2011年 Apr 10日 Sunday, 3:39
http://twitpic.com/4j2vgi
http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/4j2vgi.jpg
(From left to right, top to bottom)
E-40
E-40
Snoop Dogg
Saigon
Lupe Fiasco
Far East Movement
Marques Houston
Chris Brown
The Foreign Exchange
Natasha Bedingfield
Britney Spears
Jessie J
Kandi
Marsha Ambrosius
Jennifer Hudson
British new comer Jessie J, who just released her debut album Who You Are, might be yet another one of those "young girls with retro soul swag," but as can be understood from the collaborations with the likes such as Dr. Luke, Oak (Knightwritaz), Labrinth (dubstep producer, for the remix of "Do It Like A Dude") and K-Gee (producer for girl band All Saints), she's also got a pop side and seems more like in the same league as Pixie Lott and, possibly, Melanie Fiona. Here on this debut set, from B.o.B-assisted "Price Tag" to self-penned folky ballad "Big White Room," uplifting funky pop "Abracadabra" to rockish power ballad "I Need This," hip-hop-influenced "Rainbow" to big-band jazz "Mamma Knows Best," Jessie successfully demonstrated her versatile musical prowess, without being erratic or inconsistent.
Academy Award-winning actress and Grammy Award-winning artist Jennifer Hudson has made a strong comeback with her sophomore effort, I Remember Me, after the widely-reported tragedy in her family. Honestly I can't say how much her personal life affected her music this time around, but I think that this album has turned out to be much more emotional, consistent, enjoyable and convincing than the last one, where Jennifer sounded to me like just an auditionee showing off her singing skill on the various different types of songs. Although the typical ballads like "Believe," "Still Here" (Natasha Bedingfield cover) and Stargate-produced "I Got This" are of course great, I love even more the "disco queen" side of J-Hud on such tracks as "Everybody Needs Love" and "Don't Look Down," both of which were written and co-produced by Alicia Keys.
Obviously Marques Houston had been off my radar for so many years that I didn't even know what kind of music he was doing lately, but I accidentally heard a track off of his latest album, Mattress Music, and got amazed by how it was smooth, beautiful and still unique. Songs like "Noize" which features a bed-noise sample, sad yet fantastic slow jam "He Ain't Me," '80s-esque "Explosion" and beautiful-flowing soft ballad "Waterfall" are all proof that MH is still doing good music and also that there's an irresistible chemistry between his voice and Auto-Tune. The guest appearances of two popular rappers, Rick Ross and Soulja Boy, added nothing here and might be misleading, but it must be just for marketing purposes and doesn't really matter because they don't get in the way of this beautiful package of slow jams.