mya: it's all about me.

dl: MYA f/ SISQO - It's All About Me (alt)

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Take It Back Thursday...uh, is a little late this week. I suppose since this is the first time I've done this, I could have just called it Take It Back Friday, but let's not get into that. In this series of posts, I will be covering songs of the past, which I will loosely define as anything from the 1930s to last year. Because sometimes it just gets damn boring writing about new shit. When possible, I will try to give updates on where the artist's career is now.

Mya's voice first reached our ears on the chorus of the 1998 single "Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)", but her first proper release as a solo artist was the Sisqo-assisted bedroom jam "It's All About Me". I'll never forget the tone which she delivers the opening lines, "I cook your dinner, I wash your clothes. Baby hell no, that's not the way it goes. It's all about me tonight." When paired with the video's visuals of that red mini-skirt and Ms. Harrison's seductive dance moves, it was enough to make any 13 year-old boy's mind wander. I mean, she was basically making love to the air around her in a way that makes the phrase "making love" not sound revolting.

As far as vocals go, Mya's most memorable moments are her sexiest--"It's All About Me", "My Love Is Like...Wo!". Of the three singers featured on 2001's "Lady Marmalade", Mya blatantly has the weakest voice after Pink and Christina Aguilera, but she naturally slips into the burlesque role by playing up her sex kitten image. None of the three singles ("Ayo", "Lock U Down", "Ridin") released to promote Mya's 2007 album Liberation managed to recapture this carnal magic, and I indirectly consider this the reason the album was shelved in the US.

After severing her ties with Motown, Mya has signed to Manhattan Records and recently released Sugar & Spice in Japan. The new album finds Mya destroying Diana King's "Shy Guy", relying far too much on cheesy dance tracks and trying to bring her sexy back with the Ne-Yo penned "Paradise". It leaves me wondering what would have happened if Sisqo had never gone solo and made the "Thong Song", leaving him more time to produce sultry songs for Mya and less time to host Sisqo's Shakedown.

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BONER TRACK: MYA - Shy Guy (Diana King cover) (alt)

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- BUY IT - SITE IT - SPACE IT - WIK IT - HYPE IT -

she is so beautiful/she is so blonde.

SHE IS SO BEAUTIFUL/SHE IS SO BLONDE is the solo project of Elliott Kozel, the guitarist of Sleeping in the Aviary. Much like Cars and Trains, this is exactly the type of music I like. But in a totally different way.

I want to call it "atmospheric" but any time I hear that word describing music, it turns me off more than a herpes-ridden vagina dentata. Which is a lot. So to save you from such trouble, let me just tell you a story about this album:

Once upon a time, I received three packages. One contained several promo mixtapes. Another contained an album by an extremely offensive white rapper with a weak flow. And then there was She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde, a self-titled album by a member of a band I already knew I liked. Given that my iPod/CD boombox had been stolen by my older sister so she could play Wonderpets for my nephew while he falls asleep, I had no way to play this disk. So I stole my shit back. Sewiously.

I suppose I could have just listened to the CD on my computer, right? Wrong. I was stuck in my basement cleaning off a shelf full of jewel cases from albums I have purchased since I was 13 years old. This process reminded me of looking through a stack of elementary school yearbooks-- reminiscing about how something so stupid meant so much to me back then, regretting my mistaken purchases, and reveling in the music that guided me through my teenage years. As I pushed aside my water-logged liner notes to Sisqo's *second* album Return of the Dragon, it suddenly occurred to me-- the music playing behind me was perfect for this moment. I savored it. And then I had to pee, so I paused it and listened to more later. THE END.

After several listening sessions of She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde, I came to a conclusion that it was an amazing album for doing things. This is incredibly vague and makes it sound as if I am accusing the album of being nothing more than fabulous background music, but no. I actually feel a need to do things while listening to this album...it's like my personal aural adderall. Is that weird?

She Is So Beautiful/She Is So Blonde will be released November 6, 2007 on Science of Sound. Perhaps it will make you want to do things too.

dl: SHE IS SO BEAUTIFUL/SHE IS SO BLONDE - Days (YSI)
dl: SHE IS SO BEAUTIFUL/SHE IS SO BLONDE - Played Your Guitar (YSI)
(mellow stuff to do things to)
- space it -