22 December 2014 - Chloe Wang - Uh Oh

I've been saving this gem for quite a while now.

Chloe Wang is a Chinese pop star.  She is a Chinese-American, born in Chicago to Stephanie and Bennet Wang. Put a pin in dad's name.  We're coming back to it in a minute.
She moved to China - at age 15 - to become a pop star.  Quickly learning Mandarin, she released her debut single - "Uh Oh" - in both Mandarin.....

...and English.

It's a fun song, to be sure.  There's not a lot of substance here - it's a light-hearted pop song.  But it doesn't pretend to be anything more than that.  And I have no problem with that - music is supposed to be fun.

Some of you in the United States are thinking.... "Hey, she looks familiar.  And yet I'm not up on Chinese pop stars. Where have I seen her before?"  Let me help you a little with that....

After she released a couple of singles in China, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.  Of course, Chloe WANG sounds way too Chinese to appeal to American audiences, so she took her father's first name as her last.  Chloe Bennet.  Which is how she was billed on "Nashville" and how she is billed on "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", where she plays Skye (or was that Daisy?).

And now you know.

17 December 2014 - Charli XCX - Breaking Up

You knew this post had to happen.   You just thought it would happen on Monday, the day when Sucker was released.

Nope.  I was too busy listening to Sucker. Highly recommended.  It isn't True Romance - few albums in the last 20 years are THAT good (and we had three in 2013 that were that good, in my opinion) - but it is a solid record.

And this song... Some of the comments online about it have not been kind.   It continues the fuzzed-up sound of "Break The Rules", but this is a much angrier song. 

It's not like this is a new song.  It was around at least in March, when Charli was at SxSW..... Lyrically, it's a little different, but not significantly, and it is clearly the same song.


Oh, in case you were wondering....  Night Time, My Time, by Sky Ferreira, and Pure Heroine, by Lorde. With True Romance, the three best albums of 2013. 

11 Dec 2014 - Mr. Probz - Waves

By now, you've all heard this song on the radio.  Seemingly out of nowhere comes this somewhat slow jam. It's cool, acoustic while still being a little bit EDM....

....but, as is the case with most songs that are hits elsewhere first - in this case, The Netherlands - it only became popular in the US a year after its release, after a significant remix.  Here it is, as it was originally intended.  It's no longer EDM, but a much slower jam.  And it remains cool.