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Song of the Day #1,111: ‘Hurt’ – Christina Aguilera

Christina Aguilera is the artist who was most in need of image rehabilitation before the debut of The Voice.

In the previous year or so she’d made headlines for splitting with her husband, flubbing the lyrics of the national anthem at the Super Bowl and tripping onstage at the Grammys. And her most recent album, Bionic, was a high-profile flop.

On The Voice, she didn’t really do herself any favors. Her teasing banter with her co-hosts, Adam Levine in particular, was often more awkward than funny and at times she seemed to have a bit of a cruel streak.

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Song of the Day #1,110: ‘Bright Lights Bigger City’ – Cee-Lo Green

Our second Voice coach, Cee-Lo Green, has had a hell of a year.

Previously best known for his stint with Gnarls Barkley (specifically the smash hit ‘Crazy’), Cee-Lo lit up the airwaves again in late 2010 with the infectious ‘Fuck You‘ (released as ‘Forget You’ on radio).

Ever the showman, he teamed up with Gwyneth Paltrow for a performance of the song on the Grammys that saw him dressed in a yellow turkey suit alongside a chorus of muppets.

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Song of the Day #1,109: ‘Sunday Morning’ – Maroon 5

My next batch of posts won’t be as timely as they would have been a few weeks back, but I’ve wanted to do a series of posts related to the NBC show The Voice, so better late than never. This week I’ll feature songs by each of the four coaches and next week I’ll highlight music by the contestants.

The Voice is the first of the millennium’s many talent-based reality shows that I’ve watched, and the reason it appealed to me more than the American Idols and America’s Got Talents of the world is its use of coaches as opposed to judges.

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Song of the Day #1,108: ‘Celebrity’ – Brad Paisley

As Brad Paisley became more successful, his silly videos became more star-studded. William Shatner and Jason Alexander, in particular, would become staples of Paisley’s videos in the years to come.

Paisley was still just a minor star, however, when he wrote ‘Celebrity,’ a clever song lampooning the Hollywood culture. His focus is on the ridiculously privileged lives of the famous, and the reality show-fueled obsession ordinary people have with joining those ranks. He gets off some great lines in a supremely catchy song.

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Song of the Day #1,107: ‘Mud On the Tires’ – Brad Paisley

Two years after Part II, Brad Paisley released his third album, 2003’s Mud On the Tires. This one is a sentimental favorite of mine… I’d number it among his 2-3 best records.

This album is when critics and fans alike really started to stand up and take notice of Paisley’s talent. He’d had modest hits on his first two records, and they were well-received, but Mud On the Tires took things to a whole new level.

The album’s title is taken from today’s SOTD, in which it’s meant quite literally, but it’s also a metaphor for Paisley’s career. He felt that at this point he’d been around the block a few times — had a little mud on his tires — and could start stretching his wings a bit.

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