Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars, “Die With a Smile” I am the hugest Bruno Mars fan – the first time I heard the ride-out on “Uptown Funk,” I swooned. (OK, Mark Ronson gets some credit for that one). And then, when I attended the 2012 Grammys, I got to witness Bruno and his crew DANCE – OMG, get my smelling salts! He is keeping the art form of melody alive in today’s rhythm-machine-gun-lyric-hip-hop [...]
Chappell Roan, “Good Luck, Babe!” The inaugural artist for this series is hard not to like (at least for me). She is gorgeous in the campy way drag queens are, but with a soaring voice and sense of humor. The drumbeat on GOOD LUCK, BABE! reminded me of BILLE JEAN and it has a moody 80s vibe all through it. The lyrics are great – the rhyme of “truth” with “sunroof” is fantastic. [...]
Why do an album of hymns anyway? The word comes from the Greek "hymnos," a sacred song or poem. Since most everything having to do with the Christian church was translated through the Greeks, that's why we call our church songs "hymns" now (our Jewish brothers and sisters call them "piyutim" and our Muslim family calls them "nasheeds"). To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of the traditional Christian hymnal. [...]
