Category Archives: Entertainment

Mr. Know It All (Single Review) – Kelly Clarkson

The original American Idol is back with the debut single off her upcoming fifth album: Stronger, in the form of a track titled: Mr. Know It All.

The hype for this song has been escalating for the past week or so – ever since Kelly Clarkson revealed she’d be premiering the song via her website on August 30th. Many radio programmers and DJs had heard the song and were giving it rave reviews. So naturally, anyone who has liked Kelly Clarkson’s music would be excited. And I am no exception.

And like everything with the music industry today, leaks are bound to happen – and Kelly Clarkson’s name has become synonymous with leaks. So Mr. Know It All is here.

The song starts with a subtle guitar rhythm that soon fuses with a beat that sticks throughout the whole song, reminiscing of Bruno Mars’ “Just The Way You Are” – you can literally sing the lyrics of that song to Mr. Know It All.

While the song is not angry musically-speaking; thematically and lyrically, it’s full of rage. “Mr. know it all, well you think you know it all. But you don’t know a thing at all. Ain’t it something y’all!”

Apart from the fact that the many shortened words in the lyrics make this sound like something you’d recite at a country rodeo, the lyrics in general are quite bland and cliche. Example? “Can’t nobody tell me how it’s gonna be. Nobody’s gonna make a fool out of me. Babe, you should know that I lead, not follow”

How many times have you heard that “lead not follow” line? thirteen million? Yes, add one more to that.

Mr. Know It All is a pretty straightforward song. It’s so straightforward, in fact, that the title says it all: Kelly Clarkson is telling one of her exes that they don’t know everything about her.

The sound is one that would find solace with songs on Kelly Clarkson’s debut album and it’s a sound that I’m not sure would do very well in today’s pop climate. After all, this is Kelly Clarkson’s comeback single and it needed to deliver. I’m not saying it had to be an electropop brainless song, but this isn’t the song you’d expect someone with her caliber to choose as the song they’ll use to reconnect with audiences.

Kelly Clarkson’s vocals are great on the track – and I mean did anyone expect anything less? While it’s not a powerhouse performance, her voice sounds quite raspy and strong in the delivery. But even that isn’t enough to elevate the song to hit-worthy status. After all, there’s just so much that the singer’s talent can bring.  Mr. Know It All is not a bad song per se. It’s just a song that should have been left on the album – and it’s a song that’s much less enthusiasm-enducing than other leaks that haunted miss Clarkson since July. “Let Me Down” would have been so much better as a lead single!

Mr. Know It All doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s just Kelly Clarkson singing how this guy doesn’t know a “thing about [her]” over and over again. And it gets to a point where you just want to shout: we get it, can you do something about it already? And the fact that after ten listens, no part of the song was stuck in my head isn’t really a good sign.

I’d personally pass on Mr. Know It All. Hopefully this isn’t a sign of what’s on Stronger. If it is, then the only thing I can say is poor Clarkson. As for now, let me go listen to “Already Gone.”

Listen to Mr. Know It All here.

 

 

Carrie Underwood: Voice Of Versatility

Everyone knows by now that I’m a huge fan of country singer Carrie Underwood. I also believe she has one of the best voices I’ve ever heard – and no, I’m not being biased. Even if you dislike her, you can’t but appreciate her talent.

So I was positively surprised when I stumbled on a youtube video that is precisely what this post is about: showing you just how versatile a singer Carrie Underwood truly is.

The fact of the matter is, she has tackled more genres than people have realized – and she has nailed every performance outside the country genre, which is supposed to be her home turf.

Without further ado, just check out the video:

Baggage Claim (Single Review) – Miranda Lambert

Baggage Claim - Single Cover - Miranda Lambert

Miranda Lambert is the current it-female country singer. So naturally, her newest single and upcoming album are both some of the most awaited country music releases this year. Set for a late August release, Baggage Claim, the debut single off Lambert’s upcoming album Four The Record, was rush-released to country radio after leaking.

My approach to Lambert’s music is one where enthusiasm and apprehension are mixed. I haven’t been a fan of all her releases but I’ve come to appreciate them. Her single The House That Built Me remains, to me at least, one of those timeless songs that make you happy about your life when you listen to them. The House That Built Me is also the single that made Lambert who she is today – two time ACM Female Vocalist winner and Entertainer of the Year nominee at the CMAs, regardless of how deserving she is of that.

So it is from that base – and it is such a high base – that you’d expect her to approach the lead single off Four The Record. What did she do? She went the opposite – and totally expected – lead single route.

What is the song about? Yes, you guessed it: guy bashing.

If people had worried her marrying Blake Shelton would soften her up, Baggage Claim is here to prove them all wrong – somewhat. “I have been dragging around your sensitive ego, making sure that your bags arrive on time for the dog and pony show,” she opens up the song after a guitar riff that remains throughout the song.

Baggage Claim is a song, which as the title implies, is about Miranda Lambert’s significant other being moved out of her life and home. And she doesn’t leave anything to the imagination as she angrily sings the chorus: “At the baggage claim, you got a lot of luggage in your name. When you hit the ground, check the lost and found cause it ain’t my problem now. I can’t carry it on, I’ve got a lot of troubles all my own. It’s all over the yard, in the trunk of the car,  I’m packin’ it in so come and get it.”

But it is in the second chorus that the song delivers its highlight – and its only one at that. Lambert is known for her lyrics craftsmanship. And while the baggage metaphor is not degrading to the song, it’s not exactly instant-hit material either. However, there’s one sentence in the whole song that’s lyrically highly intelligent: “If it ain’t obvious what has set me off today, behind every woman scorend is a man who made her that way…” and then Lambert continues explaining about what the man did on his business trip.

Repeat chorus, insert useless bridge, repeat chorus… and that’s your whole song.

The problem with Baggage Claim is that, even for Lambert, it feels quite overdone – both thematically and musically. She’s had many other singles dealing with the same topic and they’ve all been better songs than this. While her vocal delivery is quite on point, as is expected from someone of her caliber, the material she’s dealing with is quite weak – especially for a lead single.

The whole song feels like a paint-by-number guy-done-me-wrong Desperate Housewives-inspired song. It feels like the writers came up with the baggage metaphor and thought long and hard about how to make a radio-friendly song that might break Miranda Lambert’s poor streak with lead singles, instead of delivering a great song that would have definitely gotten airplay on radio, with all the hype Lambert has been getting lately.

You see, the reason why the great Dead Flowers, Miranda’s lead single off her critically acclaimed album Revolution, did not manage to become a radio hit is mostly because of its dark theme as well as Lambert’s weak radio performance at the time. She changed course with White Liar, Revolution‘s second single, which gave Lambert her first chart-topping single (or top 2 on Billboard). But at the end of the day, the song that made Lambert is The House That Built Me. And with that song, Lambert took a risky decision to release a not very radio friendly song, but a deep song with meaning. And it worked for her – as evident by The House That Built Me almost winning every award it got nominated for and spending four weeks atop the country charts.

That’s the route she should have taken. Baggage Claim is not a bad song in itself. After several listens, it catches on. But it’s representing a follow up to a highly critically acclaimed album. Hopefully the rest of Four The Record is better than this.

Listen to Baggage Claim here.

Rue Huvelin – New Lebanese Movie

And the series of interesting-looking Lebanese movies continues. After blogging about Nadine Labaki’s upcoming movie, Where Do We Go Now, it’s time to put the spotlight on Rue Huvelin.

For anyone who doesn’t know Beirut well, specifically Achrafieh, Rue Huvelin is considered a landmark. It is where the prestigious French system based university “Université St. Joseph” is located.

Slated for a November 17th release date, Rue Huvelin is a movie about the Lebanese student movement at the time of the Syrian (direct) occupation of the country, between 1990 and 2005.

The movie’s official summary is as follows:

In 1990, the Lebanon War ends with the Syrian army’s takeover of the Presidential Palace, signaling an ensuing fifteen years occupation. One of the consequences of this period was a general sense of collective retreat and apathy among the population. On Huvelin Street, where the Middle East’s leading Francophone university (Saint-Joseph) settles, a group of students opposed to the status-quo decide to break the silence and rally a pacifying resistance movement in the heart of Beirut at the close of the 1990s. Their resistance was a struggle between two opposing worldviews: between a liberal and freedom-loving lifestyle of a group of friends and compatriots, and between the oppression of authorities and the indifference of society.

Are you interested? Cause I sure am.

Soul Surfer – Movie Review

Soul Surfer follows in the Hollywood footsteps of movies such as The Blind Side, a true story based drama with a central Christian theme.

Bethany Hamilton (AnnaSophia Robb) is your regular teenager in almost every way, except that her blood is “salty water” – she lives to surf. Surfing is who she is and it is how she spends most of her time, in her Hawaiian hometown. However, fate has it that a shark attack causes Bethany to lose her left arm. If the attack had been two inches higher, Bethany would have lost her life as well. She lost 60% of her blood before she was rushed to the hospital where she struggles for her life and barely grasps to it.

It is then that Bethany’s struggle towards normality begins. How do you lead a surfing-based life with only one arm? How do you do your basic home chores and help around in the most basic tasks with one limb less?

With the help of her Youth Pastor Sarah Hill (Carrie Underwood) and her parents (Helen Hunt and Dennis Quaid), Bethany regains her footing, learning the most valuable lesson of her life: with love and faith, you gain a new perspective on life, one that allows you to see the workings of God even in tragedies and allows you to come out triumphant.

I am by no means a sappy Christian. I struggle with my faith on daily basis. But Soul Surfer is one of those rare movies that demand nothing of you except to sit with an open mind and watch. It doesn’t preach. It doesn’t try to serve arguments about the existence of God, it simply shows you how Bethany found God in her life, as she stood on the precipice of a tragedy, the day before the rest of her life.

AnnaSophia Rob delivers a great performance as young Bethany. Her performance is highly nuanced, showcasing both aspects of her character’s character meticulously: the carefree teenagers and the tragedy-struck woman. She showcases Bethany’s struggle in a highly natural way and doesn’t shy away from asking those most crucial question in situations like this: why me?

Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt deliver performances that are representative of their acting caliber. They are the parents horrified by the troubles of their little girl, as they simultaneously put up this invincible facade to get her through her ordeal. But it’s Bethany at times who has to tell her dad not to cry.

Carrie Underwood holds her own in her movie debut as the youth pastor Sarah Hill. She is in about five scenes where she serves as guidance for Bethany and she does her job as a supportive character with flying colors. I had no idea what to expect from Carrie because I have never seen her take on a serious acting role of this magnitude before (although she has shown some acting chops in her Just a Dream and Temporary Home videos as well as a comedic side in a guest role on How I Met Your Mother) but I was pleasantly surprised. She held her own, did not over-act or under-act and gave the character the amount of emotion it deserved. And no, I’m not being biased.

All in all, Soul Surfer is one of those feel-good movies that actually make you feel ecstatic by their end. And even the story could have been this saccharine tale with the happy ending resolution, it doesn’t feel like this in this movie, mostly because you know this is not fiction – someone actually went through all of this. When Bethany is asked, towards the end of the movie, if she could go back and not go surfing on the day she got attacked, her reply was: “I wouldn’t change what happened to me because then I wouldn’t have this chance, in front of all of you, this chance to embrace more people than I ever could have with two arms.”

And when the end credits roll with real life footage of the real Bethany Hamilton, you remain in your seat, transfixed by this young woman who, against all odds, beat her tragedy to become one of the world’s most important surfers today.

8.5/10