SOMEONE TO CALL MY LOVER

I am still amazed about the power of Tik Tok and the short-form, video platform's ability to breathe new life into older or more obscure music. The latest is the resurgence of Janet Jackson's 2001 pop hit, "Someone To Call My Lover" which has seen a streaming surge once again by going viral on the app. There is usually a current dance craze that helps propel a song's popularly but that isn't clear here with Jackson's twenty-four year old song gaining traction through remixes by her fans and the use as background music on various Tik Toks.

"Someone To Call My Lover" was a track from Jackson's seventh studio album, "All for You" and was the second single released from the record. Jackson and her producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis crafted this song during the difficult demise of her over ten year marriage to dancer and producer, René Elizondo Jr. Feeling lonely and wishing she had a companion so she could do things differently in a new relationship, the song was inspired by these emotions. With a sample of the guitar riff from the rock band, America's 1972 top-ten hit, "Ventura Highway" driving the song, "Someone To Call My Lover" reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the top-twenty in several other countries.

But this sadly would become Jackson's final top-ten hit in the US and the last time Jam and Lewis would produce her music for ten years. Following her appearance on the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in 2004 and the infamous "wardrobe malfunction", Jackson became vilified in the press, losing work and her new music would suffer the consequences from this incident. Thankfully, Jackson's career recovered from this controversy, enjoying a renewed, surge in popularity with her Together Again World Tour which began in 2023 and has continued with a Las Vegas residency. And it's been ten years since her last studio album, "Unbreakable", so let's hope this viral hit will help inspire Jackson to get back in the studio to make some new music.

RANDOM SIGHTS + SOUNDS

Lizzo is back with a new sound and a new look. Following some unpleasant allegations and lawsuits made against her, the singer took some time away from the spotlight. But Lizzo has reemerged fully energized and in fighting shape, having recently achieved significant weight loss although she has made it clear she still continues to advocate for body positivity. And she has new music with the release of the title track off of her upcoming fifth studio album, "Love in Real Life". This rock-inspired song looks back at a time before social media when people connected face-to-face. The music video for "Love in Real Life" was influenced by 90's style and features Lizzo decked out in black leather and doing some moves with back-up dancers that Michael Jackson would envy. And the video for another song,the dance-pop track, "Still Bad" continues where the other clip ended. Lizzo will be hit the road this month for some shows in New York, LA and Minneapolis.





Here are some new songs that I'm feeling which includes "Taste", the latest from Coco Jones which samples Britney Spears' "Toxic";  Haim returns with the sisters getting funky while bemoaning "Relationships"; the Canadian singer, Tate McRae talks about her need for speed with her single, "Sports Car"; Sam Smith returns with a lovely ballad, "Love is a Stillness", rising British artist, Bishop Briggs has dropped a new single with the positivity anthem, "Woman is King" and Lil Nas X is back, embracing the pink, with a new single, "Hotbox".

Roy Ayers, a pioneer of jazz-funk whose music would be one of the most sampled in hip-hop, passed away on March 4th at the age of eight-four. The LA-born Ayers came from a family of musicians and began learning to play the vibraphone at the age of five. After playing with several bands and recording solo projects, he formed his own acid-jazz group in 1972, Roy Ayers Ubiquity, which he chose because "ubiquity" means "a state of being everywhere at the same time". Ayers worked on the soundtrack for the Pam Grier film, "Coffy" and released the 1976 album, "Everybody Loves The Sunshine" which the title track would go on to find great popularity later by being heavily sampled, with the song used at least two hundred times on various recordings. Some of his other music was also sampled and he returned the favor by performing the vibraphone as a session musician for albums of many neo-soul, jazz and hip-hop artists. During his career, Ayers would record thirty studio albums as a solo artist and with his band.

MAYHEM

Lady Gaga has made her little monsters very happy with the release of her latest studio album, "Mayhem".  After her venture into cinema power-ballads and jazz standards, Gaga has returned to her pop music roots, recapturing the dark-edged, dance vibe from her debut seventeen years ago.

With long-time co-creator, Andrew Watt and more recent collaborators, Cirkut and French DJ, Gesaffelstein, Gaga explores subjects that she touched as a aspiring musician on with her first album; drugs, sex and the dance floor. But now as a more mature and established artist, she returns to these ideas with a seasoned yet far from jaded attitude. We have her relationship with fame, still sweating on the dance floor, sly tributes to some of her early musical inspirations and influences (like the Cure, Yaz, Blondie, David Bowie, and Prince) and finally finding true love. Much like the title, "Mayhem" is a chaotic and messy collection and that's exactly what we love from Gaga.

This past Saturday, Gaga was the host and musical guest on "SNL" where she had the opportunity to display her gifts as an all-around entertainer. Here are a few of my favorite tracks from the album:

ANGIE STONE (1961 - 2025)

Angie Stone, the neo-soul singer who expertly merged old school r&b with modern sounds,  has tragically passed away on March 1st. She had been traveling from Alabama to her next concert in Atlanta when becoming involved in a car accident. Stone was sixty-three.

Born Angela Brown in South Carolina, she found her love of music in the church, singing gospel as part of the choir. As a teenager, Brown joined an all-female hip-hop trio, The Sequence with Cheryl Cook and Gwendolyn Chisolm. Signed to Sugar Hill Records, they had a hit with their 1980 single "Funk You Up", reaching number fifteen on the US Billboard Black Singles chart. During this time, she married Rodney Stone, a musician from the hip-hop group, Funky Four Plus One. The Sequence continued to achieve modest success before disbanding five years later.

Stone would join other bands; an electro-funk group, Mantronix, the lead vocalist of the r&b trio, Vertical Hold and soul group, Devox. She began songwriting, working on D'Angelo's first two albums and going on tour with him as well as performing on Lenny Kravitz's "5" album in 1998. This helped lead Stone to the attention of Clive Davis and she was signed to his label, J Records. 

Her solo debut, "Black Diamond" was released in 1999, a collection of hip-hip infused soul that was warmly received and critically acclaimed. Stone would record two more albums for the label before joining a revived Stax Records in 2007. She released her last album, "Love Language" two years ago that featured her version of classic Southern R&B and Philly soul.

Stone was a powerful vocalist who kept the spirit of soul music alive and well. Yet she was also a vital and gifted artist who was not fully recognized for her brilliant contributions to contemporary hip-hop soul.