poptimists | A Year In Pop: 28

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2007

A Year In Pop: 28

A light-ish week with a few well-known names.

Last week's poll - http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/406271.html - got very very low tickage. Now, it wasn't a very inspiring selection but do pop back and have a look at it if only to tick the "not heard" box! The, ahem, delicately calibrated orgafun ranking system is in danger of being thrown out of wack.

[Poll #1022266]

There's another 20 minutes or so to get yr tick on in the Pop Open love vote, too. I have a terrible feeling it might be a draw as it stands.

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What's Frankie Valli doing here, by the way?

it's the Pilooski re-edit. why and how this particular beardo disco re-edit is going to be a massive hit above all the others which have been floating around I have no idea, but there it is.

The Mutya video is such a missed opportunity.

Mutya video should have looked 100% more like the Super Mal/Luciana one. I was thinking this whilst watching the latter the other day and will hold by it.

WTF is that Foo Fighters song doing back in the charts? Wasn't it boring enough the first fvcking time?

The Super Mal/Luciana is AMAZING, entirely due to Luciana being brilliant and skanky and trashy.

Really? I might be missing something here but her...FACE, it's all screwed up and the way she swishes her hair about like a weapon, and combined with her whiny voice it totally puts me off. And the 'lite electro' underneath is rub compared to Bodyrox's "vwup-vwup-vwup" (or even Groove Armada/Stush's "vworrp-bip-bip-bow") You're right though, Mutya would have totally been able to pull off the above & her just sitting in a car smiling doesn't cut it.

She reminds me of Saffrom what's-her-face from the mighty Republica, although scarier. Also the Super Mal sounds a bit like 'All This Love' by The Similou, which is never bad in my book, although it's just big and stupid and summery, rather than closet emo like the Similou song.

I did prefer Luciana in the Bodyrox video, if only because I liked the idea of her as some paranormal noise-bringer.

Nail on head there! I don't like her because she IS Saffron! :) There is unresolved Britpop beef here.

'Ready To Go' is one of only two Britpop songs I like :)

Republica are DUE FOR A CRITICAL RE-EVALUATION. Both their albums are v. good!

I think that history has proved that the basic idea of Republica was a good one! Whether history has been kinder to their rekkids I'm more sceptical of.

Their singles were terrible and are still terrible. Ready To Go might have been OK if it weren't for Saffron's awful voice, but Drop Dead Gorgeous is just plain cr4p.

You are 16,000 types of wrong on this. Saffron's voice isn't awful, it is LOUD AND UNSUBTLE, which is exactly the sort of thing that 1996 was all about.

My brother and I were going to submit a song for consideration as a Polish Eurovision entrant. The basic idea was Republica fronted by Ashlee Simpson. Unfortunately, the idea has been abandoned.

I'd buy it.

You go far, far, far too far. I am not prepared to call any other Republica song even 'listenable' let alone two (two!) albums' worth of them.

Oh come on, "Drop Dead Gorgeous" was terrific (and the bigger hit, too). Also, off the second album, "Try Everything", "Luxury Cage", "Pretty Girl Hate" and "Kung Fu Movies" are class.

Republica's 'Wrapp' is totally precursor to 'Yeah Yeah'!

Groove Armutya: great 80s synth bibble noise & smashing chorus lyrics ("don't panic panic Mut-ee-er, don't drive erratic"). TICK

Mika: what exactly is he trying to prove here? I'm very confused and the song isn't good enough to overcome this. NO TICK

Supermal: I rly don't like Luciana and unlike the Bodyrox song the backing = WEAK BEATS. NO TICK.

Not heard the rest.

Kings Of Leon - I am somewhat shocked to find myself responding to this, I like his broken squeaky voice a lot, it sounds confused and mournful. This is a bit of a surprise as I've always thought of the KoL as tools. A curious tick!

Groove Armada - This is my favourite single so far this year. Don't panic panic don't act so manic manic! Tick of course. Agree about the video - where's the tension? :(

Super Mal - I wuv Luciana's voice! Great stuff. Tick!

Bloc Party - seems a lot more urgent than their normal stuff though they still can't write a good vocal line and his voice is cardboard. No tick, though closer than usual. I probably agree with the politics but so what.

Travis - if there has been a worse pun than "Selfish Jean" in the chart this yr I want to know about it! Absolute busker cobblers as per. No tick.

Valli - OK tell all - what is "beardo disco" and what is the difference between a "re-edit" and a "remix"? Is it just a remix where they haven't done much to it, as seems to be the case here? Tick I suppose, it's an OK old pop song.

Mika - Really awful, what is he playing at? No tick.

Foo Fighters - NEIN DANKE.

I am worried that Beardo Disco has something to do with Leo Sayer.

beardo disco thread on ilx.

I'm not fully conversant with it myself but I keep getting sent mixes which I presume fall into this category, and I love all of them. I prefer what I assume is termed the "space disco" end - lots of luscious cascading piano, trippy beats, not so many vocals. It's all very loungey, smooth, rather decadent and dreamy. I think a re-edit is less a reworking of a song than...just tightening it up, making it slightly more dancefloor-friendly in tersm of beats and structure. I haven't heard the Frankie Valli original though.

Lindstrom and Prins Thomas are, I think, the key act to check out - I love their stuff. (http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=49556)

A good mp3 blog for disco (re)edits - as well as original disco tunes and beardo disco in general - is American Athlete (http://americanathlete.blogspot.com/).

I can take 'em or leave disco edits mostly. Few improve on the originals. The Valli one is OK, I spose. I wish the scene's main participants spent more time making their own music cos it's nearly always good, and certainly far more interesting.

I have seen that beardo disco thread a million times but never clicked on it for some reason, possibly because "Rub and Tug" is the worst artist name ever.

If this re-edit is anything to go by, I don't really see the point - I'd like to play the original and this side by side and see what's been done

as Jeff says the orig material by beardo/space disco artists tends to be more interesting to me - and then on their mixes the way it doevtails with the older standards. I don't really have any re-edits.

The Rub'n'Tug Fabric mix is v good!

i would still like to know what beardo disco is without scanning through that ilx thread.

YES i AM a lazy swine

i finally listened to the Map Of Africa album which has received much praise from lofty blogx0rs - it's OK, kinda LCD Soundsystem meets...Jon Spencer meets...Jethro Tull...maybe, not sure.

I'm not really keen on that album, a bit too beardo and not enough space. The Lindstrom & Prins Thomas and Studio albums are much better...

'space disco' just makes me think of Italo, thus I win.

i downloaded a 'Moodymann re-edit' of 'Erotic City' but found nothing different about it in relation to the extended original mix - was pleased to get it at high bitrate tho. but the whole 're-edit' thing is all a ruddy swizz.

having said that, over the weekend i did a 're-edit' of 'I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)' so that the intro is extended allowing it's greatness to be savoured to more satisfactory level - hurrah I!

I was baffled when

koganbot was praising their last single but I must say I really like this one. In fact, this might be the first ever 'any good at all' Travis song.

My like is based solely on the tune and the arrangement, mind. The lyrics could well be terrible.

Also for TEH H8TAS, Fergie is now at number 2!

I picked Fergie Ferg for the Grau f&m playlist the other week :)

i have heard 'Umbrella' but i have not actually heard the second most popular song in the UK right now.

FERGIE WILL REIGN. WHO'S WITH US BESIDES KAT OBVIOUSLY.

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A Year In Pop: 28

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NO WAIT COME BACK

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Travis

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IN THE NEW WORLD