Another Year In Pop: 7

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Dudes we've totally got a new number one! Welsh lass Duffy has booted off Basshunter into the murky depths of number three. But is she any good at all?

[Poll #1140294]
NB Tickers should bear in mind that the Utah Saints track is a new remix, 'Something Good '08'.

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Thanks Kat!

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

No probs! Hopefully I haven't left anything off this week.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Duffy - I liked this enough to download it on Saturday! I guess lots of other people had the same idea, as Nickelback were totally at number one in the midweeks. Anyway, tick!

H20 & Platnum - hooray! I think this is actually better than 'You Bring Me Flowers'.

Onerepublic - lord this dude's face doesn't get any less emo, does it? No idea what the hell is going in the video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=2zk7U70CDOs), but its 1.14 before the music kicks in. This is as droney as the last single but the vocal isn't as catchy.

Paramore - good video, reasonable song, can't be arsed to listen to it again though so no tick.

Simple Plan - this could be a lot worse! I quite like the video and I don't actually want to smack the band round the head. Good opera-rock middle 8! It sounds a lot like No Doubt! Just about worthy of a tick, I think.

Utah Saints - I really like the remix of this! I wish they'd released it before I'd written this (http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/pop/2007/10/blog-92-u-u-u-utah-saints/) :) The new video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=oMLCrzy9TEs) is pretty good, too.

Flo & T - This sounds like about ten zillion other crunk-n-b tracks. I'm starting to lose patience with it all this stuff tbh. It's ok, but nowhere near as good as the Lil Mama track Lex posted the other week :(

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'hooray! I think this is actually better than 'You Bring Me Flowers'.'

you mean (I'll Bring You) 'Flowers'? sadly it seems the SFA girls never received any in return. actually since when do the women bestow the flowers anyway? there's more to this song than meets the ear.

[infov0re.livejournal.com]

Utah Saints: yeah, decent enough remix, and that it actually keeps lots of made the original fun, and the video is a fun poke at a) retroism and b) stupid dance-craze videos. I do miss the "EW YOU EWE U-TAR SAINTS!", tho.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

re: the continued non-appearance of Lil' Mama on these shores, or her album in any stores, I heard it was because her mother died last year :(

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

"Low" is An Grower, trust me. Really really love the shoulders/ soldier/ Rover/ clover/ toaster/ poster bit in the second verse. Some good remixes starting to appear as well.

[spazhammer.livejournal.com]

is it just me os are paramore just avril backed by a metal band?

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The wild-eyed Avril madness isn't there!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

AMAZING:

H2O ft Platnum - I have gone on about this many times already (http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/516350.html); if you live under a rock and haven't heard it, please don't give me an embolism by admitting it, just tick the damn thing anyway. My favourite bit is when the bassline kicks in one last time for the last go-round, total leap into the air moment. Number one next week I think!

Flo Rida ft T-Pain - I've gone on about this before (http://community.livejournal.com/poptimists/508938.html) as well; I love how I was so negative about its chances on the UK chart. We're still weeks away from its actual release - it's going to be massive. Oops! But I like being proved wrong here because it absolutely deserves its impending ubiquity.

NOT SURE WHAT I THINK:

Duffy - OK, this is a reasonable tune, and she knows how to swing with it a lot better than Adele, but...in what sense is she not just a high-end tribute act to 60s pop? Is there anything of 2008 in this at all? Is there anything of HERSELF? It's so depressing that this appears to capture the mood in this country. It's like everyone's trying to be Amy Winehouse, but has no idea of why Amy Winehouse is great. Kitty Empire's Obs column (http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2257386,00.html) yesterday on this subject was really great, I thought, and I may well start a poptimist thread later. Anyway, Duffy: it is any good at all, we are a few cuts above Adele territory, but I cannot support this at all.

DISAPPOINTING:

Utah Saints - yeah just listen to the new video and og video back to back. ain't no contest. WVS.

Paramore - Avril but more annoying and screechy. It might grow on me but I don't really care yet. Points off for being Xtians.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE FUCK OFF AND DIE:

Simple Plan and OneRepublic.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I like that column and will have plenty to say should you start a thread!

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

AGREED on Duffy. It's like, Amy can do that shit because there's no mistaking it, lyrically, for anyone else and definitely not for the 60s soul-pop she's emulating, where as 'Mercy' might as well be a cover version.

Who put the "why" in Duffy?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

DUFFY: OH TEH CYNICISM it is an opening that reminds you of "Rehab" except optimistic Duffy is singing YEH YEH YEH not NO NO NO. This is alright actually, as you'd expect given how much marketing wedge has been thrown at it. There's something foul, or maybe just lazy, about its calculated style-grabbing but yeah, a tick, why not. By the way. if everyone on Poptimists listens to Duffy lots this week and it knocks the #1 off OUR charts then she'd be....DUFFY THE VAMPIRE WEEKEND SLAYER. When I'm on, I'm on.

H TWO O: This is one of the hitz of the year already, obviously, and I'm particularly pleased to hear it because it means BASSLINE 4 EVA HATAZ 4 NEVA. Not that I've met a bassline hata since Simon R bigged it up, bloggers have no integrity these days, they won't even slag a trend for being commercial chav shiny bobbins.

ONEREPUBLIC: Haha when Timbaland did his "I love Coldplay" routine we all just laughed but WHO IS LAUGHING NOW. Not the dude from Onerepublic that's for sure. Lumbers along in adequate style, no tick.

PARAMORE: HOURGLASSES DONT TICK FFS. Paging Tanya. Didn't we do this last year? Or was that another Paramore track? OMG I forgot to post about the FALL OUT BOY COMIC that is coming out! Another comic for Starry to buy. This hops about too much, every time it finds a hook it seems to want to move on from it. No tick.

SIMPLE PLAN: This is better pop-rock than Paramore I think. Still a bit plodding though: I like the mangled keyboard bit at the start but it vanishes too quickly. Marginal nontick.

UTAH SAINTS: Bosh up the bosh - still good! Comical video too. Loses points for not going U U U UTAH SAINTS but still a tick.

FLO RIDA: This reminds me a bit of '03-'04 somehow, Nelly and suchlike? More crunky obviously but similarly breezy. Nice big hook. I approve. Tick.

Not a bad week really!

Re: Who put the "why" in Duffy?

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

duffy, produced by dear old bernard butler as well, bless her. basically she is the pliable version of david mcalmont he's been looking for for the past ten years, acceptable enough for a tick, but echo yrs and lex's comments.

the htwoo (CTBTN) track is rly good, and utah saints got a tick even though i haven't heard it, cos it's bound to be worth a tick whatever they've done to it...

Re: Who put the "why" in Duffy?

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'Not that I've met a bassline hata since Simon R bigged it up, bloggers have no integrity these days, they won't even slag a trend for being commercial chav shiny bobbins.'

Bah, where is the ability or interest in discernment! even if a scene is so dense and new to them/us/whoever. altho scene fanatics can often be worse in just seeming totally convinced that everything coming out of one scene or subgenre is great.

As with T2's last hit and his next one there are things about the H2O track I like and some things I don't (usually to do with vocals and nature of sounds used) but this does not prevent tickage.

Re: Who put the "why" in Duffy?

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Paramore is an unnecessary re-release. I keep meaning to go back and slag it off in stronger words.

[datura800.livejournal.com]

Re: Duffy - from reading people's comments it seems that everyone likes the song, but feel they shouldn't like it for reasons outwith the song. Surely against the entire ethos of pop?! A good song is a good song, whatever circumstances produced it.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

if it was a really, really amazing song I'd definitely be able to ignore the other factors, but when the best you can say is "er, it's OK I s'pose" then the impulse to overlook everything else isn't so strong. like the Sarah Cracknell thing from last week. as a song OK, but the very lowest band of tickability. the bank factor was enough to drag it below that.

the ones I have heard

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Duffy- snore. She only seems like she ought to be acceptable because she looks friendly/wistfully hot and is reassuringly Welsh.

H2O- Ace ace ace!

Paramore- NO NO NO NO NO. God, fvck off already. I disliked this song the first time but have now grown to think it symptomatic of literally everything bad in the world.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard Duffy or H20. I ticked all 4 songs I know:

OneRepbulic - Enjoyable mumpop, if not as good as "Apologize" (or, for that matter, "Over My Head"). Somewhat marginal.

Paramore - Enjoyable female fronted emo. Kinda shouty and loud, but I like the main melody and the vocals aren't too bad. Still not as good as Fall Out Boy or MCR, but it's worth a marginal tick.

Utah Saints - Like the above, an enjoyable example of its genre, not as good as it could be but still a marginal tick.

Flo Rida - Excellent American rap song. This is T-Pain's best song. Hearty tick. This song is getting screwed.

[maura.livejournal.com]

i hate that flo rida song with the heat of a thousand suns and the fact that it's been the only #1 in the states all year makes me worry about my predictions that 2008 will be 200GREAT. it does not age well at all.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

we had leon jackson and basshunter. you win.

[koganbot]

Um, I'll talk about half of these now and then relisten and talk about some later. Is that OK with you guys? Good, and thanks for giving me slack.

Utah Saints "Something Good": I don't see how ticking this is any different from ticking Elvis, so no tick, though this is a good song. Remix is missing something, though I don't recall the original enough to say what it is. (I have the Utah Saints alb on cassette, I think; it was actually stolen from me in the early 1990s along with Mariah's Emotions and Nirvana's Nevermind, but the person who stole it also stole our phone bill, then stole a car, then ditched the car, the car owner subsequently retrieving the car and finding our stuff in it with the phone bill allowing her to get in touch with us (this was a very eccentric, messed-up thief who got nabbed later in the afternoon), so I got Utah Saints back but Mariah and Nirvana were gone. I rebought Mariah used for about $2, never did repurchase Nevermind, which even used was up around $8.) No tick.

OneRepublic "Stop and Stare": This is really disappointing. I'm not as enamored of the Hilary gypsy-bashing or the Leona bloodletting as a lot of people are, but those are good strong pop songs, and so was "Apologize," whereas this starts with acoustic sensitivity, swells cannily in the setup for the chorus, but the chorus itself is just loud and irritating. Real disappointing, as I said. Stopped, stared, didn't tick.

Simple Plan "When I'm Gone": These guys are generally lame mushed-up sub-Green Day mush, yet I like this track: interesting little harpsichord squiggles, then typically wanky Ameriboy vocals (even if they're Canadian), which resolve into a chorus that has the prettiness and the oceanic sound that I was expecting from OneRepublic. They come close to ruining it in the break, which is as loud and irritating as the OneRepublic chorus, but the tune and the sea swell of the rest is enough to bring this to a tick.

[koganbot]

Duffy "Mercy": Wait, this isn't all that much like Amy anyway (or all that much like "Rockferry," for that matter). OK, the "yeah yeah yeah" does echoe Amy's "no no no," but this is basically a soul stormer of the sort once made in the American south and lauded in the English north, right? While Amy's much more aiming at the haze and smoke of late-night lounge. (Right?) (To tell you the truth, I've yet to indulge myself by immersing myself in an Amy album or a Duffy back-catalog, or in much of the enthusiasms of England North, either, so you guys may have a subtler grasp of the similarities here.) As for this track, I listened to it without having a clue to who Duffy was, forgetting all about the existence of "Rockferry" (and I can't remember if I ticked that or not, though it prob'ly justifies Amy comparisons more than this does, and I'm listening right now and liking it), this has a good strong groove, the voice has its own rasp (not sure yet if Lex is right about the anonymity of the rasp); the rasp and track seem to lose impact as they basically roll along unvaried, but this is an effective, functional blast of music, and a tick. And she looks like a babe.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Duffy is def easier on the eye than Adele. That sounds incredibly shallow and unfeminist of me but they are POPSTARS and I am more likely to watch a video all the way through if the occupants are pretty. Mmmm, lovely Heidi.

[koganbot]

H2O f. Platnum "What's It Gonna Be": Doesn't have the ache that chopped-up and screwed Jodie gave to "Heartbroken," which is the only real comparison I can make, sorry if it's rather obvious of me to make it. While this woman is chopped and daft, which is interesting in itself though not as poignant. But the pogostick-cum-jackhammer bass lifts and twists this just the way we want. The class of today's class. Tick.

Paramore "Misery Business": Well, I don't have a crush on "crushcrushcrush" much less this, and I'm not sure why I have such trouble connecting, since this is good right there in-your-face Garbage-Avril bratsplat. Maybe this is too connect-the-dots? But I don't see why it's eliciting such antagonism in the Township Of Ism That Pops, either, and this gets an unhesitant tick. "Crushcrushcrush" would get a more enthusiastic one.

[koganbot]

Flo Rida f. T-Pain "Low": As I said to Maura upthread, I'm unexcited about this like the silence of a thousand nonflapping insect wings, but it's a catchy friendly southern groove song, and I don't comprehend the antagonism towards this any more than the enthusiasm. An easy tick.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Yeah yeah I know it's getting old but MORE TICKS FOR "LOW"!

Duffy was nice, but freakytigger dead on in his discussion of its MAX 7 factor on the Amy Winehouse thread. But 7 is a tick.

Won't tick Paramore on principle, as I discovered thru this track that they're just Avril Lavigne (in obtuseness anyway) doing "Sk834 Boi" with less of a sense of humor. So eff 'em. Haven't listened to H2Whoa yet.

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

My love of "Low" has mostly to do that I think it's one of the great tracks on the Step Up 2 soundtrack. I've never really heard it outside of my computer, which probably isn't a typical experience of it.