poptimists | Chart Championship Week 10 RESULTS

koganbot takes the witness stand:

"OK, here's where I tell you why if you're someone who doesn't download and listen to the League Of Pop zip files you're an incredible chump: It's because - for instance - the three songs I would excitedly collar people and tell them they have to listen to, and let's form a band that sounds like this, are TRACKS FOUR, FIVE, and ELEVEN, none of which took a winner's spot, and one of which even finished in last place! League Of Pop is even better than the Pop World Cup for prying open my sense of what's possible in the world of music. (Also demonstrates that Brits be strange, but that's a different subject.)

People have said here that the tracks early in the mix have an advantage over the others, tend to have a stronger impact. I find just the opposite: I like whatever I've heard most recently. So what I do is reorder these on my player in what I think is my order of preference, listening last to the ones I supposedly like least, then realize I like them more, move them up over the tracks that precede them, listen to those again, realize I like them more, move them up, listen to the others, then realize I like those others more, and round and round. This is why December year-end lists are total madness for me. Right now TRACKS ONE, THREE, and SIX are in a dead heat for the final winners' slot. Think I'll end up choosing the one ~~least likely to knock me out of the playoffs~~ with the most immediate emotional impact, but I won't know for sure until I hit send.

01. V - "Hip To Hip": The guitar plays in a beautiful cascade, as if it came from the Congo, and the boypop singer does an excellent light dance with his voice, the music sighing happily behind him. This'll be a grower; can't fault it at all; misses the winners' circle only because I tend to go for greater intensity. (And I'm the one who's been saying all over the teenpop thread that Avril and Kelly need to ease up. So sue me for inconsistency.) 7th place - LOSE -

skillextric title dreams crushed by narrow defeat.

02. Diam's - "Jeune Demoiselle": Spare beats are provided as much by the guitar as the percussion, leaving the rapper to carry this. She's speaking French, so I don't understand what she's saying, but she sounds assertive and distressed. She's less cool and therefore more vulnerable than American toughies like Eve and Lil Kim. Since she's basically doing the same intensity from start to finish, this would get wearying but for well-placed "bom-bom-boms" from the background singers. Good job, to keep this buoyant while still sounding emphatic. 4th place - WIN -

lockedintheatti nips on title-chasers' heels with determined performance.

03. Morgan And The Hidden Hands - "Olden Times": Starts with beautifully dramatic string plucking. Castles. Flying bats. The clear soggy vocals remind me of why I hated my family's Joan Baez record; fortunately, such singing works much better in the mouths of kitschy goth babes than when Joan is piously sapping the life out of old Southern murder ballads. 5th place - WIN -

piratemoggy keeps survival hopes alive with last-gasp win.

04. The Cedars - "For Your Information": For the first fifteen seconds this is the greatest song in the entire competition, sounding like 1966 and a bunch of lean and hungry teens in the Seattle or Toronto suburbs who've somehow gotten ahold of a sitar and are locating vicious blues lines in its tones. Like, here's a Hollies-type tune, and we can find the hate in it. Given that sitars had barely made their way to the Beatles at this time, much less America, my guess is that we're more likely to be in suburban Bangalore, where Indian teens are pasting a Four Tops soul bass under garage-rock wickedness. Problem is that the vocalists barely show up, sound more like placeholders than singers. And their garage needs more oil stains and exhaust fumes. Still, you've got to hear this. 8th place - LOSE. - first-minute wonder strike cancelled out as

lisa_go_blind suffers freak loss.

05. Also - "Bosikom (Barefoot)": As a keyboard plays an off-handedly frenetic ditty, a second synth tosses little riffs in the air, and a passionate Eastern European does her best to sound like a Latina spitfire. This is just what I asked for. The chorus cools down rather than intensifying the passion of the verse - is that good or bad? Emphasizes the dittiness of the ditty instead. Needs a more tuneful tune. Which doesn't prevent this from delighting me. 9th place - LOSE -

blue_russian's season fizzles out after entertaining defeat.

06. Amayese - "Munise Munise": African guitarists turn on their water sprinklers, vocalists create glistening harmonies, the song reduces to chants and drums and whistles, then the spray of beauty reemerges. This is utterly gorgeous. So why isn't it my number one? No real explanation, except that its being African means I don't have a developed ear for its drama and changes, so it plays in my background more than in my mind. 6th place - DRAW -

martinskidmore's African imports drop two points.

07. Gravediggaz - "Defective Trip (Trippin')": Dangerous guitar twists bequeathed us by blues and rockabilly, stapled to funk-driven hip-hop, while twisted men take dangerous drugs. A DJ sensibility, this music assembled more than it's composed, but it absolutely never loses its compulsive focus, twisting and driving and rumbling. This isn't from my favorite style/era of hip-hop (I'm drawn most to the guys in the late '70s going fast and ebullient over the beat and to the producer-constructed masterpieces of the present), but it has incredible power, and I love the fumbling-all-over-itself rapping that actually totally nails the rhythm. 2nd place - WIN -

byebyepride finally ends seven-game winless run to keep relegation fight alive.

08. Jamelia - "Know My Name": Mads-Prince-era synths, a walk in the summer, a breeze and a lilt. The woman is having her flirtation and rejecting it too, the sound endorsing the flirting while the lyrics express skepticism. This is masterful, which may be why I don't quite connect to it. The woman has too much control over her breeze, so her glide lacks adventure. Still, this is a good glide, dexterously negotiating its way around the funky chop-chop that the rhythm section tosses up. 10th place - LOSE -

poptasticuk's play-off charge derailed by defeat.

09. Beenie Man ft Ce'cile - "The Thing": Dancehall guy going back to the age of U. Roy, a whole delighted orchestra coming out of his mouth in yelps and whoops, augmenting the beat, encouraging the dancers, then taking over. But where did he get this rhythm track, this grind-it-up bruisingly ugly bass, not a pleasant rock-funk but an unrelenting steam shovel? Down underneath, a collision of punk and funk, like a torn and ripped dance poster come to life, though quite possibly no one involved in this had ever heard anyone who'd called himself a "punk rocker." Not that they'd need to, having just reinvented it for themselves. 1st place - WIN - magnificent effort puts

jeff_worrell right back in title shake-up.

10. Priscilla Paris - "Help Me": In 1967 a small fly-by-night record label creates a quick Bacharach knock-off, finding a well-bred singer who's down on her heels and singing for change in a local tavern but who remembers her enunciation lessons from drama school yet hasn't abandoned the soul and r&b that's been bred into her. The producer had envisioned a song with "class," a smooth lament with a whiff of hinted-at passion. The singer doesn't quite get the instructions, goes for show-tune dramatics and ends up sounding like Dionne Warwick having nails driven through her feet. The producer nods and says to himself, "This works, too." (I'm pretty sure this ranking either knocks me out of first or sets someone new nipping at my heels.) 3rd place - WIN -

epicharmus' smooth play delights fans but has he been too inconsistent for a play-off berth?

11. Audio Bullys - "I'm In Love": The vocalist drags behind the beat while blats and hums tug at him, trying to get him to move along. He resists, creating a deliberate tension between his pace and theirs. I love that process, though there's a clogged-nose feel to the singing that puts it a notch lower than the other tracks. But really, this as interesting as anything else on here, and I'd be curious who else has recorded stuff along this line. 11th place - LOSE. - scoreline unfair on

infov0re but result leaves him in relegation danger.

Admin: We are low on tracks for this week! Also my net connection at home is currently very erratic - if it stays that way I'll be able to download everything but may not be able to Sendspace it until I'm at work on Monday, sorry Mark and Mike. I will send reminders out today or tomorrow, and

blue_russian and

fugitivemotel, you need to get me the - gasp! - FINAL INTROS for Monday too.

Reveals shortly after Frank comments on the thread for the first time, since it's only fair he gets to see what everyone makes of everything before the curtain is pulled back.