THE POP OPEN GROUP I: Fifties And Before

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

The Pop Open is BACK for Round 2!

If you haven't played before, here's the setup - each week, we put up 4 tracks (each selected by a member of Poptimists). You listen to them and vote for your two favourites in the poll below. The only thing is, you mustn't vote for anything you already knew. Tracks are anonymised at first then revealed after a couple of days, and results are announced next Monday. Anyone can vote! (well if they're logged in to LJ)

This week's theme is "Fifties And Before" - you can get hold of the tracks either as a 13Mb zipfile here, or by streaming them at Freaky Trigger, here. Go go go, you crazy beatniks you.

[Poll #1060889]

Thanks to stevem78, martinskidmore, inhibitorylinks and hauntedballroom for this week's tracks. If you are playing in Round 2 and haven't sent your track in yet, please do! :)

Comments

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I like my track best, but since a) I don't remember what I sent you, and b) I haven't DLed any of them yet, that may be a biased viewpoint.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

oh bollocks I remember the other weekend I eventually narrowed my own shortlist down to three (from about 15) and now I can't remember which three!

Attention Listeners

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Track 1 is v quiet so if you turned yr volume up to hear that on the stream adjust it down for the other ones :)

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Some good stuff here (and I knew none of them). We should make it a rule for all future games that all submissions must be from Fifties And Before :)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

TRACK TWO! I want to own EVERYTHING THIS WOMAN HAS RECORDED, whomsoever she may be. I got one of those reverse-influence feelings off her, you know, when you hear an old song and suddenly realise where a new band got their ideas from, in this case it's Nellie McKay, from the penchant for swooping melodies to the flippant wit.

I can't work out whether I know Track 4 or not, some lines ring a bell and others don't. Don't like his voice anyway.

I like 1 and 3 - KD Lang covered Track 3 for her smoking album, but I didn't know the original. Track 1 kind of reminds me of...the freakfolk scene, but played straight? CocoRosie, Devendra Banhart et al, except without the fucking smackable childish affectations, there's something quite lullabic about this but it's not put on or contrived. But I think I prefer the loucheness of 3.

[http://users.livejournal.com/xyzzzz__/]

hope you got mine, sent it a cpl of weeks ago, i think

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Well done everybody - a tough decision this one!

[mackromackro.livejournal.com]

I never got to post this for Round 1, so I'll do so for Round 2. Basically, the criteria I use to decide my votes:

1.How thematically DECADE-Y is the tuen
2.How authentically DECADE-Y is the tuen
3.How GRATE is the TUEN!

All three don't have to score highly, but just to give an idea. I noticed people weren't open about the science or possible lack thereof behind the votes. So I'm submitting myself as a guinea pig.

Anyway, Fifties and before:

1.I like this sort of thing usually, but this psrticular song didn't stick with me.
2.I would have liked this choice a lot more had it been more concise. I know this is likely a movement in a musical, so it's sacrilege to trim away at what's presented as a song. That said, I'm guessing this was going more for the Thematically 50's-and-before rather than recorded then. It's a pretty song, but it didn't end up sticking with me.
3.THIS is what I was hoping for! Spacey, sublime, and atomic. I love the ringing sounds of the top of the guitar neck I hear faintly in the background. I'll be impressed whether this was actually recorded in the 50s (or before) or not! This one easily stood out and got my #1 vote.
4.This one was alright, but not a winner. Except for #3, all the songs seemed longer than they actually were including this one. This one had some relative pep though. This got my #2 vote.

I would have strained for a good candidate for Fifties And Before round, so kudos to all of you who participated.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Track 1: was this the inspiration for The Animals' 'House of the Rising Sun'? I like his style of pronounciation. It sounds like it was probably a bit ahead of its time. Was this the first ever emo hit?

Track 2: this is more what I was expecting to hear from the category... an upbeat music hall number. I could imagine a Disney character singing this.

Track 3: the lament of the war widow, perhaps? No, it turns out it's an advert for smoking. Sexy, sultry vocals.

Track 4: a portent of what was to come... this is exactly the sound replicated by the early Beatles material.

A good selection to choose from. Tough decision awaits!