Carly Rae Jepsen ~ Expanding career, maybe?

When I first heard Call Me Maybe on the radio, I almost switched channel. I thought it would be another new dance track from another new artist. Not that it would be bad if it was true, but I was looking for a song that I knew and can sing along to, I was driving you see, so I need the entertainment. But just I was about to press the button to another radio station, the song started to pick up and finally arrived at its chorus, and I was like, "Hey, this song is not bad!" It's a cute song, catchy with easy tune that people can sing along to even if its the first time people listening to it.

Of course I didn't know who the singer was. It was only on coincidence that I found out that Carly Rae Jepsen was the voice behind Call Me Maybe through YouTube. I thought she was a new artist but then I found out that she was a contestant in the fifth season of Canadian Idol and she already had several singles released in Canada as well. Oops!...My mistake. So she had been active for several years already and it seems that only now she began to expand her career to US and Asia. Good for her. I really like Call Me Maybe and I can't wait to hear other music from her. Hopefully she will gain success in her expanding music career.

You can click here to watch the funny music video of Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. Enjoy!

Image from Wikipedia page.

American Idol 11 Top 6 analysis

The elimination of Colton Dixon was shocking to me as he had never been in the bottom 3 before, but I think it was kind of justified as he did performed badly for his first performance, Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. Well, at least I think he murdered the song but the judges loved his rendition of it, kind of got me confused a little. Colton did have many good performances on the show though, which made me sad to see him leave. Anyway, there are 6 contestants left. Who will be crowned the winner of American Idol 11? Here's my look on each of the contestants;

Skylar Laine

She is one of the most interesting contestants to me this season. She got some type of attitude and energy that she released every time she performed. She's a born performer, that's for sure. I wasn't even noticed her before the Top 13 started but after it started, she blew me away with her performances week after week. She's just fantastic. Some of my favourite performances from her are Gunpowder & Lead (from Miranda Lambert) and Wind Beneath My Wings (from Roger Whittaker).

Hollie Cavanagh

She's so cute and petite, she had strong vocals and she can sings really well. Unfortunately in this Top 6, I think she is the weakest in term of performance. It's not that her performances were bad, it's just that they were less great compared to her peers on the show. But she seemed to redeem herself with her songs in 2nd week of Top 7, where she sang Rolling in the Deep (by Adele) and Son of a Preacher Man (by Dusty Springfield). I really like the latter a lot. Hopefully she can improve herself more next week.

Elise Testone

My favourite contestant of the show this year. She had that sexy and sultry voice that can make any song sounds good. Unfortunately, she had been a regular resident of the Bottom 3. I don't think it's because people don't like her performances, but maybe because other contestants have more fans than her. It's as simple as that. I like almost all of her performances, but one of my favourite is Whole Lotta Love (by Led Zeppelin) that she performed during Top 9 show.

Jessica Sanches

The contestant that judges had used the Judge's Save on to save her from being eliminated last 2 weeks. She's one of the youngest on the show but she sings like a pro. She's madly talented! Her Top 13 performance of I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston was one of the best this season. Although I'm not sure how she got the lowest vote in the first Top 7 result show, but she's surely a frontrunner on the show.

Joshua Ledet

Okay, so everybody knows how great he is; he has powerful vocals, he sings amazingly well and he can really put on a show. But I'm a little turned off sometimes because he tends to go a little too much, or should I say a little over the top with his performances. But the judges always praise him, so I guess it's fine then. My favourite performance from Joshua is Runaway Baby by Bruno Mars.

Phillip Phillips

Phillip Phillips is a talented musician and he's the most unique contestant on the show this season. He is also the only contestant on the show this year that hasn't been in the Bottom 3 yet. He always put on a great show and he's just loveable. He could win this year, yes, he could possibly do that. I think all his performances were great, and my favourite is when he performed U Got It Bad by Usher in the 2nd week of Top 7. He's just great.

So that's my review of the remaining Top 6 contestants of American Idol season 11. So who's your favourite? And who do you think will win this year?

Animated icons are from American Idol website.

New season of Hunter X Hunter on Animax Asia

A new season of the anime Hunter X Hunter will premiere on Animax Asia (Astro Malaysia on Channel 715) on Tuesday, 24 April 2012 at 7.30 pm. It will air every Monday to Friday at 7.30 pm so you will get a healthy dose of your favourite hunters every week.

For those of you who don't know, the anime series is an adaptation of the popular manga series by Yoshihiro Togashi. It is about four main characters; Gon, Killua, Kurapika and Leorio, who enters the extremely hard Hunter Examination to become a professional Hunter. The story in the manga had long since been developed into several arcs, even the anime series had progressed well beyond the Hunter Examination story arc, but since this new season of Hunter X Hunter is some sort of a reboot, hence all of the new fans can leave a sigh of relief as the story in the anime will start again from the beginning.

You can visit the Animax Asia website to learn more about the new season of Hunter X Hunter.

Image from Animax Asia.

2012 Hollywood summer movies

May is around the corner, so it means that summer movies season is nearly here. But what to watch? Here are some of the films that got me interested.

1) The Avengers

I bet a lot of movie fans can't wait for The Avengers to come out. Although I like the assemble of Marvel superheroes in one film, but I'm a bit sceptical about why did they assemble. The movie need to have a good villain (or villains) and a good plot to attract audience than just promoting the superheroes, which is what the studio had been doing in their trailers. I'll probably wait for the reviews of the film before rushing to the cinemas when the movie comes out.

The Avengers scheduled to open in US on May 4, 2012.

2) Dark Shadows

This film obviously attracts me because of the collaboration of Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. The trailer looks fascinating too, which shows Johnny Depp character who turns into a vampire and accidentally awaken a few hundred years later after being buried alive. It was based on a gothic soap opera but with a more comedic approach, I think.

Dark Shadows opens in US cinemas on May 11, 2012.

3) Men in Black 3

This movie will be released 10 years after Men in Black II, which is quite a long time. As the trailer shows, the story will revolves around Agent J (Will Smith) going back in time to save the young Agent K (Josh Brolin) from being killed by an alien criminal. To be honest, I don't think the first two Men in Black films have great stories but its the casts of the films that made them charming.

Men in Black 3 will be released in US cinemas on May 25, 2012.

4) Snow White and the Huntsman

A new interpretation of a classic tale, and it seems to focus more on the villain than just the beauty protagonist. I'm excited to see Charlize Theron to play the evil Queen, she's so talented and gorgeous. And I know Kristen Stewart is talented too when I first saw her in Panic Room. But Snow White wielding a sword? Mmm...we'll see how this plays out.

Snow White and the Huntsman opens in US cinemas on June 1, 2012.

5) Prometheus

I definitely cannot wait for this film. Have you seen the trailer for Prometheus? The trailer looks so good, well, maybe because I like science fiction movies. But it does looks good, and seems to have a good story too. Prometheus was originally developed as a prequel to Alien, the famous 1979 film by Ridley Scott (who also the director and co-producer of Prometheus), but it had evolved to stand on its own.

Prometheus will be released in US on June 8, 2012 and slightly earlier in other territories.

6) Brave

PIXAR had proved itself again and again that it can produced great animation movies. So I'm pretty excited for Brave as it will be Pixar's first fairy tale animation. Directed by Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman, Brave looks set to be a hit this summer.

Brave opens in US cinemas on June 22, 2012.

7) The Amazing Spider-Man

Don't you think it's too early for the studio to reboot this movie franchise? I think it is too early but at the same time I'm eager to see what direction will they take for this film. They got Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker aka Spider-Man and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, which I think is a great choice since both had been involved in great films before. We just have to see if the story is any good like the previous movie trilogy.

The Amazing Spider-Man scheduled to open in the US on July 3, 2012.

8) The Dark Knight Rises

This third and last film in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated film of the year. Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman will all be back for this film while Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will be introduced as Bane, Selina Kyle (Catwoman), Miranda Tate and John Blake respectively.

The Dark Knight Rises will be released in US cinemas on July 20, 2012.

9) ParaNorman

ParaNorman is a stop-motion animation from the studio Laika which is famous for producing the highly acclaimed stop-motion animated film, Coraline. I already got excited just by hearing the word Coraline. I love Coraline! And I think ParaNorman would be as good as Coraline too. But one thing that got me worried is that I'm not sure if this movie will be released in Malaysia. I hope it will.

ParaNorman is scheduled to be internationally released on August 17, 2012.

So how's the 9 upcoming summer movies that I've listed? Did I miss any one of your favourite? I hope this post will get you excited and geared up for the summer movie releases. With so many films, you will have to choose wisely so that you won't spend your money on bad movies. Pick the one that you think you will enjoy. I know it's still too early but I hope you will enjoy with your choices!

All images from Wikipedia.

Songs battle: Better Than I Know Myself vs Vision of Love

It's Kris Allen vs Adam Lambert again. Both the American Idol winner and runner-up will be releasing their new albums around the same time from each other. Kris Allen will be releasing Thank You Camellia on May 22, 2012 while Adam Lambert's Trespassing will drop on 15 May, 2012. For their lead singles of the albums, Kris Allen released Vision of Love while Adam Lambert released Better Than I Know Myself. It's good to see that these two Idol alumni had been doing pretty well with their music careers.

I know I put 'songs battle' as the title for this post but to be honest, both of them are good and entertaining in their own style that comparison shouldn't even be made. Vision of Love is a heartwarming song that lift your spirit up while Better Than I Know Myself is an emotional ballad. I love both of the songs. However, both of them are not promoted yet in Malaysia (at least not that I know of) but I think eventually they will as both artists are popular and well-known here. I don't know how well their 2nd album will do in the market but hopefully both of them will achieve more than they did before.

You can check out Kris Allen's Vision of Love by clicking here while Adam Lambert's Better Than I Know Myself here. Hope you enjoy them!

Underappreciated artist ~ Vanessa Carlton

There are a lot of singers out there, many of them are very talented but not all of them are popular. Some were popular at first but as time goes by, slowly disappeared from the mainstream music scene, like the artist in my post. I personally think that this talented artist is underappreciated by the mass mainstream music lovers.

Vanessa Carlton

Vanessa Carlton were very popular when she debut with her easy-on-the-ears single, A Thousand Miles. Her debut album, Be Not Nobody, were received pretty well too when it was released. However, when she released White House, her lead single for her 2nd album, Harmonium, she was caught up in a controversy regarding her lyrics in the song which suggest sexual intercourse. From that moment on, she slowly disappeared from the mainstream music scene. Her Harmonium album were also done poorly in the market, possibly because of the controversy but also maybe because of the 'darker' approach that she took with the music in that album.

I'm not really sure why she was not celebrated as a talented artist as much as when she first debut anymore, but I'm thinking maybe because of the approach she took for her music which deviate a bit from the typical pop and commercial sound in her first album, which of course doesn't mix well with the mainstream pop music. But I really adore her music and lyrics; honest and true to life. She's very poetic in her lyrics that sometimes it's hard for me to understand (English is not my mother tongue) but her music really has that calm effects, and it makes me relax everytime I hear her songs.

I'm proud to say that I owned every one of her albums, from Be Not Nobody to Rabbits on the Run. If you've been following her, you will notice that her music became more and more non-commercial as it went along, but to me it still sounds very good. But being the artist that she is, making music according to her own style regardless of the music trend in the market, it became more and more difficult for me to find her albums in the music stores. To be honest, I almost give up in buying her latest 4th studio album when I can't find it after searching the music stores around my town after a while. Luckily, I did found it, around 6 months after it was released in the US.

Some of my favourite tracks from her are as below;

1) From her debut album Be Not Nobody - Rinse, Paradise and Twilight
2) From 2nd album Harmonium - Who's to Say and Private Radio
3) From 3rd album Heroes & Thieves - Fools Like Me, Heroes & Thieves and Home
4) From 4th album Rabbits on the Run - Tall Tales for Spring and Get Good

I hope that Vanessa Carlton would continue making music. She is one of those rare artist where I would simply buy her album without even know any of the singles or promotional songs for the album. Hopefully with this post I would also be able to make several readers interested in her music and would try to search and listen to her songs.