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Walk with me.

Give It To Me Right, Or Don't Give It To Me At All

I unplugged myself for a little bit, and it's taking longer than expected to get back into blogging. Without further delay, here's some heat...

Melanie Fiona is a new artist signed to Universal Motown,

and I'm really feeling her song "Give It To Me Right"...

The sample is pretty smart, although I've been hearing mixed opinions.

These three videos won't let me embed them, but they're worth a click:

Raphael Saadiq

"100 Yard Dash"

James Morrison

f. Nelly Furtado

"Broken Strings"

The Ting Tings

"That's Not My Name"

Also, my dudes Chester French finally dropped a video for "She Loves Everybody":

STD analogy portrayed through violence? Hmmm. Discuss.

So yeah. Thanks for sticking with me during this pseudo-hiatus of mine. The truth is that between the holidays, the new year, and then a mid-January vacation, it was almost impossible to blog. Blah, blah, excuses, excuses. Bottom line is that you'll be seeing a lot of interesting music and cultural commentary from Lacezilla this year, and since the site is currently undergoing structural changes as well, it's certainly in your best interest to stay in touch :)

There's A Lady Who's Sure All That Glitters Is Gold

I wanted to do a Best of 2008 list, but the truth is, I hate ranking things. If you know me or you read the blog regularly, you already know what the favorites are. Hopefully you've related to a post, been put on to an artist, or gotten something out of The Labyrinth from time to time. That's the goal anyway. So, rankings aside, here's a little summary of what Lacezilla repped, closed her eyes for, nodded with, and danced wildly to in '08...

SERIOUS IPOD BURN:

N*E*R*D, Seeing Sounds

Freindly Fires, Friendly Fires

Raheem Devaughn, Love Behind The Melody

MGMT, Oracular Spectacular

Kings of Leon, Only By The Night

Duffy, Rockferry

Wale, The Mixtape About Nothing

Gnarls Barkley, The Odd Couple

Kate Nash, Made of Bricks

Kid Cudi, A Kid Named Cudi: The Mixtape

Jasmine Sullivan, Fearless

Cold War Kids, Loyalty To Loyalty

Lykke Li, Youth Novels

Kanye West, 808s and Heartbreak

(These albums can get played all the way through and have multiple songs that should also be included in the list below.)

PLAYED LOUDLY, ON REPEAT:

(Songs decoded below... click to listen!)

Sam Sparro "Black and Gold"

Chris Brown "Fallen Angel"

Hercules and Love Affair "Blind"

Thriving Ivory "Angels On The Moon"

Lil' Wayne "Playin' With Fire"

Justin Nozuka "After Tonight"

Keane "Spiralling"

Cut Copy "Hearts on Fire"

Leona Lewis "Bleeding Love"

Flobots "Handlebars"

Ashanti "The Way That I Love You"

Black Kids "Love Me Already"

Max B. "Live Comfortable"

MGMT "Electric Feel"

MOST FUN TO PHOTOGRAPH:

Wale and Blu @ SOBs

(LINK to post)

Santogold @ Highline 

(LINK to post)

Lykke Li and Friendly Fires @ Bowery
(LINK to Lykke Li post)

(LINK to Friendly Fires post)

And don't forget Lykke's enchanting cover of Wendy Rene's "After Laughter":

N*E*R*D @ Madison Square Garden

(LINK to post)

Matisyahu (with Brett Dennen) @ The Music Hall of Williamsburg

(Post coming soon!)

VIDEOS THAT LINGERED IN MY MIND:

InnerPartySystem "Dont Stop" WATCH

Kanye West "Flashing Lights" WATCH

MGMT "Time To Pretend" WATCH

Gnarls Barkley "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" WATCH

Hot Chip "Ready For The Floor" WATCH BELOW:

LIVE SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:

Kanye West @ MSG and @ Essence Music Festival

The Ting Tings @ Bowery Ballroom

Janelle Monae @ Spotlight Live (pre-murder)

Gnarls Barkley @ Highline Ballroom

Lykke Li @ Le Poisson Rouge

Radiohead @ Lollapalooza

Adele @ Highline Ballroom

N*E*R*D @ Roseland Ballroom

Maxwell @ Radio City Music Hall

Madonna @ Roseland Ballroom

Bloc Party @ Lollapalooza

Janet Jackson @ MSG

State Property @ SOBs

and Thriving Ivory @ Mercury Lounge:

(Beatboxing Rahzel's "If Your Mother Only Knew," and then transitioning into Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven." Oww.)

Although the scope of The Labyrinth has substantially widened over the past year, I'm sure to have missed a few albums/songs/artists/shows/videos along the way. I can't listen to everything. If you think I missed something, please please please enlighten me :) And as for 2009, I'm interested to see what transpires with the careers of Lady Gaga, Kid Cudi, Janelle Monae, The Script, and Eminem.