Don't You Want to Share the Guilt

I haven't been writing much on this little blog of mine. That's probably because I've been busy with a million other things that will help build up the impression that I'm a REALLY busy person :P

Aha anyway set up a new blog with a few other mini journos-in-the-making called Almost Journalist. You optimistic people got to check that out, it's going to be awesome xD

Being very lackadaisical when it comes to blogging,  I'll just adapt some posts here to there and vice versa. Like what I'm doing now with this post. Just that I might not be throwing out as much profanity there, you know gotta keep up with the whole "professional" image. The review I'm posting up below is something I crafted for AJ.

The last couple of month have been filled with busy, busy days. But the holidays are coming up! Woohoo planning to just rot in front of the idiot box watching reruns of Keeping Up with the Kardashians or maybe set up a new empire in The Sims Medieval. Or I might just be lounging at Batu Ferringhi before heading off to Jakarta for a looooooooooooooong overdue vacation.

Gaaah I'm excited. It's gonna be fun, fun, fun, fun after all that work, work, work.

Oh yeah before I go, I'm getting a teeny weeny bit active on Twitter (no thanks to a few of my varsity mates who are social media advocates). I think they should apply to be Niki Cheong's apprentices and delve deeper into Twitterjaya.

So yep stalk, err I mean follow me. My Twitter ID is @chesterchin xD

If you're wondering why this post is so self-centered. Blame it on Michelle Leong and Julian Gan. They say I don't update enough me-happenings over here (as if my Facebook rantings are not enough ish).

Until I write again, live precariously and love not.

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RECORD SPIN #2

Femme Fatale - Britney Spears

There is something deliciously decadent about Britney Spears' seventh studio album. From the shameless Euro pop beats of the opening track to playing Fergie on the will.i.am produced Big Fat Bass, Femme Fatale plays out like the aftermath of a self-pleasuring session. The high is ecstatic, but you're left despising yourself after the whole ordeal.

But just like how any teenagers with raging hormones who went through that self-exploratory period will tell you, Spears' Femme Fatale is so worth the high. Surrender yourself to the sinful bliss of auto-tune and dance away. A little pleasure now and then wouldn't hurt nobody. In fact, you might just discover something good that no other individual can provide. Only in Britney's music people, only in her music can you talk of sexual innuendos without being judged too harshly.

Goobye Lullaby  - Avril Lavigne

It's laughable the way celebrities "integrate" music with business. The most apparent would probably be Hilary Duff's 3 minutes track With Love back in 2007. The song was used in an elaborate marketing for her fragrance called (wait for it) "With Love...Hilary Duff". Fast forward four years later, Canadian singer Avril Lavigne is doing the same thing. Lavigne launched a perfume called "Black Star", and incidentally the opening track of her fourth studio album is also called Black Star. Pfft.

My contempt for the "business" of music aside, Goodbye Lullaby is a mediocre offering by the punk princess who brought us Complicated, the teenage anthem of 2002. With the exception of a couple of tracks, most of the album's 52 minutes sound so alike that you're left wondering if Lavigne is making any effort at improving her song craft. There is a glimmer of that angsty singer we love in her rendition of Joan Jett's classic Bad Reputation but that only came about towards the end of the album. By then, it was just too little, too late.

As If! - Sky Ferreira

"Why do some need to be masters? Why do some want to be slaves?" 18-year old singer-songwriter Sky Ferreira asked in the song Sex Rules. Oh boy, here we go again...another photocopy version of Britney Spears, you'd say. But hold it, there is just something refreshing about Ferreira's song on the need for the physical touch. Instead of beating around the bushes and singing things like "I want to take a ride on your disco stick", Ferreira ought to be commended for her bold statement. 

My only qualm here is that it is hard to pigeonhole her into a specific genre. While it seemed that the songs are tailor made for the masses, there is some serious lyrical intensity going on here. She is not mainstream enough but neither is she indie enough. Now there are only five tracks on this EP, with Ferreira singing about an ancient lover in the last track. A case of Twilight frenzy or an emulation of Lolita, I've yet to discern. But here is to hoping that this brilliant singer don't fall into a state of oblivion.

Reviews first published in the blog "Almost Journalist" dated April 22, 2011.