poptimists | The Historiography Of Pop Part 5 aka You Know The Drill By Now

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With some of yesterday's fites still finely balanced, onto the second half of round 2 - more songs to whittle down. Some real blockbusters here - two of the songs most closely associated with 00s poptimism going head to head, a battle between Richard X and Xenomania, and a Britpop era clash are three of the juicier highlights.

As ever, just tick the one you like best in each pair.

[Poll #798576]

This poll will stay open until Monday (as will yesterday's).

Since Jeff W is away I propose a PET SHOP BOYS CANON for later this afternoon.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

koganbot

Ha! I'm getting clobbered, w/ only two of my choices leading, though I am totally in alignment w/ you alls in that it took me ten minutes to decide which of Rachel Stevens or Girls Aloud will have the honor of being rejected by me in the next round.

I chose Rachel, who is therefore certain to lose. My reasoning is thus: both tracks do the - how shall I say? - Brit thing of mistaking detachment for intelligence, or foisting off detachment as understated passion, or deciding that since great pop can be shallow it should be shallow, etc. But bad ideas can produce good music, and in both of these you do get this very funny understated overstatement (sorta the opposite of, oh, I don't know, Gene Pitney and Roy Orbison, who overstate everything so insistently that overstatement becomes functionally useful normal statement but can still be overstatement any time you want it to; Celine Dion's also pulled this off, occasionally; but I digress). If the phrase made sense I'd call Rachel's singing here "cold and sultry," dripping with sensuality while keeping its gloss. And the mixture of this singing and the technofuzz throb gets this over. But "Love Machine" is more genuinely funny (well, crack-a-smile funny, not belly laughs), and the quick wise(ass) vocals go unexpectedly well with the hi-NRG funk strum. So what wins it for Rachel (though we've determined that winning with Frank means losing on the Big Board)? The totally nonchalent "Hey" - like throw your hands in the air and wave 'em like, um, whatever - and, even (or especially?) delivered with its basic chill, the melody's got its emotionally melodic pull.