A Tribute to the 2010 Grads

Commencement speaker I am not, but I'll still take a moment to say a few things to all of my fellow 2010 graduates. What prompted this post is a matter of sheer coincidence (at least I think) that I happened to notice, and thus have analyzed as a sort of 'sign'.

In case you can't recall our high school graduation in 2006, our senior song was "Forever Young". There was a great cover version of Alphaville's original that the band Youth Group created that year, which was featured on The OC (and of course, that's why we all knew it). It was a great song, and an obvious pick for our graduation ceremony. We didn't have to worry about any cuss words or hidden messages. Our task was plain and simple: please the grads, and please their parents. Of course Youth Group's "Forever Young" made the cut, it was a modern-sounding version of a song that our parents used to sing when they were growing up. No possibility of trouble with lyrics like:

Youth is like diamonds in the sun
And diamonds are forever.



What I find interesting is that just within the last couple of weeks... just about the time we're getting ready to close the next chapter of our lives, another great cover of "Forever Young" hit the radio. Four years later and just before our college graduation, radio stations are now playing the newest version of the classic, this time created by Jay-Z and British singer Mr. Hudson (one of whose albums I have reviewed earlier in this blog).

Now let's take a deeper look and contrast the new version's lyrics with the old though. Jay-Z's lyrics that are supposed to be equally profound to those of Alphaville say:

So let's just stay in the moment,
smoke some weed, drink some wine
Reminisce, talk some shit,
forever young is in your mind.

My my, how the times have changed. Look how far we've come?! I have to say, although I'm a Jay fan, he has never been the best lyricist in the rap game. Interesting thought, Mr. Carter, but I think I'll pick the Youth Group contender as the winner in this battle. Jay's rendition of "Forever Young" is a worthwhile listen nonetheless. Mr. Hudson's voice provides a great parallel with the original version of the track, which creates an interesting contrast with the new lyrics. However, I'm not sure if I would want this one playing at my UC Davis graduation ceremony in a couple of weeks though.



Regardless of which version you prefer, the overall message is the same. Just remember that no matter where you are, and no matter what you're doing in life, you should always take time to enjoy the little things. They may seem trivial to you at certain times, but they are, after all, what keep us "Forever Young".

FYI - New Blog

Just wanted to let ya'll know (if you don't already) that I'm now also writing music posts for British culture blog "Touching From a Distance" (which I'll abbreviate as TFAD in the future). I have two posts up already - one on Ben Harper's "Diamonds on the Inside" and the other on Dr. Dog's "Shame, Shame". Many more to come. It's a wonderful blog; make sure to check out posts by other contributors for some quality writing and entertainment.

Here's the link to the website:

http://www.touchingfromadistance.co.uk/

And, of course, I'm going to keep updating this blog as well when I can. Cheers!

Beats Antique - "Collide"

I first heard of Beats Antique while listening to my Thievery Corporation station on Pandora. As with many of my new artist discoveries, after giving a few songs by the same artist an electronic "thumbs up", I decided to look further into Beats Antique and learn more about their music. You could likely guess by the cover artwork that this particular album, "Collide", should probably be categorized under world music or fusion.

A few tracks on this album definitely caught my ear upon first listen. Although my favorite tracks may sound somewhat similar, I still think that they're the best three on the album. "Dope Crunk" might be best defined as "Brass Monkey" meets traditional belly dance music with some glitch electronica. "Borino" is very clearly more of a latin-influenced track that for the most part features a muted trumpet (which I love) as far as my ears tell me. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a youtube video for "Borino" so you may have to try to find it elsewhere. Overall, I think it'd be safe to say that if you don't like the way brass instruments sound, you probably will not like this album.

To be quite honest, the track "Roustabout" sketches me out a little bit. A major part of the beat can really only be described as ... carnival music. If not creepy, it's just plain weird. I'm all for experimentation, but I think that this particular experiment may have been slightly over the top. The rest of the tracks on "Collide" are rather mediocre and don't really stand out much at all, at least not to me.

My suggestion would be to take a listen sometime when you're feeling in the mood for something different. While it works well in various environments, I prefer listening to this album as background music when I'm hanging out with buddies or doing something else. I think it's a bit lackluster to play as a main focus, but works well as a side distraction for other activity.

My vote: 3 stars
My favorite tracks: "Dope Crunk" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql4HcdLyYac & "Nestavo" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDgp3w1Dl54 & "Borino"