Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
Today, A Martinez is joined by NPR music critic Ann Powers and music blogger Oliver Wang from soul-sides.com, to discuss the latest in music.
The NBC television show, The Voice is in the middle of its third season and both Oliver and Ann have their favorites.
Oliver loves Melanie Martinez and her cover of Toxic:
And Ann loves Trevin Hunte's rendition of Listen:
In terms of new music, both critics have their picks.
Oliver chose the new "Skyfall" theme song by Adele, because he thinks that it's one of the best 007 theme songs in years.
And both agree that the new Meshell Ndegeocello album, "Pour Une Âme Souveraine" is a fantastic tribute to Nina Simone. The songs featured on the program include "Four Women" and "To Be Young Gifted and Black."
Ellie Goulding is back with her second album, Halcyon. Songs featured include "Anything Could Happen" and "Dead in the Water."
Finally, Callers have a new album out, titled Reviver. And they sound a bit like Jefferson Airplane. The tracks "Heroes" and "Howard 2 Hands" can be heard in the piece.