A Year In Pop: 18

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

A new month, a new poll! Get that tick rate going again!

[Poll #982157]

All previous polls are still open, etc etc. if you've "got into" any of the year's pop platters since their initial blushing entrance to the charts.

Comments

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Sheila is just now hitting the charts?

JAMIE T

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Chavtastic or deserving of an ASBO? Discuss.

Re: JAMIE T

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Turns out JT was a hit last year and hence INELIGIBLE for consideration in these polls. Just as well since it's rub.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The Michael Buble is nice! The song is definitely One For The Mums but he has a lovely voice OH YES I AM A DEMOGRAPHIC WOT OF IT.

Hellogoodbye and Dada = marginal ticks, former for the vocoder, latter for the Benassi effect.

Jojo = great! Hurrah for Toto samples.

Funeral For A Friend = poor. No ticky. Didn't bother with Jamie T.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I really strongly hated the Hellogoodbye. Absolutely the kind of powerpoppy thing that infuriates me.

Dada I liked though I think I'd get bored of it quickly.

I didn't try Michael Bulbasaur - very remiss, I will investigate.

Jojo is indeed great! I sort of hoped the song would be a bit more TOTO MADNESS than it is but I think her bits are very good too.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Hellogoodbye - didn't expect this, was very annoyed; maybe a 5% possibility I'll turn round on it and grow to love it a la 'The Bad Touch', 95% though I will continue to loathe it

Dada - what Tom said, I am kind of bored of ticking all this bosh I will never hear or want to hear again

JoJo - couldn't remember this at all at first but when I went back to the album was pleasantly surprised. I like the way she gets out of the way for the good Toto bits and the sample gets out of the way for the good JoJo bits. Should have been credited to JOJO & TOTO a la NELLY & KELLY.

The others - you are joking

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I really like the Hellogoodbye! Boston meets Benassi. Could do without the wimpy vocals in the verse, but the vocoder saves them.

Dada is good, but there have been lots of better things in that style.

Jamie T = rub.

JoJo great as ever.

Michael B. I am blatantly NOT in the demographic for this one. Clearly given my hellogoodbye love I should be listening to classic rock radio (and not mentioning recent Fleetwood Mac download spree). I am not ashamed of that, mind.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I just ordered two Fleetwood Mac albums off Amazon!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

MAC CANON.

Maybe when Lex has had time to process it!

Which ones Lex?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Rumours and Tusk! ie the ones people keep mentioning. They were £4 each and I got a bunch of other stuff to get the free delivery so it's not as if it matters if I hate one or the other.

Re: JAMIE T

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

He needs to release Salvador as a single. It's the best track on the album and his voice is much less annoying on that than on many of his other tracks.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I review singles for Stylus, and I don't recall hearing any of these. If I were home and could check, I might find I am forgetting one or more of them, I expect.

ok slight revision to my position

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

have been listening to hellogoodbye on my itunes, where it is followed by the Hilary and Hayley Duff version of Our Lips Are Sealed, and the galz are totally pwning the boys.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

D'oh! Lex you have bought the WRONG edition of Tusk, featuring the shameful edit of "Sara". (Beware Amazon cheap deals.) I shall send the proper version to your ginbox in due course.

[koganbot]

To refresh your memory:

Martin Skidmore: R&Bish teen pop leaning heavily on the nice tuneful bit from similarly-named Toto's "Africa". She still sounds really young, as she is, and a touch awkward and rushed on the faster parts, but she sounds strong and confident on the slower lines, and when she opens up she's a first class R&B vocalist.
[8]

[koganbot]

Well, I've heard all these but already forgotten most of em, except for the JoJo, which I rave about but manage to underrate here (it's a 9! a 9, I say!).

[koganbot]

Lex, when you get home you must listen to this live version of "Rhiannon", which adds four incredible minutes that are way way way beyond what's on the album track (which wasn't on one of the two albs you bought anyway). Definitely tell me what you think.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

That live version is awesome!! thanks for linking it... beats hell out of everything in this poll, except possibly JoJo.

(Should we be worried that in the 2007 poll we're talking about a record made more than 20 years ago?)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

They are on the priority list!

I have already chosen tomorrow's canon victims subjects.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Nah. 2007 has been decidedly average for singles so far. Only Avril, Amerie and Tash-Bed have released anything to write home about, pop-wise. The dance/electro side of things is faring slightly better though.

[koganbot]

Anyway, not counting the JoJo, this is what my notes tell me I thought.

Hellogoodbye - Singer puts on a dorky wanky whiteboy pop voice (which is not as bad as a dorky wanky whiteboy indie voice), which undercuts this a lot, the "this" that's undercut being an expressively tuneful U2ish melody not unlike "With Or Without You," but much weaker. Borderline nontick.

Funeral For A Friend - Eight-to-the-bar beat that's dumb but OK, a high not-strong voice soaring above. If the tune were more tuneful I could be suckered into liking this, but the tune's not there, so I'm free to hate the voice.

Dada f. Sandy Rivera and Trix - One doesn't expect a song called "Lollipop" to be subtle, but the blatancy of the come-on here is irritating and unsexy and ultimately makes this feel real cold. Damn Brits. But this track works anyway, a strong functional beat and reasonably tuneful background riffs. Borderline tick.

Michael Buble - Don't think I'd heard him before. Was expecting aggressive normality à la Powter. My expectations were not totally wrong, but this is more of a throwback to pre-r'n'r "stylish" pop, w/ soul touches updating it somewhat. Terribly weak and dry. No tick.

Jamie T. - A style of indie dorkiness that has possibilities, like that Streets guy, the ordinary bloke thing pushed into intensity. 'Cept this doesn't make it. If it had any kind of a hook, the voice maybe could take off from it. But this is hook free and tickless. No tick.

(Now got to go pick the losers out of eleven tracks that are way better than any of these except the JoJo.)

[koganbot]

jo jo i think you are so good at singin and you are so young too and really pretty! all the best for the future luv nikitaXxXxXxxx

i think you are really good at singing and you are really pretty i love you're new song 'anything'!

But you need the other two as well!!

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

I predict you will not like Tusk. Much Art going on.

I prefer both Mirage and Fleetwood Mac (the 1975 one, with Rhiannon).

[koganbot]

Beats the JoJo, even. Beats a lot of what's on White Light White Heat and Crown Of Creation and Live Through This, for that matter (if that tells you how I tend to hear that song)(will explain to Lex what this entails once he tells me he loves it).

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I am intrigued. Will look forward to you spilling the beans.

I listened to Rumours on the bus into work after my last post, and it sounded really really excellent -- don't think I've ever paid attention to it, just listened out for the ones I already know. Apart from the bits where the mp3s are shonky and sound like a VVM remix.