A supposed glitch on iTunes last week revealed that Adam Lambert and Kris Allen are the most downloaded contestants of American Idol's season 8. More specifically, six songs by Adam crack the top 10 of an Idol-themed chart on iTunes, while three Kris performances appear on the list. It's a controversial revelation -- considering how Idol's producers try to keep sales numbers secret to avoid letting each contestant's popularity be known -- but more so because Idol's producers fans were anticipating an Adam-Danny showdown in the finals. (iTunes have no comment.)
To be fair, Danny still made an appearance on the top 10 chart -- his "Endless Love" nabbed the No. 9 slot -- but is there any surprise that Kris' performances are more popular among contemporary consumers? (Even I couldn't resist downloading several of his tunes, like "To Make You Feel My Love" and "Ain't No Sunshine.") But more importantly, these iTunes stats make me wonder why the judges continue to push for an Adam-Danny final two, when Kris is supposedly a bigger draw on the charts. Isn't the goal of Idol to find a future chart-topper à la Kelly Clarkson or Chris Daughtry?
Are you surprised by this new finding? And what tracks have you been downloading? ("Mad World," anyone?)
That's only the teensiest tip of the iceberg of awesome music content that we'll be rolling out there in the coming weeks and months. The Music Mix is EW.com's new home for music coverage -- you'll find everything from exclusive streams and downloads to interviews to reviews and commentary, all from EW's crack staff of music-obsessed writers. We'll be ramping things way up with tons of on-the-scene reporting from the SXSW Music festival in Austin, Tex. later this week. And we're eager to hear what you think of all this. So check it out and let us know: What do you want to see on The Music Mix?
Welcome to this week's edition of EW's New Music Roundup,
a
regular post highlighting the "Download This" track recommendations
from the latest crop of music reviews found in Entertainment Weekly.
All songs are from albums that are in stores now, and most are readily
available via iTunes, eMusic, or similar services. Enjoy — and be sure
to share with your fellow readers if you've got opinions on any of the
following albums or singles...
Staff Web Pick of the Week: The Lonely Island dude grooves to Fleet Foxes
And here we thought we might be Fleet Foxes' biggestfans. Not so! That
title has to go to Saturday Night Live writer/The Lonely Island member
Jorma Taccone, in light of recently leaked footage which shows him
dancin' and saxin' his heart out while the Seattle folkies rehearsed "Blue Ridge Mountains" for SNL a couple weekends back. Maybe Fleet
Foxes should consider bringing Jorm along on their next tour dates.
He'd be an invaluable addition to their stage show, the Bez to their
Happy Mondays. (Or is that the "Soy Bomb" to their Dylan?)
Welcome to this week's edition of EW's New Music Roundup,
a
regular post highlighting the "Download This" track recommendations
from the latest crop of music reviews found in Entertainment Weekly.
All songs are from albums that are in stores now, and most are readily
available via iTunes, eMusic, or similar services. Enjoy — and be sure
to share with your fellow readers if you've got opinions on any of the
following albums or singles...
Staff Web Pick of the Week: "This Land Is Your Land" at the inaugural celebration The hands-down highlight of HBO's We Are One broadcast on Sunday came when Bruce Springsteen was joined by folk forefather Pete Seeger (and Seeger's grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger) for a choir-backed version of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." Once upon a time, Seeger (pictured, right) was blacklisted in this country for speaking his mind freely. Seeing him stride triumphantly onto the Lincoln Memorial stage at age 89 to sing that song in full, including a few verses that are often left out by more timid performers, was a moment for the history books. Is there a petition we can sign to make this the national anthem? (Watch it below)
Up until this morning, all I knew about the album the Decemberists will release in March is that it's called The Hazards of Love and it has one convoluted concept. Take it away, press release: "The Hazards Of Love tells the tale of a woman named Margaret who is ravaged by a shape-shifting animal; her lover, William; a forest queen; and a cold-blooded, lascivious rake..." I really like the Decemberists in all their willful weirdness, but wha?!
Luckily, that same press release from today also included a heads-up to the free MP3 that the band is giving away on their website. "The Rake's Song" is packed with creepy, violent storytelling and archaic phrasings. (Wouldn't really be a Decemberists song without those, would it?) But it also sports a hook catchy enough to convince me that this album could be pretty great. Suddenly, I am feeling much more interested in hearing about these shape-shifting animal/criminals, forest queens, &c! Click over to the band's site, indie rock fans, then let me know if you agree.
Welcome to this year's first edition of EW's New Music Roundup,
a
regular post highlighting the "Download This" track recommendations
from the latest crop of music reviews found in Entertainment Weekly.
All songs are from albums that are in stores now, and most are readily
available via iTunes, eMusic, or similar services. Enjoy -- and be sure
to share with your fellow readers if you've got opinions on any of the
following albums or singles...
Staff Web Pick of the Week: Covers of MGMT's (pictured, above right) "Electric Feel" First Katy Perry gave the electro-psych number her own smoothed-out spin last fall. Then Solange Knowles started working it into a medley in her concerts. Most recently, Atlantan hip-hop troupe Holly Weerd found a way to take this already-funky song even farther out into space — a feat we once would have thought impossible. Where will it end?!
Mr. West likes the Swedish indie band's "Nothing to Worry About" so much, in fact, that he exclusively debuted it on his blog this week. Because premiering songs by other artists is apparently something he does now. (Hey, why not?) As Kanye emphatically explained: "THEY SENT THE SONG TO ME FIRST! PETER BJORN & JOHN… S--- IS DOPE!! DRUMS ARE CRAZY AND I LIKE THE KIDS ON THE HOOK." I also like the kids on the hook, Kanye.
Anyway, "Nothing to Worry About" is no "Young Folks," but you knew that. And it is very catchy in its own right. In conclusion, I am looking forward to many more breezy Scandinavian tunes cropping up on Kanye's site before the rest of the MP3 bloggers get to them in the future. Aren't you?
If you're still catching up on some of the music that came out last year -- I know I am, and I listen to new records for a living! -- you'll appreciate the public service that blog aggregator The Hype Machine is doing with its new "Music Blog Zeitgeist 2008" feature. They've tabulated the artists, albums, and individual songs that were written about most often this year by the MP3 bloggers in their database, and they're streaming the top 50 entries in each category. That's 50 albums, 50 artists, and 50 songs being rolled out over the course of this week, all available for you to hear for free in a nicely-designed package. Pretty cool, right?
Every 12 months or so, I get a kind of list-making hangover. After frantically tweaking my year-end top 10 albums throughout December, I find myself unable to stop filing everything I hear in the first weeks of January into an ever-shifting rank and order for the new year. So while Antony and the Johnsons' The Crying Light doesn't officially come out for another two weeks, it's already my presumptive top album of 2009 so far. And starting today, if you pre-order a CD copy from the band's website you'll be able to instantly download The Crying Light in MP3 form as a little courtesy. They'll even give you a bonus track titled "My Lord, My Love." I can't recommend highly enough that you take them up on that offer.
The Crying Light expands on the band's Mercury Prize-winning 2005 breakout, I Am a Bird Now, with stronger songwriting all around and lovely swirling string arrangements created in collaboration with classical wunderkind Nico Muhly. Check out A and the Js' recent single "Another World" below for an idea of what you're getting into -- and once you've done that, go buy this album A.S.A.P. and report back here if you're feeling it as much as I am. Favorite tracks, anyone? Mine's changing by the day, but at the moment it's the righteously rocking "Aeon."
There's some serious star power in the new issue of (RED)WIRE, the awkwardly titled but nobly intentioned "digital music magazine" that gives half of its proceeds to fight AIDS in Africa. (Subscriptions run $5/month for you to get a dose of exclusive music delivered weekly.) This week's holiday-themed downloads include U2 covering Greg Lake's "I Believe in Father Christmas" as well as The Killers, Elton John, and Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant joining forces for a soupy ballad called "Joseph, Better You Than Me." I'm not sure I'd describe either track as essential, but fans should enjoy both. So how do you like 'em? You can check out the Killers/Sir Elton/Tennant collab or the U2 track on YouTube, but do head over to redwire.com if you like what you hear -- or if you just want to help out a good cause.
A supposed glitch on iTunes last week revealed that Adam Lambert and Kris Allen are the most downloaded contestants of American Idol's season 8. More specifically, six songs by Adam crack the top 10 of an Idol-themed chart on iTunes, while three Kris performances appear on the list. It's a controversial revelation -- considering how Idol's producers try to keep sales numbers secret to avoid letting each contestant's popularity be known -- but more so because Idol's 
Want to know the latest scoop on No Doubt's reunion? The only place you can find it right now is at a brand-new part of EW.com, 
Welcome to this week's edition of 
Up until this morning, all I knew about the album the Decemberists will release in March is that it's called The Hazards of Love and it has one convoluted concept. Take it away, press release: "The Hazards Of Love tells the tale of a woman named Margaret who is ravaged by a shape-shifting animal; her lover, William; a forest queen; and a cold-blooded, lascivious rake..." I really like the Decemberists in all their willful weirdness, but wha?!
Welcome to this year's first edition of 
Mr. West likes the Swedish indie band's "Nothing to Worry About" so much, in fact, that he 
