This is not a true midyear Top 10 list. The Grammy Awards, as noted last week, is ending its year a little early, with the eligibility period for next year's awards coming to a close on Sept. 30.
What follows is a look at some of the more notable releases of late 2007 and the first half of 2008, and how they may fare come Grammy time. Some are major efforts from established artists, and others, while Grammy long shots, are simply albums deserving of more recognition.
Five albums are discussed in this post, and five more will be discussed later in the week. Any favorites you want to highlight? Please share in the comments below.
And click here for a look at some of the notable new artists of 2008 ... thus far. It should be noted that some of the newcomers, such as Duffy, may also figure into the album-of-the-year discussion, but in the interest of spreading the wealth, repeats from last week will not be discussed here.
Gnarls Barkley, "The Odd Couple": Sophomore effort from the duo of Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo, and the follow-up to the album-of-the-year-nominated "St. Elsewhere." Grammy potential: Any act that's already released one album-of-the-year-nominated album would certainly figure into the Grammy conversation. However, "St. Elsewhere" was a bit of a phenomena, and was driven largely by the success of crossover smash "Crazy." "St. Elsewhere" has lacked such a hit, and while certainly a success -- the album is still in the top 200 of the U.S. pop chart more than two months after its release -- "The Odd Couple" is an album that showcases Gnarls Barkley's weirdness ahead of its mainstream appeal.
Grammy deserving: Without "Crazy," "St. Elsewhere" was a spooked, R&B-flavored psychedelic headtrip. "The Odd Couple" is even more out there, filtering '70s soul through an assortment of out-of-this-world effects, and coming off like a gleefully cartoonish nightmare. But it's also a wonderful showcase for Cee-Lo, and his growth as a soul vocalist (Check out the scorching album-opener "Who's Gonna Save My Soul"). It's one of the finest albums released this year.
The news: ABC premiered Miley Cyrus' latest video,"7 Things," on Saturday night. The clip is from "Breakout," the teen star's forthcoming album, due in stores July 22. Why this is being discussed: With the song, and the album, Miley seems to be positioning herself to gently transition out of the teen star world. To wit, she's supposedly had a greater hand in writing the album, and blockbuster Hollywood director Brett Ratner ("Rush Hour") was drafted to direct the video for "7 Things." Ratner was last seen in the music video world working for Mariah Carey, having directed her "Touch My Body." That song is certainly one of the biggest singles of 2007, and while the Ratner touch hasn't always proven to be golden ("After the Sunset"?), it brings some added attention and anticipation to the clip.
Are the ever-increasing gas prices taking a toll on the touring market? A number of top-level touring biz execs seem to think so, as quoted by Rolling Stone in this news item from the magazine's current issue.
After noting that sales for tours from such top-tier artists as Bruce Springsteen and Nine Inch Nails appear to be slow in some markets, Steve Knopper's story quotes Alex Hodges, chief operating officer for Nederlander Concerts in Los Angeles, as saying about gas prices: "It has an effect when people are filling up their cars for $80 ... How many concerts are they going to go to with all the other costs?"
Of course. 'Cause the problem may not actually lie, you know, within the music business.
But there's more.
Noticing that name events like Coachella and Bonnaroo have sold out, Rolling Stone later quotes AEG live president Randy Phillips as saying: "My concern is going forward. I hear oil is predicted to reach $200 a barrel on the open market — if that keeps ratcheting up, I'm not sure what the impact is going to be."
The year may be at its midpoint, but when it comes to the Grammys,
that mark has long since passed. With the eligibility period for next
year’s awards ending on Sept. 30, there’s little more than three months
left in the world of Grammy.
One of Grammy's most confounding -- and most debated --
categories is the best new artist field. So with Grammy season only
weeks away, this week Extended Play is taking a look at some
of 2008's notable new artists, and how they may fare come Grammy time.
Next week, the same treatment will be given to the top
albums at midyear. Click here to read the first installment.
Santogold: Real name Santi White, the producer/artist released a genre-hopping self-titled debut this spring, mixing reggae, new wave and hip-hop into a dance-friendly mix.
Grammy potential: There's been no shortage of attention on Santogold, and she's been a licensing fiend. That's Santogold you heard selling some bad beer, and she's also recorded a song for a shoe company, facts of which have inspired a bit of an online debate. But all this means she'll be heard by the voting contingent, and she's also a respected writer/producer, which should help her (she's written for Ashlee Simpson, and produced the debut from under-appreciated R&B singer Res). Critically, Santogold's been well received, and her debut won comparisons to globe-trotting electronic artist M.I.A. While not a completely accurate reference -- Santogold is far more rock 'n' roll -- it hints at Santogold's ambitions. Ultimately, Santogold may prove to be a bit too ambitious for a best new artist nod. Working in her favor, however, will be some high-profile gigs opening for Coldplay.
Grammy deserving: For all the hype surrounding Santogold's debut, the artist's recycling of dub and '80s sounds has resulted in a debut that's starting to sound dated only a few weeks after its release. But it's an inventive enough debut that it'd be worthy of more recognition.
Held Tuesday night in Los Angeles, credit the BET Awards for lining up a solid list of performers, so much so that the network stretched 14 awards into a three-hour telecast. So let's get right to the point:
Usher, "Love in This Club." Usher's show-opener was full of life, thanks to the star's fancy footwork, which were a few steps ahead of the taped vocals. But singing wasn't the point -- showing that the low-key single could be a club-banger with the best of 'em was the prime objective, and in that, the performance was largely a success. Grade: B
Young Jeezy and Kanye West, "Put On." The Southern rapper is all blunt coarseness, but Kanye West brings haunting undertones to an otherwise rote, hands-in-the-air crowd pleaser, thanks to his slow-groove beat. But there's no subtlety in Jeezy's delivery, and that suits this celebration of hometown pride just fine. West arrives for a verse in the finale, and he adopts some trendy, electronically enhanced vocals for the cut. But West is captivating without vocal special effects, and it feels more like an exercise than an experiment. Grade: C+
There had been no doubt that Coldplay would land at No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart, which will be released tomorrow morning. The only question was how much would the British rockers sell.
While the band won't touch the million-plus units sold last week by rapper-of-the-moment Lil' Wayne, Coldplay has moved 721,000 copies of "Viva La Vida" in its first week in stores, according to Billboard.
The band's label, Capitol Records, Tuesday evening jumped the gun on the early Wednesday morning announcement of figures from Nielsen SoundScan, sending out a press release touting the figures. A spokeswoman for Nielsen SoundScan declined to confirm the number, but Billboard soon posted the totals.
The 721,000 figure falls in line behind the 1,006,000 copies Lil' Wayne sold of his "Tha Carter III," and brings to an end a massive marketing campaign on the part of EMI and Capitol. Coldplay had appeared on the MTV Movie Awards, and the title track is currently in heavy rotation in an iPod commercial.
Coldplay's 721,000 number falls a little short of the first-week totals posted by "X&Y" in 2005, according to Billboard. That album also debuted at No. 1 in June, but posted a 737,000 total.
Billboard also notes that this is the first time since 2000 that two albums opened with first-week totals greater than 700,000 copies in consecutive weeks. It last happened when Britney Spears' "Oops! ... I Did It Again" and Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP" each debuted with more than 1 million copies sold.
EMI is in the midst of a well-documented restructuring, with Billboard having reported earlier this year that the company would cut about 2,000 jobs worldwide. A strong performance of Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" has been viewed vital to the company's survival.
Capitol's press release also touts "Viva La Vida" as the band's biggest-selling single via iTunes, but the song was sold as an advance to those who pre-ordered the album.
The year may be at its midpoint, but when it comes to the Grammys, that mark has long since passed. With the eligibility period for next year’s awards ending on Sept. 30, there’s little more than three months left in the world of Grammy.
Though it's admirable that the Recording Academy coincides the end of its year with the conclusion of baseball's regular season, new artists are at a disadvantage. There isn't much time left in the Grammy year to establish a "public identity," the vaguely written criteria that determines who is eligible for a best new artist nomination.
Indeed, it's rare that a best new artist nominee is actually a new artist. Even last year's winner, the troubled Amy Winehouse, had been nominated for a Brit Award back in 2004 (she lost to Dido). And rarer still does a best new artist nominee come from outside the major label system. It took signing with a major for Recording Academy voters to notice R&B singer Ledisi, a veteran of the independent world.
It makes for one of Grammy's most confounding -- and most debated -- categories. So with the year at it's midpoint, and Grammy season only weeks away, all this week Extended Play will be taking a look at some of 2008's notable new artists, and how they may fare come Grammy time. Next week, the same treatment will be given to the mid-year's top albums.
Leona Lewis: The British R&B/pop singer won the U.K's "The X-Factor" (think "American Idol"), and then won the support of Oprah in the states. She had a No. 1 album soon after, driven by the inescapable Whitney Houston-influenced "Bleeding Love."
Grammy potential: Absolutely. Lewis is a lock for a number of nominations, and her Grammy campaigning actually began at last year's awards, as Lewis was the showcase act at Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party. Davis may no longer head J Records, but there's plenty of goodwill toward the exec, and Lewis has proven to have staying power, as her album, "Spirit," is still in the Top 20 more than two months after it was released.
Grammy deserving: Not so much. On its own, "Bleeding Love," a slow-building throwback of a tune, is worthy of a nod or two, but "Spirit" is little more than a showcase for a pretty voice, failing to establish much of a personality for the budding star.
For as big as Disney's "High School Musical" franchise has been, it lacked one magical ingredient that graces "Camp Rock," the studio's latest multi-platform TV/music extravaganza: the Jonas Brothers.
Though the accompanying soundtrack is less a Jonas Brothers property than it is a coming-out party for Demi Lovato, tipped to be Miley Cyrus 2.0 (or is that Hilary Duff 3.0?), the soundtrack is a stronger bid for musical legitimacy than the first two volumes of "High School Musical."
Although the "High School Musical" discs have resulted in sales well into the millions, neither walked away with a Grammy nomination, and as music, "High School Musical" came off as more of a karaoke sing-along than fresh teen pop.
"Camp Rock" is a far more contemporary snapshot of the Radio Disney playlist. In addition to the high-energy rock of the Jonas Brothers, the soundtrack has a slow-dance showcase for lead Jonas, Joe, three self-esteem-boosting tracks from Lovato, and some bad-girl spunk -- in the form of club-ready dance -- from Meaghan Martin.
But does it all stand up outside of the made-for-TV film? The "Camp Rock" soundtrack is broken down below:
The songs of Joe Jonas/the Jonas Brothers: While "Camp Rock" will undoubtedly be a hit, it's also a momentum builder for the upcoming Jonas Brothers album, "A Little Bit Longer," which is due in August. As a full band, the Jonas Brothers only get one cut on the album, "Play My Music," but it's one of the film's showcase songs, and was one of the earliest videos released to hype the film.
The Jonas Brothers like to tell us that they're "living the dream," but too often they sound as if they're playing a part. "Play My Music" is no different. It's an inoffensive dash of power-pop, with a simple, slicing rhythmic guitar riff, but the song never takes off. As bubblegum pop goes, it lacks a spark.
The pre-chorus should be filled with hooks, with a plea for "hand-clapping, hip-shaking, heart-breaking" tunes, but every word is strained as if the boys are magically trying to grow some rock 'n' roll stubble. Like a kid trying to fit into his papa's suit, it doesn't fit.
And that cuts to the heart of the problem with the Jonas Brothers: For a band of teenagers traveling the world playing music, the brothers rarely sound like they're having fun. Even a mid-verse "whoo" sounds more processed than the guitars, and the Jonas Brothers try so hard to tell us how earth-shatteringly important rock 'n' roll is in the song, that it sounds like they're trying to convince themselves more than the audience.
But it's pleasantly ignorable compared with Joe's "Gotta Find You" ballad. The re-emergence of the rock 'n' roll tearjerker (see OneRepublic's "Apologize") is one of pop music's more distressing trends of late, and "Gotta Find You" doesn't add to the genre. With a cellphone-waving melody driving by an acoustic guitar (acoustic means sensitive!), the song manipulates by over-dramatizing its mundane lyrics.
What's up with this Demi Lovato: The Jonas Brothers had an apprenticeship opening for Miley Cyrus, and now that the former are top-billing, the siblings will take Lovato under their wing as a support act this summer. Her debut album is due in November.
"Play My Music" doesn't stray too from the Jonas Brothers' brand of bouncy pop, and that act is already a known quantity. As for Lovato, the young singer recently told Billboard that most of the music she's interested in is "too dark" to "make it on a Disney album." Supposedly, as the story goes, she turned to the Jonas Brothers to lighten her act up.
Let's hope her three songs on "Camp Rock" aren't any indication of what to expect later this year. Her "Who Will I Be" will likely get the big push, and it cops a page from the Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana playbook -- guitars, brief and zany musical breakdown and a lyrical quest for an identity -- but it does so without any of the joy of Miley's music.
The music created for Miley had a bit of a self-deprecating streak, where a chorus that screams "Nobody's Perfect" is a cause for celebration. Lovato's "Who Will I Be," in contrast, strives for bratty mall-punk, but is instead pure cockiness. Like the popular kid no one can stand, she sings, "If I decide I'm the girl to change the world, I can do it anytime."
But to be fair, Lovato's a capable singer -- a cleaner Avril Lavigne, but just as tough -- and she will get a free pass here. Her songs lack any details in the lyrics, and are clearly plot-drivers first and foremost. For instance, her "This Is Me" is more or less a rewrite of "Who Will I Be" with a slower arrangement.
But more promising is "Our Time Is Here," with Lovato showing off some range. She's the tortured balladeer at the piano at the song's start, and then she powers into the soundtrack's most lilting chorus with a bit of brawniness.
Disney plays it safe. Lovato doesn't get anything in "Camp Rock" that's as sparkly and spunky as Miley's current single, "7 Things." Instead, the studio is keeping Lovato a blank slate -- for now.
The best of the rest of the lot:Renee Sandstrom's ballad "Here I Am" is appropriately over-the-top, swelling to a full-orchestra by song's end, and is much better than the wimpy-boy earnestness of "Gotta Find You." Meaghan Martin's "Too Cool" is a much-needed burst of silliness, smoldering cheesy hard rock guitars over amped-up dance floor beats, and her "2 Stars" fashions a groove out of a squealing car.
But it's the Aaron Doyle-sung "What It Takes" that's the soundtrack's catchiest song. Next to the so-awful-it's-not-worth-discussing "Hasta La Vista," it's one of the film's hip-hop breakdowns. It succeeds with a chilling keyboard, video game swirls and a rattling rhythm. Doyle turns a request to borrow a sweatshirt into a pick-up line, and is playfully confident in the song's drawn out chorus.
But it's just kid's music: No. The Jonas Brothers/"Camp Rock"/Miley Cyrus/"High School Musical" are big business. If Disney is asking for the time and money of the consumer -- or the consumer's children -- the product is to be held to the same standards as any other piece of popular culture.
Mired in what will soon be an eight-year downturn, the music business has not only struggled to sell CDs, but has failed to find a consistent price point for new albums. Amazon.com is bringing the cost of an album to new lows, having publicized Tuesday its sale price of $1.99 for a piece of Coldplay's catalog.
Throughout the week, the digital retailer will offer each of Coldplay's prior albums at the $1.99 price point for one day as part of its "daily deals" program. While this writer thinks it's high time that music retailers began heavily discounting the cost of MP3 albums, Apple's iTunes store has set the $9.99 standard, despite the desires of major labels for variable pricing. (Regardless of sound quality and distribution costs, it's an inferior product to a CD, as the consumer must back up the files.)
Time will tell whether the Amazon.com promotions help the retailer chip away at iTunes' market share for digital downloads. Nevertheless, the move represents a bold new price point for the cost of an album, which has been in a state of gradual decline, both digitally and physically.
Less than 10 years ago, it was common for albums to cost $15 and above. Apple helped redefine what the price of an album could be in the minds of consumers, but Steve Jobs' company is far from the only reason that albums are costing less and less.
Let's look at a brief history at the recent decline in the value of the album:
2000: The effect of Napster and the rise of file-sharing on the music business is probably a bit overblown. If one wants to trace the recent woes of the music business to a starting point, 2000 is arguably as good as place as any. It was in 2000 that the Federal Trade Commission declared that consumers had paid about $480 million more than they should have for CDs over the previous three years.
The cause, according to the FTC, was minimum-advertised-pricing, or MAP, policies, which the major labels had adopted to put an end to heavy discounts at music retailers. With MAP in place, retailers that sold CDs below a certain cost, say $12.99, would not receive cooperative advertising funds from record labels (the practice of reimbursing a retailer for advertising costs, such as featuring an album in a Sunday advertisement distributed in newspapers).
With the FTC breathing down its neck, and consumers rightfully fed up at continually seeing $16.98 CDs, the major record labels acquiesced to the FTC, and abolished MAP. A large retailer could now receive funds for advertising a new Madonna album, and then use said Madonna album as a loss-leader, altering what a new album should cost in the minds of the consumer.
2002: Before iTunes even exists, Best Buy warrants a news mention in Billboard for selling the Dixie Chicks' "Home" for $9.99 ... for one full week.
2003: Apple launches the iTunes store, which sets the cost of digital downloads at 99 cents and full albums at $9.99, price points the major labels agreed upon. With Apple refusing to budge from the $9.99 standard, the amount became a fixture for what a new album should cost -- or at least not cost more than.
Additionally, during the 2003 holiday season, Billboard reports that Best Buy sells a handful of new CDs for $7.99.
And finally, the world's latest distributor of music, Universal Music Group, introduces a sales-reduction program it dubs "JumpStart," which lowers the wholesale cost of a CD to about $10 in exchange for guaranteed store space/marketing opportunities.
2004: The $8.99 price point for new, on-sale albums starts to take hold at retail. Billboard's retail expert Ed Christman reports that Target begins selling U2's new effort, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" (released in November 2004) at $8.99.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg. During 2004's holiday season, mass merchants such as Target sold Nirvana's box set, "With the Lights Out," for $27.98, more than $10 below the wholesale cost. The set, according to Billboard, came with a $59.98 list.
2006: Heavy loss-leading at mass merchants would no longer just affect major releases on the level of a Justin Timberlake.
In early 2006, Best Buy raises the ire of independent retail community when it places about 20 titles, including releases from the Arcade Fire, Antony & the Johnsons, Broken Social Scene and Atmosphere on sale for $7.99, $2 below cost. The promotion became news when Patrick Monaghan, who runs small label/distributor Carrot Top Records in Chicago, wrote a letter to the participating labels and discussed the sale online.
In one sense, the promotion recognized the growing mainstream importance of the independent sector. But by selling the albums at $7.99, the major retailers reinforced the belief that CDs were overpriced. Independent retailers who couldn't afford to take a $2 loss per CD were hit the hardest by such deals, and the success that stores such as Best Buy have had at moving into the independent sector have certainly done more to destroy the mom-and-pop outlets than any amount of file-sharing.
October 2007:Radiohead releases its latest album, "In Rainbows," online, telling fans they can pay what they want, or pay nothing at all.
February: Online retailer Amie Streetsecures top-shelf indie artists such as Cat Power and the New Pornographers for download. Albums cost nothing to start, and increase based on fan demand. Not yet having secured a copy, I legally download the National's "Boxer" for free.
March: Nine Inch Nails follows Radiohead with a tiered pricing structure, allowing fans to download its new album, "Ghosts I-IV," for as low as $5, or as much as $300. A few months later, NIN releases new album, "The Slip," to the Web for free.
Also in March, Billboard breaks the news of Wal-Mart's plans to introduce a new tiered pricing plan for CDs, which would see catalog titles selling for as low as $5.
June:Amazon.com says it's selling Coldplay's past albums for $1.99 for a limited time, and has already discounted Madonna's recent "Hard Candy" to $3.99.
When Coldplay offered up its first single, "Violet Hill," for free, it was less a celebration of new business models than it was the beginning, primarily, of a massive, worldwide marketing campaign.
It all comes to a head in the next few days. The new album will be available in the U.S. on Tuesday, June 17, and should be rolling out to digital outlets even earlier (the album is already out in Britain, where Billboard reports that it sold 125,000 copies in its first day).
Though "Viva La Vida" probably won't do Lil Wayne-type numbers at retail in America, its release is coming at a time when the band's label, Capitol Records, is in the midst of a restructuring. "La Vida" is widely seen as being crucially important to the survival of the brand.
Adding a bit of drama to the mix was Coldplay's pairing on the album with musician-producer Brian Eno, the famed ambient artist who's been closely associated with U2. When "Violet Hill" surfaced, it marked a shift from the Grammy-winning ballads of the band's past ("Clocks" and "In My Place") and brought a bit more of a jolt to Chris Martin's puppy-dog vocals. Was Coldplay re-imagining itself just when its label needed a blockbuster?
EMI shareholders can rest easy. "La Vida" isn't a dramatic reshaping of Coldplay's sound, nor is it any more challenging than the band's past albums. It does, however, see Coldplay embracing some more fanciful new flourishes, resulting -- on the initial few listens, at least -- in Coldplay's most energetic and dense work to date. It's an album with plenty of grand overtures -- check the church bells in the title track -- and should be a lock for an album of the year nomination come Grammy time.
Track-by-track impressions are below. Click here for a full Los Angeles Times review.
