been to Lido anytime this week (and chances are that you'd have been because of Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Carribean and Shrek 3), you'll not be able to miss the fact that the huge screen which usually showcases trailers of up-and-coming movies is also plugging Linkin Park's latest single, What I've Done. It took quite some time for the song to grow on me, but what caught my attention the first time I saw the video was that it was highlighting some of the problems that the human race was facing - poverty, global warming and warfare. It's so rare nowadays for music to not be so self-centered. The lyrics are simple and therein lies it's magic.
Five - Closer To Me
If you've been into boybands in the past, surely you'd have heard of Five? They were never astoundingly huge in Asia (unlike a1) but still gave a slew of hits from When The Lights Go Out to We Will Rock You. My personal favourite however, has got to be the ballad Closer To Me, which was released after they decided to call disband in November 2001. It's one of the songs that can make me cry, for reasons I cannot fanthom. I remember being at a class chalet then and the radio was playing this song at 4 in the morning and we heard the song and someone asked me (naturally) who sang it, because it was really good. I broke the news and that guy was pretty stunned! Haha... can't believe I remember all that when it happened 6 years ago. Take a trip down memory lane here.
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