song of the hour: john mayer – no such thing (off of this cd)
also recommended: hoobastank – crawling in the dark

song of the hour: john martyn – may you never

song of the hour: john mayer – no such thing

on another note, bad music manages to find its way to the ears of many a listener everywhere, especially if it’s performed by a singer as good looking as Britney Spears. I heard “Not quite a girl, not yet a woman” or whatever that stupid song is called tonight at islands. And again, I must pronounce another Britney Spears work as trash.

.. not to say that she doesn’t have her merits! It’s not possible to deny that teen pop does have its place, especially in karaoke bars across the nation. While I personally feel that “Stronger” is a great song on its own, it’s definitely not as fun to belt out drunkenly as “Hit me baby one more time” or “Lucky,” that pathos-laden too-superstar-for-U anthem. And what’s this “I’m a slave for U” business? If you’re going to do soft core, take it off already. I won’t stand for any of this “look at me wear my underwear outside of my pants!” nonsense.

throughout her career, there was at least a sense of mystery to what she was doing, that she was having fun with her image and teasing people with her “is she, or isn’t she?” question. now, that “is she or isn’t she” question is moot: it doesn’t matter what she actually is, she’s trying so very hard to be “isn’t” that there’s no use playing games anymore. before it wasn’t clear whether she wanted you or not, and that made things interesting. now you know she wants you, and the fun just isn’t there anymore!

With her new album, Britney’s thrown all measure of self-respect out the window. Instead of simply playing her role in the media as a sexy teen pop songstress, she’s actually becoming the image she’s trying very hard to portray. Sure, it’s fine to go along with her manufactured “sexpot Britney” image, but she seems to be buying into it a whole lot more than she reasonably ought to. Once you believe your own hype, you are so over. Once you start believing you are who people say you are, instead of maintaining a clear sense of self, she becomes just the boring image and not a real person with mysteries one feels like he could discover. There’s nothing keeping people guessing, and this renders her as uninteresting to watch as the next half-naked smiling blonde.

which, as most people feel, isn’t really that uninteresting anyway! but had she played her cards right, she might have been the next madonna, whom she so clearly idolizes but very obviously doesn’t have the strength of character to carry out. I’m curious to see how long she’ll last. >_