poptimists | A Year In Pop: 31

hehe, spider pig is the only one of these i've heard, but it is good...

what is it?

it is a song from the simpsons movie, based around the theme tune to the old version of spiderman, but with pigs.

That sounds...not very good.

i am surprised it's troubling the charts, but that's the "joy" of downloading...

64 songs long! Shortest Top 40 hit since... ever?

Worth it for JK & Joel's consternation on yesterday's chart rundown yesterday: "OK, hands up who paid 79p for that"

Also, nice to see that workhorse Hans Zimmer get some long-overdue recognition, even if here it's only as an arranger.

er *seconds* long I meant (obv)

I think you were the sound engineer when the Robyn got played on Lollards!

whatevs, prob'ly, i will have been too busy setting up the next track to actually LISTEN to it, innit.

Robyn - absolutely beautiful. One of my songs of the year. ALL THE TICKS

Bouncy - poor 293857th single. Why not release Freakum Dress? NO TICK

Not heard the rest yet, will report back when I have.

My Bouncy tick is for the very discofied Freemasons rmx.

That's much better, definitely - it adds much-needed WELLY like with the Bouncey/Shakira one.

Disagree. In this case, I much prefer the original, which has a GREBT beat. (The magic of the Freemasons remix of "Beautiful Liar" is noticeably absent this time.)

The Freemasons/Bouncy pinnacle was the 'Ring The Alarm' remix - everything since just hasn't hit the spot in the same way. And Bouncy's beats are better anyway.

Yeah this is an eh remix of an eh song, but the two ehs make a marginal tick in this case.

The RTA one is amazing yes.

Dizzee - Awesome blud! Boshing and full of energy. TICK

Spider Pig - Heheheh. Can see it getting old, but not yet. TICK

Coral - Blimey are this lot still going? Could be a lot worse but have no need to hear this again. NO TICK

Winelodge - Oh THIS is what this one is called. I like it, good old vibraphone plinks/tambourine-snare business. Blimey her hair is HUGE! TICK

Cribs - I think I thought this lot were someone else (ie someone good). They are not. NO TICK.

Weller/Coxon - not even going to bother listening to this one.

AHA knew it was Motown - it's from 'Aint No Mountain High Nuff, innit!

Really good week this week! In order:

Dizzee Rascal - one of my singles of the year, I am like Tourette's with it at the moment, I keep shouting out lines from it. "BLUD! Don't make me get old skool!" "Why you running with that bredda, you don't need him! He's a pussyole, he's a chief, leave him!" "PUSSYOLE!" Really really terrific - I have taken to playing it back-to-back with Ciara's 'Make It Last Forever' which has the same Rob Base sample, it makes for an awesome just-leaving-house, quick-dance-round-room double whammy. Second only to 'Umbrella' in terms of stuff which has charted. Why is it not No 1 or similar?

Kleerup/Robyn - OK I may hate Robyn but I can't deny this song's power - for once she doesn't sound pleased with herself, she sounds astonishingly like Kate Bush. I love the way the 4/4 kick amps up the emotion, I love the way it feels like scenery rushing past on a train, I love the propulsion, and the lyrics are gorgeous. I was talking with another journalist last night about its success - we think that the internet hype machine DOES work, but with a massive time delay; so I'm attributing Robyn's success to both the delay in getting her stuff out, AND to the Annie effect, which would have softened radio programmers up to the idea of an Annie, but not in time for Annie herself

Beyoncé - in the bottom half of B'Day but still very tickworthy. Why do we get this and America gets 'Get Em Bodied'? NO FAIR. We never got 'Upgrade U' either :(

Amy - yeah this is OK, doesn't have the impact of her previous three singles though

The rest - EVZZZZZ.

Depressing news in the lower echelons of the chart - I see that the new Lumidee single has limped in at No 74, and I think that's with a physical release :( Five years ago that would've been a shoo-in for the top 10 :(

YES "Pussyole" is awesome - does the single mix have the chicken impression bit in?? School me on young person's slang O Lex - why is "a chief" bad?

In a world where Kate Nash spends 5 weeks in the Top 5 there is nobody who cannot be a pop star - long live the interwebs (I think).

CHIEF (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chief)

(I always hear it as...kind of related to 'chafe'? As in, 'one who chafes', an annoyance. It works better w/ expletives, eg "fuckin chief").

Yes it is Nash's success which makes me mildly hopeful for MIA this time around (though it's weird how some people totally flop! Róisín's single did nothing, neither did 'Boyz', and O MY POOR LUMIDEE)

I gave a grudging tick to 'Pussyole' because I'd probably dance to it but I am not at all impressed with the use of the Lyn Collins break 20 years on from it's original overload. Do not need to hear that break on any new tracks OK?!

as a lundum child 'chief' meant 'one who steals' (do you see how we did that); it's weird to me that that usage doesn't seem to be favoured by the urbandictionary kids, esp as i still enjoy saying for instance 'man is a dirty chief'.

should be 'teef' really as that's the patois. chief has positive status connotations so doesn't really work as a derogatory term.

it wasn't the patois round our way! 'chief' worked fine as a derogatory term, thanks tho.

you could use as a verb for stealin', and it to mean 'borrow' as well, all 'can I chief that ball off you?'.

At the weekend I sat next to someone on the train who had the chicken noise, "PUSSYOLE!" bit as their ringtone. It made me happy.

Get Me Bodied would have been a great choice for a single! It's somehow grown-up and serious and sounds big and nasty (so far as B can do 'serious') whereas Green Light is just thin and jittery.

And it has the amazing seven-minute extended version complete w/ dance moves. "Do the Naomi Campbell walk! Naomi Campbell walk!"

As you say 'Freakum Dress' would have been even better - the chorus has this immense spiralling gravitational pull to it. And 'Suga Mama' too - when she gets buckwild at the end ("Take my CREDIT CARDS! Sit on my LAP NOW!" it is awe-inspiring.

'Green Light' is OK but not much more.

Robyn's definitely going to be in my top 10 of the year which is GOOD as it gives FIVE MONTHS to try and sum up how awesome it is. Words are currently failing me. You're bang on about Kate Bush tho, I never twigged that before!

Lumidee only had one single that anyone bought though, surely?

(Disclaimer, may be selective memory in the extreme)

Yes but this is no reason why she should not have another!

Is that Weller and Coxon thing a Shakin' Stevens cover?

no i believe it's an original.

i ticked it mostly for sentimental reasons - totally inoffensive, people, and coxon singing means it's much more light-fingered than the shouty, sludgy stuff weller has been peddling of late. probably not really tick-worthy, but as i'd heard it...

Of the ones I'd listened to previously, Robyn gets a tick obviously (I still find the video kinda obnoxious though) and so does Amy. I can't remember the Cribs song at the moment but I am 99.99% sure it was shit - JESUS CHRIST SELF-PLAGIARISING YOUR OWN PREVIOUSLY SELF-PLAGIARISED WORK DOESN'T WORK (actually I kinda liked the previous albums, but y'know. Reinvention, or something). And um, I think I saw the Coxon/Weller live on some programme or another the other day - and no. Can it get any more unimportant?

I have youtubed Beyoncé and Dizzee Rascal, I kinda like both and both get ticks. I also youtubed the Simpsons thing, and it doesn't. I haven't got the willpower to youtube The Coral. To be honest, I am surprised they still exist

Coxon/Weller = potentially the most humorless old git of a song EVARZ.

I quite like Graham Coxon really and The Jam are good but REALLY.

Robyn is apparently number 2 in the midweeks and only 20 copies off number 1. EEEK!

A Year In Pop: 31

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Amy's back catalogue rifling even greater than hair height

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

DUTTY LICKLE TEEF

Re: DUTTY LICKLE TEEF

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

HRRRRRNK