New Good Song: Your Body by Christina Aguilera

Here's a new good song -- "Your Body" by Christina Aguilera

Christina Aguilera is such a talented vocalist that the bar is very high for her output. The anticipation and expectations around her releases are further heightened by how infrequent her albums are, compared with her contemporaries. And even more attention is on her now that she's on "The Voice," which is apparently very popular.

Aguilera's better songs, in my opinion, have included "Genie In A Bottle," "Fighter," "Ain't No Other Man," "Hurt" and "Candyman." Less good have been "What A Girl Wants," "Can't Hold Us Down" and "Woohoo." Now she is back with "Your Body," a loud and energetic song about seduction that is not her best but is good and should inject some adrenaline back into her career. The surprising secret weapon here is the production, which seems particularly off-trend but intrigues the listener, particularly on repeated listens. In this sense, it's very much in a league with "Genie In A Bottle," somewhere in the gray area between gritty and glossy.

Also, isn't the cover art striking?

Enjoy!

New Good Song: Wide Awake by Katy Perry

Here's a new good song -- "Wide Awake" by Katy Perry

How I found this song -- Most new good songs require effort to find; that's a main purpose and theme of this blog. But it's worth noting that not every new good song is hiding. Sometimes one gets pushed to you, like in the olden days before the Internet. "Wide Awake" will make its way to your radar through one channel or another. In my case, I first found it on Wikipedia, looking at Katy Perry's discography.

That this is the case suggests I am a fan, but as I've mentioned, I'm not really a "fan" of anyone per se. I'm song loyal. And I truly believe that through all the fashion, gossip and nonsense people discuss when they talk about artists, music careers are built on good songs. Yes, Madonna had innovative and provocative videos and built a captivating persona, but she also released good song after good song after good song. She would not be famous had she, in the early '80s, released awful songs like "4 Minutes" (named such, I believe, because that is how long it took to write the melody, then make a sandwich). And she is no longer as popular in part because nothing she has released in the past 10 years has been as good as "Don't Tell Me" in 2001. However, sometimes the audience will miss out on a good song because they have tired of an artist. For example, one of Janet Jackson's best songs (and possibly videos) ever was "Feedback" in 2008, but many people missed or ignored this good song when it was new because, perhaps, people had had their fill of Janet Jackson. Mariah Carey has enjoyed a little more consistent success than her contemporaries, but has also suffered from this phenomenon of having her new good songs ignored. She released, for example, a new good song in 2010 called "Up Out My Face," but it stalled on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart at No. 100. And one of her best songs is 2002's "Through The Rain," ignored in the wake of the harshly reviewed "Glitter."

The point is that you can miss some new good songs if you aren't willing to keep an open mind to popular (or previously popular) artists. They can have the very best new good songs. After all, they certainly have access to the best songwriters and producers. Similarly, don't tune out Katy Perry just because she's popular. I'm not a "fan" -- I'm not going to see her movie -- but this young woman has new good songs. "Teenage Dream," for example, is one of the best new good songs of the past few years.

What makes this song good? "Wide Awake," like "E.T.," uses synths, arrangements and production to create an atmosphere that fits and supports the melody and lyrics, a technique actively violated by, say, Rihanna, Britney Spears and David Guetta.* "Wide Awake" gets a little repetitive, since it's the same four chords over and over. But the melody holds enough interest to compensate, with a beautiful verse line closure ("so wrong" at 00:24 and "so long" at 00:36) and chorus lyrics that put a fresh twist on its cliches. And "Wide Awake" has a key ingredient to goodness that "E.T." lacks -- the absence of Kanye West.

*While one shouldn't discount an artist like Katy Perry just because she's famous, so too shouldn't one discount any artist whose body of work is mostly bad. For example, Coldplay's output of songs is a relentless embarrassment, but, lo and behold, "Paradise" has proved to be one of the best new good songs of 2012. Similarly, Rihanna will occasionally win with songs such as "Umbrella," and even the recent "We Found Love." Britney Spears has released nothing good since 2004, but surely the woman who brought us "Toxic" and "Everytime" is capable of goodness again. I'm still waiting on David Guetta.

New Good Song: Sovereign Light Cafe by Keane

Here's a new good song -- "Sovereign Light Cafe," by Keane

How I found this song -- VH1 + Wikipedia. Keane has had one of the year's better new good songs, "Silenced By The Night." I discovered that song, if memory serves, in a totally 1992 kind of way -- on VH1. I DVR their Top 20 Video Countdown and sometimes scan through it on the weekend, even though that's silly because the list is also online. Having remembered that "Silenced By The Night" was a new good song, I visited Wikipedia to learn of what else Keane may have released since, and discovered "Sovereign Light Cafe," which is newer than "Silenced" but not as good.

What makes this song good? I respect a cheerful song that sounds as if its melody was carefully written, as opposed to improvised. This song borders on being a little too "la-di-da" but may remind you of Ben Folds or the Beatles in a good way. It's cute and timeless. Nice to stroll down the streets of New York to.

Is VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown a good source for new good songs? Surprisingly, yes. I have been consistently surprised that this countdown contains songs I manage not to discover through my numerous other hunting techniques, such as "Never Go Back" by Grace Potter & The Nocturnals. It's strange that a network that exhibits poor taste in its reality programming actually exhibits good taste in its video countdown. Sometimes what's on VH1's list will surprise you because it spans genres nicely -- you'll get the Adult Top 40 music you expect (e.g., Train, Jason Mraz, Daughtry, John Mayer) plus artists you've never heard of (e.g., Ed Sheeran, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals) as well as some hand-picked mainstream head-scratchers (e.g., Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, David Guetta, Usher). Not all of this is good, but some of it is. On this week's chart, for example, "I Won't Give Up" by Jason Mraz is good, as is "Give Your Heart A Break" by Demi Lovato and "Lights" by Ellie Goulding, although frankly if you were to have followed my advice and techniques from this blog you would have discovered these songs a few months ago.

New Good Song: Guardian by Alanis Morissette

Here's a new good song -- "Guardian," by Alanis Morissette

How I found this song -- iTunes. When embarking on any hunt for a new good song, I always start with the basic Top 200 songs selling on iTunes. The masses today don't have the best taste, but sometimes they'll surprise you. And a quick scan through this list always alerts me to the newest of the new, if not necessarily the best of the best. It was here I realized Alanis even had a new single. I adored "Underneath" a couple years ago. "Guardian" isn't as good because it's the same two chords over and over for more than four minutes. She can do better. But it's still better than most of what's out there. But if you haven't heard "Underneath," get that instead. It has one of my favorite bridges of all time, at 2:26.

What makes this song good? Instruments and a nice melody, and Alanis has a nice way with words. This isn't the greatest song on earth but it'll do.

Is the list of iTunes 200 most downloaded songs a good source for new good songs? Absolutely; this is the closest I've found to a "news alert" about what's new, although new doesn't mean good. For example, everything sung on "Glee" ends up on this list, but fortunately this poop is easy to spot and thus avoid, so that's no sweat. Then there's "The Voice," another series whose output clutters the list; these songs are not in the scope of my hunt because they're not new. They also aren't so much "songs" as "audition exercises."

Other than these shows, there are also a few genres that disproportionately take up space on the iTunes 200 list. One is American dance music, which is the worst genre of 2012 (see Jennifer Lopez, most Usher, anything featuring Pitbull, and a majority of Rihanna's output). The second is hip-hop, which used to be a good genre but in 2012 will make your ears bleed (e.g., "Get Low" by Waka Flocka Flame, "Work Hard, Play Hard" by Wiz Khalifa). For the most part, if a song on iTunes is marked "Explicit," and it's by an artist you you've never heard of, it's probably a hip-hop song from 2012, and therefore is the worst song ever made.

The final genre cluttering up the iTunes Top 200 is tricky to negotiate -- country. There are some new good songs in the country genre (e.g., "Hard To Love" by Lee Brice and "Glass" by Thompson Square), but in general most are bad, and it can be difficult to predict goodness or badness based on title and artist, especially if you're not a country fan. Fortunately, if you click on a country song preview, you can usually tell in 2 seconds whether it's the worst song of all time, by the degree of twang. Usually I only forge into country territory to find new good songs if I have exhausted the rest of the 200.

The iTunes Top 200 has been the source of many new good songs for me this year, including "Midnight City" by M83 and, ages ago, "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye f/ Kimbra. You can, of course, also sort through iTunes lists by genre. This can be very helpful in the alternative genre in particular; it's less useful in R&B and rock, because most of the songs on those lists are not new. That's when you need Wikipedia on your side. More on that to come.