3 is a Magic Number: Jordin Sparks - Battlefield

That's what I learned from Schoolhouse Rock. Well, actually it's one of many things I learned from those wonderful cartoons. This is mostly to introduce a running theme I've noticed so I can keep track of it.

Pop music loves saying things three times. For some reason, even if it's just lazy song writing, an extremely large number of popular songs rely on the convention that saying a word or phrase three times in a row creates a good song. Somehow, it works. I don't have examples of failed songs with this convention for obvious reasons, but the success stories are all over the radio.

All three of Flo Rida's singles from Mail On Sunday repeated themselves. First we got Low, Low, Low, then he was stuck on an ele- ele- elevator, then we put our hands in the ayer, ayer, ayer. Beyonce can see your halo, halo, halo. Stand under Rihanna's umbrella -ella -ella. Kelis shakes things up a bit by adding an "ugghh!!!" in between the second and third "I hate you so much right now"s in "Caught Out There."

Mary J. Blige - "Come To Me (Peace)" - repeats Peace
MJB - "Enough Cryin" - she's had enough cryin, cryin, cryin and it's time to say bye bye bye
Chris Brown - "Forever" - -eva -eva
Gnarls Barkley - "Crazy" - structure of chorus: does that make me/you crazy? x3
Omarion - "Ice Box" - I'm so cold, I'm so cold, I'm so cold
Alicia Keys - "No One"
Akon - "Right Now (Na Na Na)" - it's even in the title. the song's all about the na na nas
Timbaland feat. The Hives - "Throw it on Me"
Kat DeLuna - "Whine Up"
Hilary Duff - "Beat Of My Heart"
*NSync - "Bye Bye Bye"
ABBA - "Gimme Gimme Gimme"; "Money Money Money"
Amy Whinehouse - "Rehab"
Natasha Bedingfield - "These Words"
Ciara feat. Chris Brown - "Turntables"
Justin Timberlake - "What Goes Around.../...Comes Back Around"
James Blunt - "You're Beautiful"


Our newest contributor to the trend is Jordin Sparks. She premiered her new single, "Battlefield," this week and performed it live on the American Idol results show. The song is filled with "a battlefield" x3 and "get your armor" x3. I have to admit that I'm liking this song so far. I'm glad the live performance got rid of the annoying synths in the studio version. During the chorus, they create this noise that distracts from the rest of the song and doesn't bother to be in the same key at all. Even though the answer to the song's question was answered back in the 80s, love is like a battlefield because 'Love is a Battlefield,' Jordin could have a nice sized hit on her hands with this song. Her previous three singles (Tattoo, No Air and One Step At A Time for those not paying attention) lacked the energy this song has. "Battlefield" has the potential to become almost anthemic in its sound, and is more upbeat. I also think Jordin has improved as a vocalist, which is doubly as impressive considering her health complications with her voice over the past two years.

I can't figure out how to embed a myspace copy of the song for people to listen to, but here's a link to Jordin's music page where you can listen to "Battlefield" in its entirety.

Chrisette Michele - Epiphany

On Tuesday, both Chrisette Michele and Ciara released their newest albums. I've been going back and forth between the two constantly for the past few days wondering how I wanted to present my reviews of them. At first I was going to offer a comparison, but I've realized that my feelings for Ciara's Fantasy Ride are too complex to be handled in anything other than a track by track discussion. Even though I like Epiphany more, my feelings for it are much more simple and I can just do a traditional review here.

Michele has said publicly that her goal for this album was to make music that people could bob their heads to, and she has succeeded. While the material may not have the uptempo makings of a mainstream hit, R&B stations have picked up on the title track and the second single "What You Do [feat. Ne-Yo]" is a promising follow-up. Epiphany is one step in the pop direction from Michele's first album, I Am, in that the Ne-Yo produced record contains a small boost and tempo and energy. Michele's voice is still powerful and soulful, and it sounds like she's been working to become an even more impressive singer. On "Notebook," she effortlessly hits notes that previously have sounded stretched and barely there on earlier recordings.

The themes of Epiphany deal with a lot of breaking up. "Epiphany (I'm Leaving)," "Blame It On Me," "Playin' Our Song," "Another One," and "I'm Okay" all talk about the ending of a relationship, with "Fragile" and "Porcelain Doll" threatening to call it off if things don't improve. That's 7/12 tracks. The other tracks cover a crush, meeting "Mr. Right," two love songs during a relationship, and a song to a father about letting his daughter go. While this could create a repetitive nature to the album, Michele and Ne-Yo do a good job developing a variety of sounds within such a small spectrum. While I find the strongest points of the album are "Notebook" and "Fragile," I would strongly recommend buying this album in its entirety.

Jazmine Sullivan - Fearless

I just got this album yesterday, and while I'm very impressed with her voice, this album is so unbalanced and imperfect. Unlike the Macy Gray CD I reviewed a few days ago, I agree with the order of the songs. It's ordered very well to present the songs for what they are. I think as a debut album Jazmine could have done a lot worse for herself, but some of these tracks are just bad.

We'll start with the good news. Highlights of the album (besides the singles Bust Your Windows, Need U Bad (which we'll get to later) and Lions, Tigers & Bears) include Call Me Guilty - the story of an abused woman deciding to shoot her man to save herself, Fear - in which Jazmine gives us a list of things to be afraid of in order to be relatable, and the ballad trio After The Hurricane, In Love With Another Man, and Dream Big - which are all about what the titles seems like they would be about.

Jazmine's voice definitely carries the CD through its weak points, and I think she has a lot of potential to release a more consistent sophomore effort.

The weak parts of this album are somewhat unfortunate, because I feel like a lot of them could easily have been salvaged. The first is the aforementioned single Need U Bad. While the vocal performance earned a Grammy nomination, Missy Elliot's production of the track seems unfinished. The faux-island sound and Pepa's contributions aren't really helping, and the drums have this weird triplet portion in the chorus that make the beat seem really inconsistent and flawed. One Night Stand takes everything bad about the Motown girl groups and flaunts it as something to be emulated. If she ever had the unfortunate task of making a music video for this song, picture the wardrobe to be identical to that of the song challenge on For the Love of Ray-J. If it weren't for the crappy backing vocals, I could even get behind this song, but every time I almost start to enjoy it the atonal echoing starts up again. Also, I don't care about your pancakes in the morning - which is the subject of the bridge. Finally, the bonus track, Switch! (exclamation not added), involves the screech sort of singing found in the PCD song Buttons.

My other problem with the album is the inconsistent message. The title is Fearless. Then she reveals that she's afraid of loving some man. By the end of the album, she's saying to fear is human and she has several of her own. I know the album title was probably chosen on purpose to directly challenge the songs, but it's so overtly inconsistent. Another consistency comes between the last two songs. During In Love With Another Man, Jazmine is sorry to say she doesn't have feelings for her man, but in Switch! she's more than happy to suggest that her date switch off with his best friend in exchange for hers.

Also, why does Missy always need to yell about what type of production this is? I guess since Ciara hadn't released anything for a while at the point this album came out Missy had to get her kicks somewhere, but it's a joke.

I would recommend downloading Bust Your Windows; Lions, Tigers & Bears; Call Me Guilty; Fear; and, In Love With Another Man. The rest are either run of the mill enough to leave behind or forgettable.

Macy Gray - Big

Overview: With another studio album slated for later this year, I thought I would look back at the last release by Macy Gray. I got into this album somewhat recently, so some songs are still in the initial phase where I over-praise or over-criticize. Although I make distinctions between faster and slower songs, the majority of these songs would seem very subdued compared to many other artists. These description only apply when compared to the other tracks on the album.

If you don't feel like reading the track by track breakdown below, let me summarize:
put this album on shuffle/random whatever mixing option you have. The order of the songs makes no sense. The second half of the CD is much better overall than the first, with the top tracks being Strange Behavior (track 8) and Treat Me Like Your Money (track 11).

1. Finally Made Me Happy (feat. Natalie Cole)
This song takes a while to get going, and I wonder at first why it's the first song on the album, but by the time Cole scats all over the track for the first time I'm pulled in. Neither Cole nor Gray have the types of voices usually found in mainstream music, but their respective grit compliment each other greatly.

2. Shoo Be Doo
The flow from the first track kind of slides right into this song. We're still in a comfortable zone away from the sounds that would have made this single more popular, but the result is a pleasing and authentic loungy/soul experience. Everything Gray does, I believe comes from her, not someone saying 'add some sort of run here.'

3. What I Gotta Do
My first instinct on this song would be that an introspective slower track like this usually isn't so close to the beginning of the disc. Enter the Shrek 3 soundtrack, where this song takes on a new connotation. I'm not really sure about the nature of the song, and whether it is meant to apply to Macy, Shrek or some strange combination of both.

4. Okay
The opening snare announces a return to form. JTimberake and will.i.am provide some backing vocals in this song announcing a jilted lover's independence and survival. The fake-child singing would usually get on my nerves, but it works here.

5. Glad You're Here (feat. Fergie)
Changing pace again, Gray presents a ballad that pretty much sounds like the title suggests. Woman is glad her is there. Fergie is sufficient at singing the chorus and limiting herself from going to outside that box.

6. Ghetto Love
A more up-tempo track gathers more swagger and utilizes the country's fascination with spelling in their music. Whether learning how to spell bananas, glamorous, or ghetto, we're suckers for educational music.

7. One For Me
The slower groove found here is a nice relaxing song about falling in love. I find myself starting to not care for the songs as I listen to the album in order. I'm not sure who was in charge of the album's order, but alternating between up-tempo and slower songs makes it very difficult to establish a rhythm while listening.

8. Strange Behavior
I love this song. It's a quirky tale of love, murder and insurance fraud. It's not overdone in instrumentation which grants a more innocent feel as Gray sings about shooting a fictional husband. It's also not her first song about committing murder.

9. Slowly
Picking up slightly is a song about taking it easy in a relationship.

10. Get Out
Another pairing of Macy and JT provides another up-tempo success. It's as if for the final few tracks, someone decided to change the feel of the album, but it's working.

11. Treat Me Like Your Money (feat. will.i.am)
Featuring a sample of "You Spin Me Round (like a Record)" [take that, Flo Rida] and a verse by will.i.am, this is another song that deserves better placement on this album. It's kind of danceable, in a weird way that wouldn't really suit a club without a big remix, but it's definitely music you can shake to listening to it alone.

12. Everybody
This is the kind of announcement, 'here I am' song that usually comes first on albums. When the first line is "get on the dance floor, and shake it with me," that would have been a welcome change to Finally Made Me Happy.

Conclusion:
When I usually listen to this CD, I put it on shuffle and I love it. Listening to the songs in order makes me angry at whoever designed this order. Everybody should be track 1, with Get Out and Treat Me Like Your Money moving up before What I Got To Do. Moving these to the front will give Big a much stronger initial impression that I think would add to its presentation as an album, rather than a disjointed collection of songs. Even though I'm coming across as a lot more critical than I actually feel about the album, I really do enjoy a lot of what it offers. I think Macy Gray is very underrated and that Big is a great addition to a soul/r&b collection.