Radio Radio

Some big-name new releases worthy of mainstream attention:

artist: 30 Seconds To Mars
song: “Kings and Queens” (Album Version)
album: This Is War (due out December 8, 2009)

Jared Leto exercises his vocal chords yet again with the band’s third album poised to bring them to even greater heights. The ambitious and lighters-up-in-the-air arena-worthy first single from their new album This Is War is called “Kings and Queens” and is already storming up the rock charts. I expected them to come harder than this one for their first release off the new record but I guess they had bigger plans. Appealing to a broader audience, are we? Look out for them, they could get even bigger after this.

artist: Alicia Keys
song: “Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart“
album: The Element of Freedom (due out December 15, 2009)

After the underwhelming performance of the new album’s underwhelming first single, here is Alicia’s second one from it. It is much much better that the other song. Why didn’t they just go with this as first? I guess she gave in to the pressures of the record company to recreate the success of “No One”. Well boohoo to the record company, look what you did! As to how much damage the previous single choice has done to this new era of hers, we shall see. Good luck to this song on the charts. Still, I know she’ll sell bucketloads of albums when it gets released. I like this… 80’s-ish much?

artist: Lifehouse
song: “Halfway Gone“
album: Smoke and Mirros (also due out December 8, 2009)

One of my favorite bands is back woohoo! They’re one of those successful without much hype type of bands and I love them for it. They broke the one-hit per album only curse with their previous one after two singles from it broke Top 15 (”First Time” and “Whatever It Takes”). However, I’m bummed that their third release off of it, “Broken”, failed to match those successes… I thought it was the most worthy of the three… oh well. This new one right here is so radio-friendly its like they’re saying thank you to radio for supporting them over the years and handed them a very play-worthy single on a silver platter. Diggin’ this a lot right now. PD’s that’s your cue!

artist: OneRepublic
song: “Secrets“
album: Waking Up (due out November 17, 2009)

Honestly, I’m not as excited about this as the other releases. I don’t know, there’s just too much Ryan Tedder on the radio right now. But my lack of excitement for this is more the fault of the new album’s first single “All The Right Moves”… its just lackluster in my opinion. This song right here, “Secrets”, is a lot better… its set to be released as the second one off of Waking Up. I missed those strings and here they are front and center on this song. Thank you guys for giving us this. Maybe there is hope for your new album after all. We shall see.

artist: John Mayer
song: “Heartbreak Warfare“
album: Battle Studies (also due out November 17, 2009)

Still a huge fan of this guy after many years. I’m proud to say I was already a huge fan even before he got huge hehe. I’m not sure what type of sound he’s going for this time around. But judging from the first two songs I heard off of the new album, first single “Who Says” and this one, I think it sounds like Heaver Things-era John Mayer and less of the Continuum era soulful John. Whichever way, I think I will still be onboard the Mayercraft for years to come. Lovin’ the album title, lovin’ the album cover, lovin’ this song. Rumor is this was written for ex-girlfriend Jennifer Aniston. What do you guys think?

artist: Robin Thicke
song: “Sex Therapy“
album: Sex Therapy (also due out December 8, 2009)

If you want to make babies, Robin Thicke is your guy. I mean, he will set the mood for you. Take a listen to this and try to get a hold of yourself from grabbing someone next to you and throwing them on the bed or the table or the kitchen sink or the…. you get my point. I am so getting myself some Sex Therapy when it comes out! I’m talking about the album… errr…

artist: Adam Lambert
song: “For Your Entertainment“
album: For Your Entertainment (due out November 23, 2009)

Listen to this and tell me if this was what you expected from him. Me I could care less. I said it before and I’ll say it again… Adam is the male version of Lady Gaga, without the songwriting skills. There’s so much hype surrounding this album’s release its ridiculous. About the song, I feel like I want to add this to THIS list from last year, what do you think? As for Kris Allen, I’m waiting for the album to come out so I can post one of the album tracks instead of the single. We will see soon how these lads fare in the market.

What’s on your mind?