Walmart has posted the tracklist for Allison Iraheta’s upcoming album, Just Like You.
The song previews are not available yet, but as soon as they are, I’ll post them up. Allison’s debut will be available everywhere on December 1.
Track List After the JUMP…
1. Friday I’ll Be Over You
2. Robot Love
3. Just Like You
4. Don’t Waste the Pretty
5. Scars
6. Pieces
7. D is for Dangerous
8. Holiday
9. Still Breathing
10. Trouble Is
11. One One Else
12. Beat Me Up
13. You Don’t Know Me
Music video. The TFM music video cuts out 33 seconds of the song.
To begin with, don’t apologize for “interrupting”. This issue of technical ability is one that I struggle with a lot — I spend a disturbing amount of time arguing with myself over what can and can’t be measured objectively.
And I keep coming back to the notion that there is very little that can be measured objectively. Besides range, the ones I typically think of as possibly having objective measures are power, dynamic control, and intonation (including interval accuracy), though I think the latter two get very squishy based on style. This always makes me think back to the old days of figure skating — the term itself comes from the fact that competitors used to have to literally skate figures (like figure 8s) on the ice, and the judges would get down on their hands and knees and examine how perfectly their blades had cut the required figures. But, coming back to the “it’s not just technical ability” point, skating a perfect figure 8 doesn’t translate to a great performance. There were skaters who scored quite well in competitions despite being pretty bad other than in the “school figures” as they were called. Eventually those were dropped from competitions.
I’d be interested in seeing this list of technial aspects you referred to. What do you think can be measured objectively?
Actually, so did I, which is why I said that both song were good pop songs, but neither one of them were great, and gave a few reasons why I thought that. Truncated though they were, I didn’t just cite personal tastes. But to expand, I find FYE stronger than FIBOU, because I thought that FYE is a more solid fun dance/pop song and captures Adam’s voice more than FIBOU does for Allison for rock/pop and capturing her voice. As I said, both have flaws and both in fact hide the voices, with some complaining too much. I do think that even in the poor quality radio snippet on here (versus the download) at least in the latter part of the song, Adam’s voice is at least at times distinctive and discernible. I find that less so that for Allison throughout her song. FYE conveyed Adam’s sexy type of personality/vibe more than I thought FIBOU conveyed Allison’s fiesty personality. Not that I thought FIBOU didn’t convey that at all, I think it did, but not as well as FYE did for Adam. And as you brought LLWD in this, I don’t think it did a good job in capturing Kris’s musical arranging abilities (none happened as it’s the same song), he didn’t write it, he didn’t play the instruments on it, it’s not organic, and to me, it’s not fun like FYE or FIBOU are, nor does it even rock out. So that’s why I put it the weakest of all the songs.
Oh and all of that is still subjective, which is why I did go back to it just being taste, because attempting to analyze things and be objective is fine, but ultimately impossible.
Yeah–really agree. Allison has a great grainy quality to her voice and she’s real talented, but Christina Aguilera is an incredible vocalist. Did you hear her Rock the Vote Public Service Spot singing America the Beautiful? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDeuQOEaZUQ It’s all in her head voice–she’s got another octave or more BELOW that entire song. She has an incredible range and amazing vocal control.
Frankly, Allison is a far better singer than many singers with hit songs, but she’s not better than this one.
JohnM
That’s why I said “pretty much objectively.” When two singers are very close in ability, then it can be hard to discern and state with absolute certainty who is more technically accomplished in any one factor, but that’s really NOT the case here with Allison v. Christina (or Allison v. Aretha, or Celine, or Mariah, or Whitney, or insert any other great technical vocalist at their height). Christina is what I, and all of the professional vocalists I know, would classify as a vocal masterclass, whether they like her songs or preferred vocal stylings or not. She’s pretty much at the pinnacle of technical ability for a singer. I believe Celine, a truly excellent vocalist herself, rated Christina the best female vocalist alive. Allison, quite frankly, is not at that level.
Here is the DDD boys’ forum link:
http://forums.nutsie.com/viewtopic.php?t=18672
Here are their criterion:
Tier 1: Breath support, register switching, register blending, pitch, vocal runs, consistency throughout registers, volume control, vibrato control, sustain, and diction.
Tier 2: Projection, Resonance, Range, and Versatility.
Obviously some of these are more iffy to rate than others, but each is 1000x easier to objectively measure than emotional connection.
You can also see on their site some of the conversations they have, with many a liberal use of mp3 and youtube links, to justify their ratings in each category.
When I originally stated Allison mops the floor I never said to be in technicality. Christina has a limited range as well and higher than Alli for sure. But is it always about being technically sound or range for that matter? There are plenty of vocalists that are a thousand times better in those 2 categories but do they do anything for me? If Celine said Aguilera is the best alive, her opinion won’t help me either.
I’ll put this the way I compare guitarists, since its something I’m more familiar with. Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen, Nuno Bethencourt are one of the most technically precise players out there with incredible speeds, but I always their solos were random and had nothing to do with the direction of the song. Their solos were to show off their skills, unfortunately their soulless, emotionless solos became forgetable and never did anything to complement the music, especially when compared to Slash. Slash looses the war in technicality and speed but he more than makes up with soul delivery and beautiful solos with a raw emotional sound to his playing. Sweet child o Mine is a familiar example. Allison has a raw beautiful sound, and she can get up there as well i.e. STWOM and PWARS are a couple of examples that even Cantielo admitted Allison can be better than Mariah.
gtg
Leaving everything else aside here, are you talking about Jim Cantiello here, or someone whose musical opinions actually matter? No offense to Jim.
I’m really not going to argue on who’s a better singer between Allison and 17 year old Christina Aguilera because my reasons for liking Allison better come down to personal taste and a different musical style (I don’t like most of Christina’s music). However, I will say that when it comes to range, people usually tend do mostly look at how high a singer can go but disregard the lower range and Allison has a (gorgeous IMO) lower range that a lot of current female singers don’t have. While she may not hit incredibly high notes like Mariah and Christina can, she can go low for a different effect.
If these are the criteria for making a technically good singer, it just makes the case for Allison being a pretty good technical singer stronger. The only criticism she usually got out of anything here was about diction and it’s been discussed many times that part of it has to do with the braces and it being a deliberate stylistic choice on her part.
It has been weird but I’m thinking there are a lot of factors at play here. I think at this point the type of promotion that Allison needs to do requires of her going out and becoming more visible to those people who don’t know her. Those of us that follow idol on the internet know what’s going on but what she needs now is to get those people who don’t even know her to see and hear her. She’s starting radio promos in less than 2 weeks and has been rehearsing with the band, so that makes me think that in the very near future, this is what will go on.They also have the video that should come out at some point soon. I don’t really know how much can the label control the radio adds and spins so again, until Allison herself goes out to promote the song and get people to like it, I don’t think much is going to happen. Somebody also commented a few days ago on how Allison’s age might be a factor here because of child labor laws and I’m wondering if that is one of the reasons for the delay in this type of promotion. Regardless of that, I don’t think Jive was shooting for an instant hit and huge opening sales numbers with her, given again that she’s pretty much an unknown and there really hasn’t been enough time to put together the album and promote it and her aggressively. Maybe the strategy is to go for slower build.
I also wonder how much of this is Jive and how much is 19E management. If 19 is managing all three, then I see Allison getting the short end of the stick when it comes to promo resources given that Kris is the winner and Adam is Adam. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
All things considered, Allison makes a formidable opponent for Christina. I would love to see a little one on one between them and I think is up in the air. We don’t know Allisons range limit yet. Just when I thought I had it figured out, she does an incredible crybaby outro on tour hitting those high notes(check out first 5 dates on tour) especially the last 20 seconds. We already know what Christina can do and hasn’t progressed much.
About the Christina Aguilera – Allison Iraheta comparison: I’m a part of the generation that grew with Christina and remeber her early steps. She was and still is underappreciated. Britney had the luck to come out few months before her so they were always compared in their teen years, now they totally different. Technically Christina might be better than Allison, she’s a Disney kid and had proffesional coaching since she was little. Allison started to take vocal lessons later and I don’t think they were good lessons, since in one interview she admitted that she learned how to take care of her voice during the tour. Christina and Allison’s voice are very different so I won’t try to compare them. When it comes to the emotional aspect of the singing – I would say they’re probably on the same level.
About FYE: I think, and I’m saying this objetcively because I was a huge fan of Adam’s at the beginning, it’s a bad song. I listened to it many times. At first I was like: that’s it. It’s simply not memorable. The second time I wondered through the whole song what other song does it remind me. The more I listened to it, the more things were not right. Mainly Adam’s voice and what it displayed: it was not genuine, Adam’s has a too ‘nice’ voice to be seductive and badass, it’s like a kitten trying to bark. The song doesn’t have any catchiness to it.
I’ve seen Adam compared to Britney. I personally think Britney’s songs aren’t good, but she still has a huge fallowing from her early albums that grew up with her, that are a big part of why her songs are successful. Moreover, she’s a brand for many years. In socialogy there are these 2 theories: the more you listen/look at something the more you like it (the exposition effect); the more people like (or if there’s a hype that makes you think all people like) something the more you tend to like it also (the snowball effect). Don’t know if those will apply to Adam. There’s certainly a hype around him (but I think not connected as much to music nowadays). A lot people praised him during the show, he’s RCA and 19E pet right now, doubt they will admit that his songs are bad, they will push very hard. But from the listeners standpoint (who doesn’t love music because it was made by a certain artist, but who does like some artist because of their music) – we already heard 2 Adam’s songs from the album (TFM and FYE which we’re heavily praised as something they obviously aren’t) and the were not good… His whole album has some many genres, some people won’t like it. My prediction: Adam will be as successful ass huge his hardcore fanbase (who buy everything that Adam sells) already is, doubt he will gain that many new fans, especially with his first single. I like LLWD and FIBOU much better.
Back to Allison:
1.I think that FIBOU is a good song (maybe very good for most of her peers). It’s definitely catchy, has a nice and simple lyrics, some girl power to it – I think it has what it takes to be a succcessful single.
2.All she nedds is promotion. Allison tweeted that it will start in 2 weeks, so something around 13th Nov.
3.The Aimee Proal song is really beautiful as a whole, with a better production it can be a good song on her album and I would like for it to be there.
4.Hope that Jive will do Allison justice and promote her the right way, which I believe will happen.
5.I checked her bandmates on IDF, they all are really talented and with good looks. It looks like the band was picked very carefully (talent-wise, looks-wise, attitude-wise) which is a good sign. Would love a really good mixed rock band these days (in Allison’s case, maybe I’ll have to wait few years).
6.Also what’s going on with FIBOU? I looked up the track list on IDF and it says that FIBOU on her album is 4:00 long, but the song that is “floating” around is about 3:15… Did they made a new version and thus not promoting the old? It’s really strange…
I’ll be so happy when ALL OF THE IDOLS loose the idol tag. What an albatross to carry around your neck, especially as regards to the AI fanbase. And I’m counting on the WalMart Interview being the VERY LAST time we will ever have to have Kradison in the same frame together.
I just don’t understand why other Idols have to be brought into the conversation at every drop of the hat. Personally I’m measuring Kris and Adam and Allison based on their impact compared to other singers who are in their genre and who seem to appeal to the same demographic.
Maybe, someday, we can hear more from Ali then her first single which is floating out in cyberspace beyond the grasp of mere mortals. Then we can see how she “measures” up and make some educated guess on her staying power within the industry.
Just jumping on here. I’m not an expert in it, but there are often multiple versions of a song in terms of what is on an album and what is sent to the radio stations. A shorter version for radio vs album makes a lot of sense to fit the radio format a little better.
Nice album cover, Allison…..great sound for the younger generation, hope it does well….I’ll be waiting for your “Janis Joplin sounding” album, for the more mature audience that fell in love with you from AI! Rock on girl & enjoy….
Good thing the Iraheta-Placido Domingo duet has not been set
.
Folks, Allison is as good as Aguilera FOR THE POP/ROCK world in which they live. I personally prefer Allison because I just find her more interesting, enjoy her raspy voice and rocker-chick persona, and her interpretations prompt me to sing along (as opposed to Aguilera’s, which I think oversings most times).
As far as promotion, maybe Jive is not promoting her enough, but IMO, they are doing a fantastic job with her look (see cover art above) and, judging by FIBOU, her music. Remember also, that we are still a month from release, so I wouldn’t worry just yet. I mean, we know the title, the cover art, the track list, and one of the songs. We also saw behind-the-scenes footage of her photo shoot, and got interesting details of her new band. At this point, thats good for me.
Regarding interviews, I might be wrong, but I thought that Slezak’s interview did not tell me much about how good/bad she is at interviews. She was fine, but Slezak did a lot of talking and moderating. I thought Lyndsey Parker’s interviews, especially the last one , showed more of her personality than Slezak’s. For example, in the last one, taken close to the end of the tour, she wears a Kimono given to her by a Japanese fan, and motions as if shooting herself because she is getting tired of singing the same songs every night. How’s that for personality, Mr. Cowell?
Right. Although not every single is an edited version of the album track, it’s extremely common and is a tradition going back at least as far as the 60s. On the album version, there will be an extra verse, or an extra chorus, or an extra instrumental section, and it will be edited out for the single version so that it won’t be too long for radio stations to want to play it. So there’s nothing strange at all about the longer time for the album version of FIBOU.
Sometimes, more radical edits are made for the single. There was a single by The Shins a couple of years ago or so called Sea Legs, and for the single version they not only cut down the album version’s ending instrumental but also added in a chorus after it. Totally screwed me up every time I heard it on the radio.
Yeah, I don’t really think they’ve skimped on her, but about the details on the band, that wasn’t Jive’s doing — the only reason we know the identity of any of the band members is fan research, much of it by our own PRMari, who figured things out from Allison’s Twitter connections.
I figured someone would bring that up, which is true. Thanks PRMari. My comments was geared towards the overall approach to Allison. I get the feeling the girls-in-band approach will work out very well, and I am sure Jive either suggested it, or at least approved it.
I totally agree. This was my favorite interview of hers. Definitely showed her personality (or what I imagine it to be, since I don’t know her personally.) Maybe in other interviews she gets too concerned about what she’s supposed to say rather than just being herself. I guess a kid talking to adults CAN be intimidating. She must be very comfortable with Lyndsey.
Does that happen? I don’t think an Idol, especially a finalist, looses that label easily. To this day, Kelly is still associated with Idol (see recent interview at The View).
I don’t know her either.
This is starting to add up…there were Japanese fans at the last AI tour concert; wonder if they were there for Allison? I wish I had asked them.
Everywhere you turn, there are signs of international interest in these Idols! There is an Adam fan club in Venezuela that covers most of South America and the Caribbean, and is conducted in Spanish.
I also heard that between 30 and 40% of the people here at mj’s are from outside the U.S.
Apologies for continuing this tangent a bit, but…
While you certainly have a valid point, I’d offer Van Halen’s I’m The One and Ice Cream Man as counter-examples — I think EVH’s work fits perfectly with the first and very well with the second. Kind of ironic, given that those were more straight blues-based songs than the more stereotypically pyrotechnic stuff.
I’m not part of the G’n'R generation and never paid any attention to them. My standard examples for soulful, beautiful, emotional solos without speed are the Allman Brothers’ legendary Fillmore East recording of Stormy Monday (Duane Allman’s solo at 3:35 and especially Dickey Betts’ solo at 6:05), and Stevie Ray Vaughn’s extremely slow Tin Pan Alley — can’t find the original studio version on Youtube, so here are Part 1 and Part 2 of a live version.
What? Me, a blues-rock fan??
I think the band bubble tweet may have been suggested to her by her people or at least approved as a promotional tool. The identity of those members took some detective work but she gave us the most important thing for us to figure it out. We can’t discount the effect Twitter has been having on promotion this year. News travel really fast on Twitter and it reaches a lot of people at once. It wouldn’t surprise me if most of her efforts to stay in touch with her fans through twitter are “strongly suggested” to her by her people.
ROBOT LOVE?? HA!!! Can’t wait…!!!
Sorry took long to respond and appreciate your counterpoint.
John those are some good songs. As you said, everybody missed Eddie’s bluesy side and only caught his signature finger tapping. But even in these recordings Eddie was being Eddie with the possible exception of Ice Cream, very nice.
Good stuff and thanks for this. Fairly technically decent too – proves my point. No Need for speed or be bound by technical parameters that may limit the possibilities.
You should give it shot you may like them.
check this one out – give it nice listen. Just this -> “Civil War” nice solos throughout(wah wah) and the last solo at 6:34, nice(sorry don’t know the format for links)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALhwQKTRAgA
there are others like Double talking Jive …