Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger

It seems like Maroon 5 have just been showing up everywhere; their song "Never Gonna Leave this Bed" is having success on adult charts, Adam Levine's team recently won the first season of The Voice, Adam's voice was featured or the new Gym Class Heroes' song; now we've got "Moves Like Jagger."

The song starts out with potential with a speedy beat that has promise to keep you dancing. But once you get to the chorus you'll start to be disappointed. The song is actually quite boring, just the recurring lyrics, recurring guitar lick, and recurring whistling theme. Not to mention that the song sounds pretty similar to their previous song, "Give a Little More;" they've sped it up so it's not quite so boring, but it's far from anything new. We get a little peak at something interesting when Christian Aguilera shows up with a verse of her own at the end; but at that point it doesn't really add much. If Christina had been featured more prominently than maybe the song will be a little more interesting.

There's really nothing too stimulating about this song. Musically it just repeats the same tune over and over again, and the lyrics don't offer us much. Judging by the song's current success on the charts though, I fear that we may be hearing it a lot more. I'm already bored of it now, I dread how I will feel after it's been overplayed on the radio. Even if you do like it now, I'm sure it will get boring the 50th time you hear it. There's really nothing to keep you coming back.

If you're looking for a catchy summer song from Maroon 5, I would much rather suggest "Stereo Hearts," not actually their song but Adam Levine features on it enough that it works. As for Xtina, maybe she'll have her own time to shine soon with promise of a new album.

Gym Class Heroes - Stereo Hearts

With all the dance tracks out there currently it's nice to get something a little different that still sounds good. Adam Levine takes the lead on this song with a bouncy chorus, with Travie McCoy raps his signature style over the verses. The sound and lyrics are both unique and overall makes this song quite interesting.

It's nearly impossible to not just bounce your head to Adam Levine's pounding voice in this song. The rap verses aren't anything particularly special but they don't take anything away from the song either. This song's relaxed rhythms might remind you of something other hits like "Hey Soul, Sister," "I'm Yours," or "Rhythm of Life." Songs that you don't need to get up and dance to; you can just bounce along to them as you relax in a lawn chair. I'd like to also remind you of Travie's last summer smash, "Billionaire" which also took a more steady swing sound and was still able to be a huge hit. I think this song could do it again.

Lyrically it's a little weird; there's a recurring metaphor of stereos and the like. It's definitely different, but it does a get a little old, especially with Travie's verses. Still I believe that there is purpose in these lyrics and again it's not like it's something that will ruin the entire song for you.

Overall I think that this is a nice fun summer song. It doesn't have to be a chart topper, but it'll give us a break from all the dance music.

While we're on the topic of summer, I have come up with a system to describe my predictions for the song of the summer. It's like a pyramid diagram: On top are "Last Friday Night," "Give me Everything," and "The Edge of Glory," three very different powerful songs that all have a good shot at taking the title. Underneath that are "Party Rock Anthem," "Where them Girls At," "Dirty Dancer," and "Don't Wanna Go Home;" party songs that are good but don't quite go far enough. Beneath that is "Don't Stop the Party," and "I Wanna Go" two songs that haven't quite broken onto the big scene yet but have potential to also be massive hits. And on the bottom is Adele and Bruno Mars who both would have a good shot if they released something, but so far don't seem to have any plans. I've heard rumour that Adele is planning to use "Someone Like You" as her next single, if that's the case I'd say that that would be better for a post summer song. You can also add "California King Bed" to the side, which will probably be a hit but is completely not song of the summer material.

Summer has officially begun and so I say let the race begin!

Jennifer Lopez - I'm Into You

I didn't really care for Jennifer Lopez's last song, "On the Floor" and found her overall pretty boring; "I'm Into You" is a step up from "On the Floor" but it's still pretty boring. JLo trades the aggressive club song for a more island pop style of song. It's bouncy and catchy and is something a little fresh, but it's nothing that's going to remember the song.

Jennifer also borrows Rihanna's idea of repeating, "Na na na na" throughout the song. If "S&M" hasn't bored you yet, "I'm Into You" will; it sounds a little catchy at first, but again it doesn't really give you anything to hook you. Other than that the rest of the lyrics are just boring, generic stuff that we've all heard before. She talks about being drawn in by eyes and feelign luckier than a four leaf clover; not really thought-provoking ideas.

So really this song is just a piece of fluff that will be forgetten in a second. If you listen to it you could like it or you might not; but there's nothing to sway you eithe way particularily. It's got good rhythm and nice flow, but pointless lyrics and no build throughout the song. Like I said some people might like it, but it's not going to making any big waves.

David Guetta - Where Them Girls At

It's a triple attack of dance power in this amazingly catchy song. First we've got European DJ, David Guetta, at the wheel and he's already proved that he's able to come with incredibly infectious beats; then there's Flo Rida who's been topping charts with other similar club/dance songs; and finally the cherry on top, Nicki Minaj, one of today's best rappers. Altogether it comes up as a massive attack of a dance song.

The song immediately opens with a powerful drawing verse from Flo Rida, and explodes into rap verse from him. All of that will probably sound familiar to you, but then there's the surprise of hearing Nicki Minaj's voice come in. Similarily she sings a verse, but then builds into perfect rap; it flows wonderfully and is defintely one of her best acts. Then the songs brings it altogether into a great super dancy ending.

The structure of the song itself isn't too unique though, you may notice some similarities to Guetta's previous hit, "Sexy Chick." And Flo Rida isn't doing anything new, just he's usual rap/song style. That's fine since both those have proved to gain success and would still work as another great dance song. But what really puts this song above average is the appearance from Nicki Minaj. She's worked into the song seemlessly with Flo Rida and the two sound perfect together. Her rap verse is very well done and is another wonderful addition to the song.

Lyrically the song isn't anything special. Flo Rida is just rapping about girls and a club which we've all heard before, and you can't understand a word Nicki says when she's rapping. But really, when a song is this strongly dance based do you expect the lyrics to be any more than that?

I'd say that overall this song is definetly potenial to be a summer topper. It's chief competition as a party anthem would be Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night," but that's more of a out on the town theme, while this is a club tune; so they are different. Whether it's enough to keep them from clashing, we'll see. And if the two do come head to head for #1 of the summer, I really can't say who will come out on top.

Beyonce - Best Thing I Never Had

So we all remember the failure that was, "Run the World" and it seems Beyonce is trying to fix that slip up by copying one of her biggest hits, "Irreplaceable." However she went a little overboard and "Best Thing I Never Had" is pretty much an exact repeat of "Irreplaceable" and that's boring. The piano driven break up idea is the same, the lyrics that talk about being superior to her ex is the same, everything is exactly the same.

"Irreplaceable" was special since it was a little more real than this; you can't expect to say the exact same thing and it will have the same effect. The song is somewhat pretty in the emotional sense, but that's not really enough to redeem it from its banality. There's actually very little reason why this song should garner any attention at all. It's no different from "Irreplaceable," she just had a fail with "Run the World," and with mundane lyrics like "Best Thing I Never Had" there's no way of drawing listeners.

So on the one hand it is nice that Beyonce is returning to the style that works for her as that shows that she's learning from some mistakes, but just doing an outright repeat isn't exactly the best solution. Considering that Beyonce is also competing with Gaga's "Born this Way" album she is going to have to seriously kick it up so that she can return to center spotlight.

Nicki Minaj - Super Bass

This chick has just about been everywhere, and with her talent I'm surprised that she hasn't been able to get massive hit yet. She's come close before, on her own or with a collaboration, but maybe "Super Bass" will put her over. Nicki Minaj is an awesome rapper and can make any song sound great with her rhythmic bouncy verses.

In this song she switches back and forth between two of her signature styles, her flowing bouncy one, and a rougher one. Personally I think that she should just stick to the flowing style to give the whole song a connected feeling, but having two does offer more variety. Lyrically this song isn't as deep as her last one, "Moment 4 Life," but is more about just having fun, which Nicki pulls off very well. I go party song is just as possible for her as a deep emotional song so she can make both sound great. The chorus is really no more than, "Boom boom ba boom" repeated but like I said the song is just fun and Nicki Minaj can get away with random lyrics.

The song doesn't really build at all. It starts at a bouncy fun level, but doesn't go anywhere from there. So in that sense it could get a little boring soon. I think that overall it is a great song to listen to for now, but can soon can repitive and uninteresting. A little work could have been done to fix this, but its too late now.

Also, another update on summer songs: I never realized how huge this summer is going to be. Added to the mix are a ton of dance songs, which might not make it to the top but will certainly be summer smashes, from Enrique, Jason Derulo, David Guetta, and Pitbull. Looks like my prediction for NKOTBSB was a little off since their song hasn't really been soaring up the charts. "Judas" looks like it's going to be replaced with "Edge of Glory" as Gaga's summer song, but I still hold firm that Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" will be the song of this summer. A couple other hard hitters coming up are Britney Spear's "I Wanna Go" and the Black Eyed Peas' "Don't Stop the Party."