This is a very self-explanatory post. Adele’s new song that has been teased for days is finally out today and it is the theme for the next James Bond movie, Skyfall. The song was released at 00:07 in London on Global James Bond Day, which is when Dr. No first came out 50 years ago. I’ll leave the YouTube embed below this before I give my quick thoughts. As a hint of the level my giddyness for this song, I’m downloading this on iTunes while I type this post up.
I’ll get this out-of-the-way: I love Adele. Yeah, she got extremely overplayed and it now drives people nuts when they hear “Rolling in the Deep” or some might cry profusely when “Someone Like You” comes up on the playlist or radio. But you cannot deny her voice and holy crap, her voice was MADEfor a Bond theme song. Hell, I know the YouTube video isn’t the opening title sequence but if they made more silhouettes of girls in the background and random plot elements, this could pass easily as one. Letting the orchestra take over at the chorus is brilliant after the piano start and it just builds into a true Bond song. The lyrics are undeniably James Bond and yet not cheesy or forced. “For this is the end/I’ve drowned and dreamt this moment/so overdue I owe them/swept away I’m stolen”. Effin’ love it. She co-wrote this song with her “Rolling in the Deep” collaborator Paul Epworth. If this isn’t the first Bond song to hit number one on the charts, I’d be shocked. Like I said, it’s just that good. There have been lots of Bond songs that have been awesome (I don’t care what you say, I dug the Jack White/Alicia Keys one) but I think this might be up there now. Thoughts, comments? You know where to leave them.
The 54th Annual Grammy Awards were on Sunday and as usual, it is always the weirdest collection of people you can put into one arena. Ranging from country stars, to rappers wearing what they obviously woke up in from the parties the night before, Super Bowl champions delivering the worst line readings from the teleprompter, and why not – CBS stars to further the ratings of the ‘Can’t Be Sober’ to watch network (seriously, I don’t need another CSI, Two and a Half Men, NCIS person shoved down my throat if their shows are predictable, unfunny, and worst, unoriginal, but that’s an argument for another day).
The big stories of the awards were obviously Adele completely sweeping through her six nominations with six wins, including being the youngest person to win Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year during the same year. She was definitely the story that night performing “Rolling in the Deep” in her first public performance since her vocal cord surgery that threatened her rising career. And damn. She brought the house and obviously no one was stopping her that night. Not even snot.
Kayne West also took home four awards including Best Rap Album for “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (which is epic in my opinion) and even won for his collaboration with Jay-Z on their Watch the Throne song ‘Otis’. The Foo Fighters also dominated their categories and took home four awards including Best Rock Album. Also the best speech that was not self-serving, just telling artists to just hone their craft, make mistakes, and just play. Making ‘Wasting Light’ in Dave Grohl’s garage definitely showed that you don’t need a high tech studio and tools to make a great album, just the desire to rock out.
There were a couple of polarizing moments in the Grammys such as the return of Chris Brown. Because only in America can you beat a woman (before the same awards show three years ago), break windows on Good Morning America, have your delusional teenage fanbase defend your actions (don’t EVEN get me started on that), and then win a Grammy and dance your way to America’s hearts once again…
Although that son of a bitch can dance, I will give him that.
Nicki Minaj is crazy. Looking at the very 90s controversial Madonna-esque performance (or would be a rip off of Lady Gaga’s rip off of Madonna, I can’t keep track these days) of her new song performing as her alter-ego ‘Roman Holiday’, she definitely went for shock value and being a water cooler topic. I thought it was meh, but only because Nicki Minaj is everywhere.
And that’s not a good thing considering some of her rap lyrics come off as borderline lazy and stupid. Again, I digress. Katy Perry debuted her new song about Russell Brand that will surely be dominating iTunes very soon, Taylor Swift did her best impression of the Taylor Swift surprised face at the end of her ‘Mean’ performance, Bruce Springsteen can still dominate a live performance, and the Beach Boys performed on their 50th anniversary with Maroon 5 and Foster the People.
Obviously the performances of the night in my opinion, belonged to Adele, Coldplay & Rihanna (just because I’m a Coldplay slappy), and Jennifer Hudson’s rendition of Whitney Houston’s rendition of the Dolly Parton song (it’s like Inception up in here) ‘I Will Always Love You’. She owned that performance. Absolutely amazing. Granted I wanted to hear ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ but probably felt inappropriate at the time. Also Alicia Keys and Bonnie Raitt killing the Etta James tribute with the song ‘Sunday Kind of Love’. It is really cool to see these award shows and watch artists collaborate together because it truly is about the music. It encompasses what Dave Grohl says, of just going out and just playing to your hearts desire. There’s no lines in genres, sometimes good music is truly good music no matter what type of sound comes out, you just have to enjoy the moment. On that note, enjoy the performances below and be glad because the Grammys were long (three and a half hours, oy) and this is easier to just embed these videos so you can get the cliff notes version of what I just broke down for you.
Grizzly Bomb 