Monthly Archives: August 2011

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Song of the Day #1,141: ‘Hair’ – Lady Gaga

Lady GaGa’s second full-length album, Born This Way, arrived with such fanfare and hype that it couldn’t help but disappoint. It sold well (in part because of a mega-discounted Web deal) but nobody got all that excited about it.

And I’m kind of happy about that. Not because I don’t like Lady GaGa — I do — but because bringing her down to earth might be the best way to shift her focus from the pageantry to the music. GaGa’s music, as it turns out, it actually damn good. And Born This Way shows more promise of a long career than the admittedly addictive pop flash of her Fame records.

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Song of the Day #1,140: ‘Little Miss’ – Sugarland

Sugarland’s 2010 Incredible Machine is an album I never got around to ranking or reviewing, primarily because I never got around to listening to it more than twice.

The band’s 2008 album, Love On the Inside, was a breath of fresh air that really made an impact. This was one of the rare country albums that I took to before I drank the Brad Paisley Kool-Aid a year or so later.

Love On the Inside is full of charm, wit and spirit. Kristian Bush, half of the under-appreciated Billy Pilgrim, brought some of that band’s sound to his work with Jennifer Nettles, and Nettles’ brassy twang suited the collection splendidly. The album deservedly put Sugarland on a superstar pedestal.

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Song of the Day #1,139: ‘Leave Her Alone’ – Steven Page

Two years ago I did a theme week on Barenaked Ladies and, in my final post, lamented the fact that lead singer and co-writer Steven Page had left the band. Would they be able to carry on without him in anything like the fashion they had established over the first fifteen years of their existence? And what would Page accomplish on his own?

Two years later, we have our answers. Barenaked Ladies released All in Good Time, their first Page-less album, to generally good reviews, though a couple of early pans and lack of enthusiasm over the song snippets I’ve heard kept me from buying the album.

And Steven Page released a solo album, Page One, that’s better than almost anything Barenaked Ladies ever put out.

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Song of the Day #1,138: ‘Ugly Truth’ – Lucinda Williams

I’ve already reviewed Lucinda Williams’ 2011 album, Blessed, so this will be more of a look-back. As I mentioned in last week’s R.E.M. post, it’s often only months after the fact that I know how I really feel about an album.

Without exception, Lucinda Williams’ albums have aged well. In fact, they are the musical equivalent of one of those movies that I need to see twice to really get. I liked just about every Coen Brothers movie after one viewing and loved them after two. Williams is in the same boat.

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Song of the Day #1,137: ‘Love You Like a Love Song’ – Selena Gomez & The Scene

Today’s entry doesn’t qualify as a proper album review like the rest of my songs this week and last because I haven’t actually heard the whole album, just three tracks.

My daughters are big fans of the Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place, which stars Selena Gomez as a smart-aleck teenage witch. Gomez is a charming actress and not a bad singer, giving her a leg up on many of the wannabe multi-platform stars on the tween shows that have overtaken my TV.

Gomez is also dating Justin Bieber, making her the envy (and target) of an army of little girls. And boy, could she do better.

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