Pop Premiership Week 7 RESULTS

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Here's what braisedbywolves had to say. First off, a quick reminder to get your tracks in for this week! I will be sending out individual reminders tomorrow hopefully. Revelations at about 3-3.30 probably.

Over to Braised:

"I didn't really get much "OMG OMG What is this?" off anything here, though I'd definitely be up for more of 1st to 4th place. I'm not sure that I really made the best intoduction, there was at least one glaring omission (noted below), and I can see where I should have put "but only if it's good" at the end of some of my enthusiasms (or rather been more specific about what was good in them). Anyway, points for you lot:

01. Q and not U - "Wonderful People": Plinky post-punk guitars, silly falsetto, normal voice actually not so great, reaches for 'funk' a bit too much. I'll be amazed if I haven't heard this band before. 10th Place - LOSE - katstevens dragged back into relegation fight.

02. NIOWT - "City": It's Rihanna! No, it's some eastern-european-sounding lady (it took me some time to realise that she's actually singing in English), 'spooky' piano motif, general rattling swarm of semi-d'n'b high snares and guitars, and occasional boshing. I really like the kitchen-sinkness of it, but on the bits where she really kicks it up a notch, the rest of the track doesn't entirely rise to the occasion. 2nd Place - WIN - bengraham's busy squad wraps up bold victory.

03. Jeff Mills - "Step To Enchantment": Buh? The one glaring omission from my description (which might have given the people who actually know me an advantage) was Stuff What Boshes, but this just doesn't really go anywhere, for three and a half minutes. It's like someone had decided to make a dance remix of a microhouse track. Get 1x breaks! 11th Place - LOSE - dubdobdee gets his team selection badly wrong.

04. The Butterflies Of Love - "Take Action": Alt-country stuff here (my own fault, I should have made a list of what I didn't like as well), not bad slide into harmonies on the chorus. 8th Place - LOSE - strange_powers slips to first defeat of the season.

05. Number One Cup - "The Monkey Song": This starts off sounding like someone's specifically seized on the Weakerthans ref, which would be awesome. Short, exciting, xylophone solo! Lyrics aren't going to be scrawled on anyone's schoolbag, mind. 4th Place - WIN - a scrappy win for jel_bugle

06. Band Of Susans - "Ice Age": Oh, lovely proper indie! I not entirely sure I like this stuff any more. But I do love it. The longest track by a mile, lots of room for the guitars to stretch out. Not that I approve of that sort of thing, no no no (yes). 5th Place - WIN - xyzzzz_ stays in touch with the leaders after dogged win.

07. Fannypack - "Keep It Up": Ah, syncopation. Lots of stuff thrown in because it makes the track sound better, crowd noise (which should definitely been one of my five), tough girl-rapping over it, and a great breakdown. alexmacpherson, I suspect. 1st Place - WIN - dominant inhibitorylinks goes clear at top of table.

08. Mellowdrone - "Fashionable Uninvited": Hmm, this is some of the modern non-trendy sweeping indie, isn't it? I'd almost guess Keane if it weren't for the guitar. Maybe Muse, maybe a half dozen other bands I can't think of. I still like it more than I should, though points off for "this lovely song". 7th Place - LOSE - four defeats on the bounce leave fugitivemotel fans muttering.

09. Fiona Apple - "Get Him Back": It's the cockney PJ Harvey! I'm not entirely immune to it, it reminds me of some Michelle Shocked that I love, but the backing kind of throws me. Also I have now decided to compare it to Lush's Ladykillers, which does it no favours. 9th Place - LOSE - alexmacpherson's season blighted by inconsistency.

10. Lake And Cormega ft Greg Nice - "Don't Start": Like clever lyrics + not allergic to the hiphop = must like clever diss records, right? Right! This might actually have placed a spot or two higher if it was shorter, not much of crucial interest after the two-minute mark. 3rd Place - WIN - zenith's title challenge picks up steam.

11. Nina And Frederick - "Listen to the Ocean": Quite nice ancient track of the kind that you only ever heard ripped apart for samples these days, a nice low-key ender. This is quite separate from anything that I'd generally enjoy, it would probably score lower if there was a bumper crop of stuff in my comfort zone. 6th Place - DRAW - precious point moves hauntedballroom off foot of table.

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Heh, "Fiona Apple type" - you are the only one who actually nailed WHAT THE SONG SOUNDED LIKE.

Cockney PJ Harvey? wtf? She a) has a jazz voice not a rock voice let alone a growling raw rock voice like PJ, b) Cockney? Cockney???? Mannered NYC stage school debutante Fiona Apple?!

I kind of assumed my only danger would be if Andrew knew it already!

[koganbot]

Oh, I can understand how people could hear PJ in the grain of voice - darkness at noon in the larynx and all that; of course, it was the jazz-cab styling that made me think of Fiona - undoubtedly helped by the fact that I'd heard the song before but forgotten (see below).

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yeah I can hear a TOUCH of PJ but it's 90% difference, 10% similarity. For one thing Fiona is so clearly trained, and sings "technically", and PJ is and does not!

Talking of full-of-shit precious debutantes, do you like Nellie McKay? It was between her and Fiona really for this round - I suspect Nellie would have done better :( My rationale was that Fiona enunciates better so her clever lyrics are easier to pick out on one listen while with Nellie you might not notice the lyrics if you're not listening closely. I may still play Nellie though maybe not after this post!

[koganbot]

Have so far only heard fragments of Nellie McKay though am definitely interested in hearing more; when I fell in love with the solo Marit Larsen (I was already in love with M2M) I started checking into possible influences and affinities; also, Xhuxk told me that Marit "sounds like Nellie McKay but less irritating." Fiona ended up on Marit's MySpace influence list, Nellie not.

Marit, by the way, is not full of shit. (Of course, that in itself tells you nothing about whether she's better or worse than Fiona.)(And perhaps Marit has ambitions of being full of shit.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

What irritates Chuck about Nellie - her full-of-shit-ness - is what I love about her, and conversely Marit's unpretentious lack of shit is what irritates me about her. Nellie is more playful than Fiona and Marit in that she sometimes means it, sometimes doesn't, but never puts a premium on the importance of meaning it.

I didn't like what I heard off Nellie's second album - whether or not you're full of shit is irrelevant when you forget to write tunes - but I adore adore adore the more precocious and pretentious moments on her first.

[koganbot]

I kind of have a thing for full of shit debutantes - my conflicted love for Sophie B. Hawkins is all over my book. Also have a thing for scrappy kids who aspire to be full-of-shit debutantes, hence my conflicted Teena Marie hearting (though her recent alb is disappointing).

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

I think she's got more of a country/folk voice - I definitely hear a lot of Michelle Shocked.

Pj Harvey was more what she does with her voice if that makes any sense.

I hate jazz, innit.

Cockney was regarding the knees-up music rather than the song.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

No she def has a jazz voice, though she doesn't sing jazz music here, it's more Tin Pan Alley than Cockney really.