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Katy Perry – “E.T.” (“Futuristic Lover”)

Jim Malec February 9, 2011 8

There’s no shocking girl-on-girl action, no cotton candy-laced teenage dreams and no flashing of peacocks in the California sunshine. “E.T.” is raw sexual energy set to a dark, thumping, rave-inspired beat. And although Perry’s voice has never sounded bigger or richer, that energy alone is not enough to save what is otherwise a thoroughly second-rate song that’s plagued by an ill-conceived concept. In “E.T.,” Perry sings that she’s ready for abduction, as well as the relatively innocuous lines, “Infect me with your lovin’/Fill me with your poison.” But as the song pounds along to a beat ripped from Russian duo t.A.T.u.’s 2002 hit “All The Things She Said,” the constant string of outer space metaphors quickly grows tiresome.

Jim Malec January 6, 2011 2

In the early 2000s, a gravelly-voiced firecracker of a singer named Heidi Newfield lead the trio Trick Pony into the Top 20 of Billboard’s country singles chart a total of four times, peaking in 2001 with the band’s lone Top 10 hit “On A Night Like This” (which made it all the way to #4). Newfield’s most defining song, however, was her 2008 debut solo effort, a song that—by chart standards—doesn’t distinguish itself from already-forgotten Trick Pony ditties like “Pour Me” (#12) and “Just What I Do” (#13)

Jim Malec January 3, 2011 13

Avril Lavigne hasn’t had a Top 10 single anywhere in the world since 2007’s “Hot,” and her latest single, titled “What The Hell,” isn’t likely to change that. Co-written by mega producer and songwriter Max Martin, this warmed-over slice of pop is peppy, but it sounds dated and it lacks the bite that made the best of the singer’s earlier work compelling.

And it takes a lot more to compete in today’s pop landscape than simple peppiness. When Lavigne emerged in 2002, she was something of a pop counterculture figure. She wasn’t just a singer, but a symbol for people—primarily girls and young women—who were beginning to reject the gloss of overexposed female icons like Brittney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Lavigne’s skater-punk style made her seem earthy in contrast, and her self-penned songs—full of attitude and spunk—sounded like nothing else on the radio at that time.

She wasn’t just alternative, she was an alternative.

Jim Malec December 8, 2010 16

Before Jamey Johnson’s ascension, there was another Alabaman slated as a new savior of old country music. Born and raised in Coffeeville – a place best described as way the hell down south – Ashton Shepherd emerged with a thick backwoods drawl and a sassy swagger that stood in startling contrast to her silky voiced contemporaries

Corey Parkman October 7, 2010 18

Really? Is this the same guy who put out high water marks of the genre like “Red Rag Top” and “Just to See You Smile?” How the mighty have fallen

Craig Morgan – “Still a Little Chicken Left on That Bone”

Jim Malec September 15, 2010 0

Morgan shouts his way through “Still a Little Chicken Left on That Bone,” a mind-numbing song about which the best thing I can say is that it does indeed contain words

Blake Shelton – “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking”

Jim Malec September 8, 2010 10

Love or hate the direction he’s taken with many of his recent up-tempos, you can’t say that Shelton hasn’t worked hard to shake up his catalog. He’s taken risks, and this is one—so much sexier and more personal than anything he’s ever done

Jim Malec September 7, 2010 12

One of the best songs she’s ever written—certainly the best song she’s written in a decade. “Ten” is not just a tight song, it’s a perfect song

Ashley Gearing – “What You Think About Us”

Jim Malec August 30, 2010 7

At this point, Ashley Gearing epitomizes the phrase “a product of Nashville.” been reared under the watchful eyes of one of the industry’s most nefarious labels, and it shows