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noizemagazine - noiZe Magazine Issue 57 August 2008 - Index

Jennifer Hudson
Spotlight
Remember when J-Hud performed
at Long Beach Gay Pride, sang
a never-before heard song and
plugged her soon-to-come solo
album? Yeah, I thought that was
2006, too. After delays and cancellations—oh,
and that Oscar—
Jennifer Hudson's official debut
as a recording artist that's actually
recorded has arrived. Seems the
powers that be decided they needed
to turn down the diva volume
a bit if they wanted Jennifer to fit
nicely amidst all the no-talents on
the radio today, so on "Spotlight,”
we get to see a more subtle version
of her lion's roar. A song
about being kept under constant
surveillance by an insecure lover,
"Spotlight" feels lackluster on first
listen without all the heaving and
grunting we've come to expect, but
it's the remixes (provided by urbanto-club
hit makers Moto Blanco
and Johnny Vicious) that unlock the
song's hidden force.
katy Perry
I Kissed A Girl
I think Jesus just took a hand off the
cross and put it over his gaping mouth.
Katy Perry (formerly contemporary
Christian Rock artist Katy Hudson) is
steadily climbing charts everywhere with
her bi-curious pop rock hit "I Kissed A
Girl,” the follow-up to her Madonnatoted
debut single "Ur So Gay,” and
a stark departure from her spiritual
beginning. And while both song
titles sound like they could be intracommunity
hag-to-fag humor, I doubt
you'll be hearing either of these out
at Pride festivals anytime soon. While
not derogatory, both are definitely
more shock gimmick than anything
else, amounting to a clearly straight
girl experimenting while shit-faced
and a judgmental girl disappointed
by her boyfriend's vanity, respectively.
Regardless, "I Kissed A Girl" has been
gay-ed up by Jason Nevins and may just
be too catchy for the politics to matter.
Nadia Ali
Crash & Burn
Fresh from the ashes of iiO's passing, Nadia Ali's
solo career emerged Phoenix-style with a stream
of DJ collaborations and now "Crash & Burn,” the
first single from the forthcoming album Smile In
Bed. Produced by Sultan and Ned Shepard, the
song is about reckless love—the romance that
could never sustain itself but can't possibly be
abandoned until it shatters fantastically before
your eyes. It's almost impossible not to wonder if that narrative isn't something of
a metaphor for the heights iiO reached with only one song and the slow demise
over the coming years. Nothing has ever been said by either side of the duo as to
how and why such a successful combination had to end so quickly, but even if the
song has nothing to do with it, it's more than a little delicious to imagine "Crash"
as their tortured backstory. Remixes by Astro & Glyde, Dean Coleman, Dilamani &
Rassek, DJ Shah, Justin Thomas, and Kered & Kiraly.