The Guardian has just launched Six Songs of Me (update Oct 28 2018 – sadly now defunct), a way to create the ‘record of your life’ and promote editorial around its music coverage over the summer.
Here are mine:
First song I bought:Â Rhythm Is A Dancer – Original 12″Â by SNAP!
Gets you dancing: Love Story by Layo & Bushwacka
A ‘new’ Aaliyah track surfaced on Sunday via Drake’s OVO Festival blog (which he was hosting in Toronoto).
It’s had mixed response, with some fans calling the posthumous track disrespectful – and the Haughton family denying any official involvement in an album that would see her unfinished work finally released 11 years after her death.
The Guardian wraps it up nicely with this; “Many fans have taken exception to Enough Said, accusing Drake of tastelessness. Before she died in 2001, Aaliyah was most famous for her work with Missy Elliott and Timbaland, on 1996’s One in a Million. But as of Tuesday, neither artist had been approached by Drake. “I don’t know what’s going on,” Timbaland told Power 105. “The proper way to do [a collaboration] would be for me, [Drake] and Missy to be all on the record.””
But with that aside, the track is beautiful – and it’s on repeat via Hype while I work.
No Doubt. Such memories. The band are an essential part of my musical biography, from the dulcit tones of Don’t Speak to the undoubted career highlight that was Return of Saturn. Gwen was an emblem of a strong woman, she looked fantastic and the whole group introduced me to the idea of ska (in the early days at least).
So when I heard they were releasing new tracks, I was excited. Sure Gwen’s solo material was fun, but damn! New No Doubt? Cha-ching!
Gwen teased us with behind-the-scenes shots on Twitter (some got deleted, some survived). ‘Making the video’ clips flooded No Doubt’s YouTube channel. The works.
Today I finally got around to listening to it. I was impressed by MTV’s ever-so-clever review of the video – including no less than five references to previous records, band history and the like. In fact, they’re so good I’ll bullet them in case you miss out when you watch Settle Down at the end of this post…
The beginning of “Settle Down” looks a lot like their 1999 video for “New.” The concept for both videos is simple: Each member of the band is driving a custom vehicle to a party.
Tony Kanal eats an orange at the top of the video. But eagle-eyed No Doubt fans know that the orange is not only a tribute to the band’s Orange County hometown in Anaheim, California, it’s also the same piece of fruit that Ms. Stefani holds on the cover of their breakthrough Tragic Kingdom album.
Gwen wears her bra straps out and proud in this latest video. She teams the look with a tank top and punk-rock-inspired pants that recall the Gwen of the ’90s.
Gwen brings along her Harajuku girls, and including the ladies in the new clip helps bridge the time Gwen spent without the boys and her reunion with them this year.
The band once again enlisted longtime director Sophie Muller. Muller first worked with the band on their memorable 1996 video for “Don’t Speak,” which addressed the rumoured disdain the guys felt for Stefani and her rising fame.
I’ve been incredibly lax at blogging over the past few months, largely because I’ve just joined TMW as head of community and have been finding my feet!
I’ve only written TWO things of late, which for me is a shocker.
Plus, I also spoke at Econsultancy’s Future of Digital Marketing event on Wednesday about Collaborative Consumption. Slides below in case you fancy a gander.
