A Year In Pop: 6

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

In the new ever-changing world of the charts, a new entry at #2 is apparently quite exciting, even (or especially?) if it's perennial pop controversialists the Kaiser Chiefs.

[Poll #926992]

Comments

JT

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I think I'm developing Ned & Dan levels of antipathy towards Mr Timberlake.

Seriously, what does anyone see in this berk? Also, if the video, sorry "Director's Cut", for this latest single had appeared a few weeks early it would surely be up for several Razzies. Dreadful.

Grrr.

PS I think it's 'DJ Erick E' rather than Ericke.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

I suspect that the Kaiser Chiefs' song will grow on me for a while, until I get bored of hearing it every five seconds.

What's the FHM High Street Honeys' song like? Is it as terrible as it sounds like it should be?!!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Jessica: really amazing 'Holiday' pastiche/rip-off, it's breezy and insanely catchy and a whole lot of girly fun. Album sadly fails to live up to this in the slightest :(

Justin: still "any good at all" but probably my least favourite song on FS/LS; its cause has been further handicapped by the really awful, over-ambitious video, which manages to be simultaneously unpleasant and unconvincing. I approve of 9-minute narrative videos for pop songs but merely doing one is not good enough if the substance is rub!

Ericke: in another week I might have ticked it, decent boshing and so on, but I have no memory of how it goes at all and am bvggered if I'm going to be ticking the lowest-common-denom bosh every time when I know I don't even like it enough to want to hear it again.

2pac: what else is there to say about the endless stream of boring posthumous singles?

Long Blondes: still sound like Franz Ferdinand except with a girl singing. Lead Long Blonde looks fabulous but sounds nondescript. Production a mess even by indie standards.

FHM Honeys: I wonder why anyone who wanted to have this would download it. Are videos available top download and do they count towards the chart?

Kaiser Chiefs: die

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

further thoughts on Justin, plus a better remix of the song if it's still up (http://alexmacpherson.livejournal.com/144151.html)

Re: JT

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The ridiculous name was the only thing I liked about Ericke :(

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It's quite good! I had actually heard it before, on some downloaded bosh compilation, and I remember thinking, "Oh, that's amusing, some anonymous Europroducer has used High Street Honeys as his faceless act name, I wonder what FHM would think."

Then of course I looked at the chart and found it was the 'real' HSH, but I can't deny I liked the record.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Kaiser Chiefs: less obnoxious than other Kaiser stuff, sounds rly like Supergrass when they were forced to write a second album. Don't hate it, don't like it.

Jessica: yes, good stuff, it's been around for aaaaaaaaaages though.

2Pac: the actual 2Pac content on these singles is getting lower and lower, unsurprisingly. It's a bit tragic that he must be one of the two biggest hip-hop acts in the UK.

Ericke: Not interesting or hooky enough to fill my haircut house needs.

JT: When the album first came out I thought this was the standout track, but it's shrunk on me a bit. As Lex says, still any good at all. I think he should have released the Coldplay one.

FHM HSH: See response to Ben!

Long Blondes: My main problem with this is that it really in NO WAY needs to be five minutes long. It's a very marginal tick, but still just about a tick - pretty, underwhelming Too Pure style indiepop. Is there a fuss or buzz about them? Adds to the variety of the Top 40, tho.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

KC: I like the video to Ruby (tiny ppl build civilisation around band vainly attempting to play song). TICK

Jessica/2Pac/Ericke: - not heard any of these

JT: weak choice for 3rd single, should have gone for the massive ballad on the end of the album in time for Valentines, however I still like it. TICK.

FHM: the advert made me laugh - who on earth would buy their workout DVD? Surely FHM readers will just buy pr0n & anyone wanting to do exercise will get a proper video by Jane Fonda or whoever. The girls are SO ROUGH it's untrue but it's an interesting concept for singles sales. I approve of the Pussycat Dolls so in theory I should also approve of this. TICK.

Long Blondes: I doubt this lot will ever produce anything worthy of my approval. NO TICK.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

apropos of nothing

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Kaiser Chiefs - Rub. That guitar riff is kind of cool but the chorus is infuriatingly irritating. NO TICKY.
Jessica Simpson - Sort of feels like it's trying too hard but pleasant enough.
2Pac - Bothered.
Ericke - The Beat Is Rockin' - Haven't heard it. Tick on principle on the basis of the name.
Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around Comes Around - Don't really get the hate for this one, but I agree that the Coldplay one is much better.
FHM High Street Honeys - Most cynical record ever. BIG TICKY. Pervy video not as good as Eric Prydz.
Long Blondes - Marginal tick because I like the jerky guitars and the soary swoopy bit in the vocals. Needs a remix though, Jacques Lu Cont doing St Etienne pastiche please.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Long Blondes are favourites of a lot of people who like "indie" but don't like what indie has become (esp the laddier variants of it). They were on the Plan B cover (though a bit out of place there tbh).

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

IN UR TUBE
IMPEDING UR PRINGLE CONSUMPTION

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Oh OK - I liked the first minute or two of it actually, kind of Postcard-y (more accurate than my Too Pure comparison), but it just went on and on. Do they have 'good lyrics'?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

They definitely have "good lyrics" (with big words, too) and are keen for the listener to note this. The first thing I heard by them - which was a lot more FF than this - was called 'Appropriation (By Any Other Name)' which says it all.

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Yes, in so far as Pulp had. And as miss AMP said somewhere (her site's still blocked at work), there's going to be some interesting layers to the phrase 'female Jarvis' even if that's all she is.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Well, Pulp had lyrics which got my attention from the off, which clearly this lot don't - all I can remember is the chorus line, "She won't take you to giddy stratosphers", which seems clunky and forced, though its hook was pretty good.

Re: JT

[koganbot]

It's Ericke on his MySpace page.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I stand corrected (and will never trust youtube again!)

Heads up

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Before I forget, poptimists may wish to know that there is related poll action of a kind going on this week and next over at Troubled Diva (http://www.troubled-diva.com/) - this week's Top 10 goes head to head with the UK Top 10 singles for the same week in the years 1967, '77, '87 and '97.

Re: Heads up

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

AWESOME - I love this feature and missed it last year.

[koganbot]

Kaiser Chiefs - I'm direct opposite of awesomewells: the catchy gangshout chorus overcomes the dull rhythm and the overall sexlessness.

Jessica Simpson - What Tom and Lex said. Wonderful. (Turns out that the album is not as bad as I'd originally thought when I'd abandoned ship on it last summer two-thirds of the way through. Problem was that it had emerged a week after Paris's unexpected greatness. Jessica's flaws are a tendency towards (1) well-sung MOR blah ballads; (2) sudden bursts of grotesque, ridiculous, "fun" "sexiness" which aren't remotely as sexy as she is when she's not trying so hard. But the "fun" "sexiness" is often cover for a really good experimentalism. And when she latches onto a good tune on a good dance track she's quite appealing. Haven't heard any other alb of hers in full; suspect that they'd all get mixed reviews from me. I love the Dukes Of Hazzard soundtrack, which is mostly a bunch of old oddball southern and fake southern rock tracks by the likes of Molly Hatchett and Allman Brothers and Ram Jam and has her "fun" "sexy" but actually quite awesome crypto-Caribbean mixed-and-matched loony version of "These Boots Are Made For Walking.")

2Pac f. Ashanti & T.I. - The best of my nonticks, actually. Don't mind the relative dearth of 2Pacness on this, on which T.I. is more playful and at ease than usual and (Whatever Became Of) Ashanti riding the breeze and sunshine. But the mix of playfulness and clunkiness in the sound undoes it for me. (Yes, it's any good at all, but so is almost everything.)

Ericke - Nice timbre to his wacking-against-half-hollow-plywood beats. Ugly beats can be good beats; but I get tired of these before the song ends.

Justin Timberlake - Beautiful. Something indefinable seems to be missing, though, but it was an easy tick.

FHM High Street Honeys - Dark and murky Divinyls cover. Hi-NRG techno'd-up bosh covers of pop-rock hits can be wonderful things, but the guitars here are terrible, provide a wall of sludge, and the "techno" timbres just add to the dreariness. (Excuse me while I let loose with an ignorant, provocative statement, but Brit-techno is crypto rock anyway, despite its dance origins and dance venue. [Rock once had a dance venue.] Which doesn't mean it's all bad, of course.) Anyway, not devoid of value, given that I like the song and dancing to it. But not a tick.

Long Blondes - This time out they're not just long but Blondie. I was expecting something more tuneful and less dinky. Boring. I recall hearing some Long Blondes stuff I like more, but have a feeling that they and Pipettes are beneficiaries of wishful thinking on the part of critics and tickers. (Only heard three or so Pipettes tracks, however; but [snore].)

[koganbot]

(wacking = whacking. Sorry.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Haha your criticisms of the Simpson Sr album are exactly mine! But her trying-too-hard conceals anything good in it, including the reggaeton x country experimentalism, for me. And 'Fired Up', the best non-title track, is a poor man's 'Turn It Up'.

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

It will! I thought 'Ruby' was AWFUL the first time I heard it, now after 20 plays I really quite enjoy it. I think its charm will wear off at about 3pm tomorrow.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Unusually, no one has said anything to inspire me to d/l anything in this list, including Long Blondes who I quite desperately would like to like, but unfortunately the album is terrible. And so I am off to listen to "Silent Wings of Freedom" by Yes.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

There's a 'single mix of the Long Blondes track which clocks in around three and a half. I don't like it because it removes the spoken 'there's a train at the station' bit, and like all Sheffield bands they are ace at spoken bits.

Re: Heads up

[(Anonymous)]

The more the merrier! The active participation of all Poptimists is heartily encouraged. Frankly, it's the only way that the much-beleagured 2000s are ever likely to get a fighting chance. My regular readers don't seem to care much for anything after 1989...

Fraternal greetings to you all,
Mike @ troubled diva

Famous

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Haha I quite like the intro chat of the Simpson video:

"I wanna be so famous even my ex-boyfriends become famous!"
"I wanna be so famous I'm the most downloaded person on the Internet!"
"I wanne be ... MORE famous than the Internet!"