Review: Sam Smith "In The Lonely Hour"

Brit soul singer gives voice to shy guy



Let's cut to the clear chase, Sam Smith isn't doing anything innovative, but that by no means makes "In The Lonely Hour" a bad record, on the contrary, the stripped down back-to-basics plays on Smith's strengths, his vocals, which have the ability to stir even the most hardened of souls.

We see Smith with gospel tinged ballads such as "Stay With Me", and a reworked "Lay Me Down", along with brooding tunes like "Like I Can" and "I'm Not the Only One" with most of the tracks hitting a solid middle ground.

Set Your Blocks: "Kimbra Stays 'Golden'"

First and foremost, Set Your Blocks, is my segment about promotional tracks, off of upcoming albums.. just for clarification

Kiwi songstress Kimbra has just released promotional singles "Love In High Places" and "Nobody But You" as part of promotion for her sophomore release The Golden Echo , with "Love In High Places" featuring bass from Thundercat, reminiscent of no other than Ms. Erykah Badu with a dash of Prince, and yes, you've read that right. While "Nobody But You", is a John Legend collaboration, where you can see
Kimbra taking on an R&B flair, perhaps delving further into the genre than previously, but still keeping the jazz flair to her vocals.

worth a listen

So, I am a massive Kooks fan, and with the new singles, I've had a reaction that's been a bit-- lukewarm.. but, I finally had the opportunity to sit and fully embrace the new EP, and the minute I heard the first few seconds of "Hold On", I had to tell myself that exact phrase, hold on

It has such a throwback feel, I felt transported, and honestly this made me think of something I might hear from someone like Mayer Hawthorne, but The Kooks, no way-- but it works, it really works, I never figured you'd hear such a nice falsetto from Pritchard but, his falsetto is surprisingly not..lukewarm.

Why Kendrick deserved a Grammy, and why Macklemore's apology doesn't make it okay

If one paid any attention to the past awards season, one may have seen quite the familiar pattern Kendrick Lamar, and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis nominated in the same categories, and every single time, the audience would see Macklemore walk away with the award (with the exclusion of the Album Of The Year category), this became quite the annoying, and predictable pattern.

It is a nice thing to see, the story of the independent artist who rises on his own, and becomes successful, an alternative American dream story-- but when the success comes at the expense of other, truly innovative artists, who have also been on their grind. One needs to take a step back and look at this situation in its whole, as an observer, one may notice that Macklemore's success came from gimmicks, some that-- he became a bit hypocritical on, a song mocking consumerism, even though it appears Macklemore himself  is one of those very consumers he mocks , and though, one may argue, "Well he's successful now, he can afford to waste the money", maybe artistic integrity truly no longer matters.

Then we have Kendrick, who literally brought listeners through somewhat of a hip-hop cinema for those with imaginations, Kendrick weaved his words in a way that carried the listener through a story on 2012's good kid, m.A.A.d city , more so Kendrick's words came from his experience, not other's, not saying that takes anything away from someone else's work, but Kendrick's art was/is real to him, he didn't have to use gimmicks, he didn't have to use other's experiences to come up, this was just Kendrick-- he did something, that in the common era of hip-hop, many don't see, and the fact that it isn't rewarded? Plainly shows that America needs a new award show.

Not to say that Macklemore's seemingly political agenda isn't something, it is- but what is he doing new? I mean, there are plenty of serious white rappers now (MGK, Eminem, Yelawolf, etc.), so this isn't a race thing, (and no I am not going to talk about how Macklemore is a Caucasian Heterosexual rapping about gay rights, there are plenty of posts about that), but artistic merit should be rewarded above all, (going into how James Blake, who yes, is not technically a new artist, but no one in that category besides Kacey Musgraves was a new artist, should have taken home the best new artist award, although when he and Chance the Rapper release whatever they come up with, there will be no competition).

And there's the issue, this is the problem

And the other issue?

Macklemore's apparent genuine apology-- as long as Kendrick knows, the rest of the world doesn't need to know.

Let the music speak for itself.