A kung fu fighter in a disco

The dross continues!

I didn't know Biffy Clyro still had a career let alone a successful one. I blame Charlie Busted.
Joss Stone and Raphael Saadiq are going out, oh dear.
Re LCD Soundsystem - there are only two good songs on their new album, and this isn't one of them. James Murphy needs to shut up on his songs.

Xtina is pretty good and the video is FABULOUS, but it's still...not quite as good as it should be? I don't like the sample. It's too indebted to what it wants to be. And I think it's missing at least one big chord change. Miles above everything else though.

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pot80.livejournal.com

I think you're absolutely correct about the need a big chord change -- it sounds like it wants to have some big thrilling moment, and just settles for being kinda fun.

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I really really wish I could get YouTube at work. Maybe Google Video has some of these.

Anyway, there are tracks I actually want to hear this week, which makes a change from the last couple.

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I have just brazenly asked our IT people to upgrade flash so I can get YouTube, which has magically been unblocked!

Of course I will use it to look at branding messages in adverts, hem hem.

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blue-russian.livejournal.com

I more appealing list, I agree, although I think I've heard most of these and just can't remember them.

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Oh yeah and Enter Shikari are the worst thing ever, seriously. Nu-rave crossed with emo metal or something, I don't know what these dreadful genres are called. Why on earth do people put their ears through this?

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lockedintheatti.livejournal.com

I think I heard somewhere they're calling it trancecore. I wanted to hate it but find it compelling at the same time. Much the same as I find twiglets.

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Yes I saw potential in their rub.

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Don't you find Murphy's voice, well, just a LITTLE insufferable and unlistenable on it?

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koganbot

Yes! And I ticked the thing anyway! 'Cause the voice adds pressure to the beat, creating yr basic Fall-Velvets headbutt. But Murphy's done better (and Fall and Velvets have done way better). And he does sound like he needs a spanking. Which is what Xgau said about Jonathan Richman the first time he heard the Modern Lovers back in the '70s. In several years, when you stop blaming rock 'n' roll for its progeny, I'll send you some vintage Modern Lovers tracks. My friend Maureen said that Richman sounded like Lou Reed crossed with Leave It To Beaver; Richman had a not-quite-musical voice and sounded unsufferably juvenile, and pretended to guilelessness, which was even more unsufferable, yet was totally charismatic doing it. Murphy sounds like a dulled-out version of that.

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Yeah, it's a tick despite not a tick because, as Frank says.

They've still not done anything that matches "Beat Connection" rly.

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Oh I prefer 'Yeah' (crass version), 'Losing My Edge' and maybe '45.33' to 'Beat Connection' - though probably my favourite LCD thing is the Lindstrom mix of 'Tribulations'. And a lot of their dodgier moments are much much better in a live setting. But they veer between absolutely fantastic and weirdly awful far too much for a band whose aesthetic I'm broadly in favour of.

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I've still not heard 45.33.

Losing My Edge is the most overpraised track of the decade.

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Actually I probably just mean overquoted.

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But apart from the lyrics which are really funny, it's got a really irresistible rhythm! The moment when the beat kicks up a notch is awesome.

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I have just rescinded my tick, on discovering that Good Charlotte now do LCD Soundsystem better than LCD Soundsystem do.

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zenith.livejournal.com

I generally like the album with the exception of the dire last track, but I do wonder how wise it is for them to basically turn into Achtung Baby era U2 and alienate so many of the people who initially liked them. Not that bands don't do this all the time, but...

Be interested to know which are the two tunes which meet yr approval, as I suspected you might hate almost all of it!

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I still love LCD the band, '45.33' confirmed that when he's not trying to write conventional rock songs James Murphy does genius things. And they've always been great fun live.

I love 'Get Innocuous' and can tolerate one of the weepy ones ('Someone Great' I think?) - it tries too hard to be heart-tugging and doesn't quite succeed, but it's OK.

Everything else = zzzzzz and occasionally aaargh.

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Paulo Nutini, right?

:(

I was looking forward to ticking that. I AM NOT JOKING.

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OMG there were TWO!!!

I was thinking of Madness :(

Sorry all, I really must have been half asleep this week.

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I would have ticked Madness as well! D'oh!

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koganbot

I would have ticked Madness and was considering a Nutini ticky, which probably is just a sign of how dreary I was finding Shikari et al.

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Madness and Nutini will feature in next week's - yr tickies will not go to waste!

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I felt really really horrified the other day when I saw a picture of this doe-eyed fresh young thing in a magazine and thought, hmm, he is quite fit, and it was PAOLO NUTINI :(

I would not have ticked his song.

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katstevens.livejournal.com

Robbie, Joss & Enter Shakiri: all v poor.

I have just remembered what the LCD Soundsystem is actually like and am going to remove my tick.

Scissor Sistas get a tick because of the video (rip off of viral youtube ping pong thing - worth checking out)

2nd best Xtina song on the album, wise single choice, excellent video but is lacking that certain something - it never quite capitalises on the Mambo No 5 intro.

Not heard Biffy, Simply or Get Cape people.

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Didn't think much of the Scissor Sistaz video, but then I know nothing of this "Matrix Ping Pong" thing it is parodying either. As for the music, I see they've graduated from 70s Elton to "I'm Still Standing" now. I guess this means the third album will take its inspiration from "Candle In The Wind '97" ;-)

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katstevens.livejournal.com

Popjustice mentioned it a week or two back. The original is better but the SS video is still entertaining.

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awesomewells.livejournal.com

Seriously. They seem to have been around for years without me ever having even been slightly motivated to hear one of their songs or read a word of their interviews (which I have never seen).

I'm assuming they're one of these bands that chart high purely on the back of a dedicated fan base without ever impacting upon the wider world.

Enter Shakiri = concept that is brilliant in its rubbishness. I don't like them particularly but I like the fact that they're there. It's sort of endearing.

Everything else - yawn. Candyman is possibly my least favourite track on Back To Basics too. So annoying!

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chezghost.livejournal.com

funnoying is this year's funganise

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totally tuneless

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jauntyalan.livejournal.com

illustrated in a broadsheet papers coverage of the NME awards with a picture of, oh yes, shakira

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koganbot

Biffy Clyro: Vacuous lyrics about being a human in a relationship or in the world or something. A nice little shift in the music, but no ticky.

Robbie Williams: A clear vocal, pretty synth washes. A tick, though a rather loveless one.

Scissor Sisters: Halfway between soul and pop, but where's the song? No tick.

Simply Red: Nice voice but is barely in one ear before it's out the other. Untickable.

Get Cape Wear Cape Fly: The singing seems in rebellion against sex and toughness, which may be understandable and in some circumstances even laudable, but not good for the aesthetics. (In reading the band name, was anyone here looking forward to listening to this?) As tickless as it is sexless.

Enter Shikari: Emo that's too weak on the anguish meets death metal that's too lifeless in its death rattle. No tick.

Joss Stone: Hefty voice runs around its launching pad, imagines it's in flight. No tick.

Christina Aguilera: I've never thought her voice had much personality, am glad that the song has personality. Solid tick.

LCD Soundsystem: North American dumb, has lumbering virtues. Tick.

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braisedbywolves.livejournal.com

In reading the band name, was anyone here looking forward to listening to this?

Yes, because a friend of a friend manages them, and I was looking forward to hearing what people had been going on about. I don't think it's a particularly terrible bandname, considering the other ones in the list (a million times better than "Simply Red", for a start)

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The record however is quite a lot worse than Simply Red :(

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