Generation Love

Vocals: 9.7/10

Lyrics: 9.8/10

Music: 9.6/10

Finally a new single is out–titled “Generation Love” was released in the middle of March (it was released on iTunes UK faster than iTunes and Amazon.com/.co.uk). Still no album yet, but this counts as Jennette’s second official single after “Not that far away” (“So Close” and “Homeless Heart” sadly don’t count).

Again, it’s another not traditional country song. You can make it so if you play it in Windows Media Player and choose the “slow” option under “Play”. I’ll calling ultra modern country (if there is such a term).

It’s a song about American history at first listening and could be used to teach a class. The phrase “bell-bottom jeans” takes you back don the road of America’ past–if not sure which period (I may try to research later). We get a furher shift to a “Polaroid”, something that no one in America uses nowadays (I believe) except the elderly.

Then there’s the “wild side”, could it mean the wild parties of the 50s, 60s and 70s? Definitely the stanza is set inthe post World War II period with the term “baby boomer”. Then the lyrics references what was one of America’s greatest acheivements–”Walkin’ on the mooon” (Neil Armstrong). The second stanza mentions the “Great Depression”, a big give away. The grandpa is a vetran–not specified which war–the two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, maybe the first Gulf War?

Chorus: Music is perfectly complementary to the lyrics. The whole stanza’s is how these people now would desscribe the current generation–Jennette’s young generation. Her generation is the kind to be glued to a “plasma screen”. The conclusion: the term is “Generation Love”.

A better description of the “generation” comes next: using “spell check” (on Microsoft Word), “GPS” and the common thing of youngsters–shifting the blame. The end of the song brings the audience out viewing the gneration from the next generation and thne a musing–what will the young generation today be called?

The lyrics reek of perfect depiction and matches well with the music. Vocal wise well yes it’s wonderful though I’m not sure how much editing was involved. My biggest reservation whne I check out the iTunes info:the song was NOT written by Jennette! Ok, not all artists do write every song they sing, but whne you are up and coming, you should thne to write your own songs–or ditch the title of singer-songwriter.

It’s a wonderful second single.

Here are it’s chart history on the Billboard Hot Country Songs:

Week 2nd of May, 2011: Hot Shot Debut at #57

Week 9th of May, 2011: Moved up to #50

Week 16th of May, 2011: Reached a record hight of #44

Week 23rd of May, 2011 dipped to #45

Congrats onthe #44!!!

(Update: The dates above are released “too early”; Billboard actually released the charts at a later date. So “Generation Love” actuallly first first charted on May 14, 2011 at #57. Then it moved up to #50 on May 21, 2011. Finally it hit its peak of #44 on May 28, 2011. Super silly and confusing.)

For the week starting 6th June 2011,the music video made it to CMT’s Top 20 Countdown Viewers Poll.

(PS: If you wish to view a in-depth review of Jennette’s discography see this link . DO NOT view her wikipedia page. It is horribly written as are the wikipedia pages of “Not That Far Away” and “Generation Love” (editors are giving her a negative review).

Me with you

Me with you

Vocals: 9.4/10

Lyrics: 8.9/10

Music: 8.9/10
The last song on her “Not That Far Away EP” is a catch song titled “Me With You”. Catchy as it might seem, it is in my view another below average song on the EP. The immediate opening tells you it is more a theme song for a kids show or a kids TV/Movie programme.Yeas well Jennette is a actress for a Kids Network….

There’s definitely a love theme her and unlike “Not That Far Away” or “Put Your Arms Around Someone” the love interest is definitely closer to that of the opposite sex as opposed to a parent figure. Lyrics wise i rate it low as the lyrics are so childish and basic. Vocal wise, asI said, it’s definitely a kid’s theme song. Definitely not country, rock ,rap,R&B etc. Music: So childish.

Terrible one unfortunately Jennette. At least it’s a co-write.

Happy 2011.

Put your arms around someone

Put your arms around someone

Vocals: 9.6/10

Lyrics: 9.4/10

Music:9.5/10

Is she really a country music musician/vocalist/songwriter? This song, which she has been using in her American state tour, nails it.

One listen to the song’s first few seconds tells you that you can’t really decipher the genre or year the song was written. It could even be a song as far back as the 1950s. It could be a R&B song. But the voice is much closer to the Sam Puckett-type voice than her voice used in “So Close” or even “Not that far away”.

Lyrics wise it shows it not the love-dovey song that female teen artists of her generation try to sing but not write. That’s a plus point in my view. Still, it’s pretty bland and the chorus gets repeated too quickly.

Music wise, again nails the fact that she’s not pure country. Still, the more she heads down this direction, the lesser chance the orthodox fans and actually music critics will push her to a higher spot of the billboard. (Not this song did not chart according to my sources).

At least she co-wrote it. Still, good try again.

Break your heart

Vocals: 9.6/10

Lyrics: 9.2/10

Music: 9.3/10
Unlike “Stronger”, I find this so very un-country like, a little scratch at the beginning, and only strong in the first part before the chorus. Nope Jennette, vocals are the only strong point here.

It’s a short review due to my busy schedule…

Stronger

Stronger

Vocals: 9.8/10

Lyrics: 9.6/10

Music: 9.6/10

After an only above average performance with “Not That Far Away”, Jennette released an EP, containing that song plus four others, with the second song titled “Stronger”. That EP was far more successful than her single; it reached #3 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and #32 on the Billboard Country Music Albums chart. Way to go Jennette!

I dare say that it is due to the song “Stronger”, co written by Jennette, Blair Daly, Rachel Proctor. The introduction which is mostly comprised of a piano piece immediately tells you that this isn’t a traditional country song but more like a normal alternative song. The lyrics in the first stanza “You feel out of breath, used up and broken down, Just like a shattered glass, in pieces on the ground…” is love and shows how the music complements it almost perfectly. One of unorthodox methods I use to analyse songs is to slow them down and speed them up (using the “Play speed” option in Windows Media Player). Using this on the first part of “Stronger”, I will say that the music is extremely well structured.

The next stanza, “Here comes another day, here comes another fight… You’re not alone” has simple but convincing words. Through a literary lens, the voice is slowly merging into the feelings o the helpless individual, dictating what’s occurring and providing words comfort. With the line “’Cause no one understands the way you feel inside” the “voice” is inching slowly into the helpless person’s shoes and finally she soothes her friend with “You’re not alone”.

Now comes the chorus. The music beat is alright and so is the lyrics, but together they somehow remind me (a little bit) of the song “My Hero is You” by Hayden Panettiere from the movie Tiger Cruise (note: a very young Jennette appears in the movie in the first few scenes). The whole chorus makes me feel like the song can be used for those movies/TV shows where a downtrodden/handicapped character and someone urging him or her to keep going on. Anyway, back to proper analysis—by now the voice is really inside the helpless character noting again the feelings—“end of the world”, “mistreated”. Then the (I think this is the term) mixture of negative and positive—“you can’t hold on any longer” and “you’ll be so much stronger”. I also like the changing pitches here. By the way,(and it’s not a negative comment), her tone through the song sounds like her voice in iCarly. But this should shut up the misunderstanding by those who think she has a digitally altered voice.

Next part, just sorts of echoes the chorus—well that shows the power of the chorus. Slightly weird arrangement “It’s only temporarily, but it feels like you’re stuck”—shouldn’t it be the other way around? The best part of this stanza—the vocals of the last line. It’s like the voice is really fed up with the pessimism of her friend and telling her you (jolly well) know that you have to get up.

“Last part”—simple words structured well and excellent vocals and music to match. All in all superb song which I hope to hear her perform live. My criticisms—as mentioned the chorus makes it sound like a song destined for a young teen shown on will power.

Not that far away

Vocals: 9.4/10

 

Lyrics: 9.3/10

 

Music: 9.2/10

Jennette, now with Capitol Records Nashville, truly entered the music world by joining this renown record label. By April 2010, she released several excerpts of five on her songs,  and  unlike other  artistes, she allowed her fans  to vote for the song  to be her debut single for her debut record. Eventually,  the choice was  a certain song titled “Not that far away” written by Jennette Rachel Proctor and Blair Daly.

With the full version released (I did not actually listen to any of the demos), it immediately took me by surprise—was this really a country song. The beginning—as in the lines “They’re playin’ guitars with stars their eyes on Broadway” and “They’re just paying their dues and waitin’ for news on a big break” had only a tinge of country music-ness to them. The opening with a guitar strum was much a world away from her first song “So Close”.

Ok, I won’t dwell too much on on a comparison. The next part is the best part of the song “I wish you were here, Cuz sometimes I get lonely, Guess I’m not the only new girl in town”. These lines plus the music that accompanied it is actually the message of the whole  song—you could literally just listen to this part to gather the gist of the song.

Chorus: Mmm, I will say it is just slightly above average, lyrics wise and music wise. First, it tells one that the song is really Jennette centred only and can’t be taken as a universal song for anyone—although of course this doesn’t mean it can’t be covered. Second, the music after the chorus ends just doesn’t fit the lyrics at all.

Second stanza: Lyrics wise much better than the opening stanza and in fact some parts should have been swapped with parts of the opening stanza. Vocal wise, I don’t see much of a country music style here but more and a rapid pronunciation words. Maybe, since I’m not an epert on country music.

Another great section are lyrics “We’re miles apart, But you’re in my heart, I keep you with me everywhere I go”. Perfect lyrics, vocals there. Music wise, well coud be better.

This single gets a small thumbs up from me. Lyrics wise while Jennette’s message is meaningful, it just doesn’t feel like the kind of song to be used as a debut single. Voclas wise, ok, but not that well expressed as “So Close”. Music, again, not the kind for a debut single. Blame it on the fans? Well at least it got a respectable #58 on the (official!) Country Music Charts of Billboard and re-entered in a second week at #60 (see this link)
. Good work but try again Jennette.

Jennette’s cover of The Beatles “With a little help from my friends”

Jennette’s cover of The Beatles “With a little help from my friends”

Vocals: 9.8/10

 

Originality: 9.6/10

 

“Nobody does it better,” that would probably sum up Jennette’s performance on the classic Beatles song “With a little help from my friends”.

As you know, Ringo Starr was the lead vocalist for this Lennon/McCartney composition and despite his “background” role in the band, he pulled this song off brilliantly. The chords and lyrics aren’t that complex; it’s not a song with a wide range (possibly to match Starr’s vocals) but it’s that type of Beatles song that you can’t cover it with easy. This was clearly evident with other artistes who tried but butchered the song. Joe Cokcer is one of those. Yes, I know many people liked his re-working of this song but that the problem. Such a song can’t be shifted to another key and moved from the conversation-like singing to some yelling type. Toto et al however did a much better cover during the Jeff Porcaro memorial concert in the early 1990s.

Jennette and her partnering band, Lady Antebellum however provided one of the best covers so far. (Actually it should have been just Jennette singing). Jennette covered the first stanza which again, unlike Cocker and some others, wasn’t throw of key and really didn’t need to have anyone walk out on her. There’s only a tinge of the country genre added, most notably when she sang “Are you sad because you’re on your own”. Jennnette also sang the “answers” as in “I just need someone to love” and “I want somebody to love” again using the same key as what Ringo Starr sang, just adding her own touch to it.

I have several reservations here: The voices of Lady Antebellum over powered Jennette during the chorus. The camera could be the fault, but Jennette’s vocals weren’t that evident. Third, there could be be tinge more originality, while keeping it with the same key as the Beatles.

Still it’s a solid cover surpassing the others artistes who’ve attempted this song. This should be in her album.