Andika The Grunge’s Neighborhood

1) WATCHA SAY - JASON DERULO

Only his first single and he has hit the number one spot at the Billboard Hot 100. Jason Derulo is a singer-songwriter, choreographer, vocal producer and also an actor from Miramar, Florida. It debut at number 54 and went all the way up to number 1 in the charts. This song is will be included in his upcoming self-titled album due in 2010. The song is current, and grows on you after a few listen.

 

2) SEXY BITCH - DAVID GUETTA

Guetta is a popular French DJ who has worked with big artists including Will.i.am, Kelly Rowland, Akon and CHris Willis. Sexy Bitch carries a tune that's although familiar, but a treat to club music lovers. I like it, it's great especially when you're driving. It is Guetta's second single which reached number 16 at the Billboard Hot 100

MASSIVE IDEA THAT IS HARD TO IMPRESS

Category : Action, Sci-Fi / Starring : Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, Ving Rhames, Boris Kodjoe, James Cromwell

Based on a 2005-2006 comic book series of the same name, Surrogates boast two selling points, the concept and Bruce Willis. The movie anchors on the interesting concept of human living their lives remotely at home controlling their robotic surrogates. And you can imagine how enticing watching the trailer would be. To have Bruce Willis as the leading role in this action sci-fi is definitely a huge selling point.

What viewers are eager to watch is how the world would be in Surrogates, where every human you see walking in the streets is young, sexy and sophisticated robots, all controlled by their owners back home. Everyone now gets the chance to live the lives they want, without having to worry about youth, health, risks or any form of imperfection.

FBI agent Greer (Willis) investigates the muder of Jarod Canter, son of multi-millionaire Dr Lionel Canter (Cromwell), the original creator of surrogates. The case pulls Greer further into the truth of the surrogate-world, and also realization of what he really wants beyond the beauty that this surrogacy concept offers.

It was pretty weird watching the usually-jaded Bruce Willis under the excessive make-up, although intended, as they are all supposedly perfect-looking surrogates in the movie. We get to see the plastic version of Willis as the surrogate, and the real aging version of Greer, sitting from home controlling his other half. It was a relief that the real Greer takes over in the second half of the story, as the brushed-up version of Willis just didn't pull it off for me, even as a robot.

Do not expect too much of explosive action and stunts like Die Hard, Surrogates is more subtle and like I thought, it is not easy at all to materialize this concept well in a movie. For comic books where imagination is unlimited with drawings, the selling point of the surrogate-world works perfectly well. But in a movie, it is a totally different ball game. Audience expects to witness jaw-dropping sophistication, edgy surprises with technology and amazing gimmicks. After all, we are talking about a world, virtually virtual! Did the movie pull it off for me, I would say not to an excellent level. It was entertaining enough, but I wouldn't shout about it.

The trailer of the movie:-

Rating : B-

BRUSHFIRE RECORDS RELEASES IMRPESSIVE SELF-TITLED DEBUT ALBUM BY MALAYSIAN ARTIST, ZEE AVI

If you are a Jack Johnson fan like myself, you would then be able to appreciate the self-titled debut album by Malaysian artist Zee Avi, who was signed by Monotone and Brushfire Records, and her album was released in May 2009. Do not be fooled by that doll face and young age of 23, as you will find the album boasting with music that shows how much Zee is in control of the talent she has. You can expect a lot of Jack Johnson aesthetic and influence, offering cozy sounds that put you at the beach, intimate vocals that belt romance failures in style, and a general feeling of calm.

What impresses me most is Zee's control over her vocals, which is nothing close to her own age. It boasts maturity way beyond many artists and she's able to pull it off with light jazzy tunes like Poppy, dark and heavy melodramatic ballads like Is This The End and Let Me In, and of course guitar-influenced easy-listening tracks including her first single Bitter Heart, and also Honey Bee and Monte, plus not to forget, Jack Johnson's favourite ukelele signature like Just You And Me and Kantoi.

Definitely a milestone for the music scene in Malaysia, and a notable story of another humble discovery of raw talent discovered from places like YouTube. An album worth trying, the music is growing fast on me.

Rating : B

Pics courtesy of Zee Avi's official website

VERY OWN MALAYSIAN SENSATION ZEE AVI

This is an interesting discovery. Thanks to Michael who introduced Zee Avi to us during one of our dinners for a friend's birthday. Everyone was pleasantly surprised to hear the matured, sultry and craked vocals owned by this 23 year-old artist. Born in Miri, Sarawak (on the island of Borneo), original name Izyan Alirahman, Zee Avi is a singer-songwriter, guitarist and ukelele player. She first posted her music on YouTube and began gaining popularity, which caught the attention of Patrick Keeler of The Raconteurs, who passed her music to Ian Montone and she was soon offerred to release her music under the Monotone Label. Montone then passed her music to Emmett Mallay who eventually signed her to Brushfire Records (recording company partly owned by Jack Johnson).

With an eclectic pool of influences that range from such eccentrics as Cat Power, Regina Spektor, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Jolie Holland, Daniel Johnston and Chris Garneau, to jazz greats Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, to classics like Velvet Underground and Led Zeppelin, this self-described "rock lover at heart" captures the dark, bittersweet qualities of romance with a crack left open for hope and optimism (quoted from Zee Avi's official website).

Her debut album went to number 130 at US Billboard Hot 200 Chart and number two spot at the US Billboard Top Heatseekers Chart, and sold 6,000 copies in the United States in its first 2 weeks of release. Zee's first single Bitter Heart spent 3 weeks on Japan's Top 100 Singles chart, entering at number 82 and peaked at number 63. The album gained mostly positive reviews including praises from Rolling Stones and Billboard.

Definitely a proud talent from our very own Malaysia, way to go Zee Avi.

Pics courtesy of Zee Avi's official website

THE IMPERFECT ANGEL REVEALS MORE INTIMACY IN HER LATEST ALBUM

She may call herself an imperfect angel but she has unquestionably one of the best voice around. Whether her sudden change of route in the genre of her music has shaken off some of her loyal fans away in the late nineties, or whether her image of often revealing too much of 'herself' in her music videos has irked many, Mariah Carey remained one of the strongest female vocalists we have so far. I too once gave up listening to her albums after disappointments from Rainbow (1999), Glitter (2001) and Charmbracelet (2002), but her E=MC2 finally made up for it in 2008, a great album.

Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel marks the twelfth studio album by Mariah Carey, released in September 2009. She worked with singer-songwriter The Dream, who co-wrote and produced most of the songs in the album, along with several additional composers. In her interview with Amazon.com, she revealed that "Each song tells its own story. Each one is like an intimate conversation or entry in a private diary. A lot of the songs reflect specific, different times in my life, actual events that happened to me, some of which are from way back in the past. Others were inspired by movies or from a friend of mine that may have told me their story".

Her first single from the album Obsessed was not too impressive for me. Nevertheless it debuted at number 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100, her highest debut since way back in May 1998, and has since peaked at number seven giving Mariah her 27th top ten hit in the US, the second among women and the fifth among all. She has also made a cover version of Foreigner's I Wanna Know What Love Is, announced as her second single, with H.A.T.E.U confirmed as the third.

I am not too impressed with the arrangement of her song sequence in this album. The album started off well with the song Betcha Gon Know, where the intro goes "Welcome to a day of my life, the memoirs of an imperfect angel...", a rather slow and serious song for an opening track, but effective and a great tune, continuing Mariah's passion for R&B. Then came Obsessed (a rather weak song in my opinion) followed by several slow tracks which do not bring much impact at all to the album, despite H.A.T.E.U being one of them, which I liked a lot. Impression of listening to the first half of the album just becomes rather poor. Much stronger tracks like Angels Cry, Up Out My Face and Standing O should've been placed upfront to pull the audience in before relaxing down with mediocre tracks like Candy Bling, Ribbon and Inseparable. Not that their bad tunes, but just not strong enough to be placed in the first half of the album.   

I'm surprised she did not work with Stargate, one of my favourite songwriting team who gave her Bye Bye and I'm That Chick in her previous album E=MC2. Despite have good tracks mentioned above plus a rather refreshing remake of Foreigner's hit, the album remains lacking impact for me, not as strong as E=MC2. I don't foresee a handful of tracks that would strongly give her a Top 5 at the US Billboard Hot 100 this time. Nevertheless, a good album to have.

Free MP3 Download:-

To download Mariah Carey's I Wanna Know What Love Is CLICK HERE

Rating : B-

Note : Free MP3s at 2M1F are not of crystal clear quality, do support our artists by buying the orignals

GREAT THEME SONG FROM TAMIL FILM SIVA MANASULA SAKTHI

OK this would probably be one the rare posts I'll have, as I have zero knowledge on Tamil/Bollywood music. The first time I bumped into this tune was when I called one of my colleague at work, and it was her Caller Ring Tone. Of course it was just left as vivid as that, did not know the title or the artist. Finally one day the movie which the song was featured was advertised on telly, and I managed to get hold of the title and downloaded my very first Tamil MP3! Well I do listen to music in languages I do not understand including Thai, suppose Tamil is not so remote in that sense ;-)

Siva Manasula Sakthi is a 2009 box-office hit directed by Rajesh, starring Jeeva & Anuya Bhagvath. The song Oru Kal was performed by Yuva Shankar Raja. I managed to find two remixed version of the song as well, video above has samples from all three versions. A relaxed tune, great to listen to. Apologize if I may not have full or accurate info on this post, really not familiar with this genre.

THE MOST UNLIKELY COMBINATION THAT WORKED

(Movie Review For Pixar Animation Studios' latest, UP)

Category: Animation, Comedy, Adventure / Starring : Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, Bob Peterson, Christopher Plummer

It is not often we come along a cartoon or animation that uses an old man as its main character. So ordinary is this man, he is just an aging soul, mourning for his dead wife for years, and living his day-to-day mundane routine alone, accepting his fate that he would not live the dream he had always wanted for both his wife and himself. It is not always animation makers boldly apply the ingredients used in this movie UP, where we don't see animated heroic characters, no super powers, no wakcy or extreme lines, jokes and scenes, and no out-of-this-world excitements on roller coasters, flying carpets or explosions. On the contrary, what we get, is an old man who decides one day to tie his house to hundreds of balloons and sets his house afloat!

It is also not often we see cartoons using such adult concepts of bitter man mourning, sadly accepting his fate of not being able to live up to his dreams, and the constant aching moments of him missing his other half. And it is rare we get an adventure with such a combination of an aging man, an eight year-old wilderness explorer, a talking golden retriever and a colourful tropical bird.

So what can we expect out of all these, a gem like no other animations!! It was a pure treat for me to watch this movie. I like the drama appeal to parts of the story which shows us how much Carl (Asner) the main character is missing his dead wife. You can almost feel for his heartache, of not being able to live his dreams of building a house with his wife on the magical Paradise Falls in South America.

Then comes Russell (Nagai), the adorable nine year-old that will make you smile throughout the movie with his chubby cheeks and comical presense. With a twist of fate, both Carl and Russell teams up for an adventure of a lifetime, where they meet Dug (Peterson) a talking dog and Kevin, the giant tropical bird. 

What I also love about UP is the fact that it makes you not expecting too much as you watch along, but yet, unexpected twists and adventures keep popping up throughout, keeping you entertained until the end.   

It is the weirdest approach taken for an animation, the combination of the most unlikely bunch, but definitely a not-to-be-missed movie this year.

Rating : A

THE LAST TO ARRIVE, THE BEST WAS DEFINITELY SAVED FOR THE LAST

The donut sensation started in Malaysia few years back when J.Co arrived from Indonesia. J.Co is one of the fastest growing donut and coffee chain in South East Asia, with its headquarters based in Jakarta. Then Malaysia came up with its own version called Big Apple, even raising disputes from J.Co for plagiarism. The first few months of J.Co's arrival was well received, where you saw endless queues of customers in their stores at all times. Big Apple, despite not lacking too far in terms of taste and variety, was not as successful.

Then came American brand Krispy Kreme, opening their first store in Malaysia in April 2009. Krispy Kreme is already in business since the 1930's, while J.Co had only began trading since 2005. Not only is Krispy Kreme boasting its originality, but they definitely taste better! I had my first Krispy Kreme a month ago when I visited Mid Valley Megamall. I found their dough to be softer and better in quality, a bite into their orignal glazed donut will tell you that. I also found their toppings to be more generous and definitely tastier.

This would perhaps wake J.Co up, with their arrogance of having monopolized the donut market in Malaysia for some time, which can be seen with their poor service that seems to be consistent in every outlet we visit. Their staff are a pure disappointment; they never smile, hardly greet you, and don't even expect a warm hospitality when you're there. Welcome to Malaysia Krispy Kreme, and wake up J.Co!

PUNK ROCK TRIO BLASTS WITH NEW ELECTRIFYING ALBUM

Seriously I've never heard of the band Gossip before this, until I bumped into their music video Heavy Cross on MTV one day. The song was so funky and stylish I had to try their album out, titled Music For Men. This indie band is led by vocalist Beth Ditto, guitarist Brace Paine and drummer Hannah Blilie. Music For Men is their fourth album, but it is the trio's first major label album, released in June 2009.

For this album, they worked with Rick Rubin, the mastermind who has worked with big names like Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Beastie Boys. I have not listened to Gossip's previous albums to give comparative reviews here, and I'm definitely not familiar with the punk rock, electronica genre. But I am pretty impressed with their single Heavy Cross, what a stylish song sung with an attitude by Beth. The album is overall catchy and deals with a wide range of influence from punk, to layers of synth, to plinkety pianos, and even country.

A MORE MATURED EFFORT BY JORDIN SPARKS FOR 2ND ALBUM

I still remember watching her audition for American Idol singing Celine Dion's Because You Loved Me. Wow, what a voice. Going through the competition, she managed to sail through with her powerful vocals and finally took home the 6th season title. Perhaps the songs performed during the competition were shorter in length, we later observed a slightly less consistent Jordin Sparks on stage (vocally), whenever she performed live. Nevertheless this is one potential artist that will grow strong given more exposure, grooming and experience.

She released her 2nd studio album in July this year, titled Battlefield, the same title of her first single which was produced and co-written by Ryan Tedder. The song reached the number 10 spot on the US Billboard Hot 100, quite an interesting and probably among the strongest track in the album. Sparks has previously co-written one of her tracks titled Freeze in her debut album, and she continued to pen four more songs in her recent album (one of them being a bonus track).

I would say Battlefield is a much more matured and well-handled album, with songs that are generally more current and suited to her vocals. Her self-titled album had a few great hits but they stopped there, and I find the rest of the album often enough not too great to listen to end-to-end. Her second single S.O.S (Let The Music Play) would be a more current fast track but not really a strong single in my opinion. I am however pretty impressed with the ballads which Sparks co-wrote, Was I The Only One, The Cure and Faith. I still feel she has the best bet taking on powerful ballads. Her two bonus tracks are a treat, I like particularly Papercut (also co-written by Sparks), but perhaps the vocals and techniques could be further polished on that song. She did announce that her 2nd album would be something between Beyonce and Rihanna, though I don't see a strong imprint of both these artists' style in her album, it was nevertheless a decent effort.

Free MP3 Download:-

To download Jordin Sparks' Battlefield CLICK HERE

Rating : C