Eargasm

Britney's new album electrifies and more.

The seventh studio effort from the Pop Princess herself is her best effort yet. It's as good as "In The Zone" and "Blackout".

If there's any artist who can pull off and introduce dub-step into the mainstream, it's Britney.

Britney loves to experiment with new sounds, and this can be clearly heard in tracks like the first single "Hold It Against Me", "Inside Out", "How I Roll" and the flute-heavy guitar-driven mid-tempo "Criminal".

Yet, there are also radio-ready songs such as the second single "Till The World Ends" written by Ke$ha and "I Wanna Go".

"Drop Dead (Beautiful)" reminded me of the "Blackout" album due to it containing some urban influences. But the heavily auto-tuned rap verse from upcoming rapper Sabi spoilt it all.

"The Big Fat Bass", produced by none other than the Black Eyed Peas' front-man Will.I.Am, seemed like a BEP leftover, and Britney ended up sounding like Fergie. However, the use of heavy bass, drums and piano did kinda make up for it.

The closing track, "Criminal", is one of the most outstanding tracks in the album. It doesn't sound like anything else out there. I bet even Lady GaGa would be pawing over the track, wishing it was her song.

There's just one mistake. "Till The World Ends" shouldn't be the second single. "I Wanna Go" has more potential in the charts as it's far more catchy with the happy whistles. But I'm guessing it will be the third single judging from how popular it is among the fans.

From the standard tracklisting, I would say the mid-tempo ballad "Inside Out" is my favourite track. Billboard did a great job producing it.

Although Britney's voice was auto-tuned throughout, it made the tracks signature "Britney". But if you would like to hear more raw vocals of her, do check out the bonus tracks.

Overall, "Femme Fatale" is a real, solid effort.

Aftermath

ваканция свърши.

That translates to "recess is over". It's Bulgarian by the way. And the end of recess signals the arrival of the examinations.

I'm so screwed for the mid-terms. So, so, screwed.

Let's check what I have accomplished for the past week:

1. Study for 214 mid-term.

2. Study for 211 mid-term (topics 2 and 3 done only).

3. Completed experiment for HW project.

4. Finished my critique (which I thought was kinda crappy).

5. Did my lab report.

6. Slacked.

There you go. It's not a lot of work done.

 Anyway, American Idol Season 10 has kicked off into its Top 12 and I am not at all impressed by it. The judges are useless. I think I can be a judge if it's just praising everyone even if they're horrible. Where's the reality check?? In my honest opinion, NONE of the finalists should be in the Top 12. It's THAT dreadful.

The other source of entertainment for me, Glee, will be on hiatus for an entire month. Bummer. But this week's episode was awesome. I gotta give it props.

So before I end this ranting post, I just wanna wish Japan a speedy recovery, and hope that its numerous victims can get access to food and water as soon as possible.

#prayforjapan

Till The World Ends

The spam messages on my Cbox can be quite amusing sometimes.

As you can see on the image above, I NEED TO THINK AND DO MORE.

I've been slacking weekend after weekend even though the mid-terms for my cores are looming in the near distance. Allow me to cite an example -- All I did this weekend was complete my lab proforma and the risk assessment for next week's lab session, went through a little bit of Electrochemistry notes, and read Chapter 3 of 214 (without understanding a single thing).

There you have it. Pathetic huh?

At this rate I'm going, I'll probably fail both mid-terms.

DO MORE GARY!!!

Anyway, results for my Psychology mid-term were out and I got 82. Then I saw that the average score was 81.79 and the median was 84. So should I be happy or upset? Confused.

Avril's new album comes out tomorrow!! I'll definitely be getting it but I'm gonna do a review now because I've already heard most of the album.

So Avril said this record is more acoustic-sounding, and her first single "What the Hell" was not reflective of the album. Which, in fact, is true. "WTH" sounds out-of-place as compared to the other moody, slightly stripped down tracks like "Push" and "Goodbye".

Can't blame her though, she has been putting her record label on blast over delaying her new album for over a year, and forcing her to include more radio-friendly tracks in the album. As a result, it doesn't sound as cohesive as it can be.

It was told that Avril was pushing for "Push" as the follow-up single to "WTH", but it turned out that the more upbeat and catchy "Smile" was confirmed to be the single.

Label politics.

I bet more and more artists will soon break away from their labels and release music independently. They'll have more control over their creative direction. And that's what true artists want, isn't it?

Well, I have been an avid supporter of Avril since her debut album wayyyyy back in 2001. And I really like most of the songs in this new record. My favourites would be "Push", "Wish You Were Here", "I Love You", "Stop Standing There" and actually "Smile" as well. Haha.

"Goodbye Lullaby" will be the first CD I'm purchasing in 2011. Next up, BRITNEY. Just another 3 more weeks to go......