New Picks of the Week November 7, 2010

I am a huge fan of Michael Buble. The fact that I play in a big band that covers half of his stuff is probably a good sign of that. But the Michael Buble music I love is not always the stuff that other people know. Buble has some incredible big band tunes. The arrangements are killer. His voice and style is right up there with Sinatra in my mind. I try to convince people that there is more to Buble than all of his cheesy pop tunes. But okay, now I like one of his cheesy pop tunes. “End Of May” is awesome. The perfect Buble voice combined with a great piano driven ballad plus strings. Beautiful! Just beautiful!

Last week I was writing about one of my favorite Christian rock bands, Hawk Nelson. Those guys go back a ways. A little bit newer on the scene is the Atlanta rock quartet The Museum. I love there straight ahead rock feel with the U2 type guitar hooks. Their debut album “Reverse This Dying Trend” dropped in 2008. Their new album “Let Love Win” is already winning over new fans. “My Help Comes From The Lord” hit the Top 20 on the Christian pop chart. And now they are making waves with “Never Look Away” which has a very catchy melody with a good message and with a very nice guitar solo.

I’ll close my new picks of the week with the Chicago-based Christian rock outfit Superchick. I thought maybe my phase of loving this band ran out when they first hit the Christian music scene back in 2001. But here they are still here. Ironically, their latest hit is called “Still Here”. Very much in the style of contemporary glam rock, this tune has the subdued verses followed by the screamin‘ choruses and raging guitar solo. The message maybe isn’t very novel or deep, but it is a great rocker nonetheless.

Chart Update:

Hello Ke$ha, and welcome to #1. Wow, out of nowhere we have our first song to debut at #1 in 2010. And it’s by none other than 23-year old California girl Ke$ha. Yes, the same Ke$ha that started off the year with a solid two months at #1 with “TiK ToK”. She is in at #1 with her latest smash “We R Who We R”.

And then check out what Ke$ha has done to the remainder of the Top 9. Every song slips a notch from last week including last week’s #1 song “Like A G6” by Far*East Movement. Of last week’s Top 10, only P!nk’s “Raise Your Glass” manages to hold it’s spot from a week ago at #10.

Debuting just a notch out of the Top 10 is Will Smith’s 9-year old daughter Willow. She is one of the youngest artists to ever have a hit song. She rolls in at #11 with “Whip My Hair”.

Another amazing feat happens this week as well. Taylor Swift has entered the Hot 100 the past four weeks in the Top 20 with “Speak Low” at #8 three weeks ago, “Back To December” at #6 two weeks ago, “Mean” at #11 last week and now “Sparks Fly” at #17 this week. They are all from her latest album, “Speak Now” which debuts at #1 on the album chart and sells a million copies in its first week. That is almost unheard of these days. Taylor also debuts at #27 with “innocent” and just misses entering the Top 40 at #41 with “The Story Of Us”. She also is at #21 with “Mine”.

You want even more debuts? They are all over the place this week. Kanye West busts in at #18 with “Monster” featuring Jay-Z, Rick Ross, (Eau Claire native) Bon Iver and Nicki Minaj. Katy Perry is looking for a third consecutive #1 single with “Firework” which jumps in at #29 this week. And Chris Brown scores his second Top 40 this this year (“Decues” was the first). He bows at #33 with “Yeah 3X”.

I’m not trying to forget about the songs that were already on the survey last week, but there are no big moves of note. The biggest jump within the Top 40 this week is a mere two spots! Neon Trees move from 15-13 with “Animal”.

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