The video for Robbie Williams’ throwbacky “You Know Me” conceptually flips around the title of the crooning 9/11 conspiracy theorist’s new album, Reality Killed The Video Star. Only here it’s the video that’s killing anything resembling reality, with Williams using an extended dream sequence as an excuse to dress up in a bunny suit and flit around like he’s late for a very important date with a choreographer and a batallion of backup dancers. The video, and five of my favorite things about its way-too-short three minutes, after the jump. MORE »
POSTS FROM "top" CATEGORY
videodrone
The Five Best Things About Robbie Williams’ “You Know Me” Video, Aside From The Obviously Amazing Rabbit Suit Robbie Wears
f2k
32. Smash Mouth, “I Wan’na Be Like You (The Monkey Song)”
Baloo would be rolling over in his grave if he heard this. MORE »
synergies
Four Artists Who Might Want To Branch Out Into Infomercial-Inspired Licensing
Never one to let a good joke just settle, Weezer is packaging the deluxe editions of its new album Raditude with a Snuggie, the As Seen On TV “blanket with sleeves” that’s both functional (it really is pretty warm) and hilarity-inducing (ah, recession-era cable ads, the last bastion of UHF-style production values). Surely the amount of press that Weezer has received for this move will result in other artists borrowing from the ever-expanding world of cheap commercials. After the jump, we envision a few pairings. MORE »
year-end analysis
Amazon Beats The Christmas Rush, Crowns Neko Case As 2009’s Best
Twangy spitfire Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone was selected by Amazon.com’s editors as the best of 2009, while U2’s No Line On The Horizon was the online retailer’s best-selling album this year. That’s according to a just-released year-end package that jumps the “happy new year” gun by quite a few days. Sure, boosting these albums now will probably be great for the holiday sales, but it’s too bad that publishing the list now means that the likes of R. Kelly’s Untitled and Shakira’s She Wolf didn’t get their critical due. Oh wait, there are no pop-as-pop albums on the editors’ list anyway. Silly me! Top 25s for both lists after the jump.
THE GOOD: It sure is fascinating to see the sales demographics of Amazon out themselves via the Bestsellers list—U2, Susan Boyle, Diana Krall, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Dylan make up the top five, while younger-skewing top-selling 2009 releases like the Hannah Montana soundtrack, Eminem’s Relapse, and the Black Eyed Peas’ The E.N.D. land at Nos. 16, 24, and 25, respectively. At least all generations can agree on Green Day (No. 6)! And it’s nice to see Case’s editorially beloved album performing well on the sales side, too (No. 11).
THE BAD: In addition to Boyle’s pre-order mania landing her at No. 2; two albums on the bestsellers list have been released in the past few weeks: Michael Bublé’s Crazy Love (release date 10/9, No. 9) and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Night Castle (release date 10/26, No. 12). That sort of implies a low bar for high sales, methinks.
THE WHAAAA? This might be a wild and crazy question to pose, but is Steve Martin’s banjo album really the best of its breed to come out this year? MORE »
The Hills have whys. Delays
Today In Pushed-Back Albums: There Are Few Shockers Here
It’s time for another look at upcoming albums that have had their release dates pushed back, a condition that’s growing ever more chronic as the bottom seemingly falls out of the music industry. Today, we look at albums by Timbaland, Alicia Keys, and Mary J. Blige that are allegedly coming soon, although not as soon as originally thought. MORE »
Endorsements
Five Reasons That You Should Pick Up Amerie’s “In Love And War”
“The new album by R & B spitfire Amerie is out today.” That’s a sentence that I thought I’d never get to write on Idolator, despite her being one of my favorite singers for the duration of this site’s existence. And to make the news even better, In Love And War—which is her first U.S. release since 2005, thanks to Sony botching the release of Because I Love It two years ago—is quite good, even joy-inducing in spots. (It could maybe be pared of a song or two; the Lil Wayne remix of her artistic-statement single “Heard ‘Em All” is the definition of CD-era filler.) “But why do you like it,” you ask? I’ll tell you! After the jump, five reasons why it’s worth hunting it down at your preferred outlet for purchasing music. MORE »
f2k
No. 34: Happy Mondays, “Jelly Bean”
Dance beats that sound like they were concocted in a pharmacy, breasts sprouting from nowhere, hooking for fun (and profit)—guess elder statesman of musical decadence Shaun Ryder felt that he needed to show those Last Night’s Party whippersnappers how to engage in excess the right way. MORE »
decade-end analysis
“Paste” Makes A Very Tasteful Illinoise
Yesterday, Paste released its list of the 50 Best Albums Of The 2000s, and the list was topped by none other than Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoise, which honestly seems like it was released way longer ago, so established has he become in the indie-rock firmament. Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the Arcade Fire’s Funeral, Radiohead’s Kid A, and Bright Eyes’ I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning rounded out the top five. Full rundown after the jump, but first, a few reactions.
THE GOOD: Hey, look, Stankonia! At No. 8! Three places beneath… Bright Eyes. Sigh.
THE BAD: Instead of noting the male-white–breadiness of the list—because that is, after all, the way of Paste, and you can’t expect them to change their stripes just for the sake of a mid-autumn pageview-generation ploy—I’m going to zero in on one totally questionable choice. Namely, the selection of M.I.A. albums on the list. Arular (No. 10) and not Kala? Really? I mean, Arular is fine, but Kala is kinda next-level. Is it because of the (admittedly unfortunate) Timbaland track?
THE WHAAAA? Dear Paste fact-checkers: Not for nothing, but Radiohead’s In Rainbows was not entirely “self-released,” as you claim. I know that would screw up the “it changed everything with its revolutionary pricing methods” that serves as the angle for your gushing write-up of the record. Pity that you muffed the opportunity to write about something so (yawn) groundbreaking by regurgitating a tired, half-true spiel. MORE »
the last word
Weezer Remain In On The Joke
Our look at the closing lines of new music reviews continues with a roundup of reactions to Raditude, the seventh studio album by the jokesters who make up Weezer: MORE »
