Current Popular Music Favorites

[cookie]

Am listening to new Alicia Keys album. I love her music. I will go out and buy the disc.

These are current pop artists whose stuff I love and actually buy. By "pop artists", I mean the kind of music that gets played on commercial terrestrial radio. I include r'n'b, country, and whatever as pop music.

These are artists I like and whose CDs I actually buy:

the aforementioned Alicia Keys
Queen Latifah (her pop jazz side anyway)
Corinne Bailey Rae
Jill Scott
John Legend
Will Downing (sometimes considered "smooth jazz")

Artists I like that I listen to only on the radio or Rhapsody:

Alan Jackson
Leanne Rimes
Gretchen Wilson
Joe
Gwen Stefani
George Strait
Randy Travis

and lately I'm totally in love with the song "The More I Drink" sung by Blake Shelton.


Anybody else have any favorites "strictly from commercial" (strictly commercial!).

[Gary Sisco]

Joe?

[Scott Dolan]

The Corrine Bailey Rae album is very good, IMO. Kelly has it in her car and I enjoy it whenever I hear it.

Have you given John Mayer's Continuum a listen? I think you'd really like that one based upon what you've listed here. Try to find the tunes Waiting For The World To Change and In Repair from that album.

Other than that, I can't recall any newer artists that I've gotten into much besides The Killers. I really dig their album Sam's town.

[cookie]

Originally Posted by Gary Sisco

Joe?

Joe is an r'n'b singer who's had a recent hit with the tune "If I Was Your Man". I love his voice.

This is the cat: http://www.joescrib.com/

[cookie]

Oh, and I should add Fantasia whose music I continue to enjoy. Sometimes I buy; sometimes I just crank up the radio when I hear her distinctive voice.

[cookie]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

The Corrine Bailey Rae album is very good, IMO. Kelly has it in her car and I enjoy it whenever I hear it.

Agreed. There are a few songs on that disc I'd like to learn. I love "Put Your Records On."

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

Have you given John Mayer's Continuum a listen? I think you'd really like that one based upon what you've listed here. Try to find the tunes Waiting For The World To Change and In Repair from that album.

I am familiar with "Waiting for the World to Change" and I liked it alot! I know a lot of people who dig Mayer and I like much of his stuff that comes into my world. Did he do that tune about "Daughters"?

[Root Doctor]

For r & b, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Angie Stone, Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige. I was a big fan of the late Gerald Levert.

For C & W, Marty Stuart, George Strait, Randy Travis, Alan Jackson. I can take Vince Gill if it's not a ballad.

[Pete C]

I think some of the Brazilian music I listen to is current pop in Brazil. I'm completely ignorant about current American pop, "r&B", hip-hop, etc., though there are some good voices out there.


Paula Lima

Max de Castro

[Gary Sisco]

I don't listen to the radio because it's pointless where I live unless in the car when in a certain radius of Root Doctor's show.

So, I have no favorites in American pop music today.

[Scott Dolan]

Originally Posted by Cookie

Agreed. There are a few songs on that disc I'd like to learn. I love "Put Your Records On."

I saw her do that tune on SNL a year or so back and was blown away by her voice. I actually went out and bought her album the next day. then Kelly hijacked it from me and I only have strict visitation rights anymore.

I am familiar with "Waiting for the World to Change" and I liked it alot! I know a lot of people who dig Mayer and I like much of his stuff that comes into my world. Did he do that tune about "Daughters"?

Hmmm...not sure on that one. I only have Continuum, so that tune may be from a different album. You should definitely check out In Repair though. The repeated line during the outro is one I know you could appreciate:

"I'm in repair. I'm not together, but I'm getting there......"

Great fucking tune!


Oh, and if you're looking for an unbelievable female voice, check out some of the recent albums from Allison Krauss And Union Station.

[Surfer]

M.I.A. (aka Maya Arulparagasam)

[Scott Dolan]

Yeah, her stuff is pretty neat.

[Rob C]

Bamboo Banga!

[Surfer]

Not crazy about that one, Rob, the Jonathon Richmond homage doesnt really do it for me.

"Birdflu" is more to my liking.

[Jesse]

Singer/songwriter Sam Beam, a.k.a. Iron & Wine

[Surfer]

Sam Beam's OK, but his voice / whisper doesnt seem to have a great deal of emotional or physical range for me. It's nice, though, and I do have 3 of his albums.

[Gentle Giant]

In the last year, a comely younger colleague has turned me on to:

Built to Spill
Queens of the Stone Age
Elliott Smith
"Once" soundtrack


Discovered Devendra Banhart, Josh Rouse, and Band of Horses on local college radio.

[Scott Dolan]

Are those all mainstream artists?

I recognize Queens Of The Stone Age, but that's it.

[Gentle Giant]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

Are those all mainstream artists?

I recognize Queens Of The Stone Age, but that's it.

Honestly, I don't know what's mainstream and what's not these days. I only listen to college radio, public radio, and sports radio. My sense is that if it's too mainstream, I'm not going to be as interested. I would definitely recommend Built to Spill to you, especially their live album where they do a sizzling 20-minute version of Neil Young's Cortez the Killer that sounds more like Neil Young than Neil Young does.

Elliott Smith killed himself a few years ago so probably not mainstream, though I notice he gets name-checked a lot. Band of Horses is starting to get known, thanks to their infectious new single, Is There a Ghost in My House, that I'm already getting tired of.

My favorite "new" music is the Waterboys' latest, Book of Lightning.

[Scott Dolan]

Just listened to some of the Band Of Horses stuff. Sounds like a Coldplay knockoff. But, they do have a ballad on their recent album title Detlef Schrempf.

I suppose that's pretty cool.

Have you given The Killers a try yet? And if you like Band Of Horses, you'd likely dig Snow Patrol.

[Gary Sisco]

Damn. My eyes are getting as bad as my ears. I thought Scott said he knows Queen is the Stone Age and was about to agree with him for once....

[Scott Dolan]

Hahahaha.............

Hey, I was a Queen fan back in the day......I guess that WAS a really long time ago.

[Surfer]

A Band of Bees (although I think now they are just called The Bees)



Sunshine Hit Me and Free The Bees are two very good pop records.

[cookie]

Yeah, I was talking more about *commercial*, big hit, big money machine bands. The alt rockers tend to show up on the college stations, but those bands don't necessarily have big industry money behind them.

I'm talking mainstream, top-40 stuff.

Others I forgot--
Pink
India.Arie

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Of the stuff my daughter plays, I've liked Postal Service and Julian Lennon.

[cookie]

I'm checking out John Mayer on Rhapsody right now. Yeah, he's the guy that did that "Daughters" tune. I like that tune. So nice to hear somethin' in 6 with pretty chords and stuff.

So I like him. Good songs.

[Scott Dolan]

You'll really enjoy Continuum if you get it.

[groover]

No love for Amy Wino, uh, Winehouse?

[Gentle Giant]

For "current" and "popular" I think the best I can do is Ben Folds.

[Scott Dolan]

Ben Folds stomps ass. Ben Folds Five is even better, IMO.