The Final Stretch (Music Review week of 12/5/2011)

Well, here we are, the first full week of December.   After this week, there's two more weeks until we (or at least I) close the books on what was an interesting music year.    Many columns are now reviewing the best of the year; Billboard today just came out with their Year-end awards.    For those who remember the past two years, I will again be revealing my Top 100 of the Year, beginning the day after Christmas.    It should be interesting how things will pan out.

We have a new #1 song this week, "Lonely Boy" by The Black Keys.   It's the second chart topper for the Akron, Ohio duo.   They launched my SnS chart back in August 2010 with "Tighten Up", which headlined the first four weeks of my lists.     While that song was the lead off of their previous effort Brothers, this one is from their new set El Camino, which came out this week (December 6th).  Obviously the band has come a long way from when I first heard them back in 2006, or even from the first week I started this blog over a year ago.    Very shortly, they will be headlining a tour to support their new album.   The most significant date in this area will be at Madison Square Garden, on March 12, with tickets becoming available real soon.

While the Keys have been a fave band of mine for awhile, a lengthy stay at #1 isn't guaranteed, as Ellie Goulding's "Lights", and R.E.M.'s "We All Go Back to Where We Belong" are breathing down their neck.     They are followed by Mayer Hawthorne's former #1, "The Walk" (which has rised to the #4 spot on Billboard's Triple-A airplay chart, as well as here), Sarah Jean and Omnia, who drops to #6 after a week at the top spot.     The Red Hot Chili Peppers are the only new top 10 entry, as "Monarchy and Roses" becomes the second from their set I'm With You.  New act Graffiti6 enters the 20 for the first time with "Free" (this week's Impact) and Fleet Foxes with their second top 20 (and fourth track) from Helplessness Blues, "Loralei".  

The Mover of the week, for the second week in a row is the Grace Potter seasonal offering, "Naughty Naughty Children", moving up to #32.   Three more Christmas/holiday songs enter this week for a total of seven.    It looks like Michael Buble is the hit of the holiday this year as his album Christmas stays at #1, and he now yields a second entry upon SnS:, a cover of the old classic, "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas".   His special aired this week on NBC.   It comes in at #90.   It's followed by "Tracks In the Snow" by Civil Wars which is more a winter song than a Christmas offering.  

Another old standard, "Baby, It's Cold Outside", made famous originally by Dean Martin, among others, has been revived ad infinitum the last several years or so.     Every year, another duo remakes the song, and this year is no exception.     But this year's model is none other than that "swinging" couple of this year's American Idol, Haley Reinhart and Casey Abrams.    They have been linked romantically according to rumors.   But whether you believe it or not, they're here doing this song.   While stylistically not the best of the bunch, it is a rather fun song, not to be taken too seriously.   I was a Reinhart fan during this season, and I had played her hit performance of "House of the Rising Run" last summer.   Hopefully she'll put out a solo album soon which can live up to the promise she showed this past season on Idol.


Back to the regular music, my Top Debut and Pick of the Week is "The Shakes" by Atlas Sound.   Refreshingly new after a few weeks of dry spells, it's a song that gets addictive with each listen.    As can be the case with many "bands", Atlas Sounds is actually one person, Bradford Cox, who has recorded album with both his name and his alternate moniker.  Parallax is Atlas Sound's third effort, released November 7, and is climbing WFUV's Alternate Side chart.    Cox will be touring this month as Atlas Sound, the important dates being December 17 in Brooklyn's Bell House and then at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan the following night.   Might be interesting to check out.

"Pumped Up Kicks", by Foster the People finally drops out after a record 45 weeks.   "Don't Stop", their latest, climbs to #21, one notch away from their fourth top 20 effort.

Scenes N' Soundwaves 100 for December 5, 2011:

This Week	Last Week	ARTIST-Title	Weeks on List
1	2	THE BLACK KEYS "Lonely Boy" Album: El Camino	6
2	5	Ellie Goulding - Lights	10
3	9	R.E.M. - We All Go Back To Where We Belong	5
4	4	Mayer Hawthorne - The Walk	9
5	3	Sarah Jean - Hometown	12
6	1	Omnia - What's Become of Us?	11
7	11	Real Estate - It's Real	8
8	10	Sleeper Agent- That's My Baby	9
9	8	Florence + the Machine - Shake It Out	8
10	13	Red Hot Chili Peppers - Monarchy and Roses	6
11	6	Dum Dum Girls - Coming Down	11
12	12	Adele - I'll Be Waiting	13
13	7	Death Cab For Cutie - Stay Young Go Dancing	18
14	15	Phantogram - Don't Move	7
15	17	Two Door Cinema Club - Undercover Martyn	7
16	19	Blitzen Trapper - Love the Way You Walk Away	11
17	22	TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:   GRAFFITI6 "Free" Album: Colours	6
18	18	Carolina Liar - Drown	14
19	21	Fleet Foxes - Lorelai	5
20	14	Florence + the Machine - What the Water Gave Me	16

21	26	Foster the People - Don't Stop	6
22	27	Katy Perry - The One That Got Away	7
23	16	Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside - I Swear	16
24	25	Zac Brown Band - Keep Me In Mind	8
25	31	The Big Troubles - She Smiles for Pictures	7
26	20	Paul Czekaj - My Home New Jersey	12
27	29	Dawes - Time Spent in Los Angeles	10
28	42	Scars on 45 - Heart on Fire	12
29	47	Adele - One and Only	3
30	43	Portugal. The Man - So American	5
31	50	Warren Haynes - River's Gonna Rise	4
32	53	MOVER OF THE WEEK   GRACE POTTER & THE NOCTURNALS "Naughty, Naughty Children" (Single Only)	3
33	34	St. Vincent - Cruel	11
34	41	Beirut - Santa Fe	11
35	46	Kasabian - Days Are Forgotten	8
36	24	Coldplay - Paradise	13
37	33	Foo Fighters - These Days	9
38	35	The Kooks - Junk of the Heart	22
39	51	Kathleen Edwards - Change the Sheets	6
40	32	Cage the Elephant - Aberdeen	15
41	44	Fruit Bats - Tangle and Ray	10
42	28	Snow Patrol - Called Out In the Dark	13
43	36	Sara Bareilles - Gonna Get Over You	9
44	23	The Vaccines - Wetsuit	8
45	37	The Big Troubles - Bite Yr Tongue	17
46	39	Wilco - I Might	20
47	30	Best Coast - Our Deal	13
48	54	Martin Solvag & Dragonette - Hello	7
49	56	Joy Formidable - A Heavy Abacus	5
50	63	The Knux - Razorblade	4
51	57	Blink-182 - Up All Night	7
52	40	Fitz and the Tantrums - Pickin' Up the Pieces	19
53	38	Rachel Allyn - Lovely Lily	16
54	58	Adele - Love Song	3
55	45	Anna Calvi - Blackout	17
56	48	Bush - The Sound of Winter	18
57	49	Duran Duran - Leave A Light On	10
58	65	Faith Hill - Come Home	4
59	67	Man Man - Knuckle Down	14
60	55	Thom Sebastian & the Hounds of Winter - Not Broken	15
61	59	The Fray - Heartbeat	7
62	74	Grace Potter & the Nocturnals - Please Come Home For Christmas	3
63	52	Daughtry - Crawling Back to You	10
64	69	Funeral Party - NYC Moves to the Sound of LA	9
65	75	Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Maniac	5
66	84	The Killers - The Cowboys Christmas Ball	2
67	64	WU LYF - Spitting Blood	8
68	73	Ryan Adams - Lucky Now	8
69	90	Michael Buble - All I Want For Christmas Is You	2
70	66	Plan B- Love Goes Down	24
71	81	Expensive Looks - Nothing More	2
72	79	First Aid Kit - Lion's Roar	5
73	91	Fun f. Jarelli Monee - We Are Young	2
74	78	Ladytron - White Elephant	5
75	61	Washed Out - Eyes Be Closed	13
76	----	TOP DEBUT   ATLAS SOUND "The Shakes" Album: Parallax	1
77	83	Rachel Yamagata - Starlight	3
78	----	Death Cab for Cutie - Home Is A Fire	1
79	60	Omnia - Grace	11
80	76	Best Coast - Something In The Way	25
81	85	Avenged Sevenfold - Buried Alive	4
82	62	Oberhofer - Gotta Go	15
83	68	Bell X1 - 4 Minute Mile	14
84	82	Adele - Set Fire To the Rain	22
85	80	Rihanna - We Found Love	5
86	86	Awolnation - Not Your Fault	6
87	70	Little Dragon - Shuffle a Dream	15
88	97	Deer Tick - Let's All Go To the Bar	2
89	96	Mumford & Sons - Winter Winds	2
90	----	Michael Buble - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas	1
91	77	Michelle Branch - Loud Music	22
92	87	Bombay Bicycle Club - Shuffle	3
93	----	Civil Wars - Tracks in the Snow	1
94	71	Surfer Blood- Swim	18
95	72	Stephen Malkus and the Jicks - Tigers	12
96	----	Haley Reinhart & Casey Abrhams - Baby It's Cold Outside	1
97	----	311 - Count Me In	1
98	----	Big Pink - Stay Gold	1
99	----	M83 - Midnight City	1
100	----	Christine Perri - A Thousand Years	1

TREMORS:

101. Evanescence, My Heart Is Broken
102. Nicki Minaj, Super Bass