Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts: In the last two years, we’ve seen several impressive feats on Billboard‘s Hot 100 by Disney Channel-groomed pop acts, and this week, we see another. Four songs from the Jonas Brothers vehicle [...] Read more

Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts: EMI is the Bear Stearns of the music industry–once mighty, now declining rapidly and ripe for takeover and obliteration. But you’d never know it looking at the new Billboard Hot 100: two [...] Read more

Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts: Lil Wayne is expected to triumph on next week’s album chart, but this week, he has locked up a remarkable percentage of the Hot 100 singles chart: seven songs, starting with his [...] Read more

All the attention lavished on this new-model Dusty Springfield/Lulu concerns the sound of her voice (say it again: more Lulu than Dusty). But what makes “Mercy” so enticing is everything swirling around it before it sings a note: the opening bassline, which retools “Stand By Me” (by way of De La Soul’s “A Little Bit [...] Read more

Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts: If only Chris Martin were holding an iPhone 3G: then his band would be atop the charts. As it stands, Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida,” fueled by Apple’s latest saturation-play TV commercial for [...] Read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic5vxw3eijY Breezy, worldly, with a touch of East End slang, “American Boy” isn’t just a fine summer single, it’s a great example of R&B’s new post-disco vibe for the late aughts. Estelle’s voice brings to mind a wispier Lauryn Hill, but it works like gangbusters here, as she dreamily pictures Brooklyn as a hip mecca [...] Read more