It takes a real man to step into a woman's shoes. Ed Sheeran tries on Nina Simone's heels in this bitter, poignant cover of Nina Simone's "Be My Husband."
"Oh daddy, now, now love me good / Oh, daddy, now, now love me good," Sheeran croons. Yeah, it definitely takes a secure man to take on such a blatantly feminine song. But Ed brings all of the usualness Edness that he brings to all of his work and makes it his own.
One of our On the Verge artists, Daley, is so talented it hurts. While he's not made his mark in the U.S. yet, Daley is hard at work building a fan base back home in the UK.
That doesn't mean he's not paying attention to what American artists like Usher are doing though. Showing his appreciation for the Diplo/Usher masterpiece, Daley covered the emotional track while in concert in London recently.
Listen to Daley's perfectly spellbinding cover below
Jay-Z and Kanye West may run around calling themselves the Throne, but Ed Sheeran bowed before a real throne when he recently met the Queen of England at the Diamond Jubilee celebration in honor of her 60 years on the throne.
Sheeran, who exploded on to the scene with his simple, stripped, acoustic soul material in the UK, has won critical acclaim in the UK, including a few Brit awards, the British equivalent of the Grammys.
In addition to meeting the queen, Ed played his hit single "A-Team" for the masses at Buckingham Palace.
Watch Sheeran's performance from the Diamond Jubilee below
Known for his stripped down, poetic, personal brand of acoustic soul, Ed Sheeran has a way of simplifying even the most complicated of settings. Armed with a t-shirt, jeans and his trusty but worn guitar, Sheeran humbly plays his love songs on stages as big as the Brits and as small your local club spot.
The Warner Sound is a concert series for Warner Bros. Records artists and they captured a four-song set of Ed Sheeran singing songs from his debut album +. "Lego House" is one of Sheeran's strongest tracks, so get into his performance of the song below.
WHO'S THIS: Neon Hitch (Yes, that's her god-given name)
FROM WHERE: London, UK...kinda. She grew up traveling in a bus with her family and had dreams of being a famous trapeze artist. There’s even a BBC documentary about it. She spent her late teens in India before going back to the UK to pursue a music career.
WHY YOU SHOULD LISTEN: In the words of Deena from Jersey Shore, she’s a good time. Hitch's penchant for feathery headdresses and her fiery red hair are proof. Most of her original songs follow the lead of the dance-oriented pop music that owns radio right now. But she finds a way to make it her own with relatable lyrics and her distinct voice. The most glaring example being her covers of popular hip-hop songs from Wiz Khalifa, Kreashwhatthefuckever, and Waka Flocka Flame. Seriously, what pop princess can flip “No Hands” and make it doper than Flocka and company did? Neon Hitch, that’s who.
MUSIC SOUNDS LIKE:Her debut album Beg, Borrow and Steal, set to be released this summer, is said to be chiefly produced by Bennie Blanco. Blanco, known for his work with Khalifa, Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Ke$ha, is pretty much the synth-pop juggernaut. Judging from songs like “Bad Dog” and current single “F**k U Betta” her album should follow along with that trend. Expect an autotuneless Ke$ha sound with the same foul mouth, but a higher pitched (and if we’re being honest, more enjoyable) voice.
YOU MIGHT HAVE HEARD HER ON: Gym Class Heroes' hit "Ass Back Home" and you’ve heard her words on Ke$ha’s “Blah, Blah, Blah”.
MUST-LISTEN TRACKS: The aforementioned “Bad Dog” and “F**k U Betta” but also her stripped down, mid-tempo version of rapper Mac Miller’s “Donald Trump”.
She also goes into a slightly more urban direction with "Silly Girl" featuring Wale.
IN HER OWN WORDS: ‘I want to be the kind of artist that people feel like they can relate to,” Neon says. “Maybe my music will make them feel a bit less lonely. They may not be able to relate to my story, but they’ll be able to relate to me as a person. The album is going to be me, inside and out, because I’m a very honest person. I’ve been through so many bad patches, but having the opportunity to do this makes it seem like it all happened for a reason. I want people to know that, yeah, times are tough, but you know what? There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m living proof.”
Since this is my first piece for Bark + Bite, I should probably give you a little background information. I’ve been told that I have the musical taste of a 14-year-old girl, and I proudly own up to that. I LOVE bubblegum pop, and I think Max Martin is a genius. I followed every boy band from the late '90s explosion, from Backstreet Boys to LFO to 2ge+her to Westlife to BBmak.
If there was a group comprised of three or more guys singing, I was all about them. Hell, I even dreamed of being the first black member of a popular boyband (sure, there were black guys, but they weren’t in the good groups).
In any case, I not only love pop, but I’m also very protective of it. I need to know who’s behind you, as well as what your intentions might be. Are you a one-hit wonder or are you in it for the long haul? I’ve read the books, magazines, blogs — the life of a pop star is a LOT harder than it looks. So, I tend to cast a suspicious eye on any new act that starts gaining traction. My suspicious eye recently fell upon UK boyband One Direction.
I’ve been waiting for a boyband revival with the fervor that some people have when awaiting the messiah. These things work in cycles, and I felt we were overdue for their comeback.
There have been a few attempts, such as Big Time Rush, but they still didn’t have that “x factor” that Simon Cowell believes all true stars possess. Sure, there's Bieber, but a lot of his success was due to two factors: he had Usher behind him and he hit during a downswing in pop.
So it’s like the throne was gift-wrapped and his for the taking. I’m not taking anything away from Justin, but he really didn’t have any competition. He’s the modern day success story – plucked from YouTube, thrust into a bidding war, and plastered on pillowcases and t-shirts the world over. Good for him!
I, however, like for my pop stars to pay their dues. Be it on a reality show, or a boot camp that eventually sends them to Sweden to cut their teeth. Ever since boy band svengali Lou Pearlman went to prison for a pyramid scheme, there’s been a vacuum in the world of manufactured pop acts. Say what you will about the man, but he KNEW how to build a boyband. He understood there’s a recipe, and he had the resources to successfully blend all the right ingredients. Little did I know that the aforementioned Cowell was working to fill that void across the pond.
The Diamonds Emerge from the Rough
Though The X Factor is still working to gain traction in the US, in the UK it was the “Idol Killer”. Once the show debuted, Pop Idol (the show that eventually spawned our American Idol) became a thing of the past. Outside of Leona Lewis, UK reality stars rarely make a dent in the States, but One Direction seem to be out to change that.
In what may have been the greatest thing Nicole Scherzinger has contributed to pop music, the group actually assembled at her suggestion. Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson had all applied individually, but after failing to make the Boys category, they took Scherzinger’s advice and became a group.
Placing 3rd in the seventh season of The X Factor, One Direction were signed to Cowell’s Syco Records label. Their debut album, Up All Night, became the fastest selling debut album in the UK for 2011. In America, they signed with Columbia Records, releasing their first single, “What Makes You Beautiful." Up All Night was released in the States last week, so I thought I’d take a few minutes to review it.
The Up All Night Review
Upon the first listen, I hated it. If my history with pop has taught me anything, this means Up All Night will be my favorite album very soon. I also hated the debut albums of *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, but those quickly grew on me. Hell, I’m STILL waiting for …Baby, One More Time to grow on me, but that’s a story for a different time.
After keeping it looped for a whole day, I began to notice the strong tracks on the album.
Things start out well enough with "What Makes You Beautiful." It’s a fun, energetic track, and it’s exactly the kind of song that a 14-year-old girl would love to have sung to her as the guys are describing all of the reasons they find her beautiful. Who could hate that?
There are also the songs that reveal the group’s inspirations. "One Thing" sounds like Unbreakable era Backstreet Boys so much that I’d almost wonder if it was a B-side from that album. "More Than This" is a gorgeous ballad that sounds like it was sung by a completely different group — a much more mature sound, which sounds like One Direction’s version of BSB’s "More Than That." Rounding the BSB feel, "Stole My Heart" comes complete with nasal Nick breakdown.
"I Wish" and "Everything About You" sound like their fellow Irish brethren, Westlife. "Taken" is very reminiscent of BBMak. "I Want" sounds like a mesh of Fall Out Boy meets Panic! At the Disco. Ballads like "Same Mistakes" and "Moments" have a distinct Ryan Tedder/OneRepublic feel to them.
Then, there are the songs that take advantage of today’s “party pop”, like “Last Friday Night." One of these songs is, coincidentally, the dedicated to Katy Perry title track "Up All Night." It’s a party starter, where guitar riffs overpower boyband lyrics. The same could be said for "Tell Me A Lie," "Save You Tonight," and "Stand Up." As dancey as they are, songs like these put them more in the category of Metro Station than *NSYNC.
In the end, One Direction almost seem to be 2 different groups. There’s the fun-loving group of teens straddling the boy band/pop-rock line, but there’s another, more mature sounding group vying for dancier sounds of that Top 40 is in love with.
Instead of coming off as a seamless transition between genres, it truly sounds like there are 2 different groups at play here. It’ll be interesting to see which side wins out.
Yes, that's the same guy who gave us the beautiful two-step gem "Gotta Get Thru This" way back in 2001.
"Rocks Off" shows off the noisy, jarring new sound that Bedingfield is going for with his new material. The video also shows a little of his flesh, as voracious women paw and maul him. You can't be he, he's a rock star.
After sitting out of the music industry since 2004, Bedingfield's set to take the new media bull by the horns with a blitzkrieg of digital EP releases, starting with Stop the Traffik &ndash& Secret Fear on April 24th.
What to expect? Probably not much of what you've heard from Bedingfield before.
From the official press release:
Stop The Traffik – Secret Fear is the first release from Daniel since 2004’s Second First Impression. After repeated issues with his former label delayed the release of new material, Daniel took control of his career and began operating 100% independently, without the help of a label or a manager. The creative freedom that this arrangement provides has allowed Daniel to remain true to his artistic instincts and show the world who he really is: provocative, hyperactive, eclectic, and most importantly, genuine.
The B-side to "Rocks Off" is the Maroon 5ish "It's Not Me, It's You," which you can hear below:
Rising British acoustic soul star Ed Sheeran released the first track from his joint EP with Yelawolf and he spoke with Bark + Bite about his collaboration with the Slaughterhouse MC in our recent interview with him.
Now, the pair have released a trailer (above) that shows them working in the studio on the project. The song that plays in the trailer features Ed interpolating the classic "London Bridge" nursery rhyme into a haunted warning: "London bridge is falling down, falling down / And if it don't stop falling, then all of us will drown."
Sounds like we can expect the unexpected from these two when the full EP drops later in February.