A Year In Pop: 45

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

A somewhat bijou poll this - and maybe should be even more so if "Valerie" is the same "Valerie" that's at #4 in the charts, just on a different record so credited different - can anyone enlighten?

[Poll #1087141]

Comments

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

I really like 2 Hearts and anyone who says different can feel my pasty wrath.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

NB: actually a lot of it is crap but that bit where it gets all strutty is AMAZING. I heard it in Subway the other day and got so distracted I let them put cheese on my sandwich. Not the good cheese, either, the rubbish cheese that makes your sandwich taste of burger.

i'm with the pirate queen on this one

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

glad someone is standing up for this. i'm still not entire sure which of the kylie stuff i've been listening to is official and which is outtakes, but i'm quite happy with it (interesting discussion possible in which we really can just kylie not what she actually does (ie. the music we hear) but her creative choices thereof (ie. seems like nearly a full album of 'rejects' - what did she choose and why? and am i, the listener, free to evaluate her based on what I choose to be her 'new album,' as if whatever songs i don't like she didn't actually release.

Re: i'm with the pirate queen on this one

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I dunno if it needs "standing up for" - scorewise it's doing pretty well! There are a few vocal hataz - I don't think it's a throwback at all, there's often been a rock element to La Kylie and I've yet to hear anyone else make the Goldfrapp-y sound as immediate (Goldfrapp included).

Slightly wary of the album now though - I tend to trust the Lex when he's not got the guitar blinkers on.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Isn't it another Ronson one? I thought we'd already had it in the chart. :/

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

the 'Valerie' which has been in the charts for a while = Ronson and Winehouse official cover
the 'Valerie' which is new this week = Winehouse solo acoustic Live Lounge cover which people have been downloading in error, thinking it is the other one!!!!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Kylie - she's bloody gorgeous. The song is very good but not amazing. But she so pretty....

Elvis - one of my fave Elvis tracks this! Mainly because I always think of Maid Marian & Her Merry Men singing about chinese takeaway to this tune.

Nickelback - the lyrics are absolutely hilarious, are they actually being serious? Rubbish video but a comedy tick nonetheless.

Celine - this is pretty good! Can't actually describe why as I'm sort of hallucinating at my desk right now, everything is going all blurry.

Winelodge - we've had this already, innit?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Hahaha I am clearly going to be the only person to tick Nickelback in my delirious state. But seriously guys: "I'm gonna sing those songs that offend the censors, gonna pop my pills from a Pez dispenser." AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH amazing.

I am going to have some more ibuprofen now.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I wuz in a meeting from posting this to now so I haven't youtubed them yet. I will listen to Rockstar once I get back in from sandwich buying.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

isn't there the new Spice single as well? not that it matters given how tedious that is...

first DON'T LIKE ANY in a while: '2 Hearts' is still a terrible regression, a gigantic step backwards and horrid example of playing it safe even when Kylie of all people in 2007 could have pretty much gotten away with ANYTHING. Cf and contrast with Britney.

as for the rest - I've been talking of Celine in positive terms recently but when it comes down to it the times I can actually listen to her music are scarce enough that I don't really feel compelled to try this out. Nickelback vile, Elvis wvs, and if I wasn't feeling the proper 'Valerie' there's no way an acoustic version will endear me to it.

Pleased to see that the new Alicia Keys is storming up the charts - I still feel that Poptimists let themselves down quite badly when rejecting it last week.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Have you heard the Studio "2 Hearts" remix Lex? I've been listening to that a lot more than the original, though I do really like it.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yes! I really like it.

I've heard the Kylie album in full - there are a couple of good blippy electro tracks (and nothing further in the indie chug vein of '2 Hearts') but it's still a very, very poor effort.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Has it actually leaked? I need a copy for Pitchfork - should have taken The Nipper up on his kind offer at Poptimism!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

dunno if it's leaked - I had to stream it in shitty quality off the EMI website. It seems very limp and bloodless next to the Britney - I'm disappointed by how bloody safe it is, it seems that Kylie has really embraced her status as All-Round Family Entertainer.

[awesomewells.livejournal.com]

Your friend Peter Robinson said exactly the same thing in the OMM yesterday.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

His review (which I've just read) is basically otm! Mindmeld at last!

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

but you both love Keane!

[koganbot]

Lex, listen to the the Celine Dion song, for chrissakes. It is written and produced by someone who, for instance, did "La La" and "Come Clean."

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Yes, where is Spice Girls and Kanye???

Delete and start again!

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

oh wait, Kanye was in the chart before (a month ago! why back now?)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

it seems that it hung around the lower end of the top 40 based on downloads - it's only just been physically released...same happened with the Scherzinger.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

I must say I thought hardly anyone bought physical singles any more, especially after Britney went down the chart the week "Gimme More" got a physical release.

But it seems there's no second guessing the GBP. (See also Kylie's moderate showing this week.)

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I think she sold more that week though - she only went down thanks to massive new entries from Leona & Take That.

Big sellers still sell quite a big proportion on physical these days, although it's declining all the time.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Apparently 'Gimme More' still sold more that week than it had on downloads - but it went down the chart because it was a monster week for new releases (People's Leona et al), in any normal week it might have actually gone to No 1.

It's interesting that Kylie and the Spices have done relatively little on download - the relationship between initial success on download and eventual overall success seems odd and unpredictable. It doesn't necessarily mean they'll be flops but given the magnitude of both songs and comparing to how well Britney, Rihanna and People's Leona did as soon as they were available...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Poor Kanye. His mum just died :(

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I saw that this morning and felt quite sad, based entirely on Kanye's REALLY CORNY but also REALLY VERY SWEET AND MOVING tribute to her on his second album!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Cosmetic surgery complications!!! Poor Kayne.

[andthatisthat.livejournal.com]

Would it be insensitive of me to say "at least this means he's well-suited to auditioning for The X Factor next year"?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes the BBC site was INCREDIBLY confusing this week - apologies to Spicers, they aren't likely to drop out the chart next week tho so we'll have them then.

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

I doubt many people will want to tick the Spice Girls one given its bloody awful so not too much harm done!

sundar and i

[anthonyeaston.livejournal.com]

talked about this, and i think one of the great things abuot the nickelback single (aside from it piles evidence onto my rawk=nucuntry thesis) is that it is sort of post irony. you have to take it as a joke, and seriously, simultaneously.

so, yeah it is making fun of those "playboy bunny with the bleach blonde hair " but they are in on the joke, everyone is one the joke, and a whole class of people is making their living on being in on the joke, with doing nothing but being in on the joke.

and i think that nickelback is also in on the joke as well, letting the zz top dude do the excelent comedy reading of the quesadilla line, while still maintaining that they are being ultra serious, so they can appear to not sell out, to a crowd that still is worried about what hollywood means, while preaching to the audience that selling out is the greatest thing on earth...

this is more in the video then it is in the song--but even the song, with that glorius hook, the spitsung agression of the lyrics, and the pleasure baiting, is fantastic.

I ticked them all

[koganbot]

Lex, this is the first week I ticked them all, though I had to renege on my Elvis boycott to do it. Anyway:

Celine - Gorgeous and eerie even if she misses the original version's anguish and risk. (Her Heart cover is even better.) Really, seriously, all you nontickers, did you even bother to listen to this?

Kylie - Builds and builds and finally kicks butt.

Nickelback - Nice and twangy and easy for what are basically grunge vocals.

Amy Winehouse - OK, I've only heard the Ronson version so that's what I was ticking on the basis of, will have to YouTube this version, but anyway, the version I heard was light soul, which I like for its lightness.

Re: I ticked them all

[koganbot]

OK, live Val, Amy's spending a lot of the vid looking at her nails and fidgeting, but her voice knows what to do. This version is unnecessary since we've got the other one, and she really really does not need to wiggle her voice so much (in comparison to her fingers), but this is nice enough. Won't make me untick.

Re: I ticked them all

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I still haven't listened to the Celine and the Nickelback!

I am planning a huge wallow in YouTube over Xmas where I go back and re-listen to all this stuff.

[koganbot]

Still only five votes for Celine. Grumble grumble. It's not the greatest song of the year, but it's better than "2 Hearts" and "Valerie."