Carried Away

Nothing much to say in this post, other than that I absolutely fell in love with this video. Great song, great album, great artist. I feel compelled to include it in my blog for completion's sake, if that makes any sense.

It does to me.

Passion Pit - Carried Away

Crazy in Love with 4

Two months ago, I was  trying to park my car in San Francisco, which if you know anything about driving in the City is a feat in and of itself. It began with me frustratingly circling around the blocks near my apartment for a while until I found a pretty decent spot close by. I started to parallel park, but since I was in a hurry to meet up with some friends, I did a pretty bad job of doing it. Next thing I hear is a snap, so I stop and run out to see what happened. Turns out I had backed my car into the bushes on the sidewalk and broke my antenna in the process. My radio hasn't worked and I've been listening to nothing but Beyoncé's 4 in my car ever since.

I truly love Beyoncé as a musician and performer. In my opinion, she's the whole, talented, beautiful package. In fact, I think you'd be hard-pressed to name a handful of other current artists who can actually sing and dance like any true pop artist should. I think she's going to be in it for the long run.

And I truly love her most recent album, 4. It hasn't done as well as her last couple in terms of mainstream popularity, but this is by far her most brilliant one. You can tell that there is a lot her own personal experiences and feelings written into the songs, and she sounds so magnificent singing them.

Which is why I want to share it with you! By way of her music videos. She's actually released a lot of them, in her label's attempt to promote 4 as an important, commercially successful record.

You're welcome.

P.S. If you only have time for two, watch "Countdown" and and "Love On Top".

Beyoncé - 1+1

Beyoncé - Best Thing I Never Had

Beyoncé - Party

Beyoncé - Love On Top

Beyoncé - Countdown

Beyoncé - Run The World (Girls)

Beyoncé - Dance For You

Introducing Electra Heart

I live for this sort of pretension. Or maybe I should call it artistic expression of perspective.

At any rate, here's some background: Marina and the Diamonds recently released two new music videos for her upcoming album, Electra Heart. They're part of a series, which she is using as a platform to introduce the character of Electra Heart who is "the antithesis of everything that I stand for" according to Marina.

To continue quoting from her Popjustice interview: "[The] point of introducing her and building a whole concept around her is that she stands for the corrupt side of American ideology, and basically that's the corruption of yourself. My worst fear - that's anyone's worst fear - is losing myself and becoming a vacuous person. And that happens a lot when you're very ambitious."

For the record, I'm genuinely impressed when musicians come up with these aggrandizing concepts.

When asked about her inspiration for the premise of this series: "I want to explore the side [of America] that's all about loss and failure. That image, that illusion we have of America really fascinates me."

I smell another Gaga act developing. No, I kid. I really do love Marina and the Diamonds.

Part 1: Fear and Loathing

Part 2: Radioactive

Gaga by Gaultier

Ugh, why can't I quit Lady Gaga?

Just when I think she's getting seriously overexposed, and her music becoming highly overrated (I'll bet you five bucks that The Edge of Glory is pushing you over the edge at this point), she does something as seemingly fabulous as this:

Non, Gaga, vous êtes gentille. For working on what appears to be a hopefully galvanizing TV interview special. Obviously I'll be tuning in.


FYI, it's airing Monday, September 12 at 8 p.m. on the CW.

Robyn is Enormously Underrated

• She is so talented. Listen to any of her live performances and try telling me she isn't.
• She makes such innovative music. Body Talk is beyond any "pop" music I've listened to.
• She has incomparable style. I especially love her fearless boyish haircuts.
• She always looks like she's having fun. I hate it when pop artists start taking themselves too seriously.

Watch this and try not to fall in love with her too much:

My First Album

I'm kind of sick of Lady Gaga. She's overrated now, but I still love her.

That's beside the point though. I was watching "Lady Gaga: Inside the Outside" on MTV yesterday, and one of the questions she was asked was about the first album she bought (it was Green Day's Dookie.)

Naturally, I tried to remember what mine was. Looking back, it makes a lot of sense...

I'm a little surprised I still remember all the words to "Fantasy" and "Always Be My Baby."

Black and White. Like Reading Music.

When I saw this video:

I loved it. It's black, white and sassy. Well, Dragonette is.

But then it reminded me of this video:

Which I completely adore. 80% of that is due to Jake Gyllenhaal's cameo.

And then I tried to think of another music video with this same black & white aesthetic. The only other one that I absolutely love is this:

She's so fearless.

That pretty much describes most of what I listen to. Just throw in some top 40's, and you've basically got my iPod.

V Magazine Loves Gaga

But who doesn't? I guess that's kind of a loaded question.

I don't think the music she's been putting out for her latest album (Born This Way) is particularly inspired, but I still absolutely love and respect her personal sense of style and confidence. Also, I kind of love and hate how pretentious she's become, as is evidenced by this article she wrote.

(If you didn't figure it out, Gaga is on the cover the V Magazine, the Asian Issue, this summer.)