Most New Releases Fall Flat 03-27-2011 - by Dante Alexander, Staff Mumbler Have The Strokes gone soft? Have Chris Brown's outbursts overshadowed his new album? There seems to be a lack of fresh faces, and the old ones grow more stale and uninteresting.
For the most part, new releases have been majorly unimpressive. For what seems the first time in a long while, the music industry has stopped barraging us with rising new artists and their catchy singles that are most always forgotten in a month or so- and one would think that would be good, right? Strangely, though, all of the artists we have grown so familiar with over the years fall flat; where they have finally reclaimed the spotlight one would think they deserve, they disappoint completely.
The Strokes have returned after a long hiatus, but with a new sound that has alienated many fans. Straying from their more rock oriented roots, their most recent album, Angles, has often been compared to eighties pop music, and not in a good way. It has lost much of its edge, and if compared to earlier songs, such as "Juicebox," it's clear that this is quite the appalling change. Much of the album sounds the same, and there is not a single track in the mix that is actually memorable.
Then there's the album, F.A.M.E, by Chris Brown. Whereas the Strokes new album seems quite the failure musically, Brown's new CD is at least tolerable. Some songs sound crudely put together, and you wont find that many songs that leave an impression on you compared to his earlier work, but his new album is at least, from a more critical standpoint, decent enough. However, despite being quite average, it doesn't hardly stand out as much as Brown's recent behavior. It's possible that this release would have reached a much smaller audience if Brown was not in the public eye- trashing dressing rooms and running around shirtless on the street -because despite not being all that bad, it is still very unremarkable.
Likewise, this seems to be the story with many of the artists we know. Lady Gaga's new song, Born This Way sounds much too bland and typical when compared with the rest of her songs, Avril Lavigne's new video is still very popular, though a sharp decline in her musical talents is evident, and Brittney Spears is trending on Yahoo, but for what? She hasn't released a single song of late that is even worth humming along to. Finally we have peace from the constant annoyance of new, untalented artists, yet nothing good has come out of it.
On the other hand, the one act that seems to stand out at the moment is relatively new, or if not new, at least vastly more popular now. Wiz Khalifa's song, "Black and Yellow" has, at the moment, over fifty-seven-million views on Youtube, and they seem rightly deserved. The backing instrumentals stand out, the beat is catchy, and though the vocals are not the best in all of hip-hop, there is the sense that the artist is capable of much more. While not exactly amazing, "Black and Yellow" is still great to hear in contrast with all of the new music that has been so disappointing lately. On a 1 to 10 scale, "Black and Yellow" is at least a solid 6.5, or even a 7 if you're in the right mood for it.
