Another Year In Pop: 8

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Not an awful lot going on this week - Duffy's still at the top and the highest new entry is at 23. But I guess there must be people in the UK who haven't managed to buy the 'Valerie' single yet in the last EIGHT MONTHS, mustn't there?

[Poll #1144046]

Comments

[koganbot]

Hmmm. Could have ticked none, could have ticked all (well, almost all), I fell in the middle:

Taio Cruz f. Luciano "Come On Girl": Beats are brutal for what's at least nominally a seduction song. The whole thing is rather demanding. This is good, actually, this combination; falls down though when he starts singing, which is just kinda merely nice. A letdown from the tension of the talking. This should have been an easy KO, just gets by with a narrow decision, but a TICK for sure.

Mark Ronson f. Alex Greenwald, Phantom Planet "Just": Certainly liking the playful horns and such, and nice jittering funk, and I like the melody and also the way it's willing to veer in a few different directions. But this singer is trying to do the sly floating thing, and really, they need someone who really can float slyly, LIKE ASHLEE SIMPSON, FOR INSTANCE. This guy ain't Ashlee. And this could use less jitter in its funk, I've decided. But the guy's OK, and this is a good song, so TICK it is.

Chris Brown "With You": Pretty boy, pretty singer, pretty song. I'm rather "um" on this, though. It's pretty. It's easy to ignore. Hmmmm. It's beautiful. I'm bored. NO TICK.

Yael Naim "New Soul": Yikes! The quirky singer-songwriter disease has infected France! This is playful. Ack! Playful and quirky at once! But it's low-key. Ack! Playful, quirky, and low-key at once! With bits o' jazz in the vocals! Ack! (But there is a niceness to this half jazz and half-navel gaze.)(You guys realize that Marit Larsen totally obliterates this, don't you? And without having to resort to jazz.) Not as terrible as it could be, but emphatically NOT TICKED.

Craig David "6 of 1": Easy competence, beautiful beats, a-hop a-skip a-glide. I can't fault this, but it needs more ice and fire. A marginal TICK, I guess.