Blog Posts by Dave DiMartino

Well, this was the big week when rappers 50 Cent and Kanye West went head-to-head in their dramatic battle to sell the most records! And I know I wasn't alone in quivering with excitement! Best of all--as a special bonus to buying the CDs, consumers were actually allowed to listen to them!

So forget the sales brouhaha--let's talk quality! I was pretty excited by the 50 Cent album, mostly because of that great picture in the CD booklet showing him actually eating a gun from a dinner plate! And the Kanye West album was great because one of the three billion tracks it blatantly ripped off--er, I mean, one of the fab tracks it included prominently credited Can, the ultragreat German band, who'll probably be getting lots of unexpected royalty money as a result!

The real winner? I'd say it was journalists all over the world, who could spew meaningless copy everywhere during an otherwise dreary news week! Just like me! Hey, I'm not proud!

James Blunt: All The Lost Souls (Custard/Atlantic)

Wow! Am I ever energized! Must be because I inadvertently watched some of the MTV Music Awards ceremony a little while ago--and now I am more enthused than ever about today's fabulous pop music scene! Talk about feeling at one with my peeps! This may be the best time in the history of music!

But of course the drama's not over. Because this is the week that starts the Battle Royale of 2007's record sales! Will 50 Cent sell more copies of his new album than Kanye West? Will Kanye West sell more copies of his new album than 50 Cent? Will Kenny Chesney surprise everyone and beat them both with his new album? Will the world suddenly, tragically explode and thus deprive us all of the resolution to this grim and historic struggle?

Hah! No way!

And now on to the good stuff!

50 Cent: Curtis (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope) Well, as we all know, the quality of any album is completely a function of how many unrelated guest stars can be crammed onto it, so Mr. Cent's album must be a masterpiece!

Maybe the upcoming 50 Cent vs. Kanye West album sales melodrama has convinced people that boatloads of great albums are arriving in droves every week, but I'm here to tell you that, uh, the ship didn't make it to port this week and the losers are arriving in droves!

Usually when I put together this list I find about 20 albums worth noting and cull that list down to the 10 you eventually see. At the moment I've found only eight, and let's just say my notion of "worth noting" might not exactly be everyone else's! Hopefully I'll think of two more or--what the heck--make a couple up for kicks! No one's ever noticed before, so why should they now?

Ted Nugent: Love Grenade (Eagle) Might as well start with the best!  Lovable Ted is back, is produced by his Damn Yankees buddy Jack Blades (of Night Ranger fame!), and has actually remade his first pop hit, "Journey To The Center Of The Mind."  Back in '68 when he made it, most people thought the lyrics were about drugs 'n' stuff--but now, the

Here at That's Really Week we've long been enamored of the Man Bites Dog journalistic principle--that is, when every celebrity in the world gets in scandalous trouble, more of the same simply isn't news. However, when things that don't normally happen happen--hey baby, you're on to something!

And so this week brings us several unexpected tidbits, not least of which was the unusual scenario wherein a famous musician's relative told the world to stop making that musician famous! Unheard of, but true in the case of Amy Winehouse--whose father-in-law suggested the world boycott Amy's records to send a message to the troubled tattooed temptress. Of course the week began in typically scandalous Winehousian fashion--after...yawn... the UK press ran some pictures of the singer and her new husband bloodied and bruised after a hotel fight--but the very idea of a family member putting human concerns above financial? Now that's news!

Likewise, Keith Richards--the Rolling Stone who has been the

Newcomers, famous names, weirdos and veritable saviors of humanity are among the countless thousands who'll be releasing new albums this week--and it's now my honor to recount many of them!

But you know something? When I look at this list--which I haven't written yet, but I soon will--something strikes me. And that's the fact that it's likely there isn't a single person on this earth who would be a fan of all of these albums! It's true! Sadly, today's music fans have such divergent tastes, no one really seems capable of truly liking everything.

But I do. Yes, that's correct. I do indeed like everything, and in fact I probably like it more than you do!

But--and here's where it gets tricky--it has to start with a certain letter! And today's letter is Q!

Atreyu: Lead Sails Paper Anchor (Hollywood) Cleverly taking their name from the French pronunciation of "After You," these fun-loving hard-rockers will open the doors of your perception and more! With a massive fan base behind them-- I

Far be it from us here at That's Really Week to make blanket judgement calls about Western morality--but that won't stop other people around the world from doing the same! And in this case we're talking about Malaysia, where this week protests by conservative religious types there forced everyone's sweetheart Gwen Stefani to make "a major sacrifice" while performing there by wearing clothes that, according to reports, "revealed little!"

Similarly feeling conservative pressure is one Beyonce Knowles--scheduled to perform in the same country this November--whose camp is also feeling some pressure to dress for success. "We've informed Beyonce's management about this issue of clothes," said the concert organizer, admittedly intriguingly, "but it takes some of the fun out of it." Well said, friend--this troublesome issue simply won't go away!

And while it's easy for boorish Westerners such as ourselves to hoo-hah over this brouhaha--to coin a phrase--let's step back and examine the behavior

The industry's a-buzzin' about the showdown coming in just a few weeks--when 50 Cent and Kanye West release their long-awaited new albums on the same day!  If Kanye outsells me, then I will retire from the music business, sort of, declared Mr. Cent himself! It's so dramatic that I can barely stand it, and I'm sure you feel the same way!

Maybe it's just me, but ever since they passed that new law declaring that every recording artist's worth is directly proportional to the number of album he or she sells, I'm starting to wonder if the artists I like are, well, you know, popular enough! Like, I don't want to back any losers, you know what I mean?

I think to play it safe we should all buy copies of both of those guys' albums! You know, maintain the status quo! Like, why make waves? Who knows--maybe one day they'll buy us dinner or something!

Aiden: Conviction (Victory) I knew something was up with this lovable Seattle band when I noticed they actually credited the person who gives them

Following week upon week of dreary news about photogenic troublemakers with memorable names and tenuous links to the music business, we can't help but be thrilled to note that two of this week's biggest stories involve two middle-aged men--one of whom is in fact still living! That would be Bruce Springsteen, the man and the legend, who this week announced the Oct. 2nd release of a brand new album titled Magic, his first recording with the E Street Band since 2002's The Rising. Several of us here at Y! Music Central were recently treated to an early listen of some new tracks and were especially taken with the guitar-laden rocker "Radio Nowhere," which we can only hope will get on the radio somewhere, if you catch our drift! Big buzz is that Bruce & Co. will soon be embarking on a European and American tour, and we plan to be there--if only to again witness Clarence Clemons playing his sax while spinning around in a circle onstage, surely the sort of image one needs to see but once to