AUGUST MUSIC EXTRA

I was a little too embarrassed to have included this one on my original August Tunes list, but after seeing it as the number single download on iTunes, and on video countdowns for both MTV Tr3s and BET, I figured I wasn't alone in enjoying this cheeseball tune.

Sean Kingston's Beautiful Girls samples pretty heavily from Ben E. King's classic Stand By Me, and while it doesn't have the same emotional or sentimental punch, it is just catchy. Sean's islander accent, like many others in the R&B industry (i.e. Sean Paul, Snow, for starters) may be fake, or over-acted, but it adds to the charm of this song.

Also adding to the addictive level of this track is Kingston's clever use of a vocoder (think Cher's Believe... only not lame, and plaid-out) on the back-up vocals. It's been a while - back to 1999, with the Basement Jaxx's Rendezvous - since I've heard a vocoder used this expertly. It's a nice sing-a-long track worth checking investing in, while realizing that you won't remember this track six months from now.