PARIS by PARIS HILTON, track by track: album of the year!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

In a shock move, people at the Other Place are being mean about this album. But it should be right up the Poptimist alley!

'Turn It Up' - a typical Scott Storch crunk'n'b banger which starts off with Paris yelping "yah! that's hott!" over minimal bleeps and beats, before it turns into this incredible super-polished Britney-fronting-Pussycat Dolls thing, breathy yelps and whispers for the verses and elegant lift-off synths for the chorus
'Fightin' Over Me' - even more minimal, plinky-plonky synths and not much else as Paris sets Fat Joe and Jadakiss at each other's throats for the honour of, it turns out, being rejected by her. "All those boys, all those silly boys," she rolls her eyes, before inexplicably giggling "Welcome to Paris!" - pronounced the French way
'Stars Are Blind' - you know this already. Gorgeous, yearning, boundlessly hopeful
'I Want You' - even more plastic fantastic, underpinned by a massive horn sample which careers along like an unstoppable force over some sterling chord changes
'Jealousy' - the one about Nicole Richie which I talked about yesterday
'Heartbeat' - absolutely gorgeous ballad which drifts along on a cloud of dreamy, very 80s synths before bursting into a chorus which is, again, really, genuinely moving in its hopefulness and yearning. It reminds me of a cross between Annie's 'Heartbeat' and 'Time After Time', it's that good
'Nothing In This World' - comes on like 'Since U Been Gone', having got the angst out of its system and able to breathe for the first time, donning its zip-up boots and heading down to the local disco for some whirlwind romance. If this means stealing another girl's man then so be it - Paris makes the line "I can do what she can do so much better!" sound like the most innocently optimistic thing ever. She doesn't mean to be mean! (Also, this album is the first I've heard which ties both strands of current teenpop - guitar-based confessional Lohan/Lavigne/Clarkson/Simpson Jr teenrock, and hott beatz'n'braggadocio r&b - together again - a really important accomplishment)
'Screwed' - an absolute stormer, much better than the remix which got leaked last year. The tune is just unstoppable, the 4/4 kick under the chorus awe-inspiring, and the lyrics excellent - in the first verse it's all about "the same old story: boy meets girl and she falls much harder than him", in the second "boy falls under the spell of a woman from hell". Somewhere in there she would like intimacy over getting screwed but until then she'll merrily dance the night away. I have lobbied for this to be the next single!
'Not Leaving Without You' - more amazing pop goodness; starts with thrumming disco synth and twanging country guitar before it explodes into an irresistible prime-80s-Madonna chorus of "We can dance! We can dance! We can dance!", a TICK-TOCK TICk-TOCK moment (surely now mandatory for all female popstrels) and a stomping, whirling conclusion PLUS RAP - "I wanna know what you dream about! I wanna know what you're thinkin' now! And when the lights go down and you come around, let me see what it's all about!"
'Turn You On' - back to the Storch crunk'n'b for a tongue-firmly-entrenched-in-the-bubblegum-lodged-in-Paris's-cheek tease of a song. "I'm sexy and you know it - clap your hands!" she orders before declaring "tonight I'll be your liquid dream" (nice, Paris, nice) and "Girls and boys are looking at me! I can't blame, I'm so sexy!" This is what I envisaged Paris's pop career to be like and she has not let me down
'Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?' - initially I just thought this was funny, shoved on to the end of the album at Paris's insistence even though everyone else involved is slightly embarrassed, and backing away from her like everyone tries to pretend the drunk girl doing horrid karaoke isn't in their group of friends, oh no, we don't know her at all. But I think I like it properly now! I never thought I'd hear a version of this hitherto appalling song which made it not only tolerable but good

So, overall: POP ALBUM OF THE YEAR! Hurrah!

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Britney can't really sing either! In fact Paris sounds almost identical to Britney at times, both in the timbre of her voice and the general image she puts forward.

I think reducing what the Paris brand is about to "encouraging a dumb image" is a bit simplistic, because in many areas it's pretty clear that she's not so dumb (business acumen and so on). Mostly she comes off as a very smart girl who can't be bothered to show it.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Is that true - about Britney, I mean? I remember having this discussion however many years ago with people, and we came to the conclusion that she actually could sing reasonably well, although Christina she certainly is not.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Well, she has a very strange voice. It sounds like she has a robot frog stuck in her throat. It's a nice and effective sound but I definitely don't think it counts as good singing.

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

Lex, I have known in my time very smart girls who hide this fact. This is not at all what Paris appeared to be doing on The Simple Life, fr instance. She just appeared to be bored, which is not the same thing, although punk rock has accustomed us to comfusing boredom with repressed intelligence.

I am trying to get my GF hyped up on this and she (who shares almost no qualities with the denizens of the Other Place) keeps saying things like "I just can't care about Paris Hilton anymore." She did occupy a large amount of the public's mental space for a year or two tehre.

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

(And I think this is why people who would normally be pop-sensitive are being put off it as well.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of the people who are pop-sensitive but 'sceptical' about Paris are being fucking snobs, really. She's guilty of nothing that other popstars who get creamed over aren't also guilty of. In a way I prefer the kneejerk indie disdain, you know where you stand with it.

I can't buy the constant high profile reason, has everyone suddenly developed ADD or what?

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I find it difficult to believe that it's not clear how Paris is fundamentally different -- it seems so obvious, although I generally understand your point: how different is her behavior from that of Lindsay Lohan or Tara Reid or whoever.

The only thing I can think of to help clarify it, is the fact that Paris became famous simply for being a rich party girl, and for whatever reason, her name became associated with vapidity (vapidness). It was that reputation (and her money and her looks and perhaps her porn tape) that got her Simple Life, at which point her fame exploded. I think a lot of people naturally resent that aspect of it, while being more forgiving other starlets who at least seem to have "earned" some level of fame by doing something being young, blond, and rich.

All that said, while I may have Paris abhorrent, the three tracks I've heard (including the two you posted) were all quite good. I would generally second the comment made elsewhere - too bad such good songs didn't go to a better artist - but whatever.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, 'dumb' is probably the wrong word. 'Vapid, materialistic and apathetic' are probably better. Smart girls should bother to show it, otherwise they're just lazy idiots. Sorry, I really can't stand the brand of Paris, in particular. I really think I'd have no choice except to punch her if I met her but that's for non-pop related reasons so yeah...

I gave the album a chance. I expected to hate it and y'know, I concede that it has good tracks but I just don't think it's genius. Something is terribly, hideously lacking in it, partly from the mix of styles which to me didn't make it varied but took away any coherency it might have had and increased the bland aspect, because it didn't commit itself to anything and partly because it just seemed like there'd been endless editing on things and it still hadn't come out excellent.

*shrug* Probably just one of those Marmite things.