New Good Song: Wildest Dreams by Brandy

Here's a new good song -- "Wildest Dreams" by Brandy

Brandy had a new good song earlier this year with "Put It Down," and this is the follow-up. "Put It Down" was crazily adored by yours truly for about 10 days, after which time it started to get on my nerves, and it quickly moved off my playlist. My initial enthusiasm for "Wildest Dreams" is slightly lower, partly because I find the writing of the melody and lyrics in the second verse to be a bit lazy, but still this effort passes the bar, from a singer who doesn't have a particularly magnificent voice but does manage to get herself associated with some pretty good songs.

Enjoy!

New Good Song: Without You by Monica

Here's a new good song -- "Without You" by Monica

I feel a little sorry for Monica because she's incredibly talented, but her body of work is boring. Perhaps that's why it's helpful when a talented vocalist can also write and produce, so her fate isn't in others' hands (e.g., Mariah Carey). Monica had a great out-of-the-gate song in 1995 with "Don't Take It Personal." "Angel of Mine" was good. Both her duets with Brandy were good. But if you look at her discography, you'll see lots of unfamiliar song titles and double-digit peak chart positions. Brandy has had better luck with her collaborators.

That said, I am pleasantly tickled by "Without You," her latest. Nice work here -- dramatic but not over-done, good melody, pleasant percussion-heavy old-school production and instrumentals. Well-arranged, well-performed. Cool outro.

Enjoy!

New Good Song: Scream by Usher

Here's a new good song -- "Scream" by Usher.

I struggle with Usher. My knee-jerk instinct is to dislike or discount his output out of habit. For the past 15 years, I have had to navigate through his body of work with a mix of disappointment and annoyance as he has churned out forgettable melodies amid grating productions. He is a talented singer and dancer, and very fit, but in my opinion outrated by the public in terms of his songs.

That said, I must admit that his songs will sometimes have hooks that I think are quite good. His breakout single, "You Make Me Wanna ...," was good.  "U Remind Me" was OK, but the harmonies on the track were lazy. "My Boo," his duet with Alicia Keys, was OK, but over-sung. His ballads tend to be snoozes. "Yeah!" was ghastly. Generally, I'm just not that impressed, particularly with the melody lines.

So imagine my surprise when he released "Climax" earlier this year, and I discovered a new good song from an unlikely source. The melody is nicely crafted and delivered, the sentiment seems honest, and the production is tight, modern, cool and original. This was really a nice track, and one of the better R&B songs of 2012 so far. It went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hip Hop/R&B chart.

After that, a slew of other singles from his latest album popped up on the iTunes list of most-downloaded songs. Despite liking "Climax," I was not that curious. And when I would click on these tracks while scanning the chart, I would be immediately annoyed. Everything, to me, sounded like typical American dance music, which is the worst modern genre.

But.

There was something interestingly hooky about "Scream." And as it rose up the charts higher and higher, breaking from the pack of his also-rans, I found myself turning back to it time and gain. Very reluctantly, I had to admit it was a new good song -- great melody, nicely sung, catchy. It's not a breakthrough, but it's good.

Pop music has a history of music that at first sounds horrible but then turns out to be either better, or perhaps even good. Examples include "Work It" by Missy Elliott and "What About Us?" by Brandy. The first time I heard these songs, I thought, "What is this garbage?" But after repeated listens, I grew to like it.

That's one disadvantage of the modern age. We are not as helplessly subjected to radio. This can be good news in some ways, as no one wants to be forced to consume bad music, but there is something to be said for a song "growing on you," and in this era of customization and music on-demand, not to mention an overwhelming amount of choice, it's less likely that listeners will have the patience to let that growth on them happen.

And while some songs grow on you, others shrink. Sometimes I've purchased slightly odd-sounding songs that have had aspects I liked, thinking it might grow on me, but instead they became worse upon repeated listens. Examples include "King of Hearts" by Cassie and "Menage e Trois" by Austin Brown.

New Good Song: Co-Sign by SWV

Here's a new good song -- "Co-Sign" by SWV. The video is pretty shitty, though, so don't watch it. Just listen to the song.

How I found this song -- Believe or not, FM radio. For about three months, I was renting a car to drive to and from a client site. This gave me 2 hours a day with FM radio. I actually ended up discovering a few new good songs this way, such as "The Motto" by Drake, which as far as I am aware is the only new good song in the hip-hop genre released in 2012. When I caught "Co-Sign" for the first time, my reaction was complete joy -- it was an actual R&B song with instruments and vocals, and I suspected it was new because if it had been old I would have recognized it. I used Shazam on my iPhone to identify the song as "Co-Sign" by SWV, and I was elated to learn SWV was back. They are not particularly talented, but it made me feel good to know that there was at least some existing effort to put out '90s-influenced R&B. As it turns out, a lot of new good songs are by slightly bygone R&B artists who were not necessarily putting out good songs in their heyday.

The best example is Ashanti, who has released what so far is the second-best new good song of 2012, "The Woman You Love." (The best has been "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye f/ Kimbra.) "The Woman You Love" is a truly amazing song. The commonly found version features Busta Rhymes, who I generally respect, although in this instance I prefer the Busta-free R&B mix, which is available on iTunes. However, Ashanti's 2012 feat comes 10 years after this woman was ruining my life with the worst songs I've ever heard (e.g., "Happy," "Baby," and her many duets with Ja Rule, who I wish hadn't wanted to record his own voice.) However, some R&B artists who are attempting a comeback of sorts are on their own labels, or small labels, and are not putting out out new songs that are as good as they should be (e.g., Toni Braxton's "I Heart You.")

What makes this song good? "Co-Sign" gets off to a fantastic start -- this odd horn sound that says to me, "Here is a new good song!" There's an actual bassline, and actual drums, and capable vocals. The lyrics are cute. The arrangement is crisp, creative, a lot of fun and, most importantly, has durability. By contrast, there was another new good song I adored called "Put It Down" by Brandy f/ Chris Brown. At first, I thought this new good song would be an ongoing favorite, but after about three weeks I was pretty sick of it. "Co-Sign," by contrast, has been on my radar for nearly three months and I remain excited each time it comes on. "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen has this enduring quality as well. So does "Cough Syrup" by Young the Giant.

Is FM radio a good source for new good songs? It can be, if you're really out of the loop on music and don't like to spend the effort to hunt for songs and click on a lot of preview buttons in iTunes. There are limitations to FM radio, of course. They play the same songs over and over again, so you're not getting a wide variety/exposure to lots of songs you might like. DJs these days are asleep at the wheel, so they almost never tell you what you're listening to, so you will need another source of information, like Shazam, or Wikipedia. If you hear a song on FM radio that you like, and you don't have access to Shazam, try to memorize a few lyrics and Google them later. This has worked for me several times. Finally, you can't be sure necessarily that a song on FM radio is new, but you can quickly find out. FM radio is a good way to find new good songs if you're multitasking.

New Good Song: Is This Love by Aiden Grimshaw

Here's a new good song -- "Is This Love" by Aiden Grimshaw (although it turns into a terrible song from 2:42 to 3:10).

In my previous post, I mentioned this song. Let's discuss it.

How I found this song -- YouTube, oddly. Often, when I'm listening to previews on iTunes, I'll go to YouTube to try to hear an entire song. This can be risky because sometimes the version on YouTube is slowed down or sped up, or re-pitched, so that the clip isn't removed for copyright violation. You have to be careful with this because tempo and pitch are important in determining whether a song is good. However, you will often notice some marketing and slick publicity around a video clip -- it can look "official" through clues such as background imagery and copyright signs. Also, next to a legitimate music clip there will often be references to other songs by new or emerging artists that you might like. These are almost always shitty, but occasionally one will surprise you, like "Is This Love." This process on YouTube is how I've discovered a couple new good songs, like "It All Belongs To Me" by Monica & Brandy, although that is no longer particularly new.

What makes this song good? It's in the dance genre, which in 2012 makes it likelier than not that it is by David Guetta and consequently is the worst song you've ever heard. But apparently other countries sometimes release dance songs that are not by David Guetta, and therefore can be good, like this one. "Is This Love" has a haunting, unexpected chord progression, and is made more legitimate by Aiden's strong British accent and emotive delivery. Almost all 2012 American dance songs are tedious, cheap, irritating and stupid, and as if all that weren't bad enough, the vocals are usually so maniupated by a computer that they are bleached of all potential emotion and idiosyncracy (see: Britney Spears). "Is This Love" is quite good with the major exception of 2:42 to 3:10, when we are subjected to a terrible bridge that sounds as if the songwriters just stopped trying.

Is YouTube a good place to find new good songs? It's not the best. I would say it's actually less efficient than iTunes because the user is often lacking some critical information, such as whether the song is available for purcahse on iTunes in the U.S., and whether the song is in fact new. But there are advantages to YouTube, such as the ability to listen to the entire song as opposed to a clip. But a disadvantage is certainly the awful ads. Also, it seems Vevo is trying to be a good place to find music, but I've found it to be clunky and annoying. Usually if I'm redirected to Vevo I know I'm in for a terrible user experience and some sort of "Oops!" error message, and I am usually correct.

I have not been able to find information about when or whether "Is This Love" will be available for purchase in the United States.