A Year In Pop: 51

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Because I know that filling in the same poll twice is every child's Christmas dream, here it is again (this time with checky boxen)

[Poll #1110912]

Best of the wobstide to you all.

Comments

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

the 'Wow' intro somehow pleasantly reminds me of Kiki Dee's 'Star' - slight note/chord pattern similarity.

Tick Shortage Threatens To Doom Holiday Music Week

[koganbot]

Leon Jackson "When You Believe" - Sincere, sentimental balladeer, voice is warm but far too rigid for a song that needs to take flight. Not that the song itself is a great contribution to aeronautics. How did this guy win? Was the field really terrible, or was the voters' taste particularly bad?

Malcolm Middleton "We're All Going To Die." OK, suppose you walked into the local community center. I mean, this'd be a pleasant surprise, right? You'd expect some shuffling guy, straining and mumbling but not getting it. Whereas Malcolm at the mic, he doesn't oversing, just goes along with the song. Not that that's worth anything like a tick.

The Killers "Don't Shoot Me Santa." Appropriate followup to the Morbid Middleton. But other than the references to teasing and death, I don't see what's supposed to be interesting about this. The kid kills other kids, so Santa comes to kill him. And? Where's the interesting twist? The melody isn't horrible, the singing isn't particularly inspired, the arrangement is ratty and meager but just in a cheap not in a compellingly spare way.

Kylie Minogue "Wow." Haven't heard the Kiki Dee that Steve refers to, but the "Wow" intro reminds me of the snow-bright rhythm of "Holiday"; unfortunately this song has a melody that's light-years worse than Madonna's (not to mention Jessica Simpson's "A Public Affair"). This is the epitome of meh.

Filo & Peri f. Eric Lumiere "Anthem." I can't hear how the techno-trance beats add much to what would do better as a straightforward pop-rock power ballad. Chorus would have been okay on its own, I guess, but no tickee.

Kate Nash "Pumpkin Song." OMG. It's down to dumb, smug, "clever," never-been-ticked-before-by-me Kate Nash to prevent my first-ever DON'T LIKE ANY. Her voice is precious - gawd, it really is - biting in a way that pretends to, I don't know, teeth. When she hits the stomping chorus and calls for a kiss the music is stomping even if she's more smackable than kissable. She is worth hating, isn't she? But there's something here - force, presence - that makes this enough better than Any Good At All to squeak into Tickland. But just barely.

grr

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

Being away from pop for a while was REALLY ANNOYING as I had so many things to say about the last clutch of pop albums but now they're old and my insights, dubious at the best of times, are now also untimely.

But with "Wow" as a single, I can say something. It's not very good. The whole Kylie album is not very good. I mean, yes, Kylie, clever you and your people for working out that "Love At First Sight" is the secret world-beater in your catalogue (either that or "Confide In Me" would be my Kylie pick-only-one), but you didn't have to Xerox it so atrociously just because your last, awful, single did so badly.

I mean, you can get away with that sort of thing in your 20s - Madonna's singing on, say, "Lucky Star" is a perfect example of this. Kylie now sounds too old, too wise to fall so fast, it's not believable to me, and partly it's because of the lyrics here. The lyrics are really awful, whereas LAFS was absolutely spot-on there, simple, almost surprised in the verses, and then WOW BANG I AM REALLY EXCITED AND HAPPY TO BE IN THIS POSITION AND ROCKET SHIPS ARE TAKING OFF IN MY HEART AND YOU CAN HEAR THEM IF YOU LISTEN CLOSELY. "Wow" doesn't do this. "Wow" is one lazy stab at glee that aims for giddy and misses by an enormous mark. The melody that would carry such a breathless declaration just isn't there. The scratchy "wow" bits don't sound like a great bit of pop punctum, it just sounds like it's there to fill the end of the line. And the music, frankly, for such an eager-to-please wash of 80s, isn't anywhere near funky enough.

She should have released the one truly joyous moment she has left: "In My Arms" (though the pacing of the demo version, particularly its spoken bits, is a lot cooler than the album version).

Re: grr

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I basically agree with this, though I think the only really joyously great song on...I had to actually think for a minute about what the Kylie album is called, it slipped my mind so completely. Anyway the only good song on X is 'The One'. I'm not disappointed by X because Kylie is a holdover from the days when no pop act ever made a good album, but she forgot the world-beating single as well this time.

('Love At First Sight' is so good because it's v generic; Xeroxing something already generic just doesn't work.)

Re: grr

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

"The One" has a really boring chorus though. I do love the "can you hear me?" bit, but the "I'm the one, love me love me love me" bit is a bit.. well, not very sparkling.

There are no good choruses on X.

Re: grr

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'('Love At First Sight' is so good because it's v generic; Xeroxing something already generic just doesn't work.)'

ha, i still don't buy this

if i was able to hear 'wow' and 'love at first sight' for the first time together i'd think 'wow' was much better. as it happens i do prefer it anyway.

i don't get the dislike for it, one of the best on the album (with another 4 or 5 songs on it altho they do sound like they were made for someone younger and fresher and probably were).

We're All Going To Indie

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

moar like

Re: We're All Going To Indie

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Can we delete everyone who ticked it please? I can't believe it just got DOUBLE Samim/P Diddy's numbers in the quietest week of the year. SHAME.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Sorry to do a Lex but who the hell is Malcolm Middleton and why so popular?

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

former Arab Strap singer, 'nuff said.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Right I've only just got around to listening to these!

Leon - not a patch on Whitney/Mariah. One of the most lacklustre renditions of any song ever? He's trying his hardest and it's just not cutting the mustard compared to Leona.

MM - whatevs.

Killers - this is INSANE. Tick.

Kylie - I saw this on the X Factor final and did a sadface :( :( :(

Filo & Pastry - emo-trance-by-numbers with an ok vocal that trails off into acoustical noodling, then picks up again with some banging beats. I am disappointed that no-one in the video is running whilst holding a suitcase. Borderline non-tick.

Gnash - Don't laugh but I think this is her best one so far! OK, it's her least annoying one so far. As in, I heard it the other week and I quite want to hear it again. Tick.