Post-View Sundays

Last week, I missed "Preview Tuesday". That's when I was supposed to highlight some new music coming out and predict which ones might be worth checking out. So it's Sunday, and maybe we don't have preview capability for the November 30, 2010 release date, but we can do a post-view, or after-view, on it, right? Accordingly, the list below highlights some of those releases...

1. Eric Benet, "Lost in Time" - I haven't heard this yet but I'm excited about it. Benet is an excellent musician, and an interesting songwriter. I think, though, I'll take his musicianship and rank it ahead of his songwriting-ship. But that's all right. This might be a good one.

2. Black Eye Peas, "The Beginning" - So I'm not so excited for this one. The thing is, I'm never all that excited for BEP, but after some time elapses, I usually settle into two or three of their songs.  They strike me as too lyrically lightweight. That's why I don't get pumped for them. But the beats are usually worth nodding to. We'll see. If I have time to listen, I will. If I don't, I won't. Depends on how my free time shakes out.

3. Fefe Dobson, "Joy" - I really like Fefe Dobson. Her debut really struck me, although I felt it was a little Avril Lavigne-ish. Fefe does "jilted black rocker chick" pretty well. Doesn't matter if I don't have time for this. I'll make time.

4. Flo Rida, "Only One Flo (Part 1)" - It would be easy to hate on a rapper like Flo Rida. He's got that weird double entendre thing going with his rap name. This album has that weird "Flo" thing on in the title. The title claims to be a "part 1", which means he's got to do a "part 2". I don't know. I'm not feeling this.

5. Chrisette Michele, "Let Freedom Reign" - Chrisette Michele's retro vibe and pseudo-Billie Holiday presentation is starting to appeal to me. The title track has rappers Talib Kweli and Black Thought helping out, so, really, how bad can it be? It's got a bit of substance to it, so I'm curious about the rest of the album.

6. Ron Isley, "Mr. I" - Ron Isley, of the Isley Brothers? Checking this out is mandatory. No question.

7. Slim Thug, "The Thug Show" - Right, right. Don't judge a book by its cover, but the rap name and the album title are keeping me at bay here. I'll check this out just to satisfy myself that I'm not just being a hater.

8. Soulja Boy, "The DeAndre Way" - Say what you want about Soulja Boy, you know good and well you bumped to "Crank That" at least once. Soulja Boy has dances. And chants. And they are kind of catchy. I probably won't check this out, though, but I already know I'm not a hater on this one. Just not really something that interests me.

9. Jazmine Sullivan, "Love Me Back" - Hmm...a little bit of pop, hip-hop, and R&B? I don't expect anything groundbreaking here, but I'm slightly curious. Did you know Sullivan has received 7 Grammy nominations? I don't think a whole lot of the Grammys, so that makes me think I might not like her new album. Weird, huh? On the other hand, she's only 23. She's got time to grow. I might check this out just to see how she's progressing.

10. Steve Wynn, "Northern Aggression" - There's no excuse not to check this out. I love it when folks from the '80s continue to release records, if for no other reason than I love it when people react with nonsense like, "Why is this person still trying to make music? They'll never reclaim their peak years. Why don't they just quit?"  That's funny to me because most people suck at their jobs, and yet you don't see us coming down to those people's jobs with critiques like, "Damn, dude. Why are you still bagging groceries? You'll never bag groceries as awesomely as you did in your prime. You might as well give it up."

Peace, love, & lots o' harmonies!!!!