It’s been a busy 2011 for Rihanna. Fresh off a globe-spanning tour in support of bajillion-selling album ‘Loud’, she was back in the studio working on a new record. She even found time to act in the forthcoming I-can’t-believe-it’s-a-real-movie Battleship and pick up Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive award. Her latest album ‘Talk That Talk’ appeared just last month, with early indications suggesting that next year is going to be just as busy as the last for the ‘Umbrella’-wielding Bahamian.
‘We Found Love’ was our first glimpse of the new album and marked a pretty big shift from Rihanna’s more typical R&B flavoured sound. Roping in Calvin Harris as collaborator, the track sees Rihanna firmly her shifting her sights to the dancefloor. Sadly, it isn’t a pre-emptive eulogy for the late, great Heavy D, but a story of the euphoric highs and shadowy lows of a doomed relationship. As you might expect given Harris’ involvement, ‘We Found Love’ is a big propulsive chunk of chart house, complete with the industry-approved four to the floor beat and a couple of proper ‘hands in the air’ build-ups. It may not be as sonically inventive as some of Rihanna’s previous work, but it sure is effective.
That’s been reflected by response to the track. It entered the Billboard charts at 16 before climbing to the top spot, meaning Rihanna is now the artist who has had 20 top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 in the shortest amount of time. She now only lags behind Madonna and Mariah Carey as the woman with most number one singles to her name. Don’t be surprised of she overtakes them both in 2012.
Check out ‘We Found Love’ here.
Huw Thomas Shazam's Tags Of 2011 Rihanna
Back in 2007 few would have predicted that this group of gothic upstarts from Southend would evolve to become one of the U.K’s finest mainstream indie acts. Debut album ‘Strange House’s niche garage sound and self conscious styling was almost completely eradicated by their second L.P ‘Primary Colours’. Produced by Geoff Barrow (Portishead) and Chris Cunningham and released on XL Recordings, the record manages to mix post-punk, new wave and krautrock seamlessly to create a coherent album with great pop sensibility, the stand out track being the album’s closer ‘Sea Within A Sea’ .
‘Still Life’ is a continuation of the sound The Horrors forged on ‘Primary Colours’. The debut single from third album ‘Skying ‘ (2011) was recorded at the bands self-built London studio and also produced by the band. Over a steady groove, layers of backwards guitar steadily build to a crescendo of brass, with singer Faris Badwan repeating the anthemic chorus line “When you wake up, you will find me”. The single is certainly reminiscent of 80’s bands such as Simple Minds, Echo & The Bunnymen and Ultravox, it’s psychedelic feel is captured beautifully in Oliver Murray’s music video.
The single was named Zane Lowe’s ‘Hottest Record In The World’ in May and subsequently ‘Skying’ charted at number 5 in the U.K and number 18 in the U.S Billboard Rock Albums. Faris Badwan has had further success with side project Cat’s Eyes which saw him team up with Canadian soprano and multi instrumentalist Rachel Zeffira and The Horrors have recently remixed Lady Gaga track ‘Bloody Mary’ for her current album ‘Born This Way – The Remix’.
Andy Becker Shazam's Tags Of 2011 The Horrors
Beautiful People, a positive message song projected to you by way of announcement making synths. In times of economic uncertainty and recession, it gave everyone a much needed lift.
In a very left field manner from Chris Brown’s usual formula-which has gained him top ten hits in the US with ‘Gimme That’ & ‘Poppin’, the Benny Benassi production combined uptempo electro house & R&B to create a luscious sounding dance floor smash.
‘Beautiful People’ is a stand-out track amongst average pop music which has recently adopted the uptempo electro house signature. In the Billboard dance charts, it reached No 1 and went on to be a top ten hit around the world including Australia & New Zealand.
Chris Brown was nominated for best male artist & best album in the Soul/R&B category at the American Music Awards 2011 after successfully releasing his fourth album titled F.A.M.E (Fans Are My Everything). Other accolades include winning album of the Year at the 2011 Soul Train Music Awards. ‘Look At Me Now’ the second single from the album has also earned Chris Brown three nominations for the 2011 Grammy’s.
Listen to Beautiful people here.
Emmanuel Kobla Shazam's Tags Of 2011 Chris Brown
Today kicks off Shazam’s Tags of 2011, a totally subjective look at our favourite tracks of the year. Chosen by Shazam’s ever knowledgeable staff, our Tags of 2011 countdown provides an insight into the music that dominated the office stereo this year. We’ll be kicking off at number 25 and counting down to our favourite record of the year which will be revealed – you guessed it – on Christmas Day. First up for your consideration is Blood Orange’s ‘Dinner’.
If you’re going to make a record that’s indebted to the past, you best make sure the era you’re borrowing from is a good one. Dev Hynes has certainly followed this logic on his Blood Orange project, liberally repurposing Prince’s ‘80’s period into a glorious new whole. ‘Dinner’ does anything but reinvent the wheel; honeyed synthesisers underpin a moody, sexually ambiguous pop song about a painful breakup. However, even though the record’s far from original, it’s hard to deny it has a certain charm.
Blood Orange’s album, released in the summer, painted Dev Hynes as an impressive musical chameleon. After coming to the fore in the indie/ dance act Test Icicles and maturing under the folk purveying moniker of Light Speed Champion, Hynes’ Blood Orange project brought his pop credentials to the fore. It’s tough to make comparisons to a musical genius like Prince without sounding hyperbolic: but the constantly shifting sands of Dev’s musical styles are not a million miles from those of the Purple One himself.
You can listen to ‘Dinner’ here.
Stephen Titmus Shazam's Tags Of 2011 Blood Orange
