Baby Be Mine

When I first heard this song it haunted me. I heard a snippet of it and said, "now that sounds familiar". The more it played the more I realized it was a remake of the classic Micheal Jackson song Baby Be Mine off of his record breaking Thriller LP. This remake is on the Think Like a Man soundtrack and since I'm a fan of the film I decided to give the soundtrack another chance to grow on me. Nothing did but this sexy remake.

It's brought to us by a Danish duo that calls itself Quadron. On vocals is Coco Maja Hastrup Karshøj and everything else is done by Robin Hannibal. Together they took one of my favorite MJ songs, slowed it down, and vamped it up. I love it. I think they show a real appreciation and love for MJ and I liked that they chose this song to redo. Baby Be Mine truly got overshadowed on Thriller, but now maybe it'll get some well deserved love.

I love Coco's voice, how it cracks at times and sometimes it just can't reach that note. I love that she's not trying to "be" Michael and Robin is not trying to "be" Quincy Jones. The backing track is hypnotic and so effective in its simplicity. I loved the original from day one and now I love it's remake. I hope you do too, enjoy!

p.s. don't let the video distract you from the song until the end :)

Run This Town

When I found this song I was honestly excited and giddy. I am a fan of everyone on this song. The brothers that made up the group E.S. Posthumus decided to add a more cinematic flare and epic drama to Jay-Z and Rihanna's Run This Town and it's really hard not to love this tune. Even if you aren't a hip hop fan, it's hard not to appreciate what they did, especially if you know what the original sounds like.

If you don't know anything about E.S. Posthumus' music then allow me to open that door for you. They are have already blessed my blog with the song Varuna (which is amazing in its relentlessness, it doesn't stop coming after you), it's a song I really love and it made me a bigger fan of the group. Then I heard what they did to Jay-Z' Run This Town and I was blown away.

There's an added darkness, a serious edge to this remix that the original missed out on. It makes the song more dangerous even though there are times where Jay is drowned out by the music. I think E.S. was banking on the the fact that you already knew the original so they weren't worried about you hearing Jay all that much. And Jay deserves some credit for allowing this remix to even be done. It's a job well done by everyone. Enjoy!

Galu Nobel (Amour)

There is really not much to say about this song except it is phenomenally beautiful. It's by the great Wasis Diop and no I can't understand what he's saying and yes it is only one minute and thirty six seconds long, so what! It is amazing and I wanted to introduce Wasis, a man I have been a fan of for more than a decade now to you and what better song than this mere taste? The song is called Galu Nobel (Amour) and I hope you enjoy and come to love it as much as I do.

Madelena

I was a bit edgy this evening. I don't know why and I hate when I get that way, when I can't self diagnose my own issue. The one thing that has always pulled me back from the brink has been music, not just any kind though. It usually has to be something I feel is special, something that stirs my soul, something like this song by Brian Culbertson. It's called Madelena and it's beauty is something I've not heard in awhile. Though Brian has never let me down before in his ability to make some songs blow me away.

Off of his 2012 release entitled Dreams, Madelena to me is the jewel of the album though some would argue that Still Here featuring Vivian Green holds that title. Still Here is amazing but my money is on this pretty piece of music right here. Now I said in a previous post that if you weren't up on some U2 music that you were living under a big, heavy rock. If you have never heard of Brian Culbertson then you're still living under a rock but it's more like a pebble this time around.

It was an off night for me. A bad night, an aggravating one of my own design. Perhaps I owe some people an apology. I just hope they understand that whatever happened wasn't solely on them, my fingerprints are all over "it" as well. Brian pulled me off the ledge and Madelena cleared all the clutter out of my head, so much so that I just had to share it with you. Enjoy!

Beautiful Day

Here's another tune I love, mainly because it just reminds me of my favorite season, Summer. I am a pretty nice sized U2 fan (saw em in concert, bought their CD's, watched Rattle and Hum more times than I can remember) so I say that to say this, I'm pretty familiar with their material. If you arent't then you've been living under a rock, a big heavy one too, seriously! The name of the song is Beautiful Day off of their 2000 album All That You Can't Leave Behind. This was a shaky time for U2. They were coming off the disappointing sales of Zooropa and Pop and people were wondering if they still had it. The band releases this album and the questions cease.

This is one of my favorite songs off this album because it felt like the band had gone back to their roots. Before this album it seems they were evolving in a way that lost them some fans (like me). This album seems to be them finding their way back on the right musical path. I played this song constantly because not only did I love the music and the lyrics but I also loved the sentiment.


Like I said, not THE favorite but one of them and I felt it was time I shared that on my blog. Don't like it? Start your own blog...lol Enjoy!

Seconds of Pleasure

Now honestly I am surprised and disappointed in myself. You may ask why that is (and if you don't then there may be something wrong with you). The answer is simple, I really thought I had previously blogged this song but it seems I hadn't, which is shocking. This should have been one of the first posts. It's a sexy ass song by Van Hunt entitled Seconds of Pleasure. It's off of his 2004 debut album Van Hunt.

The tune is both smooth and like I stated above, sexy. It's a song that will put a smile on your face because it's just a nice song once you take a real listen to the lyrics. It may sound like baby making music but it was baby making music that inspired some of the content in this song. When Van Hunt sings lines like It's the shine of a precious pearl/Light of the world/Smile of our baby girl or It's the taste, the taste, the taste of soda pop/lemon drop/Last one in the box you realize that he's actually talking about those seconds of pleasure. It's a song about slowing down and smelling the roses and living in the moment.

Melodically the song is a treat as well and it quickly became a favorite of mine. Maybe if this is your first time hearing it, it will become a favorite of yours and you'll learn how to enjoy those precious seconds of pleasure. Enjoy. 

Fake

I'm back! I know, I know, I've been gone for a minute. And I left to you to linger with some folk song that while funny was like EIGHTEEN damn minutes long. My bad, but now that my manuscript is finished I am back to lay a classic on you (and by classic I mean something from the 80's). It's Fake by Alexander O'Neal, it's a burner for sure and while the lyrics weren't exactly paradigm shifting, the music certainly was.

Fake was O'Neal's biggest hit. It hit number one on the R&B charts (his only number one song in his career) and that along with a few other songs propelled his album Hearsay to number twenty nine on the charts. While Alex would never again know that kind of success there was a moment when he was the biggest thing in R&B.

I won't get into Alex' history, his fights with Prince, his addictions and demons that tore him from the top of the R&B world. There is no point to rehash any of that in my opinion. What I enjoy rehashing is this classic tune written and produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and blessed with Alexander's vocals. I will ALWAYS love this song!