Umm

okay so you're going to be like Abi! what was the point of that entire last post if you were just going to end up listening to every song made by alicia keys.. and I'm going to be like yes, you're right imaginary friend, aren't you excited for the rocky horror glee show (even though the rocky horror picture show was tacky and overrated and the fantastic songs were ruined by the dreadful voices of the actors/ Janet's fiance Brad Majors was a total nerdy dreamboat)/ I just really didn't feel like doing work right now. Sooo I'm just going to give you some more Alicia Keys.. if you don't want it just understand that it was worth listening to the two CDs to find LESSON LEARNED feat. John Mayer.. love it <3 ..

Songs in A Minor (2001) See last post

The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003)

1. "Harlem's Nocturne"
2. "Karma" meh
3. "Heartburn"
4. "If I Was Your Woman/Walk On By"
5. "You Don't Know My Name"
6. "If I Ain't Got You"
7. "Diary" (featuring Tony! Toni! Toné!)
8. "Dragon Days"
9. "Wake Up"
10. "So Simple" (featuring Lellow*)
11. "When You Really Love Someone"
12. "Feeling U, Feeling Me (Interlude)"
13. "Slow Down"
14. "Samsonite Man"
15. "Nobody Not Really" 

Unplugged (2005) Just NO

As I Am (2007)

1. "As I Am" (Intro)
2. "Go Ahead"
3. "Superwoman"4. "No One" meh
5. "Like You'll Never See Me Again"
6. "Lesson Learned" (featuring John Mayer)
7. "Wreckless Love"
8. "The Thing About Love"
9. "Teenage Love Affair"
10. "I Need You"
11. "Where Do We Go from Here"
12. "Prelude to a Kiss"
13. "Tell You Something (Nana's Reprise)"
14. "Sure Looks Good to Me"

The Element of Freedom (2009)

1. "Element of Freedom" (Intro)
2. "Love Is Blind"
3. "Doesn't Mean Anything"
4. "Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart"
5. "Wait Til You See My Smile"
6. "That's How Strong My Love Is"
7. "Un-Thinkable (I'm Ready)"
8. "Love Is My Disease"
9. "Like the Sea" not horrible
10. "Put It in a Love Song" (featuring Beyoncé)
11. "This Bed" not bad
12. "Distance and Time"
13. "How It Feels to Fly"
14. "Empire State of Mind (Part II)"


Collaborations

Brotha Part II (Angie Stone featuring Alicia Keys and Eve)
Gangsta Lovin' (Eve featuring Alicia Keys)
My Boo (Usher and Alicia Keys) meh but the beginning of the video reminds me that I love Usher's Bad Girl
Ghetto Story Chapter 2 (Cham featuring Alicia Keys)
Another Way to Die (Jack White and Alicia Keys) meh
Empire State of Mind (Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys)
Fireworks (Drake featuring Alicia Keys)
If I Ain't Got You Remix (Featuring Usher)

Other
Almost Everything Is Boinga Here
Doncha Know (Sky Is Blue)
Saviour
Dah Dee Dah (Sexy Thing)
Rear View Mirror

Tadaa.

Okay so here's the thing

  After listening to the most beautiful woman in the world/Alicia Key's Fallen/ A Woman's Worth (one of my fave videos), I still haven't quite recovered from the fact that her voice doesn't sound anything like it does on those two track. That's not to say I don't like her.. though I still feel those 7 Grammy's she won the year of Fallen was outrageous.. just like I think the Grammy's giving U2's how to dismantle an atomic bomb best album of the year over Kanye's college dropout was outrageous.
  Anywhoo, I bought a bootleg copy of Alicia Keys' first CD Songs in A Minor when I was visiting Sri Lanka 9 years ago (as well as every michael jackson cd and jennifer lopez too lol) which was, in retrospect, the first time I realized I was duped and that Alicia Keys' (whose last name, incidently, wasn't even really Keys.. which I originally thought was a happy coincidence) voice is one of limited range and echoes of a genre that is not as markatable or poppy as her first two singles and can't decide if it's quite jazz or r&b or neither. As I was listening to my disc-man while driving up the mountains of Nuwara Eliya, I was harsh, critical and angered at Alicia Keys' terrible product (well that combined with the fact that my mosquito bites that had swollen up to the size of oranges and were beyond irritating.. I know, I'm sexy). When I finally came home I packed the CD into it's spot on the shelf and let it collect dust.
  Two years later, that sneaky piano player went and released You Don't Know My Name. Mos Def, the love of my life (sorry JMac) was cast in it. Stupid lady, now I'm forced to listen to your song and realize hey, it's not that bad, I think maybe I'll listen Songs in A Minor again. Wait a minute, these songs aren't half bad! In fact, 10/15 songs are pretty freakin good:
1. Piano & 1 (intro)
2. Girlfriend
3. How Come U Don't Call Me (This is my fave song to sing a long to)
4. Fallin'
5. Troubles (Good Music Bad Vocals)
6. Rock Wit U (Good Music Bad Vocals)
7. A Woman's Worth
8. Jane Doe
9. Goodbye
10. The Life (Not Bad)
11. Mr. Man (featuring Jimmy Cozier)  Awesome song, prob my fave on the CD
12. Never Felt This Way (interlude)
13. Butterflies
14. Why Do I Feel So Sad 
15. Caged Bird (outro)
 Fine, I always thought Alicia Keys was stunning/ gorgeous which is the reason I never threw the CD out (which I had done a lot as a child.. sorry Abba.. if I had known I'd end up loving your music 15 years later I never would have thrown out your CD when I was 8 years old).
  The thing is, Alicia Keys built up this fantastic repotoire with me (especially after releasing Diary (Feat. Tony! Toni! Tone! & Jermaine Paul)) and then it all came crashing down from 2005-2009, as she produced a string of bad song (I'm talking about Alicia Keys' Unplugged's Every Little Bit Hurts and Unbreakable, Like You'll Never See Me Again with her silly sounding raspy "sexy" voice, Try Sleeping with A Broken Heart and the horrific Empire State of Mind (which I probably would have loved if the chorus was 100% different/ less horrible)). She makes me work so hard, sorting through her inconsistent music for the gems. Don't get me wrong, when the gems are uncovered, it's always worth it. Teenage Love Affair had slightly redeeming qualities to it but I was left with a sour taste in my mouth and images of a Beyonce Part 2, with whom Ms. Keys released a horrific remix to Put it in a love song/ I'm going to chalk that one up to poor judgement.

  The whole point of this post was to tell you that I think we're going to be alright. It turns out, Alicia Keys can still make good music (and cute videos). Her new(ish) song Un-thinkable (I'm Ready) - written by Drake, originally for Nicki Minaj - starring her and the ever-cute, but wearing a really bad wig, dirty blonde, Chad Michael Murray (though I'm still mad at him for choosing the ugly, orange-haired she-devil Peyton over Brooke). So I guess that's how she hooks me. Alicia Keys goes and casts sexy men in her videos to remind me that, despite her limited vocal range, she can still produce quality music. Sneaky Sneaky.


p.s. she should be pregnant with the guy in the video for A Woman's Worth not the ugly gremlin with 10 children named Swiss (Cheese) Beatz

gLee0210

So today's post is going to be about Glee, probably because when Rachel approached Kurt on tonight's episode of Glee about understanding his feelings of lonliness it struck a sad chord with me. Speaking of chords.. umm have you seen the new cutie on gLee? Chord Overstreet? I'm not posting his pic because I'm such a ped sometimes.. don't worry he's legal. Speaking of legal I watched Eclipse today.. I promised myself I wouldn't but lo and behold I wanted to watch a cheesy romance movie with attractive people in it. I giggled most of the time through it.. mostly out of the discomfort/ whenever I judged myself. So Taylor Lautner, he doesn't induce stalker tendencies in me anymore (I'm thinking because he cut his hair/ maybe he's passed his prime now that he's legal.. i'm joking? does it matter? Is anyone even reading this?). Anywhoo, back to gLee.. why didn't Artie sing tonight? ALSO 90210!!!! OMG has anyone been watching this? a) every time i see mr. cannon i can't help but to scream "predator", b) teddy's storyline?! shocking, i think. c) ivy slept with that british/australian? guy wtf. d) i love annie.. that's my home girl (also i really want her to get back with liam but i don't mind her with diana ross' son).. Also the music in the last two episodes has been pretty fantastic. My faves being Lo-Fi (Oh My) by Bronze Radio and Down to the Infinity by Too Young to Love, and that's all I can remember. Does anyone else think Adrianna's voice is horrific? She was stunning in the first season when she did that Cleopatra scene and totally stole the show from my besty Annie (well maybe it was in the moment because I didn't feel the same way when I watched the clip again).  Also, I know we were supposed to be offended by Finn and Rachel's performance of With You I'm Born Again (here's a link of the original) tonight, but I loved it. Her performance with Kurt on Happy Days Are Here Again/ Get Happy was adorable. I also loved Rachel's performance last week of Papa Can You Here Me? lol I always think of Nelson Muntz when I hear that line. And while one the topic of Rachel, my two favourite performances of hers in the first season were Don't Rain on My Parade and Run Joey Run. Also my baby daddy, Jesse McCartney, is coming out with some new material.. yaaay. Okie that is all..

How do you Sleep?

Ok so I'm not sure if you know this about me but I luurv blondes/ especially the one blonde guy in boy bands (ahem Nick Carter/Justin Timberlake/Trevor Guthrie/Ritchie Neville/Jon Lee.. some would argue there's more than one blonde in some of those bands but I beg to differ). This all has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that surferdudes are hot.. like the guys in Lords of Dogtown or the guy who played Tarzan in that show that got cancelled on the WB/CWTV. Anywhoo point is I love Jesse McCartney. I think he and I should meet and fall in love.
So in honour of our love I'm posting my all time favourite song by him:
Right Where You Want Me (my favourite favourite favourite part of this song is when he's like "In slow motion, My imagination's running, trying to keep my body still, I can hardly stand the thrill".. Okay I know it sounds dirty but I like how he sings it)
...and the song I found out about today while creeping him/his Trivia on IMDB.. He was on a caffeine high when he wrote this song and that's why it's fast paced: She's No You. It's really good.. I'm going to listen to it again.

Now I know what you're going to say, "But Abi! This Jesse McCartney of yours is the very same one who wrote the lyrics to that god-foresaken Bleeding Love song sung by the she-devil herself, Leona Lewis." Well to that I say, "Shut up Tharsha. Jesse and I are in love and every relationship has rough patches."

Gosh!

Ok seriously.. I have an exam in T minus 3 hours and I can't help but post right now. The guy sitting across from me looks like Napoleon Freakin Dynamite. What's more funny is that he's talking to his friend about weird names like how he has a prof named Parmesan and a dentist named Dr. A. Choo and he heard that there was a Doctor named Dr. Gay, but his friend has no clue what he's talking about and was like, "I don't get it. You're dentist's name is Achoogay?" Hahaha.. people are silly. Okie I gotta get back to work but I'll give you a song real quick seeing as this is a music blog. Hahaha he's just sitting and laughing to himself, now.. I love this guy.

Paper Tongues - Ride to California (it's my new fav)

edit: can I just say how much Blades of Glory made me laugh the second time I watched it..

Golden Country

Horray Canada!

(Picture from ~xxoblivionxx on Deviantart)

14 Golds are great but what's even better is the sheer patriotism that flooded Canada that Sunday night. Serendipity hard at work bringing us one of the most incredible hockey games in history (it also didn't hurt that we have the best players in the world). But seriously folks, can we talk about the music? There was some great music these games and it got me thinking. I'm going to list off SOME, 14, of my favourite Canadian musicians.

14. The Canadian Tenors
13. The old Nelly Furtado
12. Billy Talent
11. Drake (what a sexy voice)
10. Alanis Morisette (She looked Gorgeous at the Olympics and her performance was incredible)
9. The Arkelles
8. Classified (O-o-oh Canada)
7. K-os (I was really happy to see K-Os at the Olympics becaue I really think he's a staple of Canada's excellent music scene.. p.s. I saw him live and he's incredible)
6. Sam Roberts (Yum.. you know, I touched his hand once.. we practically made a baby)
5. Celine (It would've been nice to see her perform at the closing.. but I know that's high hopes lol)
4. Metric (It was really hard to pick a song for the link.. so I went with their oldest video.. Succexy)
3. Sarah McLachlan (great singer + favourite movie = no brainer for link)
2. Our Lady Peace (Raine is so effing gorgeous)
1. Nickelback (What a great way to kick off an Olympic Closing Celebration)

Honorable Mentions go to: Rush, soulDecision, Snow, Avril, Alexisonfire, and Shania.. there are so many more but these guys came to mind first. LOVE Canada and its music <3.

The Goods... LOVE.

Ok, as promised, I have new music and it's sooo good! I want to cry I'm so happy, it's been so long.



My number one song right now is Sade's Soldier of Love. It's so jive. That's really the only way I can describe it. Check it out. The video is absolutely incredible, as well.

Rihanna's Rude boy is now my number one Rihanna songs..
My Rihanna list is as follows:
1. Rude Boy
2. Sell Me Candy
3. Rehab (still too played out for me to listen to)
4ish. Disturbia (only because of the video)

Calvin Harris' Stars Come Out (I just love this song, I want to kidnap Calvin Harris and keep him in my basement)

Band of Horses - The Funeral (really sweet)

Everything Everything - My Kz, Ur BF (I really have no idea what they're talking about in this song but I love it)

Phoenix - Lisztomania [Alex Metric Remix] (I'm putting it in this list becaue I never really got a chance to post it before)

Alexisonfire - The Northern (this song is very different from typical alexis stuff)

WRECKX-N-EFFECT - RUMPSHAKER (I frickin love this song.. wait for the chorus/ thank you Sean for having the most awesome ringtone on Psych!)

Hawa - D.A.N.C.E. [Justice Cover] (surprisintly good!)

Breakbot feat. Irfane -  Baby I'm Yours (this song is absolutely awesome to sing along to)