October music releases

Backstreet Boys - This Is Us - 10/6/09

01. Straight Through My Heart

02. Bigger

03. Bye Bye Love

04. All Of Your Life (You Need Love)

05. If I Knew Then

06. This Is Us

07. PDA

08. Masquerade

09. She's A Dream

10. Shattered

11. Undone

Bonus Track - US iTunes Deluxe Version, Europe, Taiwan, Australia, Canda, Brazil

Helpless (with Pitbull)

Bonus Track - Japan

International Luv

RedOne, the producer behind Lady Gaga's songs Just Dance, LoveGame, Poker Face, and Boys Boys Boys, produced lead single Straight Through My Heart as well as track All Of Your Life (You Need Love). Something about this collaboration and the Pitbull cameo on bonus track Helpless screams desperation and bandwagon-hopping to me, but I'll see how it sounds when I check out the album.

The Saturdays - Wordshaker - 10/12/09 (UK)

01. Forever Is Over

02. Here Standing

03. Ego

04. No One

05. One Shot

06. Wordshaker

07. Denial

08. Open Up

09. Lose Control

10. Not Good Enough

11. Deeper

12. 2 a.m.

I'm excited for this album as I loved their first album, Chasing Lights. So far it appears the fivesome only contributed lyrics to one of the songs, Deeper, which is a bit disappointing because I like to see artists have input into their music. But some people are good singers, but not good writers, and vice versa, so I can accept it for what it is. Fun pop music.

Dead By Sunrise - Out Of Ashes - 10/13/09

01. Fire

02. Crawl Back In

03. Too Late

04. Inside Of Me

05. Let Down

06. Give Me Your Name

07. My Suffering

08. Condemned

09. Into You

10. End Of The World

11. Walking In Circles

12. In The Darkness

Bonus Track - US iTunes, Japan

Morning After

I love Linkin Park and Chester Bennington, his voice is amazing. So this is an album I'm looking forward to. I guess Morning After was relegated to bonus track because it's pretty old by now. Chester first performed it live years ago. But the finished version (the one that has been on the band's myspace anyway) is pretty awesome, so it's worth having.

Taylor Swift - Fearless (Platinum Edition) - 10/27/09

01. Jump Then Fall

02. Untouchable

03. Forever & Always (Piano Version)

04. Come In With The Rain

05. SuperStar

06. The Other Side Of The Door

07. Fearless

08. Fifteen

09. Love Story

10. Hey Stephen

11. White Horse

12. You Belong With Me

13. Breathe (with Colbie Caillat)

14. Tell Me Why

15. You're Not Sorry

16. The Way I Loved You

17. Forever & Always

18. The Best Day

19. Change

I'm not big on country music, but when it hovers over the line between country and pop, I sometimes like it. (Like Shania Twain, I usually like her music.) Taylor's a nice, sweet, down-to-earth, real girl which is expressed perfectly in her music. Sidenote, what is up with the cover? It may be a simple change to just make the background black, but I don't think they masked her hair that well. It stands out enough to make it obviously fake.

Britney's Singles Boxset available for pre-order

Here are shots of the deluxe boxset version of Britney Spears's The Singles Collection. It is available for pre-order, but it will cost you. It's about $100 USD. But if you're a hardcore fan it's worth it, or you can ask for it for your birthday or something (which is what I'm doing). It includes all 29 of Britney's singles, including new single 3, as well as a DVD with all her music videos ordered chronologically.

The standard single disc edition is currently listed on Amazon as $13.98 USD. No word on the cover artwork yet.

Both versions of the album are out November 24, 2009.

Amazon - Deluxe Boxset

Amazon - Standard

Watch this: Supernatural

Supernatural is an awesome show on The CW about brothers Sam and Dean Winchester and their fight against evil supernatural forces. The show is in its fifth season and is apparently to end this year, which is the way the creator, Eric Kripke, planned it. It is reminiscent of The X-Files in its dark, ominous ambience, and in the main character's interactions. Sam is Scully to Dean's Mulder. Sam is the brain, doing all the research, having a more serious, logical, scientific approach to everything, while Dean is "less talk, more action", rugged, light-hearted and funny.

They have battled all sorts of things such as ghosts, reapers, witches, vampires, shapeshifters, and most notably, angels and demons. They are currently trying to bring an end to the Apocalypse, which involves not only defeating Lucifer, but also battling angels who are total dicks and have their own agendas and attitudes (kinda reminds me of a corporation/government).

Added bonus to the show: the guys are completely gorgeous! Here are a couple shots of them.

Jared Padalecki plays Sam. Here he is shirtless on the show. Thanks for the thrill Kripke!

Jensen Ackles plays Dean. Shirtless. Thanks again.

Misha Collins plays Castiel, an angel from seasons 4 and 5.

Supernatural is on Thursday nights at 9 pm on The CW. Check out the show's official site and store. And supernatural.tv is a fansite that's pretty awesome too, with constant updates.

Flavor Flav finds a way to get a reality show again

Speaking of reality shows, Flavor Flav is hoping to return to reality television. He has a show planned where he goes back to high school to receive his diploma. Apparently he dropped out in 10th grade, which is about 35 years ago now. He wants to show kids that although it's never too late to graduate, they should stay in school because it's so much harder to go the route he did. (Maybe if he wants to be a good role model for kids, he could oh, maybe, not impregnate half the country, not bang women on national television for his poor kids to see, and at least pay the child support he owes their mothers.)

It would probably be a good idea for VH1 to pick this up for their Celebreality lineup. They've more than had their fill of dating shows, and Flav has been low-key for awhile, so this could bring in some decent ratings for them.

Wear this: Beautiful Disaster

Beautiful Disaster makes clothes for women with interesting designs that usually have pseudo-empowering, cute or humorous statements on them. Their logo is featured heavily on some of the items, which would usually aggravate me except that the logo is attractive and eye-catching. It's grungy and feminine at the same time. They currently have shirts and hats, and just added a hoodie.

You may have already seen these clothes on reality show contestants on VH1, meaning tool-tastic dudes and the never-ending stripper train. I'm pretty sure VH1 has an agreement/contract with BD. Daisy de la Hoya wore a lot of Beautiful Disaster on her show Daisy of Love (stupid title), and is a spokesmodel for them. The brand has also been modeled by the girls of Rock of Love 2 and worn heavily on Rock of Love Bus.

Beautiful Disaster has a brother brand, Handsome Devil, which has been seen on the guys on Daisy of Love. Which makes it more obvious the shows are fake at least to a degree, they're friggin' dressing the contestants. But hey, that's less they had to pack when they flew out there. (I do watch my share of VH1 reality shows...they're so bad that they're good.)

I have the Stronger hoodie, Well Behaved tee, Stronger boy beater, and the OG Logo Trucker hat. I want to point out that the Stronger hoodie is a zip-up hoodie, not a pullover. It looks like a pullover, but it isn't. They could do with some larger/better pictures on their site. They look completely Photoshopped instead of being photographed. Too bad they don't sell their stuff from when they were known as Good Girl Bad Girl. I have a shirt and two hats from them that are nice, but those items haven't been sold since they renamed themselves.

Regardless, some of the stuff they have is pretty cool, so give them a look.

Beautiful Disaster

Handsome Devil

Prescriptives makeup closing down

It was reported a couple weeks that Prescriptives makeup is being closed down by parent company Estee Lauder. They are ceasing production on everything immediately. You can still buy the remaining inventory, but it will be gone on or before January 31, 2010. Here is the statement on their official site.

Prescriptives is sold at department stores all over and online. Here are some places you can track down your favorite products before they disappear.

Prescriptives

QVC

There is some stuff on Amazon and ebay too.

Another one bites the dust.

Artist Spotlight: Hyori Lee

Hyori Lee is a singer from South Korea, born May 10, 1979. She got her start in music as one of four members of Fin.K.L. (pronounced "finkle", it stands for Fine Killing Liberty). They debuted in 1998 and were one of the most popular Korean pop girl groups. They released several albums before unofficially disbanding in 2002. They reunited in 2005 to release a digital single, but remain disbanded now. They did, however, perform together during one of Hyori's concerts on December 19, 2008.

In 2003, Hyori's first album Stylish...E was released. The album was very well received and won seven Daesangs that year (Daesangs are South Korean Artist of the Year music awards, similar to a Grammy). Hyori released her second album Dark Angel in 2006. This album was overshadowed by controversy when the writers of the lead single Get Ya! were the target of an accusation of plagiarism by the writers of Britney Spears's song Do Somethin'. This generated negative press, and promotion on the album halted, causing it to be unsuccessful. In 2008, Hyori's third album It's Hyorish was released. It has been reported that she will release a fourth album sometime in October 2009. Hyori has also acted, appearing in dramas 3 Leaf Clover, If In Love...Like Them, and various television shows.

Ironically enough, the reason I discovered Hyori is the plagiarism accusation. I'm a huge Britney fan, so when I heard someone was in trouble for stealing from one of her songs, I naturally listened to it. And despite the blatantly obvious similarities betwen the two songs, I liked Get Ya! a lot. Plus Hyori has a great singing voice and she is absolutely gorgeous. So because someone wanted to sue, I found an artist I love and have since bought all her albums. Although her first album was the true hitmaker for her, making her the highest paid female singer in South Korea, I prefer the second and third albums. But they are all very good and worth a listen, even if you don't understand Korean. The melodies and music are good enough to keep you paying attention.

So in celebration of the stunning and talented Hyori, here's a breakdown of her discography.

ALBUMS

Stylish...E (August 2003)

01. Prologue (Drum & Bass)

02. One Two Three N Four

03. Sadness (Like A Fool)

04. 10 Minutes

05. Ice

06. Eve, Sleeping In Paradise

07. Remember Me

08. According To Today

09. Do Me

10. Hey Girl

11. Erase It

12. A Jazz Bar

13. Only One

14. Ghost (I'm Sorry)

Singles

10 Minutes

Hey Girl

Remember Me

Dark Angel (February 2006)

01. Get Ya!

02. Depth

03. Straight Up

04. Dark Angel

05. Dear Boy

06. Winter Freshness

07. Closer

08. Stealing A Glance

09. Shall We Dance?

10. Slave

11. E.M.M.M.

12. 2 Faces

13. Last Goodbye

Singles

Get Ya!

Shall We Dance?

Straight Up

It's Hyorish (June 2008)

01. Unrivaled Hyori Lee

02. Lesson

03. U-Go-Girl (with Nassun)

04. Photo Album

05. A Barber's Daughter

06. Don't Cry

07. Do You Think It'll Be Okay? (with Bigtone)

08. Sexy Boy (with Wheesung)

09. Red Car (with Kim Gun Mo)

10. Hey Mr. Big

11. P.P.P. (Punky Punky Party) (with Nassun)

12. My Life (Foreign Song)

13. Unusual (with Seo Jung Hwan)

Singles

U-Go-Girl

Hey Mr. Big

You can buy Hyori's third album at yesasia. The other albums are out of stock right now. The prices are very reasonable. Albums are frequently about $13.00 USD.

DIGITAL SINGLES/SOUNDTRACKS/OTHER APPEARANCES

2002

Together (Bad Girls OST)

2003

Cleopatra

Even If The Whole World's Love Permitted (3 Leaf Clover OST)

I Pray (3 Leaf Clover OST)

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (with Lee Soo Young & Song Baekkyoung)

Click-B - Forgive Me (with Hyori Lee)

Lee Ki Chan - Oei Geu Rae (with Hyori Lee)

2004

Double-K - Hot Girl (with Hyori Lee)

When The Day Comes (with various Korean artists to promote the re-unification of Korea)

2005

Fine Killing Liberty (Fin.K.L. reunion single)

01. Butterfly

02. Fine Killing Liberty

03. I'm Crazy About You

Anymotion (with Eric Mun) (Samsung Anycall commercial)

Love Ron (with Eun Ji Won)

2006

Anyclub (with Park Teddy) (Samsung Anycall commercial)

Anystar (with Lee Joon Ki) (Samsung Anycall commercial)

Maybee - Candy (with Hyori Lee)

2007

Toc Toc Toc

01. Toc Toc Toc

02. Toc Toc Toc (Version 2)

03. Don't Love Her

04. Scolded

If you enjoy Hyori and you want to check out her work with Fin.K.L., here is a summary of their discography.

FIN.K.L. ALBUMS

1998

Blue Rain (Album 1)

1999

White (Album 2)

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. (Album 2.5, Winter theme)*

2000

Now (Album 3)

2001

Melodies & Memories (Album 3.5, Covers of Korean hits from the 1980s and 1990s)*

2002

Forever (Album 4)

2005

Fine Killing Liberty (Digital Single)

*The ".5" is used in Korean music to signify that it is a mini/limited/special release. Cover albums and themed albums fall into this category.

A few more pictures of Hyori...

Kylie's US Tour begins with a bang

Kylie Minogue kicked off her US Tour last night in Oakland, CA, at the Fox Theatre, and after seeing photos and video, it was AMAZING! Here is the setlist, courtesy of the fabulous fans over at SayHey:

Light Years

Speakerphone

Come Into My World

In Your Eyes

Shocked/What Do I Have To Do?/Spinning Around

Better Than Today (new song!)

Like A Drug

Boombox/Can't Get You Out Of My Head

Slow

2 Hearts

Red Blooded Woman/Where The Wild Roses Grow

Cheer Squad Segue

Wow

White Diamond

Confide In Me

I Believe In You

Burning Up/Vogue

The Locomotion

Kids

In My Arms

Better The Devil You Know

The One

Love At First Sight

Check out some pictures on GettyImages and WireImage. And of course, there are a bunch of videos on YouTube already that are definitely worth a look.

And here is a video of Better Than Today, a new song that will be on Kylie's next album. It was originally written and demoed by Nerina Pallot, but I don't think it ever had a proper release, so it won't be technically considered a cover. I like the song, it has an electro-pop vibe while being more instrumental, and with more meaningful lyrics than some of those from her last album 2007's X. Not to knock X though—the album may not be very cohesive but it is still great, and a lot of other good songs came from its recording sessions!