With the movie and soundtrack set to drop this week, brand new Beyonce songs have leaked from the ‘Cadillac Records’ soundtrack. They consist of Etta James classics such as ‘Trust In Me’, ‘Once In A Lifetime’, ‘All I Could Do Was Cry’ and ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’. Check them out below:

♫ Beyonce - Trust In Me

♫ Beyonce - Once In A Lifetime

♫ Beyonce - All I Could Do Was Cry

♫ Beyonce - I’d Rather Go Blind

The songs have more of an oldskool laidback bluesy nature to them than the contemporary R&B music she normally channels. On ‘Trust In Me’, her vocals are absolutely sensational. In fact, her vocal styling has a weighty flavour to attract the older listeners. ‘Once In A Lifetime’ is a dreamy-sweet soul number, which she does a very solid job of. ‘All I Could Do Was Cry’ has the bluesy jazz essence going on. You’d think she’s been doing this type of music for years because her voice combines the smoky depths of a jazz chanteuse, but then you remember songs like ‘Bootylicious’ and ‘Freakum Dress’, and realise it’s Beyonce. And lastly, ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’ is a great blend of 60’s soul & Motown. This was the type of musical direction she wanted to go in for her debut solo album, but then, when ‘Work It Out’ tanked, it appeared she was advised against the idea and encouraged with the notion that a contemporary R&B album would prove more successful. That album resulted in ‘Dangerously In Love’, but I wish she’d stuck to her guns, or better yet recorded the type of album that her sister put out a few months ago. It’s not like she doesn’t have the vocal chops to pull it off.

Courtesy of Amazon, you can now preview Avant’s forthcoming new album ‘Avant’ in its entirety. Each song is snipped down into 30 seconds, and the album will drop on Dec 9th.

This is Avant’s fourth studio album via his new label Capitol Records and judging by what I’ve heard so far, he’s bringing back oldskool R&B to the forefront, which I’m quite happy about. If you haven’t seen his new video for latest single ‘Break Ya Back (In A Good Way)’, check it after the fold as well as my thoughts.

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Courtesy of Amazon, you can now preview Musiq Soulchild’s forthcoming new album ‘Onmyradio’ in its entirety. Each song is snipped down into 30 seconds, and the album will drop on Dec 9th.

I’ve listened to the clips and this album sounds wonderful, especially the slow cuts. I’m not really feeling the uptempo’s but the majority of the album sounds really nice. He has definetely redeemed himself from putting out the extremely street-sounding ‘Radio’ which was completely out of his comfort zone, and on top of that, it wasn’t all that representative of classic Musiq Soulchild. The leak should take place next week, so I’m really excited to hear the album in its entirety.

Alicia Keys was on Larry King Live this week to talk about her documentary ‘Alicia In Africa: Journey to the Motherland’ as well as her ‘Keep A Child Alive’ Foundation:

Aw, Alicia’s my superwoman. This is a true icon in the making and she doesn’t even have to talk about being one either - she LIVES it without even trying. I love her positive enthusiasm about making change to the world so that it becomes a better place. Her organisation Keep A Child Alive is an urgent response to the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa.

With over 28 million already dead, the disease continues wiping out whole societies, threatening economic infrastructure and creating tragic devastation in the family structure.

Keep A Child Alive is a widely successful and influential US based charity that offers people the opportunity to provide lifesaving antiretroviral medicine and support services directly to children and families with HIV/AIDS in some of the world’s poorest countries.

Aside from the Britney performance on tonight’s X Factor, the performance that had EVERYONE talking was Alexandra Burke’s performance of Beyonce’s ‘Listen’, which you can watch below:

This girl practically blew her competition straight out of the water. By far, the best vocal performance of not just tonight but the whole series. I know this song means a lot to Alex because she performed it at boot camp as well. She deserves to win this competition. I wasn’t really feeling any of the Britney-imitated performances. I guess the only one who can make a Britney song sound good is well, Britney herself but this theme didn’t really suit the contestants. With the exception of Alex who did a stellar performance of ‘Toxic’, all of them struggled. It would certainly be a tragedy if she doesn’t make the finals at least. You can watch all performances here.

Meanwhile, if you can’t get enough dosage of your reality talent show fix, American Idol season 8 is on its way, and here’s a commercial for it:

A bikini-clad chick can’t sing to save the skin of a bear and yet, the judges give her a yellow card so that she can go to Hollywood. The new season begins on January 13th, 2009 at 8pm on Fox. I know my ass will be hooked.

Britney Spears performed ‘Womanizer’ for the third time on UK’s biggest TV show The X Factor about an hour ago. Tonight was Britney night and all the contestants had the biggest challenge of performing the singers biggest hits. However, the 27-year-old who has lived the dream of the remaining contestants was back on that UK stage for the first time in FIVE years:

She did her thing I guess. From the previous performances, we knew what to expect. I’m just waiting to see the ‘Circus’ video and the performance to it next week on Good Morning America, because well, I’m pretty much over ‘Womanizer’ at this point. Bring on Circus! And stay tuned for another upcoming X Factor post.

Bajan newcomer Shontelle may have just killed her career releasing on the same day as Beyonce. The 23-year-old aspiring lawyer turned-singer may have went to the highest ranked University in Barbados but it doesn’t take a genius to realise that this was a poor move, especially with the little promotion that she had. When you’re starting out, you don’t release your debut on the same day as a well established musical pioneer like Beyonce, especially when the comparisons start rolling in. I guess the effects of Beyoncitis played its rounds once again. With Beyonce going on an all-important high budgeted promo blitz, poor Shontelle got drowned out in it. In fact, I’m pretty certain many folks had no idea whatsover that Shontelle was releasing an album at that time. The singer released her debut ‘Shontelligence’ last week and it debuted on the Billboard 200 charting at a measly #114 with lack luster sales of 6,140 sold.

Shontelle co-wrote her album with producers Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken of SRP Records (whom she is signed with). She has collaborated with a host of other A-list hitmakers, including Wayne Wilkins and Andrew Frampton, Stargate, and the Heavyweights among others. I actually thought Shontelle was onto a positive start, because as the lead single, she released ‘T-Shirt’, which is an acoustically pop-driven derivation of Beyonce’s ‘Irreplaceable’ and Chris Brown’s ‘With You’. Instead of releasing a song that epitomises Shontelle’s Island roots, they opted to release a pop record with a played out sound that was plaguing the US airwaves. Her second single ‘Battle Cry’ is a political handclapping track that featured on the Barack Obama fundraiser record “Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement”.

The Stargate-produced ‘Superwoman’ is another song with heavily-based guitar riffs, but it sounds quite distint to what they usually produce. Another song that pretty much follows in that path is ‘Plastic People’, which I was loving the lyrics to. I think the song is decent as well as songs like ‘Focus Pon Me’ which is a clever mix between Soca and Middle Eastern style music. Other than the aforementioned tracks, I can’t really say I was feeling the rest of the album sadly. And even those songs are nothing amazing in its production because after a while, they start to sound immensely repetitive.

The first half consisted mainly of an urban-pop hybrid and then when you get to the second half of the album, it’s mainly dancehall, patois-style rapping and reggae-flavoured beats such as tracks like ‘Life Is Not An Easy Road’, ‘Flesh and Bone’, and ‘Roll It’ among others. In fact, I don’t even know why Roll It made the cut because the song is just mad stale. I heard it a year ago when her best friend Rihanna was featured on it. And it’s not like the song is all that anyway. ‘Ghetto Lullaby’ is reggae cheese at best. The chorus samples the melody of the all-popular bedtime soother ‘Hush Little Baby’ and is definetely one of the weaker songs. She also samples the guitar-riffs from Sting’s 1993 hit ‘Shape of My Heart’ for her reggae-flavoured I Crave You.

With a name like Shontelligence, I was kind of fearing what the album would actually sound like. The concepts were great because she tackles real life issues such as political change, poverty, and social deception. Her vocals are pretty assertive, although at times she eerily sounds like Rihanna, despite being the better singer. The fact that she did a lot of the songwriting is to be credited but the album was just all sorts of lacking and failed to impress me the way Rihanna’s debut did.

Rating: 2/5

A pattern appears to be brewing in the form of all the big-voiced (madly underrated) R&B songstresses taking control with their musical careers. It sees those like Tamia, Chante Moore and Syleena Johnson giving major labels the middle finger to go all the way Independent and Deborah Cox is no exception. The Canadian diva returned with her new album ‘The Promise’ this month after a six year hiatus. Last year, she released a Jazzy/Big Band project but Ms Cox is returning to the R&B roots that many of her fans love her for. The album features top rank production from the likes of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, John Legend, Big Jim Wright, Devo Springsteen, Shep Crawford and the Avila Brothers.

The album opens up with the beautifully melodic midtempo ballad ‘Love Is Not Made In Words’. The track was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and consists of a sweet background piano loop and superb vocal delivery to complete it. This was definetely a strong poignant way to introduce the album and possibly, one of my favourite songs. The singer then embraces the more soulful percussive ryhmes of ‘You Know Where My Heart Is’. The midtempo stinks of an early Lauryn Hill outfit. I was never a fan of Lauryn Hill, but the song having such a sound would all be down to the fact that Londoner Estelle co-wrote it. The very Estelle who has been getting all the Ms Hill comparisons lately due to her influenced sound and image.

The album’s lead single, produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and ‘Big Jim’ Wright is titled ‘Did You Ever Love Me’, which entails an old school-orchestrated backdrop. The singer openly questions whether there ever was really love at all. I was loving the simpleness of the song and plus, the overall production cements Jam and Lewis as one of the greatest musical producers of our time. However, it’s Deborah that makes the song compelling with her effortless ability to evoke raw emotion in her vocal delivery. Sad-provoking songs like ‘Saying Goodbye’ is backed by lush guitar riffs and a powerful electronic keyboard hook. I was quite liking this one. But it is her latest single, the club-inspired ‘Beautiful U R’ that sets the album apart from the rest. The powerful self-empowering message behind the track encourages young women to love themselves and know they are full of beauty.

I can easily admit to not being a fan of John Legend. Musically I can’t get into him at all and I’ve had no interest in hearing his new album, but weirdly enough, I seem to enjoy what he conjures up for other artists. He wrote the piano-driven ballad ‘The Promise’ which I found myself enjoying. Deborah then gets all slow and sensual on the track ‘All Over Me’ which reeks of an erotic Janet Jackson musical orgasm from the ‘Janet’ and ‘The Velvet Rope’ days. I see Jam and Lewis borrowed from that era to incorpoate such a sound into this track but a sexy well put together song nonetheless. Then there’s ‘All Hearts Aren’t Shaped the Same’ which is another big heart-felt ballad backed by a dramatic bass instrumentation and beautiful piano chords. The worst song on the album would have to be ‘Down 4 U’, with its R&B-electro-ed up beat. There was nothing remarkable about the track and it serves as much filler as a Big Mac sandwich because the number of songs on the album was seriously lacking. However, the album ends on a strong note with the synthy-driven ‘Where Do We Go 2′. I actually loved that one.

The album was a strong comeback adult-contemplation. The singer still managed to keep her old sound in tact alongside the more younger and hipper contemporary sounding songs. My only problem is that I listened to it twice in one take. It is just so short; only 10 tracks that is shy of only 40 minutes long. But the album certainly didn’t disappoint me. Despite the singer still managing to emphasise those powerhouse vocals, she is not belting out the way she use to earlier on in her career. But overall, a wonderful effort regardless.

Rating: 4/5

Here’s an exclusive sneak peak clip taken from Beyonce’s forthcoming movie ‘Cadillac Records’. Etta James (Beyonce’s character) and Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody’s character) are seen having a dispute over the direction of a song. However, Etta shuts him up with a powerful draw-dropping performance:

The movie will hit theaters on Dec 5th. Beyonce also attended a ‘Cadillac Records’ press conference at the Four Seasons Hotel earlier this week in Beverly Hills, California. As for the clip, has Beyonce’s acting improved or should she stick to pop-locking performances on stage or better yet, sit her azz down PERIOD!?!?!

A brand new unreleased track from Beyonce’s latest album ‘I Am…Sasha Fierce’ surfaced today. The song is called ‘Roc’ and is produced by Stargate. Check it out below:

The sparse hand claps very much makes it a certified Stargate production. It’s a cool song but it reminds me a lot of Mariah Carey’s ‘Bye Bye’. On a positive note, I’m liking the lyrics. I see Beyonce has decided not to have any male bashing songs since she’s now married. It’s all candy floss, iced buns and toffee apples. Nice.

Another brand new song has leaked from Ciara’s ill-fated forthcoming album ‘Fantasy Ride’. The track is called ‘I’m On’ and it is produced by Danja. Check out the audio below:

Ciara performed this track at the Wild Jam event in California two weeks ago. Wow. I actually like it. Dance-pop couture at its finest. It seems this was suppose to be Ciara’s crossover project but sadly, her music keeps leaking and her album keeps running away. I’m hearing all sorts of mess that the album may get shelved but it was confirmed last week that Fantasy Ride WILL be released next Spring but has no tentative release date. I’m also reading that the concept idea may also be ditched since it’s being run into the ground by somebody else, although Ciara was the first to unveil it earlier this year.

Just within the hour, Britney Spears performed for the second time, her latest smash ‘Womanizer’ on the French ‘Star Academy’. Check out the performance below:

This performance was so much better than last night’s Bambi Awards performance. She was dancing a bit more than last night’s performance and it was a lot more fluid as well. She’s still got quiet a bit to go but I can honestly say this is the first time I’m seeing some specks of the old Britney. On top of that, the crowd wasn’t stone cold like last night. They were more charismatic and anticipated. I liked her outfit because well, last night’s outfit was too identical to her pal Madonna’s ‘Sticky & Sweet’ attire during the Britney ‘Human Nature’ stint. It appears Britney is slowly gaining back her confidence which is what is needed since she’ll be going on Tour next year. Her next performance of the song will be tomorrow nights The X Factor in the UK.

Here are a couple more pictures of Beyonce on the set of her new video ‘Diva’. The singer was spotted rocking a mermaid-style dress, the exact same dress Jennifer Lopez wore in a photoshoot 10 years ago:

Just Jared
And it wouldn’t be a first either. Beyonce has also come under fire for “copying” stage costumes, routines, make-up and photoshoot attire from fellow pop diva’s Kylie Minogue, Rihanna, Britney Spears and Alice Dellal. Oh dear…