I’ve been meaning to write this for a while, but I’m really digging Ingrid Michaelson’s new song “Hell No” (although, at this point, how new is it?). The empowerment and attitude of the song is really what makes it stand out – you don’t need someone (specially a jerk) to feel validated. The boldness of the chorus matched with the vocal accents of “I get it” and “whatever” makes the song pop.
Monthly Archives: November 2016
Lindsey Stirling
Every time I listen to Lindsey Stirling’s music, I can’t help but think “that’s such a friggin good idea.” Stirling is a violinist, but instead of playing typical classical music, she plays more EDM, dubstep music. It’s so out of the box and epic. Take a listen of these songs from her latest album Brave Enough:
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
This past weekend I went and saw Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Now, I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. I’ve read every book and seen each movie probably seventeen trillion times. But when J.K. Rowling announced the trilogy (now a five-party movie series) of Fantastic Beasts, I was skeptical. I mean, the “book” that the films are based off is basically a novelty item for fans that lists out a bunch of made up magical creatures – there is no plot or story in it. I wasn’t exactly sure how Rowling could make it into a multi-part movie franchise. But, being the loyal fan I am, I went to see it.
And, my gosh, what a good plan that was.
The film tells the story of Newt Scamander, magical zoologist and researcher for the Ministry of Magic. Newt travels from London to America in a quest to release a beast he discovered back into its natural habitat in Arizona (that bit was confusing to me too). Along his travels, his magical briefcase full of all the beasts he discovers is opened by a muggle (or, as the Americans apparently refer to the, No-Mag) and the beasts are lost in New York. Newt quickly is joined by said muggle along with an ex-auror and her sister to track the animals down, along with stopping Grindelwald (the Voldemort of the ’40s). The film has the right amount of action – will make you laugh and cry, it’s such a great film. You don’t need to be a Harry Potter fan to enjoy it.
2017 Album of the Year Predictions
The 2017 Grammy nominations are coming up next month, here are my predictions for Album of the Year (in no particular order):
- Lemonade – Beyoncé
- 25 – Adele
- Anti – Rihanna
- Views – Drake
- Blackstar – David Bowie
2017 Best New Artist Grammy Predictions – Updated
We’re one month away from the 2017 Grammy nominations being announced, so I thought I’d share my predictions – it’s fun for me and sometimes I’m weirdly accurate. One year I correctly guessed all the nominees for Record of the Year and I was 90% accurate on the other main categories (not that I’m bragging).
Anyway…
I know I already written about my predictions for Best New Artist, but I think that was a bit premature – at the time I didn’t realize that some of the following artists could be nominated. So below is an updated list of artists (in no particular order) who I believe could/should get nominated (not that the people in the last shouldn’t be nominated, but I think these artists have greater odds of getting nominated).
Kelsea Ballerini
Halsey
Twenty One Pilots
Alessia Cara
Maren Morris
Rachel Platten
Personally, I think Twenty One Pilots, Halsey, and Maren Morris have the greatest chance of being nominated considering each made huge waves in their respective genres. Twenty One Pilots had a huge year with their hits “Stressed Out,” “Ride,” and “Heathens,” it’s almost likely they’ll get nominated. Halsey’s break out with Badlands and her new take on alt-electronic-pop deserves a nod. Maren Morris’ Hero is one of the biggest country albums this year, and she recently was nominated for a lot of big CMA awards (i.e. she has critical acclaim).
Kelsea Ballerini likewise made similar splashes in country music like Morris, but I’m hesitant to think she’ll be nominated because her album The First Time was released outside the Grammy period. However, the Grammy’s have bended this rule before, so you never know.
Alessia Cara and Rachel Platten both had huge hits (“Here” and “Fight Song,” respectively) and likewise have chances of being nominated as both albums are within the Grammy period. I’m hesitant, however, because while I’d love to see both of them there, I have a gut feeling…
Better Man
I was in line at the grocery store when I got the news. I was scrolling through my Facebook feed (it was a long line at the register) when I saw a post by Taylor Swift saying she wrote the song “Better Man” for Little Big Town. My heart started pounding. New Taylor Swift music. Finally.
I rushed to my car and downloaded the song from iTunes without previewing it. If Taylor Swift had a hand in writing the song, you know it has to be good. You don’t need to preview that.
And it’s beautiful. The song is honest and fragile, and reminiscent of Swift’s country roots.
The mark of a truly gifted songwriter is when the song will sound like the person who wrote it even if they aren’t performing it. This is totally the case here. While it’s Little Big Town performing, you feel as though Taylor Swift is singing it to you – you can almost hear her sing it.
Last month, there was a bit of a hysteria where we thought Swift would secretly release her sixth album (sadly, that did not happen). The below video leaked online and people thought it was a clip of a new Taylor Swift song because it sounds just like her.
However, I have a very well trained musical ear, and that is not Kelsea Ballerini. Ballerini has more of a southern twang than Swift and a slightly higher pitch voice. Plus, the way this singer pronounced “didn’t know, thought we could grow it” is more in line with Swift’s pronunciations. But this video is not the greatest quality. Indeed, Ballerini released the studio snippet of the song on her Instagram account (see below) and it made me do a double take…maybe it is Ballerini singing but the distorted quality makes it seem like Swift…
But since Swift wrote “Better Man” for Little Big Town, I’m now wondering if the clip above actually is Taylor Swift singing a demo for Kelsea Ballerini. Like, in a few months we’ll see Kelsea Ballerini has a new single “Roses” written by T. Swift.
Regardless, let us revel in the fact we sort of have a new Taylor Swift song, and hope she hurries up with #TS6!