OMG OMG

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Fucking hell, Nicole Scherzinger!

I was totally hooked on the song already but that video is just OMG amazing, the Beyoncé nods turning into something really rather sinister and entirely Nicole's own. Her eyes in the hot coals scene! Some real The Ring shit there. And her hair flailing around in the brief silhouette scene! She is so, so fierce. I love her coldness + hugely sexual combination, she's like a Jackie Collins anti-heroine or something: on the face of it dislikeable and unsympathetic (cos she doesn't want or need your affection, fools) but you end up totally in her corner, rooting her on. (The key to her other new single 'Super Villain' is that she's pretending to be a nice girl wanting a bad boy but...this is Nicole motherfucking Scherzinger and she is not-so-secretly a super villainess herself).

Also, TI is so hott. And I haven't heard a guest rap which needed to be blanked out so much since Rasheeda's stellar turn on Petey Pablo's 'Vibrate' (warning - do not seek explicit version if you were offended by the Ying Yang Twins, but be aware that this is entirely your loss).

The song also confirms Polow Da Don's status as head'n'shoulders-above-all-others r&b producer du jour, even though it's a shameless retread of that unreleased song he did for Chilli (and for that matter Kelis's 'Blindfold Me') - it's all about those monolithically doomy bass chords over the chorus.

Faster, Lead Pussycat! Kill, kill!

Comments

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Although I like the Pussycat Dolls a lot, musically (I do take feminist issue with some of their off-CD expoundings) I've never liked Nicole. I don't like her singing style particularly (I feel it mars the songs somewhat when she makes that awful 'grooargh' noise that's supposed to be sexy, just to prove that she is really, really singing it with all her power... bleh) and I don't really find her hot at all (I prefer Melody) so I was fairly prepared to be really annoyed by her solo stuff.

However, I really like that. Tell me more of this producer- what might I know that he's done?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've heard any Pussycat Doll off-CD quotes! Though I am pushing hard for a Nicole S interview when she does promo here. I never know which the others actually are to be honest. I just think the level of vitriol which they seem to attract is indicative that they must be pretty great really.

Polow Da Don! He did 'Promise' and 'Bang It Up' off the Ciara album ('Promise' was my No 1 single of 06); 'Glamorous' and 'London Bridge' for the Ferg; 'Buttonz' for PCDs; 'Blindfold Me' for Kelis (worth comparing that to this actually - they're basically the exact same backing track, but 'Whatever You Like' and its video is no more sexual/submissive than 'Blindfold Me' and its video - yet Kelis has never been accused of setting feminism back, quite the opposite in fact); 'Like This' for Kelly Rowland; 'Throw Some Ds' by Rich Boy; and lots of others probably. His Wikipedia page probably has a full list.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Every now and then one of them comes out with a 'boys are stupid, throw rocks at them' sort of comment and that always hits my feminism button.

Ah, Kelis gets away with that sort of antics because she doesn't seem to work to be hot. Nicole has a bit of the Beyonce syndrome where it all looks calculated so it ends up seeming more pornographic/"selling sex" than is probably intended, whereas Kelis is sort of louche about it, a la Kate Moss so they both come off classier, even though of the four, Kelis and Ms Moss seem the most likely to put out.

Good lord, I had no idea the same producer was behind all of that lot. On the other hand, that's a damned good hitlist- I shall seek out the Kelis (and the Chilli you mentioned in the original post- I assume of TLC fame?) since they're the ones I haven't heard.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think Kelis kind of portrated herself as a maverick oddball auteur from the start? I remember the press calling her tha "r&b Alanis Morissette" etc (which they meant as praise). And that kind of stuck even though the Neptunes wrote all her songs and she was naked on the cover of Kaleidoscope - it's odd how the right press angle at the start of your career can set people's impressions of you in stone. Even if Nicole spent the rest of her career doing feminist rants like 'Winning Women' I still think she'd be accused of setting women's rights back ten generations, because of the PCDs' image and the, um, unsisterliness of 'Don't Cha'.

The Chilli track is called 'Straight Up' or something - I heard it on youtube. Almost certainly destined to remain in the vaults now.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

"portrated"? PORTRAYED