Mr Hudson will perform at The Big Chill 2009.
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Mr Hudson – Biography
Most people sound-tracking their own break-up wouldn’t make an album as gleamingly epic as Straight No Chaser, the future-thinking pop album from Mr Hudson. But most people don’t have Kanye West throwing down the gauntlet to make a classic, stadium-filling pop record. G.O.O.D Music / Mercury Records artist Mr Hudson is a multi-talented singer/songwriter from Birmingham, UK with a heart for major hooks, soaring melodies, bright new-wave synths and crushing beats, so his break-up album is a document of misery that sounds like total joy; from the gravity-defying anthem “Supernova,” to the dubwise banger “Anyone But Him” to the utterly spare headphone-jam “Instant Messenger.”
Written in just two months in the spring of 2009 after a whirlwind of touring the UK, flights between London, Los Angeles, and Hawaii (where he worked with West on 808s and Heartbreaks), Hudson was in a weird headspace upon his return to his tiny flat in North London. “My room was full of guitars and keyboards, there wasn’t even enough room for a bed,” says Hudson. “So I got my landlord to sort out a mattress for me, and I’d put it up against the back wall, it was really good soundproofing. When I’d finished recording at like three AM, I’d throw it down on the floor and jump in my sleeping bag. It was a very low point in my life-I’d thrown everything away. I’d moved out, I left my girl, I had nothing. So I had to make this album work.”
Hudson set out to make an album that both reflected his diverse musical background (raised on the piano and records by The Police, he can “sort of” play any instrument he picks up) and his then-emotional truth. “It’s about not fiddling around, not over-complicating the message,” says Hudson. “People have got busy lives out there, they don’t want to be bothered by every idea you have squeezed into an album. It’s great, it’s fresh. I think we’re at a stage now where it’s all just pop music. There aren’t any rules-it’s just like let’s have fun and entertain people.” So he pared down his ideas and got on his grind. He expanded his vocal ability, singing in higher and breathier ranges than he had on A Tale of Two Cities, his somber, glitchy electronic album from 2007.
For Straight No Chaser – executive produced by West – Hudson plugged in an expanse of drum sounds, tweaking hip-hop, new wave and reggae influences together for epic rhythms. Deep beats, irrefutable piano melodies and vast vocal harmonies take a record steeped in dire emotional circumstances and launch it into something else entirely: ubiquitous, melodious pop. “It wasn’t so much tapping into the emotion of the breakup,” says Hudson, “as the pipes bursting, so you grab a couple of buckets and try to collect the water. I’m not recommending to anyone to break up with someone in order to write a good album… but if you do, make sure you get into the studio shortly after.”
That such deep sorrow translates into such a massive record is really only right: it’s been the emotional undercurrent in all of Hudson’s influences – from stadium-sized rock to Motown soul, from plaintive reggae chants to R&B balladry. “To admit to the chinks in your armor, to admit to your sorrow, is actually the most gangster thing you can do,” he says.
www.myspace.com/mrhudson
www.mrhudson.com
Mr Hudson will perform at The Big Chill 2009.
A-Z line-up | Buy tickets
`MISSING’ WEDDING INVITATION A LESSON IN FADING FRIENDSHIPS.(LIFE & LEISURE)
Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) September 14, 2003 Byline: CAROLYN HAX Washington Post Writers Group DEAR CAROLYN: I have a group of about 12 close girlfriends from college. At the end of our senior year, one of those girls, “Heather,” became engaged. Heather wasn’t my closest friend, but we were certainly considered in the same “group.” I am extremely offended that I was not included. If I were in Heather’s shoes, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I would invite her. Am I overreacting?
– Offended DEAR O: No, not unless your engagement party, shower, bachelorette, rehearsal dinner, wedding and brunch invitations got lost in the mail. If I were in your spot, I’d be really, really hurt.
But there’s getting validation and there’s getting over it, and don’t be so tempted by the former that you keep putting off the latter.
It won’t help, but look at it this way. You have 11 friends who will miss you and one who’ll be glad you stayed home. That not only makes for pretty good likability stats, but also is probably how it would be if you were invited but weren’t able to go — right?
Because, setting aside that you would have offered Heather a courtesy invitation, you and she aren’t close, and I’m sure there’s mutual indifference for some of the others, too. Few of us ever go 12 for 12 when it comes to impressing people, and your sense/illusion/delusion of being liked by all 12 wasn’t bound to outlast your 20s. (Ask any over-30 member of a school-era “group.”) You just had the veil ripped off in one swipe, whereas most watch it slowly wear thin. see here essing wedding invitations
DEAR CAROLYN: I lost touch with my best friend a year ago — she and I had a falling out when I revealed to her that I had feelings for her. She was in a really bad place in her life and, unbeknownst to her, so was I, though my feelings for her were true.
We’ve always been victims to bad timing; she liked me a few years back, when I was in a relationship. Right now we live in different cities, but I don’t see my future without her. I tried to get in contact with her right after our argument but she told me she would call me back and never did.
I can’t get her off my mind. Should I just forget about it and hope she comes back to me? I don’t know what else I can do … without looking like a chump.
– Missing Her DEAR MISS: If you want to look like a chump, then let fear of looking like a chump keep you from getting in touch. I mean really. Is saving face more important to you than saving a meaningful friendship? go to web site essing wedding invitations
Say, “No.” Good.
Now call her. If Chumpty Dumpty has a great fall, so what? At least you’ll have shown her that you had guts enough to try. And you have enough feelings for her. CAROLYN: My roommate brings over his on-again, off-again girlfriend just about every night, and I can’t stand her. I just want to scream, I’m so sick of seeing her there. I’ve tried talking to my roommate about it, and he seems to be of the opinion that he pays rent to have the freedom to do as he chooses. But I’m going out of my mind. Is there something I can do?
– L.R. DEAR L.R.: Move. (Just in case the mind-loss is advanced.) He freaked out! He felt that my not telling him sooner was an indication that I might be hiding other information about myself. Am I supposed to say, “Hi. My name is Jane, I’m a divorcee, I love margaritas and long walks on the beach”? Or, is it OK for me to feel things out before deciding whether it’s going somewhere and needs to be disclosed? — In Need of Divorcee Etiquette DEAR DIVORCEE: Nice to meet you. I’m “In Need of a Forehead Slap.” It’s a divorce, not an ill-gotten virus. You had a husband, and now you don’t, and even though few little girls wish upon a star that they might grow up to become ex-wives, it’s been a while since people used a stage whisper to say the D-word.
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October 29th, 2009 at 5:19 am
Ooh shoot i just typed a long comment and as soon as i hit post it come up blank! Please tell me it worked properly? I do not want to write it again if i dont have to! Either the blog bugged out or i am just stuipd, the latter doesnt surprise me lol.