g-nashing of teeth

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

So where are people with Kate Nash? I have Foundations stuck in my head -- I suspect this will be like the Magic Numbers singles from a couple of years back, in that I'm enjoying the song but after two weeks I will actively hate it and want it to go away. But anyway, what strikes me most about it is how determinedly lo-fi it is -- basically it's a Helen Love song with incredibly mannered vocals over the top. First anti-folk no. 1 in UK history? C likes it a lot -- she says it actually speaks to her experience of relationships in a way which Lily Allen's stuff doesn't. And funnily, I found the video quite affecting when I looked it up on youtube (def. surprised by unexpected emotion) -- not frumpy-cute Kate and her human bf, but the animated toothbrushes and watches spooning.

The Friday Canon: THE KINKS

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

These lads from Muswell Hill invented heavy metal! Sort of. Out of 21 UK Top 40 hits, you get to pick your favourite SEVEN....

[Poll #1028678]

Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry: (link)
1. Virginia Plain
2. Love Is The Drug
3. More Than This
4. Street Life
5. Dance Away
6. Let's Stick Together (Let's Work Together)
7. All I Want Is You
=8. Avalon
=8. Pyjamarama
10. Jealous Guy

OMD: (link)
1. Enola Gay
=2. Joan Of Arc
=2. Souvenir
4. Tesla Girls
=5. Maid Of Orleans (The Waltz Joan Of Arc)
=5. Messages
7. Genetic Engineering
8. So In Love
=9. (Forever) Live And Die
=9. Locomotion

The Pop Open Group E REVEALED

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Big big thanks to jeff_worrell for his comments on this week's tracks. Reveal below the cut - and you can still vote in the poll, which is reproduced below another cut: it closes Monday lunchtime. Tracks streamed here: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2007/07/pop-open-week-7/

( The reveals )

[Poll #1026961]

Lyrix

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I've always thought of the Kinks as being founding fathers of a lyrical strain in British pop - wit, "character songs", satire gentle and vicious, etc etc.

I wonder if this is just received wisdom though - not that the Kinks didn't do it and weren't good at it but their peers often did it too, so maybe it's the way they delivered the lyrics vocally or the melodies they set them to that give me that impression.

Anyway, I'd like to know what you think about lyrics - when you notice them, how highly you value them, and so on.

Or actually, let's make this more concrete: what recent records do you think have good lyrics?