Leighton Meester, of Gossip Girl fame, has released what I suppose must be termed her first stand-alone single after this summer's amusing trifle, her appearance in Cobra Starship's "Good Girls Go Bad":
Unlike that song, which works because it's comfortable and happy in its dispoasbility, "Somebody to Love," which brings in Robin Thicke as support, is simultaneously wan and pretentious. It's not a cute club track, it's trying to say something profound. It's just dull.
And it's a leading of indicator of something I find utterly baffling. Why do artists who are perfectly fine, or even excellent, in one medium feel the need to cross over and try to perform, often much less successfully, in others? I understand branding and franchising. If anyone is dumb enough to buy a perfume with Britney Spears or Mariah Carey's imprimaturs, and those two ladies (and countless others) can make a whole bunch of money from it, well, vaya con dios. I'm pretty much fine with capitalism, and there's no reason folks shouldn't try to make as much money as they can. But what I don't get is the artistic impulse to cross over. Why isn't it enough to be considered a pretty good actress? Or a pretty good singer? It seems to a particular form of vanity, or a need for a particular sort of affirmation, or both, to tell yourself that you've done all right on a little TV show, so clearly you need to have a band and an album. Most people aren't Frank Sinatra, most folks aren't actually genuine talents in multiple media. So why bother exposing your need for attention if you're not actually going to produce something great?