In less than 12 hours I'll be on the road to Gulf Shores, Alabama for Spring Break. Not relevant to this post, but I'm pretty excited about it, so I thought I'd share.
Now, this week's free single isn't something I'm likely to play from a boombox on the beach this week, but the group that wrote it is pretty awesome. "Me and My Broken Heart" is a trite little pop hit, but the group that put it together is a foursome of budding pop stars from the UK calling themselves Rixton. They released their first single last year, "Make Out". It's pretty standard party anthem fare - very catchy. What stands out is the music video, which parodies Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Robin Thicke in one fell swoop.
If this music video serves to do anything, it showcases how creative and unashamed Rixton is in their quest to show off their talent. And someone noticed (a very important someone at that). Scooter Braun - famous for signing Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen and others - signed Jake Roche (lead vocals), Danny Wilkin (bass guitar/keys), Charley Bagnall (lead guitarist) and Lewi Morgan(drummer), and the group changed their name from Relics to Rixton to prep them for the pop scene. They've released their first EP sharing the name of the free single, Me and My Broken Heart, and they accomplish a sound that harkens to Maroon 5, but with an English twist and a youthful abandon that you don't get out of Adam Levine anymore.
All that said about the group, the choice of free single doesn't do much for me. Let's look at why.
Another week, another free single, another bout of mixed feelings and mild disappointment. This week's single was written by rising pop artist Egberts Nathaniel Dawkins III. Sorry, you probably know him better by his stage name, Aloe Blacc. If that doesn't ring any bells, then you probably recognize the voice of that guy that sang (and wrote) that Aviicii song.
Egbert... excuse me, Aloe Blacc has been creating music since 1995, and apparently wallowed in relative obscurity for 18 years before being instrumental in a pop hit that reached #1 in 102 different countries. Talk about perseverance. He has worked in a slew of different genres including soul, R&B, jazz, hip-hop and funk, before reaching mainstream propriety and achieving pop music status.
This week's free single is the title track for his latest album, Lift Your Spirit, Blacc's third solo album. Having listened to samples from each of his three albums I can say that Lift Your Spirit is definitely a change of artistic direction for him. And I think that, regrettably, this is his best-received album yet.
This week we have another band from the east coast delivering our free music. You may recognize American Authors from their recent radio hit, "Best Day of My Life", which rose to platinum status after being featured in a handful of commercials and a summer movie trailer. That single was integrated into their first full album, Oh, What a Life, released this March.
Unlike some of the indie trash we've been listening to, the American Authors have a solid pedigree. Its members - Zac Barnett (lead vocals), James Adam Shelley (guitar, banjo), Dave Rublin (bass) and Matt Sanchez (drums) - met while studying at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. They graduated in 2006 and went on to form a band called The Blue Pages. In 2012, the band moved to Brooklyn and reinvented itself into the group we know today, American Authors.
Their alternative rock sound is peppered with full-bodied choruses, Shelley's folksy banjo accents, and background vocal work that is infectiously easy to sing along to and provides beautiful harmonies. This first album is convincingly energetic and passionate thanks to Barnett's vocals. Either there's something in the water at Berlee, or they really are teaching them something. Our free single, "Believer", is the first track on the album, so without any further ado, we'll dive into it.
I used to be pretty good at math. Back in second grade - my "heyday," if you will - I was the first kid in my class to add and subtract numbers in the thousands. So, y'know, kind of a big deal. I progressed through the ranks nicely. Multiplication tables, division, then on to algebra, geometry, even trigonometry and statistics. Oh yeah, I did it all, climbing the ranks, until I became a journalism major. I'm more of a "word guy" these days, and my skills are deteriorating. I'm embarrassed to say that I Googled how to do long division last month. My ego took a hit, but my budget has thanked me.
Valeska Steiner and Sonja Glass of BOY. Photo by Matze
Hielscher.
Fortunately, to appreciate this week's free single you only need a rudimentary mathematical knowledge of the number seven. "Little Numbers," by Europop duo, BOY, is the premier single off of their debut album Mutual Friends. Though the album was released in 2011, we're just seeing it state-side for the first time, listening to the bright sounds of singer/guitarist Valeska Steiner and bassist Sonja Glass. Though new to the states, BOY is largely acclaimed in Europe, having won several awards including one for best new artist. The pair has been compared to female singer/songwriter acts like Feist and Regina Spektor (I would disagree, but we'll delve into that after the jump).
Arrhythmia refers to abnormal electric activity in the heart. It can cause the beating of the heart to be too fast, too slow, or to vary in pace becoming irregular and restless. Personally, I think this disease is worthy of song - let's raise some awareness, folks - but I have yet to hear such a ditty.
As I wait for an equally medically-inclined music enthusiast to write a song about the trials of arrhythmia, this Tuesday's single, "Restless Heart" by Matt Hires, will suffice at filling this void in my music collection. Matt is a singer-songwriter out of Tampa, Florida. He is most well-known for his 2009 album, Take Us to the Start, which saw two tracks aired on popular ABC shows Private Practice and Grey's Anatomy. Not that I would know from watching the shows, or anything. I looked it up on Wikipedia, I swear.
Whenever I download these tracks and click play, I'm always hesitant. I like to go in blind, relish in the surprise of being greeted by the jams of any given genre. I love how this track starts out.
