poptimists | A Year In Pop: 38

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2007

A Year In Pop: 38

JEBUS Poptimists has been quiet this week - this is what happens when Kat's away and I'm ill. But now it's back back etc with a Year In Pop which livens up a little towards the back end with the electro-rock new Sugababes single and the debut of Feist, who seems to be a regular on the Poptimists last.fm lists but who I have never heard, until shortly... after.... posting.... this....

As for Elvis, he said it, not me.

[Poll #1060304]

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It's been on an advert hasn't it?

I like her voice quite a lot!

I like the jaunty tune a bit.

I am not sure I like the combination of her voice with the jaunty tune though - it's like two slightly clashing colours/flavours. The kind of twee that wants to wander off and pick daisies mixing with the kind of twee that wants to hold hands in a circle.

If I decide I want to hear it again then I will probably tick it.

It sounds like it was written *for* an advert, which I don't mean as an insult.

The video is horrible! Ugh so twee. I love her first album but have only just acquired the new one...on one listen I don't think it's as good, and this isn't one of the standouts, but it's still "any good at all". I'm going to try to put the vile video out of my mind b/c I like to imagine Feist as a loungey MOR easy listening type, she really nailed that aesthetic on Let It Die rather than an indie tweester.

Can't remember what the standout songs are called on The Reminder but search 'Inside & Out', 'When I Was A Young Girl', 'L'amour Ne Dure Pas Toujours' and 'Mushaboom' off the first.

Also it is really weird to see her in the top 40.

Incidentally, PJ Harvey's single was released this week as well...what happened to it? Yes I know it was never going to do that well but all her previous lead singles have managed to go top 50 at least.

Probably something to do with her last album being rubbish, I imagine.

Even the singles off that went top 40 though! To go from that to completely missing the top 100 is weird, it happened to Bjork as well this year (bizarrely given the Timbaland hype).

also I actually really like Uh Huh Her

Lex OTM. Let It Die >>>>>> The Reminder.

must listen to the first album, The Reminder has really grown on me and I like it a lot now.

heard 'Inside Out' for first time in nearly 2 years the other week and can't believe i slept on it for so long.

Check out the Van She Technologic remix of '1234', it's very good imo.

This is alright. I can't be the only person who is aware of BILLIAM from endless spam links at the top of my gmail though. The sense of slight desperation that engenders carries over to the cheapo production and lame sleb-referencing lyrics.

It sounds like the kind of thing Popjustice would make a minor, slightly distracted fuss over if he was having a very quiet day. Or a Scooch follow-up single.

A tick just for workrate and for being the kind of thing you don't see in the charts much anymore.

Billiam = Phixx but less porny and with a REALLY bad name. And tbh the only redeeming factor about Phixx was the porniness. As much as we wring our hands about the death of a certain type of pop I think it's a REALLY GOOD THING that this kind of cheap by-the-E-numbers desperation has died a death...

Yeah I think it only works at all for me because it sounds more like Erasure than Phixx.

Billiam less porny?! Did you not see the promo pics? I think they're on their myspace. They're all naked posing in a barn or something. It looks like the cover of a bad porno.

omg I had not seen that pic it is very porny indeed! it is a pity that none of them are very good-looking.

yeah they are in fact quite vile

The one called Stephen is particularly bad, The weak chin! The thin lips!

It is so bizarre to me that the first I heard of a new boyband is when they're in the charts. I guess this is what happens when I leave the country. But still, they are so awful I can't see why anyone would buy their songs, or why anyone would think that people were going to buy their songs. The market for this sort of thing is long gone. I love boybands and few things annoy me as much as terrible ones giving their superior peers a bad name.

As touched upon the other week, the secret Sugaweapon all along has been their HARMONIES. This does the traditional lead Sugasingle thing of sounding underwhelming initially before the MASSIVE HOOK embeds itself in your head. Really love this song.

Sugababes >>>>> Girls Aloud, I think.

The hook is definitely growing on me (I finally "got" Sexy NNN at the w/end too) - the tippy-tappy drums though seem very weak. It's definitely good, though, there's a feeling of latter-day New Order about it, except it doesn't have honking Barney on it.

Yeah I think New Order might be a better comparison point than the Strokes actually! Though really what the guitary beat at the start reminds me of is Paris's 'Nothing In This World' ie a liter dancier rip of 'Since U Been Gone'.

No surprise as it was written by Dr. Luke, who did Nothing In This World and Since U Been Gone!

I found that most of Feist's second album either jumped out at me as being really quite good, and the other bits have grown better with time. Obviously though, twee women are my bag, so some bias there. It all works better when it's sunny weather though!

I still need to hear the first album but all buying activity is off for me until, well, until I get more money from some kind of magic leprechaun pot.

I am always surprised (as I was last week) to see Feist on my charts, because I rarely remember actually listening to her, let alone liking her. Unlike Alex, I found the whole MOR thing quite underwhelming, whereas the indie-pop (My Moon My Man) perfectly satisfying. Lex's tastes are surprisingly unpredictable sometimes.

Babyshambles - *deep breath* OK an impartial view: very poor video for an ok song. For various reasons I'm familiar with the BS back catalogue and this is def one of their better ones. The chorus is RUBBISH but the verse is alright. Aaarrrgh arrrgh no I still can't bring myself to tick this. God he's an evil t0sser.

Elvis - botherd

Ian & Shnayed - Ignoring the ridiculous lyrics for a moment, the (cello?) riff is interesting and meaty. Oh God the video is terrible! There's no way this is getting any sort of tick, is there?

Enemy - hmm, the parkas are putting me off already. I think there's something wrong with this chap's eyes? This is one of the most uninteresting pieces of music I think I've ever heard.

Billiam - ah is this 2007's Whigfield? Bless 'em, they're making a good stab at it and look cheerful. The dance might be a bit complicated for everyone to follow, but nonetheless: Tick!

Sugababes - or SugaSTROKES more like dys. Yeah it's alright this - I can see it growing on me. It just seems a little... thin? But perhaps that's what's needed here. Tick. BUT the video = RUB, do something INTERESTING girls rather than just sticking your bums out whilst leaning against a wall.

Feist - I approve of Feist in general and I LOVE LOVE LOVE 'My Moon My Man' (which has equally good if not better video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWrNCCx2p5U)). Unluckily for Feist, this song is nowhere near as good as MMMM and I am going to go away and listen to that instead.

In some ways it's nice that political pop is back Back BACK! (see also: Manu Chao) but I'm not sure I actually need to hear the records.

I couldn't work out if this Grauniad article was taking the p*ss out of Brown, or if he was sending himself up, or what:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/music/story/0,,2168249,00.html

I'm not a big lyric-listener, which means I can enjoy the song without having to worry about the sub-sixth form political lyrics. And the strings sound great, they give the song real energy. Plus I've always lived Sinead's voice, and it makes a lovely contrast with his on this.

Yeah, this is my only solid tick of the week so far, dramatic, intense, more mournful than angry, though I agree with everyone else about the fatuousness of the lyrics.

I did indeed read that and think 'WTF'! I imagine they ran out of space to fit in his full/incoherent explanations.

I ticked it because it's a great tune. It's just a shame the lyrics are such a STEAMING PILE OF TURD.

I ticked "Illegal Attacks" as a protest vote. (The protest is against the Feist and Sugababes not being nearly as good as they should be, or as good as this, though I'll probably convince myself to tick the 'babes in a few minutes; Lex'll probably be right about the delayed payoff.)

The thing I like about the Sugababes record is it tackles head on the current dominance of guitar bands by borrowing from them up to a point - the chugging, chiming guitars that dominate the first verse in particular bring to mind one of my favourite 2007 bands, Ghosts - while mixing in other sounds too and keeping the melody as DUMB as possible so that it instinctively feels more pop than its model.

Does that make sense?

OK put another way: Sugababes try to go a bit indie, fail miserably and make something more interesting instead.

I'm really crushingly disappointed by the new Sugababes single; it just sounds so anaemic. If it were a third or fourth single from the album I could probably overlook it, but as an opener it really worries me. The lyrics are fine, the singing is great, but that horrid Casio backing just won't do at all.

That said, it's either them or Shayne Ward for number one this week, so I'm putting aside my personal issues with the single and buying about 20,000 copies for the good of the country.

Shayne Ward? REALLY? I was expecting him to scrape the top 20. It surely can't be thanks to No U Hang Up? Anyway, how exciting that it is Max Martin vs. Dr Luke fighting for the no.1! Must go and blog about this right now!

It's higher than I hoped for, although apparently Sugababes were inching ahead towards the end of the week. Fingers crossed! Although frankly I think Max Martin, Dr Luke and Cathy Dennis all need to take long hard looks at themselves for their involvement in these below-par singles.

Which was Cathy involved in?

She wrote 'About You Now' with Dr Luke, I think. Unless I'm wrong, which is a distinct possibility.

Actually it does ring a bell. I like About You Now but with that great a combination of writers I would expect something a bit more amazing. I don't think it's as good as any of their other first singles of albums, except for Overload which I never really loved.

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A Year In Pop: 38

My thoughts on Feist

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PJH

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Billiam

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Sugababes

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Ian & Skinhead

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Grind the lyrics of the poor

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These are commercial crusades

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