Yodel-aay-eee-ooo
Nov. 27th, 2006 11:30 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
freakytigger.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
poptimistsThe Gwen Stefani album has leaked!*
Anyone want to say anything about it? Or the single? I'm listening to it now.
Don't have the tracklist so this is without ref. to titles, but track-by-track.
1. GOATHERD. The bits that aren't Goatherd are a bit un-engaging.
2. Triffic plastic skank title track with Akon kept to an effective minimum. Could be a single!
3. Boringly half-baked song about being a sleb with really thin rinky-dink backing beat.
4. POWAH BALLAD! And a really good one too! Final Countdown style dugga-dugga beats under a WOMAN WRONGED relationship breakup tune. Should be a single! Best song so far. So far so 1986.
5. Toy soldier marching band with shouty chorus and Gwen telling new boyfriend to raise his game - fun, good ideas, a bit "Hollaback Girl" but doesn't really take off.
6. Delicate pop-n-B ballad with a big rousing chorus - this is also good, though still very 80s. The touchpoints on this (barring the modernist Grimey/Hollaback tracks) seem to be late-80s Madonna, Martika.
7. Minimal Kelis-style rhythms with added colour provided by ZX Spectrum synths. Rubbish cameo by (I think) Pharrell. Does feature the line "this sounds like Disco Tetris"!! Very odd clanking and honking coda bridges to the next track...
8. More mid-80s sort-of-a-ballad revivalism - depeche synths and beats, plus horns, plus a candyfloss chorus. Good stuff but a bit too confused to really hit me. Bridge from horns to candyfloss doesn't work.
9. Murky sinister drone-n-B with an CLEVER METAPHOR of mobile reception breaking up = relationship breaking up. Gets annoying quickly. Worst track since 3 :(
10. Another banger - it's stealing its chorus from something really really famous (classical or light opera) that irritatingly I can't remember, other than that not much to say about it. Does the usual Gwen trick of bringing in TEH BRASS just when things are getting boring, which doesn't always stop them getting boring.
11. Back to mid-tempo 80s-ish pop with pizzicato strings, refreshing after the quite oppressive last couple of tracks, this would have fitted nicely on the Paris album I think.
12. This is the last 'proper' track on the alb, it is an OMINOUS SYNTHPOP TRACK yay, called "Wonderful Life" which uses a very "Wonderful Life (By Black)" sonic palette. Good, corny, epic and a fine closing flourish. But wait there's more!
13. "Bonus track" (who's counting?) with Gwen doing mumble-rapping over a sad Spanish string sample. Then does lots of other stuff, including quoting from Hollaback, employment of a wobble board, ect ect. Overall feeling is of a casserole of all the unused ideas from the rest of the album. Rather mournful.
14. Version of GOATHERD without the Goatherd bits, for those who like their Neptunes undiluted by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Usefully demonstrates how brilliant adding the Goatherd is, but certainly some will prefer this versh.
Overall: good album, encroaches on great but often a little too busy for its own good - nothing as amazing as "What You Waiting For" or "Hollaback Girl", no must-skip tracks either. Peters out midway through and rallies. Rather too much of Gwen telling us how mad she is, not showing us.
Best tracks: 1, 2, 4, 6, 12. Worst tracks: 3, 9.
*I hate the word leaked.
Anyone want to say anything about it? Or the single? I'm listening to it now.
Don't have the tracklist so this is without ref. to titles, but track-by-track.
1. GOATHERD. The bits that aren't Goatherd are a bit un-engaging.
2. Triffic plastic skank title track with Akon kept to an effective minimum. Could be a single!
3. Boringly half-baked song about being a sleb with really thin rinky-dink backing beat.
4. POWAH BALLAD! And a really good one too! Final Countdown style dugga-dugga beats under a WOMAN WRONGED relationship breakup tune. Should be a single! Best song so far. So far so 1986.
5. Toy soldier marching band with shouty chorus and Gwen telling new boyfriend to raise his game - fun, good ideas, a bit "Hollaback Girl" but doesn't really take off.
6. Delicate pop-n-B ballad with a big rousing chorus - this is also good, though still very 80s. The touchpoints on this (barring the modernist Grimey/Hollaback tracks) seem to be late-80s Madonna, Martika.
7. Minimal Kelis-style rhythms with added colour provided by ZX Spectrum synths. Rubbish cameo by (I think) Pharrell. Does feature the line "this sounds like Disco Tetris"!! Very odd clanking and honking coda bridges to the next track...
8. More mid-80s sort-of-a-ballad revivalism - depeche synths and beats, plus horns, plus a candyfloss chorus. Good stuff but a bit too confused to really hit me. Bridge from horns to candyfloss doesn't work.
9. Murky sinister drone-n-B with an CLEVER METAPHOR of mobile reception breaking up = relationship breaking up. Gets annoying quickly. Worst track since 3 :(
10. Another banger - it's stealing its chorus from something really really famous (classical or light opera) that irritatingly I can't remember, other than that not much to say about it. Does the usual Gwen trick of bringing in TEH BRASS just when things are getting boring, which doesn't always stop them getting boring.
11. Back to mid-tempo 80s-ish pop with pizzicato strings, refreshing after the quite oppressive last couple of tracks, this would have fitted nicely on the Paris album I think.
12. This is the last 'proper' track on the alb, it is an OMINOUS SYNTHPOP TRACK yay, called "Wonderful Life" which uses a very "Wonderful Life (By Black)" sonic palette. Good, corny, epic and a fine closing flourish. But wait there's more!
13. "Bonus track" (who's counting?) with Gwen doing mumble-rapping over a sad Spanish string sample. Then does lots of other stuff, including quoting from Hollaback, employment of a wobble board, ect ect. Overall feeling is of a casserole of all the unused ideas from the rest of the album. Rather mournful.
14. Version of GOATHERD without the Goatherd bits, for those who like their Neptunes undiluted by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Usefully demonstrates how brilliant adding the Goatherd is, but certainly some will prefer this versh.
Overall: good album, encroaches on great but often a little too busy for its own good - nothing as amazing as "What You Waiting For" or "Hollaback Girl", no must-skip tracks either. Peters out midway through and rallies. Rather too much of Gwen telling us how mad she is, not showing us.
Best tracks: 1, 2, 4, 6, 12. Worst tracks: 3, 9.
*I hate the word leaked.
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Number 7 With A Bullet
Date: 2006-12-01 07:58 am (UTC)