I'm A Cheeky Monkey

I just went on an iTunes binge. Here's what I got:

• "Doo Wops and Hooligans" - Bruno Mars

• "Live at Soho" - Sara Bareilles

• "What the Hell" (single) - Avril Lavigne
• "Born This Way" (single) - Lady Gaga

• "Hold It Against Me" (single) - Britney Spears
• "S&M" (single) - Rihanna

• "Bottoms Up" (single) - Trey Songz
• "Fuck You" (single) - Cee Lo Green
• "Far" - Regina Spektor

• I was tempted to get Weird Al's "Essentials" collection album....but I refrained. 

All right. So let me explain myself a little bit here.

Bruno Mars


Do I even need to explain? I wasn't a huge fan of "Just the Way You Are" at first, because it was OVERPLAYED. Holy crap. But it was so cute, and it made me want a boy to sing those words to me. And then "Grenade" came out, and that's exactly what it was. A grenade. That's how it hit me anyway. What a fabulous song. It's sad, but it's still dripping with devotion and made me believe that Bruno Mars is the man that I am going to marry.

I'm not a creep, I swear.

He's just a very nice boy with a very nice voice. So I decided to get the entire album after previewing some of the other songs on the album.

Sara Bareilles


I love Sara. She can do no wrong. So when I heard that iTunes was releasing this album, I geeked. I already blogged about "Kaleidoscope Heart" so you all know why this album was something I jumped on. It's brilliant. Definitely got ripped off at the Grammy's. "King of Anything" is definitely not the only good song on that album, and certainly not the best (but it's still great!).

Avril Lavigne


"What the hell" may not be just the name of the song that I purchased. It may also be what comes to your mind when you read that I bought the song. Avril has been a guilty pleasure of mine since she first burst onto the scene in 2002 with "Complicated". That song quickly became my favorite song of the time, and is still a great song in my mind and I would even consider it one of the best songs to this day, in my opinion. Call me crazy, but I love it. Her album "Let Go" ironically helped me to get over a rough break up and a rough time during my freshman year of high school. It was ironic because the boy I was grieving over had actually given me the album for Christmas that year.

I first heard "What the Hell" when I was driving home from school last week. The opening lyrics made me literally grimace and laugh out loud. What a crappy song this is going to be. But the moment I heard the chorus, I fell in love. This stupid little pop song is going to be stuck in my head until next year. She's a genius. She knows how to reel you in with silly lyrics, and then hook you with a catchy chorus. Plus it's just a feel-good song. And the music video is ridiculous. It's like an advertisement for Sony and Avril Lavigne's clothing line, "Abbey Dawn." What the hell?  :)

Lady Gaga


This song had so much hype on it that I was expecting confetti and sparks to fly out of my MacBook as I played it for the first time. I was a bit biased while listening to it, because the link I had clicked had comments on it that read, "Sounds like Express Yourself," so I was listening for that, instead of just enjoying the song for what it was. It's a great anthem, and I'm waiting for the moment when I can listen to it and not hear Madonna. Still love Gaga.

Britney Spears


This song, when I previewed it on iTunes a week ago, wasn't a song that I planned to buy. It proved to me that Britney really isn't a great singer and she needs a huge club beat to back her up in order to make the song work. But then I realized, after hearing it a few more times in dance class, that that's why we love Britney Spears. And then I fell in love with the song. And now I own it.


Rihanna

Hot. Enough said. I'm not really into the whole BDSM thing, but singing about it and pretending I do is fun.

Trey Songz


This song is in my iTunes collection now for one reason: Nicki Minaj. My friend Pat and I are going to learn all the words to the Nicki Minaj section ("Can I get salt around that rim rim rim rim Trey?") so that we can recite them every Tuesday and Thursday during Jazz class. That's all.

Cee Lo Green


This song is great. I love to sing it, and so does the rest of the world. There's just something therapeutic about singing "Fuck you" at the top of your lungs to the beat of a jukebox beebop song. It's fun. And it's what lots of us want to say, but don't have to guts to get out. Thank you, Cee Lo Green. Thank you so very much.

Regina Spektor


Last year during the run of Joined at the Head, the song "Eet" was in the intermission rotation, and it was one of those songs that you heard and thought immediately that it was brilliant and you wanted to know what it was so that you could have it and listen to it all the time. So I bought it. And now I'm completing the album, finally. She's like the completing piece in my trifecta of music: Ingrid Michaelson, Sara Bareilles, and Regina Spektor. Perfection.

Weird Al


I didn't get this album. But previewing some of the songs reminded me of younger days when my cousins and my sister and I would sit on the bed in the guest bedroom at my grandparents' house and listen to songs like, "You Don't Love Me Anymore" and "The White Stuff," or singing "Eat It" at the top of my lungs on the bus ride home in 5th grade. ("Have a banana, have a whole bunch, it doesn't matter what you had for lunch just eat it...")

So there you go. A glimpse into my iTunes collection. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I know I'm going to, because I'm the one with the physical music to listen to rather than just descriptions of them and why I bought them. So there!

I'm a cheeky monkey.

Peace.

Molly