Take Care (Drake Medley) – Joseph SoMo

For those of you who have read my posts for a while, you’ll know that I thought Drake absolutely killed it with his latest album Take Care. I went through a love affair with each song separately and for the first time really realised the genius of Drake’s lyrics. For any fans of that album, this post is an absolute must-read. You will fall in love with what you’re about to hear. 

The Year In: Collaborations

Collabs (abbreviations are the only way that this post is going to be written with a trace of coherency before I collapse into my bed surrounded my holiday prep and Hardy) came into their own this year. We’ve had some inspired pairings and some purely marketed for number 1 status (I’m looking at 2/3 of yours, KP.) Let’s take a gander at some of the best:

 

The Can You Hear This Countdown: Album of the Year

Picture Perfect: 2011’s best (according to Henry, Michael, Jonah and Bal) albums

Ho, ho, ho. Welcome to the second installment of the Can You Hear This Countdown (we’re going to work on a better name for next year but as I am editing this at 2:00 am that’s what you’re getting- Merry Christmas.) We’re moving on from single of the year to album of the year now. Since I started writing for Can You Hear This, I’ve noticed how much more I listen to albums as a whole. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with just listening to singles (hell, most of my favourite artists are probably classified as singles artists) but when you hear 10 or so tracks back to back, it can lend individual songs more coherency. Of course, it can also make something seem even more incongruous but I crave context. And in 2011, albums like 4 and Take Care only really come into their own when heard as a whole. So there you go, my new years resolution: Listen to more albums. I’m a man of ambition, you can see. Final installment’s on Friday (Friday, Friday.)

10 Things I Love About Pop: Week 7

Do you remember when I promised a review of Talk That Talk earlier this week? Well, do you remember when I promised a review of 4 earlier this summer? The point is, I can be forgetful. So to strike while the pop-iron is hot, I’ve decided to dedicate this week’s column to the two hottest things in pop music at the moment. That’s five highlights from Rihanna’s new album, and three from Drake’s. As a side note, I won’t be featuring previously reviewed tracks, We Found Love or Where Have You Been. Jonah, who is a much more accomplished Drake source than me has already reviewed Make Me Proud, Crew Love, Shot For Me and Underground Kings (hence why I’m reviewing fewer Drake tracks). So check that out. If Barbadian pop stars or Canadian rappers aren’t your thing, I apologise. Better luck next week?

10 Things I Love About Pop: Week 6

Talking That Talk (in black and white): It’s been a moody time in pop. Not really, but I couldn’t find colour photos.

Last week was pretty dramatic for me, and pop music. And the WORLD.  So let’s take a more peaceful gander through the world of pop music this week. No apocalyptic visions, just ear-friendly beats. It was a Rihanna-centric week which is good news for anyone who’s a fan of the Good Girl Gone Debauched, bad for anyone who still has Umber-ella-ella-ella ringing through their brain. This is also a video-heavy post, because a) there seemed to be rather a lot this week and b) I’m tired. Let’s pop!

Ten Things I Love About Pop: Week 5

Pop Pantheism: The chart-toppers getting through the week, this week.

The thing about being obsessed with something more than the average observer, pop music being as good an example as any, is that when something major happens, you have fewer people to talk about with. If I had wanted to talk about Italian politics or American presidential debates this week, I would have been fine. But I didn’t. I wanted to talk about seismic shifts within the pop music industry. It just seems that that’s not something anyone around me wants to take seriously yet. And so 10 Things I Love About Pop could probably have been renamed 10 Things I Wanted To Discuss All Week And Will Rant To You About. Don’t you feel like the luckiest people in the world?

Underground Kings – Drake

Another album for which there has been an absolutely massive amount of anticipation. Drake’s Take Care is his second full album, and after early releases of Marvin’s Room, Headlines, and Trust Issues, everybody who loves Drake could not be more excited. The official release is set for November 15th, but over here, we got lucky and I managed to get my hands on an early copy.

Marvin’s Room – Drake

I’ll admit straight off the bat that I’m not a huge Drake fan. For me he tends to use slightly too much auto-tune, and I find a lot of his music kind of shallow. The only other thing associated with Drake that we’ve featured is that awesome Deadboy Remix of Fireworks. Take a listen to Marvin’s Room, a track that’s a part of Drake’s new album Take Care, out October 24th.

I know it’s kind of melancholy, but hey, it works. Especially for me, since it’s pouring with rain outside at this very point in time. To me this track is a great example of the ‘less is more’ theory. All Drake uses is a soft backing, and it makes his voice and his words stick out and really hit home. They also seem to be heartfelt, and it’s a nice change that he’s not trying to figure out the square root of 69. I’ll be interested to hear what the album is like. Download here.