The Poptimists 2006 End Of Year Poll: ALBUM OF THE YEAR

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The Poptimists End of Year polls kick off with the unimportant, but still intriguing, category of Album of the Year. Thankyou for your nominations, which have been distilled to a shortlist (by the scientific means of "most mentioned") as follows:

Paris Hilton - Paris: The year's most controversial release - frothy R&B-pop from the heiress-turned-renaissance-woman.
Ellen Allien & Apparat - Orchestra Of Bubbles: Luscious electronic pop and atmospherics from German boffinette and henchbeing.
The Knife - Silent Shout: Shrieksome electro artpop from Scandinavia.
Marit Larsen - Under The Surface: Scando singing-songwriting popstrel spans country, twee and Euro-pop.
Beyonce - B-Day: Quickly recorded relationship dissections from the reigning queenbot of R&B.

You, the Poptimists Voting Academy, can grace ONE of these with your tick. Do so!

[Poll #891029]

Another category tomorrow - if you didn't nominate you STILL CAN in the other categories by going here!

Comments

badly-argued defense of The Knife

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I think with The Knife, the thing is that they're not arty, they're actually insane/socially incapable. They're like what Goldfrapp dearly love to think they are but clearly aren't, musically. I would consider them very pop (possibly aided by the fact the first thing of theirs that I heard was the Rex The Dog remix of 'Heartbeats') because they do have a lot of playfulness and a self-conscious glee in making a catchy melody. I haven't actually heard the Silent Shout album yet, because it's on my list of 'things I ought to buy but get distracted from by the Pussycat Dolls album' so they might have changed now but certainly circa. 'Deep Cuts' they're definitely pop. Strange pop, yes and slightly difficult to listen to, I find, because they go almost too pop for me in places with very nineties-sounding songs like, err, track seven I think (I don't know the track names, being a CD player sort of person and not having the CD at my parents' house) on 'Deep Cuts' but there's also some really stunning stuff in there. 'Heartbeats,' obviously but 'Pass It On' is probably actually better: 'I'm in love with your brother- what's his name? I thought I'd come by do see him again -hard to tell whether this is Karin talking about something someone said to her or something she's said or pure fantasy but it's very sinister, with minor-key steel drum sounds; I think it's the closest thing to a prelude to the bits of 'Silent Shout' I've heard and it's an absolutely stunning song. It switches between the brother-lover and the sister in perspective (at least, if it doesn't, it would seem to be about incest) and is probably in my top twenty favourite songs ever. 'You Make Me Like Charity' is another absolutely stunning song, with siren-esque string-y noises over one of their woozy beats, both Dreijers on vocals and some of the most amazing politi-sex-pop lyrics I've ever heard.

'Deep Cuts' is, though, far too long- it could do with having the stupid interlude tracks cut and being whittled down to the ten amazing songs. They are kind of awkward (as are many of their songs) but just in a shy way, more than an avant-garde way. I'd certainly rather listen to 'Deep Cuts' than a lot of 'Anniemal,' which is far more self-consciously arty, in my opinion.

...I didn't mean to go on that long. I think I may have defeated my own argument several times somewhere in that. Oh well!

Re: badly-argued defense of The Knife

[koganbot]

Go on for as long as you like. There hasn't been nearly enough Knife talk on Poptimism, considering how much support they're getting from the silent majority. "You Make Me Like Charity" is my favorite among those I've heard. Can't say that they have no sense of humor.

Re: badly-argued defense of The Knife

[koganbot]

One thing I like very much about "Charity": guitar w/ a blip-n'-boing sound out of Strafe's immortal "Set It Off." And also that - like Strafe - they are going for spareness in their poppiness. Maybe something needs to flip in my brain so that suddenly she comes across as a star, riveting my attention.

Re: badly-argued defense of The Knife

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The Knife indulging their sense of humour is rubbish though. That veers very close to "wacky"; and "wacky" is the very worst thing that anything can be.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Bjork yet; Silent Shout isn't at all like Debut really, but on the surface its dance/art/pop split is along the same lines. And I don't think it's fair to say that Karin Dreijer has a bad voice; it's an acquited taste, like Bjork and Tom Waits, but it's hardly awful.

Re: badly-argued defense of The Knife

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I was going to mention Bjork but I didn't want to display my ignorance by lumping all these art-pop types together!

Re: badly-argued defense of The Knife

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

I think discussion of the voice is largely a red herring in reference to Silent Shout considering how rarely you hear it untreated over the course of the album. It's not Bjork that her voice reminds me of, it's Thom Yorke c. Kid A/Amnesiac - someone who could clearly sing 'properly' if they wanted to but are actively choosing not to, by mangling their voice, treating it like they hate it.

Ditto the references to "star quality" because The Knife are coming firmly from a faceless dance 'all about the music' standpoint, which admittedly is quite difficult to pull off if you have a female singer with a very distinctive voice.

Re: badly-argued defense of The Knife

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'They're like what Goldfrapp dearly love to think they are but clearly aren't, musically.'

For the last two albums Goldfrapp have gone wholesale 'phwoarr' electropop but there's still a richness to their sound I can enjoy despite their ditching of reference points like Morricone and Barry.

But I think you have a point in that Goldfrapp have lost the sense of menace and mystery they may have had initially. But The Knife are just a whole lot weirder and more alien in the end. Maybe it is because Goldfrapp are British I dunno. I would love them to try and do something more 'out there' and genuinely malveolent like 'Silent Shout' tho.

Re: badly-argued defense of The Knife

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

On my first encounter with them they reminded me most of Propaganda, except with more current reference points to their dance element.

Re: badly-argued defense of The Knife

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

yeh I was gonna mention Propaganda again - I did this on ILM when everyone was originally jizzing over 'Heartbeats' (or the remix at least).