Pop Premiership RESULTS Week 3

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Here's what bengraham had to say - check back after lunch for REVELATIONS (both on this and the Chart Championship).

"General Comments: Firstly, thankyou everyone. I ended up with an excellent CD, good enough that I will most likely listen to it in my car from time to time. The variety was pretty amazing. There were two or three tracks that I absolutely loved, another two or three that I'd listen to in specific situations, and nothing at all that I really hated. There was just the one track I knew, although one or two more sounded very familiar. My only disappointment was that there was nothing really really heavy, to provide the full range of the musical spectrum! But yes, awesome choices everyone, and I'm really pleased with my CD!

Track 1: Goose - "Black Gloves": Oh, what a wonderful start. If the whole CD turns out to be of such a high standard then I'm going to have to make some very difficult choices. This sounds like a mash-up of the Ghostbusters theme tune. It's not a million miles away from LCD Soundsystem, nor from Vitalic. This definitely falls into the "electro-clash such as they used to play at Trash" category. I'm loving it... it sounds like the sort of track that could come on in a club and despite no-one recognising it, the whole place would be dancing. Is it too obvious of me to assume that katstevens submitted this? I'm compiling an electro mix CD at the moment for another LJ community (Audiography) and as soon as I find out what this track is, it's going onto the mix. 1st Place - WIN - zenith hands out a severe pasting.

Track 2: Tres Demented - "Shez Satan": Slightly more downbeat electronica. I can't work out if I like that vocal or not. It's very weird, certainly, especially on the chorus. The beat's a little repetitive and doesn't really go anywhere. Then again, major plus points because the song name-checks Satan. 9th Place - LOSE - devilish luck for under-pressure hauntedballroom

Track 3: Eleni Mandell - "Pauline": I like this instantly. I'm immediately picturing this soundtracking a Tarantino film. Probably a gangster preparing himself for the epic shootout at the end of the film... the tension definitely seems to build up as the song goes on. I really love this vocal... she's got this sexy, mysterious country'n'western twang to her voice. I'm not really up on my country singers so I couldn't even make a guess at who this might be. 2nd Place - WIN - smooth performance bags points for alexmacpherson

Track 4: The Album Leaf - "Always For You": Someone is trying to appeal to the Grandaddy fan in me. And it seems to be working. I like the synth on this track. This is the sort of track I'd normally listen to on a lazy Sunday afternoon, sitting in the garden with a nice cold beer and the Sunday papers. 4th Place - WIN - strange_powers keeps it tight and bags points.

Track 5: Our Lady Peace - "Innocent": Something a little bit heavier here... I recognise that voice. I think it might well be Our Lady Peace? I don't know the song, but I do have a couple of their albums and this definitely sounds like them. I like it, although my big gripe with this sort of style is that it never quite gets heavy enough to make it a full volume, car windows down head-banger. And "we are all innocent"... it's a bit of an obvious lyric, isn't it? But nonetheless, a good selection. braisedbywolves? 3rd Place - WIN - fugitivemotel keeps his cool to make it three wins in three.

Track 6: Rose Chronicles - "Voice In Jail": This singer sounds like a cross between Dolores whatserface from the Cranberries and Kate Bush. Or maybe Sinead O'Connor. Again, it's a bit MOR soft-rock for my liking, but I won't let that detract from the fact that it's a well-constructed tune. This really ought to have been a chart hit, although I suspect I would have heard it before if it had been. 8th Place - LOSE - listless showing from jel_bugle

Track 7: Nelly Furtado - "Forca": I recognised this track as soon as the vocal came in, which is quite impressive given that I've never heard the studio version of this track before. But this was a poor attempt to catch me out... I'm sure I mentioned on Poptimists that I went to see Nelly Furtado in Hammersmith less than a month ago and she played it. Prior to that, the only time I had heard this song was when she performed it at the opening ceremony of the 2004 European Championships. It's a decent song, but the points are going to be shared here, because it's my wife-to-be (in my fantasies) with Forca. 6th Place - DRAW - play-safe tactics mean a first point of the season for braisedbywolves

Track 8: Raul Seixas - "Metamorfose Ambulante": It's a bit of a Beatles-y sound with those backing vocals, behind an interesting foreign lead vocal. My one criticism is that this doesn't really go anywhere... it's a decent song, well written and well performed, but it just lacks that killer punch. 10th Place - LOSE - xyzzzz_ fails to take his chances.

Track 9: Edo Maajka - "Prziii": From the intro, I thought this was going to be my favourite song in the selection, but then the rapping came in. Yes, I am a fan of foreign hip-hop, but it needs to be half decent, and this rapping is, frankly quite poor. They're really trying very hard to fit about ten extra syllables into each verse of rap, and it just doesn't work. The beat is brilliant though... put a female US R'n'B singer duetting with a good rapper over that beat and you've got a surefire number 1 hit. I'm struggling with the language... I'm thinking it sounds quite Middle Eastern at times. Are they rapping in Arabic? If not, then my other guess would be something eastern European. But I'm notoriously bad at picking up languages, so it'll probably turn out to be Spanish or Swahili or something. 11th Place - LOSE - inhibitorylinks finds foreign imports can't cut it in the English game.

Track 10: Grethe And Jorgen Ingmann - "Dansevise" Huh? Where did this come from? I'm thinking this is probably a German song from the 1930s or 1940s. It definitely has a wartime sort of feel to it. The singer has an excellent voice undoubtedly. Normally I'd never go for something like this, but it's just such a creative interpretation of my musical likes and dislikes that it actually impressed me. I'm not sure I'd ever choose to listen to an album of that style of music though. Is this from the Lex, trying to put me off by straying away from R'n'B or hip-hop? 5th Place - WIN - dubdobdee's mind games pay off for a tight win.

Track 11: Shannon - "Let The Music Play": 80s pop. ACE! This sounds very familiar. Does it sample something extremely well known? I really feel like I've heard this song before, but I couldn't tell you who it is. Yes, definitely heard it before. Maybe at a cheesy student night? Anyway, meh, it's ok, not bad as 80s pop goes... catchy chorus, but I think 80s era Madonna did this style better. 7th Place - LOSE - shock defeat for katstevens talented outfit.

Comments

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

By the way, I do now know what track 9 was... aided by my Slovenian friend, who deciphered that since the rap "disses" Severina Vuckovic (a Croatian pop star of whom a sex tape appeared in 2004), it must be Edo Maajka, a Bosnian rapper.

Apparently the lyrics include a line which translates as "everyone knows how to rap, anyone can screw Severina". If I'd known this before rating the songs, it might have come higher than 11th!

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

Edo Maajka is K-GRATE. Search "No Sikiriki" and "Prziiii" IMMEDIATELY.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Severina is great. She competed in Eurovision for Croatia last year with the marvellous turbo-fol 'Moja Stikla' (My Stiletto).

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! One of last year's better entries IIRC.

[inhibitorylinks.livejournal.com]

I should have provided a translation! Curses!