Albums : Christina Grimmie : With Love
Albums : Christina Grimmie : With Love
Listen To Christina Grimmie : With Love
Who Is Christina Grimmie?
On August 6th emerging recording artist, Christina Grimmie, will showcase her astonishing vocals with the release of her debut album, With Love. This 19-year-old, often described as ‘the female Bruno Mars’, has developed a unique sound and her upcoming album, (on which she wrote/co-wrote half the songs,) features a throwback Motown vibe with a pop feel. Christina has already racked up a number of musical accomplishments, opening for Selena Gomez’s We Own the Night Tour (2011) and is now joining Gomez on her upcoming Stars Dance World tour, starting August 14th.
Christina was born in a small town in South Jersey with one older brother. On the fast track to musical stardom, she began singing at five years old and playing the piano at ten (she also plays guitar and flute.) Throughout schooling, she excelled in arts and humanities courses such as English, music, art, and band, and soon realized that she wanted to become a professional recording artist-no matter what it took. Grimmie began covering popular songs and adding her own twist to them, performing everything from David Guetta’s dance hit “Titanium” to Rihanna’s ballad “Stay” to classic Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin numbers. She posted her first video to YouTube when she was only 15 and has built a devout following ever since, with over 2 million YouTube subscribers and more than 350 million video views.
In June of 2011, Christina released an independent EP entitled Find Me, which successfully reached #2 on iTunes (behind Adele) and debuted at #11 on the Billboard charts. She then packed up and moved to Los Angeles, spending most of 2012 in the studio developing her unique sound with such notable producers as Toby Gad (Beyonce), Lindy Robbins (Demi Lovato), and Jacob Kasher (Lil Wayne.) Vocally, Christina is inspired by contemporary Christian artist Stacie Orrico, pop sensation Christina Aguilera, as well as Robert Plant—lead vocalist and lyricist for the rock band Led Zeppelin.
Even this early in her career, Christina is reaching musical heights. She was the 2011 American Music Award New Media Honoree for best female and performed with well-known pop artist Taio Cruz on the AMA Preshow that year. Her talents also extend beyond music as she hosted a behind the scenes segment of the 2012 American Idol tour for 19 Entertainment’s YouTube Channel as well as an eight-episode web series for Disney Games called Power Up: with Christina Grimmie. Her charity performances include the Concert of Hope (with Selena Gomez) along with the UNICEF charity concert. Although she sings daily, Christina does take time to enjoy hobbies outside of the musical world, including playing soccer and video games.
Christina currently resides in Los Angeles.
With Love Review
Perhaps the most famous YouTube cover star of them all, Christina Grimmie's second full length, With Love, made its full debut. Her debut album, Find Me, garnered mixed to positive reviews and a No.6 position on Billboard's Independent Albums and No.35 overall. How will this album fair reception wise on Critic of Music? Read on to find out.
Over Overthinking You: It starts off a little bit too hectic, she's trying to put some Black Keys into teen power pop, with mixed results. The chorus fairs better thankfully, having a decent hook and better production. Then, when the track seems to be heading in the right direction, the bridge tries to blend in reggae. Overall, its a shame the chorus is let down by the multiple genre disorder spattered across the rest of the track. Bruno Mars might not be too happy about the Locked Out of Heaven rip off either. C+
Absolutely Final Goodbye: The title alone seems to leave little to be desired; it comes off as immature before the music even starts to play. As the lyrics roll out, its definitely fairly generic. However, everything about the song is super catchy, from the piano riffs, the "I spelled it out for you" post chorus, and scathing vocals which make the lyrics forgivable. Super fun, super catchy. A
Make It Work: Sara Bareilles? Did you stick Brave on this poor girls album? You didn't? Well you had me fooled. It's a bit slower and laid back than the aforementioned Brave, buts its still enjoyable. Good, not great (but that note at the end is pretty great). B-
Get Yourself Together: The 60's have returned on a Teen Pop album of all places. That being said, Christina definitely pulls this off very well. Somewhere in England, Duffy feels a disturbance in the force. A
With Love: Finally, Christina is back where she belongs: the piano! While the piano part is beautiful (along with the rest of the song), the genuine interests of Grimmie feel drowned out by the obligatory cellos and Christina Aguilera riffs. A restrained rendition of this song would probably work better. All that being said, no Disney or Nick starlet of similar age would be able to pull this kind of ballad off as well as she does. B+
Tell My Mama: Pop culture references galore (IE I Knew You Were Trouble, Saved By The Bell) and more 60's influences can be found here. If anyone plans to make a vocal range video for this album, there are harmonized vocals all over this bad boy. It's catchy, sure, but the lyrics still feel very basic. B
Feelin' Good: Quivering organ chords fill the background of yet another 60's track. However, this one isn't nearly as charming as its predecessors. Whether its the formula running old, or the track itself being worn out, it doesn't feel like anything but an album filler. C-
The One I Crave: Im running out of different ways to say that there's a 60's influence. My brain is going numb, I'm genuinely sick of these tracks now. Differentiate Christina! D+
I Bet You Don't Curse God: Finally, a ballad. It was desperately needed. Rather than being yet another High School love song, Christina really connects here, saying: "I bet you don't curse God when you're child is gone and he ain't picking up the phone." Definetly a heavier song than the rest of discography in total, it will be interesting how her diverse fan base will react to her most blatant Christian song yet. A great Christian song and a good Pop one as well. A-
Think of You: Sorrowful cellos move into more optimistic string plucks very quickly. Christina shows a much deeper sense of maturity here, The Civil Wars and The Nocturnals would have no problems sticking a cover of this on their next album. If only we could've found this maturity and sophistication on the rest of the album. A+
My Anthem (Bonus Track): Ukelele's, interesting. Its sweet, but boring otherwise. Note: Super high falsetto notes can be found here, vocal range gold! C+
As a whole, Christina had some goods, and some bads with this album. The missteps include putting 4 songs back to back that sound the exact same, not using her notorious piano enough, and putting the best tracks at the back and forefront, making the middle half nearly unbearable. However, there were its fair share of good steps, with some super catchy pop songs, and gorgeous acoustic tracks, Christina showed a bit of versatility and maturity. For the next album, drop the 60's, its not you Christina. Keep the great pop songs for your fanbase, and add more acoustic tracks for your fanbase, and for some further appeal. Overall, a massive improvement from Find Me, but there is still work to be done.
Contact Christina Grimmie
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | MySpace | Google+
Contact Critic Of Music
Website | Twitter
Sources : Christina Grimmie Photo | Listen To With Love | Christina Grimmie Biography | With Love Review
Purchase : iTunes | Amazon
Listen To Christina Grimmie : With Love
Who Is Christina Grimmie?
On August 6th emerging recording artist, Christina Grimmie, will showcase her astonishing vocals with the release of her debut album, With Love. This 19-year-old, often described as ‘the female Bruno Mars’, has developed a unique sound and her upcoming album, (on which she wrote/co-wrote half the songs,) features a throwback Motown vibe with a pop feel. Christina has already racked up a number of musical accomplishments, opening for Selena Gomez’s We Own the Night Tour (2011) and is now joining Gomez on her upcoming Stars Dance World tour, starting August 14th.
Christina was born in a small town in South Jersey with one older brother. On the fast track to musical stardom, she began singing at five years old and playing the piano at ten (she also plays guitar and flute.) Throughout schooling, she excelled in arts and humanities courses such as English, music, art, and band, and soon realized that she wanted to become a professional recording artist-no matter what it took. Grimmie began covering popular songs and adding her own twist to them, performing everything from David Guetta’s dance hit “Titanium” to Rihanna’s ballad “Stay” to classic Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin numbers. She posted her first video to YouTube when she was only 15 and has built a devout following ever since, with over 2 million YouTube subscribers and more than 350 million video views.
In June of 2011, Christina released an independent EP entitled Find Me, which successfully reached #2 on iTunes (behind Adele) and debuted at #11 on the Billboard charts. She then packed up and moved to Los Angeles, spending most of 2012 in the studio developing her unique sound with such notable producers as Toby Gad (Beyonce), Lindy Robbins (Demi Lovato), and Jacob Kasher (Lil Wayne.) Vocally, Christina is inspired by contemporary Christian artist Stacie Orrico, pop sensation Christina Aguilera, as well as Robert Plant—lead vocalist and lyricist for the rock band Led Zeppelin.
Even this early in her career, Christina is reaching musical heights. She was the 2011 American Music Award New Media Honoree for best female and performed with well-known pop artist Taio Cruz on the AMA Preshow that year. Her talents also extend beyond music as she hosted a behind the scenes segment of the 2012 American Idol tour for 19 Entertainment’s YouTube Channel as well as an eight-episode web series for Disney Games called Power Up: with Christina Grimmie. Her charity performances include the Concert of Hope (with Selena Gomez) along with the UNICEF charity concert. Although she sings daily, Christina does take time to enjoy hobbies outside of the musical world, including playing soccer and video games.
Christina currently resides in Los Angeles.
With Love Review
Perhaps the most famous YouTube cover star of them all, Christina Grimmie's second full length, With Love, made its full debut. Her debut album, Find Me, garnered mixed to positive reviews and a No.6 position on Billboard's Independent Albums and No.35 overall. How will this album fair reception wise on Critic of Music? Read on to find out.
Over Overthinking You: It starts off a little bit too hectic, she's trying to put some Black Keys into teen power pop, with mixed results. The chorus fairs better thankfully, having a decent hook and better production. Then, when the track seems to be heading in the right direction, the bridge tries to blend in reggae. Overall, its a shame the chorus is let down by the multiple genre disorder spattered across the rest of the track. Bruno Mars might not be too happy about the Locked Out of Heaven rip off either. C+
Absolutely Final Goodbye: The title alone seems to leave little to be desired; it comes off as immature before the music even starts to play. As the lyrics roll out, its definitely fairly generic. However, everything about the song is super catchy, from the piano riffs, the "I spelled it out for you" post chorus, and scathing vocals which make the lyrics forgivable. Super fun, super catchy. A
Make It Work: Sara Bareilles? Did you stick Brave on this poor girls album? You didn't? Well you had me fooled. It's a bit slower and laid back than the aforementioned Brave, buts its still enjoyable. Good, not great (but that note at the end is pretty great). B-
Get Yourself Together: The 60's have returned on a Teen Pop album of all places. That being said, Christina definitely pulls this off very well. Somewhere in England, Duffy feels a disturbance in the force. A
With Love: Finally, Christina is back where she belongs: the piano! While the piano part is beautiful (along with the rest of the song), the genuine interests of Grimmie feel drowned out by the obligatory cellos and Christina Aguilera riffs. A restrained rendition of this song would probably work better. All that being said, no Disney or Nick starlet of similar age would be able to pull this kind of ballad off as well as she does. B+
Tell My Mama: Pop culture references galore (IE I Knew You Were Trouble, Saved By The Bell) and more 60's influences can be found here. If anyone plans to make a vocal range video for this album, there are harmonized vocals all over this bad boy. It's catchy, sure, but the lyrics still feel very basic. B
Feelin' Good: Quivering organ chords fill the background of yet another 60's track. However, this one isn't nearly as charming as its predecessors. Whether its the formula running old, or the track itself being worn out, it doesn't feel like anything but an album filler. C-
The One I Crave: Im running out of different ways to say that there's a 60's influence. My brain is going numb, I'm genuinely sick of these tracks now. Differentiate Christina! D+
I Bet You Don't Curse God: Finally, a ballad. It was desperately needed. Rather than being yet another High School love song, Christina really connects here, saying: "I bet you don't curse God when you're child is gone and he ain't picking up the phone." Definetly a heavier song than the rest of discography in total, it will be interesting how her diverse fan base will react to her most blatant Christian song yet. A great Christian song and a good Pop one as well. A-
Think of You: Sorrowful cellos move into more optimistic string plucks very quickly. Christina shows a much deeper sense of maturity here, The Civil Wars and The Nocturnals would have no problems sticking a cover of this on their next album. If only we could've found this maturity and sophistication on the rest of the album. A+
My Anthem (Bonus Track): Ukelele's, interesting. Its sweet, but boring otherwise. Note: Super high falsetto notes can be found here, vocal range gold! C+
As a whole, Christina had some goods, and some bads with this album. The missteps include putting 4 songs back to back that sound the exact same, not using her notorious piano enough, and putting the best tracks at the back and forefront, making the middle half nearly unbearable. However, there were its fair share of good steps, with some super catchy pop songs, and gorgeous acoustic tracks, Christina showed a bit of versatility and maturity. For the next album, drop the 60's, its not you Christina. Keep the great pop songs for your fanbase, and add more acoustic tracks for your fanbase, and for some further appeal. Overall, a massive improvement from Find Me, but there is still work to be done.
Contact Christina Grimmie
Website | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | MySpace | Google+
Contact Critic Of Music
Website | Twitter
Sources : Christina Grimmie Photo | Listen To With Love | Christina Grimmie Biography | With Love Review
Purchase : iTunes | Amazon
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