February - Yr Verdict

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The accumulated week in pop polls for February give us the following top ten for the month:

1. Long Blondes - Giddy Stratospheres
2. Sophie Ellis Bextor - Catch You
3. Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around Comes Around
4. Lady Sovereign - Love Me Or Hate Me
5. Lily Allen - Alfie
6. Gwen Stefani - The Sweet Escape
7. Fergie - Glamorous
8. Nelly Furtado - Say It Right
9. Omarion - Ice Box
10=. Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby
10=. Jessica Simpson - A Public Affair

The poll I did last month was interesting but didn't add a huge amount to the original polls, other than to point out polarising tracks (Fall Out Boy and Jojo). So something simpler this time:

[Poll #940257]

Comments

Meffodology

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Songs are ranked on the formula: # of votes * % of votes, which in general doesn't produce results very different from simple # of votes but does even things out a bit between busy and light weeks.

Meanwhile this doesn't seem a glorious month either in what was released or what got voted for.

Re: Meffodology

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the top two here slot in at #2 and #3 on the year to date chart, behind The Gossip.

Re: Meffodology

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Not glorious but nowhere near as shabby as January. I enjoyed dancing to Bextor at Poptimism but her ARMS are so THIN in the video that I can't bear to watch it. And the verse is a bit rubbage. Kaiser Chiefs on the other hand have a great video but the song over-milks its one hook & the result is turgid.

Big hitters Fergie, Nelly, Justin and Lily all onto their 3rd or 4th single release here - possibly unwise picks from F and J (haven't heard N, amazed that L didn't release Alfie sooner!)

The Alfie video is GOBSMACKING. I still can't decide whether it frightens me yet.

Re: Meffodology

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The Bextor video is the best thing about it! I don't think she looks too thin at all, in fact I don't think I've seen her looking better.

Re: Meffodology

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

i think she looks better in 'get over you' and 'i won't change you'. maybe 'mixed up world' as well. she should keep her hair down to downplay the RHOMBUSITY.

Re: Meffodology

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's the 3rd/4th single syndrome that feels like a drag, though the Nelly one is terrific. I want this year's sound!

(Or the big votes for two kind of boring songs at the top)

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

I begin the campaign to recognize the greatness of Say It Right: NOW.

I know it owes a mortgage sized debt to Laura Brannigan's Self Control, but if ever evidence was required of Timbaland's genius ear, it is the "hmm", the "yeah", and crucially that mumbled "you don't mean nothin' at all to me" sitting behind the Nelly's sublimely controlled vocal. Pop wonderment is in full effect round our house.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I love the woundedness in it too.

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

Absolutely - like some other songs which I would like to mention around here but must refrain from due to Pop League shenanigans, there's something about an upbeat song which is at its core about devastation and loss or loving just that bit too much that gets me in the gut.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I love the way it's got all these emotional contradictions going on; Nelly's voice is wounded, the music is stately and dignified, the words are ambivalent and detached.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah it's pretty much my favourite of nu-Nelly's singles, def above the monsters of last year, and certainly my favourite Feb single. How it's ranking behind some of the lameness above it I don't know.

Oh and NAS WAS ROBBED.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

It really is the best nu-Nelly single to date, although her contribution to Timbaland's new single is even better and we're all going to be dancing to that at Poptimisms for years to come!

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

It's one of those songs that does just totally stop you dead in your tracks and completely enthrall you for its duration- the beat is so hypnotic and swaying that it can take the same sadness that's in 'All Good Things (Come To An End) and make it actually more affecting.

Lex's idea of hell

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Lily's cover of the Kaisers (I quite liked it, though)

Re: Lex's idea of hell

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Her Keane cover is better. Takes a great song and removes the annoying lardface singer. Hooray!

Re: Lex's idea of hell

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I like both covers, did not expect to.

Re: Lex's idea of hell

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

oh wait i meant the Kooks cover. not heard the Keane one.

Luv N Haight

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Both extreme terms requiring an extreme reaction from me to qualify, e.g. for me there is a huge gulf between "love" and "any good at all".

The Justin song just escapes a hate vote therefore, although I do hate the video and the whole Justin persona come to that.

Re: Luv N Haight

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yep, extremity of terms is intentional to give that very distance - though I am a lot looser with my love than I am with my hate. [/hippie]

Produce-me-up

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Blimey Timbaland is still dominating everything isn't he?

I think 'Sweet Escape' is the best thing on Gwen's album. The "wee-hoo" bits are great and the plink-plonk lullaby bits are v endearing. It's more subtle than Wind It Up (not difficult). In this round of the Fergie v Gwen then Ms Stefani wins, I think. Any other song off Fergie's album would have beaten her!

Re: Produce-me-up

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

On first hearing I really liked Sweet Escape but it irritated me quite quickly (unlike Wind It Up which resolved its irritations very satisfyingly - I seem to be the only person who thinks this). "Early Winter" is my favourite thing on her record, though.

Re: Produce-me-up

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I feel the same re 'The Sweet Escape'. I also think 'Wind It Up' resolved its irritations nicely but not unfortunately its really boring verses.

Re: Produce-me-up

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I LOVE 'Glamourous,' it was what made me look up Fergie's album. Admitedly I base my love of it almost solely on the bit where it sounds like she's saying she sits with her family reminiscing about the days when she had a mustache and the other bit where she says, in a fond manner, that her daddy advised her that if she'd run out of funds she should probably be heading back to her abode. :D

Woah there! Hold on! Where is "Shine"?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Take That got same no. of votes and same %age as Nelly.

Also, I think I do "love" this song.

Re: Woah there! Hold on! Where is "Shine"?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think it's 14th vote was very recent - this was the state of play as of 11am this morning.

Re: Woah there! Hold on! Where is "Shine"?

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

hmmm

Oh well, omitting "Shine" gave us all a chance to h8 on the Khazi Chiefs at least. Silver lining.

Re: Woah there! Hold on! Where is "Shine"?

[strange-powers.livejournal.com]

Shine, for all the clumsy sub-Beatles pomp, is about a thousand times better than Ruby which sounds like a horrible work-in-progress effort from a sixth form Kaiser Chiefs tribute act.

Re: Woah there! Hold on! Where is "Shine"?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Shine is brilliant!

Re: Woah there! Hold on! Where is "Shine"?

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

yes. don't see how it is clumsy. better than many Beatles songs (ha ha)!