Looks like I might be the cheese that stands alone on this one, but I just love Heartbreaker. I’m always here for Fun Mariah, and this is as fun as she gets.
And I really dug Jay-Z’s verse. I was, and still am, square enough that drug dealing and N-word packed rap is not for me, but I’d loved Can I Get A… and Hard Knock Life, and I think Big Pimpin is a 9 or 10. He’s absurdly charismatic. And I love the way he says “middo of the night” and “skeeoos”. (Although even I didn’t need the video to define what a skeeo was!)
To me, this was Mariah doing Britney. And not just by displaying her insanely toned midriff in those jeans with the waistband cut off. She added more vocal fry to her delivery. And I really love the roller coaster effect she gets by going loud at the beginning of some of the lines and then sitting on her vocal until right near the end, teasing us with her full vocal pyro.
This is 10/10 for me.

I believe they were known as Viet Cong

This is the 4th consecutive #1 song with a one word title.
It’s the longest streak so far.

Bailamos, Unpretty, Heartbreaker, smooth

Kelis’s milkshake may bring all the boys to the yard, but Beyonce has a really long straw that stretches acroooooss the room. To drink it.

“prices and formats are consistent with industry standards for top performers.”

YOU ARE THE INDUSTRY, YOU DEFINE THE STANDARD

long time reader, first time commenter.

I’ve always found Tom’s writing in TNO’s impressive, inspiring, beautiful, funny, insightful, but this might be the first column that has quite literally driven my tears. Perhaps that’s due to the fact that I’m also dealing with health issues and just came home from the hospital today, so I can totally relate to how T-Boz felt in that hotel room writing the lyrics to “Unpretty.”

TLC for me was a formative group. I absolutely adored them from the jump, which for me was “Baby Baby Baby.” I will always associate the summer of 1995 with memories of being in the back of my grandma’s car on our way to the pool, competing with my cousins on who could do a better job of mimicking Left Eye’s rap in “Waterfalls.” And my first ever concert was the FanMail tour at the Hartford Civic Center with Destiny’s Child as the opening act. Kelly Rowland fell and the group kept dancing.

It’s funny because although I loved “Unpretty” when it first came out, I’ve found myself dismissing the song as the years have gone by. I thought I outgrew its lyrics and its message for being too on-the-nose and not being sophisticated enough. Thanks Tom for helping cut through the cynism and red-discovering the beauty in this song.

Just because you stopped paying attention doesn’t make it go away.

Quit respecting these narcissist worshipping internet dorks who pretend they give a shit about music. I’m glad Ye cancelled on these asswipes and I’m glad Cudi dipped too. This crowd of people fucking sucks. Nothing worse than a hypebeast cosplaying as a music dork.

Family vacation is so tight – left my computer at home by accident, so basically no new music all week besides the Jessie Ware song on repeat and then relistening to my other favs from the year on runs.

My mom did say “you really only listen to mellow, whispery music, huh?” And I responded, “well, with you in the car!”

Met pads last night, predictably ruled, don’t ASK me why the photo uploads sideways here:

The only sphere in nature with one Edge

I’m giving 5 stars, but it’s for Chat Pile.