Guest blogger Dana continues…
This is another one that came up in my comments to your list regarding what I thought were some conspicuous omissions.
Like you, I am not a huge fan of Mars, and I have never bought one of his albums. However, his talent is really quite undeniable, even if I don’t always love his style.
Last July I spent two weeks on summer singles — those songs that dominate the airwaves during these carefree months. Songs that mostly check their brains at the door and ask nothing of the listener but to hum or dance along.
I’ve traditionally been way behind in discovering summer singles, often not hearing them until months later. I’m the guy who didn’t hear ‘Umbrella’ or ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ until they’d been in rotation for more than a year. Last summer I proactively remedied that situation, and this summer I’ve aiming to do so again.
Moving into another week of summer singles, I find myself wondering why almost all of these songs “feature” somebody other than the lead artist. I suppose that’s standard procedure in hip-hop, the equivalent of a special guest star on a TV show during sweeps week. At times the collaborations are compelling (see Rihanna and Lil Wayne’s contributions to Eminem’s Recovery) but I usually find it gimmicky.
Bruno Mars shows up as a guest singer on a few of the tracks I came across when picking songs for the blog. I don’t know if he’s released any albums on his own of if he’s professional accompaniment. Something about the guy makes me want to smack him but he has a nice voice.
Meet Me In Montauk 