#1: Ne-Yo

He wrote "Let Me Love You" for Mario that turned out to be one of the most listened-to singles on radio at one point (about 189.5 million listeners the week it hit Number One in Billboard). He had also contributed songs to albums of Mary J. Blige, B2K and Faith Evans prior to that songwriting breakthrough.

Today, Ne-Yo is doing it for himself in the spotlight where he belongs. Proof of this is his hit R&B single, "So Sick," which is already in the Top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

You probably have heard the song on local frequencies. Despite being in mid-tempo (almost danceable), it gets to you the way sappy ballads do. Indeed, who wouldn’t feel for the brokenhearted that thinks every love song on radio is about his tragic love life? Attribute it to paranoia or caffeine overdose but we say it’s just the power of well-strung rhythm and rhyme at work here — something Ne-Yo seems to have mastered at his young age of 22.

We also laud Ne-Yo for not incorporating samples in any track off his! MCA Universal Music CD, "In My Own Words." Aren’t you just, well, sick of hearing yet another snippet of an old song (speeded up sometimes to the point that poor singer sounds like Minnie Mouse on helium) somewhere in a new song where an original chorus would’ve worked just as handsomely? Ne-Yo spares us from this tired gimmick, thank God.

Sparsely sleek production (courtesy of his in-house production crew, Compound) in "In My Own Words" keeps us from the gates of a mental institution. The tracks in the CD testify to less is more and are eloquent in the economy, too. Think Prince and Stevie Wonder.

Ne-Yo was raised in Arkansas by his single parent mom (thus, the independent-minded approach to his music?). He is also into drawing, painting and martial arts.

While mere mortals await the release of her follow-up to 2004’s "Feels Like Home," multi-Grammy winner Norah Jones hook up with bass player Lee Alexander, guitarists Richard Julian and Jim Campilongo, and drummer Dan Reiser. They are The Little Willies, a bar-band that specializes in doing covers of classic American music biased towards bluegrass, rock-a-billy, country and blues in the mode of Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Townes Van Zandt. 

Days before the release, EMI Music Philippines asked us to listen to the band’s eponymous debut CD; an experience that rendered as speechless. How dare The Little Willies offer this kind of alternative music! What brilliant audacity — the sheer cheek of it all!

Novelty is just the tip of the iceberg, though, that makes us recommend the album. Spinning through "The Little Willies" is like a night out in some old Western pub: You go in high spirits to get musically intoxicated with spirited narrations ("Streets Of Baltimore," "Night Life"), playful allusions ("Lou Reed") and imagination (we think it’s called ‘tall tales’ in the Old West) of almost piquant persuasion straight off an enchanted jukebox.

Then as you walk out, you realize that these were served by a band that is as contemporary as Kanye West but probably have more fun reliving the past with much authenticity.

No surprise there as the five friends (all individually involved in other projects pre-volt-in) started off as a group by booking a gig at The Living Room on New York’s Lower East Side to play together out of whim. They still perform there, by the way, whenever they are in town.

Of course, the selling point of the group is still Norah Jones of "Don’t Know Why" and "Come Away With Me." Subtle and sublime as ever on the mic, she makes a twang sound like pedigreed accent. Check out "Easy As Rain" (which she duets with Julian and is potential single) and know that the title is apt description of how her voice falls on the ears.

Variety in the music scene is good. Its respite from trends that reminds us mainstream music is cyclical so there’s room for every musical genre of regardless of prevailing clime. Who knows the one you hate now and declaire as so yesterday is actually just a preview into the future, eh?

Thus, the advent of boy band Intensity that will be releasing their debut album in a few days. Produced by Events and Artists Management Office, Kirsten Music and Entertainment, and distributed by Ivory Music, the album will feature songs by hitmaker Vehnee Saturno. We attended their soft album launch at Thrams Restaurant and Bar a few weeks ago where they sang some of these that reminded us of songs by Backstreet Boys, Boyzone and N’Sync (remember them?).

The boys also sang a couple of covers as "Thank You" and "Borderline" (yup, that Madonna dance classic-turned-R&B ballad). The first was especially dedicated to Mila Garcia Glodova who, through her Metro Infanta Foundation (MIF), bankrolled Intensity’s album.

By the way, the Metro Infanta Foundation, also announced that night their donation to the Mount Carmel School of Infanta (MCSI) amounting to $ 10,000 on top of a $ 16,000 pledge to be used for youth camp projects, computer allocation funds, project management and scholarship programs for the young ones of Infanta, Quezon.

A hat was also passed around to solicit donations from the Garcia clan and guests for victims of the Guinsaugon landslide in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte. The amount put up that night was doubled by Mila all out of the generosity of her heart.

The Kirsten Music and Entertainment group, also the name of their newly established record company, is headed by President Beth Guitierrez and Finance Manager Marissa Monte.

Intensity members (whom you will all be reading more on in this column once their album is out) are KC, Nino, John Ray and Beige.