p>“Potential Breakup Song” by Aly & AJ
(Hollywood)
The pop charts have felt pretty toothless for ages now, but that’s
not the only way they’ve been evoking the pre-Beatles ’60s. Akon’s
“Lonely” runs on a Bobby Vinton sample, Sean Kingston recycles Ben E.
King (see July 5 column), and now this tween-pop duo anchors a sure
shot with the piano intro from Del Shannon’s “Runaway,” sped up and
processed just like Aly & AJ’s voices. The first verses sound like
a less personable Shakira, or maybe that’s just the Auto-Tuner; the “I
just want my stuff back” pronouncements sound like the beginning of the
wave Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable” will surely bring forth. Thumbs
up to these developments—besides Akon sampling Bobby Vinton, I
mean.
“Stronger” by Kanye West
(Roc-a-Fella)
Here Kanye West, who has made two great albums, utilizes Daft Punk’s
“Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” a great song. The result is proof
that not only do French riff-house guys rewrite their fellow countrymen
better, they don’t rhyme over it like a walking Sudafed ad. As for that
“blonde dyke” Kanye will soon be “do[ing] anything with”—dude,
either she isn’t really a dyke, or quit kidding yourself.
“Bed” by J. Holiday
(Music Line)
Sometimes, lover men hone their lines, and sometimes, as on this
breakout from a new R&B singer, they don’t. Over right-angled synth
shiver and clomping tom-toms and occasional Prince-like guitar, J.
Holiday’s fetching slow jam promises to reward his lady’s 40-hour
workweek like this: “I’m-a put you to bed.” Wait a minute,
dude—are you taking her to bed, or getting her in bed, or, please
god, any other way of phrasing it so that you don’t sound like you’re
planning either to tuck her in or kill her?
“Sorry, Blame It on Me” by Akon
(Konvict/Upfront)
The beat is okay for something obviously tossed off in a hurry. But
by the time Akon is finished with the final verse, in which his humping
an underage girl onstage a while back is revealed to be the fault of
the father who let her go to the show, the club for letting her in, and
apparently the universe’s for creating Akon in the first place because,
hey, he didn’t ask to be born—by the time he gets to, “Because I
love my fans, I’ll take that blame/Even though that blame’s on you,”
you may wonder if pop music has a bigger creep. (Besides R. Kelly, who
at least makes decent records.) Sole upshot: At least he didn’t sample
Bobby Vinton again 