A quick post on recent music I’ve been listening to. I’m listening to more music these days than I used to a couple of years ago, probably because I now primarily purchase all my music from iTunes and rarely ever buy any physical disks. I can only buy music from the UK iTunes store because I have a bank account in the UK, but it is still annoying at times because there are some tracks which are only sold in the US or some other jurisdiction, but not in the UK. For example, only the standard version of OneRepublic’s “Waking Up” is sold on UK iTunes, while the US has also the delux version of the album which has four extra tracks. I always get the delux version if it has more tracks, I do not understand why someone would buy the standard edition which has four missing tracks when the whole purpose of buying an album is get ALL the tracks.

OneRepublic – Waking Up

“Waking Up” is OneRepublic’s sophomore album which got released a couple of weeks ago. I really liked their previous album “Dreaming Out Load” which I still continue to listen to from to time until today. For those who do not know OneRepublic, they are the group behind “Apologize” – one of the most downloaded ever on iTunes. The main man behind the group, Ryan Tedder, has produced many hits such as Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis, Halo by Beyonce, and Battlefield by Jordin Sparks.

I thought that Waking Up continued the same formula of Dreaming Out Loud with more grand instrumentals this time and a more positive message. I cannot say that I like Waking Up more than Dreaming Out Loud, but I love songs such as Made For You, All the Right Moves, Secrets, and Marching On which is without doubt my favorite track on the album. It has been also confirmed that Timbaland is going to have a remix of Marching On on his new album Shockwave Value II! I CAN’T WAIT TO HEAR THAT ONE!

Leona Lewis – Echo

The second album by Leona Lewis was one of my most anticipated albums of the year. It is also the first album I ever preorder in my life… and it did not disappoint. I fell in love with Happy (produced by Ryan Tedder) the instant I listened to it. The album has a good combination of power ballads and pop songs. My favorite tracks on the album are Happy, I Got You, Can’t Breathe, Outta My Head, My Hands, Love Letter, Naked, and Broken. (Isn’t this like the whole album? ) Surprisingly, I’m not really big on Leona’s duet with OneRepublic. Leona Lewis’ song My Hands has also been picked by Square-Enix to be one of the theme songs for the English language release of Final Fantasy XIII – That is cool!

Alexandra Burke – Overcome

Though I was a really big fan on Alexandra on X Factor, I was not very impressed by her first single Bad Boys, it was clear to me that an effort was made to distinguish her from Leona Lewis and make her have a more edgy and urban sound. I did not like her album the first time I listened to it, but it grew really big on me with time and NOW I AM OBSESSED WITH A SONG CALLED “YOU BROKE MY HEART” it is nothing like the music I listen to and it is sung in a really awesome British accent! Other songs I like on this album include the Silence, Dumb, It’s Over, They Don’t Know, and Goodnight Good Morning (which Brandy sang but never released). I must say that I am really pleased with Alexandra’s first album!

I’ve obsessing about Michael Jackson since he passed away. I was never MJ’s number 1 fan, but I enjoyed a lot of his music. He is one of the biggest influences to today’s music, dance, and fashion. He is an international cultural icon that people from all around the world acknowledge and identify. His gift was out of this world.

I do not believe any of the accusations that were made against him for molesting and he was never found guilty by court for any of these offences. I think that he lived a very sad and troubled life. May her rest in peace now.

I’m still not sure about how feel about Keri Hilson’s debut album. I’ve been waiting for this album forever, and it got delayed over and over and over again. And when it came out, it was not released in the UK! I eventually managed to get one imported through HMV.

Keri Hilson is very talented, she has written the most beautiful songs for people like Toni Braxton (Sposed to be) and Jennifer Lopez (Wrong When Your Gone), and even Britney Spears (Break the Ice). She’s been all over Timbaland’s last album, she had a duo with Chris Brown, and she was also on Diddy last album as well.

Anyway, now that her album is out, I was really not that impressed. I hate the song Turning Me On, I think it’s stupid and I just don’t like it. I was addicted to Energy when it came out more than a freaking year ago, but not so much now. I do like a number of tracks on the album like Knock You Down, Intuition, Alienated, and Change Me, but I was really hoping for a masterpiece that I would be listening for months and months to come, not an album that I would get bored off into a couple of days. 

I am really disappointed by Keri Hilson. I hope that the album grows on me over time.

1. Intro
2. Turnin Me On ft. Lil Wayne
3. Get Your Money Up ft. Keyshia Cole & Trina
4. Return The Favor ft. Timbaland
5. Knock You Down ft. Neyo
6. Slow Dance
7. Make Love
8. Intuition
9. How Does It Feel
10. Alienated
11. Tell Him the Truth
12. Change Me ft. Akon
13. Energy
14. Where Did He Go

2.5/5

Earlier this week I decided to stop buying music CDs and only purchase digital music downloads if I had to choose between the two. In the last four years since legal music downloads became a proper medium for buying music I just never got myself to buy digital downloads because (1) I didn’t see value in buying music that I can only play on my iPod (2) the physical CD cover and artwork provided me with value I couldn’t get with digital downloads, but I finally changed my mind earlier this week because (1) I got a new iPod several months ago and I think that I will keep it for a couple of years at least, so it is not like I would play my songs on anything else, (2) I gave up on my passion for plastic and because realised that I do not know what I will be doing with all thsee CDs in the future. (3) It was already possible to buy DRM-Free music from Amazon.

In the past four or so years I bought less than 20 digital tracks, most of which were  iTunes exclusives which I couldn’t legally get from anywhere else.  

On Saturday I bought my first ever full album on iTunes (Leona Lewis – Spirit) and decided that I will not be buying any more music plastic from now on.

To my surprise, Apple announced two days ago that it is going to ditch DRM completey. This means that only remaining reason to buy CDs is only for sentimental value, which is not a huge deal really if you think about it.

I bought my first DRM-free song from iTunes yesterday, and as described, you can convert it to an .mp3 file with a single click.

1- Beyonce: I am… Sasha Fierce

Beyonce’s third album was the biggest come back of the year. The album was a two-disc feature, the first is called “I am” and the second is called “Sasha Fierce”. “I am” is all about super vocals and deep lyrics, while the second one is all about the beats. I loved “I am” to bits, but my most favourite song in the entire album had to be the powerful “Scared of Lonely” in the second album.

2- Brandy: Human

It saddens me to realise that Brandy is no longer on  ”top of the world“. Her recent album, Human, came a couple of weeks ago and barely anyone knew about it. In the UK I couldn’t find the album in the new releases section of HMV or Zavvi and had to browse deep into the store to find the album burried in the Urban music shelves. Brandy is such a good singer and Human is a delicate and soulful album, unfortunately the market does not necessarily reward talented singers. My favourite tracks in the album are “True” and “1st and Love“. 

3- OneRepublic: Dreaming Out Loud

The best new musical act I got introduced to in 2008 is undeniably OneRepublic, their work is amazing musically, vocally, and lyrically. I just can’t get enough of these guys. Ryan Tedder is also super talented and I now track down every single song he works on. My favourite OneRepublic songs are “Say“, “Tyrant” and “Dreaming Out Loud“.

4- Marwan Khoury: Ana Wl Leil

Marwan Khoury is now my favourite Arabic singer, he’s been pretty popular for a number of years now, but this was the first album I actually guy for him, my favourite tracks were “Awlak”, “L Karar”, and the super hit “Ya Rabb”.

I treated myself to a music album in celebration of eid (mine was so uneventful you guys have no idea). I decided to stop downloading illegal music from the internet two years ago and because we have no proper music stores in Oman that practically made me stop listening to new music. Luckily, people stil ‘buy’ music in this part of the world, I’m so addicted to HMV I consider it my shrine.

OneRepublic is a rock/pop/alternative band lead by Ryan Tedder, a super talented song writer and producer (Bleeding Love – Leona Lewis, Apologize – OneRepublic). I’ve never in my life previously purchased/downloaded a rock band music album (Pink doesn’t count, does she?), but I, like the rest of the world, loved Apologized after hearing it on Timbaland’s album, which later became the most legally downloaded song in history in the US.

I’ve never previously listened to an album from the same genre before so I can’t say what it sounds similar to, but I really loved it. The music is nice, the lyrics are great, and Ryan Tedder is really such a good singer.

I got the UK version of the album which actually has the song “Dreaming Out Loud” (the album title) which was not included in the US version of the album! (Strange, but that also happened with Maya’s Moodring).

My favourite songs in the album are “Say – All I Need”, “Stop and Stare”, “Apologize”, “Tyrant”, and “Dreaming Out Loud”.

1. Say (All I Need) < Click for YouTube video
2. Mercy
3. Stop And Stare
4. Apologize
5. Goodbye, Apathy
6. All Fall Down
7. Tyrant
8. Prodigal
9. Won’t Stop
10. All We Are
11. Someone To Save You
12. Come Home
13. Dreaming Out Loud
14. Something’s Not Right Here
15. Apologize – Timbaland, OneRepublic

4/5

Shock Value is the usual Timbo greatness, it is ALL about the beats. Each song in the album is so much different from the other and features a diverse set of aritsts from Dr Dre and Missy Elliot, to alternative rock bands such as The Hives and One Republic, and ending up with Elton John along with so many more.

1. Oh Timbaland – Timbaland
2. Give It to Me – Nelly Furtado, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake
3. Release – Timbaland, Justin Timberlake
4. Way I Are – Doe, Keri Hilson, Timbaland
5. Bounce – Dr. Dre, , Missy Elliott, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake
6. Come and Get Me – 50 Cent, Timbaland, Tony Yayo
7. Kill Yourself – Attitude, , Sebastian, Timbaland
8. Boardmeeting – Magoo, Timbaland
9. Fantasy – Money, Timbaland
10. Scream – Keri Hilson, Nicole Scherzinger, Timbaland
11. Miscommunication – Keri Hilson, , Sebastian, Timbaland
12. Bombay – Amar, Jim Beanz, Timbaland
13. Throw It on Me – The Hives, Timbaland
14. Time – She Wants Revenge, Timbaland
15. One and Only – Fall Out Boy, , Timbaland
16. Apologize – OneRepublic, Timbaland
17. 2 Man Show – Elton John, Timbaland
18. Hello – Keri Hilson, Attitude

 

4/5

4/5

I have completed about the third of Stephen King’s Cell. It is the first proper book I read by King, a post about it at Engadget earlier this year got me interested in it. The cell is not a science fiction book, but a story about how we shall act when civilization falls. I enjoy reading contemporary novels more than anything else, Cell is nice thriller that I’m very much enjoying at the moment.

In Cold Blood is a book that I never was able to get in to, I purchased it after watching the movie Capote which told the story of how the book was written. I really do not like the fact that the book is divided into huge chapters as I find them very tiring to read. I failed my second attempt at reading this book, I stopped reading it when I got Cell. I do not know if I’ll get back to it once I am done with the other one.

I’ve read quite a bit of HTML & XHTML – The Definitive Guide, but it does not look like I’ll be able to finish it anytime soon. I do not know if I will finish it ever. I am a great fan of Oreilly’s Definitive Guide series, but the topic of this one is very dull. I got it learn XHTML, and it looks like I’ll just skip into the relevant chapters and leave the rest as I do know what I need to know about HTML already.

A very talented artist that probably nobody ever heard of is the Danish ‘Maria’. In 2003, she released in the US a single titled “I Give, You Take” and one beautifully crated soul album titled ‘My Soul’. Sadly, Maria never made it big and completely disappeared after the failure of her album. I downloaded this album in 2003 and really loved it. I had to purchase it when I randomly found it at a shop here in Muscat earlier this month.

I am currently playing Final Fantasy XII on the PS2 and really enjoying every bit of it. I no longer have the time to play every single RPG that comes out, so this is my annual dose of old school Japanese gamplay goodness. FFXII has got it all perfect, the storyline, the characters, the gameplay, the music, and obviously the art and graphics. I am at the final stage in the game, might finish it soon.

I am quite pissed about the fact that I cannot find a couple of DS games that I craving for, Final Fantasy III and Castlevania Portrait of Ruin, it looks like I’ll be ordering these online soon. I hate you stupid game shops of Oman.