Music Review: Beyonce's lil sis carves her niche

Solange, "Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams" (Geffen Records)

Over the past five years, Solange Knowles has gone through some serious changes.

After releasing her lackluster debut CD "Solo Star," she got married at 17, gave birth, and later divorced — all as big sister Beyonce grew to become one of music's biggest superstars.

But now Solange is ready to carve out her own space in the musical universe with "Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams," a retro-soul adventure that plays smooth like a magic carpet ride.

On the album's opening track, "God Given Name," Solange let's us know not to expect Beyonce 2.0 from her. She sings: "I'm not becoming expectations, I'm not her and never will be/Two girls going in different directions, striving towards the same galaxy."

Solange recruited a number of top producers for the project, including Cee-Lo, Mark Ronson, Pharrell Williams and Raphael Saadiq. She also has a duet with Bilal. But her work with producer Jack Splash (Alicia Keys, Estelle) is the highlight of her sophomore record. On the funky "T.O.N.Y.," Solange and Splash create a rhythmic, suave tune that will have fans of old-school R&B and contemporary soul replaying it over and over again.

Resource from Yahoo Music

Jennifer Hudson a Star-Spangled Obama Supporter

Oh, say can you see Jennifer Hudson in Colorado?

The Oscar winner has been tapped to sing the national anthem Thursday, the night Barack Obama is set to address the increasingly star-studded Democratic National Convention for the first time as his party's official candidate for president of the United States.

Meaning, no more of that "presumptive nominee" stuff.
"She's thrilled and excited. It's a tremendous honor," said a rep for Hudson, who told E! Online's Marc Malkin in June that she'd love to stump for Obama.

"I'm so proud and excited for him. I haven't gotten a call from them yet, but he does have my support."

The convention, currently underway in Denver, is the destination du jour this week for, among others, big-time Obama supporters such as Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Charlize Theron, George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Kanye West, Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow, Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon and Annette Bening.

Bruce Springsteen will be on tap to close out the festivities Thursday night.

Resource from Yahoo Music

Jessica Simpson Goes on Over to CMA

Jessica Simpson continues to follow in Carrie Underwood's footsteps.

Proving that she's really serious about this country thing, the 28-year-old Texan joined the Country Music Association last week, E! News has learned.

"She was very sweet and seemed happy to join the organization," a Simpson source said. "Being a member makes you part of the industry. It's great for networking. "

Along with SAG-style privileges, such as special-rate health insurance, her membership makes her a voting member of the CMA, meaning she could have a say in upcoming CMA Award nominations.

The flirtatious "Come on Over," her first twangtastic single for Columbia Nashville, peaked at No. 18 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart after debuting at No. 41, despite a whole bunch of radio play.

The tune itself received a pretty warm "Howdy!" from critics, but a better test of Simpson's down-home staying power will be the performance of her sixth studio album, Do You Know, which is due out Sept. 9. Dolly Parton duets on the title track, ensuring some street cred right off the bat.

The CMA's roster boasts more than 6,000 artists, songwriters, recording execs, producers, radio personalities and other prominent country figures.

That lineup includes Underwood, a CMA member, winner of four CMA Awards and the ex-girlfriend of current Simpson flame Tony Romo.

"It's definitely media-driven," Simpson told country-music website TheBoot.com last week, referring to Underwood's recent comments to Allure about still getting calls from Romo. "People are just trying to make a story out of nothing. I respect her and hopefully she respects me.

We've just dated the same guy—that's it!"
"I don't understand why she would say that," Simpson added. "I respect Carrie, and I would never say anything like that."
As far as Underwood's musical success is concerned, however, Simpson had nothing but respect for the 25-year-old hit machine.

"I think it's impressive how many No. 1s Carrie Underwood has," the country newcomer said graciously. "Her choice in songs is really great, and she has an incredible voice. As far as new people, she has one of the strongest voices out there."

—Additional reporting by Claudia Rosenbaum-

Resource from Yahoo! Music

Bloc Party to release new album this week

courtesy of NME.com

Bloc Party will release their new album in two days time (August 21) - but you'll be able to hear a new song from the record exclusive on NME.com from Tuesday (19) afternoon.
The band announced the shock release during a webchat with fans on Blocparty.com yesterday (August 18).

NME.com can exclusively reveal that Intimacy, the band's third album, is available to pre-order on CD and mp3 from Blocparty.com now.

The record will see its release in stores on October 28 on Atlantic Records. Fans who pre-order the physical album, which will contain different tracks from the digital release, will receive a free download of the digital version upon purchase.

Intimacy was recorded in two separate sessions, as the band chose to work with both Paul Epworth and Jacknife Lee on the record.

The tracklisting for Intimacy will be:

"Ares" "Mercury""Halo""Biko""Trojan Horse""Signs""One Month Off""Zephyrus""Better Than Heaven""Ion Square"

Bloc Party have made new song "Trojan Horse" available as a stream on the NME Office Blog.

Head to the NME Office Blog now.

The band play the Main Stage this week at Britain's Reading and Leeds Festivals on Saturday (August 23) at Reading and Sunday (24) at Leeds

Rihanna bests Archuleta to stay atop singles chart

By Jonathan Cohen

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Barbadian pop singer Rihanna begins a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "Disturbia," but she barely fended off the best chart debut in more than 18 months, in the form of David Archuleta's "Crush."

Archuleta's track sold 166,000 downloads in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and opens at No. 2.

The last song to debut so high on the chart was Fall Out Boy's "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" in late January 2007. "Crush" also scores the best opening by an "American Idol" finalist with a song not performed on the show.

Chris Brown's "Forever" slips from No. 2 to No. 3 on the Hot 100, with Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" down one rung to No. 4 and Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" trading places with M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes," placing them at Nos. 5 and 6, respectively. Kardinal Offishall's "Dangerous" featuring Akon remains at No. 7.

Rihanna's "Take a Bow" drops from No. 4 to No. 8, while Ne-Yo's "Closer" inches up one notch to No. 9. Taylor Swift lands at No. 10 with "Change," one of five songs to debut this week from AT&T's "Team USA Soundtrack." The cut sold more than 131,000 downloads.

Kenny Chesney scores his first top 50 debut on the Hot 100 with "Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven" at No. 41. The lead single from his fall album, "Lucky Old Sun," sold 30,000 downloads.

Opening at No. 65 this week on the Hot 100 is Hit Masters' cover of Kid Rock's "All Summer Long," thanks to download sales of 37,000. Kid Rock's original version is not available digitally but as a result of increasing airplay jumps from No. 28 to No. 25.

Reuters/Billboard