A Year In Pop: 17

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The last poll of April.

[Poll #976589]

As ever you can go back and tick etc etc (or untick). Just follow the tag!

Comments

OK I will ask

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Waht is "The Living Tree"?

Re: OK I will ask

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

She's clearly ordered her record company to find a song that sounds as Bondtheme-like as possible to give her another hit. It's staggeringly predictable but the Bond elements are nice enough (well, I did say in the LoP that I'm a sucker for strings) to get a tick from me. Although 'dance til my shoes cry' just just sounds odd as a lyric.

Re: OK I will ask

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but it is DAME Shirley B. Please to show respect.

(Off topic: will the zip files for this week's LOP be posted today?)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Both Amerie and Groove Armada are awesome. Lostprophets are unsurprisingly bland. Not heard the rest yet!

For some reason I thought I'd heard the Amerie ages ago and dismissed it as rubbish, but then saw her do it on Popworld and went OMG AMAZING.

Re: My views

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I like the remix of GA & Stush better than the original though.

in order

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Amerie - terrific, I dunno why people are saying 'Gotta Work' is better than this - it's taut, it's compelling, her vocal performance is astonishingly good - just listen to the line "the way you kiss my neck in public - I try my best not to blush" and you can HEAR the blush in her voice. And then that amazing "I FIND HIM I FORGIVE HIM I FEED HIM" - she says she wants you to take control but after that you're left in no doubt as to who cracks the whip. One of the singles of the year.

Amy Winehouse - this is my favourite Winehouse at the moment - my favourite bit is the way she launches into the chorus with this triumphant resignation after the "black...black...black..." pause. It's stately and dignified in its heartbreak - I love that aesthetic.

BIG GAP IN QUALITY

Sunblock - superior bosh, the video is SO RUDE though

Shirley Bassey - eh, I can't tell if this is a new song or a re-release, and I don't really care enough to find out. It's OK I suppose but I am harsh with my "any good at all"s.

Groove Armada - wtf is Stush doing associating with them? She hasn't been seen or heard in half a decade and now she makes her comeback with these people? Sadly not great, clunky and messy, a crumb off the table of the last Basement Jaxx album, which was itself pretty shit.

Manic Street Preachers - wtf is Nina Persson doing associating with them? Are they trying to be playful and tongue-in-cheek here? They're not very good at it. I caught a reference to one of their old shit singles though. Anyway they're way ahead of most rubbish indie because I've always thought that the lead singer's voice was great, charismatic in an overblown sort of way, and Nina's bits are obv great, but the lumpen arrangement and plodding non-tune dominate. Also wtf with the other dude starting to sing near the end? He can't, I actually burst out laughing. And then I stopped the video.

Lostprophets - god when I lived in Wales these cunts were everywhere.
I haven't been back to Wales since I escaped.

The View - I couldn't find this on Youtube :D

Re: in order

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Ahaa it must have been 'Gotta Work' that I heard before and dismissed as Whatevs. 'Take Control' is brilliant!

Re: in order

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

Manics: i also laughed when the Nicky bit came in, but in an "HURRAH, what are you doing? excellent!" kind of way.

Speaking As A Manics Fan, it's the best thing they've done for ages, but the words are still sh!t, i'm not sure why they don't, y'know, just open a couple of richey's notebooks, just for a quick look...

My views

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Sunblock - this is terrific, it has the most oomph of all the holiday house I've heard in the charts this year. Supposedly it's a cover of the Coronas, who I've never heard of. Easy tick - best thing this week I suspect.

Manics - their mutation into a Bluetones tribute band is possibly more listenable than their pomp rock phase but somehow more depressing. No tick at all.

Amerie - I like the niggling guitar figure more than the so-so tune. Marginal tick.

Groove Armada: Nowhere NEAR as good as the Mutya one, but it has Stush on it and who doesn't love Stush? Doesn't use her well though. Marginal tick.

The View: only video I could find on YT doesn't have any words! Surely an improvement. Based on the music alone this is some more Britpop retro nonsense. No tick.

Lostprophets: I feel sorry for him losing his closest friend and all but on reflection he's probably only been dumped. Horrible, no tick.

Shirley Bass: Good to hear her again! Why don't they put the Get The Party Started version out I wonder? "Let me dance till my shoes cry" - arf! Wouldn't hear it again but this is a marginal tick.

Amy W: Interesting contrast to Bassey - better production but a worse, more affected, less affecting voice - stop sounding like a hen, woman! Same problem Beth Gibbons used to have. But if Shirl gets a tick so must this - what a generous week.

Re: My views

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Actually no, Amy W is doing quite well enough for herself anyway, given that it's a pretty boring record.

Re: My views

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

That's Corona (who had a big hit with the 'The Rhythm of the Night' in about 94 or 95), not The Coronas, which sounds like a rubbish indie band.

Re: My views

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'Supposedly it's a cover of the Coronas, who I've never heard of.'

?

Re: My views

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The Groove Armada/Mutya song is pretty good but not as GREAT as people have been saying - GA's production is so clunky and awkward! Mutya is in v good form on it, she is everything which is great about it and single-handedly makes it good despite the ineptitude of her producers. Sad that Stush couldn't do the same here, I listened to 'Dollar $ign' on the bus this morning and it still sounds so fresh and alien.

Re: My views

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I've never actually heard of Stush I don't think - what is she best known for?

Re: My views

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

bluetones? that's harsh dude.

[infov0re.livejournal.com]

Worth noting that I thought the GA video was fab - started off thinking it was going to be another terribly generic dance video, and it made me laugh a lot by the end.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

the cover art style is also v cool - at least it was in 2002!

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

If anyone (ANYONE) ticks The View I will be VERY VERY CROSS.

That said I did just tick Lostprophets so can't really talk BUT the video looks a bit like Kelly Clarkson and the singer has a really lovely speaking voice when he was on Huw & Bethan the other week. And, err, the gay one drinks in the (rubbish) bar down the road from my house.

Did they ever actually manage to get Fearne Cotton introducing one of their current singles before TOTP died? That would have been televisual magic.

Manic Street Preachers get what is probably actually a sympathy vote.

Groove Armada get Stush vote, Amerie gets 'would have really great remix' vote.

Shirley Bassey OVER MY COLD DEAD BODY. I haven't even heard it but 'Goldfinger' is worth a lifetime of damnation from me, I am afraid. Although possibly I would not think this if my brother hadn't had an absolute obsession with Bond themes for two years and my parents' house didn't have quite thin interior walls. And if I didn't get a sudden rush of rage at any reference to Bond due to AJSGJKHDHGJK idiotic International Relations students who want to be spies argh argh argh facedesk etc.

No idea what the Sunblock's like but judging by previous efforts it gets a NO on grounds of basic standards of decency etc.

Amy Winehouse is still very good to sing to in the house on your own.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Amy Winehouse on course to remain UNBEATEN in these polls! (She won in Week 1 too.)

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

I actually LOVE the MSP single and not just for the luscious Nina bits. Their best since the one it references, actually. (Though if they'd released the one decent song off Lifeblood, that being "I Live To Fall Asleep" I'd say different).

[koganbot]

Tickless:

Sunblock. Awkward and clunky bosh dance, no lift, no joy, basic tedium.

The View. Yes, I listened a whole two-thirds way through.

Lostprophets. Guy wonders if his heart will ever mend. I won't be there to find out.

Shirley Bassey. Good hard dance rhythm that keeps pushin'. The singing is overdramatic. Like, that's a surprise. Well, it's really overdramatic. And then she sings louder. Strong but not fun. Annoying.

What I actually did tick:

Amerie. Good beat. Voice overrated but this is fine.

Amy Winehouse. Her voice is appallingly mannered. Reasonable song, though.

Manic Street Preachers. I have never heard them before. This is a nice guitar-pop tune. Would be better if the guitguy did wicked '60s riffing rather than this whiny chime, but the melody is pleasing.

Groove Armada f. Stush. I have heard one previous Stush and two previous Groove Armadas. The latter group apparently rip off Basement Jaxx, who've always bored the fuck out of me and scored zero on my emotion meter, and I didn't know enough to notice the resemblance. And I don't care, 'cause this is terrific, all knees and elbows, great for thrashing. (OK, there's a boring fanfare that sometimes interrupts the proceedings, but the rest is great groove and gash.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Frank, I keep meaning to ask - what is a handy site which updates the Billboard top 100 each week? Does it have archives? I might start checking it in order to reassure myself that some chart somewhere has decent music in it. I just saw that Bjork's scored only her second ever Billboard 100 hit!

Manic Street Preachers. I have never heard them before.

Lucky you.

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

I cannot understand how anyone could tick Amy Winehouse. She is like so Jools Holland, which I always assumed was the antithesis of poptimism. I've never heard it mind.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Her first album was crippled by that sort of lame-ass pseudo-jazz production, but now it has become clear that she's a genuine soul diva, as opposed to just another broadsheet-approved coffee-table wuss pretending she is.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I think this is the first time that my ticks have been in clear agreement with the Poptimist zeitgeist!

Current Radio 2 playlist

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

The last time Ms Winehouse had a new entry, there were complaints about her being too Radio2 / too coffee table / not poptimist enuff. And byebyepride posted the then R2 playlist. So I thought it might be interesting to do the same again now.

A-list
MICHAEL BUBLE - Everything
RAY LAMONTAGNE - Jolene
AMP FIDDLER feat. CORINNE BAILEY RAE - If I Don't
TRAVIS - Closer
MIKA - Love Today
BEVERLEY KNIGHT - No Man's Land
SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR - Me And My Imagination
MAROON 5 - Makes Me Wonder
MANIC STREET PREACHERS - Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
JOSH GROBAN - You Are Loved

B-list
AMY WINEHOUSE - Back To Black
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT - Going To A Town
JOE COCKER - Just Pass It On
DOLORES O'RIORDAN - Ordinary Day
SNOW PATROL - Signal Fire
ROSS COPPERMAN - All She Wrote
JACK SAVORETTI - Between The Minds
MUTYA BUENA - Real Girl
WILLY MASON feat. KT TUNSTALL - We Can Be Strong
*NEW* DUKE SPECIAL - Last Night I Nearly Died (But I Woke Up Just In Time)
*NEW* JESSE MALIN feat. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - Broken Radio

C-list
THE ORANGE LIGHTS - Let The Love Back In
WIRE DAISIES - Rocket Girl
TORI AMOS - Bouncing Off Clouds
BEN'S BROTHER - Rise
ALISON KRAUSS w/ JAMES TAYLOR - How's The World Treating You
*NEW* KAISER CHIEFS - Everything Is Average Nowadays
*NEW* GHOSTS - The World Outside
*NEW* YUSUF - Maybe There's A World

Re: Current Radio 2 playlist

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Shit, I didn't know Rufus had new stuff out!

Oh Tori, consigned to Radio 2 now...wish they'd released 'Big Wheel' as the lead. 'Bouncing Off Clouds' is gorgeous, but 'Big Wheel' is witty and catchy and quotable, which are more important.

That Bev song isn't great but there is better on the album.