Trouble By Bonnie McKee Album Review

 Today will mark the 10th anniversary of the release of Bonnie McKee's debut album, Trouble. It was released on September 28th 2004 which like most CD release dates was a Tuesday. You might not have heard of Bonnie McKee before, but you've probably have heard some of her work as a songwriter, co-writing hit songs with Katy Perry and many other major pop artists of today.

Album artwork for Trouble

  All of the songs on Trouble were written by Bonnie McKee herself when she was still in high school. All of the songs are great for someone who wrote them all by herself. However after putting out two singles, Trouble, and Somebody, the songs failed to chart and the album became a flop. The single Somebody was even featured on the Soundtrack for Win A Date With Ted Hamilton. Bonnie McKee was later dropped from Reprise Records after the album flopped.
  However since the album was a flop, doesn't mean its a bad album, it's not. The album is pretty amazing and it is on my top 10 favorite albums list. It's constantly has a place in my 5 disc CD changer, my USB drive in the car and on my phone. That just goes to show you that I can't get enough of it.
  The tracklisting for Trouble is as follows,

1. Trouble
2. When It All Comes Down
3. Open Your Eyes
4. Somebody
5. A Voice That Carries
6. Honey
7. Green Grass
8. January
9. Marble Steps
10. Sensitive Subject Manner
11. I Hold Her
12. Confessions Of A Teenage Girl

 Even though Trouble flopped, Bonnie McKee has stated in interviews that she practically disowned the album. She even has stated that she can't even listen to it anymore because it is too painful. Many bands and artists have disowned earlier albums such as Styx with their first 4 albums on Wooden Nickel Records.
   This album is pretty hard to find on CD. Just how hard to find is it? Well just go into your local record store and look for this album and see if they have one. You probably won't find it. I went to several F.Y.E.'s and even the local independent record store looking for this CD and they didn't have it. I was lucky enough to get a brand new copy from a third party seller on Amazon for $20 back in February this year. I wouldn't normally spend $20 on a CD unless its a limited edition film score from La La Land Records. However on an interesting note when I bought the CD on Amazon at the time there was a ton of used copies of Trouble on Amazon and they since have been all sold. People are getting into her music thanks to her new single American Girl.
  On the other hand you can still buy the MP3 version of this album from iTunes or AmazonMP3 for around $9.99 which is the cost of the monthly subscription rate for the WWE Network.
  Now my favorite songs from Trouble are Trouble, When It All Comes Down, Somebody, A Voice That Carries, January, and I Hold Her. I believe that all of the songs on Trouble had the potential to become hit singles. Overall I give Trouble five out of five stars because it's an album that doesn't get the credit that It deserves. It's an underdog of an album. I think that the album could have gone far if the label would have promoted it properly but they didn't.
  Trouble will always be one of my favorite albums. There's no doubt about that.

Dr. Talk by Jerry Springer

  I can bet you any amount of money right now that you probably don't know that talk show host Jerry Springer had an album. In fact this album is pretty much forgotten and unknown today. In 1995 Jerry Springer released a country album titled Dr. Talk on CD from a record label called Fiddle Fish Music. Dr. Talk is technically an EP since it is about 23 minutes in length and has 8 tracks.
  Now only one song on Dr. Talk is not a cover, that song is Dr. Talk which was cowritten by Jerry Springer. This song talks about your life being so miserable or unusual that you might be a talk show guest. The song is hilarious. It has the Weird Al Yankovic vibe to it. Jerry Springer would actually play this song on his show when he had hick guests on his show. As a matter of fact, Jerry Springer has a passion for country music so this is why the album is a country album.

  The rest of the seven tracks are covers of other songs. Many of the cover songs feature other artists that I honestly never heard of before. Pretty much they are unknown artists on my behalf. Dr. Talk's tracklisting is as follows.

1. Dr. Talk
2. Let It Be Me
3. Cold, Cold Heart
4. Mr. Tambourine Man
5. Changing Partners
6. You Lay So Easy On My Mind
7. Talk Back Trembling Lips
8. Please Help Me, I'm Falling

  Now the covers are pretty well done. Jerry Springer seems to have given a lot of effort into them. One cover that is one of the best on Dr. Talk is Mr. Tambourine Man. Jerry Springer's version is much better than the original version. The other cover's I am not too familiar with. The songs are pretty amazing.
  I would have loved to see Jerry Springer do more country albums but this seems to fall into the obscure one album category that Macho Man Randy Savage and John Cena fall under. Dr. Talk is so rare that it is not currently available online to download on iTunes. I was lucky enough to buy a brand new copy of Dr. Talk from Amazon for $8. Dr. Talk is only available on CD or cassette.
  Overall I give Dr. Talk a 8 out of 10 stars. I think the CD could have had many more covers on it. Being at 23 some minutes it's kinda short for a cover album. I think the Unknown singers who are featured on the album are there because I believe that a lot of country singers didn't want to work with Jerry Springer due to the controversy of his show. If you see this album at a record store, pick it up. You won't regret it.

Be A Man Album Review

  It's been awhile since I last reviewed an album. So I thought it's time for another review. Up for review today is Be a Man by Macho Man Randy Savage. Yes he had a rap album that came out 10 years ago in 2003. 99.9% of the people who bought the one off album said it was terrible. I have to disagree with that, because for a man who was 51 years old at the time this was released, could rap better than the majority of the rap artists today. I'm serious.

The Album artwork

  Perhaps the most well known song from Be a Man is a diss track to Hulk Hogan called Be a Man. Now that isn't the only good song on the album. Perfect Friend is a song dedicated to the late wrestler Mr. Perfect Hennig which is also pretty good.
  Another track titled I'm Back is anachronistic because of the lyrics People want to know if Macho Man is still in the ring. People want to know is Macho Man is still doing his thing. It's ironic because Macho Man Randy Savage died in 2011 of a heart attack.
  This is one of those albums that shouldn't be taken seriously and you should get it for kicks and giggles. If you look for it on Amazon.com, it's quite expensive from 3rd party sellers new and used. Thankfully you can buy it for $10 from here http://www.myplaydirect.com/macho-man.
  The tracklisting is as followed

1. Intro
2. I'm Back
3. RU Ready
4. Hit the Floor
5. Let's Get It On
6. Remember Me
7. Tear It Up
8. Macho Thang
9. Be a Man
10. Get Back
11. Feel the Madness
12. What's That All About
13. Gonna Be Trouble
14. Perfect Friend

  My opinion on Be a Man is a good one. It's defiantly worth buying if you're a wrestling fan or if you want to get it for kicks and giggles. Which is why I bought the album for. Now I give Be a Man 9 out of 10 stars because of the intro track that isn't performed by Macho Man Randy Savage and all of the tracks had backup vocals from unknown singers. Which is Ok by me since Macho Man Randy Savage wasn't a good singer from what I have read online.

Warrior Deluxe Edition Review

  Today I thought I would do another album review. So up for review today is Ke$ha's new album, Warrior. It is the deluxe edition. Now Warrior is a raunchier than Ke$ha's previous albums. It is her second album with a tipper sticker with the first being her remix album. The Deluxe edition of Warrior has 16 tracks instead of the standard editions 12 tracks.
  Warrior has a completely different sound than Ke$ha's previous album Animal and EP, Cannibal. Ke$ha drops a bunch of F-bombs in the album which is ok for me. This album is not for everybody. Especially those who hate explicit lyrics or concerned parents. Now most people out there have some sort of hate about Ke$ha. I am one of those who don't hate her. I liked the album very much. It is one of those I can listen to again and again.

The Deluxe Edition Album Art

  Most of the songs on Warrior are high energy dance tracks with very sick synth beats. I think this works pretty well for Ke$ha's image. One of my favorite songs from the Deluxe Edition is Gold Trans Am. Ke$ha mentions Gold Trans Am's in some of her previous songs so I liked where this was going since I am a car buff. Gold Trans Am was also co-written by her mother Pebe Sebert.
  Warrior's lead single is Die Young. The Second confirmed single is C'Mon which is scheduled for official release sometime in January 2013.
  Here is the tracklist for the Deluxe Edition of Warrior

1. Warrior
2. Die Young
3. C'Mon
4. Thinking of You
5. Crazy Kids
6. Wherever You Are
7. Dirty Love
8. Wonderland
9. Only Wanna to Dance With You
10. Supernatural
11. All That Matters (The Beautiful Life)
12. Love Into the Light
13. Last Goodbye
14. Gold Trans Am
15. Out Alive
16. Past Lives

A Very Merry Perri Christmas Review

  I preordered Christina Perri's new Christmas EP on Amazon.com about a week ago. It arrived today. So I thought I would review it. Usually I cannot stand Christmas music but this is an exception. I am a fan of Christina Perri. I know the owners of one of the places she worked as a waitress in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. So there is a little backstory to this purchase.

The album artwork

  Now where was I? Oh yes my review of A Very Merry Perri Christmas. This CD has 6 tracks. Five of them are covers of Christmas songs with the exception of Something About December which was written by Christina Perri.
The tracklisting is as follows.

1. Something About December
2. Merry Christmas Darling
3. Please Come Home for Christmas
4. Ave Maria
5. Happy Xmas (War is Over)
6. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

  Now this EP is way better than any Christmas music I have heard while shopping in stores during the holiday season. Christina gave a lot of effort and emotion into singing these songs. You can tell with "Other" artists are selling out and don't give much effort into their Christmas albums. Most of them are generally disliked and frowned upon by their fans. I really hope that stores will play some of her versions of Christmas songs instead of the boring versions that have been played for years.
  Onto the album artwork. I like the album art. It's really different than most conventional Christmas album artwork and isn't cheesy like some of them. I think the side profile of her head is a unique feature that separates this album from the others out there. On a side note this EP is not in a jewel case, but a Digipak instead which gives it a Nine Inch Nails album feeling. Most of Nine Inch Nails albums are Digipaks.
  Overall I give this EP 10 out of 10 stars. You're probably thinking that's a little biased. It's not trust me on that. This EP is fantastic and stands out from the generic Christmas albums put out by other artists. It's better than Randy Travis's two Christmas albums. I'm glad that Christina Perri stayed away from some of the more annoying and stupid songs we hear around Christmastime such as Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, or Please Daddy Don't Get Drunk this Christmas or Rocking Around the Christmas Tree. I highly recommend this EP.

Twilight The Score Review

  Ok this isn't my first film score review, it's one of my many I plan on reviewing. I love film scores, I hate various artists soundtracks that have little or nothing to do with the movie. So since I love film scores I decided to buy all of the Twilight Saga film scores. Now each of the movies up to Eclipse had a different composer. Twilight had Carter Burwell, New Moon had Alexandre Desplat, Eclipse had Howard Shore. From Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 and 2, Carter Burwell returned to score the last two installments.

The CD artwork

  First of all the score for Twilight is wahttp://www.blogger.com better than the movie. Why is that? Well the score doesn't have bad acting in it like the movie. It helps drown out the shitty acting in the movie. It does it well. It distracts you from the bad story and gets your adrenaline pumping. The score is probably the best film score of 2008. I'm shocked at why wasn't the score nominated for any awards. Here's why it should have been nominated, It was way different than any other film score of 2008. It's not really a symphony orchestra score either, it's more of a metal/guitar/synth score.
  Here is the Tracklist.

1. "How I Would Die" – 1:53
2. "Who Are They?" – 3:26
3. "Treaty" – 1:58
4. "Phascination Phase" – 2:04
5. "Humans Are Predators Too" – 2:04
6. "I Dreamt of Edward" – 1:06
7. "I Know What You Are" – 2:37
8. "The Most Dangerous Predator" – 2:22
9. "The Skin of a Killer" – 2:58
10. "The Lion Fell in Love with the Lamb" – 3:10
11. "Complications" – 1:11
12. "Dinner with His Family" – 0:38
13. "I Would Be the Meal" – 1:24
14. "Bella's Lullaby" – 2:18
15. "Nomads" – 3:51
16. "Stuck Here Like Mom" – 1:40
17. "Bella Is Part of the Family" – 1:24
18. "Tracking" – 2:19
19. "In Place of Someone You Love" – 1:45
20. "Showdown in the Ballet Studio" – 4:50
21. "Edward at Her Bed" – 1:05

    The length of the album is 46:53.
  Overall I give Twilight The Score 9 stars out of 10 because it has a short length. I did like the track Nomads the best. It has a metal sound to it and can be used for a WWE entrance theme. I highly recommend this score.

The Fresh Beat Band: Music from the Hit TV Show Review

The album art.

  Today I am going to review another CD. It's something that I have never done a review of before. I will be reviewing The Fresh Beat Band: Music from the Hit TV Show. It is the soundtrack for the hit TV show on Nickelodeon called The Fresh Beat Band which is the only decent non animated show on their former Nick Jr block. I'm 22 years old and I have to admit this show is interesting.
  Where to begin. To start off the CD has 20 tracks. 19 of those songs are from the TV show itself. Track 20 is bonus track not from the TV show called Bubble Guppies. Why this was included is beyond me. This track is out of place on my behalf. That is the soundtrack's only flaw. The soundtrack opens with the show's theme song titled The Fresh Beat Band Theme and ends with Great Day which is the show's closing theme. All the songs are very catchy and upbeat. From an adult standpoint, the songs can be nauseous and can have a Gitmo torture playlist feeling to it. Even though I am not the shows target audience I was very impressed with the CD.This should have been released when the show came out. I don't know why there was a delay till now.
  The overall length of this soundtrack is 40:20. It goes pretty fast considering that the average length of the songs are 2 minutes.
Track Listing.

1. 1. Fresh Beat Band Theme
2. 2. Here We Go
3. 3. A Friend Like You
4. Just Like a Rockstar 
5. Reach For The Sky
6. I Can Do Anything
7. Bananas 
8. Music (Keeps Me Moovin')
9. Good Times
10. Loco Legs
11. Get Up and Go Go
12. Another Perfect Day
13. Shine
14. Stomp the House
15. Surprise Yourself
16. We're Unstoppable 
17. Friends Give Friends a Hand
18. Freeze Dance
19. Great Day
20. Sun, Beautiful Sun *(Bonus Track from The Bubble Guppies)

  Overall I give this a 9 out of 10 stars because of track number 20 not being on the TV show. You can buy the CD or download it from Amazon.com or other Big Box stores now. 

Born This Way Deluxe Edition Review

 On May 23rd I bought the deluxe edition of Lady Gaga's new album Born This Way and I have to say that this has to be her best work yet. Now we all know by now that the deluxe edition is no longer a Target exclusive so you can get this album anywhere. The standard edition of Born This Way has 14 songs. The deluxe edition has 17 songs plus a bonus disc with 5 remixes bringing the total to 22 songs.

The SE of Born This Way

The DE looks much cooler and Badass.

  1. The Artwork. The artwork for the deluxe edition is different from the standard edition. (From now on I am getting tired of typing deluxe edition and standard edition and I will be abbreviate them DE and SE for short.) The DE's artwork is Lady Gaga's head that is implanted on the motorcycle only zoomed to show her head. In addition the DE says Lady Gaga Born This Way on it compared to the SE with just Born This Way and Lady Gaga implanted on a motorcycle. If I had to pick a favorite cover I would have to go with the DE cover because it just looks so badass.
  2. The songs. The three bonus songs on disc one of the DE are Black Jesus+ Amen Fashion, Fashion of His Love, and The Queen. The album's five singles, are Born This Way, Judas, The Edge of Glory, You And I, and Marry the Night. It's a shame that Judas flopped. I was very disappointed to not hear it on the radio often as much as the other two singles. Back to the review I got a little bit sidetracked. I am not going to review the songs one by one just to let you know. The songs vary in sound from, some having a Nine Inch Nails industrial sound to a Mexican sound to an opera opening in Government Hooker. The sound of this album is different from her previous albums, The Fame and The Fame Monster. 3 of the songs are censored.in the DE, the songs that are censored are, Government Hooker which I believe is intentionally censored the other two censored songs are Bad Kids and The Queen. Now the remixes on Disc 2 are your typical Lady Gaga remixes, with the exception to the Born This Way Country Road version, where Born This Way is sung in a country tune and some of the lyrics are changed.
   3. My Opinion of Born This Way. I loved Born This Way. You can even say I went gaga over it. Excuse the pun. This is even more epic album over The Fame and The Fame Monster, heck it's even more epic than The Remix. This album is her best yet. If you know or follow Hess trucks you probably know the slogan The Hess truck is back and it's better than ever. Well I will modify that. The Lady Gaga album is back and it's better than ever. I especially love the fact that Lady Gaga had an industrial influence in making this album. After all Nine Inch Nails is one of her influences. I wonder what Trent Reznor would think of this album. The only dislike I have is the fact that 3 songs are censored. I hate censorship. I guess Lady Gaga is afraid of a parental advisory label on her album artwork or it is her label's fault. I would highly recommend Born This Way deluxe edition to any little monster out there.