poptimists | A Year In Pop: 33

i don't think anyone else cares, do they? ;)

they will have had a single out before the festival season starts and now at the end another. they haven't had one in the middle as well have they?

and now at the end another

which will have been played on the radio for 4 weeks...

which will have been played on the radio for 4 weeks...

Yes, I am astonished to learn that this piece of crud is only just being released, it has been lurking around on the radio for months.

What is Elvis doing in the charts again?

The Fiddy is OK. I predict I will be the only one to tick it though while some indie bobbins will pull ahead, ROLLEYES.

The video for the KT Tunstall is quite fun, the song is v boring as ever.

This is but the first of many Elvis reissues.

They're commemorating the 30th anniversary of his death by re-releasing lots of his singles that didn't get to #1, giving them the once-in-a-lifetime chance to not get to #1 again.

Oh christ. *unticks on principle*

Yeah, and the brainiacs running the campaing released the single on a Thursday so it only had three days worth of sales for it's premier chart (which, as far as I'm concerned, is the only week it will make number one as all the big fans will run out right away and buy it).

The Fiddy might be better if they'd bothered to create a beat rather than held the mic vaguely near an Atari ST loading screen.

how dare you sir. the Atari ST had MIDI support. this is more Amstrad CPC

I have ticked Ayo Technology but it should've come out 2 years ago - the 'Minority Report' pastiche in the video says even before that.

Haha I had no idea that the Gym Class Heroes

i. are proper awful rappers like in the good old days
ii. have CUNNINGLY CHANGED THE WORDS to "We don't have to take our clothes off." to "We DO have to take our clothes off".

The old romantics!

Meanwhile how come HARD HITTING Hard-Fi's video isn't just a grey screen saying "EXPENSIVE HIGH-CONCEPT VIDEO" or something? They're song's OK mind you - they could do with dubbing it up more and using less words. I might tick this.

They should also cover ONE IN TEN.

no Ordinary Boys should do One In Ten surely.

Hard Fi can do SHACK UP

THEY'RE - christ tom get 1x grip.

KT Tunstall - she almost gets a tick, her song's alright.

Ben's Brother - WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS? It's the new Wet Wet Wet, oh good. Also worst band name since Pigeon Detectives.

Even wetter than the Wets - their album is called 'Beta Male Fairytales'.

They remind me of the Fun Lovin' Criminals: NEGATIVE TICK.

Yeah they're not actually getting a tick - they make me want to ~~drink some cherry wine~~ hear Jermaine Stewart rly.

I know I've mentioned this here before but the Gym Class Heroes album is really good fun! The awesomeness of track 3 (New Friend Request) sucked me in and the remaining 12 tracks could do no wrong.

If there is a point to this it's that whilst they sound like they should be a singles band, I don't think they are - all the songs sound better when accompanied by the rest of the (cough *concept* cough) album.

If there is a point to this it's that whilst they sound like they should be a singles band, I don't think they are - all the songs sound better when accompanied by the rest of the (cough *concept* cough) album.

This = true. Have you heard their first album (The Papercut Chronicles) too? It is very very good, if a little serious and they haven't quite got the hang of how to deal with themselves yet so the song about teenage suicide re: being gay comes out a bit vitriolic but otherwise it is full of equal delight to 'As Cruel As Schoolchildren.'

My favourite song by them is 'It's OK, but just this once!' Cus it takes the sum of all the others and makes a mess of it.

I've not heard The Papercut Chronicles, but if it's good I'll certainly investigate! Actually hadn't heard of it until the weekend when I did the crash course in BEING A REAL FAN. ;)

I think my favourite is still New Friend Request. That deadpan signoff makes me grin like a loon wherever I happen to be (trains and work, generally).

It reminds me of my friend John's description of an auto-reader for the blind internet user experiencing Lloyd Grossman's myspace: 'LOLOLOLOL PAGE DOWN PAGE DOWN' (ie: it is brilliant)

I've been kind of afraid of giving it a try because I kind of can't see them going anywhere without the factor of the guest vocals and the 80s sampling. I sorta want to give it a listen now, you've got me curious!

Yes, do give it a try! My expectations were so low but the songs do work without the sampling and the guest vocals - the lyrics on the album are much better than those in the singles, if that's going to be a factor for you. I just can't stop playing the album, really, I'm having to make myself so I don't play it endlessly and then get sick of it in about a month.

absolutely rotten. i have been mocking to myself the way he sings "let meh ayoowt" a lot. worst album title of the decade also.

Gym Class Heroes - not as good as the supertramp one.

Elvis - still good. TICK

Hard Fi - the kerfuffle about their cover art is quite amusing. Mixed opinions on the song itself: good intro but boring verse, ok chorus. His eyebrows scare me. Marginal non tick as I couldn't be bothered to listen through to the end, though it's the best thing I've heard them do.

Pigeon Detectives - I'm trying to search for something redeeming about this. It's quite fast? If the guitars, bass and vocals were taken away that would definitely be some drums playing, over which a better song could be written? Gaaaaah make it stop.

Fiddy Pee - I quite like this! Fiddy's rapping is still a bit off the boil but the backing sounds like an old-school Amiga game and that's always good. Justin is wasted on the chorus though: "tired of technology"? Sort it out man! Marginal TICK.

Foos - good intro and reasonable build-up. Doesn't really grab me though. Marginal non-tick.

Tunstall - Yeah this is alright. Can't expand more as I have to leave work in a second to let the plumber in. TICK.

Ben's Brother - rub piano balladry. Come back Keane all is forgiven.

Athlete - low expectations, met.

Not the most encouraging week :-(

Er, someone has ticked 'Not Heard Any'. Seriously? Which member of

poptimists has not heard the new ~~Gym Class Heroes~~ Elvis single?!!

I only ticked Pigeon Detectives... haven't heard KT but I'm sure it would be a tick. New Hard-Fi song is alright I s'pose, not deserving of a tick though. Will almost certainly go top 5 at the weekend, and the new album will sell by the bucketload according to all reviews.

Don't like new Athlete, have only heard the new Foos once so can't really comment, and haven't heard Fiddy & Justin, although I'm sure it's amazing!

Athlete's chances of lots of airplay might be a bit buggered, maybe? Not much call for a pop song about a hurricane at the moment.

Didn't hurt "Umbrella"!

Yeah, this is true.

Although, it might have done if Umbrella was actually called Flooded Village With Dying Child or something.

Perhaps that's why it has charted!

Elvis is fucking shit. Can they stop re-releasing his stuff now PLEASE.

I wholeheartedly agree

Generation Vanilla Ice agrees!

yes how can elvis compete with the genius of skunk anansie and fall out boy???

Well I don't know if that was sarcastic or not but I'm sure it was reasonably obvious from my title that I was referring to the Eminem lyric along the lines of 'embarassed their parents still listen to Elvis' and positing that Elvis, although important historically, had v. little actual relevance to People Of My Age.

Elvis was actually a pretty hard sell even to Generation Rock Steady Crew - it took me ages to like him even a little, doing Popular and having to think about him more helped, and then establishing "Jailhouse Rock" as a terrific end-of-night track at Poptimism was the first time I actually loved him.

'and then establishing "Jailhouse Rock" as a terrific end-of-night track at Poptimism'

egad, when did this happen?

At Club Popular unsurprisingly but I've used the trick a cpl times since (not actually at Poptimism I grant you)

A Year In Pop: 33

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CLEVER WORDING CHEERS

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Bob's parents aren't back for another six hours

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Ben's Brother Must Die

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Generation Eminem speaks

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