I finally saw Knight & Day, the new action flick that teams Tom Cruise up with Cameron Diaz. I wanted to see it really badly having seen the previews, so I wasn’t concerned with what newspaper critics were saying about it. I normally differ in my opinions from a lot of critics in my opinions because critics usually give big budget action/adventure films bad reviews while giving boring, slow-paced movies their nod of approval. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good drama, but it has to have certain caliber of actors and they need to be directed in a way that retains my interest in the movie throughout the film, which means new developments in the storyline unfolding quickly and dramatically. Fast paced action adventure films usually are among my favorites if they are well made, and Knight & Day was extremely well made. I had a great time watching this movie, which included some of the best fight scenes I’ve seen… for those of you who liked Mission Impossible 3, you would like Knight & Day even more, because the action scenes were a step up from those of MI3. Also, Knight & Day has a really cool semi-sci-fi premise… Tom Cruise has his hands on the first battery ever invented that doesn’t ever lose power or die out, one which fits in the palm of your hand, but has enough unlimited power to supply a small city with unlimited electricity for eternity. All the bad guys want to get their hands on this battery, for all their evil reasons left up to the imagination, but most likely to give it to terrorists or rogue nations. When this plot began to unfold at first I thought the oil companies were responsible for the endless stream of assassins sent to kill Cruise and Diaz. I thought the evil oil companies wanted to keep the battery from being made public so they can keep overcharging the American People (as a liberal activist, of course I’d first suspect the oil companies, LOL) but later in the movie, it does become apparent the battery is being sought by evil-doers who want to actually USE the battery themselves. If anyone who saw the previews wondered how and why Tom Cruise came to need to protect Cameron Diaz, here is the explanation… Cruise was with the CIA but when his friend invented this battery, suddenly Cruises’ colleagues realized this battery had street value on the black market, and a large handful of them turned against Cruise who (it’s assumed) wanted to get the battery to the US Government, because his intentions were for the greater good and not personal gain. Cruise makes the mistake of trying to take a commercial flight to find his friend who invented the battery, so that Cruise can protect his friend from the corrupt CIA-turned-traitors who, after not being able to detain or kill Cruise, decided to go after the battery’s inventor. Waiting for the flight, Cruise flirts for a minute with Diaz, and the flirtation is caught on camera, and seen by the corrupt CIA operatives, who had already known Cruise’s whereabouts and had set the flight up so that the flight seemed to have very few passengers, all of whom were assassins, and the pilots and crew were assasins too. Diaz happened to be flying to the same destination as Cruise, and at first was told the flight was booked. When the CIA evildoers saw Cruise flirt with Diaz, they thought she “must” be a critical player in the invention of the battery, possibly even have it on her. So once the flight was in the air, they wanted to kill both Cruise and Diaz, but the attack takes place when Diaz is in the bathroom and when she gets out, the plane is filled with nothing but corpses of the attackers which included both pilots. So at first, Diaz thinks Cruise is a psycho. The early part of the movie is divided between amazing action scenes with Cruise trying to save Diaz from well trained killers some of whom were assassination squads that dressed like SWAT Teams (A déjà vu from the bridge scene in MI3 only in Knight & Day, these squads have fifty times more killers). Those scenes are divided with comedic scenes of Diaz thinking Cruise is a lunatic out of his mind, and Cruise trying to convince Diaz that he’s the good guy and that the attackers are not trying to save Diaz from Cruise. The only criticism I have for this movie is, though most of the escape scenes are thoroughly thought out and well explained, there are about 2 or 3 where instead of seeing them escape, you see scene cuts that just presume that viewers will just attribute the escape to Cruise’s Jason-Bourne-like CIA skills. That only happened a few times, when overall, the movie had so many escape scenes, that the rest of those kinds of scenes balanced the missing ones out. I always love to see how escapes from danger are written into action films, it’s one of the coolest things about them, because with each new action film there are always inventive escape scenes where the hero of the film finds his/her way out of situations that seem inescapable. Knight & Day doesn’t disappoint overall, and the choreography of the fights is top notch. Most importantly, the film stays exciting from beginning to end, and yes there is a love story between Cruise and Diaz’s characters, and Diaz gets to show off some fight moves of her own, and at one point it is Diaz who saves Cruise’s life. I give this film high marks. It was action packed, funny, and inventive.
I also got the deluxe Itunes version of much-anticipated new album by Enrique Iglesias, which Universal has been promoting for months now with several hit singles already. The deluxe version has 3 bonus tracks not available on the CD release unless you get it at Target. To date, they’ve released four singles, two in English and two in Spanish. His most recent Spanish language single, “Cuando Me Enamoro (featuring Juan Luis Guerra)” is currently #1 on Billboard’s Latin Songs chart, and the lead English language single “I Like It (featuring Pit Bull) is #18 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles. “I Like It” is a really catchy song, and the only way I can describe it is the kind of dance single that you might hear at a Knicks game. I knew when I first heard it that it would be a hit, it gets you instantly the first time you hear it. “Cuando Me Enamoro” is a little more laid back but it is not a ballad, it’s a duet with Juan Luis Guerra who is a well respected latin artist who has produced a string of latin hits of his own over the years, though this was the first time I’ve heard a Guerra recording. This single’s #1 status is well deserved, it is a semi-uptempo number but not a club song, perfect for radio, and yes, it would play well as a crossover track at pop radio. It’s uplifting and fun to listen to, and has a memorable chorus. I do not speak Spanish, but I am very familiar with Enrique’s Spanish language catalogue. I first got into Enrique’s music in 2000 when he recorded his first English language album, which contains my all time favorite song of his, “Could I Have This Kiss Forever” which was a duet with Whitney Houston. The whole album was so impressive to me, that I collected all of his Spanish language albums, and enjoyed all of them thoroughly. So I am not just into his English stuff, I love his Spanish work too and there is no album of his that I have not listened to over and over. I don’t listen to latin radio overall, but I’ve collected both the Spanish and English catalogues of certain crossover acts such as Shakira, Gloria Estefan and Thalia. (Gloria’s amazing 1993 “Mi Tierra” album was my first ever Spanish language purchase and it is timeless!) So if I find out about a good bilingual artist I don’t limit myself to just their English work. You don’t have to be able to translate a song to be able to enjoy it. This puts me in a good position to review Enrique’s latest album, because the album is almost evenly divided between English and Spanish songs. The other two singles which have been overshadowed by the two aforementioned singles are “No Me Digas Que No” (which exists on the album as both a solo song and as a duet with Wisin & Yandel), and “Heartbeat (w/ Nicole Scherizinger)”. These were excellent choices for singles, but radio has overlooked them thus far. “No Me Digas…” is very similar to Enrique’s past Spanish language hits, it is slower paced than “Cuando Me…” but does have a great singalong chorus to it. “Heartbeat” is a club-dance song. It has a trancelike dance beat and a soothing vocal delivery. Nicole Scherzinger is one of the former Pussycat Dolls. and she put out a bunch of solo singles in 2007, no solo album though, but the Enrique collaboraton may have been born from the fact that in 2009 she was featured on one of Pit Bull’s singles, the remix of “Hotel Room Service”. The best English song on the entire record though is “Dirty Dancer (featuring Usher)”. This song is guaranteed to be a major hit single since it not only has all the qualities that made “I Like It” a hit, but beyond that it stands apart from every song on the album as the most danceable track on the album, as well as the song with the most crossover potential, because it appeals not only to the mainstream top 40 stations currently playing “I Like It” but to dance-techno radio as well. I know that KTU would be all over this song if it was a single, and club DJs would love it too. It’s a knock your socks off dancefloor anthem, all the way. It doesn’t even need to be remixed… it has the same quality that makes the album versions of many of Lady Gaga’s hits so popular to both nightclub and radio DJs before the song is even remixed. Speaking of those GaGa songs, Akon, a singer whose duet with GaGa was a major hit (“Just Dance”) does a duet with Enrique on this album, “One Day At A Time”, this song has more of a reggae rhythm and does have radio hit potential although if they do release this as a single, they should definitely rerecord it in Spanish because this has the kind of rhythm and feel that, with my knowledge of the format’s biggest hits, would make this a huge hit at latin radio. “Tu Y Yo” is the reverse situation… here is a latin song with the kind of danceable rhythm that would make it not just a hit at latin radio, but also at pop and dance radio if re-recorded in English. If remixed it would also be a great club single. That is one of the things I’ve always loved about Enrique’s work, his work in both languages has universal appeal and he always records music that appeals to both audiences, no matter which language the album is in, and his new record is the perfect way to get those two audiences to realize this about the rest of his past work. Also, I have to say, this album is a big step forward from his 2008 “Insomniac” album where he strayed from the sounds that made him so popular. “Insomniac” was the only Enrique album that ever disappointed me, so if you are someone who heard that album and felt the same way, you’ll be happy to know that his latest release is a return to artistic form for him. The bonus tracks on the deluxe version are all English ballads, anyone who liked his hit “Hero” will find these to be of equal quality. I do not know why labels now are always releasing two versions of every album, a deluxe version and a regular, cheaper version- some of these puzzle me and this is my only criticism of the Enrique release. Having been educated about the professional end of the music industry since I was a preteenager, I can recall such releases as Deborah Gibson’s “Anything Is Possible” which sold at regular price and had 16 songs on it. Alanis Morissette’s sophomore album “Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie” sold regular price and had 17 songs. These weren’t even billed as deluxe albums, they were just the normal versions. I can understand how Nonesuch Records justifies the difference between the costs of the single disc edition of the latest Natalie Merchant album and the double disc edition. The 2CD edition has a total of 29 songs on it, making it truly worthy of the word “deluxe”. By contrast, the deluxe editions of many recent releases have just a couple of bonus tracks. Kylie Minogue’s latest falls somewhere in between these two extremes because on one hand, there is just one single bonus track on the deluxe Itunes version, but on the other hand, if you are someone who will pay to see music videos and likes stuff like “behind the scenes” footage, there are a bunch of videos bundled into the package, so yes, it is truly a “deluxe” package in terms of product quantity, but if your sole interest is just the music and you’re not interested in videos, then you may as well just buy the regular version, which is what I did. If the collection of videos is, to Parlophone/EMI, the justification for the higher cost of the “deluxe” version, then the ONE bonus track… it should have been on the normal non-deluxe edition because there is no reason why the difference of one song on an album of less than 18 songs should be used to justify a higher price tag or the term “deluxe”. This word started surfacing on CDs earlier in the past decade when labels began to realize there was a market for re-released re-mastered classic albums repackaged with all the B-sides and/or remixes or live versions previously only available on past CD singles or vinyl 45s. At the time, the use of the word made sense, because these rereleases had tons of extra music on them that was either rare or previously unreleased and it was at least twice the quantity of songs from the original album, or even in some cases, 3 times as many songs. Now, the term is being used to explain why Itunes, or sometimes a specific retailer, has a version of the album with minimal additional content for a higher price than the standard edition. Since Enrique’s album had 3 bonus tracks and sold for less than what Itunes would charge to buy every song individually, this I was willing to buy. The Kylie album by contrast, for the one extra track, didn’t justify the extra cost. If labels truly want to give the public a choice between a regular edition and deluxe edition, and they don’t have 29 marketable tracks like Natalie Merchant did, all they need to do to make an album worthy of the word and price of a “deluxe” album is add remixes, or recordings of past live performances. They have the material to release, yet they don’t release it. The public deserves better and I am thrilled that the way Natalie Merchant’s latest album was released can be called a standard bearer for the way albums should be released by all labels going forward.
Now, to my review of the Kylie album. I have both good news and bad news. Mostly good news, so I will start with the bad news. This new album marks the first time in the past 10 years that Kylie has released a studio album that does not contain any songs written by songwriter/producer/singer Cathy Dennis. Dennis was the mastermind behind Kylie’s international hit single “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” and since then she worked on all of Kylie’s subsequent albums until now. Dennis is, by far, the single most proficient pop music songwriter in the world. Though she is best known to some as a pop singer herself who had a string of hits in the early 90s which included dance anthems such as “Touch Me (All Night Long)”, and “Just Another Dream” as well as timeless ballads such as “Too Many Walls”, Cathy Dennis found even greater success as a songwriter beginning in the late 1990’s, which began with a string of major pop radio hits she wrote and produced for S Club 7 (She wrote/produced almost ALL of their hits). In the past decade, some of her biggest hits included Britney Spears’ “Toxic” which won a grammy, and Will Young’s “Anything Is Possible” which at the time set the record for the fastest selling debut single in UK history. Her partnership with Minogue was credited as the primary reason for Minogue’s return to United States prominence in the year 2000, so the fact that Dennis’ name was totally absent from the liner notes to Minogue’s newest album was a major disappointment, especially since this album is the most dance-oriented album Minogue has released since 2000’s international hit album “Fever”, the album where she partnered with Dennis on 3 songs one of which the most successful worldwide hit of Minogue’s career. That said, the good news is, Minogue chose an excellent producer to co-produce the entire album. Stuart Price either produced or co-produced every single song on the entire new album, titled “Aphrodite”. For those of you who don’t already know the name, Price was the mastermind behind Madonna’s mega-successful “Confessions On A Dance Floor” album, which contained such hits as “Hung Up” and “Sorry”, and is by far the most successful of Madonna’s albums within the past decade. That is not to say this album isn’t unique and different from the Madonna record. Minogue puts her own stamp on it with her unique brand of sexually charged vocal delivery, and Price’s sound has been updated since Madonna’s 2005 opus. A further tidbit about Price, he is also known as Thin White Duke and as Jacques Lu Cont, and has produced remixes under those monikers for such acts as Gwen Stefani, Seal, Britney Spears, and Depeche Mode, among others. One track “Aphrodite” stands out because it blends Price’s modern-day sensibilities with some of the sonic qualities that graces Minogue’s 1980’s work with Stock Aitken and Waterman which created a global radio presence for her. First single “All The Lovers” by contrast has a trancelike sound that is reminiscent of her “Light Years” album, the album she did just before “Fever” which was very successful in Australia and Europe. There is a remix EP of “All The Lovers” out on Itunes right now, and I did buy that too, all the remixes work for club DJ play, and thankfully, these remixes do have the full vocals of the song and aren’t just dubs. She hasn’t done as many full vocal remixes in the past decade as she did in the 90’s and 80’s, so this was refreshing. “Illusion” is less radio friendly than most of the album, sounding more like her “Body Language” songs which radio and clubs didn’t really respond well to. “Cupid Boy” sounds a lot like it could have been an unreleased track off the Madonna “Confessions…” album, but with Minogue’s voice instead. The intro to “Looking For An Angel” actually sounds almost identical to the intro to Madonna’s “Let It Will Be”. Overall, the album is a blend of sounds representing the various stages of Minogue’s entire career, mixed up with some tracks that sound like they were written for Madonna. So there is something for everyone. I know that some people who bought her CD singles within the past decade shared my disappointment at the lack of vocal remixes. The “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” Vinyl double-LP single was all dubs except for the original version, and her only true underground dance-club anthems were the Roger Sanchez mix of “In Your Eyes” and the Narcotic Thrust mix of “Red Blooded Woman”. Almost all her other remixes were either dubs or versions that weren’t targeted to nightclubs or to radio. The remixes off her last album were even strange, a mixture of breakbeat electronica and rock with vocals chopped up. So the fact that her new single was remixed for underground dance clubs and they retained the vocals and delivered versions suitable for current club formats, this made me very happy. I recommend them. That said, the new Minogue album is, overall an excellent work that anyone who ever liked her music would enjoy from beginning to end. However, there is no one song that stands out as potentially mega successful the way there is on the Enrique album. If this album is to match the success of “Fever”, word of mouth alone could achieve such success, but word of mouth has to be propelled, so the label is going to have to be aggressive in its marketing of this one since Minogue’s last couple of albums haven’t sold too well in the US. Touring would be a major help and the material off this album mixes well with her entire catalogue so she could really put a great show of new material mixed with greatest hits culled from any of her albums. Also, she should consider working with some higher profile remixers who are guaranteed hitmakers like Oakenfold, Tiesto, or Dave Aude, to name a few. That can help make these songs into the massive club hits they deserve to be.
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