Smitty's Best Albums of 2011

Merry Early Christmas!!! So I present my half of the top albums for me of this year...and where do we start? 2011 was one crazy year with pop princesses reigning supreme...rock bands hiding in caves...crazy year, anyways, here we go:


It's Britney Bitch!

Brit Brit returned this year with an incredible album, the dance floor ready "Femme Fatale" and while everyone knows that she may be "crazier than a ..." Brit Brit's music is always on the cutting edge of pop, she just knows how to do it right. The singles from "Femme Fatale," were indeed everywhere from the euphoria of "Til the world ends.." to the bouncier than bubblegum on a summer day of "I wanna go," you could not escape a Brit Brit song and the question is why would you want to?



It was definitely a year of women in pop, across the ocean to the island of Japan (doesn't that sound like really exotic?) Namie Amuro, raked up another hit and cemented her further stake as basically the Queen of J Hip Pop with her compilation album of colloborations "Checkmate," the virtually flawless all around graceful diva's "Checkmate" spanned over several years of Namie's biggest colloborative efforts with new singles "Unusual," "Make It Happen," "Superwoman," as well as remixes of already perfect songs "Want Me, Want Me." While "Checkmate" is not a thorough new album, the new singles already showcased that Amuro has no sights on slowing down. She toured in 2011 and is preparing for an album next year.



Dubstep was the key dance trend of 2011 other than Will.I.Am's domination and re-iteration of 90s eurostyle dance beats, dubstep became literally uncontrollable. Skrillex amongst others are ushering in the return of wub wub wub music. And while I can't say I particularly love dubstep, I did love one album that spawned from such a November monster and that was English pop singer Katy B. Katy B's "On a Mission," is a good example of what dubstep can be if it sticks to flourishes, accents and other-genre hooks and bells. "On a mission," was a flawless record as the smooth voiced Katy B sang over pulsating dubstep breakdowns without sounding like a bloodless robot. Dubstep done right.



Also across the pond another songtress snapped up my pop heart this year, the clever Natalia Kills. It's hard to say what will happen with Kills brand of dark murder pop (if she wants real street cred it's time to make a visit to Mr.Nick Cave) and while she aimed for perfection on her "perfectionist" album she fell short. The album suffered from too many cooks in the proverbial kitchen, however despite such a shortcoming the album was still a very good ride of pop hooks and catchy songwriting. More importantly with the re-release of "Perfectionist," and the insanely awesome "Lights Out," if Kills can get a chokehold on exactly what kind of music she wants to make it'll be for a really good time.



and there you have it :)



In keeping with a dark theme, it was really a year of the best times and a year of volatile ones. My favorite dandy with neurosis Chris Corner of IAMX released the heavily anticipated "Volatile Times," a follow up to baroque and Berlin-esque dance music with Corner's signature light as a feather, vulnerable as ever could be voice and highly introspective lyrics.

Pop round-up

so we are finally back from hiatus, I hope you missed us :) :D

To get everyone to speed here is a little pop round up to get you acquainted with some news:

Britney Spears is now engaged! The femme fatale, coming off her amazing tour ending in south America twittered that boyfriend Jason Trawick gave her a special gift. The news spread like wild fire through the interwebs and many pop sources were speculating that "Godney" was indeed getting proposed to. Turns out, she is! My question is when is the wedding date and who's invited

One of my favorite Chanteuses's as of recently, English dark songtress Natalia Kills is re-releasing her debut album Perfectionist the re-release will include several new tracks including "Kill my boyfriend," and the INCREDIBLE "Lights Out" featuring Far East Movement. While Kills debut did garner lukewarm critical attention, "Lights Out" is a perfect dark pop masterpiece and it should have been the flagship single.

And last but not least....everyone's favorite pint sized Swedish diva, Robyn literally killed it on Saturday Night Live with two live performances "Call Your Girlfriend," and "Dancing On My Own." The performance was so incredible that it just awesome into a whole new level. You can't hate on Robyn, she's perfection.

This is the remix : Britney releases a surge of remixes

So, in Britland...after the release of her critically praised "Femme Fatale," Britney Spears is riding high on its success and doing things that um, SHE NEVER DOES. Such as teaming up with other female artists and doing features. In the day age of the collabo, Spears has rarely done features and this spring we've got two big releases.

First up the remix of "S&M" with Rihanna. When this came out, RiRi fans and Brit Brit fans well, their heads basically exploded.





Initially Brit Brit received a scathing attack for her "nasally" vocals in which haters basically decried "She sounds like Tommy Pickles!"

Okay she does a bit. But, her voice has always been paper thin with a touch of Southern drawl, does anyone else remember how "Hit me one more time.." sounded like?
Coupled with the fact that the producer of this remix seemed to autotune her vocals so much, it's kinda like what they didn't think she could handle singing her parts? Because Rihanna's vocals in comparison are overtly loud.

I've never been a fan of "S&M" because the jarring "na na na come on" felt too much like a battle cry that someone would use to wake you up. "SOLDIERS NA NA NA COME ON!" It was too much for me. The good thing about this remix is that, I do find Britney's little girl vocals to sort of not add to the craziness of the song. The production of this song is everywhere, I'm suprised they didn't add cowbell. It also needs to say that this song really does showcase that Rihanna has some vocal delivery even I'm not a fan of her music. The lyrics to "S&M" still remain largely too me waaay too simplistic for a subject matter like this, but hey that's pop music for you.

Thus bringing us to the other "WTF IS GOING ON?" moment, Britney teamed up with It-girls of the moment Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha. Like OMG. WTF.



Before I jump into this review, I want to state that both covers of these singles are absolutely terrible. Absolutely. What the hell????
You can autotune but you can't photoshop??


ANYWAYS...

I personally loved the original "Til the World Ends" I thought it sounded very now, very urgent and immediate. Britney's vocal sound good, like she actually didn't phone them in (hurr hurr). So, I had some lukewarm feelings once I heard about the remix specifically because I thought BOTH Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha would be too much in the production mix. You know like that old saying too many chefs in the kitchen? Too many pop darlings in the studio?> ***crickets**

I digress, the remix is VERY good. Nicki Minaj has dropped most of her annoying vocal pyrotechnics and did a straight flow. You have to wonder who she's dissing in her rap as the rap has nothing to do with a. dancing until the world ends. Basically it's an "OMG IM DOING A RAP FOR BRITNEY SPEARS DIE!!!!" ...sort of things.

Interestingly, Ke$ha's vocal involvement is pretty low. YAY. I mean, Oh. She's relegating to singing the hook which to me was a very smart move on the behalf of Dr.Luke (her producer by the way). So minimizing her to singing the hook worked out pretty well as you only get a smidgeon of Ke$ha's stop-rap vocal interaction and it sets it up for Britney to do basically the only singing in the song. The remix is a bit break down, heavier construction of the earlier version. This, was another wise move by Dr.Luke instead of hitting listeners with not only three different vocal acts, he basically slowed it down to give each a chance to live in the song as opposed to you know, a screaming match. You know how divas can get.

Both singles are good for dance clubs, but, Im going to give "Til the World Ends" the stamp of approval. Wise choices, cool handed Dr.Luke.

The BRITNEY review

Over here at Shennantics, let me prep you: We are on Team Britney.

Back when she was suffering from the basic non-stop harassment of the paparazzi, we believed that Britney would one day, and that one day would come, that she would be on the top of her game.

Fast forward through the dark sexy pop of "Blackout," and the immediate perfection of "Circus" with it's paranoia sheen, we get to Britney's post-comeback album: Femme Fatale.

Femme Fatale, is Spears seventh studio album and it was majorly hyped up by cryptic tweets of who would be producing it, to teaser videos for the flagship single for the insanely catchy "Hold It Against Me."

And now, Spears has finally given fans the manic "Femme Fatale." With producers Max Martin (longtime producer), Dr.Luke (Ke$ha) and Will.I.Am, its kinda obvious that the princess of pop has picked the who's who making club pop for this generation.

Is this a bad thing?
Christina explored a similar tactic on last year's quick fizzle "Bionic" and it was a mess. However, Britney is not Christina and I don't get why the two were EVER compared. Christina is an amazing vocal performer, but if you want sexed up entertainment with purring ...you go to Britney.

The reason why Christina's "Bionic" may have flunked was because Christina's voice is a little too strong to be digitally hacked into pieces without leaving a sour sound on the ears. Britney has never been praised for her vocal prowess, in fact, she's got a thin register, but despite its thinness, Britney's southern "oh bay buh bay buh" is now part of pop culture. On "Femme Fatale" Britney's thin voice is gleefully bleeped, slowed down, sped up to almost incomprehensible effects. But it works.

The album preys on the claustophobic production of today's dance pop. "Hold It Against Me," is almost threatening with it's jackhammer synth. "Til the World Ends," is a better Ke$ha then Ke$sha. The album explores what's hot in the dance world, even as Britney delivers perhaps one of the best songs on Femme Fatale the slow and choppy "Inside Out," or the addictive "Gasoline."

Yet, Britney doesnt stumble on Femme Fatale, its her producers. With a voice that is basically primed for anything some of the production choices are questionable. Will.I.Am's "Big Fat Bass," would have been almost perfect had the Black Eyed Peas frontman and avid supporter of destroying things had not participated in an uninspired dumb rap. It's almost as if he rapped just for the promotional gimmmick.

Then, as the album closes we're treated to the odd Ren Faire inspired "Criminal." It sounds way too contrived to be delicate, and Britney's sex kitten vocals don't really help the song. She can do a ballad, this isn't one of them.

Yet for a couple of mistakes here and there, "Femme Fatale" is almost flawless as a pop album. It's catchy. Upbeat. Uptempo. Full of neutral lyrics, sexed up lyrics, questionable puns. Best of all, it's built on what Britney is pushing nowadays the Britney brand.

Breaking News: New Britney Album Info + Cover

According to various pop blogs, as well as Britney Spears' official twitter: the new Britney record is titled "Femme Fatale."

Yeyah!

Jive, Britney's record company has released the press release:

New York, NY – Britney Spears announces her seventh studio album is titled Femme Fatale. The iconic global superstar’s title Femme Fatale is a tribute to bold, empowered, confident, elusive, fun, flirty women and men. It’s not a conceptual album, Spears is letting the music speak for itself. She’s worked hard on it for two years and she considers it to be her “best album to date,” true to where she is now personally and professionally.

Femme Fatale (Jive Records) is executive produced by Max Martin and Dr. Luke.

Spears is peerless among her contemporaries. Throughout the years, Britney has consistently released hit after hit for over a decade, selling close to 70 million albums cumulatively worldwide.

Few artists have earned the distinction of having five No.1 debut albums, and 24 Top 40 hits. She most recently set a new one-day precedent for single sales with her current No. 1 hit song, “Hold It Against Me.” Jonas Åkerlund shot the video for the song.

Details on the video premiere and album release date are forthcoming.

And here is the released cover:



Predictions: Judging from "Hold It Against Me," and knowing that Dr.Luke (Kesha producer) has me thinking it's going to be a club banger, however, it's going to be chaotic.....I have to hear of who's working on it to be sure.

Britney's on the telephone

Uncovering demos is always like peeking at discarded Christmas gifts. Sort of.
Today Shennantics got wind of a Britney Spears demo for "Telephone." You know, the same "Telephone" that Lady Gaga and Beyonce did a while back with a music video, you may have seen it.

Anyway La Spears has done her own version, heavy on the autotune and it's leaked through the internet.



17 seconds into this demo, and I don't like it. Granted, I'm a Britney fan and I can stomach digitalized vocals, this is just a miss for me. Beyonce's vocals on the original made the song for me and suffice it to say La Spears does not have the chops to pull this off.

This will be the second time that La Spears has passed up on a hit. Allegedly, La Spears passed up on the mega hit of all time with "Umbrella."

Whoever is in charge of her music selection, you guys are seriously missing the mark again and again. Oops!