The History Of Pop Part 39 aka Life In Plastic, It's Fantastic

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Now then, the last couple of Nows have been described - perhaps rightly - as the "worst ever". Could the series turn the corner as it headed into 1998? The answer is a mighty YES IT COULD - this Now is a MONSTER: whether you love or hate the records here you'll probably find it contains stacks more memorable pop than recent polls.

So - pausing only to inaugurate Gala's "Freed From Desire" into the Pop n Poll Hall of Fame - I'll leave it to you.


[Poll #715994]


Can Now 40 follow that? Well...no. But it can have a very good go.

(Pop World Cup match to appear tomorrow, by the way)

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

In amongst the stellar pop some curious mysteries lurk i.e.

Lutricia McNeal
Camisra
Warren G doing an song called "PRINCE IGOR"!!??

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

I have that Warren G song somewhere. It sampled the Rapsody Overture from Alexander Borodin's 19th century chart smash hit album, Prince Igor.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I KNEW IT. I knew from the moment I saw the track listing that Lutricia McNeal would be the forgotten classic, esp up against such monsters.

It's absolutely gorgeous retro-soul, also v catchy - "ain't that just the way that life goes down, down, down...gettin' up, gettin' high, gettin' no, no, nowhere" (descending chords a-go-go!)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The forgotten - or rather unjustly maligned - classic here is Vanilla.

Somebody YSI the Lutricia as I'm still drawing an blank.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

All I remember of the Vanilla is the chorus, I don't remember the beat or them or anything else. I was talking about it with Cis the other day and she said it was one of those songs where people go "haha it's so bad it's good" except it was actually bad (cf 'My Humps').

Yes, someone YSI Lutricia, I don't have a copy but at this moment in time feel that I cannot live another second without it!

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I only have the AAC version of the file (from my iPod), but if someone wants to convert this to mp3 then feel free... otherwise you can listen to it through iTunes. It's saved on my webspace so please right-click and 'save as' to preserve my bandwidth.

Lutricia McNeal - Ain't That Just The Way (http://www.superleaguefooty.co.uk/Lutricia_McNeal.m4a)

Enjoy.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I totally remembered her name - this was from the period when I'd just started listening to mp3s and was spending too much time trying to figure out what songs were what so I could search for them. But I don't think this is single I knew.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

but 'My Humps' is great! it's only the reference to 'ladylumps' that is bad.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

No the reference to lady lumps is great as well, all the bad things about that song are great!

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

it's just the word 'lumps' i find unpleasant.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

See below.

[cis.livejournal.com]

The Vanilla is actually honestly rubbish! I remembered it as being unjustly maligned, the version in my head was pretty great, and then it came up on one of those 'ten worst pop songs' shows on TMF wheree you spend the whole time going 'wtf this is actually amazing!' and it is in fact ABYSMAL. I refuse to believe that anyone who ticked it has actually heard it in the last five years.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I saw it on Hits!TV the other weekend. I maintain it was still amusing.

[cis.livejournal.com]

I don't find it funny though, I think it smacks of 'let's laugh at poor ugly people who can't sing and wear horrible clothes.'

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Not only have I heard it in the last 1 year I have heard remixes of it AND the follow-up single.

[cis.livejournal.com]

why you have to break heart all the time. :(

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

They were the not-indie Shampoo.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Camisra is the hardbag track by Tall Paul (name meaningless unless you've read more than 3 late 90s copies of Mixmag in your life evah) that effectively ripped off Sandy B's handbag track 'You Make My World Go Round' from a few years beforehand.

Viewers of Spaced will recognise it from the clubbing episode.