Miguel
Use him
Miguel: All I Want Is You (Jive '10)
The Afro-Chicano love man front-loads his Prince-channeling debut album: five hooky tracks‑-two romantic ones linked by an ambivalent interlude to one about a prostitute and another about a quickie‑-followed by six pleasant tracks and capped by two hooky novelties, the second of which delights immatoorly in the old "piece"-"peace" homonym. But there's a treasure hidden in the middle. With supplicant's songs rare enough in a genre that makes its nut promising untold pleasures, "Teach Me" is unprecedented, laying out the truth that, as Norman Mailer put it in one of the few useful sex tips in his orgasm-mad canon, "the man as lover is dependent upon the bounty of the woman." Who knows what pleases her? She does, she alone, and Miguel craves to be let in on that shifting and enthralling secret. If only he'd hung a top-drawer melody on the sucker he'd have a "Use Me" or "Sexual Healing" he could sing forever. B PLUS
Miguel: Kaleidoscope Dream (RCA)
He's major now, and musically, this locks in top to bottom. "Adorn"'s throbbing, garbled hook is one of 2012's signature pop moments, and even when he settles for an ordinary tune he devises a way to trick it up. Lyrically he goes for it too, including a "Use Me" he can sing forever. But that doesn't mean anyone else will, and I do wonder why the two most memorable lines by this certified improvement on R. Kelly are "Do you like drugs?" and "How many drinks would it take you to leave with me?" Final track‑-they always save it for the final track‑-he bids for redeeming social content with a song bearing the nicely turned title "Candles in the Sun." Here's hoping‑-and half believing, because he's a bright, decent dude‑-he improves on it. A MINUS
I’d sleep with the angels, if I only could"
Man I wish this comment section acted more like a regular message board, with different topics to reply to. From Donna Summer, to P&J, to education in America, too many things to say on these topics.
sharpsm, thank you for inspiring me to take another look at Summer again. What 4 albums are you referring to?
Ballot sent and I feel pretty good about it. Those last couple of cuts were hard, and Northwest pride might have played a part in the final ballot. In terms of music. 2012 was not as good to me as 2011, but was better than 2010.
Personally though 2012 was a great year, and this blog played a big part in that, as did social networking in general. Over the course of the year I was able to reach my goal of 30 live shows, admittedly 7 of those were Chuck and Lisa in some form or another. Those 7 shows took me to 5 states where I met 11 people who have posted here regularly, and everyone of you I met I will remember always. can't wait to see you guys again and I look forward to expanding that list in 2013. Happy New Year all.
Happy New Year, as it is here now. As promised, shameless plugs will now stop, but this show is relevant as it features R Maffei in the Pozniaks (as well as the Beatles, Arthur Comics, Jinx Lennon, Janka Nabay, Tin Huey, Jusa Dementor, Batida le Bras Fermino, Skeat, and Martin Hayes/Denis Cahill): http://i.mixcloud.com/CCB0iE. Thanks to our host for his indulgence in allowing me to post links to the show, I hope some of you have enjoyed it.
Currently watching Jools Holland's Hootenanny on the BBC, nothing outstanding yet, but if you haven't seen these performances from Cyndi Lauper last year they're worth your time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNhN3PRJf_Y and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXG2F3Vp0ek.
Athbhliain faoi mhaise díobh go léir.
RE: SONGS
Songs are scored by number of mentions. You can only vote for a song once. Duh. If you give me more than ten songs (or fewer than ten songs, unless you specify that's intentional), I'll email you back asking which ones you want to count. If you don't respond by the time polls close or a day after I email you, whichever is latest, I will count the first ten songs (or the lower number of songs, as mentioned in the earlier parentheses) you mention.
You may vote for any song whose initial release was in the calendar year of 2012.
If diverting from this rule, there should be a reason that everyone is voting for it in a 2012 poll. I can think of a lot of 2011 songs that will probably get votes either because their album came out in 2012, they made their impact on the charts this year, or what have you, including Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" (though this received two mentions last year), Azealia Banks' "212" (though this received four mentions last year), Heems' "NYC Cops," Cloud Nothings' "Stay Useless," Lana Del Rey's "Video Games" (though this received three mentions last year), Japandroids' "Younger Us," fun.'s "We Are Young," Frank Ocean's "Thinkin Bout You," Hospitality's "Friends of Friends," and I'm sure you can come up with more examples.
Basically, you should vote based off what you think the rest of the votership thinks would be "eligible."
about the blogger
Starting in 1967, Robert Christgau has covered popular music for The Village Voice, Esquire, Blender, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He teaches in New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music, maintains a comprehensive website at robertchristgau.com, and has published five books based on his journalism. He has written for MSN Music since 2006.
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