A kung fu fighter in a disco

Thanks Kat!

From:

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 :(

From:

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

From:

spazhammer.livejournal.com

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

From:

The wild-eyed Avril madness isn't there!

From:

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.

From:

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!

From:

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

From:

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...

From:

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.

From:

Am going to apres lunch in an hour or so...

From:

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.

From:

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.

From:

They've put it through a big whack-off filter and upped the trance.

= HOORAY

From:

That's the one.

From:

lockedintheatti.livejournal.com

apparently David McAlmont is involved with this as well somehow, not sure if he was a co-writer or what.

From:

but they've taken out the big dun-d-d-d-dun-dun slabs of synth and the U-U-U-UTAH SAINTS! The new version seemed acceptable until I relistened to the og.

From:

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.

From:

the popjustice forums are all "ew chavs" about bassline (whether they like the songs or not) - vile people

From:

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.

From:

I see what you're saying, but my "reasons outwith the song" are basically that it sounds too much like other songs (or more accurately, it seems to be conscious imitation of a style I don't like much anyway) - which I think IS a fair reason to be wary of something.

From:

carsmilesteve.livejournal.com

is there any possibility that i might here this recording in what one might describe as a "club setting" over the next fortnight or so?

From: