A Year In Pop: 47

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Well, that was easy - only four new entries, unless I've read the BBC charts wrong. I'm also guessing that this might be the last week in which our overall winners might be troubled, but let's see.

[Poll #1095062]

Comments

[credoimprobus]

FLEX = SO AWESOME. I'd kinda forgotten how awesome, having not listened to Maff + English in a while; I think it comes into its own better as a single, too, in isolation from the rest of the album. Lets you notice it better, and all that!

I went completely off the Gurls earlier this year (suddenly this spring Wake Me Up & ilk sounded INCREDIBLY DATED to me; imagine my disappoinment when the new lead single followed the same old formula instead of moving forward), but Call the Shots absolutely redeemed them for me. Wonderful!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Ditto on GA. 'Wake Me Up' really has not aged well - for me it started dating the minute it was released as a single. I just...hardly ever listen to them any more, really! And they're still OK and good and all, but just nothing to get all excited about.

[credoimprobus]

Glad it's not just me that feels this way! (I kinda feared I might be speaking poptimist heresy by saying that, not that I'd let that stop me, heh.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

it does appear to be poptimist heresy, but if heresy means going against the kneejerk plaudits for poptimist-approved acts, I think we need more of it round here!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I find your distaste for the GA album a bit odd Lex - it's not substantially different to their last 3! Sure, you could argue the formula is wearing a bit thin, but nobody else is quite doing it. The "no surprises" card is an odd one to play - were you really expecting surprises from a Xenomania GA record?

(& the track that *is* a departure is the one you singled out for hate - "Black Jacks" feels like a lost All Saints single from their second album!)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Well 'Fling' is a surprise too in that it's actually UNLISTENABLE but these are not the surprises I want from GA! I dunno, the first four tracks are stellar and then it just abruptly loses its charm, there's nothing making me go back to it (haven't been compelled to return since the first listen). The lyrics are like an embarrassing parody of normal Miranda Cooper lyrics, too.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

"Fling" is the best thing on it!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It sounds like they're trying so desperately hard to make "The Mental Girls Aloud Song" but of all the ingredients only remembered the wackiness :(

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I don't think there are many other ingredients other than the chorus and the beat! And there don't need to be. It's a music hall song basically, the most English GA have ever been - it's seaside postcard naughtiness, not wackiness, which I know you can't stand either :)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Well they've always had a Carry On element to their music but usually there's something else there to counterbalance it! (ie to take the focus away because, yes, seaside postcard naughtiness is a terrible aesthetic, if I want to hear pop stars being rude we have Kim and Trina actually BEING rude)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I like hearing it unleashed sometimes - the second track, can't remember the title, is a bit like that too: the imaginary theme from the Brit comedy film about "Girls Aloud".

I haven't really got my head round the record after "Fling", cos I just dumped all the tracks on shuffle and half of them never seem to come up: the only real clunker for me is "Can't Speak French".

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I like the second one - until the fifth track I thought it was going to be a really interesting record in that it seemed to be more dance than ever, not in the scattershot melting pot way but in the way everything was streamlined and focused. Is 'Can't Speak French' the fifth one? It's kind of symptomatic because it's the sort of awkward clunky song they normally manage to pull off somehow (like 'Real Life'), whether through lyrics or performance or whatever, but 'Can't Speak French' is just graceless. And then it gets worse! I was really thankful for 'Crocodile Tears' at the end.