Category Archives: Music Review

Music Video of the Day: Can I Go Now? by Jennifer Love Hewitt (2003, dir by Liz Friedlander)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Don’t mess with Jennifer Love Hewitt!

I’ve always liked Jennifer Love Hewitt, largely because we’re both Texas girls, we both have what others seem to consider to be an unusual sense of humor, and I imagine that we both share the same struggle when it comes to having to remind men that our eyes are up here.  Of course, for all that we have in common, a huge difference between the two of us is that Jennifer Love Hewitt can actually sing whereas I can barely carry a tune.  (That said, I’ve always felt that my karaoke version of All Time High was better than all the other karaoke versions.)  Jennifer Love Hewitt has released four albums, which is four more than I’ve released.

Can I Go Now? was the second single to be released from her 2003 album, BareNaked.  In the video, Jennifer fights with her boyfriend, she leaves her boyfriend, she returns to her boyfriend, she leaves her boyfriend …. it’s a never-ending cycle of coming and going so I guess the answer to the question is that you can really never leave.  At one point, she joins her boyfriend in the shower and he kind of gets weird about it.  I’m not really sure what to make of this guy, as he seems to be a little bit whiny and mopey.  The apartment’s a bit too cluttered for my tastes as well.  I’m just saying that I would definitely leave and not return until he found a place that had a wall between the kitchen and the living room.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Skydive by O-Town (2014, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Aren’t wind farms romantic!?

Actually, wind farms are not at all romantic.  Instead, they are big ugly eyesores that usually ruin an otherwise perfect view.  They kill hundreds of birds a year and they also don’t generate as much power as advertised.  I know that we’re all supposed to love wind farms but, to me, they always bring to mind a dystopian hellscape.  Seeing them off the side of the road is like seeing an abandoned oil derrick.  They’re just creepy.

Don’t tell that to the boys from O-Town, though.  To them, there’s nothing more romantic than running around a wind farm and singing about how they’re going to skydive into their girlfriend’s heart.  If you are going to skydive, I would suggest doing it away from a wind farm because can you imagine accidentally landing on one of those monstrous windmill things?  And even if the members of O-Town do avoid the windmills, there are also a lot of powerlines in this video.  Maybe, instead of going to a wind farm, they could have celebrated their anniversary at a nice restaurant.

My sister swears that O-Town stood for Orgasm Town but actually, it was a reference to the band being from Orlando.  If they’re from Orlando, why are they in the middle of the desert?  If I was that close to Disney World, you wouldn’t find me running around some wind farm.  You would find me in line to enter the Haunted Mansion for the 100th time.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Shadow by Ashlee Simpson (2004, dir by Liz Friedlander)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Poor Ashlee Simpson.  I mean, she danced one stupid jig on Saturday Night Live and the world has never let her forget it.  Of course, I would probably be more on Ashlee’s side if she hadn’t initially blamed her band for the screw-up.  That wasn’t nice but, at the time, Ashlee was only 19 and the amount of ridicule that was directed her way was more than a little over-the-top.  She probably handled it better than I would have at that age.

Today’s music video of the day comes to us from Ashlee Simpson.

In Shadow, Ashlee sings about existing in someone else’s shadow and the struggle to find your real identity.  Needless to say, it’s usually assumed that this song is about being the younger sister of Jessica Simpson but Ashlee has insisted that it’s just about finding yourself.  Personally, I think it can be both.  The video features a happy blonde Ashlee co-existing with an angrier brunette Ashlee.  It’s easy to see the blonde Ashlee as being a stand-in for Jessica, though I think blonde Ashlee is more meant to represent the pressure on Ashlee to be as popular as her sister.

If it sounds like I’ve given this video too much, all I can say is that I’ve got sisters and I can relate.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Sweetest Sin by Jessica Simpson (2003, dir by Dean Paraskevopoulos)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

For today’s music video of the day, we travel back to the innocent days of 2003!  That was the year when Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey taught a generation about the meaning of love.  Or something like that.

In this video, Jessica Simpsons sings about the “sweetest sin,” which was apparently having sex with your husband.  Today, it’s easy to forget all the attention that was given to the marriage of Jessica and Nick and how every story about the couple found room to mention that Jessica “waited” until marriage.  (Whether Nick waited never seemed to be much of a concern.)  Looking back on it, it was actually a bit creepy the way that singers like Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, the Jonas Brothers, and so many others were sold as being both sex symbols and icons of chastity.  Both sex and virginity were big money makers in the early aughts.

Of course, Jessica herself always came across as being genuinely sweet.  The recording of this song was actually featured on an episode of Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica.  The episode was famous for a scene in which the Columbia Record execs ordered Jessica to “simplify” the song so that it would be easier for her fans to sing along with.  Jessica broke into tears but Nick volunteered to help her out.  Viewers were so busy going, “Awwwwww!” that it’s possible they missed just how messed up it was that Jessica didn’t really have any control over her music.  That’s another thing about the early aughts.  It was a time when managers and record execs openly bragged about dumbing down music and everyone acted like that was totally acceptable.  (Just think about Lou Pearlman, going on national televison and literally salivating over the idea of putting together another vaguely anonymous boy band.)

The video features Jessica and Nick on the beach and they sure do look like their in love!  Of course, Nick disappears at the end of the video so …. well, that couldn’t represent anything, could it?  I mean, there’s no need to read between the lines here, is there?  Two years after this video was shot, Jessica filed for divorce and true love died.  Actually, that’s being a little overdramatic.  Still, it was kind of sad.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Crystal Ball by Verdena (2023, dir by Roberto Cinardi)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I like this video, mostly because I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the weirdness of cults lately.  This video has the feel of some extremely disturbing video that you might come across in a compound that had just been raided by the ATF.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Bath County by Wednesday (2023, dir by Karly Hartzman)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to the parts of the world that aren’t often featured in media.  Though I’m a city girl, I’ve got enough family living in the country that some of these places look very familiar to me.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Supereroi by Mr. Rain (2023, dir by Enea Colombi)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s music video of the day comes to us from Italy and I liked it because it’s very, very dramatic.  When you’ve only got a few minutes to make an impression, always embrace the dramatic.

Enjoy!