A Dawn Richard track featuring Aundrea Fimbres is as close as we're going to get to a Danity Kane reunion of sorts. New song ‘Phoenix’ mixes electronica music with alt-R&B and sees the pair singing about redemption over thrashing metal drums, heavy snares and throbbing synths. I really like the production and how it has this huge anthemic edge. Dawn stays pushing the boat with her music. Look out for the Noisecastle III produced cut when the song appears on 'Blackheart', the second album in Dawn’s trilogy, which hits iTunes tomorrow.
Gwen Stefani teams up with Pharrell once again for 'Shine' off the Paddington soundtrack. The song is very catchy and the kiddies will be able to sing along to it. Gwen's comeback has been very understated these last few months. I'm not sure if she will be able to turn things around since the industry is clearly age bias. When a woman tries to put out pop records in her 40s, they tend to get overlooked.
Ne-Yo doesn't know what he wants to be these days. Some days he wants to be a pop artist. Other days, he wants to be an R&B one. He keeps going back and forth but this new tune, titled ‘Who’s Taking You Home’ fuses both; R&B with subtle dance production. He teams up with hitmaker David Guetta to work his charm on one chick who catches his eye at a party.
It's not really that impressive because he's done songs like this before. It would just be nice to see him experiment with R&B in a more progressive way. Remember to look out for the song on his upcoming album 'Non-Fiction,' which drops in stores January 27th.
