A Year In Pop: Week 3

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Delayed by a day or so, and I *still* haven't heard any of the new tracks, so my actual participation will be limited!

I've included the Moyesian re-entry of Billie, though you'll notice that reissues are italicised and will be included in the final year-end charts for indicative purposes (this is stats speak for 'we'll ignore them'.

[Poll #913675]

Mika is #1, if you didn't know, with Just Jack and The View #2 and #3. Where oh where is the chart full of old fogeys I was promised, eh?

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Obviously I HAVE heard the Billie track, but I will tick it along with the others (or not) when I listen to them tonight.

Who are Mason and what is an Exceeder?

[graciousviv.livejournal.com]

If you lisyen to the poptimism podcast tiz on there. Well at least Mason vs Princess Superstar version

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

yes. BAD freakytigger

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It's Mason v Princess Superstar! It is in exactly the vein of that Bodyrox/Luciana single - the vocal from Princess S's 'Perfect' over boshing electro nonsense. I think the title proper is 'Perfect (Exceeder)'.

I was not sure whether to tick 'Honey To The B' - while it is obv a great song I feel slightly soiled, as if a vote for it is a vote for Moyles.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

good point re Billie

i may untick on principle

i don't like the PS vox over 'Exceeder', a bit too fast. the track is OK so i dunno...half a tick?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I may do the same re Billie, but Moyles could have chosen to hype many, many worse songs.

No one's going to convince me that 'Perfect (Exceeder)' is better than the original 'Perfect' by PS. But it's definitely tickworthy, I've decided.

[koganbot]

Have not heard original "Perfect," but original "Exceeder" is far better than the mashup. I ticked because otherwise I'd only have ticked "Billy."

[koganbot]

Er, Billie.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I really like the Mason / Princess Superstar thing and the MCR track.

The Guillemots sounds like a His N Hers era Pulp track with much worse singing.

The Fray is just dull.

The Bad, The Really Bad and the F*cking Awful combines just about everything I hate most in the world: Damon Albarn's voice; fatuous supposedly 'political' gestures ("The country is at war") as ornament over fundamentally conservative (and far more 'political' style; all that Ackroyd London myth history bollocks.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Very disappointed by the mis/non-use of Tony Allen on this. Another one of those things that would've been better left on paper, like Plant & Page + Squire & White /sukrat-talk>

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I remember Jimmy Page doing a few sessions with Squire & White in the early 80s, but I didn't know Plant had been involved as well. Or you talking about a different point in time. Something recent?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

huh, my sukrat tags disappeared from that post :(

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

even on paper white is the weak link there surely

surkamp & page & squire & shannon jackson

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Shannon? (http://www.discogs.com/artist/Shannon)

[koganbot]

Shannon

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

No, no, that's what I'm talking about, the infamous "XYZ" sessions. Actually I may have been wrong about Plant, I don't really remember.

The young 'uns won't have an clue what we're on about.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

The Guillemots sounds like a His N Hers era Pulp track with much worse singing

It really does!

Apparently one of them has the rather splendid name Aristazabal Hawkes.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I dunno why MCR have this rep for being emo adolescents when THE FRAY do the sulky teenager go-and-tidy-your-room-SHAN'T thing quite so infuriatingly.

I'm not as keen on this MCR as the last one - it's a grower maybe but not a ticker.

Good work Mason.

You are absolutely dead on on the Guillemots! This has prevented me ticking them rly, well that and I got bored to tears before the end.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Moylesian re-entry of Billie

Oh god, the images...

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I really don't like that Mason song because a) heard the Bodyrox/Luciana one first and prefer it (since essentially, they are the same song, to my ears) and b) heard Mason for the first time in conjunction with Zane Lowe so gut-instinct hate response hard to override.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Re: The Fray, some of their album is quite good, specifically, 'Trust Me' and 'Heaven Forbid' although it's only good in that sort of singerwriter-songing way which is occasionally pleasant and frequently maddening. It's nice comfort music, like Death Cab For Cutie with more listenable vocals.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

The singer/pianist looks a little too similar to Matt Lucas for comfort, methinks.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Somehow I'd never actually wondered what they looked like. I'm rather disappointed now I've done a google image search, partly because I just assumed they were non-corporeal on some level, I suspect.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Brickwork seems the key to enter charts in 2007 innit? "Another Brick in the Wall" thingy in wk 1, Freemasons last week and now regular Mason? Is there a new "Wonderwall" cover on the horizon I wonder (dere god no)?

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

there's mortar this theory than meets the eye. something off the breezeblock sessions perhaps?

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

BTW Tom, I know these polls don't close as such, but when do you usually register the results? Is it too late to listen & vote on e.g. Saturdays or something?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually set the spreadsheet up as yet cos I've been busy with the Jop polls. I'm thinking of doing it when the total votes reach a certain number, which would remove totaliser problems (though would be unfair should the community suddenly expand).

Anyway the absolute minimum time will be a week after, when the next poll is posted.

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Excellent!

For the record, I think these polls = 1 x grebt idea. (I liked the idea of the monthly top 40 thing, but it became unwieldy. Also now we get things while they're fresher, so to speak.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah I agree though it does mean a lot more "haven't heard any of them" ticks - also I think there should be some sort of amnesty poll at year-end to gauge what songs poptimists have TURNED ROUND on.

The only two really amazing singles so far this year were both in the first "quiet" week!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The amnesty poll is a grebt idea - people can put in nominees for Slept On '07, or maybe just an amnesty thread.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

The US version (new singles in the US top 40 this week):

Fall Out Boy - "This Isn't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
Corbin Bleu - "Push It to the Limit"
(Yup, that's all)

Bonus list of new to the US top 20 this week:
Daughtry - "It's Not Over"
Gwen Stefani ft Akon - "The Sweet Escape"

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

That Fall Out Boy title is awful/amazing/self-parody/genius - lord knows I never want to hear it though.

I quite like that Gwen track but come on, put out "Early Winter"! Keep Tom Keane in coke!

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I shudder to admit that - having heard the song when seeing the video - I fear I could grow to enjoy FOB if I were exposed enough, although I find the band itself more offensive than I found hair metal bands when i was a teenager.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

But they're well into pop. I thought they were knobs at first but due to the exposure you mentioned, have since decided they're just Girls Aloud in a slightly different wrapper and where the ginger one actually gets allowed to sing.

[koganbot]

Interesting thing is that "Push It To The Limit" made the Top 40 with no play on the Top 40 stations and only a little Adult Contemporary play, meaning that it's doing it entirely on the basis of downloads, fueled by Radio Disney play and the Disney TV movie Jump In!. It's not a bad song, lite r&b-flavored dance pop, the sort of thing that Backstreet Boys used to do way better. Corbin's the fellow who played Zac's best friend in High School Musical.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

Another interesting fact is that "Push It To The Limit" would have debuted even higher last week, in the top 10, based again entirely on digital downloads, except that a technicality prevented the downloads from counting. Fred Bronson explains it in his Chart Beat Chat (http://billboard.com/bbcom/chart_beat/chat.jsp) column. Basically there was a problem with the registration of the song that caused it not to be recognized by SoundScan. I kind of like the song, though it's not a top 50 single of the year or anything. It is one of the better curred Radio Diz hits. And do Radio Disney plays count towards the Hot 100? I think that they don't, maybe because it's an AM station or something, but maybe they do.

[koganbot]

Well wait, if they're not counting downloads or Disney, then how is it in the Top 40? It's not physically available as a stand-alone single, either.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

Presumably the problem with the registration of the downloads was fixed between last week and this week, which allowed the downloads to be counted. The reason I think RD isn't counted is because Fred Bronson commented at the time that "Breaking Free" was #4 on the charts with literally 0 airplay points.

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

"Famous Last Words" is my favourite MCR track ever!

I wish I was a teenage emo kid sometimes!

[genie22.livejournal.com]

PS JT's new song is bobbins.

Fancy doing a JT poll sometime?