poptimists | The History Of Jop Part 7 aka We're Rockers And Rappers United And Strong

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freakytigger.livejournal.com posting in

The Pazz and Jop polls take us to the fairly unheralded year of 1985, and the selection is.....well, judge for yourself and discuss below. You get NINE votes, cast them wisely.

Notes: The John Fogerty song that got in last time rose to #3(!!) this time. It was excluded.

[Poll #826538]

The Joptimists 1984 Vote Verdict:

1. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (38 votes)
2. When Doves Cry (37 votes)
3. Jump (31)
4=. I Feel For You (28)
4=. Time After Time (28)
6. Let's Go Crazy (23)
7. What's Love Got To Do With It (21)
8. Dancing In The Dark (20)
9=. Free Nelson Mandela (19)
9=. Let's Hear It For The Boy (19)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

koganbot

Meat Is Murder [Sire, 1985]
It makes a certain kind of sense to impose teen-macho aggression on your audience--for better or worse, macho teens are expected to make a thing of their unwonted hostility. These guys impose their post-adolescent sensitivity, thus inspiring the sneaking suspicion that they're less sensitive than they come on--passive-aggressive, the pathology is called, and it begs for a belt in the chops. Only the guitar hook of "How Soon Is Now," stuck on by their meddling U.S. label, spoils the otherwise pristine fecklessness of this prize-winning U.K. LP. Remember what the Residents say: "Hitler was a vegetarian." C+

(I had a convo a couple years ago w/ xhuxk where he said he and Xgau had been talking and agreed that the Smiths were a group they'd each missed the boat on, underrated; and I'd have to include myself there. Which isn't to say I've gone back and discovered what was good and what not, but there's actually some authoritative singing/performing there.)

From:

freakytigger.livejournal.com

At school they INFURIATED people who didn't like them, more than any other band. I loved that, of course, but equally there is no way I'd have talked to the people infuriated by them to unpick why - I suspect they'd have offered reasons along similar but less articulate lines to Christgau.

The one hater I did talk to at length about them - someone even less cool than me and so not frightening to approach - explained that he hated them because they were technically sloppy players, and as a tit-for-tat made me listen to all of Dire Straits' very long "Telegraph Road".

From:

http://users.livejournal.com/xyzzzz__/

I like to think someone at the record company probably agreed that as an albums group they weren't so good therefore releasing all those compilations ws, as well as a way to making more cash, the best way to have get a 'look' at this group.