The Pop Round-Up

KELLY CLARKSON’s newest album “All I Ever Wanted” released on Tuesday, March 10, 2009. (It also leaked online earlier than that.) The first two times I listened to it, I was partially distracted. Quite frankly, I really didn’t like it. She sounds like she’s shouting through a lot of it and I put it aside, wanting my ten dollars back from iTunes. After catching Kelly’s lackluster, self-conscious performance on “Saturday Night Live,” in which she actually sang instead of shouting, I decided to give the new album another chance. (I have very high expectations for her after her fantastic chart-topping sophomore album “Breakaway,” and after the complete disaster that was “My December” last year we all just want our American Idol back. Clarkson just needs to let other people write her songs.)

I avoided her single “My Life Would Suck Without You” before the album dropped because I didn’t want to be tempted to spend an extra dollar to buy it before the album. Regardless, I haven’t stopped listening to this album since last Saturday, and I’ve picked out some of my favorite tracks for you to sample on iTunes (maybe skip “My Life Would Suck Without You” – because it really does kind of suck):

“I Do Not Hook Up” is the latest single off the album. If you listen to the radio, I’m sure you’ll be sick of it soon enough. It’s also written by Katy Perry, the “I Kissed a Girl” pop tart du jour. But it’s still pretty good.

“Tip of My Tongue” has a fantastic hook and beat.

“Don’t Let Me Stop You” is another great I-don’t-need-a-man anthem, per usual (what would a Kelly album be without one?).

“Cry” is a hearty, ear-pleasing we-broke-up-and-I’m-in-pain tune.

“I Want You” has a cute retro-50s beat with a modern pop spin.

The album art is sickening, though. I know Kelly has publicly proclaimed that she likes the Photoshopping, but the cover art conveys the wrong idea about this album, and I blame it in part for my reluctance to warm up to it.

LADY GAGA’s “Just Dance” is to me what Madonna’s “4 Minutes” was at this time last year. And the funny thing is that I was completely addicted to it from early January until I got back into my Kelly Clarkson. Gaga’s first album “The Fame” completely destroy’s Britney Spears’s “Circus.” Sorry, Britney. As much as I love “If You Seek Amy” and “Circus,” they don’t hold a candle to Gaga’s infectious “Just Dance” and “Paparazzi” when all you want to do is…well, “Just Dance.” I even got my mom to listen to Lady Gaga while we hung out at the house in Alaska when Dave and Steve were shooting commercials for AT&T (remember THIS post? ).

PerezHilton.com is calling Lady Gaga the new Princess of Pop (re-dubbing Britney the Duchess and Madonna the Queen—fine, whatever). I think she’s so much more than just pop. She’s an eccentric blend of pop and electronica. She’s also a fascinating character in her own right. Constantly caught on the street hardly wearing anything, the pants-averse Gaga is daring with her costumes, bleached blonde hair, and fascinating feminized KISS-like make-up. Like Britney Spears and Madonna, she’s a true entertainer. She also has a fascinating back-story, having started performing in burlesque clubs on the Lower East Side of New York City at the age of 18 (she just turned 23, I think).

I first heard of Lady Gaga on PerezHilton.com, but didn’t hear her first single, amazingly, until I was driving around Anchorage (amazing because they’re usually a few months behind the rest of the country). I immediately stopped at the local Best Buy and bought—get this—a CD! Now I’m a GagaManiac, and I’ve even gotten Steve hooked on it.

Here’s the video for Gaga’s first hit single “Just Dance.” The video is underwhelming and pretty lame, but the song is infectious. Maybe just minimize your window and turn up the volume.

Other Lady Gaga tunes you need to sample (if you don't sample the whole album): "Paparazzi," "Poker Face" (her latest single after "Just Dance"), "LoveGame," and "Boys Boys Boys."

And, lastly, I can’t possibly pass up posting THIS:

Beyonce’s rendition of “You Oughta Know” by Alanis… (I love you, Beyonce! Even if you are the BUTT of many of my jokes.)