The House That Jackin Built

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

There's been no poptimist post or thread on the Jackin' Pop poll, which posted its results this week - I've put the top 30 tracks under a cut, and you can see the alBUM etc votes at http://www.idolator.com/?op=compiledresults


1. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy (169 votes)
2. T.I. - What You Know (89 votes)
3. Justin Timberlake ft. T.I. - My Love (79 votes)
4. Christina Aguilera - Ain't No Other Man (51 votes)
5. TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me (49 votes)
6. Nelly Furtado ft. Timbaland - Promiscuous (45 votes)
7. Justin Timberlake - SexyBack (35 votes)
7. The Raconteurs - Steady, as She Goes (35 votes)
8. Hot Chip - Over and Over (33 votes) 1 for Solid Groove Remix
10. Lupe Fiasco - Kick, Push (32 votes)
10. Peter, Bjorn & John - Young Folks (32 votes)
12. The Killers - When You Were Young (29 votes)
13. My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the Black Parade (28 votes)
14. Beyonce - Irreplaceable (26 votes)
14. Rihanna - SOS (26 votes)
16. Clipse - Wamp Wamp (What It Do) (24 votes)
17. Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken (23 votes)
18. Kelis - Bossy (22 votes) 1 for Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Remix
19. Band of Horses - The Funeral (21 votes)
19. Chamillionaire ft. Krayzie Bone - Ridin' (21 votes) 1 for NYPD Remix ft. Papoose & Jae Millz
19. Lily Allen - LDN (21 votes)
22. CSS - Let's Make Love (and Listen to Death From Above) (20 votes)
23. Dixie Chicks - Not Ready to Make Nice (19 votes)
23. Junior Boys ft. Andi Toma - In the Morning (19 votes)
23. The Pipettes - Pull Shapes (19 votes)
26. Cassie - Me & U (18 votes)
26. Clipse - Mr. Me Too (18 votes)
26. Lily Allen - Smile (18 votes)
26. Nelly Furtado - Maneater (18 votes) 2 for remix ft. Lil Wayne
30. Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (17 votes)
30. Prince - Black Sweat (17 votes)


Is this a recognisable 2006? Not if yr a Brit voter, most probably. (EDIT: I stand corrected, yrs Grandad.) I'm not sure I've ever heard TV on the Radio (who topped the JP albums list).

Comments

[zenith.livejournal.com]

It's the most recognisable list I've seen so far!

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

i've heard most of these, and heard OF all but one (Band Of Horsies)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think maybe I focussed too much on Band of Horses!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i reckon i only know 18 of them, but then i'm kind of skewed in both directions, it's the rap/r&b AND the very indie that i don't know, just the pop/radio stuff (ie i know the raconteurs and killers songs ONLY TOO WELL)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I heard the first TV On The Radio album - it got lots of buzz, I was curious, I d/loaded, it was actually unlistenable, I deleted. It was just...a complete mess. I guess people admire it for its 'ambition' or something.

God I hate 'Young Folks' so much.

Thought 'Me & U' would do lots better, suspect both Justin and Nelly would have been hurt by vote-splitting.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

HURRAH I am glad somebody else loathes "Young Folks" - what an awful song!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

there's a definite "why do all the people I know with otherwise decent taste go nuts for this insufferable crap" factor, too.

[fathands.livejournal.com]

Did Camera Obscura really get more ticks than CSS? I mean, I know I am a twee, but that's weird.

I love Young Folks. I hated it at first though, so that's ok.

Who are...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The Hold Steady, as seen on the albums list?

I have never heard anything by the Decemberists either but I think I know who they are (twee Canadian indie, yes?) and don't really feel the need to.

Re: Who are...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything much about the Hold Steady - they're american indie rock, and the lead guy was previously in a bad called Lifter Puller I think. Lots of sensible people loved Lifter Puller but I kept hearing the word "Pavement" in conjunction with them so I never checked them out.

Re: Who are...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I always underestimate the number of people who actually really like all this indie rock crap :(

Re: Who are...

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

People usually use the term "American bar band" w.r.t. The Hold Steady - not sure I understand the term exactly, perhaps something to do with Craig Finn's songs being akin to a wit/smart-ass holding court at the bar, Mark E Smith-style, I think. Anyway, he and his band are completely appalling.

I had to listen to both a Hold Steady CD and a Decemberists CD as part of my 365 days project. Dear oh dear oh dear oh etc.

Re: Who are...

[koganbot]

I've never heard the word "Pavement" in conjunction with either the Hold Steady or Lifter Puller. Have heard the words "Springsteen" and "The Fall." In fact, uttered them.

Re: Who are...

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

Imagine The Darkness but with worse musicians and instead of Justin Hawkins there's a dude yelling about being a teenager.

Re: Who are...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

That sounds actually like the worst thing ever.

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of these are essentially album votes. TVOTR, Raconteurs, Lupe, MCR, Clipse, Camera Obscura, Band of Horses, CSS, Dixie Chicks, Junior Boys, Pipettes, Arctic Monkeys--the individual songs picked are clearly not better than the pop ones scattered through there (except for CSS), but I think because people had the full albums for those artists the singles were more in mind. I could be wrong, but there certainly seemed to be less focus on the pop charts in musiccritland this year.

I still don't understand why people like Irreplacable so much--when I read KS's article I thought he was describing an entirely different song.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

How can they be album votes if most people voted for the actual properly released single?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think they are 'album votes', as in, some people responded to the "tracks of the year" question by simply listing some of the best tracks from their favourite albums, which generally were the singles (because singles are usually better than album tracks). But in this scenario it's liking the album that determines the vote.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

maura linked to this earlier:

http://www.furia.com/page.cgi?type=twas&id=twas0508b&sortfield=2

hahaha, everyone i know is in the bottom half. ilX0rs be picking random sh!t ;)

(also BOW DOWN before Glenn McD)

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

i think mr perpetua at 85 is the first one i recognise, rather humourous that those ppl WORKING for idolator are so far down the list...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

as I said on ilx the lower-middle area is a good place to be: with many of the ones really low down it's less "interesting and unique non-herd perspective" as "there's a reason no one shares your shit taste you loser". And of course anyone in the top 100 should be EMBARRASSED.

Hold Steady 1

[koganbot]

Subthreads above are totally unwieldy at this point, so here's a Hold Steady point, next another Hold Steady point, then the Dixie Chicks.

Over the years I've voted for two Lifter Puller albs and the first Hold Steady but not the next two. Main prob I have with the recent two is that Craig's singing more than spieling - I'd originally put "singing rather than rapping" but then went with "spieling" because, though he's doing rhythmic speech, the rhythms aren't rap rhythms; more like this voluble lava flow hence the comparisons to Springsteen and Mark E. Smith, 'cept even more than Fallstein, Craig's sometimes packing the lava flow into his lines with a trowel, so the effect is this bubbling jumble, which in this case I happen to like. Singing, his voice is too much heavyset. (Springsteen's not my favorite singer either.) The two recent albums are more straightahead conventional rock and more accessible, which doesn't bother me in principle but it does subdue what I liked most about the earlier sound. Don't necessarily disagree with the characterization of Craig's lyrics, 'cept it hardly tells the whole story and or explains why such themes necessarily make bad lyrics. Seems to me whether you do well going on about your glorious/inglorious fucked-up subgroup depends on the details, what you actually say about those people in your subgroup, and how you say it: you know, events, imagery, meter. Also, don't think "youth" is a particular issue, any more than it's an issue in, say, Starry's or Kat's livejournal posts. (Just happens that they're in their twenties, you know. If Craig - now a bit older - is talking about how people got the way they did, naturally his account will take in what those people were doing when they were younger.) And what I said about "straightahead conventional rock" is a very relative comment - i.e., "more straightahead and conventional than Lifter Puller." I doubt that the primary audience for actual straightahead rock, or the patrons of actual bars with actual bar bands (as opposed to bars that book indie rock) would give the Hold Steady more than five minutes before booing 'em off. (I may be wrong here, not having kept pace with trends in bar bands.) Bar-band impression might be because some of the events in the songs happen in bars. And there's this famous line, from the first Hold Steady LP: "She said 'It's good to see you back in a bar band, baby,' and I said, 'It's great to see you still in the bars." Which I think is (1) a great line, (2) hilarious. (Btw, that particular song, "Barfruit Blues," follows the chords and rhythm to the Velvets' "Sister Ray," though gives it more of a galomph-rock treatment.)

Re: Hold Steady 1

[koganbot]

Don't necessarily disagree with the characterization of Craig's lyrics, 'cept it hardly tells the whole story and or explains why such themes necessarily make bad lyrics.

characterization of Craig's lyrics = the way you guys have been characterizing them on this thread

[koganbot]

Don't necessarily disagree with Eppy's characterization of why rock critics I haven't read like the Hold Steady, but his characterization has nothing to do with why rock critics I have read like the Hold Steady. I doubt that Chuck Eddy, who as a youngster lost one parent to cancer and another to suicide, is intent upon vicariously experiencing all the cool fucked-up stuff he didn't get to do when he was an actual teenager. Anyway, here's what one critic, me, said over in last year's teenpop thread about the Hold Steady:

The Kelly Clarkson album has been getting me back into the Hold Steady's Separation Sunday. Not that Kelly and Craig don't have a lot not in common, but there's stuff they share, too, each telling the other's story backwards. When Kelly arrived she was flying high, but when she left she was defeated and depressed. Separation Sunday is about a girl called Holly who goes down into drugs and addiction but in the end achieves a resurrection*; Breakaway is about a girl called Kelly who claims a resurrection right off and then goes down into codependency and dysfunction, ends either with her crying out in despair (if you count "Hear Me" as the real conclusion and the live "Beautiful Disaster" as an add-on) or with her declaring her love for the thing that's been fucking her up all along. (Well, there's strings attached to every single lover.)** But you wonder where Craig is in all of this; like isn't the subtext that Holly is his beautiful disaster? Where's Craig's story, Craig's resurrection? (The old joke about the codependent is that when an addict is drowning, her life flashes in front of her eyes, whereas when her codependent lover is drowning, it's the addict's life that flashes in front of his eyes, not his own.)

*some ambiguity, though, as to whether Holly's resurrection is a living one or occurs after death, e.g., she stopped loving dope today, they placed a wreath upon her door, perhaps.

**I assume that Breakaway is basically a collection of songs rather than a concept album, and the song order has as much to do with sound and mood as anything; so the story that gets inadvertently told is just the way the songs happened to fall. But even on random play you get the basic story, the anguish is so prevalent. And being good pop music, there's always another story anyway, 'cause there's usually a dance and an enticing come-on no matter what the words are saying, and there's always a voluptuousness of sound, even in despair. Especially in despair.

Dixie Chicks' "Not Ready To Make Nice" is very much a single

[koganbot]

The Dixie Chicks' "Not Ready To Make Nice" is as much a single as any song's been a single in the history of music. In fact, it was an event! It was their first recording since they'd been blackballed off of country radio. And - given that it was about the blackballing, the death threats, the Dixies' refusal to repent - there was stress and debate among country radio programmers as to whether to play it, and among the country audience as to whether the radio should. (The answer was mostly "Don't play it.") And the mainstream press was covering all of this, which coverage helped to sell the album when it came out two months later. Indeed, some voters might have been voting for what the song stands for, but that's at least part of the story, what the song does, and if the song had otherwise been terrible, I doubt that it would have gotten the votes.

(I think it's a real good song, Natalie providing one of the year's great sparse vocal aches, though the chorus washes out too much. I'd have been glad to put it in my top ten, 'cept there were 50 songs ahead of it.)