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: 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.