I reached out for your hands and you threw it all away

"You Gave Me Nothing," taken from British producer Mark Ronson's forthcoming album Record Collection, is, to paraphrase Popjustice, the best proper duet I've heard in months. Not that there's been much competition--if we're just talking about balanced duets, not featuring appearances, what else has there been, save Robyn and Snoop Dogg, since, say, spring?

05 You Gave Me Nothing (feat. Rose Elinor Dougall & Andrew Wyatt) by poppostergirl

The singers in question are Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow and Rose Elinor Dougall, formerly of the Pipettes. Andrew's appearance on "You Gave Me Nothing," which might be more intuitively titled "You're Not My Baby," is certainly the most I've ever enjoyed his voice; listening to the Miike Snow album always felt more like an art appreciation exercise than an engaging musical experience, though the seemingly-still-unreleased remix of "The Rabbit" might be the exception to that rule. Maybe it's the added urgency of the gently unsettling dystopian music (yes, a gentle dystopia--the kind where our robotic overlords aren't killing people left and right in the streets but have passed futuristic Alien and Sedition Acts). Maybe it's balancing his voice with an equal amount of Rose, whose indie-beloved solo material I've ignored to date but who here comes across like the next great popstar.

Regardless, the two singers and Mark all bring out the best in each other. The cold fire of Mark's dark electro-meets-band composition, the dismissive anger of Andrew and Rose--how can there be such power in the final product when all parties involved resist the urge to scream and shout at each other? "You're Not My Baby" somehow still manages to radiate icy, ominous fury in the midst of its grown-up hooks. Free of kitsch or self-aware irony, let's hope it and its sheathed-knife electro passion set the template for Mark Ronson's upcoming work with Duran Duran.

"You're Not My Baby" is taken from Mark Ronson & the Business Intl's album Record Collection (which does feature vocals from Duran Duran's Simon Le Bon on the title track), out next week. You can preorder it here (physical).

Like you do when no one is around

You know how I once pretty much dedicated a whole post to "wow, look how different Simple Plan guy looks!"? Yeah, well, sorry, but here's another installment of the "wow, look at how different [singer] looks!" I know we've covered Ryan Cabrera in brief before, courtesy of his curly long black hair and black hat combo on So You Think You Can Dance. Well, look what Mr. Cabrera apparently looks like now:


(Taken from his MySpace)

I feel like my understanding of the universe is crumbling.

Edit: I typed this up yesterday, and then I actually check his MySpace again today, and it's been totally revamped with clips from his new album, Moon Under Water, due out this April, with the lead single "S'S'Say" out before then (and the verses of it are actually pretty good, though the chorus is totally underwhelming), though he doesn't have a major label deal. This was just meant to be snark, but I guess now it's actual news!

Anyway, I stumbled upon that image while checking up on Josh Hoge, the--oh, how do you even begin to describe Josh Hoge?



"I am a pop singer, but I kinda live like a rock ‘n’ roller. I definitely drink too much, and cuss too much, and chase girls around too much. I think I was like, at Nickelodeon doing an interview one time and they were just kinda like, 'This is never gonna work.'"

Source



Yeah, that probably about sums it up. Anyway, poor Josh had a great single out in 2006 called "360" that no one paid any attention to, and he released a great album sampler to promote it--seriously, not one bad song on it, and "Take It Or Leave It," posted on his MySpace for a while, was great as well. Single failed to take off, studio album thereby failed to materialize, dropped from record label, toured with Elliot Yamin and released a lo-fi ish EP instead. Apparently he's hoping to get an album out sometime in the first half of 2008.

Anyway, if you missed out on my earlier post on Josh (which was pretty near the beginning of this blog, so there's a good chance of that) and haven't heard his material, now's the time to run over to his MySpace because, as long as you've got your own MySpace account, you can download "360" and "Work Your Body" for free, and that's a pretty amazing thing, considering that both songs are fantastic. "360" is this great ballad that I mentioned just recently in reference to Justin's "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around;" both share the "you'll get what's coming to you for what you did to me" message and kind of a similar vibe. I was also really into "360" right around the time I was into Mario Vazquez's Ne-Yo-penned "Gallery," and they'd fit together on a playlist nicely as well, despite opposite lyrical sentiments.

"Work Your Body" is a complete change of pace, though, a pervey funk-filled falsetto-featuring song that deserves much more than being a free download on MySpace and a featured spot on a Biggest Loser soundtrack. Go download it already. Apparently Mark Ronson co-wrote it! And Amy Winehouse! Along with David Ryan Harris. Who knew?

While I'm writing about Josh Hoge, though I've said it before, I might as well throw in again that he co-wrote Blake Lewis's "Know My Name," which was originally intended for Josh, I think. Also, a bunch of Josh's songs (including "Take It Or Leave It") were co-written by Ryan Tedder. Josh also did a song with Cheyenne Kimball called "Wonderful" that was a bonus track on her album, available only at Target.

To finish off the randomness of this post:



Gareth Gates on ice! Love Gareth, but I hope he's doing this just for fun, because even if he wins, I feel like it'll be Matt Willis all over again in terms of helping his music career. I adore him, though, so I wish him loads of success in this and everything. Plus, congratulations--he and his longterm girlfriend just got engaged this New Year's Eve!